Highland Updates

Inspiration

A couple weeks ago, my son Mason and two of his teammates decided to stop by Sparrow Bakery after the cross country practice.  It was near closing time and they went to the counter to order an ocean roll. The server behind the counter gave them a bag of ocean rolls, muffins and a few other items and told them to keep their money.  As you can imagine, these two geeky, awkward freshmen boys thought they had died and gone to ocean-roll-heaven! They thanked him profusely and then proceeded to replace all those calories lost to their cross-country workout with huge grins on their faces.  This week they decided to test their luck again and to their enjoyment they were handed another bag full of treats. Mason had texted Amy and asked her to pick them up at the bakery so she went inside to see who this bakery-angel might be and thank him personally.  She thanked him for being so nice, but voiced a little concern that he might get in trouble giving these away. He replied that it was OK because they were going to be thrown out anyway after closing and he was a Senior at Summit and he wanted to let these freshmen boys know that somebody was looking out for them.  How cool was that?!?! (High school humanity has come a long way. When I was a freshmen, Seniors bonded with us by chasing us down and throw us in trash cans.)

20% EBISS Day – Friday 10/5

Next Friday will be our first go at the all-day EBISS meeting schedule.  Linked here is the schedule; EBISS Day  Please consider this a first draft to try out and we can definitely make adjustments to future schedules.  If all goes well, we should only pull you from your class for about 45 minutes to an hour and we will have some roving subs to cover your class while you are in the meeting.  If you have students of concern, it will be imperative you and your team decide what data to bring showing a student is clearly falling in the lower 20% of performance range. We will be meeting on the stage.  Our time in the meeting will be tight in order to honor your time with your students, so please be prepared ahead time, be on time and stick to the agenda.

Reminder:

The EasyCBM window is closing soon – 10/5.

Oops Slips

1. Lorin and I will be sharing the oops slip follow up, but Lorin will be the primary point of contact for these.
2. Just a reminder, oops slips have a few different purposes and should be written for the following reasons:
   1. They serve as a means of communication between the person who observes the behavior and the homeroom teacher.
   2. They serve as a means of documentation of behavior as we seek to find a pattern or understand the function of the behavior especially if a behavior persists over time.
   3. Sometimes the writing of an oops slip is a consequence in and of itself for the student.
3. The process when writing oops slips:
   1. If you are the student’s homeroom teacher and you write an oops slip, please put the oops slip in the oops slip mailbox in the office. Lorin will check it at least 2X a day.
   2. If you are on duty and you write an oops slip for another teacher’s student and the issue is time-sensitive, communicate the issue directly to that teacher verbally and put the oops slip in the oops slip box or on Lorin’s desk (or text Lorin at 541-408-0970).
   3. If you are on duty and you write an oops slip for another teacher’s student and the issue is NOT time-sensitive, put the oops slip in the oops slip box and she will record the oops slip in her Google Drive file and put it in the homeroom teacher’s mailbox.
   4. If you are just trying to communicate an issue but no follow-up from Lorin or Brian is needed, make a note in the top right-hand corner that says “FYI only.” Otherwise, Lorin will follow up with the student with at least a conversation about the discipline situation.
4. If you feel like a behavior you have witnessed warrants a bigger response (i.e. possible office referral), connect with Brian or Lorin directly. Any situation will be communicated with the classroom teacher in a timely fashion.

We will have a further conversation and answer any questions or concerns when we gather for our upcoming EBISS meetings.

Mountain Ash (Rowan Tree)

I am really excited to share this with you.  Many of you will remember that terrible day when we watched a large machine rip apart the old tree just outside the office window.  Thanks to one of our parents, Jefferson Jacobs, The Bend Pine Nursery and our district grounds crew (Jerry & Brian) we now have a new 12-Foot Mountain Ash or Rowan tree planted on the west side of the gym.  It was not easy as they had to pound through some significant lava rock to find an adequate location, but they did it.  I look forward to watching this tree fill the space with color and texture; and I hope you do too!

Sorry, I cannot seem to get this photo to insert correctly, so just lean your head to the left and check out our new tree!

Dodgeball Team?

The Buckingham staff have thrown down the gauntlet!  They formed a dodgeball team and they are challenging any school willing to put together a team.  Can I interest or convince anyone to answer their challenge? Let me know and let’s bring on the Highland Hurricane, Ben-Stiller-Style!

2-Hour Office Secretary Position

This next topic can be filed under the “This never happens” category.  Our district was able to utilize a one-time, one-year grant to provide each and every school with a 2-hour office secretary position.  Although, Shawna and Elizabeth have our office under control at any given moment, it would be a welcomed benefit to have an additional person up front to help with phones, band-aides, ice-packs etc.  We posted the position as of this week and I will set a day for interviews soon. 

Lockdown Drill

Thank you for taking the time to practice this drill.  It’s scary and it’s sad that we must think about these scenarios, but I know none of us wants to feel unprepared.  That being said, it’s equally important to avoid dwelling on such scenarios too much. Find that balance that keeps you prepared yet grounded in the reality you are surrounded by supportive and loving people.  I will be working on increasing volume for the speakers in the classrooms.  To be safe, it is important we can hear announcements over the ambient classroom talking.  We also now have two-way speaker capability through the speakers which can be extremely useful in every day situations as well as emergency ones.  One last point; I interviewed several parents who happened to be on campus during the drill to obtain feedback from some different sources.  The feedback was incredibly positive and supportive, so please know your challenging job of addressing this type of situation is being acknowledged and appreciated.

Amy Nary’s Work (Mind & Motion)

Amy started her work with the 2/3 classes this week.  Amy and I had some quick conversations and I so am impressed with the reciprocal learning that occurs with her visits and observations.  Thank you for your openness, flexibility and willingness.

SIW update

The SIWs should show up on your calendar as of this week.  They are also listed in the Master Schedule document (hopefully they are 100% matched, but if you notice a discrepancy please let me know.)  Skip Offenhauser talked to the principals this week and said they were not going to run Fall district SIW series. Unfortunately they did not get enough submissions to run the fall and there is a pressing need at the other schools to spend time with their new Amplify curriculum.  This is great news for us as it frees up a few more SIWs for us to use for our goals. The plan is to run the Spring District Series similar to the way they did last year, so if you were looking forward to one of those workshops just sit tight and you’ll get them in the Spring.

Printing One-Sided to Copier Instructions

To print double, or single, sided:

• Select File
• Select Print
• Select Printer (note: not all printers have double sided ability)
• Select Preview and toggle to Finishing
• Select Printer Style (1-sided, 2-sided or booklet)
• Print

HTHU is coming to you!

Please see the attached flier for a Healthy Team Healthy U information.  A rep will be here on Thursday October 18th from 8:00-9:00.

Healthy You

Design Team Updates

Academic Excellence

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gIX5xASbuI-HJ7TnS0v2X0OjF7gKWlC7yWQESVK61EI/edit?usp=sharing

Thriving Citizen

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GIYh-TzCfV-7swUfiq6bPWazeFz-AgBUDD360QnbgEY

Future Ready

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1idNZUUufycECXwzs90vXetuSqClEGJtmmAR1kn-zvZU

Click below to see the Highland Staff Calendar.

Google Calendar

Inspiration

If you have not already done so, please click on the link and take a moment to read this article about a student at Lava Ridge for a little inspiration.  article

Fire Drill

Great job on the first fire drill of the year.  Just in case you were not aware, we are required to complete our first fire drill within the first ten days of school.  Hopefully the heads up in the weekly update combined with the PA announcement prior to the alarm helped everyone feel ready to respond in a comfortable manner.  With everyone evacuating through the back doors we managed to clear the building in 2:34 and we had everyone assembled with a few seconds after the evacuation. In fact, resetting the alarm took longer than the evacuation itself, so sorry for making you stand out there a little longer than usual.

Emergency Sub Folders

Thanks for taking the time to brainstorm and plan you emergency sub folders.  We will be providing one folder for each of you to serve as an emergency sub folder to be kept in the office.  To take this concept a little further, you may also want to keep a copy of this same information in a folder/binder in your room to be used with your emergency response.  On Tuesday please bring your materials and we can use some of the meeting time to put it all together and share with your group. The next step will be remembering to revisit these each year to update and refresh everything.

Amy Nary’s Work

FYI – Amy is going to start her classroom work with the 2/3 classes next week.   We will send out a google doc to the 4/5 team next when we determine the start date for those classes.  If anyone would like to share some successful experiences you gained or used in your class from the workshop, I would love to relay that to the PTO or better yet, if you are willing to share the experience in your classrooms at the next PTO meeting I am sure it would be appreciated.

Power of Positive Talk

As I made my way around the school this week, I was struck by the heavy emphasis of positive talk aimed at our students across several environments to address behavior concerns.  Rather than reacting to negative behaviors and telling individuals or groups to stop the undesired behavior, I heard (very consistently) you calling out and celebrating the positive, desired behavior.  The impact was fairly obvious in several different experiences I observed for both the individual displaying the negative behavior and the whole group. I know there is a saying that we need to use 7 positive correction to every 1 negative correction and I feel we were close if not exceeding that ratio this week – that’s not an easy task, so great work!

2017-2018 SBAC Results

The SBAC results for our district were shared with admin last week, so I will share the same graphs with you.  Results Graph Links: ELA and Math.  As in the past, schools are listed in order of F & R with highest on the left and lowest on the right. Please keep in mind that as our participation numbers go down, scores become a little less valid.

Overall, district-wide we saw a nearly 3% increase in students passing the ELA and a nearly 2% increase in students passing the math assessment. Great news and great work by you!

This year will bring yet another change that will certainly provide a challenge. Beginning with this year’s SBAC, all students who opt out will be counted as ‘does not meet.  (play ominous music in your head as you read this again….)

Grant Opportunity

One Class at a Time Grants- Just a reminder that Mid Oregon Credit Union is continuing their partnership with KTVZ to present $500 monthly awards for innovative, sustainable classroom projects that are worth being recognized in the community. The program identifies the classroom efforts and awards the teacher/school the funding plus they do a news story that airs on KTVZ to provide a spotlight on the good things that are happening in education. Click here for more information and to see some of the work they have done; https://www.ktvz.com/community/one-class-at-a-time.

Design Team Notes

Academic Excellence

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gIX5xASbuI-HJ7TnS0v2X0OjF7gKWlC7yWQESVK61EI/edit?usp=sharing

Thriving Citizen

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GIYh-TzCfV-7swUfiq6bPWazeFz-AgBUDD360QnbgEY

Future Ready

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1idNZUUufycECXwzs90vXetuSqClEGJtmmAR1kn-zvZU

Click below to see the Highland Staff Calendar.

Google Calendar

Captured at Ash Creek XC meet at Ash Creek Preserve on September 08, 2018 by Matthew Lasala

Inspiration

Please allow me to be a proud papa and share this image of my son, Mason, running his XC race last weekend in Monmouth.  Each week I am more and more inspired by Mason as he finds his place in this big high school environment. We are really fortunate to have a fellow parent with a fantastic eye for photography and he snapped this great pic.  Even if this had not been Mason in the picture, I think the image is pretty spectacular and worth sharing so I hope you can enjoy it as much as I do. Thank you for indulging me.

Fire Drill

We will conduct our first fire drill on Monday morning, ideally before the 10:00 recess.  I will make a PA announcement first and then give you a couple minutes to provide instructions before we pull the alarm.  When the alarm sounds then you may start the evacuation. For this first drill, we will use only the back doors for egress.  The line up area will be back to our original location prior to the tent.

Kinder Assessments

Thank you to everyone who is helping get these Kinder Assessments completed.  I know this can amount to quite a bit of work (without any reward) which can interfere with your efforts to bond with your students and establish those routines that impact the rest of the year.  Please know it is appreciated and I am sorry this is a requirement.

Kinder/1st Grade iPads

We placed a purchase for 22 iPads for our Kinder and 1st grade carts.  This will be a huge stretch on the budget, especially this early in the year.  You can all help by making an extra effort to utilize print shop as much as possible as this cost often drains our accounts without much warning periodically throughout the year.  This also means I won’t be able to say “yes” as often I usually do to requests for funding so I do apologize for that ahead of time.

Parking, Gates and Building Entry

As we get more and more accustomed to our new surroundings, I want to point out that the back gates are not intended for frequent use, especially during school hours.  The back doors, especially Brad’s door, are not considered the building entry or exit. Those sliding gates are primarily meant to provide access for deliveries. The design is intended to drive people via the official path of access around the gym to the front office of the school and discourage entry through the back.  Please adjust your expectations and habits to be prepared for this change. Also, I’ve noticed we have had 2 to 3 open parking spaces each day in the angled parking area.

Storage/Shelving

Unfortunately I am still struggling to get shelving for our storage rooms covered under the insurance claim.  I think we are all aware of how important it will be to maximize our storage safely. If I cannot make any more headway with the insurance claim, I plan to invest some furniture funds over the next few years into heavy duty shelving for these rooms each year to make everything more easily accessible in the long term.  Until we get more shelving in place, we will just have to make it work. We are also waiting on some finish work on the under-stage cabinets which will help tremendously.

Design Team Updates

Thank you for all your effort during these initial meetings.  From what I gathered, we all some highly productive conversations and planning.  Although we will need to do our best to communicate with our teammates about the agendas and upcoming events, it’s not a bad idea to take a quick peek at the different agendas/meeting notes (each linked below) to keep yourself informed.

Academic Excellence

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gIX5xASbuI-HJ7TnS0v2X0OjF7gKWlC7yWQESVK61EI/edit?usp=sharing

Thriving Citizen

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GIYh-TzCfV-7swUfiq6bPWazeFz-AgBUDD360QnbgEY

Future Ready

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1idNZUUufycECXwzs90vXetuSqClEGJtmmAR1kn-zvZU

Based on the outcomes of these meetings we should be able to start locking in our SIWs for the year.  Your next SIW will be “hosted” by the Thriving Citizen Team. We will be hammering out our “first draft” for our school wide K-5 Social Emotional Learning effort.

Kids Inc. Rec Zone

If and when parents ask about where to go for picking up kids at Rec Zone/Kids. Inc please direct them to the westside door (nearest the angled parking spaces).

We  also will have After School Enrichment classes by Bend Parks & Rec primarily in rooms 14 and 17 on Wednesdays.  Although we will need to do some work to regrade the field in the near future, the field is now open after school for sports practices.

Mini-Observations, SLGGs and Evaluations

I started getting my classroom rounds in this week .  I am sure we (principals) will be given another update on any changes to the requirements on minis, SLGGS and evals, but for now I operate under the assumption we have similar requirements to last year which were the following;

• 3 minis for teachers not in an evaluation year
• 6 minis for teachers in evaluation year
• Everyone does SLGGs, however the matrix on the evaluation is no longer used.  
  • SLGGs are “recorded” in the Assessment portion of the overall rubric for teachers with evals.  
  • SLGGs for teachers without evals will be documented in a brief End of Year meeting with the typical form.

If any of these requirements change, I will be sure to share those changes with you in an update.

I will be spending approximately 2 to 3 full days a week in classrooms.  These initial days are meant to get the kids accustomed to me moving in and out of the classroom without disrupting the flow (easier said than done for our Kinder classes).  Not every classroom visit will equate to a mini-observation, as the visit needs to have a follow up conversation to count as a mini. As always, I really appreciate your assistance in making those follow up conversations happen when they work for your schedule.  These follow conversations are meant to prompt you to reflect on the lesson or practices you are putting in place.

Recess Duty

I saw some improvement in this area but it never hurts to keep the friendly reminder;  Please remember to be as prompt as possible with your recess duty. Thanks for being there for each other – keep up the great work.  

PTO Meeting

The first general meeting was well-attended.  The budget was explained and passed unanimously.  Some parents asked out of curiosity about the Mindful Educator Course, Mind & Body/Motion (Amy Nary), and the Artist in Residence.  I provided explanations for these. The rest of the time was spent explaining the different roles (recruitment for future), Giving Campaign and Fall Festival planning.

2018-2019  SIW Call for Proposals!!!

Here are the District SIW series dates:

• Series 1:  October 10, November 14, and December 12
• Series 2:  February 13, March 13, April 17

We will not have a District SIW until October 10th.

We hope to offer 20-25 different options for teachers to choose from.  The topics for these options will fit into five categories that are considered to be areas of high-leverage instructional focus.

1. Cognitively Engaging Tasks

• • Purposeful tasks that are in students’ zone of proximal development that require engagement, higher level thinking, perseverance and creativity.  
• Highly Relational Classrooms
  • Learning environments in which trust, confidence, risk-taking and communication flourish both amongst teacher and students, and between students.
• High Levels of Collaborative Conversations
  • Purposeful conversations, teaching listening and response strategies to engage each and every student by creating a true “community of learners.”
• Clear Differentiation
  • All content-area instruction is appropriately scaffolded, so students can demonstrate proficiency in various ways within heterogeneous classes.  
• Formative Assessments
  • Ongoing monitoring of learning using various formats and multiple measures to inform instructional decisions.

In order to provide choice, your assistance is needed. Teacher expertise is an important part of our district professional learning.   If a proposal is accepted, teachers will be compensated for 14 hours at the curriculum rate to prepare and plan for sessions.

Proposals must be submitted by September 14th.

Click here to fill out a proposal!!!

Click below to see the Highland Staff Calendar.

Google Calendar

Each year, I tend to get an earful of gratitude and thankfulness from our parents during these first few days of school and this year was no different.  So I want to pass that along to each and everyone of you. You are just getting started and you have already made a significant impact on these families.

First Days Craziness

Experiencing a little chaos and craziness at the start of the year is fairly typical, however I have to say from 30,000 foot perspective the craziness was minimal.  Your students are owing the routines and getting into the swing of things in spite of the gaping hole and barbed wire in our playground (you would think this would create some sort of pause, but apparently not).  All your combined efforts in the classrooms, hallways, cafeteria and playground really made this happen and special thanks to Lorin for playing such a pivotal role.

Assembly

Thanks for giving up the afternoon time for the first assembly today.  Although I tend to get insanely nervous for every first-of-the-year assembly, it felt incredibly comfortable to be there with you today.  I look forward to some opportunities to have some goofy and fun moments (somewhere on the level with whip-ney-ney) with all of you in there again this year.

Meeting Schedule 2018-2019

Thank you for taking some time to think about our meeting schedule for the year.  Based on all your feedback we are going to move forward with the first option (Tuesday mornings) with a slight modification.  The modification will be the first two weeks. We will not do a morning meeting next week. Our first SIW (9/12) will be for design teams.  The following Tuesday (9/18) will be an all staff meeting. I will adjust the document accordingly and we’ll get the google calendar updated this coming week.  Once again, thanks for your input and patience.

Recess Duty

Friendly reminder;  Please remember to be as prompt as possible with your recess duty.  We are all here to support each other, but it’s difficult to feel supported when you are alone on the playground with hundreds of kids.  Thanks for being there for each other.

Gym Systems

Just in case you are wondering, we will be devoting one or two of our staff meetings to go over the different belles and whistles in the gym.  Even if you don’t plan on using any of the following systems, I would appreciate everyone getting a little exposure to the training.

Bleachers

AV system

Movable wall

Fans

Shades

PTO Meeting

As Audrey mentioned last week,the first general PTO meeting is on Tuesday morning at 9:00am.  If anyone would like to attend please email me asap so we can work on coverage for you. The most crucial agenda item will be the approval of the budget, but there will be some time devoted to Fall Festival and a few other startup items.  The October (9th) meeting will be scheduled after school.

Kinder Quote

The following kinder quote really threw me off balance this week;  “Mr. Kissell, smell my mouth.”……Of course, I said, “no thank you”, but she looked a little crushed, so I had to try and change the topic and make her happy again.  It was pretty much a hot mess of awkwardness. Can anyone think of a better way to respond to this request?

2018-2019  SIW Call for Proposals!!!

Let’s share the expertise in this building with others!!!  Whatever you need from me to make this happen, just let me know.

Here are the District SIW series dates:

• Series 1:  October 10, November 14, and December 12
• Series 2:  February 13, March 13, April 17

We will not have a District SIW until October 10th.

We hope to offer 20-25 different options for teachers to choose from.  The topics for these options will fit into five categories that are considered to be areas of high-leverage instructional focus.

1. Cognitively Engaging Tasks

• • Purposeful tasks that are in students’ zone of proximal development that require engagement, higher level thinking, perseverance and creativity.  
• Highly Relational Classrooms
  • Learning environments in which trust, confidence, risk-taking and communication flourish both amongst teacher and students, and between students.
• High Levels of Collaborative Conversations
  • Purposeful conversations, teaching listening and response strategies to engage each and every student by creating a true “community of learners.”
• Clear Differentiation
  • All content-area instruction is appropriately scaffolded, so students can demonstrate proficiency in various ways within heterogeneous classes.  
• Formative Assessments
  • Ongoing monitoring of learning using various formats and multiple measures to inform instructional decisions.

In order to provide choice, your assistance is needed. Teacher expertise is an important part of our district professional learning.   If a proposal is accepted, teachers will be compensated for 14 hours at the curriculum rate to prepare and plan for sessions.

Proposals must be submitted by September 14th.

Click here to fill out a proposal!!!

Print Shop Reminders

Please remember to plan ahead whenever possible and use Print Shop as the savings do come back to our school.

Linked below are instructions for using Print Shop:

Print Shop

Click below to see the Highland Staff Calendar.

Google Calendar

Thank you for being such good sports with the scavenger hunt on Wednesday!  I am really glad you enjoyed it. I will try to put your photos into a fun slideshow to add a little humor into a future update.

Thank you, Misha and Shane for hosting last night!  That was a super fun and relaxing evening.

Gym

The building is officially ours!  As of today at 2:11pm the certificate of occupancy is now in place.  KNCC and some of the subcontractors will continue to work on detail work and few other loose ends, but the light at the end of this tunnel is shining bright!

Rob, Marina, Marieka, Lorin and I were trained on the AV equipment this morning.  The equipment we have is really top-notch and I look forward to sharing with everyone.  We will be looking to train everyone on the AV equipment as well as the moveable wall on stage in the near future.

Playground Construction

When school starts we will have access to most of our blacktop area, some of the playground equipment and the field.  We will need to be very vigilant about keeping kids off the fences or taped-off areas during our recess. Supervision of recess will be challenging with the fenced area creating a barrier for vision and travel, so if you are feeling like adding a little extra recess time to your schedule, it would be much appreciated during the first 4 to 5 days.

The entire playground will be closed after school until the project is done, because they will not be working during school hours.  This will be another additional challenge, so will do my best to communicate with parents ahead of time, but we may need some extra bodies outside to help get parents and kids cleared out to allow for the work to start.  The final pavement is scheduled for Monday 9/10, so if all goes according to plan we will have our entire grounds clear of all construction materials, equipment and works on Tuesday 9/11.

K/1 iPads

I don’t know exactly what the solution will be, but I wanted to let you know I am working on it and I have a few others at the district advocating for us as well.  Thanks for your patience.

Kinder Assessment

I will be emailing the manuals and instructions to everyone who will play a role in these next week.  Keep your eyes peeled – I know you are excited!!!  

Wonders Roll Out Meeting

The district instructional coaching team will be here on Friday 9/7 8:05 in the library to help us get your Wonders Connect Ed set up for iPads.  Please plan on attending. The process is expected to take 30 minutes. They also asked me to ask you not to log in until they can help you through the process.

Master Schedule Document

I had hoped to get these done today but I still have some work to do to get all these pages updated, so I will get moving on these asap.  Also, I am still waiting for a few others to weigh in on the meeting schedule – please email me if you have not already done so. 

2018-2019 Master Schedule

Print Shop Reminders

Please remember to plan ahead whenever possible and use Print Shop as the savings do come back to our school.

Linked below are instructions for using Print Shop:

Print Shop

Click below to see the Highland Staff Calendar.

Google Calendar

We saw our first Kindergartners come through our doors today!  Thank you to the kinder team and Barb for putting in the time with all our new incoming families.

Thank you also to Misha for putting together bulletin board thanking our families for supporting our Conference trip this summer.  Be sure to take a look just outside the office door.

1st Week Back – More details in bold

Monday 8/27

• New Teacher Welcome and Orientation Day
• Potential flex day for all other teachers (Please see work calendar – linked below)

Tuesday 8/28

• • 8:00-12:45 Classroom time
  • 12:45-4:00  District Welcome Back and BBQ  
    • Welcome Back Details
    • Bend Senior High School
    • 12:45 p.m. – Staff arrival (seating in auditorium)
    • 1:00 p.m. — Inspiring start with nationally recognized speaker Chad Hymas
    • 2:00 p.m. — Live music, food carts and more (front lawn)
    • 2:20 p.m. — Staff Recognition Awards
    • 3:15 p.m. — Schooligans Perform

Wednesday 8/29

• • 8:00-8:30 Continental Breakfast with PTO Board  (Agenda below)
  • 8:30-9:45 All Staff Meeting
  • 10:00-12:00 Workshop with Amy Nary
  • 12:00-3:00 Lunch on your own & Classroom time
  • 3:00-4:00ish Highland goes AWOL (this is going to be fun!)
    • WEAR COMFORTABLE WALKING SHOES

• 4:00 Class lists are posted (Teacher assignments will also be available via ParentVUE – this is a new way to communicate placements) 

Thursday 8/30

• 9:00-3:00 Classroom time
• 3:00-5:00 Ice Cream Social

Friday 8/31

• FLEX day – (Please see work calendar – linked below).

Work Calendar

Attached please find attached the 2018-2019 work calendar for certified staff.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UTcKmjMAE4i44a2T1n0sHLzjoCVHjJ-Q/view?usp=sharing

First Staff Meeting Agenda

• PTO Light Breakfast Social 8:00-8:30
  • Supervision Duty Sign Up
  • Teachers’ Room Clean Up
• PTO President, Audrey Clark 8:30-8:45
• Annual Training w/ Angelina 8:45-9:00
• 2018-2019 Meeting Schedule 9:00-9:10
• International Conference Share 9:10-9:20
• Student Success (Speed dating) / Brian & Lorin – EA Meeting 9:20-9:50

Master Schedule Document

Linked below is our “one-stop-shop” for everything regarding schedules and more.  This is still a work in progress, but there are several pages that are complete and ready for you to use.  If you notice something that looks off, please let me know and I will correct it. Tabs or sheets highlighted in green should be 99% accurate and ready to use.  Tabs highlighted in yellow or red are not yet set and still need work. Some of these items can be really busy, so if you like some help with printing something that is more user-friendly to your classroom, please don’t hesitate to ask me.

2018-2019 Master Schedule

Class Rosters

I believe we have your rosters ready to go as we have moved them from cards to google-sheet to synergy.  Shawna should be able to print these for you after 8:00 Friday 8/24 morning.

Print Shop Reminders

Please remember to plan ahead whenever possible and use Print Shop as the savings do come back to our school.

Linked below are instructions for using Print Shop:

Print Shop

Synervoice vs. School Messenger

The district discontinued our use of Synervoice which is the program we used to send out messages to families.  We transitioned to a new program, School Messenger, this year. As with all new programs there will be some new learning involved to make certain it is working for all our purposes.  Right now the challenge is making sure staff receive the same messages that go out to families as that is not necessarily automated. You don’t need to do anything, but please be aware there might be some hiccups here and there when we sent out all-school messages.  If you find you are not receiving messages (For example, the Newsletter email) please let us know.

Construction

Next week we start the process of transitioning the gym back into our district ownership and responsibility.  Although we will be able to be in the building there will be some work needed to complete the project, but we are starting the transition now to ensure we can begin using the building when students begin.  During this process I tend to get quite a few short-notice requests to meet with the contractor or different vendors. I will do my best to stay in the moment and be mindful of all our needs this start-up week, but I wanted to let you know that this will be a fairly urgent and significant pull on my attention for the next week so we can use the building for our first day with students.

Also, the playground will be impacted significantly for the first week of school.  I am waiting to see how much area will be impacted for our first few days to see how we need to adapt our supervision, but there will likely be some challenges associated with fencing and equipment to avoid.

Ice Cream Social

For the ICS we will serve ice cream from tables in the new courtyard between the gym and our building.  The gym will be open for viewing, but not for use. I am going to run a protective paper trail for people to walk through and check out the building, but I will be asking parents and kids not to run and play on the surface just yet.  I will also provide some guidance to families via the newsletter.

Visitor/Volunteer Sign In

The visitor/volunteer sign in process will be in effect on the first day of school.  We want to encourage parents to be sure to get their photo ID registered as soon as possible to help us keep this process operating smoothly.  We were able to get quite a few of our new Kinder families in the system today and we will be able to get more parents during the ICS. If could help provide reminders to parents, it will be appreciated.

Google Calendar

Apple TV Snag

Unfortunately, we’ve hit a bit of snag and I am not sure when these will be installed.  I will provide an update as soon as I have the information and I am sorry these may not be ready to go for day 1.

Taking it Up

I am incredibly proud to be part of a district and school committed to the success of each and every student.  This year I participated in another round of Taking It Up “training” with the intent of improving my own ability to pursue equity.  Why did I go a second time? I learned a great analogy to answer this question. Dealing with racism is like going to the dentist, rather than removing your tonsils.  While it would be nice to have a one-and-done approach, it’s just not sufficient and there is no quick fix. We need consistent check-ups. It’s a mistake to think that we do not need to work on equity just because we do not have a very diverse population here at Highland or at large in Bend.  It is, in fact, more imperative that we make every effort to change this perception. Why am I sharing this with you? Great question! First, I am calling out my own responsibility publicly to hold myself accountable. Second, I look forward to doing this work in our everyday interaction with you and our families.  Third, I hope to encourage more of you to join me next year for Taking it Up.

Meeting Schedules

EBISS Meetings – As we discussed with each of our grade level EBISS teams last year, we will move to an all-day EBISS meeting format this year.

Morning Meetings (Staff, PLC, Design Teams)

I’ve worked up a couple different options for morning meetings this year and I would love your input on these.  

The short description of the three options;

Option 1: all morning meetings (Staff, PLC, Design Teams) on Tuesday mornings.

Option 2: Staff meetings and PLCs still on Tuesdays and Design Team Meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (1 each)

Option 3: Staff meetings and PLCs still on Tuesday morning and Design Team Meetings during SIW time.

The total number of meetings for the year is intended to be the same for all options.  The one exception to these will be Leadership Meetings which will need to be on a different morning, which is to be determined later.

Each of these options have benefits and challenges to be considered which will probably be better discussed in person at our first meeting, but I wanted to provide a little information ahead of time for you to chew on.

Highland Teams (Academic Excellence, Thriving Citizen, Future Ready)

The decision regarding our meeting schedule could impact this topic as well, but I would like you to put some thought into which team you would like to commit.  For example, if you intend to work on the next Schoolwide Storyline, the Future Ready team will take on that responsibility. All three teams will be determining our SIW professional development for the year, excluding the days already scheduled for district PD.

EA interview

If you would like to volunteer to join me in interviewing for a new part time EA, we will be interviewing on Thursday 8/23 in the afternoon.  Please email me if you are interested.

Construction update

We received our new piano the other day so I was able to get quick look at the finished floor in the gym (before striping) and it looks amazing.  The bleachers are the only missing component right now, but the whole interior looks impressive. The parking lot was paved at the end of last week and the landscaping is probably 85-95% complete.  The courtyard is looking great with the stone work and plants. The project on the southeast basement walls is likely going to wrap up during the first week of school as it is projected right now. This will impact some of our space on the playground, but this should wrap up very soon after we get classes underway.

Math Journals

Math journals are distributed to your rooms already.  Thank you, Shawna for counting these out and delivering them room to room.

What Adults Can Learn from Kids

Please enjoy this recycled TED talk for some beginning of the year inspiration.  Let’s be childish!

https://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Architects in Schools

For over 40 years, the Architecture Foundation of Oregon’s Architects in Schools (AiS) program has matched professional architects, engineers and other design professionals with 3rd – 5th grade teachers for a FREE 6 week classroom residency. The program delivers arts programming, environmental understanding, awareness of cultural links to history, understanding responsibility to the natural environment, career awareness and communication skills – all through the principles and practices of architecture and design.

The program is based on a curriculum guide that teachers and their partner design/building professional can incorporate into existing classroom curriculum. The AiS curriculum guide uses architecture and engineering concepts to teach math, science, social studies, language arts and other disciplines, includes sustainable design concepts and can incorporate the engineering and design standards. Landscape architecture and construction residencies can also be a focus of the program.

Participating teachers receive a free training that links the program to Common Core and New Generation Science Standards.

I am contacting you to let you know the application process is now open for 3rd – 5th grade teachers to participate this upcoming school year. Please forward the following information to any 3rd – 5th grade teachers who may be interested in applying.

Application Info: bit.ly/ais18-19_info

Teacher Applications: bit.ly/ais18-19_teacherapp

Deadline: October 6, 2017

More Info: www.af-oregon.org/architects-in-schools

candice agahan

administrative & program assistant

architecture foundation of oregon

po box 40230, portland, or 97240

503.542.3823

www.af-oregon.org

Welcome back!

I hope this post finds you rested, relaxed and somehow beating this heat right now!  You do have a couple more weeks to enjoy your time off, so I hope you are able to make the most of it.  The conference in Slovenia was so rewarding and it was such hoot to see so many of you halfway around the world.  As many of you know, my family came with me and we had an incredible time exploring.  I won’t bore you with all my photos, but this one below was pretty cool.

We were bitten by the Croatia World Cup Fever bug!  After thoroughly enjoying the quarter-finals victory in Split with several thousand of our closest Croatian friends dancing in the streets, we altered our course home to stay in Zagreb for the semi-final game.  The rain forced us to watch from our hotel but my kids will be Modric fans forever.

While the trip was amazing, I am so happy to be back home.  This central Oregon environment plays a role in making me happy to be back, the more crucial factor is the people and the people I see most frequently are you.

Alright, enough sappy, small talk –  time for business;

Tentative Schedule for Inservice Week

Monday 8/27

• New Teacher Welcome and Orientation Day
• Potential flex day for all other teachers (Please see work calendar – linked below)

Tuesday 8/28

• 8:00-12:45 Classroom time
• 12:45-4:00  District Welcome Back and BBQ  (district mailer provides details of the afternoon)

Wednesday 8/29

• 8:00-8:30 Continental Breakfast with PTO Board
• 8:30-9:45 All Staff Meeting
• 10:00-12:00 Workshop with Amy Nary
• 12:00-3:00 Lunch on your own & Classroom time
• 3:00-4:00ish Highland goes AWOL (this is going to be fun!)
• 4:00 Class lists are posted

Thursday 8/30

• 9:00-3:00 Classroom time
• 3:00-5:00 Ice Cream Social

Friday 8/31

• FLEX day – (Please see work calendar – linked below).

Work Calendar

Attached please find attached the 2018-2019 work calendar for certified staff.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UTcKmjMAE4i44a2T1n0sHLzjoCVHjJ-Q/view?usp=sharing

Construction Update

The tent is gone, and the playground is back!  KNCC pulled out quite a few stops to make this happen weeks ahead of schedule.  At the time of composing this update, we are on schedule to use the gym within a week or two of opening our doors on September 5th.  I’ll keep you posted on any changes. They also started the renovation to the exterior walls outside of rooms 17 and 18 this past week.  The expectation is that all heavy work will be completed prior to starting school, however there will likely be some detail work to occur after school and on weekends to finish up completely.  These work crews are putting in intense hours in ridiculous heat to get the job done well, so please take an opportunity to say “thank you” to anyone you walk by. There is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel!

School Design

Thank you to Lorin, Misha and Becky for attending the district leadership academy this year.  Together we revisited our school design plan and provided some tweaks, guidance, etc. to move into this next year.  We look forward to sharing these with you soon.

Digital Conversion

I never got the opportunity to highlight the many quality learning activities you designed for students using technology as much as I would have preferred, so I will start by saying thank you for all the work you did to explore, play and learn using technology.  From the 30,000-foot view, the Mars Journey really provided some great experiences for you and our students.  After another year of watching you wrestle with some quirky HDMI ports and related complications, I went ahead and purchased Apple TVs for all the rooms.  This will provide a far more reliable method for you to project what you need and reduce our reliance on finicky HDMI ports. They are fairly easy to use, but we will provide some training for everyone soon.

Safe Schools Training

Just a friendly reminder to complete your online Safe Schools Training.  

Welcome to our Team

Let’s be sure to give a warm welcome to our new team members shown below;

Sara Striegel – Kindergarten Teacher

Elizabeth Meskill – School Secretary

Ducks Honor Teachers

U of O would like to honor you!  If you can make it to the stadium on either 9/8 or 9/15, you can go watch the Ducks play for 36$ per seat.  See attachment for instructions.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tvalOD5LZ-gBoKZ_iXlkFQ5KNONAZ79e/view?usp=sharing

Hiring

I am pleased to inform everyone that Heidi Evans was officially hired as our 0.6 Reading Specialist for next year.  Heidi has been with us for several years now, so she does not really need an introduction, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for the work she has done with our students and their reading skill development.  Her students made incredible progress this year and I look forward to her increasing her time and presence with our team.

Next, I’d like you to join me in welcoming Sara Striegel to our Kinder team.  Sara has been teaching at Sisters Elementary for the past 8 years (6 in Kindergarten).  You may recognize her name as she did work here at Highland a while back prior to completing her teaching license.  Sara is thrilled to join the team and I know we will enjoy working alongside her.

In August, I will be looking to hire another EA for approximately 3.75 hours a day.  If you are interested in volunteering to be on that hiring committee please email me.  I will look to complete these interviews mid-August.

SBAC Results and TAG ID

The official cut-off scores for the 97th %ile and above are not available yet and I believe these will be shared in September [following past practices].  In order to get a little jump on things, I used last year’s cut-off scores to make my best predictions of which scores would make it and I highlighted those scores in yellow on the 2018 SBAC Results Sheet.  These are not official in any way, but I am fairly confident the students highlighted will have scores that meet the 97th percentile or better.  Some of these students are already identified or in process,  I will share an updated master list of all TAG identified students when we get started in the fall.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CTBIkyPhpDmaI0hzyQk413zQOGLzn-O0_qn03eDiQXw/edit?usp=sharing

Gym

So far, so good.  I am fairly confident the gym will be fully functional at the start of the school year.  We hope to move into the building early August.  Obviously I will be out of the loop for the next few weeks, but as of this week things are looking really good and I feel we are in great hands.  The tent removal is still a bit questionable, however KNCC is attempting to move that timeline even earlier.  Worst case scenario is we will have the tent still up for the first couple weeks of school.  Nothing we cannot handle!

2018 Fall Start Up

I will share more details of our start up week in early August.  I promise to keep time for you to prepare both individually and as a team as a high priority.

Unplug

If you have not already done so, take this opportunity to unplug from work.  Put your auto-reply/out of office response on.  Take your work email off your phone.  Take the time to put yourself and your family above all else.  With the exception of our time at the conference, I will be doing the same so please know I will not be checking or responding to email.  If you need me for anything please use my cell phone number, otherwise I will be back in the office early August.

Assembly

That was just a little too much fun!  Thank you everyone for your contribution.  Those ukes and the recorders sounded great!

https://youtu.be/tGkWgLZqi38

SLGGs EOY meeting

If you are not completing your evaluation this year, we still need to have a brief end of year meeting regarding your SLGGs.  During this meeting you need to provide the data (I should have your form) and we will have a brief discussion regarding the results.  Please use the link below to sign up for time that works for you.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-FMrGl65Mvbe8wTzQrvxVj5Pk2okgdxFj313ooJycp0/edit?usp=sharing

Work Calendar for Certified Staff 2018-2019

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p1vaRc1vDUdGj-9QHLmRbw5Rtx5DeJYK/view?usp=sharing

Testing

SBAC & OAKS science – Window closes June 8, so we have a few more days to catch any stragglers.

SIWs

• June 6th – Round 2 of Placements/Miscellaneous
• June 13th – Full day

IPAD Roll In

Please see previous post to get details if you still need some reminders.

Calendar

Please take a moment to glance at the calendar so you are informed of our upcoming meetings. – Calendar Link