To Do:

• Please pass this link (https://goo.gl/forms/iZdmfy4xZGRWykPP2) on to your math teachers. This is an anonymous survey to collect their candid feedback regarding their experience with Eureka Math this year.  Please stress that we are aiming for 100% participation as their voice has a heavy weight in this adoption process.  The deadline for completing this survey is Friday, Feb. 24.  Thank you!
• Consider whether you (and one of your science teachers) would be interested in hosting a science student teacher candidate for the month of May (1st – 31st). This candidate would like to extend her license to include ML Science and needs time in a MS classroom to be eligible for this.  If you are interested/willing to consider – or have any specific questions about this opportunity – please let me know!
• If you are a building principal, unless your last name is Crook, please pull up your goals in Talent Ed and review/insert your mid-year data around these.  You can either send me this through Talent Ed, or we can touch base on this when I am in your building the next time.

This and That:

• Under the “something I’ve learned from a school” heading, I wanted to pass along how Tim Broadbent at Three Rivers utilized a few of his SIW times this academic year for teacher PD.  Connecting their Design work – with Student B – with CCSS, he provided his teachers with two SIW times to create four new lessons.  Teachers taught those lessons over the course of the past number of weeks, then shared out the details of how it went, its value, and learnings that they took from it.  I’ll use Tim’s own words to let you know how this went:

  “Each presentation was great. The best part was hearing from teachers how they chose which CCSS to address and the empowerment they felt from feeling trusted to design their own curriculum. While a few teaching partners prepared a formal presentation, all of them shared student samples. It was a great afternoon and a powerful reminder that if we empower our teachers to do the work they are trained to do, that great things can and do happen.”

• As you will remember, Jay has facilitated a group that was considering school start times.  This committee was made up of parents, transportation, HS athletics, union representation, teachers, community partners, building and district administrators. Steph Bennett, a parent from REALMS,  and I were middle school representatives for these meetings.  We have come to a point where this group will be making a recommendation based on the recommendation to date to Shay in the coming weeks.  There is no plan at this point to make any start time adjustments for the 2017-18 school year, but rather to use the coming months to collect additional information from our community before a final decision is made and put into place.  Lastly, one other option that was not seriously considered (yet) is an universal start time for all K-12.  There will be some work done through transportation this summer to determine if this last option can even be in the mix with our currently available bus fleet and drivers.

Reminders:

• If your building has done any tweaking on your School Design Plan this year please make sure these updates are reflected within the version saved in Google Drive (“gapps” account) as well.
• A quick reminder regarding your monthly Leave Sheet.  You only need to indicate days that you took “sick leave” (or FMLA or Worker’s Comp) during the previous leave period.  If your days do not match your Admin Calendar you completed in the fall (you’ve either worked or didn’t work a day not matching your fall calendar) for a reason other than “sick leave” then please keep track of these changes yourself and make sure you work the correct number of days assigned to your position.  Let me know if you have any questions regarding this.
• If you haven’t completed your mid-year reviews with your certified staff please be working on those.  Remember, this can count as one of your min-observations.