TO DO:

• When I come visit you at your site this month I’d love to visit a classroom or two with you.  My goal would be to not only get into some MS classrooms (I miss that), but to also have a follow-up conversation with you regarding what your teacher debrief might sound like.  Domain 7: Support and Supervision of your summative evaluation includes a couple of standards connected to this skill so I’d love to see/hear your work as close to firsthand as possible. (I do not expect to watch you debrief with a teacher, but would like for you to walk me through how that might look.)
• This is a “to do” only if you have interest… Discussions are occurring now regarding MS STRIVE beginning in the 2018-19 school year.  (I’m sure you have heard that HS STRIVE is going to move and combine with Marshall HS, which has lead to some initial thinking and discussion for MS STRIVE – which will not be located at Marshall.)  If you are interested in having an update on this or other MS supports being discussed please let me know.

THIS AND THAT:

• You may recall that I wanted to take a themed approach to my articles I shared with you during the months of December (High Quality Work) and January (Persistence).  To kick things off at the start of the year I thought I’d share an EL Education classic, Austin’s Butterfly. I hope you take time to watch this 6:30 video (from an elementary school in Boise, ID) that talks about the power of using multiple drafts (models, critique, and descriptive feedback) to create a final product… which sounds like a great way to teach persistence!
• I’m thinking of referring to this article as the power standards of social-emotional learning. With Social-Emotional Learning, Less is More narrows down this large field of evidence into three “truly fundamental” elements of success for students. It is a quick read that may lead to personal or staff reflection of not only do these three ring true to your beliefs, and if so, how are you (we) doing with exposing and teaching our students how to understand and apply these” fundamentals”?
• Hailey asked that I share an exciting new resource now – with more to come at our Horizontal meeting on Jan. 22: We will be supporting your students with challenging behaviors through the use of a Skills Trainer. Stephanie Smith has been working in this role since November, supporting primarily at the Elementary Schools and will be filling this temporary role until at least mid-February. The secondary level will start to see Stephanie through the rest of the semester. We are excited to have her expertise in supporting students and teams- she will be fantastic! The support of a skills trainer will be used as an intervention for students to develop skills through the Behavior Coaches. Most often this conversation would occur at an IEP meeting. Stephanie will work with 4-5 students during the day across multiple buildings for three week periods of time. The students will receive this support based on their needs and the skills they need to develop or work on. Lorna, Jen, and I will be working with Stephanie to create her schedule.
• On Monday of this week you received an email from Kathi Dew regarding “Tech Trek” – a STEM summer camp for current 7th grade girls that is held on the OSU-Cascades campus.  You were sent a number of documents.  I’ve invited Kathi to take 10 minutes at our Horizontal meeting this month and explain what this is and the role you play in helping to identify students who may attend. If you have questions regarding Tech Trek prior to Jan. 22 please email Kathi directly with those. Note: Applications are due Feb. 9 (actual form states Jan. 30).
• Kevin Feldman is going to be in Eugene on Feb. 27 to conduct a workshop (thanks to Dean Richards for passing along) entitled Improving Academic Literacy.  Click on the link for more info related to this training if you are interested.

REMINDERS:

• John Lindsay sent you an email on 12.18.17 regarding needed communication with HR around a couple of topics.  First, Probationary Three Letters  of Support need to be sent to him no later than Jan. 26. (His email identified whom the 3rd year employees are at each building.) Second, no later than January 15 (next Monday is a holiday, so for sure by Tuesday) John would like you to communicate with him regarding any certified staff you have concerns with.  Hopefully you have already given John a heads-up, but if not, please do so early next week.
• Monday is MLK holiday, so enjoy the day away from work!
• We meet as a Horizontal at 3:15 on Monday, January 22 at PCMS.  I’ll send you the agenda as part of next week’s TRIBE update.