TO DO:

• It is that time of year again – Summative Evaluation time!  For principals this means completing your Self-Reflection in Talent Ed Perform no later than May 26.  I will use this as a basis for having a conversation with you and completing your evaluation. If you have a time you’d like to meet to go over your Evaluation prior to your departure in June please let me know, otherwise I’ll be reaching out to you soon to make an appointment with you.

  In terms of this year’s principal evaluation, you may recall that the three Design buckets will also be added to the Domains that were used for evaluation last year. [Gallup Survey results were also planned to be a part of this year’s evaluation, but that will not be occurring.  Because of the cost associated with this survey, we will only be distributing this survey – out currently – to 400 of our nearly 2000 certified/classified employees.  This translates into a very small portion of our employees and literally just a few folks at our smaller schools that will be polled.  This will provide us with some useful district data, but not informative building feedback – hence not including it as part of a principal’s evaluation makes the most sense.]  Let me know if you have any questions regarding this process or summative evaluations in general.

• Roger has an opportunity for you to be involved with!  Please take a few minutes to read through the following and see if you would like to participate. Not only would you be supporting Roger, but I believe it would be a great learning experience for you as well.

  REALMS is looking for educators and leaders who might be interested in sitting on a panel for our upcoming 8th grade “Passage Presentations”. Passage Presentations are culminating, student-led presentations in which 8th grade students share a summary and analysis of their growth through their middle school career in front of a small panel of adults and peers. Many EL Education schools have a Passages system in place, and this will be our 2nd “pilot year”. Eventually we hope to roll this out as a “graduation expectation” for all REALMS students, but at the moment it is still just an “invitational opportunity” for just under half of our 8th grade class.

  8th graders are building a web based portfolio that will document their growth from 6th – 8th grade in our the three dimensions of student achievement: (1) Mastery of Knowledge and Skills, (2) Character, and (3) High Quality Work. The students are uploading work samples with reflections, are drafting 3 short essays that summarize and capture their growth as scientists, mathematicians, artists, writers, athletes, citizens,and are preparing a 30 minute presentation they will give to a panel of family, students, and other “stakeholders” as evidence of their readiness to graduate.

  Each panel, ideally, will be composed of the student’s parent/guardian(s), crew teacher, two or three 7th grade students, a community member, a high school representative (principal, teacher, counselor etc.), and other interested stakeholders like middle school representatives, a teacher from the student’s elementary school experience, or board members. There could be between 5 and 12 people on each student’s panel. The theme of each student’s Passages Presentation will be: “I am ready for high school because…”.

  If you’d like to see one or more of these Passage Presentations in action, then we’d love to have you as a panelist!! Hopefully it is a win-win…. we get to have your valuable presence and input as a panelist (there is a feedback rubric for presenters to fill out and an opportunity for panelists to ask questions of the presenter) and you get to see an important “student engaged assessment” structure in its pilot phase at REALMS!

  Interested in attending as a panelist? You can use this google schedule to sign up (use the 2nd tab from the right for panelists). Feel free to share with others.

THIS AND THAT:

• There is a “pop quiz” this week!  But wait, are quizzes helpful in terms of our learning?  Is circling key words in a text the most effective way of reviewing newly learned material?  You may not agree with all of the data behind the “Learning Myths” the author asserts in this NPR article, but it will likely make you think about your own beliefs about best practices in learning. Read the article, take the quiz, and see how you do!
• I will be out of the office a few days this next week.  On Monday (5/8) I’ll be in Redmond at a AdvancED board meeting and will be able to return calls/texts during breaks throughout the day.  If you need me for an emergency please text me that you are needing me to reply immediately and I will step out of my meeting and give you a call.  Then, on Thursday (5/11) and Friday (5/12) Christie and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary by taking a quick trip to the San Juan Islands.  If you need any assistance on these days please reach out to Gary or someone else at the Ed Center.

REMINDERS:

• We will have our last MS Horizontal meeting at PCMS on May 15, beginning at 3:15.  I’m including the agenda now (and will again next week) because there are some building share outs (particularly the third bulleted agenda item) that I want you to be prepared for.