Highland Updates

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” –Napoleon Hill  

2019-2020 Staffing Survey

Yup! It’s that time of year again.  Please click below and indicate your thoughts for next year.

2019-2020 Staffing

Laptop Tricks

I learned some great tricks for organizing my Chrome (bookmarks, extensions, etc.) that I would love to share with anyone interested.  For example, ways to make your email, calendar all available with one quick click. Let me know if you would like me to share with you.

Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS)

Linked below is the 4 session CPS workshop occurring in April and May.  Please let me know if you are interested.

Tier 1

Common Language Presentation:

Mini-Observations

If you are interested in the slides from our presentation from Tuesday morning, please click below; Behavior Supports Slide Show

I am doing my best to get my classroom time back on track after the plethora of recent distractions that have pulled me away.  I will be doing my best to buckle down and get the minis completed and as always I appreciate any and all of your help finding the time for the follow-up.  I know you are busy so I want to honor your time, but I also want to honor our work intended to push ourselves to be better in the area of math.  If you need a quick refresher on our “Look Fors”, please click below.

Look Fors

If you are curious about how many minis you have and need, just let me know.

Conferences

The survey supports sticking with the original plan with 8 votes, which is probably a good idea since this was already communicated to the public.  (4 votes for plan B and 2 votes for plan C.) I will cancel the charter plane for Hawaii since it only got 1 vote.

• Wednesday 4/3 SIW – Conference Prep
• Wednesday 4/10 SIW – Conference Prep
• Thursday 4/11 – Regular Schedule Student Day
• Friday 4/12 – Conferences 8:00-4:00

I have a short letter prepared for parents to let them know that our ability to provide conferences for everyone this particular week will be challenged.

June Culminations

Thank you to Alicia, Amber, JJ and Becky E – we have your info in and we are waiting on the rest.  Please try to get this entered as soon as possible. Help us help you.

Also, please don’t hesitate to provide some feedback on how to make the survey more user-friendly.  Marina caught a few things that will be easy changes to make it more workable.

https://goo.gl/forms/6V6GraGUpxDr6XM83

Tuesday Morning Meetings

• This week; staff meeting; PLCs – Sibling Conference Scheduling
• Next week (after spring break); Staff Meeting – Quick Presentation from American Fidelity Rep

SIWs

• This week – Academic Excellence
• Next week – Conference Prep

Upcoming Field Trips – none for at least a couple weeks.

2019-2020 Master Schedule

(2019-2020 Draft Schedule) –Leadership will be discussing this on Friday 3/22

SBAC 2019

• Training Modules
• 2019 Draft Schedule
• Security Affidavits will be in your boxes this week – please complete and return to my box.

ED Foundation Announcement

The 2019-2020 Classroom Grant program of the Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools opens Monday, February 18, 2019 and closes by 5 pm on Friday, March 22, 2019.  This program provides funding for innovative STEM, art, music & wellness requests from public school K-12 educators in Bend, La Pine & Sunriver.  Requests for funding of programs/projects must be for the 2019-2010 academic year and approved by your school principal before submission. Educators must submit their request online by completing the 2019 Classroom Grant Application which can be found on our website.  Please review our Guidelines before submitting your request. Educators may submit only (1) request, but schools may submit several requests (which must be prioritized by the school principal). All requests must be completed using the online form and emailed to:  [email protected] to be considered and must be received no later than Friday, March 22, 2019.

Any questions can be directed to Michelle Johnson, Executive Director.   In 2018, the Education Foundation funded over 53 requests totaling over $89,000.  Since 1988, the Education Foundation has invested over $1.5 million in our public schools through our programs.

I learned some great tricks for organizing my Chrome (bookmarks, extensions, etc.) that I would love to share with anyone interested.  For example, ways to make your email, calendar all available with one quick click. Let me know if you would like me to share with you.

Students working hard

Cute video of the “cup” song. Click below;

https://drive.google.com/a/gapps.bend.k12.or.us/file/d/143Yb_6-Jmxz5ochmbJFJhmDewWJNL0F2/view?usp=sharing

Click below to see the Highland Staff Calendar.

Google Calendar

Conferences

As you know, with the change to our calendar we have a change to our typical conference week schedule;

• Wednesday 4/3 SIW – Conference Prep
• Wednesday 4/10 SIW – Conference Prep
• Thursday 4/11 – Regular Schedule Student Day
• Friday 4/12 – Conferences All Day

(I believe this is what we discussed in our SIW this week, but if I missed something, please let me know.)

June Culminations

I know you are mostly thinking about your March Culminations, but if I could encourage you to use this survey to input your June Culmination info, it will allow us to better help you.  Let’s put a soft deadline to complete this by Friday 3/15. If your classes are combined then only one teacher needs to fill it out. A few of you have already locked in dates on the calendar, but if we could use this process we’ll do our best to provide more equitable access to everything, in addition to communication to all appropriate people.

https://goo.gl/forms/6V6GraGUpxDr6XM83

Work Day Hours 2019-2020: 7:30AM – 3:30PM

Linked below is the memo that followed our survey regarding our work day hours for next year.  We discussed this during a brief announcement during our SIW on January 23rd, but I think I failed to share this memo with you, so I do apologize.

Work Day Hours 2019-2020

Tuesday Morning Meetings

• This week; staff meeting – Common Language Presentation
• Next week; PLCs

SIWs

• This week – District Series Day 2
• Next week – Academic Excellence

Upcoming Field Trips

• The 2/3 team has a field trip planned for 2 dates from 9:15 to 2:30 p.m.
  • March 14, Thursday: Therrian, Reisinger and Howard
    • *Will miss reading intervention, math and P.E and Music
  • March 15, Friday: Cross and Greene
    • *Will miss assembly at 9:15 a.m. and P.E. and Music

2019-2020 Master Schedule

(2019-2020 Draft Schedule)

Leadership will be discussing this on Friday 3/22

SBAC 2019

• Training Modules
• 2019 Draft Schedule
  • So far it sounds like this schedule might work with only a few minor tweaks, but I will hold off on removing the “draft” for a little while longer to allow some more time for examination.
  • I added another potential schedule for Marina’s 3rd graders to the document.
  • Dibels Day is currently scheduled for 5/22, however I have offered to trade to 6/7.

ED Foundation Announcement

The 2019-2020 Classroom Grant program of the Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools opensMonday, February 18, 2019 and closes by 5 pm on Friday, March 22, 2019.  This program provides funding for innovative STEM, art, music & wellness requests from public school K-12 educators in Bend, La Pine & Sunriver.  Requests for funding of programs/projects must be for the 2019-2010 academic year and approved by your school principal before submission. Educators must submit their request online by completing the 2019 Classroom Grant Application which can be found on our website.  Please review our Guidelines before submitting your request. Educators may submit only (1) request, but schools may submit several requests (which must be prioritized by the school principal). All requests must be completed using the online form and emailed to:  [email protected] to be considered and must be received no later than Friday, March 22, 2019.

Any questions can be director to Michelle Johnson, Executive Director.   In 2018, the Education Foundation funded over 53 requests totaling over $89,000.  Since 1988, the Education Foundation has invested over $1.5 million in our public schools through our programs.

For a laugh please watch this;

Junction City Schools Have Simply the Best Snow Day Announcements Ever

One of our parents shared this with me and I found it really intriguing.  At the very least it is thought-provoking and I hope it serves to help us all as we learn to exercise our empathy muscles.

Tuesday Morning Meetings

• This week; design teams
• Next week; staff meeting
• Our Common Language Presentation, originally scheduled for Tuesday 2/26 will be postponed to Tuesday 3/12

SIWs

• This week – Thriving Citizen
• Next week – District Series Day 2

Upcoming Field Trips

• 3/8 – 2/3 Team @ Shevlin Park 1:00-2:15

2019-2020 Master Schedule

On 12/7 our leadership team discussed the impact of shifting our schedule forward by an hour.

On 12/15, a link to the potential schedule (our current schedule shifted forward by one hour) with all staff in the weekly update.  (2019-2020 Draft Schedule)

Reps were instructed to get feedback from their teams.  The main questions were the following;

• How will this shift work for each team?
• If there are concerns, how would we like to address the concerns?  (revamp or attempt to tweak as-is?)
• Who (from each team) will work on this?
• How much time do we need?  Morning meetings, half-day, etc?

Please ask one of your team members to take the lead and reach out to me with some responses to the questions above so we can determine next steps.

SBAC 2019

• 2/3 and 4/5 Teachers please use the following link to access the required training modules for SBAC.  Scroll down to Summative Assessments. Training Modules
• You as Test Administrators (TA)s are required to complete Modules 2, 3, 4, & 5 (Module 6 is required for 5th grade Science Test) (Sorry!!)  You can either watch the presentation as a video or (if the video is too exciting and fast paced, said nobody ever!) you can scroll through the powerpoint presentations at your own speed.
• Once you have completed your presentations for training, you can sign and return the security affidavit.  I will put these in your boxes later.

Naglieri

• Target window is between March 6th and March 20th
• Student iPads need to have the latest version of TestNav app installed.
• Notification Letter linked here just FYI.  Letter went out to all 2nd grade families this week.

Printing

I don’t usually share our monthly printing costs (linked below) because we typically do a really good job of utilizing the print shop, however we just had another month when our use of convenience printers and our own printer is a bit higher than usual.  Please consider this message a gentle reminder to make every attempt to utilize the print shop over our copier. Not only does it cost significantly less, but we earn a rebate back at the end of the year, so planning ahead does pay off.

Printing Costs

Math Message

Jo Boaler shares some more information and resources for addressing student with different abilities in math.  You Cubed Spec Ed Page

ED Foundation Announcement

The 2019-2020 Classroom Grant program of the Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools opensMonday, February 18, 2019 and closes by 5 pm on Friday, March 22, 2019.  This program provides funding for innovative STEM, art, music & wellness requests from public school K-12 educators in Bend, La Pine & Sunriver.  Requests for funding of programs/projects must be for the 2019-2010 academic year and approved by your school principal before submission. Educators must submit their request online by completing the 2019 Classroom Grant Application which can be found on our website.  Please review our Guidelines before submitting your request. Educators may submit only (1) request, but schools may submit several requests (which must be prioritized by the school principal). All requests must be completed using the online form and emailed to:  [email protected] to be considered and must be received no later than Friday, March 22, 2019.

Any questions can be director to Michelle Johnson, Executive Director.   In 2018, the Education Foundation funded over 53 requests totaling over $89,000.  Since 1988, the Education Foundation has invested over $1.5 million in our public schools through our programs.

Linked below is a great video to stress the importance of listening and empathy.  Educators so often rush to fix things; it’s what we do, but this will serve as humorous reminder that we often just need to listen and be there; as a teacher, as a colleague, as a spouse, as a parent, a friend….you name it.  Enjoy.

Culmination Coordination “Practice Run”

As of Friday morning we had six responses, which was really helpful, so thank you.  I will work with Shawna and Elizabeth to possibly make a few more tweaks, but I think this could be a really useful tool to; 1. Ensure equitable access to the everything (calendar, rooms, etc.) and 2. Help us with communicating the accurate details to everyone necessary (Brad  & Tim, Kids Inc, etc.).

If you have not had a chance to check it out, please click the link below;

https://goo.gl/forms/0EroqyDyIN8aff2e2

Tuesday Morning Meetings

• This week; staff meeting – presentation from Lorna Vangrem on Common Language
• Next week; design teams

SIWs – !!Please note change to original schedule below;

• This week – BrainPOP Exploration and Time
• Next week – Thriving Citizen

Upcoming Field Trips

• 2/25 – Green 9:15-11:15 / Woock 12:15-2:15 – Bend Sci Station
• 2/26 – Woock 9:15-11:15 / Green 12:15-2:15 – Bend Sci Station
• 2/28 – Vickery 9:15-11:15 / Martinson 12:15-2:15 – Bend Sci Station
• 3/1 – Martinson 9:15-11:15 / Vickery 12:15-2:15 – Bend Sci Station

BrainPOP

To access BrainPOP use the following link;

https://www.brainpop.com/

SBAC 2019

Only one thing to consider this week; Keyboards – this is not a “must-do-this-minute”, but I would like you to take stock of your working keyboards.  I know these tend to break or malfunction over time so it will be important to identify the devices not working so we are not scrambling last minute. We will need to use 2nd grade keyboards to backfill any broken one as we don’t have a budget to buy new ones just yet.

Naglieri

• Target window is between March 6th and March 20th
• Student iPads need to have the latest version of TestNav app installed.
• Notification Letter linked here just FYI.  Letter went out to all 2nd grade families this week.

Math Message

The following page was added to YouCubed recently and if you scroll down to “assessments” there are a few great examples of rubrics for different grade levels.  These samples provide simple ways not only to provide a “score” or grade, but include the valuable feedback necessary to take the student to the next step.  Specific feedback is the most effective to promote student growth.

ED Foundation Announcement

The 2019-2020 Classroom Grant program of the Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools opensMonday, February 18, 2019 and closes by 5 pm on Friday, March 22, 2019.  This program provides funding for innovative STEM, art, music & wellness requests from public school K-12 educators in Bend, La Pine & Sunriver.  Requests for funding of programs/projects must be for the 2019-2010 academic year and approved by your school principal before submission. Educators must submit their request online by completing the 2019 Classroom Grant Application which can be found on our website.  Please review our Guidelines before submitting your request. Educators may submit only (1) request, but schools may submit several requests (which must be prioritized by the school principal). All requests must be completed using the online form and emailed to:  [email protected] to be considered and must be received no later than Friday, March 22, 2019.

Any questions can be director to Michelle Johnson, Executive Director.   In 2018, the Education Foundation funded over 53 requests totaling over $89,000.  Since 1988, the Education Foundation has invested over $1.5 million in our public schools through our programs.

Science Learning Opportunity

The Bend Science Station has just designed workshops for 4^th and 5^th grade teachers on Amplify and NGSS.  The workshops will provide teachers with hands-on, interactive activities that apply to Amplify and NGSS standards. TLC will be able to pick up the cost of one of the subs for each team of two teachers buildings send.  In other words, you pay for one, we’ll pay for one.

There are two training days for each grade level (the same topics are presented each day)

• 5^th Grade – March 7^th (18 slots) or March 8^th (25 slots)
• 4^th Grade – March 11^th (25 slots) or March 12^th (18 slots)

(FYI – Sessions have a different number of slots available because Redmond teachers will be attending on one of the days.)

These workshops will be in Performance Matters next week for teachers to register on a first-come-first-serve basis.  If you plan on sending teachers please fill out the form linked below so I can get an idea of how many teachers might be attending.

Linkà https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSew-E3eVGR_aNVA-ChmjyUU6mmho7hdfVZBEgp0CAa67zrZRg/viewform

Bend Science Station InterestPlease indicate your interest in sending teacher to Amplify & NGSS training at the Bend Science Station. This is an all day training and for each team of two TLC will pay for one of the sub.docs.google.com

Culmination Coordination “Practice Run”

We only have 3 responses to this so far.  Please take a few minutes to respond based on your March culminations.  This will help us in the office tremendously with communicating to all necessary people.  Help us, help you. Thank you.

https://goo.gl/forms/0EroqyDyIN8aff2e2

Tuesday Morning Meetings

• Sorry to change this again – but the “Thriving Future Excellence Ready” team needs another meeting to work on the norms.  This Tuesday will be a Design Team meeting rather than PLCs
• The following week is a staff meeting – presentation from Lorna Vangrem on Common Language

SIWs

• Future Ready this Wed
• Thriving Citizen next Wed

Collaborative Problem Solving Workshop

FYI – I will be off campus on Wednesday morning and all day Thursday & Friday, along with Jay and Becky H for a workshop.  If you have any concerns or issues during those days, please see Lorin and/or Shawna.

Upcoming Field Trips

• 2/25 – Green 9:15-11:15 / Woock 12:15-2:15 – Bend Sci Station
• 2/26 – Woock 9:15-11:15 / Green 12:15-2:15 – Bend Sci Station
• 2/28 – Vickery 9:15-11:15 / Martinson 12:15-2:15 – Bend Sci Station
• 3/1 – Martinson 9:15-11:15 / Vickery 12:15-2:15 – Bend Sci Station

Music and the Mind

I am excited to share Rob will be starting an afterschool chorus program here at Highland.  In the spirit of starting simple and small, the program will be open to our 4/5 students and it will run from March to May.  Rob will be sharing the details with the students soon, but we wanted to share the news with you first.

While we are on the topic of music you may also find the article linked below interesting.  It underscores the importance of music education and its importance to brain development at a young age.  It’s also important to note the difference in music education versus a rehearsal-performance cycle. Using a music program with some fidelity at these young ages makes our students more likely to be musically inclined in their later years of school and more likely to pick up an instrument and start playing.  The link between music learning and success in school for students is strong and well documented. I don’t want to diminish performances as they play an important role as well, but the process of learning music at this early age will serve our students far more than memorizing any song for a performance. I am sharing this as we look ahead to future culmination performances in March and ultimately in May.  Time tends to become more and more scare as we move closer to these dates. Plan ahead and communicate music needs sooner than later so Rob can work on keeping the balance between the important music learning in addition to rehearsing for the various songs. If we continue to operate on the priority of doing what’s best for kids, then music learning needs to be the higher priority, but with careful planning we can achieve a balance of both priorities.

Keep the Beat

BrainPOP

If you are interested in seeing the topics being accessed students in BrainPOP, please click here.   As of Wednesday we have over 150 logins by students accessing videos, games, and quizzes on a variety of content areas.  

To access BrainPOP use the following link;

https://www.brainpop.com/

There is a link called “Brain POP 101” which is a short course designed to show teachers how to use this resource.  It’s really easy to access and follow and I believe this might be the best way for everyone to see what it has to offer.  Based on my own quick research this course is the best bang for your buck in terms of time learning how to use this resource.

If you would like to explore further click here and you can find a variety of training videos and webinars.

Video/Webinar Training Resources

Site Council

Our site council decided to compose a survey targeting parent engagement and volunteerism.  The hope is to have this survey ready to go by Spring Conferences. We will keep you posted on things as they develop, but if you have any good ideas for questions to include, please send them my way.  I’ve also been digging into these same issues with the PTO board in an effort to find ways to improve.

SBAC 2019

Yup, it’s time to start thinking about SBAC again!  We will ease into it for the time being. Here are a few details to start wrapping your heads around;

• Testing Window; May 6th – 17th*
• Recommended Individual Testing Blocks: 45 minutes to 90 minutes
• Access to TIDE will come to you via auto-email (I will let you know when to expect these)
• Schedule: Linked here is the 2018 schedule.  Please familiarize yourself with the schedule to see if we want to modify for this year.

* Technically the testing window is already open and stays open until June, but we will target these two weeks to get the bulk of our testing done.

Naglieri

We need to administer the Naglieri to our 2nd graders and any students new to the district this year in grades 3 through 5.  Our target window is between March 6th and March 20th (Lorin, Misha, and Michele – this is best during the 2nd grade math time).  Student iPads need to have the latest version of TestNav app installed. Right now it looks like I cannot add test administrators, so I think it will be easiest if I just administer the test, but I will let you know if that changes.

Notification Letter linked here just FYI.  We will send this out via school messenger to all 2nd grade families.

ED Foundation Announcement

The 2019-2020 Classroom Grant program of the Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools opensMonday, February 18, 2019 and closes by 5 pm on Friday, March 22, 2019.  This program provides funding for innovative STEM, art, music & wellness requests from public school K-12 educators in Bend, La Pine & Sunriver.  Requests for funding of programs/projects must be for the 2019-2010 academic year and approved by your school principal before submission. Educators must submit their request online by completing the 2019 Classroom Grant Application which can be found on our website.  Please review our Guidelines before submitting your request. Educators may submit only (1) request, but schools may submit several requests (which must be prioritized by the school principal). All requests must be completed using the online form and emailed to:  [email protected] to be considered and must be received no later than Friday, March 22, 2019.

Any questions can be director to Michelle Johnson, Executive Director.   In 2018, the Education Foundation funded over 53 requests totaling over $89,000.  Since 1988, the Education Foundation has invested over $1.5 million in our public schools through our programs.

Science Learning Opportunity

The Bend Science Station has just designed workshops for 4^th and 5^th grade teachers on Amplify and NGSS.  The workshops will provide teachers with hands-on, interactive activities that apply to Amplify and NGSS standards. TLC will be able to pick up the cost of one of the subs for each team of two teachers buildings send.  In other words, you pay for one, we’ll pay for one.

There are two training days for each grade level (the same topics are presented each day)

• 5^th Grade – March 7^th (18 slots) or March 8^th (25 slots)
• 4^th Grade – March 11^th (25 slots) or March 12^th (18 slots)

(FYI – Sessions have a different number of slots available because Redmond teachers will be attending on one of the days.)

These workshops will be in Performance Matters next week for teachers to register on a first-come-first-serve basis.  If you plan on sending teachers please fill out the form linked below so I can get an idea of how many teachers might be attending.

Linkà https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSew-E3eVGR_aNVA-ChmjyUU6mmho7hdfVZBEgp0CAa67zrZRg/viewform

Bend Science Station InterestPlease indicate your interest in sending teacher to Amplify & NGSS training at the Bend Science Station. This is an all day training and for each team of two TLC will pay for one of the sub.docs.google.com

Given our focus this month on trust, I thought I would share this following;

Trust 101

Culmination Coordination “Practice Run”

Please take a moment to complete the form linked for you culmination in March.  Only one person needs to complete the form if you are culminating as a group (grade level).  We already have most of the March Culmination details already communicated but we will use this for practice in the office and then apply it to future culmination scheduling.  It should only take a few minutes. Thank you to Elizabeth for developing the form. Also, thank you to Rob for working on space-use calendar in google.

https://goo.gl/forms/0EroqyDyIN8aff2e2

Tuesday Morning Meetings

• This week is changed to Design Team Meetings if necessary.
• Next week is PLCs
• The following week is a staff meeting.

SIWs

• District Series & Parent Information Session
• Next week; Future Ready

Upcoming Field Trips

• Vickery to Summit on Friday 2/15 – 9:00-11:30

BrainPOP

This is a repeat from last week, but BrainPOP is loaded (for both teachers and students) and ready to go.  Click on the link below, hit Log In and then follow the “Clever” log in pathway to access the application. You should not have to use a separate log in from your Bend-La Pine.

https://www.brainpop.com/

Math Messages

The following article recaps some of the original pieces of Jo Boaler’s work to undo many of our rigid and entrenched math learning pre-conceptions.  Please read consider how you can apply to this to benefit our students.

Math Mindset Message

Effective Quizzes

Since many of you are making use of Exit Tickets in math, I thought this summary might be useful.  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CyzhCZcUzsROzjt1YtXbgTHrEOYLBkeTbeaPUNseEsA/edit?usp=sharing

Equitable Grading

I’ve always felt elementary teachers have a much better grasp of this concept, so good on ya’ for your perspective on evaluating learning but it never hurts for a little validation and extra learning.  The following summary does a great job of highlighting the importance of equitable grading for the future success of our students. I am really happy to see this shift happening at the middle and high school levels these days as well.  In the end, feedback provided on student work is the most effective practice in promoting student growth, not a grade or number.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UlDIaZY-eLhjgHl8WkGnJvHK-zSwGnH4w53KmZPHTj8/edit?usp=sharing

Ed Foundation

The Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools will host the 14th annual Trivia Night at the Tower, sponsored by OnPoint Community Credit Union. This year’s event event will be held on Saturday, March 16, 2019 at the Tower Theater.

Often we have business sponsors that wish to support a “educator team”.  If your school has a team (administrative staff, teachers, or even parents!)  that would like to participate in one of these business sponsored teams, please contact us!  This is a fun opportunity to support education in our community and  participate in a fun night of trivia action. Teams will have the opportunity to upseat the 2018 Champion, Any Port in a Storm (SHS teacher team), sponsored by The Miller Lumber Company!

This fun event brings our schools and community together each year for a night of trivia with over 250 attendees, mingling and of course, raising funds that provide funding for classroom grant opportunities for educators in our community. This year, the Education Foundation celebrates 30 years of service to our community! Without you, our service to students and educators in the Bend-La Pine schools would not be possible — THANK YOU!!

The following quote from one of our 1st graders almost made me fall out of chair during a SafeTOUCH lesson this week;

“You can trust a mom with kids, because moms are superheros.” – AK

So true!

Tuesday Morning Meetings

• Design Team Meetings this week.
• Staff Meeting next week.

SIWs

• Academic Excellence this week.Next week;
• District Series & Parent Information Session

BrainPOP

I believe BrainPOP is ready to go for you.  You and your students can access it through Clever.  I will look to build in some time for us to explore more, but if you are ready to start using it on your own, I wanted to get it set up ASAP.

https://www.brainpop.com/

Building Stuff

Hmmmm – I will keep it brief, so if you want more details please see me.

• The movable wall on the stage still needs some more attention, as it is not sealing properly.  If you ever need to open/close this wall, please let me know.
• KNCC (Alec) did the water test on the wall outside room 17 and he was able to reproduce the leak.  This is good news….sort of. The next step will be for the team to determine the solution (aka, another big hole in the ground).  More on that later.
• District plumbers continue to work on a drainage issue between the two buildings (new courtyard).  I think they are a few days away from finishing.
• The security system should now be operating in two separate areas; Gym and Main buildings.

100-Year Celebration

We had a great meeting this morning and I believe I can start wrapping my head around an incredible event in the fall.  We tried to capture everything into these Notes, however below are some key pieces of information for your attention and processing.   Let me be clear that this is all in the “idea-phase” and nothing is set in stone; if something makes you anxious, please bring it to my attention.  Or if you think there is something else I need to be adding to the mix, please let me know.

Potential Dates:

• September 20-21 or September 27-28

Format:

• Friday – (afternoon and/or afterschool) would be focussed on sharing Highland Storyline- student and/or parent led tours (this would be an opportunity for visitors to see our school and Storyline (anticipating this should be enough time for frieze work to be done or close to done).

• Saturday – reunion for all Kenwood community (see notes for activities ideas for the day)

Upcoming Field Trips

Vickery to Summit on Friday 2/15 – 9:00-11:30

Parent Information Nights

Sign up sheet

Also, just FYI, Deanna and I will also provide a quick presentation to two of the Head-start programs on the evening of Thursday February 7th.

Staff Meeting

Hopefully you have noticed the staff meeting on your calendar for tomorrow morning.  We will start with celebrations, a few quick updates, and then have a presentation from Pat on Speech services and RTI on the agenda.

SIWs

This time is set aside for report card work.

Next week is Academic Excellence.

EBISS

Thanks for you thoughtful work on our EBISS meetings.  I especially want to thank the EBISS core team for their preparation (and follow up) with all the different grade levels.  The initial observations of the all-day meetings seem to indicate that things went a little more smoothly compared to last time.  While the day is still fresh in your head, please send me any feedback that might be used to improve the flow of the day. If it worked well for you and your team, I’d appreciate that information as well.  I can use this info to plan our Spring EBISS day.

BrainPOP

Our PTO approved a subscription to a program called BrainPOP and you should get an auto-email soon prompting you to set up your account.  This can be an incredibly fun resource to use for any content at any grade level, as well as Storyline. Our 4/5 team got a brief introduction to this at the end of the school year and I will be looking to build in some time for the rest of you to explore and learn how to put this to use for our students.  The program is linked below, if you would like to take a look prior to getting your log-in code.

https://www.brainpop.com/

Construction

As many of you know, we still have some leaking in room 17 whenever there is heavy rain.  I’ve been discussing different strategies with KNCC and the district to address this problem and we’d like to get moving on a solution as soon as possible rather than put it off to the summer.  I will keep you posted on details as they come in, but we can probably expect to close off a part of the field and side of the building as the works starts. I am really sorry you have to deal with this and I am really appreciative of your flexibility.

District SIW Workshops

Spring District SIW options are now available on Performance Matters and ready for registration.  Our dates for the Spring sessions are 2/13, 3/13, and 4/17 from 2:45 – 4 p.m.   Remember, you are signing up for a three part SIW series. You will attend one class that will meet three times.

Click here to go to Performance Matters then click on the “sections” tab to view all class offerings.Locations for each class can be found by clicking on the section title of each course.

Upcoming Field Trips

Reisinger to High Desert Museum – Wednesday 1/30

FYI – I am planning on accompanying this class for the field trip for part of the morning so I will be off campus for a couple hours at the beginning of the day.

Culmination Planning

I would like to test a google survey for culmination planning.  It looks like we have everyone’s winter culmination already on a calendar and we’ll work on reducing conflicts, making sure the set ups are communicated, etc.  I will send this out as a separate message and I would like to ask you to input your information for the culmination in March. We’ll use this as a “test-drive” and make some tweaks to use for the future.  Getting all this information sent to the office in the same place and same format will really help us help you.

Magnet School Application Process

I am really sorry, but I accidently listed the tour time for the second information series.  I’ve correct the time – please take a quick look.

I will share the Keynote presentation with everyone who signs up this week to provide a quick preview.

I am also exploring a visit to a couple of the Headstart programs to promote Magnet schools.  These typically involve a Kindergarten teacher from several of our district schools. More info on this later.

Please go the link below and sign up for a presentation time for the different sessions.

Sign Up Sheet

This was shared with me and I enjoyed it, so I am sharing with you;

Servant Leadership- Servant leadership can be a very powerful, yet sometimes hard to understand, and for me, elusive trait. The story below from inc.com is an excellent illustration that captures the essence of servant leadership. Pretty inspiring.

When [Coach] Brubaker took over as a college lacrosse head coach he inherited a team that had done poorly for years. Despite this, a high school standout, Stephen, was interested in playing at Coach Bru’s college, even though he was aggressively recruited by far better schools.

Coach Bru met with this young superstar and attempted to sign him, but Stephen refused, saying he wanted to wait until the following spring. He was, however, willing to give a verbal, non-binding commitment. Brubaker was desperate to sign this young star, and told him he would hold a scholarship for him until the spring.

All fall and winter, other college recruiters came to Stephen’s games to watch this amazing talent and hope he would change his mind. When spring came, Coach Bru and Stephen’s coach sat down with him, asking him to commit and why he waited so long.

And now, from the mouth of a 17-year-old…

As Lee tells it, to Coach Bru’s astonishment, this is what the 17-year-old said next:

Coach, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of colleges come to see me play each week. Most of my teammates weren’t getting scholarship offers or even being recruited earlier this year but now they are. By me not committing anywhere, all the college coaches who keep coming to see me play get a chance to discover how good some of my teammates really are. If I signed early with you, all the other coaches would’ve stopped coming to the games and none of my teammates would’ve gotten recruited.

Let’s face it: We’ve all just been collectively schooled by a (then) 17-year-old. His response to his coach not only defines servant leadership but illustrates the essence of great leadership, period.

The reason his response is so mind-blowing for someone his age — with star status to boot — is that the world wasn’t revolving around his axis, as most self-centered 17-year-olds typically behave.

Instead, he was about helping other people — his less talented teammates. As Lee writes further about Stephen: “He was already thinking about how he can lift up others, how he could help them achieve their goals. He had confidence in his own ability to excel and achieve what he needed to achieve; he wasn’t obsessed with how to make that happen because he knew it would. Instead, he focused on how he could serve others.”

And therein lies the lesson for every leader in the workplace: Your role is to lift up your employees and help them to joyfully achieve their goals so they can thrive. When they succeed, you succeed, and the whole organization succeeds. It’s a thing of beauty.

PLC Reminder

Just a friendly reminder that Tuesday 1/22 is a PLC morning meeting.  This would be a great time to continue your work from our recent SIW or if your team has some continuing work to do with math from last week, please know you have the flexibility to decide how to best use that time for your team.  (Since there is no school on Monday that morning meeting time will sneak up on you.)

EBISS Schedule

Linked below is our next all-day EBISS schedule for Friday next week.  I did my best to incorporate feedback and make some adjustments. If you notice anything that appears completely off or creates an unreasonable conflict, please let me know.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1swPadVr-hke49hvYWmgaNpTFlOgJwGCBP6Mp_d5B7_M/edit?usp=sharing

Essay Contest Information Link to an opportunity for students third grade up.

District SIW Workshops

Spring District SIW options are now available on Performance Matters and ready for registration.  Our dates for the Spring sessions are 2/13, 3/13, and 4/17 from 2:45 – 4 p.m.   Remember, you are signing up for a three part SIW series. You will attend one class that will meet three times.

Click here to go to Performance Matters then click on the “sections” tab to view all class offerings.Locations for each class can be found by clicking on the section title of each course.

Report Cards

Linked below are the documents shared last year to provide guidance for report cards;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19k_hPj4cV9MmTfnhiivgZqnFg3hZMqkF/view?usp=sharing

Report Card Guidelines

Upcoming Field Trips

Reisinger to High Desert Museum – Wednesday 1/30

Culmination Planning

Thanks for your thought and effort around planning the next round of culminations.  The checklist idea really resonated with me so I will be sharing an idea that I think will help us all with this soon.

Magnet School Application Process

Please go the link below and sign up for a presentation time for the different sessions. This link should work now.

Sign Up Sheet

The following was shared in our Principal’s update, so I am passing it along.  

Paying it Forward- I spent some time visiting with Linda and Tom at High Lakes yesterday and they shared a nice story of a family at their school paying it forward. After they sent the letter to their community about F & R lunch related to the government shutdown, Linda received an email from the mother of one of her students. She asked Linda how much $ was owed on lunches at the school and how many students that represented. Linda shared that unpaid lunches totaled over $300 and 39 students were represented. The mother told Linda that she had free lunches as a child and wanted to give back. She said that she would pay the unpaid lunches and would be anonymously donating $10 to each of the 39 students’ lunch accounts. We don’t always hear the positives so I thought I’d pass it on to you.

“Though times may have changed, little children have not. They need what they have always needed: strong, consistent parents; opportunities for unstructured, imaginative play; help in understanding their feelings and expressing them appropriately; and plenty of opportunities for physical activity.”

           Georgianna Roberts in a letter to The New York Times, December 29, 2018,

District SIW Workshops

Spring District SIW options are now available on Performance Matters and ready for registration.  Our dates for the Spring sessions are 2/13, 3/13, and 4/17 from 2:45 – 4 p.m.   Remember, you are signing up for a three part SIW series. You will attend one class that will meet three times.

Click here to go to Performance Matters then click on the “sections” tab to view all class offerings.Locations for each class can be found by clicking on the section title of each course.

Classes fill up fast so please sign up as soon as possible!

Thank you,

Skip Offenhauser

Gym Security System Armed

The security system in the gym will be armed and operational as of Monday 1/14.  There is a keypad in the front foyer.  The gym is treated as a separate security space than the main building so it will be armed/disarmed separately from the main building (however there are codes to arm/disarm both buildings simultaneously when necessary).  

Annoying Alarm Beeping

I won’t bore you with the details, but unfortunately the annoying chirping sound coming from the fire panel is not going away anytime soon.  The good news is that it is not interfering the security system and it’s a false signal (no real danger)- so we can do our best to ignore it until they can fix the problem.

Fire Safety–On Friday, January 4th, the district sent a fire & life safety message in the Staff Spotlight to all staff, reminding them of several important practices. We want to emphasize two of these to all administrators:

• Staff should check for any blocked or impaired fire/life safety devices in their classrooms or workplaces. If they have any potential issues, these are to be reported to administrators and/or staff custodians. These issues should be addressed as quickly as possible.
• It is a violation of the law to alter, remove, or tamper with any fire safety components.

Report Cards

Linked below are the documents shared last year to provide guidance for report cards;

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19k_hPj4cV9MmTfnhiivgZqnFg3hZMqkF/view?usp=sharing

Report Card Guidelines

100-Year Celebration

I started the ball rolling with this process and there will be open meeting on Friday 2/1 at 11:00 in the library.  I met with somebody associated with the Historical Society and I will put some feelers out within the district as well (I will ask Alandra to put something out district-wide).  Please feel free to pass this along to anyone you think I miss who would want to be involved.

Mid-Year SLGGs

As we reach the end of semester 1, it’s time to consider a quick review of progress on SLGGs.  I have a copy of your goals on file, so if you need a copy for yourself, please let me know. Since most all of you did these as teams, we can meet as a team to examine any winter data (Dibels, EasyCBM, writing scores) to see how students are progressing and this counts as a professional mini.  

Here’s a potential agenda and questions to address;

Agenda

• Examine progress from the Fall data to the Winter data.  

• Are all students on track to meet the goal?  

• What strategies are being used?  

• What changes might need to be implemented?

Please have one of your team-members set up a morning for us to meet in the next few weeks after we have the winter data available.

CPR/1st Aid

We have not set up a training date yet (it’s more of a challenge than I anticipated), however Miller has one set up for Wednesday February 20th from 3:30-7:30 and they need people.  If there are a handful (6 to be accurate) of you willing to join this training, then we could reach our required ratio. We currently have this SIW scheduled for a Future Ready Team day.  If you would like to join this training we need to let them know by Monday afternoon, so please let Shawna and/or I know right away.

Upcoming Field Trips

Wednesday 1/15/19 Cross & Reisinger to High Desert Museum 9:00-12:00

Magnet School Application Process

Please go the link below and sign up for a presentation time for the different sessions.

Sign Up Sheet

New DHS Hotline- I am sure many of you are aware of this, but if not, here is some more information on the new DHS statewide hotline.  DHS is in the process of implementing a statewide Child Abuse Hotline, which will be completed in April 2019, but it has already been started in Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook Counties beginning on November 1, 2018. The reporting number has changed. It is now 541-693-2854 statewide.

• They are working to correct some telephone line problems
• There will be the ability for the caller to leave their return phone number in case they can’t wait for someone to answer
• They are in the process of hiring 75% additional staff to handle these calls!
• They have implemented an email address for people to send concerns/feedback to:
  • [email protected]

Genetics fascinates me! In the last month, puberty increased its presence in our household exponentially. All three of our children are growing up so quickly, but some key milestones were experienced by our oldest son as he passed me in height (just barely), got curly hair again and (not puberty-caused) got his braces off. The recent natural curling of Mason’s hair prompted us to look for some old photos of his curly hair from before. I felt it was too cute not to share, so thank you for humoring me.

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