This and That:

• What a great first week!  As I visited schools a consistent theme I heard over and over is how smooth the first couple of days went and what a great group of students you all have.  It was great walking around your building and seeing how well your students were responding to the systems you have in place, as well as the teaching/learning/community building that was occurring in your classrooms. A great first week!
• The “MS Calendar” is updated for this school year.  Please add a date and time for every month that you’d like for me to come visit you at your school.  Like last year, I’d like to visit classrooms, answer any questions you might have, talk about direction for your school/your leadership (I’ll send you any questions in advance that I might have for you to consider), and hear how I can support your work.  Let me know if you need a reminder of how to locate this Google calendar.
• There will be an all day Units of Study training on Sept. 19.  If you have either hired a new 6th or 7th grade ELA teacher for this year, or have a teacher at this grade level who has not already participated in a training, they should plan on attending.  TLC will cover the sub cost for this training.  Please communicate with any in your building in need of this training to sign up for it in PD Place.  This training will take place here at the Ed Center, in room 203.
• This could probably go under “Reminders”… but there is a new twist, so I’ll add it here instead.  As you are aware, I’d like for Dean Richards to come to each of your buildings in order to take a look at and discuss where you currently are with your EBISS systems.  Dean has supplied me/us with an appointment calendar to sign up for a time when he can come to your school for this visit.  Please plan to select a time on this calendar sometime this next week so Dean can get it blocked out on his end before another appointment takes its place.  There is no commitment beyond that point, unless you are wanting some this year.  Basically Dean has a few hours dedicated to working with a middle school or two around developing/modifying/supporting your EBISS systems.  This would be a voluntary process for you to be a part of.
• I ran across the short article “I Wish my Teacher Knew…” in a recent Marshall Memo and thought it was worth passing along as we start a new year.  There is some truth to the saying: “Kids [People] don’t care what you know until they know how much you care” (Theodore Roosevelt) – and finding out the messages going on in a student’s mind and heart is a big step in the right direction for a teacher to communicate that they care for him/her.  This article also made me wonder about what an employee in my building would have written if I had asked: “I wish my principal [administrator] knew…”

Reminders:

• We are having a Leadership meeting on Monday afternoon at 3:15.  The focus will be on “Safety Summit” and Julianne has some great things planned for our time.
• The following Monday, Sept. 19, we’ll be having a Horizontal meeting at LPMS starting at 3:15.  With the construction on the highway (between Bend and Lava Butte) travel may be a bit slower – so you may want to plan a few extra minutes for travel.