We ended last week with a bang with our Seniors! It was great to educate them on the impact of CCMR. Mrs. Ramirez and the counselors did a great job of bringing awareness to each of them. Many of them will receive schedule changes that started happening Friday. Remember 5 to 70 to College, Career or Military Readiness!

I had the opportunity to attend the district Student Council luncheon that was attended by several board members, Dr. Lopez, and principals from the other high schools. It was great to watch our Ranger Student Council leading out at this event. During the meet and greet phase it was awesome watching our Student Council officers interact with the school leaders in the building. Each one walked up to all the leaders and shook their hands, introduced themselves, and let them know the school they attended. Go Rangers!

We are in the final stages of working on new intervention plans for many of our students. The ELA I and II tests are fast approaching and we have great gains to post. Students may be redirected from your classes from small blocks at a time. Please be flexible. This allows us to help students in various areas who have critical gaps in their learning. All content areas are important, but we must be more intentional in the areas that the state requires for graduation.

I was able to get into many classrooms last week. It is good to see you working hard to take them to the next level. There is still much work to do. Engaging them in the process and frequent checks for understanding must accompany your instructional plan. We must engage and then we have to discover if the know it. Then reteach must occur when we discover they do not know it. They all deserve to reach mastery!

We will be working on getting dates together for our Spring parent-teacher conferences. Please stay tuned for those updates. Also, if you are interested in reactivating a club or starting a new club or activity at The Forest please let me know. The more positive connections our students get with staff and other students the more positive their experiences will be at The Forest. We all have to work together to connect them.

A big shout out to all of our Super Ranger teachers who have made the plunge back to school. Many of you have come to me and informed me that you are either back in school working on graduate hours in your content area or toward a Master’s degree. Remember GISD will reimburse you if you go back to school to get hours in your content. This will help us a campus as we strengthen our Dual Credit program and while we launch our Collegiate Academy. Thanks!

A huge shout out to the Ranger DECA team! They have 37 students who have qualified for state. This is a Ranger record and quite possibly a GISD record. We are working to find out for sure. (Wink)

Please take a moment to meet our newest faculty members at The Forest. They are:

Desirae Trammell

Subjects taught: Family and Consumer Science
University: Iowa State University
Degree: Bachelors of Science in Public Relations with a double major in Human Development and Family Services
Hometown: Clearfield, Iowa-There is just one mile in between “Welcome” signs.
Hobbies: Reading self-help books, baking cookies, and yoga.

And

Ciara Simpson-Holland

Subjects taught: Family and Consumer Science
University: Texas Woman’s University
Degree: Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Science
Hometown: Dallas, TX
Hobbies: Traveling, hiking, zip lining, and kayaking.

#ThisisNaaman
Have a great week!