Our EME Focus
- Tier 1 Instruction
- Belonging
- Define what it means to be an Art Focused School
Thoughts of the Week
The Best Way to Spot an Idiot — Look for the Person Who is Cruel
If you want to be successful in this world, you have to develop your own idiot detection system. The best way to spot an idiot — look for the person who is cruel. Let me explain. When we see someone who doesn’t look like us or sound like us, or act like us or love like us or live like us, the first thought that crosses almost everyone’s brain is rooted in either fear or judgment or both. That’s evolution. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things that we aren’t familiar with. In order to be kind we have to shut down that animal instinct and force our brain to travel a different pathway. Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being. They require the mental capacity to step past our most primal urges. This may be a surprising assessment because somewhere along the way, in the last few years, our society has come to believe that weaponized cruelty is part of some well thought out masterplan. Cruelty is seen by some as an adroit cudgel to gain power. Empathy and kindness are considered weak. Many important people look at the vulnerable only as rungs on a ladder to the top. I’m here to tell you that when someone’s path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct. They never forged new mental pathways to overcome their own instinctual fears and so their thinking and problem solving will lack the imagination and creativity that the kindest people have in spades. Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true: The kindest person in the room is often the smartest.”
Governor J.B. Pritzker
Never let anybody make you feel less than… You don’t just have worth, you are worthy! Stay away from idiots!
The Coming Week
- Monday
- Staff Meeting 2:15-3:15
- Tuesday
- Core Effectiveness Meeting with Lori (Grades K, 4, 3)
- Office Staff Meeting 10:00-10:30
- Care Team Meeting 2:30-3:15
- Ben out for interviews 1:00-6:00
- Wednesday
- Office Admin Meeting 9:00-9:30
- Art Workshop 9:30-10:30
- SIW Art Training #3 1:00-2:30
- Thursday
- Coaching Support with Lori – all day by sign up
- PLC’s 2:30-3:15
- Family Game Night 5:30-6:30
- Friday
- SpEd Meeting 2:15-3:15
UPCOMING DATES:
- March 18 Core Effectiveness Meeting with Lori (Grades 1, 2, 5)
- March 18 Carrie Shorthouse’s Birthday!
- March 19 Office Staff Meeting 10:00-10:30
- March 19 Fire Drill 1:00
- March 20 Jenn Kandra’s Birthday!
- March 20 Office Admin Meeting 9:00-9:30
- March 20 Art Workshop 9:30-10:30
- March 20 EA Meeting 1:00-1:30
- March 20 SIW Teacher Prep
- March 20 Admin PD Perseverance Hall
- March 20 5th Grade Performance
- March 21 PLC’s 2:30-3:15
- March 22 Kindergarten Forest Field Trip
- March 22 SpEd Meeting 2:15-3:15
Updates from Downtown
Reminders:
- End of Year Schedule: Now 6/5 will be an building discretion SIW and 6/12 will be a teacher-directed SIW.
New Notes:
From Jenny White:
- Wayfinder Activities of the week are focused on commitment and growth mindset. Kindergarten: Intro to Growth Mindset. 1st – 2nd: Drawing, Dancing, Dialogue. 3rd – 5th: Intro to Goal Setting
TLC Update: March 6th Elementary TLC Update which includes:
- Restorative practices lessons from Wayfinder
- Movement moments
- Storyline Design course information
From Jennifer Hauth- StudentSafe Raptor Training: We have recently expanded our partnership with Raptor Visitor Management System to include one of their new products called StudentSafe. StudentSafe is platform to enter, collaborate, and track data round NSSI (non suicidal self injury), suicidal ideation (suicide risk screens). Eventually, we will use this platform for behavioral safety (threat) assessments for school teams as well. Stay tuned for more information this summer from Eric Powell.
On February 28th, all School Counselors, Nurses, School Psychs and Student Success Clinician/Coordinators were trained in the new platform and will be using this tool for all Suicide Risk Screens and NSSI going forward. School risk screening teams will enter these screens into this system moving forward and we will all be able to better collaborate and track student safety concerns in buildings going forward. You may have already received an alert in your inbox from a risk screen that has been completed in the last 10 days by one of your staff. The emails alerts will come from StudentSafe.
From Julie: Regarding….clarification on disposal of Wonders Materials….Information went out a couple of weeks ago communicating to teachers to go ahead and send home Wonders leveled readers. I strongly recommend teachers keep the leveled readers as additional reading materials in your classroom libraries. Additionally, I recommend keeping all of your Wonders and Wonderworks decodable readers as these are great resources!! Communication regarding anthologies will be communicated after Spring Break.
From Dr. Cook: Potential opportunity for fifth grade students in the area of science and space!
Important Dates
- March: Prep for Naglieri
- March 20: Admin PD at Perseverance Hall at Bend High 3:00-4:30
- March 25-29: Spring Break
- April: Naglieri testing & SBAC for ELA
- April 2: Elementary Horizontal at Lava Ridge with Lava and High Lakes sharing!
- April 4: Central Oregon Job Fair
- May: SBAC for Math and Science
And finally…
