All Call #s

Follow up to the questions regarding calling out from our phones;

Dial *1 then,

#110 – Emergency All Call (interior and exterior)

#111 – Interior only

#112 – Exterior only

Kids Do Well If They Can

In the interest of continuing the conversation of “kids do well if they can”, here’s a short video with some important things to remember about children who behave disruptively.  It’s also from a British presenter, so it highlights the concerning issue as a universal concern that deserves our collective efforts.

SIW Follow up

Thank you for all your work this past Wednesday on the Schoolwide Storyline.  It’s really exciting work and I love watching you put it all together. I must admit looking ahead to the time of year makes me super anxious because of all the stuff that happens between spring break and the end of the year really increases stress levels.  I just want you to know I am doing my best to head off any conflicts or minimize the impact as much as possible, but I am sure there are things I may be missing or may need some collective geniuses to work on in the near future.

Upcoming Meetings:

• Monday 12/16- 2:45-3:30 – EBISS Kinder
• Wednesday 12/18 – Individual Teacher Prep (maybe a little more time for another song rehearsal???)
• Thursday 12/19 – Staff Party!!!!!

Lorna shared these articles linked below as a good reminder to be extra giving with your kindness and empathy.  Holidays and vacations can sometimes be more anxiety-provoking for some of our kids.

https://lakesidelink.com/blog/holidays/holiday-trauma-triggers/

https://educationpost.org/how-you-can-help-your-students-cope-with-holiday-stress/

How You Can Help Your Students Cope With Holiday StressNot all of your students look forward to the upcoming holiday season. For many, this time off brings a lot of stress and anxiety. Students may exhibit more frequent or new behaviors this time of year. The behaviors can look differently for the students in your class. You might have some students who …educationpost.org

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“With nearly 35 million children across the country at risk for toxic stress, what if the person giving the biggest daily dose of healing treatment for toxic stress isn’t a doctor or a therapist, but a teacher?”

            Marcus Buckingham and Kathy Higgins  (see article summary below)

SIW Follow up

Great job to Lorin and our PBIS team for a really powerful SIW on Wednesday.  I am really excited about this work because I feel like you are all very well poised to master this concept at a systems level.  Many of the training opportunities in this area (Collaborative Problem Solving, CPS) tend to focus on the secondary population. While it’s still important to see the value at this level, the need to practice and observe elementary models is more important to our everyday work.  Because you do such a good job with the relationship-building with students you already employ these skills naturally in many situations. Not only can we use these techniques to have a stronger impact, we can model and teach these skills to our students. We are teaching empathy with our practice.  We are teaching problem-solving at the highest cognitive level with our everyday actions. Most importantly we are living up to the mantra of reaching every student.

I want to also make it clear you are not doing anything wrong by using Plan A or Plan C.  These are necessary courses of action for many circumstances. The value in Plan B comes in for the long-term impact on learning the desired skills and behaviors and the preservation/strengthening of the relationship, however it’s not reasonable to expect to use Plan B every time.  The biggest barrier to consistently using Plan B is time. When time makes you use Plan A or Plan C, do not let yourself feel bad about it.

Another tricky part of this conversation has to do with consequences.   This is a really challenging piece for me. We have a lot of work to do as a society to adjust our paradigm for behavior and consequences.  Traditional approaches do not work and they are especially ineffective with the students who are most at risk. The reason they don’t work is that the word consequence is really just a disguise for punishment.  The other reason they don’t work is that the need for imposing a consequence comes more from the power struggle between the adult and the kid, rather than a desire to teach. It’s really difficult to admit this fault in ourselves, but we’ve been conditioned for decades to normalize this approach so it is understandable that we feel this way.  It will take work individually and collectively to shift mindsets, but I think we can agree that the work is worth it. I also want to be clear that I am also working on this as much as any of you. I grew up with the same conditioning as you, so this presents the same challenges to me as it does to you.  

The last point I want to make on this topic; keep perspective.  We have the tendency to let the few negative behaviors dominate the airspace.  Too much focus on these few behaviors can easily become toxic and interfere with your ability to self-care.  The reality, based on numbers is a very different story. The number of students who demonstrate independence, healthy emotional regulation, and incredible kindness far exceeds the few who are not there yet.  Let’s make this dominate the perspective as it should.

Linked below is TED talk by Stuart Albon.  It’s a longer version of the one shared on Wednesday.  It’s well worth the 20 minutes.

The graphic below was shared at the meeting as well.  I really like these, so I am sharing it again. 

Please mark your calendars with the dates and times below for our annual parent information nights and tours.  I also have some outreach to our different Head Start programs as well.

Parent Info Nights School Tours

02/4/20 2:45pm03/03/20 6:00pm

02/04/20 1:30pm03/05/20 1:30pm

Upcoming Meetings:

• Monday 12/9 – 2:45-3:30 – EBISS 1st grade
• Tuesday 12/10 – 2:45-3:30 – EBISS 4/5
• Wednesday 12/11 – 1:30-2:00 Staff Meeting; 2:00-3:30 SIW – Storyline (We may need to revise our timing to allow some rehearsal time for our assembly song.)

* FYI – After meeting with Marina, Alicia, & Lorin, we made some tweaks to our SIW calendar and scheduled times to better fit our needs.  I also made some adjustments to our staff meeting schedule to allow for some more frequent staff-wide check-in time. These are updated on the google calendar and the Master Schedule Documents too.  

Trauma-Informed Schooling

            In this article in Education Week, Jim Hickman (Center for Youth Wellness) and Kathy Higgins (Alliance for a Healthier Generation) say that a lot of students’ restlessness and acting-out behavior in classrooms stems from highly disturbing experiences at home: abuse, neglect, abandonment, divorce, witnessing violence, parental addiction, and more. Students with toxic stress have abnormal levels of certain hormones, which changes brain architecture and makes it more difficult to “do school.” Toxic stress can also lead to asthma and diabetes and, later in life, heart disease and cancer. 

            “But the science also tells us that two things are clear,” say Hickman and Higgins: “Early intervention improves outcomes, and safe, stable, nurturing relationships can be healing for children. With nearly 35 million children across the country at risk for toxic stress, what if the person giving the biggest daily dose of healing treatment for toxic stress isn’t a doctor or a therapist, but a teacher?” 

Fortunately, children’s brains are highly malleable and certain low- and no-cost school conditions can “rewire” students’ brains for better human connections and feelings of trust and security. (Of course in some situations, traumatic events at home require immediate intervention.)

            • Sensitize all adults in the school. “Trauma-informed teaching is less about following a checklist than adopting a new way of doing business as a school,” say Hickman and Higgins. Shared values include safety, trust, collaboration, choice, empowerment, and equity.

            • Nurture long-term, secure relationships with students. These support academic, cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development and help overcome trauma.

            • Emphasize belonging and safety. Something as simple as greeting students at the door every day helps develop these feelings.

            • Carve out one-on-one time. A few moments of private time with a teacher or counselor communicates caring and soothes students.

            • Create “safe” corners in classrooms. There kids can take a break and regroup, which is especially important for those who are frequently triggered to a fight-or-flight reaction.

            • Be predictable. This means sticking to the daily schedule – and also adults’ smiles and calm and consistent vocal rhythms.

            • Attend to nutrition and movement. “Study after study shows that healthy students perform better on tests, attend school more often, and behave better in class,” say Hickman and Higgins. Schools can make a big contribution by providing healthy food and regular recess and physical education classes. 

            • Prompt empathetic verbal interactions. Signs on classroom walls can encourage “talk moves” like What do you think? and I heard you say X – can you explain that?

            • Encourage curiosity. Getting students to use stems like I wonder… and I notice… helps engage them with others and reveals gaps in their knowledge and relationships.

            • Teach and model social-emotional skills. Most SEL programs include ways that students can name emotions, calm themselves, work out conflicts, and practice mindfulness.

“10 Simple Steps for Reducing Toxic Stress in the Classroom” by Jim Hickman and Kathy Higgins in Education Week, November 27, 2019 (Vol. 39, #14, p. 19), https://bit.ly/2LaVjBS; Hickman can be reached at [email protected].

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Riverbend Church

I want to provide a little more background regarding Riverbend Church using our building on Sundays.  I apologize for the length, but there’s just a lot of stuff to cover so there’s no way around it.

Once upon a time…just kidding.

The folks from Riverbend approached me over the summer to explore the possibility of using our building while they remodel their existing church.  We discussed their needs compared to our available spaces. In a perfect world, we could avoid using classrooms but that just was not possible given our space and their needs.  At the time of our first meeting, it was not clear how many rooms were needed, but I had a really clear conversation about requirements for using classroom spaces to ensure classrooms were reasonably ready to go as if nobody was ever there on Monday.  Shortly after that meeting, we received word their application to use the facility was approved and we were to identify the rooms to fit their needs. I selected the rooms mainly based on the proximity to the gym, however, I did a little research to see if I would be interfering with any teachers who tended to work on Sunday mornings based on the sign-in sheets.  The church started in the gym & stage, music room, room 14, room 13 and room 15.  

After concern was raised at our October Leadership meeting, I approached the church about moving some rooms.  They moved from room 13 to the library and room 1 is now substituted for room 15. There was an idea shared that we should force them to rotate through all our classrooms throughout the year.  While I am open to hearing and considering other solutions, the solution must be reasonable for all parties.  Forcing them to play musical chairs with the rooms is just not a logical nor reasonable solution. That kind of reaction sends very negative messages and represents us in an unwelcoming light.

Here are the steps they take to ensure our rooms are returned as they were found;

• Riverbend has a small army of people who work on the setup and break-down of each room.
• Each room being used has a very specific plan and set of materials (covers, barriers, linens) being used to protect our desks, cubbies and any other personal belongings of the teacher and students. 
• To date, they have used hundreds of before-and-after photos to make sure each room is returned as it was found.
• Although there is a professional obligation to keep your room tidy, there is no expectation from them to any of you to do anything special to your room for preparation.  There is no protocol for any of you to worry about.
• Brad is also here to help ensure that everything is returned back to its original state as much as can be reasonably expected.

Benefits 

• Riverbend pays around $2500 per month to rent this building.
• 25% or around $600 of this fee per month goes to Highland’s “Facilities Usage Fund”. Historically we have never had more than $280 in a year and this brings in $600 per month!
• For a little more context this will amount to an approximate 10% boost to our entire annual school budget if this continues for the school year.
• Riverbend also purchased a power drill for us to use with the basketball backboards.  
• They offered to replace or upgrade any of the lighting components they are using should anything go wrong.  So far not necessary, but it’s good to have this understanding in place.
• They provided training for me with our lighting system.  (Assuming I could find somebody, this would have cost at least $200 to hire somebody to do this for us.)
• They offered training with our sound system.  They do not use our sound system, but they have the expertise that is difficult to find.  (Basically, we have AV experts willing to commit time whenever we need them.)
• Brad is able to be on campus and although he is technically assigned to their needs while on campus, he has time to provide extra TLC to the campus and get ahead of the workload for the week.
• Riverbend is allowing us to use privacy dividers to give us the opportunity to provide some separation for room 14 and the pass-through.  (These run about $400 apiece.)
• There are probably more tangible benefits to this arrangement not listed and there will likely be more to come, but I can stretch this kind of funding a long way to address the needs of our building and your classrooms.

The problems or inconveniences caused so far;

• Magnets out of place
• Calendar numbers turned around
• Some trash cans not emptied
• Furniture not perfectly returned as it was
• Cannot work in the room for the morning*
• Feeling like you need to clean your room on Friday afternoons*

*The last two problems are the ones that concern me the most.  While it would be my preference for you not to work on Sundays and use that time for your own self-care, I understand we all have to prepare for our work week differently and I would not want to change an existing pattern for you.  Sometimes that prep time is also your self-care and I recognize that.

As for the feeling of needing to clean your room.  That’s a tough one. As I mentioned above there is no expectation from the church and you are welcome to leave your room as is.  

My bias.  Yes, I do have a bias and it is based on the one other experience I have with this situation.  With my previous experience, we leased the building to a church. We too experienced similar tangible benefits (and inconveniences) listed above, however, the intangible benefits that our staff experienced are far more motivating for me.  The connections and relationships that resulted from our arrangement caused a pretty uplifting experience for our staff. I know in my heart if we can work through the inconveniences of this arrangement we will cause some benefits to the school and district.  

What now?  It’s a pickle.  We are in a contract and we don’t have the right to move the church all around.  Although they moved rooms already, they have no obligation to continue move rooms, nor have they caused any true problems that would warrant further moving.  

This is an open invitation to meet with me one on one and share your concerns about moving forward.  I know there are conversations going on amongst some staff members in the hallways and staff lounge. I am asking for those to stop. Please come talk to me.  I promise to listen as long as you promise to listen as well. Our guiding question is the following;

How do we move forward in a way that works well for everyone?

The following image was shared in the Special Edge Newsletter so I thought I would re-circulate as it is incredibly valuable.  

Welcome – Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Kimberly Bone, who will be our new nurse.

Ed. Foundation Grants – Congrats to Marina for a grant acceptance – thanks to Marina’s work on a grant request we now a couple more spheros to use!

Thanksgiving week shut down of the schools

During the Thanksgiving Break, school HVAC systems will be lowered to the unoccupied setpoints of 58. If you are coming in over the break, please plan on bringing a sweater, not a personal heater as they are a fire hazard.

As the schools will be unoccupied, this is a great opportunity for energy conservation. Please remember to turn off at the power switch all electronics. All personal fridges and sharded mini-fridges need to be unplugged as well. 

Security Alarm Reminder  Please avoid using the gym to access the school on the weekends.  We are averaging more than one alarm in the gym on the weekend due to you cutting through to the main building.  If you could make a habit of entering and exiting through the front door, this will ensure you do not set the alarm off on each other.  

Please mark your calendars with the dates and times below for our annual parent information nights and tours.  I also have some outreach to our different Head Start programs as well.

2020 Parent Info Nights & School Tours

Parent Info Sessions 02/4/20 2:45pm 03/03/20 6:00pm

School Tours 02/04/20 1:30pm 03/05/20 1:30pm

Upcoming Meetings:

• Monday 12/2 – 2:45-3:30 – EBISS 2/3
• Tuesday 12/3 – 2:45-3:30 – EBISS 2/3
• Wednesday 12/4 – 1:30-3:00 SIW – PBIS
• Thursday 12/5  – 2:45-3:30 – Leadership

Schools Communicating with Four Generations of Caregivers

            In this article in Principal, Dillon Kalkhurst (Center for Intergenerational Engagement) says that a century ago, when Americans had shorter lifespans and work lives, students’ caregivers were mostly from a narrow age demographic. Nowadays, schools need to know how to communicate with as many as four generations of family members and colleagues, each with its own characteristics and preferences. “Communication starts on Day One by asking parents how they prefer to receive information,” says Kalkhurst. “You’ll be surprised by the variety of responses.” Some notes:

            • Generation Z: iGen (born 1997-2012) – A small but growing number of pre-K parents are entering the workforce. They are savvy consumers, believe in social responsibility, and have short attention spans. They prefer using Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, FaceTime, and texts, rather than phone calls; only about 14 percent use Facebook. 

            • Generation Y: Millennials (born 1981-1996) – These make up the majority of K-8 parents. Many were over-parented and believe they can change the world. They’re the heaviest users of texts and Facebook and require constant feedback and evaluation, so providing “sharable” moments helps promote family engagement and a positive culture. 

            • Generation X: Forgotten Generation (born 1965-1980) – They are most often the parents of high-school and college students. Many were latchkey kids, don’t respond well to micromanagement, and focus on results, not policies. Their preference tends to be e-mail, then texting and visiting school websites. 

• Baby Boomer grandparents (born 1946-1964) – Due to life circumstances, they may be primary caretakers. They want respect from younger generations. Their preference is often phone calls and face-to-face conversations. 

The Boomer generation is more likely to believe teachers and principals are always right. Most of today’s parents “will question everything and have hundreds of parenting and education ‘experts’ available at the swipe of a finger,” says Kalkhurst. “If you don’t answer their questions, they will find the answer somewhere else… Don’t expect new parents to come to school ready to jump on a train that’s already moving. They want you to stop the train and ask them if they’d like to add a new car… Engage them early and often.” PTA membership has declined, especially dues-paying memberships; parents believe they can get the same benefits online. 

“Engagement Across the Generations” by Dillon Kalkhurst in Principal, November/December 2019 (Vol. 99, #2, pp. 26-27), https://bit.ly/35dZIeO

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Book Fair  If you think you have some students who would benefit from a “Book Angel” to cover the costs of a book or two from the book fair, please talk to me asap.  The book fair is coming up on Wednesday 12/11.

Hey, look a squirrel!!  Elementary students are distracted 26% of the time, according to a recent study. Our kids do so well with their focus so I think this quick video is a great reminder of just how hard they are working.  pic.twitter.com/7IkHWbyhq4

As I find myself reaching deep into my bag of tricks to work through some tricky behavior with a few of our students, I tend to scan articles, research, etc. to expand my own arsenal, sometimes with success, sometimes not.  I found a few good nuggets in this article but I was also reminded of the great strategies I observe in your rooms daily. When you make it look so effortless it’s hard to remember how hard you worked to get there.  Scan this article linked here and enjoy some validation! Behavior Challenges

Recess Reminder – These are just a few friendly reminders for everyone to consider while on recess duty;

• Please move around and cover some ground.
• Make an effort to make positive contacts prior to any corrective contacts.
• Some current issues/behaviors of which to be aware;
  • Random drop-kicking balls – not so good for the landing if hits a kid  (ask kids to re-think this game and consider the consequences when it hits an unsuspecting student.)
  • Hanging/climbing on the fence – hang and climb on the play equipment, not the fence.
  • Block area tends to need some adult presence to keep some students from taking advantage of the situation.

News from the Office;

• FYI – Field trip permission slips for supposed to be kept for THREE YEARS.  
• It is time to make sure we have bus trips lined up for the new year.  See Shawna about any bus reservations needed for January.

Smarter Balance Opt-Out Directions- The following was shared with principals so I am relaying to you so you see the same info;

A preface- you did a fantastic job last year encouraging students/families to participate. Our participation rate went from 91.3% ELA in 17-18 to 94.3% ELA in 18-19 and 90.5% Math in 17-18 to 93.7% Math in 18-19. Thank you for your efforts as I believe we are close to a participation percentage that allows us to accurately track from year to year.

• Schools need to distribute the attached statewide notices (English and Spanish) and opt-out forms (English and Spanish) through their “regular communication channels” by December 8, 2019. Appropriate communication methods do include electronically distributing the forms or links to the forms posted on district/school websites.
• Principals also will sign and distribute the principal letter we used last year.
• In all communication related to opt-outs it is critical that parents are engaged in the communication and that non-adult students are not subjected to undue influence by educators or staff during working hours. Principals need to ensure all staff understand what types of communication has been deemed inappropriate by the state. Inappropriate communication would include:
  • Making repeated announcements to non-adult students (e.g., over school intercom systems, assemblies) during working hours reminding students to pick up ODE’s opt-out form
  • Initiating a discussion of ODE’s opt-out form or process with non-adult students during working hours
  • Repeatedly reminding non-adult students to submit ODE’s opt-out form during working hours
  • Encouraging students to submit ODE’s opt-out form during working hours
• All student opt-outs again need to be entered into the district’s Google form for tracking opt-outs.
• The opt-out forms apply only to ELA and Math. Exemptions for all other state assessments require parents to submit a written request based on disability or religion. 

Meetings:

• Tuesday 11/19 –  Design Team Meetings – 2:45-3:30
• Wednesday 11/20 – SIW – Teacher Prep
• Thursday 11/21 – Site Council – 3:00-4:00

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Veterans Day Lunch

Thank you for your flexibility today with lunch.  That was not nearly the crowd we had last year, but it was still much easier to get people through the line by allowing the older kids to eat upstairs.  Thanks to our kitchen crew for getting everyone served in such a tight timeline.

Meetings:

• Tuesday 11/12 2:45-3:30 PLC
• Wednesday 11/13, SIW – Academic Excellence

Heads up

I will be heading to Boise on Friday next week for the Nike Cross Regionals for my boys.  I love watching my kids run, but I am looking forward to getting some weekend time back soon! Lorin will be getting a sub for her day so she can be flexible to deal with any concerns. You’re in good hands. (=

Private Practitioners in our Schools- Please see this reminder from Sean- Bend La Pine Schools does not allow private practitioner’s to conduct business in our schools during school hours.  This includes a private behavioral health therapist, clinical psychologist, occupational therapist, private behavior support skills trainer, observations by family advocates or any person hired by a student’s family to provide services.  Usually, this will come through as a request from a family to have their private provider observe the student in the school setting. This does not include private folks related to contracts or partnerships we have with community partners (The Child Center, School Based Health Center, Deschutes County Health).  Also, this does not include parents inviting a private practitioner to an IEP or team meeting, which is perfectly fine. If you are approached by a family or private provider about observing or working with a student in your school, consider and try the following:

1. Explain that BLPS does not allow private providers to conduct business in our schools.  In turn, we will not propose conducting academic instruction in their office.
2. Inquire about the type of information they hope to obtain, and offer to have a member of the school team provide that information.  Typically, with the permission of the parents, we can conduct an observation and share the results with the family and private provider.
3. If the family requests that a provider come into school and perform their services in the school setting, inquire about those services and, if appropriate, explain that we have trained staff that can deliver those services.  If needed, convene and school or IEP team to consider the services requested by the parent.
4. Offer to have our team members consult with the private provider to learn about their work and align services when appropriate.
5. If asked about a specific policy, please refer to KK-AR: Visitors to District Facilities.  The most pertinent language in this police includes:

“Permission to visit will be granted if, in the judgment of the school principal or designee, the visit serves school interests. Permission to visit will be denied if the visit would be disruptive to the educational program or orderly school operations, would impede the work of teachers through interruptions or unreasonable demands on teacher or staff time, or if the visitor’s course of conduct would conflict with district policies or administrative regulations, building regulations, or the law. The school principal or designee may also deny permission to visit if he or she has reasonable cause to believe that the visit would compromise the safety or welfare of students and staff. The school principal or designee has discretion to limit the scope of the visit as to the duration or specific location of the visit in order to ensure the safety and welfare of students or the orderly administration of educational programs and school operations.

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Growth Mindset

I don’t like to use too many professional sports examples, but this one is too good to pass up.  Baseball statistics have always fascinated me. When I was kid, there were a few teachers who used baseball very effectively to teach math and my father is really into these stats (I mean really into it!).   Anyway, the Washington D.C. Nationals had a 0.1% to win the National League pennant on May 25th. Their entire season from that point on was characterized by hard lessons that provoked individual and team growth on a massive scale.  This week that growth mindset triumphed over more talented, statically better-performing opponents for both the National League Championships and the World Series. The Nats could have easily taken a look at their record and accepted their place as the inferior team. The major lesson learned is this; using a growth mindset works.  It works in sports. It works in business, both small and corporate. It works with engineering and science. And it works with education.

Gary sent the following out to principals this week, so I am sharing the good news with you too;

State Report Card- I want to thank all of you for the great things you are doing academically. We have so much going on and so many things to think about, we often forget about the basics and forget about celebrating our successes. Despite the distractions, we are doing better than ever. According to the state report card, in 18-19, BLP elementary schools had our highest ELA and math smarter balance scores ever. 65.2% of our 3rd-5th grade students met or exceeded in ELA. This is 4.4% higher than three years ago. 58.9% of our students met or exceeded in math. This is 3.3% higher than three years ago. For comparison’s sake, Check out the scores of four large districts in Oregon with three-year improvement in parenthesis.

Eugene- ELA- 55.7 (2.4)/ Math- 46.8 (2.4)

Beaverton– ELA- 65.6 (2.8)/ Math- 58.9 (-.9)

Portland– ELA-58 (1)/ Math- 48.4 (-.1)

Tigard/Tualatin- ELA- 59.1 (-.3)/ Math- 53.6 (-.8)

I looked at 6 other districts (Salem, W. Linn, N. Clackamas, Newberg, Sherwood, and Lake Oswego). None of them had a larger increase in ELA or Math. The next highest increase in ELA was Beaverton (2.8%), and the next highest improvement in math was Eugene (2.4%). Wow. Fantastic work. Our scores are growing significantly- we are not far from level 4 in ELA and Math. This is not an accident. You can feel good about where we are and it is proof that we can continue to improve and grow. As we move forward and work to close gaps, remember that we have lots of opportunity for growth, especially with our historically under-served groups.  Thanks for leading all of the progress to date!

Veterans Day Lunch

Friday next week is the Veterans Day Lunch so we expect to have another decent crowd which means we will need your help.  There’s virtually no chance of us fitting everyone downstairs so we will need to allow families and students to eat in classrooms.  Here’s what I am proposing;

• 2/3 and 4/5 classes eat in the classrooms (It will be OK for some students to stay in the cafeteria for these groups, but since they can carry their food easier than the little kids, this will work better for everyone.)
• K and 1 classes eat in the cafeteria.

Also, we will distribute some cards to you.  These are meant for students to either write a note directly to their relative who served or is serving OR write a general note of appreciation that will be sent to troops.

Before School Recess

• 7:30 – 7:40 students dropped off during this time are directed to the cafeteria (since most of these students are getting breakfast).
• 7:40 – 7:55 the playground opens, outside supervision starts.
• 7:55 – first bell – all students enter the building and head to your classrooms.
  • When the temp drops below 20, but it’s relatively nice outside, students will be permitted to enter the cafeteria if they don’t want to stay outside and Elizabeth will join the group inside for an additional person for supervision.
  • If students head upstairs, you can either send them back downstairs or allow them in your room with your supervision or send them outside.
  • If at all possible I want to avoid starting the day with a movie or cartoon since this is one of the worst ways to prime the brain for learning.  It’s also not a very long period of time since the largest bulk of kids arrive after 7:45.
  • When the weather is nasty and being outside is not an option we can resort to a video in the library, however, I would love to explore some alternatives that are not a one-size-fits-all and provide a more productive start to our students’ day.

Safetouch Lessons – Just an FYI – I will be starting Safetouch lessons with the 4/5 classes next week.  I will also hit three of the 2/3 classes before winter break.

Fall MAC Survey day is Thursday, November 7th.  

Meetings:

• Tuesday 11/5 2:45-3:30 PLC – Storyline
• Wednesday 11/6, SIW – District: 
  • All k-2 teachers (except school-wide Dreambox users):

You will sign up for a SIW session on Performance Matters.  Here is a short video on how to access and sign up on Performance Matters: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DqfYWU8t4ynYAS9wdyAIv1WGekYg-O16/view?usp=sharing

• 2-5 Teachers Dreambox Webinar
• Thursday 11/7, Leadership 2:45-3:30

Wonders Issue and Fix – From Christie Boen

I just wanted to let you know that the new iOS is now available for students and we have had some reports of Wonders not working when in Safari for students that have run the update. The issue appears to be that the pop-up blocker is turned on. Here are the directions for how to turn off the pop-up blocker:

• Open Settings
• Tap Safari on the left-hand menu
• Find “Block Pop-ups” on the right-hand menu and turn the toggle OFF
• This may not be an issue for all students, some may already have that toggled OFF. It might be worth 5 minutes to have everyone check after their iPad has been updated.

Nurse Change – Just in case you have not already heard, Alice will be leaving us as her family is moving out of state.  Tami Pike is working on hiring a replacement soon, but until that hiring occurs we may see Angelina on occasion filling in.  Please join me in wishing Alice all the best.

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“Every time you think of calling a kid ‘attention-seeking’, consider changing it to ‘connection-seeking’ and see how your perspective changes.” – Dr. Jody Carrington

2020 Winter Culmination Planning Survey – survey window will be open until Friday, November 15.  (If you or your team need more time to plan for this, please just let me know.)

Upcoming Meetings:

• Tuesday 2:45-3:30 Design Teams
• Wednesday 1:30-3:00 Equity & Excellence Review – All staff invited to participate

Core Effectiveness Meetings 

The next Core Effectiveness PLC is scheduled for Tuesday 2/18.  This is a little more than 9 weeks out, but there are number of vacations and short weeks in between.  At that meeting, we will be able to look at the Pathways to Progress from fall to winter to see the impact of your work on moving more students into the 3 or more star-growth area.   Please know that I am not advocating that you work on any one area only – the purpose was to show you what was getting in the way for some of your students to reach the 3 stars or better.  It’s also important to remember the majority of the group of students are already at or beyond grade level.

SLGs

Thank you for selecting your goals and getting your SLG forms into me.  If you selected the writing goal, please remember this is intended for your entire class and be sure to re-visit the way the goal is written to make sure it matches your scoring for both the beginning and the end of the year.

If you are using either the Dibels or EasyCBM goal, please remember these goals are specific to the students who are below benchmark/some risk or lower.  The intention of these SLGs is to promote a plan for instruction within the classroom that targets these students for support, in addition to intervention groups.  So please make sure you know which kids are being tracked for your goal.

Looking to the future…you may have noticed Goal D involved using the Core Effectiveness Form and Procedure…my hope is we might be able to use this process effectively this year and use it in place of one or both of the other goals for future SLGs.

PE-  activities spreadsheet for classroom teachers.

Sites & Facilities Survey – if you have not already done so please respond to the survey from last week’s post.

Dreambox – On November 6^th district SIW there will be a training webinar.  All elementary Dreambox users (⅔ and ⅘ teachers) at your school will be required to participate in the webinar.  This webinar will focus on accessing data and using the Dreambox dashboard.  

PTO funded Release Days for Storyline

I was asked to share some guidance on our PTO-funded release time after our leadership  conversation last week:

The most ideal situation is to use these funds as the line-items as titled “Subs for Release Time”; release days with subs.  Full days are much cleaner and easier in terms of accounting and tracking. Two of the days are intended for team-use and one day is intended for individual use (however it can be a 3rd team day).

Whenever we use these funds to directly compensate teachers at an hourly rate, we get onto thin-ice in terms of professional standards from district-perspective and auditing standards from the PTO accounting side.  There are a few days that can be considered the exception to this guideline; there are a select number of non-work days in August that are not part of your contract days (for example, Monday of startup week or the Tuesday prior to the first day of school).  Technically we can also use the week after school in June, however, that is tricky just due to the timing of our budget cycle. To be a little more clear, these funds cannot be used to compensate on weekends or vacation days.

I know planning for a substitute teacher is a lot of work, however, it is a necessity of our profession.  It’s healthy for you [and your students] to routinely work on providing quality lesson plans for your absence.  My hope is by getting this information out now, we can work to avoid a lot of conflicts and prevent any shortages of subs.

I tried to be thorough and hopefully this answers any questions out there, but if I missed anything, please see me if you have any questions.

Recess– Watch this short video on the importance of Recess.

Dyslexia: Myths, Look-Fors, and Classroom Strategies

            In this Cult of Pedagogy article, Jennifer Gonzalez confesses that when she was a classroom teacher, she was “woefully ill-equipped to support students in my room with special needs – those who arrived with a formal diagnosis and those who didn’t.” She followed students’ IEPs, which usually involved shortening assignments, giving extra time, and sometimes reading material out loud, but didn’t see those strategies as very helpful. 

Of course every school has trained special educators, but since they have limited time and many students with IEPs are spending an increasing amount of time in regular education classes, Gonzalez believes it’s important “for the rest of us to step up our game.”

            She believes a good place to start is dyslexia, and interviewed Lisa Brooks of the Commonwealth Learning Center’s Professional Training Institute in Massachusetts. Brooks started with two common misconceptions:

            • Myth #1: Dyslexia is uncommon. In fact, experts believe 15-20 percent of students are affected to some degree, which means in a class of 20 students, three might have some symptoms. Missing a dyslexia diagnosis – perhaps saying a student has attention problems or is developmentally immature – can delay important interventions.

            • Myth #2: Dyslexia means the child reads or writes backwards. It’s actually common for children up to age six to write letters backwards. This isn’t what dyslexia is about, says Brooks: “It’s really a difficulty in the phonological component of language, and that means children having difficulty with the sounds of words.”

            So what symptoms of dyslexia should teachers look for? Two are particularly important to spot in the primary grades, and dealing with them early can make a big difference in students’ future success:

            • First, a student’s struggles in reading and writing are unexpected because he or she is strong in other areas. If a child has a good vocabulary, speaks in paragraphs, and loves books but has trouble remembering a letter or a letter sound, that’s a clue. 

            • Second, the student has difficulty with the sounds of language – for example, identifying the first letter when sounding out a word; blending sounds into words; segmenting words into sounds; pronouncing multisyllabic words like specific; rhyming; performing rote memory tasks like remembering songs or the days of the week; correctly repeating words; or spelling a word without representing all its sounds (for example, writing butterfly burfly). 

            Gonzalez and Brooks suggest several effective strategies to support students with dyslexia:

–   Direct instruction in phonics, teaching students to crack the code of language. 

–   Overlearning – these students need a lot more practice with skills than other students do, even if it seems boring.

–   Learning experiences that involve using more than one sense simultaneously – for example, naming a word, tracing the letters, segmenting it, and writing it. 

–   Sound, music, and rhyming games – these are fun ways to give students more practice.

“How to Spot Dyslexia, and What to Do Next” by Jennifer Gonzalez and Lisa Brooks in Cult of Pedagogy, October 13, 2019, https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/spot-dyslexia/

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Serious Inspiration!

If you would like some serious inspiration visit this site. The challenge to break a 2-hour marathon happened and the story is incredibly heart-warming. Some people have compared this accomplishment to putting a human on the moon.

Great Kid Quotes:

• “The tooth fairy left a 12-dollar bill under my pillow!”
• “I love Storyline more than recess!!”

Sites & Facilities Survey

Please take some time to respond to the questions in this survey.

Timeline:

• 1st year [this year]
  • Staff Survey Window: Friday 10/18-11/8
  • Site Council Input: Thursday 11/21 3:00-4:00
  • Leadership Review & Refine: Thursday 12/5 2:45-3:30
  • Process due to district Wednesday 12/11
• 2nd year [next year]
  • District Sites & Facilities Committee meets regularly over an approximately 6-month period to review school site priorities and needs then makes recommendations to the board.

Visitor/Volunteer System Change

FYI – Red is the new yellow and yellow is the new red.  Red badges now signify visitors and yellow badges now signify volunteers.  We are communicating this to parents both verbally and with a poster over the sign-in system.  (I am not sure about the why behind the change, and yes, I am having difficulty keeping a straight-face as I type this.)

Milage Club Make-Up Days

• Monday 10/21

Upcoming Meetings:

• Monday 10/21 EBISS 4th/5th Grade 2:45-3:30
• Tuesday 10/2 PLC 2:45-3:30 – Core Effectiveness Meetings (see post below)
• Wednesday 10/22 Conference Prep & Conferences

Core Effectiveness Meetings – I will send a document to each grade level team on Monday to guide you through this work on Tuesday afternoon for your PLCs.  

PE-  activities spreadsheet for classroom teachers.

Dreambox – On November 6^th district SIW there will be a training webinar.  All elementary Dreambox users (⅔ and ⅘ teachers) at your school will be required to participate in the webinar.  This webinar will focus on accessing data and using the Dreambox dashboard.  

Good Short Read

Fairly recently I had a conversation with my parents about the changes in parenting and education expectations in our lifetime.  This article (summary below; full article linked further below) captured some of the ideas we discussed and I found it really interesting so I thought I would share. I feel the last paragraph in the summary is incredibly impactful.

The Distance Between Adults and Today’s Young People

            “It’s not our imagination, kids really are different,” says former counselor and administrator Jen Cort in this article in AMLE Magazine. “Today’s youth face four constructs that adults either did not experience at all or did not experience in the same way as youth today.” Here’s her list:

            • Athletics – Many kids “major in sports” as early as seven, and sometimes focus on only one sport. Often it’s, “I’m James, a soccer player,” versus “I am James, I play soccer, baseball, and like video games.” In addition to narrowing their experience and being set up for disappointment if they don’t qualify for elite teams, specialization increases the risk of overuse and traumatic injuries. Some parents get too involved, sending an unfortunate message when victories are followed by an exultant “We won the game!” but losses by, “I’m sorry you lost.”

            • Devices – Smartphones are ubiquitous, says Cort, and Google is where kids find out about things that previous generations asked the adults in their lives. One boy was told by his mother that he was too young to know what pansexual meant, so he found out online. Another asked about Charlottesville and didn’t get answers, so he went to YouTube and watched the death of Heather Heyer over and over. His takeaway was that if you stand up for what you believe, you can be killed, which directly contradicted what adults had been preaching about being an upstander. Kids are quick to see the hypocrisy of adults telling them not to be on their phones all the time and doing the same thing themselves. But limit-setting is sometimes grudgingly appreciated: one boy acknowledged that his family’s rule about not having a smartphone in the bedroom overnight was good for him.

            • Development – We used to think the maturation of kids’ frontal lobes (responsible for impulse control) was complete by 18, but now scientists say it’s more like the mid-to late-20s. Puberty happens around sixth grade, right? Actually it occurs between age 8 and 13 for girls and 9 and 14 for boys – and physical changes are preceded by chemical rumblings. Families celebrate early developmental milestones – moving from a tricycle to a two-wheeler – but are reticent when it comes to preparing their kids for adolescence. “Parents and teachers serve students well,” says Cort, “by letting them know as young as second grade that just as they grew from babies to second graders, they will also grow from second graders to teenagers. Just as when they were babies, adults are present to support them through these changes.” 

            • Diversity – Let’s assume that people don’t remember most events that occurred before they were four. That means today’s:

–   19-year-olds don’t remember a time before smartphones and 9/11 (and the subsequent surge of Islamophobia). 

–   18-year-olds are the first to grow up with their country at war their entire lives.

–   15-year-olds don’t remember a time before having an African-American president, and may experience having a white president as unusual.

–   8-year-olds don’t remember a time before the resurgence of the women’s movement, the international movement of teens around #Marchforourlives, the legalization of marriage for gay and lesbian couples, and the word transgender becoming part of the mainstream lexicon.

–   7-year-olds don’t remember a time before the #MeToo Movement and the first openly transgender male qualifying for a U.S. Olympic Team.

–   6-year-olds don’t remember a time before media race awareness changed due to the racist response to a Cheerios commercial featuring an interracial family. 

–   5-year-olds are the first born into a majority-minority race demographic in the U.S.

“We are moving from believing that if we admit to being biased and privileged, we also admit to being racist,” concludes Cort, “to now, not admitting our biases and privileges means we are racially insensitive – at best prompting the question, ‘who teaches us in between?’ The answer is that we need to do our own work and learn from our students.”

“It’s Different Now” by Jen Cort in AMLE Magazine, October 2019 (Vol. 7, #4, pp. 20-22), 

https://bit.ly/31gIWcP; Cort can be reached at [email protected]. 

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SIW Changes!!!  Please note.

We were told to make some adjustments to the SIW schedule to make sure the week before conferences are reserved for conference prep.  Sorry for the change again, but 10/16 will revert back to conference prep. We will need to bump the academic SIW for 10/30 so we can complete our Equity & Excellence Review by our deadline.  I will make sure our Calendar and Master schedule document reflect those changes. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Milage Club Make-Up Days

• Monday 10/14
• Monday 10/21

Upcoming Meetings:

• Monday 10/14 EBISS K 2:45-3:30
• Tuesday 10/15 Dreambox Workshop 2:45-3:30
• Wednesday 10/16 SIW – Conference Prep [We will need to move the Excellence & Equity Review to Wednesday 10/30]

SLGGs:

Deadline is Friday 10/18;  Linked below is our typical SLGG form used over the past couple years;  

• *Brief Form: click Here  (The form I was working on is not working smoothly so we will keep things old-school.)
• Write your own goals: click here. 
• state guidelines document
• quality review checklist 

PE-  FYI Here is the activities spreadsheet for the classroom teachers. PE teachers will continue to update this throughout the year.

Dreambox

The next workshop will be on Tuesday 10/15.  We will need Alicia, Amber, Marieka, and Michelle for that one.  Even if you have not already set yourself up with the program it’s OK to allow your students to start using it.  You will need some student data in the program prior to the Nov. 6th training webinar.

On November 6^th district SIW there will be a training webinar.  All elementary Dreambox users (⅔ and ⅘ teachers) at your school will be required to participate in the webinar.  This webinar will focus on accessing data and using the Dreambox dashboard. More details on accessing this training, and how to log in, will be sent 

O B O B-   Debbie is already aware of this and Angie Klee is spearheading this, but I wanted to share this with the whole group.  We are following similar guidelines to last year for OBOB. Please be sure that anyone volunteering to run this program follows the exact same guidelines. Please be sure that this permission slip is distributed to anyone before any activities have begun. Thank you.

Ed Foundation Grant Opportunity

I am hearing rumors that there are not many applications being submitted and I’ve been asked to encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity. The application period closes on October 18th, so now is the time to get them in!

More information is available via the following link: https://engagedminds.org/back-to-school-classroom-grant-application-now-available/

Culinary Center Opportunity

Cascade Culinary Institute invites you to bring student groups to the Jungers Culinary Center at Central Oregon Community College this academic year. 

Student groups will be considered during the following timeframes for COCC’s fall, winter and spring terms:

·         October 14-November 22

·         January 13-March 6

·         April 6-May 7

Please use the following link to record your request:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbloqP9a4-8Ri91QGN9M_2Eu54UDP_BtRgWj8R-0cHZ7MioA/viewform

 Please submit your requests as soon as possible so that we can best serve you. We hope to have all academic year dates established in the next few weeks.

Our best,

The Faculty and Staff at Cascade Culinary Institute 

Hilary McDonald

Administrative Assistant

Cascade Culinary Institute

Jungers Culinary Center CUL 107

Central Oregon Community College, Bend Campus

(541) 318-3738 Direct

(541) 318-3780 Culinary Main Line

Hours: Monday-Friday 7:50am – 2:20pm

[email protected]

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Upcoming Meetings:

• EBISS 1st grade – Monday 2:45-3:30
• Staff Meeting – Wednesday 1:30-2:00
• Storyline SIW – Wednesday 2:00-3:30
• Leadership – Thursday 2:45-3:30

Dreambox

Thank you Marina for getting a few more teachers up and running this week.  The next workshop = Tuesday 10/15 after school. We will need Alicia, Amber, Marieka, and Michelle for that one.  You should be able to see rosters with all the needed kids, however, I think there will be a little more fine-tuning on my end.

On November 6^th district SIW there will be a training webinar.  All elementary Dreambox users (⅔ and ⅘ teachers) at your school will be required to participate in the webinar.  This webinar will focus on accessing data and using the Dreambox dashboard. More details on accessing this training, and how to log in, will be sent at a later time.  

Conference schedule

• Here is what we discussed this past Wednesday;
  • Wednesday 10/9 – Sibling Conferences – 1:30-2:00; 2:00-3:30 Storyline SIW
  • Wednesday 10/16 – Equity & Excellence Review / remaining time goes to conference prep.
  • Wednesday 10/23  conference prep 8:00-4:00; conferences 4:00-8:00
  • Thursday 10/24 8:00am-8:00pm – all day conferences
  • And just like that, October is just about gone!

PTO

The next general meeting is Tuesday, October 8, at 2:30-3:30 in the library right after school.

• Giving Campaign – we well are over 80% toward the goal; this last 15-20% tends to be the most challenging and slower to complete.
• Fall Festival – please consider helping with the fall festival by signing up for a volunteer time slot (you can be part of the set-up, clean up or work one of the games).  This is a great opportunity to show gratitude and represent the “T” of PTO in a fun way. If you sign up it will tend to prompt parents to sign up earlier rather than waiting until the last minute.  They are also looking to recruit some really brave people for a dunk tank (burrrr). Wear a wetsuit, antagonize some throwers, and take a plunge for fun!
• Classroom/Storyline Funds
  • PTO will be turning over most of these funds to us to distribute to your individual lines within our student body account. The remaining funds will come when we are fully funded.
  • Shawna shared your balances by grade level with you this week.   We will try to give you updates each month. Please remember the goal with any school budget is to hit 0 (not over, not under) at the end of the year.  Use Shawna’s monthly updates to compare to your own accounting to keep track of your expenses.  
  • A good strategy is to put a weekly reminder on your calendar to turn in receipts and adjust your balance accordingly.  (I tend to round up on recording my expenses so that I always have a cushion until the end of the year.)

Boundary Change-Here is a document outlining the boundary change process that will occur this fall/winter – and go into effect in the fall of 2021 (when the new HS opens). If you are interested in learning about the timeline of this process or curious about who is involved – check this out!

Ed Foundation Grant Opportunity

I am hearing rumors that there are not many applications being submitted and I’ve been asked to encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity. The application period closes on October 18th, so now is the time to get them in!

More information is available via the following link: https://engagedminds.org/back-to-school-classroom-grant-application-now-available/

Inclement Weather Guide

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