This and That:

• One of the agenda items for our Jan. 25 Horizontal meeting is to take a look and provide feedback on next year’s district calendar.  You can find a draft of the 2016-17 calendar here, or in the Documents folder of this blog.  (You are able to rotate the calendar for better viewing by clicking on the printer icon and then opening it as a PDF – then rotating it.)  Please take a look at, feel free to share with others in your building, and be prepared to discuss at our meeting on the 25th.  I will also have two color copies of this draft calendar per building to hand out at that meeting.  I will need any feedback you might have by Friday, January 29.  Feedback will then be presented to Cabinet and union representation for consideration prior to going to the Board for final approval.

• The Math Curriculum Review Team has been working on establishing Core Beliefs and narrowing down math programs for further review. Your Math Curriculum Review Team representative has a task to complete between now and February 5th. He/she needs to find a time to share the Core Beliefs with the math teachers at their site and get questions, wonderings, and level of agreement from their school. This task will probably take approximately 20 minutes. 

  Additionally, the middle schools are invited to add an additional representative. I would like this to be a discussion between the administrator and your current team member.  At this time, the representative should be someone who has common beliefs as the ones indicated in the Core Beliefs (also found in the documents folder). Every teacher at your school will have the opportunity to provide feedback regarding programs at a later time.

  Let Kerry Morton know if you have questions or concerns.

Reminders:

• Next Wednesday is a District SIW.  As the instructional leaders of your building, please use your voice to communicate the importance of your teachers attendance at these PD opportunities.   Each of these groups are meeting from 1:45 – 3:15 except for ELL, which is 1:30 – 4:00. Following are the meeting locations:
  • ELL – Ed Center, room 230
  • ELA – IBD @ Ed Center, room 314; StudySync @ CMS; Units of Study @ HDMS media center [You and your ELA teachers received an email from Jana with direction on which location to attend]
  • Math – Pacific Crest Middle School [There is a bit of preparation needed for your math teachers prior to then.  I emailed you and your math folks a document today outlining what grade group they will be in, as well as what they will need to be prepared with.]
  • Science – Bend High School
• HR is needing “letters of support” for any 3rd year probationary teacher in your building that you are recommending to move to contract status by January 22 – next Friday.  These are letters that the Board reviews and strongly considers when making the decision to move someone to a more permanent employment status.  If you have any questions regarding this please see Jon’s email sent on Jan. 11, 2016.