1 more full week, 2 more mondays, 9 more days!
End of Year Checkout Survey – please complete this prior to your last day at school for the 2021-2022 school year and then do a little happy dance!
Student Appreciation and Spirit Day: The culture of care team is planning a fun day to celebrate our students’ hard work this year. It is tentatively scheduled for June 11th. We will be making a short appreciation video, signs, having a mid day dance party (in the classrooms), special snacks delivered in the morning and ice-pops delivered in the afternoon (most likely just before AM and PM recess). We would like to keep this a surprise for the students! Thanks for your support and if you had input, please email Heidi T.
We are also doing a spirit day! Please encourage your class to dress for a day at that beach and/or a magical sea creature! Please remind them to make it school appropriate ie, shirts on (maybe a sun shirt or rashguard), and shorts or a sundress!
Last Week of School Schedule
- Monday 6/14
- Field Day: Martinson/Vickery – Reisinger/Park/Greene – Yeager-Woock/Green
- Tuesday 6/15
- Field Day: Kindergarten – Howard/Glogau/Therrian – 1st Grade
- Wednesday 6/16
- 5th Grade Celebration in front of main building 8:30-10:30
- Alternate cohorts watching video in gym
- 5th grade Celebration March 12:15-12:45
- Thursday 6/17
- Last day of school; 1:00 release time
- 4:00 Staff Party
Emergency Drills
If you lost your poster for IN AN EMERGENCY WHEN YOU HEAR IT. DO IT. Please let me know as this should be posted in all rooms.
- Monday 6/7 – Lockout and Lockdown – see separate email.
- Wednesday 6/9 – Earthquake Drill – you can conduct a drill according to the guidance on the poster at the time that works for your class. No evacuation is necessary. Please email me to confirm the completion of the drill.
- Friday 6/11 – Shelter in Place – Use either a wildfire or chemical spill from train derailment as the scenario and walk your kids through what to do secure the room and keep the outside air out and the inside air in. No evacuation is necessary for the drill. Please email me when completed.
- Saturday 6/12 – Zombie Apocalypse Drill – the most current research suggests it is best to “blend in” with the zombies to avoid being eaten. Use this drill to practice acting like a zombie so you can be best prepared. No need to email me when this is completed.
2021-2022 Enrollment & Placements
Our placements for students’ classes next year are mostly done. As always we have a few lingering questions or changes to consider, but our work on this can rest for a little while. We will be able to make several offers in June based on the numbers and then some will need to wait until August as we wait for some records requests for some students moving.
- Kindergarten = 66
- 1st grade = 57 (need to take 9 off wait list)
- 2nd grade = 63 (adding approximately 1)
- 3rd grade = 61 (adding approximately 3)
- 4th grade = 59 (adding approximately 5)
- 5th grade = 60 (adding approximately 5)
Class lists will not be ready to preview until August.
Staffing Update
- Music position. Position closes on 6/17. Interviews on Tuesday 6/22. Expecting approximately a half-day needed for interviews.
- The 2/3 positions and the 4th-grade position will be in one interview round over two days. Tuesday 6/29 & Wednesday 6/30.
- ICCLs – We will have two positions open for the next two years and I want to encourage you to apply. HR wants us to have these positions filled by June 30th.
- All applicants must provide an essay via email to Candy Gelatt in the HR office. Each candidate will also ask a colleague to submit a Confidential Recommendation form directly to Candy in the HR office.
- ICCLs should plan to participate in the Taking It Up training on August 18th & 19th (if you have not already participated).
Taking It Up – Link provides a little more information on this powerful training.
Summer School – here is the office flyer for Jump Start if you are interested.
Eval, SLGGs, EOY – please use the link below to schedule a time for your end of year meeting. Do not worry about the SLGG forms in Talent Ed. We will complete the paper-pencil versions and I will take care of uploading them into Talent Ed later.
Next week:
- Tuesday 6/8 – 2:45 Leadership
- Thursday 6/10- 2:45 Staff Meeting – Care Coaches will be joining us and Trees meeting
Core Instruction Differentiation Resource
SEL Menus We have 10 SEL menus for you to choose from!
Effective Equity Work in Schools
In this District Management Journal interview, John Kim and Rachel Klein speak with social psychologist Robert Livingston (Harvard Kennedy School of Government). Some excerpts:
• Livingston describes growing up in a predominantly black, middle-class neighborhood in Kentucky. “The school I attended was integrated,” he says, “but we black students were in the advanced classes and we were the cool kids.” When he went to college, it was a shock to learn “how negatively black people were perceived by much of the world.” But the “solid armor” provided by his first 18 years allowed him to approach the problem with curiosity, asking in college and graduate school, What is racism? Where is it in the brain? What causes it?
• Livingston has developed a step-by-step model for addressing issues of racial equity in the workplace. He sums this up in the acronym PRESS:
– Problem awareness – It takes work for people to shift from seeing racism as a few “bad apples” to understanding the group advantages that have been embedded in the system over many generations.
– Root-cause analysis – This involves shifting from a defensive stance (I’m not a racist) to seeing the systemic factors that create racial advantage and disadvantage. Schools play a vital role when they do an accurate job teaching U.S. and world history.
– Empathy – From the first two steps, there’s usually an understanding of the historical and right-now challenges experienced by people of color and a desire to take action.
– Strategy – There’s a variety of effective interventions to address individual attitudes and institutional policies.
– Sacrifice – To make a difference, individuals and organizations need to invest time, energy, and resources.
PRESS can be summed up in three questions: (a) Do I understand what the problem is and where it comes from? (b) Do I care enough about the problem and the people it harms? and (c) Do I know how to correct the problem and am I willing to do it?
• “I think a rookie mistake that a lot of organizations make,” says Livingston, “is wanting to jump straight to a solution without going through this process of education and conversation before you get to action.” He quotes Albert Einstein’s famous quip that if he had an hour to solve the world’s most difficult problem, he’s spend 55 minutes thinking about it and five minutes on the solution. The first stage – education – involves putting facts, versus opinions, on the table. In the second stage – conversation – it’s important to focus on the problem at hand (racial inequity) not personal characteristics (Who’s the racist in the room?). Of course people’s feelings need to be addressed, especially the fear of being ostracized or “cast out” of one’s group.
• Livingston says leaders interested in promoting equity usually have to figure out the best strategy to use with three types of colleagues, anthropomorphized as:
– Dolphins – They care about promoting social justice and know what to do. Leaders only need to appeal to their better angels and provide tools and opportunities to shine.
– Ostriches – They are apathetic, uninformed, or don’t know what to do. Leaders can use the PRESS approach, perhaps accompanied by incentives to act constructively.
– Sharks – They are vehemently opposed to change. Leaders may need to use sanctions to prevent harm and nudge them to act in accordance with institutional norms.
Livingston cites research indicating that fewer than half of people are in the dolphin category; leaders shouldn’t be naïve about the need for carrots and sticks to bring along those who are apathetic, uninformed, or resistant.
• On confronting racism and microaggressions in the workplace, Livingston cites studies showing that when people of color speak up, “it has the intended effect, but there’s a cost to the individual – they’re often seen as being a complainer or a troublemaker… and [they] have to calculate the trade-off between the cost and the benefit. But white people are able to be antiracist with more latitude and more impunity… So I think that puts an even greater responsibility on white people to do this work.”
• On the question of using SAT, ACT, and other standardized test scores for college admission, Livingston uses the analogy of the Kentucky Derby, where people who place bets have lots of data on each horse, but most of them do not predict the winner. In addition, the horse that wins the Derby seldom wins the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness. Clearly there’s no single characteristic or environmental factor that predicts the outcome of a horse race – or a student’s success in college. “So what I say,” says Livingston, “is pick good candidates and invest all your energy into developing them. That is the message for educators.”
• Livingston says he often hears from people of color that it’s best to have a mentor of the same racial or ethnic group. In fact, he says, “the research shows that your mentor or sponsor does not have to look like you… Sponsorship from a person who’s not from your group is seen as more credible because there’s no group interest involved.”
“Pressing Toward Racial Equity: An Interview with Dr. Robert Livingston” by John Kim and Rachel Klein in District Management Journal, Spring 2021 (Vol. 29, pp. 6-14); Livingston can be reached at [email protected].
Construction – If you are interested in the Newport Corridor Update click here; https://www.bendoregon.gov/newportimprovements