Patterson Pledge Grant

From our media specialist Ms. Childs, "Great news! Our school received a $3,000 grant from author James Patterson and the Scholastic Reading Club to help our school library. We want to thank #PattersonPledge for getting books into the hands of our students. In order to save more school libraries, James Patterson is donating another total of $1.75 million of his own money to save under-funded school libraries nationwide in 2016. The Albert Hill Library thanks Mr. Patterson for his gracious gift."

Spirit Week!

The FCCLA organization is sponsoring Spirit Week December 14-18. Students may show their Hill spirit by participating and receiving a Tiger Buck!

Monday: Twin Day
Tuesday: Wacky Tacky Day
Wednesday: Sweater Day
Thursday: Super Hero Day
Friday: Pajama Day

Hour of Code Resources

Earlier in the week students at Albert Hill took part in the global Hour of Code event to introduce them to computer science.

For students interested in pursuing it further on their own time I’ve put together a list of resources below:

Hour of Code - the original Hour of Code site used for Monday’s activities.

Snap!- Drag and drop programming interface designed to help you learn how to program.

Code Monkey - Learn how to code through by playing the game.

Code Maven - 59 lessons on coding fundamentals.

Code Monster - 58 short lessons on programming in Javascript.

Game Maven - Learn code and write three simple games.

Blockly - Series of educational games that teach programming.

Also, last summer an Introduction to Computer Science and Coding enrichment course was offered in summer school that will most likely be offered again. I encourage interested students to sign up for it when the summer school applications come out in late spring.

Lastly, I recently attended the Virginia Society for Technology in Education annual conference. While I was there I had a chance to play with The Finch robot that is designed as an even more hands on way to learn programming. It supports not only the drag and drop programming like what is found on the Hour of Code site but also writing code in many of the languages used today. I liked it so much I’m ordering one for my own son to play with.

Winter Band Concert

School Board Vacancy Notice

12/08/15 3:29pm

By: Martin Beall

The School Board of the City of Richmond is seeking interested candidates to fill the remainder of the term for the First District School Board seat due to the impending departure of the current representative, Glen Sturtevant, on January 13, 2016. The current term of the School Board expires on December 31, 2016.

Eligible persons must (1) be registered voters in the City of Richmond; and (2) reside in the First District. Applicants must submit (either in electronic or hard copy form) a letter of interest and a resume to include the home address and telephone number of the candidate to the School Board Clerk, Ms. Angela Lewis, no later than 4:30 p.m. on January 8, 2016. Candidate submissions received after that time will not be considered. The School Board Clerk can be reached at alewis@richmond.k12.va.us or 301 North Ninth Street, 17th Floor, Richmond, Virginia 23219 or (804) 780-7716. Questions regarding the selection process should be directed to the School Board Clerk.

Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, any person requiring special accommodations to participate in this proceeding should contact the Clerk of the School Board no later than three (3) business days prior to the meeting at (804) 780-7716. If you are hearing or speech impaired, please contact the agency by calling the Americans with Disabilities Act Office TTY Relay Center at 711.

Angela C. Lewis, Clerk

RPS Facilities Task Force Meeting Dates

New community meeting dates have been scheduled to gain input on the reform plan for RPS facilities. The full plan and a one page summary can be found on 

RichmondForward.com.

Aspen Parent Portal and ParentLink App

Tonight's PTA meeting will feature a presentation about the Aspen Parent Portal and ParentLink app. Below is not only the slideshow but the PDFs contained within it as well.

Presentation - PowerPoint Version or PDF Version

ParentLink RPS App - Short presentation on just the app created by another RPS ITRT. 

ParentLink Mobile App Quick Reference Guide

Aspen Parent Portal Guide

Principal’s Second Quarter Letter

Greetings Hill Families!

Welcome to Quarter 2.   It’s been a busy first 9 weeks.  With Open House events, Middle and High School Information nights, History Night, Art Carpet, appearances by musical guests and more, we have truly enjoyed seeing and feeling the positive buzz surrounding all of the great things that are happening here.  And for that, I thank our students, teachers and parents for the strong start we’ve had to the school year and the level of engagement and support for our little school house on the Hill. 

During this quarter, you can expect for us to continue striving for improvement as we continue working our plan to be fully accredited by the end of this school year.  Because our aim is to build sustainable change, we don’t have a lot of new initiatives, special programs being added, or updates for the second quarter.  Our goal is to stay the course and continue to refine and improve the great things we’ve put in place this year.  However, we do have some priorities that we will be focusing on this quarter are, which are:

·      Completing the analysis of all of the beginning of the year testing results to create academic plans of support for those in need

·      Identifying ways to embed an enrichment component to the study hall block to more effectively meet the needs of students who haven’t been targeted for support

·      Improve the way we celebrate the success of what is going well and who is doing well in our building, especially our students

So, as you can see, we are unrelenting in our pursuit to both ensure that all of our students on the Hill benefit from a dynamic learning experience and to ultimately have an amazing and fully accredited school that remains the first choice for families seeking middle level options.  Subsequently, I continue to welcome your feedback, your support, and most of all your partnership.

Here’s to a great second quarter!

Best,

Shante’

PDF Version of the letter available by clicking here.

Order Pizza and Support Albert Hill!

Please help support Albert Hill Middle School with Papa John's spirit nights, Tuesday November 17th to Thursday November 19th.

Order online from any Papa Johns in the Richmond area and enter code AHMS and 15% of all proceeds will go to our school.

High School Night!

Yearbook Ordering Info

History Night!

Information Night for the 2016-2017 School Year

Back to School Night

2015-2016 Parent Welcome Back Letter

From our principal, Ms. Knight. The 2015-2016 Parent Welcome Back Letter.

Please note the new, slightly later school hours this year as well. (On Page 3.)

Back to School Welcome Letter and Other Docs

Welcome back for the 2015-2016 school year. Below are links to download the welcome letter and a few other important things:

Welcome Letter from Principal Knight

Bell Schedule (New for this year.)

Semester 1 Calendar

Required Summer Reading Project (Corrected 8/25. The wrong one was posted originally.)

Electives Process Reopened

Due to concern about how electives were selected for next year the process for choosing them has been reopened. Forms can be dropped off to Albert Hill Middle School or faxed to 804-780-8754. Please submit them no later than Thursday June 25th.

Rising 6th Grade
Rising 7th Grade
Rising 8th Grade

Electives Program Information Meeting

Skyping with Spain

From our Spanish teacher Ms. Midyette:

"On Wednesday, April 29, 7th-grade Spanish I students used Skype to video chat with a class from Madrid, Spain! The students introduced themselves and gave their ages in Spanish; then, they did an Information Gap activity in which they had to share information to complete a task about ingredients for recipes."

MS Walk

From our eighth grade science teacher Ms. Owens:

"On Saturday May 2, 2015 members of the National Junior Honor Society, Ms. Owens, and several parents participated in the MS Walk. The group raised over $500 in donations to benefit research on multiple sclerosis! Thank you to everyone who participated and donated. Special thanks to Ms. Perry and Ms. K. Harris for helping us reach our fundraising goal. It was a beautiful day!"

Poetry Night!

Updated Spring 2015 SOL Testing Schedule

This schedule has been updated from the one posted a few days ago. Please ignore the previous schedule and follow this one instead.

Parent-Teacher Conference Opportunity

Richmond Chess Initiative

Annual Yard Sale!

Click here to download a PDF of the form above to fill out and send in to the school.

Spring Photos and Yearbook Ordering

From our yearbook sponsor Ms. D'Angelo:

"Spring Pictures are Friday March 27th at 8:15 am. This will be for clubs and children that want another Lifetouch photo that is more casual.

The final deadline for purchasing yearbooks is Friday March 30th. Cost is $21 for softcover and $26 for hardcover.

The website to go to to order yearbooks is https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/ and the passcode is 2221515."

Richmond MS Walk Fundraising

From our 8th grade science teacher and NJHS sponsor Ms. Owens:
"Albert Hill Middle School's National Junior Honor Society will be walking in the 2015 MS Walk to help raise funding and awareness for this debilitating disease. Please consider donating to our team!"
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/VARWalkEvents?team_id=409973&pg=team&fr_id=25822

March Updates on the Hill

Parent Conferences

AHMS will be hosting Spring Parent conferences on March 12th, 13th, and 17th.  Conferences will be held at the following times:
Thursday March 12 - 4pm-7pm
Friday March 13 - 1pm-4pm
Tuesday March 17 - 3:30-5:30pm at the Friends Association, 1004 St. John St., Richmond, VA.

If you would like to have a conference please fill out and return the form that will be sent home with your student by Friday, March 6th.

Q2 Awards Assembly this Thursday

Due to the missed school days resulting from inclement weather, we have rescheduled our Q2 Awards Ceremony, again, this time for this coming Thursday during each grade level elective block.  Students will be honored in the following categories: all A’s (Principal’s List), A/B average (at least 3.0) (Honor Roll), Citizenship, and most improved.  Science Fair award recipients will also be acknowledged during this time.

Grade 7 Gets a New Teacher!

I have some bitter-sweet news to deliver.  Albert Hill’s beloved grade 7 math and science teacher, Ms. Zahara Harrison was recently required to take on another role in our building due to a licensure matter.  While we miss her presence as a member of the grade 7team, we are grateful that she continues to be able to work with our students in an auxiliary capacity.  In the meantime, we consider ourselves fortunate to have found a brand new recruit to take over for math and science.  Ms. Kristin Strand, who hails from Petersburg with a degree in mathematics, will now be serving as one of our math and science teachers at the seventh grade level, replacing Ms. Harrison.  She is a brand new teacher whose desire and passion to ensure that students learn and understand mathematics at a high level is so encouraging.  Please join me in welcoming Ms. Kristin Strand to the AHMS Tiger Family!  We know you will be pleased.  

All NEW Parent Link App!

As you know, I’ve communicated now both through our Parent Link system and during my February Chat and Chew that as a division, we’ve collectively moved away from Engrade and now have a new RPS app, powered by Parent Link, that is linked directly to our new student information system called Aspen.  This app gives you on-the-spot, handheld access to your child’s grades, changes in performance, lunch account and more right from your smart phone.  In the interest of protecting your child’s confidential information, parents are required to come to the school and present a valid photo ID in order to get your child’s access code information.  We will be sending home a letter tomorrow detailing the process along with your first invitation to get your child’s information during our upcoming Spring Conferences or during another convenient time.  Please look for details on this and more in your child’s back-pack tomorrow.

RPS App and Accessing Grades

On Friday March 6th, 2015 letters will be sent home to parents containing information about the RPS app. To actually obtain the login information for your student you will either need to come to parent-teacher conferences next week (Thursday and Friday March 12 & 13) or drop by the main office at anytime. Valid photo ID will be required. If you do not currently have the app links to download it along with additional info about it can be found here on the RPS website.

-Within the student app you will login via the Student Info button using the credential provided. 

-Once you log in icons will appear with your students’ names. (And pictures too in some cases apparently.)

-Info available includes classes, attendance, library checkouts, phone numbers, addresses, parents/guardian info, attendance, and textbooks issued to them

-As far as the gradebook goes – classes, assignments, missing assignments and grades should be visible. Comments from teachers may be available as well however no one I asked during a presentation could verify this for me.

-Alerts can be set around thresholds like a certain grade on an assignment, etc. (So for example you can set it to be alerted if your student receives a grade of C or below on an assignment.)

-One final important thing to note on this is that access to student grades through the RPS app is designed to be a supplement to the Aspen portal (once it's available) and not a replacement. Once the portal is opened up system wide next year you will have access to everything they can see within the app along with much more.

-If you all have questions about the app once you receive the login please email me at jrew@richmond.k12.va.us. I can't promise I'll have an answer but I'll do my best to resolve any problems you encounter with it

2015 Tennis Season Info

Eat at Chipotle and Earn Money for AHMS PTA

Rescheduled Testing at Richmond Community High School

I have information about Richmond Community High School Interviews/Testing that had been scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday February 28. They have been rescheduled for either Tuesday and Wednesday March 3rd and 4th from 2:05-5:15pm or Tuesday and Wednesday March 10th and 11th from 2:05-5:15pm. All parents with students involved in this will receive a phone call RCHS regarding which date your child has been rescheduled for. In addition you will need to provide transportation from AHMS (or your child's school) to RCHS. If you do not receive a call from RCHS by Monday give them a call at 780-4332.

Science Fair - Thursday February 26 - 6:30pm

Come to the Science Fair! Thursday, February 26, at 6:30 pm. Begin in the auditorium with awards, then view projects in the gym along with participating in fun science crafts and demos in the cafeteria (along with refreshments). Students will also receive Tiger Bucks for coming!

Student Art in Upcoming Art Shows

From our art teacher Ms. Russell - "Meredith and Evelyn are just a couple of students who will have their artwork displayed in the upcoming community art shows in March.  We will have our work at Belmont Library on Main Street and SunTrust Bank downtown!"

Papa John's Promo! Buy Pizza and Support AHMS!

Principal's Coffee - Wednesday February 11

Principal's Semester Message

Greetings Hill Families and welcome to Semester 2!

We have just finished up our benchmarks and now that we know where we stand, we are gearing up for what we know will be a rigorous final half of the year. You want to know what’s ironic?  As we now prepare to commence the second semester, it calls attention to how very close we are to the end of the school year.  Where has the time gone? It seemed like only yesterday that I was extended the privilege of serving as your new Principal.  Since that time, I welcomed you to a new academic year and asked for your support and participation in helping to define it. We’ve welcomed a new Assistant Principal and new teachers. We’ve developed procedures and communicated expectations.  We started new traditions and rekindled old ones.  Ultimately, we spent the first semester defining what excellence looks like on the Hill. It has been busy.  It has been challenging; but most of all, it has been gratifying.

So, we welcome this second semester with great enthusiasm for all that awaits us.  Between now and year’s-end, you can expect us to continue our pursuit of excellence, one child at a time.  Our talented faculty is committed to pushing students to new heights while shoring up learning gaps.  We know we have your support, but now we must motivate students to invest in themselves with the same depth that we have.  During this half of the year, we look forward to seeing the tenets of Paw Pride reflected in every learner.  While our talented team continues to work at that effort, we look forward to the many ways to celebrate and recognize the good works of our students; and we invite you to join us.  We have our annual Science Fair, Black History Program, Poetry Night, Tiger Rallies, field trips, and Grade 8 Senior Week to look forward to.  On the academic side, we plan to further develop our readers and writers by integrating authentic writing experiences into our electives classes and integrating higher level comprehension strategies into our history classes.  In math and science, we are going to work harder at building computational fluency, while building in opportunities for students to connect the content to real life experiences through projects and field trips.

In sum, as we prepare to usher in the testing season and the close of the year, I will be calling upon you more than ever to partner with us to ready our students for the rigor that awaits them; and I know I have your support.  Therefore, I thank you in advance and look forward to sharing this second semester with you and your children.

All the best,

LaShante’ Knight

Principal

Information Night!

Town Hall Meeting and New School Hours Information Session

From our PTA president Molly Todd on our school Facebook page:

Two for one, great night to come to Hill and be involved in your neighborhood and school! Dr. Dana Bedden will be Jon Baliles special guest at his monthly 1st district meeting. Public information session for change to school start times to immediately follow...

Tuesday, January 27 Town Hall Meeting with Superintendent Dr. Dana Bedden

Please join us for our 1st District Town Hall meeting Tuesday, January 27 from 6:00-7:30 pm at Albert Hill Middle School.

Richmond Public Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Dana Bedden will be our special guest to talk about his work and vision for schools in the district and Citywide.
We will also discuss a variety of District and City issues, including the Floyd Avenue Bike-Walk Street, as well as our regular updates from Police, Fire, and School Board representative Glen Sturtevant. If you have any questions prior, please contact his office at 804-646-5349.

Boys Basketball versus MLK

The Albert Hill Tigers took on the MLK Titans in an away game yesterday afternoon that despite their best efforts resulted in a 51-41 loss. 7th Grader Henry Coleman led with 24 points and 9 rebounds.

History Night and PTA Meeting!

Celebrating New Year's España Style

From our Spanish teacher Ms. Midyette:

"On the last day of classes before Winter Break, my Spanish students enjoyed an early New Year's and celebrated as they do in Spain - by counting down to midnight and then eating 12 grapes, one with each chime of the clock. Thank you to all the parents who donated grapes for the activity!"

The Paw Print Webzine

Ms. D'Angelo's students have created The Paw Print, Albert Hill Middle School's AWESOME Webzine to post news from around the school along with advice columns and anything else that comes to mind. Check it out here:
http://rdangelo2.wix.com/thepawprint

VMFA Field Trip

From our art teacher Ms. Russell:

"In December before the Winter Holiday, one of my art classes walked to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to see the visiting exhibit The Forbidden City. Students studied the paintings and artifacts in advance and participated in being their own docents. Hot chocolates in hand, the class picture was taken before our chilly walk back to Hill.

We are so fortunate to be so close to this wonderful art museum and will continue to take walking field trips there throughout the year."