Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Week 6.2

Celebrate Excellence
Our schools run so smoothly, but how smoothly would they run without our secretaries and office staff?  This Wednesday, April 27 is Administrative Assistants Day, so make sure you take time to thank all of our wonderful ladies around the district who consistently go above and beyond to help students, parents and staff.


Growing Excellence (+10 for ALL) 
STAAR scores are in, and we are so proud of our 5th and 8th grade reading and math teachers for their hard work in helping our students grow in their learning.  Thank you to the following teachers:

  • 5th Reading - Melanie Miller and Andrea Singleton
  • 5th Math - Mechelle McMichael and Kristin Lacy
  • 8th Reading - Melissa Dixon
  • 8th Math - Tracy Roden

The most impressive data that I would like to share is how many students grew from their performance last year.  77% of our 5th reading students grew from their performance last year. 94% of our 5th grade math students grew from last year, 71% of our 8th grade reading students grew from last year, and 87% of our 8th grade math students grew from last year.  To put that in perspective, 57% of Texas students grew in 2015.  Tatum ISD students are not just passing.  They are growing in their learning.

For more information, here is a link to tell you how much we have grown this year.

College AND Career 

Do you want to encourage a student to be a Spanish teacher?  Check out this College and Career project by Madelyn Haden and Daisy Hillin in Coach Rocha's Spanish class.

Making High School Registration like College

Below is an image showing how our incoming 9th through 12th graders will register for next year's classes and update their personal graduation plan using Career Cruising software.  Students will log in to their account look at their transcript and select courses in the same fashion that they will do that for college.  Special thanks to Jo Miller for all of her work in getting this new feature up and running.

 Google Me This 


Upcoming Dates 
  • Wed, 4/27 - Early Dismissal (Campus Principals will give more specific instructions.)
  • Wed, 4/27 - Adminsitrative Assistants Day
  • Mon, 5/2 - EOCs begin at THS
  • Mon 5/2 - 5/6 - Teacher Appreciation Week
  • Thu, 5/5 - Cinco de Mayo celebrations at all campuses
  • Mon, 5/9 - STAAR 3 - 8 begins at TES and TMS
  • Tue, 5/17 - 8th Grade College and Career Commitment Day
  • Tue, 5/17 - Fine Arts Forum from 6:30 - 8:00
  • Fri, 5/20 - Bad Weather Day
  • Wed, 5/25 - Last Day of School and Early Release Day
  • Thu, 5/26 - Staff Development - District Required T-TESS Training
  • Fri, 5/27 - Staff Development - District Required Training
  • Mon, 5/30 - Memorial Day - School Holiday
  • Tue, 5/31 - Thu 6/2 - Campus Based Professional Development
  • Fri, 6/3 - Staff Work Day
  • Mon, 6/6 - Summer School Begins

 What I'm Learning



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Friday, April 15, 2016

Week 6.1

Celebrate Excellence

Congratulations to Rylie Lassen and Connor Humphrey for earning summer camp scholarships from the Region 7 Gifted and Talented department.  Rylie earned the scholarship for the "Adventures in Marine Biology camp, and Connor earned the scholarship for the the "Minecraft - Challenge" camp. 


 Growing Excellence (+10 for ALL) 
With STAAR beginning in 2 weeks for THS and 3 weeks for TES and TMS, I have a few questions for you.
  • Do your students know what their +10 goal for improvement is?
  • Do your students know what they need to do to reach their +10 goal?
  • What is your +10 goal for improvement this year?
  • What motivational strategies will you use to get your kids excited, inspired and confident that they can reach their +10 goal?
Remember, motivation adds 5 to 10 points to the  test, and the more motivated and confident kids are, the more likely it is that they will reach their goal.


 College AND Career 

Thank you to Scott Eppler for bringing Trey Sellers from Luminant to discuss this career path.


 Google Me This 

Check out how easy it is to share files on Google Drive now.  Created by @thegooglegooru


 Upcoming Dates 
  • Mon, 4/18 - Beginning of 6th 6 Weeks
  • Wed, 4/20 - Administrative Professionals' Day (Secretary's Day)
  • Wed, 4/27 - Early Dismissal (Campus Principals will give more specific instructions.)
  • Mon, 5/2 - EOCs begin at THS
  • Thu, 5/5 - Cinco de Mayo celebrations at all campuses
  • Mon, 5/9 - STAAR 3 - 8 begins at TES and TMS

 What I'm Learning

20 Strategies to Motivate Reluctant Learners


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Monday, April 11, 2016

Tatum ISD Teachers of the Year

The 2016 Tatum ISD campus and district Teachers of the Year have been selected.  We have amazing teachers throughout our district who go above and beyond every day, and the honorees selected as Tatum ISD Teachers of the Year exemplify the beliefs of Excellence for All and Where Every Student is Special through their commitment to all students, through the model of excellence they set for their colleagues and through their tireless effort to continuously improve in their craft as educators.  Please join us in congratulating the following educators.


TISD Elementary Teacher of the Year - Teresa Beazley
  • 5th grade science and writing teacher.
  • Educator for 24 years
  • Quote - I teach the system, "Believe, Behave, and Become".  In my classroom, students learn that they can be whatever they want to be if they are willing to put in the work.  


TISD Secondary Teacher of the Year - Kin Bryan

  • Industrial Technology teacher.
  • Educator for 23 years
  • Quote - My goal is to have a positive impact on students and to help them achieve success, and I believe that all students can be successful.  However, I believe that success is better measured by the lessons learned rather than the grades earned.








Tatum Primary School Teacher of the Year - April Dygert
  • 2nd grade ELA and social studies teacher.
  • Educator for 11 years
  • Quote - I believe that my greatest contributions and accomplishments in education are found in the pure fact that I'm doing what I love.  I get the privilege every day to come to a building where lives are changed, and I love being able to work with a great group of staff and collaborate with one another.


Tatum High School Teacher of the Year - Melody Ojeda
  • CTE teacher and Debate Sponsor
  • Educator for 4 years.
  • Quote - What my heart desired was the gratification of seeing a student 'get it' for the first time, the opportunity to offer kind words to a student who may never hear them at home, to be a 'surrogate' mother to those who don't have one, or just to offer a safe atmosphere to those who need it most.  I realized that those were the people whose lives I was intended to touch.





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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Week 5.6

Celebrate Excellence

Congratulations to the THS UIL One Act Play for advancing to the area competition this Saturday.

 Congratulations to the UIL Academic team for winning 2nd place at the district UIL meet on Tuesday.

 Congratulations to the Tatum FFA for winning the Tractor Supply Company Grants for Growing grant from Tractor Supply Company and the National FFA Foundation.  The grant is valued at $1500.

Congratulations to Melody Ojeda's banking class for earning a $100 gift card for high level of engagement in the H&R Block Budget Challenge.

The TMS Makerspace continues to spark creativity.  On the right, you see 2 fishing lures that were designed and made using the 3D printer.  Congratulations to Parker Elliott (top) and Jaxon Evans (bottom) for their hard work and creativity.
Growing Excellence (+10 for ALL) 

I thoroughly enjoy Toby Mac's music, but I think I like following him on Instagram and Facebook more.  Every day there is something inspirational that keeps me focused on the important things.  Today, I want to share one of those things with you.  All too often, we get tired and think that we really can't change what's going on in the classroom, and so we avoid confronting it and fix our minds on dealing with it.

This week, I want to push you to focus on this quote and ask yourself this question.  "If I want things to change, am I ready change first?"  As long we continue with the same old behaviors, our results never change, but if we make a stronger investment and double down on our belief in ourselves and our abilities, we will see a better outcome.  Kids deserve our best investment because it could be just the thing that will forever change their outcome.


 College AND Career 
On March 24, seniors in Bryan Price and Tyler Terry's economics classes attended their first virtual college fair which was hosted by Region 10 ESC in Dallas.  The students were able to chat live with over 100 colleges and universities in Texas and out of state straight from their chromebooks.  Students found the event beneficial as they had the opportunity to see the school, chat with school representatives and register themselves to win a $1000 scholarship just for participating

 Check out this career research projects from Trey Miller and Vilia Payne's classes. 



 Google Me This 
Do we have 21st century classrooms?  Zoom in on this infographic and check out the data and statistics.  You can also go to this link.


 Upcoming Dates 
  • Mon, 4/11 - Give Formative Assessments (unless campus has changed date to different week)
  • Mon, 4/11 - #LoveMySchoolDay - Share examples of the awesome things happening in your school on Twitter with the hashtag.
  • Fri, 4/15 - End of 5th 6 Weeks (Begin Response to Assessment for FA's)
  • Mon, 4/18 - Beginning of 6th 6 Weeks
  • Wed, 4/20 - Administrative Professionals' Day (Secretary's Day)

 What I'm Learning

The 8 Best Chrome Extensions As Chosen By Teachers (#7 is my favorite)

Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week – 4 Tips for Using YouTube Videos in Your Classroom

20 Strategies for Motivating Reluctant Learners

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