This and That:

• An article recently shared with me, “Mindset Can Impact Perceptions of Student Behavior,” contrasts how a “fixed” or “growth” mindset can have a direct affect on how we view and process student behavior incidents.  I believe it is not a stretch to also make these same comparisons to student learning.  Here is one of the great quotes taken from this article to wet your appetite to read more: “Teachers in a fixed mindset are more likely to interpret the defiance as an indication of ‘who’ that child is as a person. In contrast a growth minded teacher may dig deeper, able to separate the behavior from the person. This can allow the teacher to understand that the child is trying to communicate something in an unskilled manner rather than it being an expression of his character.”
• Next week (Feb. 6 – 10) is National School Counselor Week.  I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what a vital role school counselors play in the social and emotional well-being of your students; supporting and working with youth so they are able to fully access her/his education.  I’m also sure that counselors across our district were recognized along with teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.  However, I encourage you to take the opportunity next week to personally thank your school counselor for the work they do day in and day out on behalf of our students.
• Here is some information regarding a statewide tip line that you may have seen come across your inbox this week – and our district’s approach to how we are processing it: On January 31^st, 2017, the state of Oregon in conjunction with the Oregon State Task Force on School Safety and the Oregon State Police sent out a press release for the SafeOregon tip line. The tip line has been mandated through the Oregon State Legislation for use in all public schools in Oregon, pre-school through 12^th grade, though the official start date has not been established by the state.Bend-La Pine Schools was attempting to work with the project managers for the tip line as early adopters, but due to the events of the past few weeks, we were unable to get established in time for the early adopter program by the roll out date of January 31^st. The project managers for the tip line would like to see all schools set up and ready to use the tip line no later than the start of next school year. We are working with the project managers to decide the best way to train our staff and roll out the tip line to all our schools within the district.Here is an information sheet overviewing the tip line. We plan on presenting more information on the tip line during the next leadership meeting. In the meantime, if you have any further questions or concerns regarding the tip line, please contact Scott Bojanowski @ 541-355-1011.

Reminders:

• We are having a building admin/leadership meeting on Monday beginning at 3:15 in the Board Room.  Jay sent out an email last Friday (1/27) with the questions prompts that we’ll be discussing at this meeting.  I hope you’ve taken the opportunity to complete the short survey that was also linked in the email you received.  We will be reviewing the results of this survey today as we make final plans for our Monday Leadership meeting.