To Do:

• Begin thinking about your own SLGGs for this year.  During my visit with you at your building in Nov/Dec I plan on spending some of our time together discussing your goals.  Let me know if you have any questions regarding this.
• Reflect on this quote I received from Shay this week: “Our job is not to prepare students for something.  Our job is to help students prepare themselves for anything.”  (A. J. Juliani)  Sounds like a shift from Student A to Student B to me!  Thank you for your tireless efforts in helping students prepare themselves for their future.

This and That:

• A position posting:The district will be posting the position of Principal for a new small high school in the days to come.  Alice Dewittie has been leading a team of teacher leaders in these last months in design work that is the preparation for opening a new small high school in the fall of 2018.  Alice has done an outstanding job casting a vision, facilitating teacher leadership and digging into the nuts and bolts of logistical planning on this project.  She will be making a hand-off to a to-be-hired leader.  Alice has decided to step away from her work in Bend – La Pine following this current school year, and is looking forward to pursuing new challenges and options.  Our district owes much to Dr. Dewittie.  Her leadership at Summit High has been nothing short of transformational for that school.  Her design leadership in the opening stages of this new small high school have set that school on a path for innovative success for years to come in our community.  The Principal position at Summit HS will likely be posted in December.  Big shoes to fill…
• As some of you know, I have a “man crush” on Chip and Dan Heath, brothers and authors of a few books, including Switch, that I have read a number of times.  Well, their new book is out and I will finish reading it this weekend.  It is titled The Power of Moments and I am loving it so far.  In case you’d like to know a bit more about this book, you can read the first chapter, before you decide to purchase 20 copies to give as gifts to family and friends.  (No need to get me a copy, I’ve already got one.)
• In case you haven’t heard yet, your counselors will participate in two days of PD this year, facilitated by an American School Counseling Association trainer, that will focus on the creation and implementation of a Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Program. The first all-day training will take place on Monday, Oct. 23 at the Ed Center.  I am thrilled with the work your counselors are making toward this plan and their eagerness to be stretched and create systematic ways to serve all of our students. I’ll provide more details of the work your counselors are engaged in this year after this first training.
• Dr. Van Loo recently passed along some of John Hattie’s work (250 Influences on Student Achievement) that is not only thought-provoking, but also comes in a very user-friendly format.  This may not be new information to you, but I hope you find this well organized, two-page, color coded examples easy to read and useful.  This would make a great resource to refer to or share with your ICCLs (or whole staff) when you are wondering about the value of a particular support or intervention.

Reminders:

• We are meeting as a Horizontal on Monday at SVMS;PLEASE NOTE THIS CHANGE IN LOCATION.  We will begin at 3:15.  Once again, the agenda is packed and I’m excited about getting together with you all. You may want to bring your laptop in order to access a Google Doc signup connected to an Erin’s Law discussion we’ll be having.