To Do:

• If you have the date for your incoming (fall of 2017) 6th grade Parent Night, will you please send that to me?  If you don’t have it scheduled yet, will you let me know that as well?

This and That:

• In conversations that I’ve had over the past week I have learned that our Literacy Coach(es) will be asking for volunteer(s) from middle schools to come together and do some work around Units of Study.  Specifically,  this group will be tasked with creating a one-page overview document of each lesson in Units of Study.  This work is in response to the often heard concern regarding the amount of reading (and wading through material) needed of teachers when preparing a lesson.  TLC is planning on paying the sub costs to pull small groups of teachers together to accomplish this work, which should begin very soon. I think this is a great response of support for one of the common concerns that has been voiced.
• An article from the Cult of Pedagogy website, “Five Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Unmotivated Students” caught my attention.  Certainly we all have students who have been categorized as “unmotivated” and have all types of reasons for this.  However, this article isn’t about these students – it is about the adults who work in the school and have contact with these kids.  Here is a small section of this article to wet your appetite:…what the most current studies say about what motivates students. This is what I found:
  1. Students are more motivated academically when they have a positive relationship with their teacher.
  2. Choice is a powerful motivator in most educational contexts.
  3. For complex tasks that require creativity and persistence, extrinsic rewards and consequences actually hamper motivation.
  4. To stay motivated to persist at any task, students must believe they can improve in that task.
  5. Students are motivated to learn things that have relevance to their lives.
• It is definitely flu (and other illnesses) season.  There should be a spray bottle and microfiber cloths in every classroom (Walt is working to replace any missing) that can be used to wipe down doorknobs, desks, counters or other commonly shared spaces.  As you know, this practice will help prevent the spread of germs.

• The ASIST training (suicide intervention) that was scheduled earlier this fall (and then canceled due to lack of sign-ups) has been rescheduled for January.  This flyer has additional information.  This same information has been shared with your counselor(s), but you may have interest for someone else on staff to attend as well.  One thing to note is that this training is free to school employees – even though there appears to be a cost for participants.  If you are interested in attending then you will need to click on the “enter a promotional code” link within the flyer and then type in “school” in the box.  This will waive the fee.  Here is the direct link to register: 

  https://asist-training-january-2017.eventbrite.com

Reminders:

• Snow is here for likely the next few months!  This means removing snow will happen, but likely not within the time frame that works for everyone.  Now would be a good time to remind your staff, students and possibly parents about the snow removal priority areas. Here is a district look at these priorities from 30,000 feet, and your building engineer should have a photo map of your site’s first and second snow removal priority areas.  Please post/share as you see necessary to remind those who come on your campus.
• Here are the next few admin meetings – just to make sure you have them on your calendar:
  • Leadership – Jan. 9 @ 3:15 (Ed Center)
  • MS Horizontal – Jan. 23 @ 3:15 (HDMS)