TO DO:

• Very soon, likely Monday or Tuesday, you will receive a link to a survey.  Please complete this survey in the next few weeks. This survey will serve as feedback on our school design work covering not only the past few months, but really the past few years.  We will be sharing the results at our Leadership meeting on May 7.
• Recently I’ve been having some conversations around middle school course offerings – specifically concerning rigor and choice. Because of this, I’d love to collect (and share with you all) information regarding what each middle school offers students for electives. Please take a look at this Google doc and complete it for your school. (You may share the link with someone else in your building and have them complete it if you’d like.) You will be asked: How many periods of electives do your students have? Are electives comprised of a (required) wheel, or do they choose what elective to take? And, please list your electives by grade, name and length.  I hope this will also provide you with information about what other middle schools are offering so that you can ask questions of or share ideas with one another.
• We have the opportunity to offer Spanish conversation classes on Wednesdays next year for a very reasonable cost. Classes will be offered every term.  These would be open to admin, certified and classified staff, with the opportunity for certified staff to earn credit at a low cost. I don’t know any other details. Please let me know by the end of next week if you or other staff members might be interested in taking this class.
• Some work is being done to modify our “new teacher day” to create an even more memorable experience (any of you finished reading The Power of Moments yet?) for the licensed staff who will be joining our district next fall. One of the tasks that Gary and I are working on is to create a list of possible items that a building principal would personally engage in or would support someone else in their building engaging in with a new hire. Through the lens of “how can I help create a ‘moment’ for this new teacher” would you please take a look at this very draft list of possibilities and add any that you have either done yourself, or might want to do in the future either with, or for a new teacher? (Thank you!)

THIS AND THAT:

• This week I want to share a very short article highlighting work by John Hattie around classroom teaching practices that make the biggest difference in student learning. This may not be new learning for you, but if nothing else I hope it confirms what you already believe to be true.
• There has been much behind-the-scenes work being done around first/aid, safety, and training.  I wanted to provide you a quick overview of what you might be hearing more about. All classrooms in our district will be provided a first aid fanny pack; a larger first aid bag will be provided for every main office; and small first aid kits will be installed next to your building AED.  Also, “stop the bleed” training will be provided to all nurses, as well as all staff who participate in future first aid trainings.
• Many of you have asked how it went teaching kindergarten this past Wednesday.  Well, it was a very sweet group of students whom have been wonderfully trained and taught this year.  It was definitely a fun day – but I am not going to be applying for a primary teaching job any time soon! (Teachers who work with our youngest students are truly saints!)

REMINDERS:

• We haven’t talked about this in a while, so it is probably time for a reminder… No student fees should be charged for any required classes. The option can be given for a student to purchase supplies/materials (PE uniform, art supplies, shop materials, etc.), but there should be “loaner” or other materials made available to students who cannot or choose not to purchase them.  Let me know if you have any questions regarding this.