{"id":127,"date":"2017-12-04T04:43:59","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T04:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/brian.kissell\/?p=127"},"modified":"2017-12-04T04:43:59","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T04:43:59","slug":"weekly-update-124-128","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/brian.kissell\/2017\/12\/04\/weekly-update-124-128\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Update 12\/4-12\/8"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I did my annual shift at Santaland this evening playing the big guy in the red suit. \u00a0It was a fairly typical run for the couple hours I sat in the chair, except for one family\u2026.This family placed 12-day old infant in my arms and I think my heart stopped for a few seconds. \u00a0This five-pound scrunched up bunch of skin and tissue had a pair of eyes in her face that would turn anyone into putty.\u00a0 It quickly brought me back to a time when my own children were that small.\u00a0 What made the scene even cuter was her five-year old sister looking down at her with me with nothing but pure pride and happiness in her eyes.\u00a0 I know this description does not do it justice, but it was just such a humbling and joyful experience I wanted to try and share.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Design Process Update<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Thursday Kevin Gehrig, Ned Meyers (Pine Ridge Elementary), Dana Pederson, and Gina DeLasantos (Ensworth) will be visiting our campus for a couple hours in the afternoon. \u00a0All the schools are organized into trios to work together on supporting design process at each of the schools. \u00a0Earlier this week we visited Ensworth and next week is our turn. \u00a0I will be asking them to interview some of you if they can catch any of you for a few free minutes. \u00a0This is not meant to be a \u201cgotcha\u201d so please do not worry about the questions or your answers. \u00a0In general, I have done my best to make the school design work fit the work we already do. \u00a0Although we have three main areas, it\u2019s safe to say the majority of our energy this year has been poured into the Future Ready Team for the All School Storyline, The Shoshone Visit, and the International Storyline Conference. \u00a0While we may not have ready-made student-outcomes to measure from this work, I feel (and I think you will agree) that Storyline provides incredible opportunities for our students to learn and grow with the 21st century skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. \u00a0Given this assumption, more work placed in the area of Storyline will provide more opportunities for these skills to be developed.<\/span><\/p>\n

To simplify the intentions around the Academic Excellence team goals, I would say that we want to provide some protected, team time to focus on math lesson development. \u00a0We struggle to find that time and it will never be enough, but we do have to prioritize.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our Thriving Citizen Team focuses the efforts providing a safe, fun and engaged environment for all students. \u00a0Our PBIS work makes up the bulk of this work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Staff Meeting on Tuesday<\/strong><\/p>\n

For our staff meeting this week, we have a quick presentation for the United Way Giving campaign and the rest of the time will be set aside for work with your All School Storyline Science groups. \u00a0Ideally we should have another half hour to collaborate on that work. \u00a0It\u2019s not much, but every little bit counts – right?<\/span><\/p>\n

Assembly Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

The December Assembly Plan is under development and it <\/span>will <\/b>be shorter than the last assembly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Snow Recess<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are going to approach our Snow Play differently this year. \u00a0We would like to embrace the snow when it comes and enjoy the experience whenever possible. \u00a0This means there will be times when we allow students to play on the snow berms. \u00a0This will create some ambiguity as we will need to adjust where and how students can play in and on the snow as conditions change, but it just doesn’t feel right to constantly tell them to get off the snow. \u00a0Snowball fights will still not be permitted. \u00a0More on this later, but I just wanted to provide a heads up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heads up: the week of 12\/18-12\/22 will be a Spirit Week;<\/span><\/p>\n