I have gone back and forth as to whether I wanted to send out a weekly (or at least regular) email to you regarding items I think you should or might like to be aware of.  I want to be a good communicator and keep you in the loop, but also don’t want to take up your time or add to the clogging of your inbox.  So where I have landed (currently) is the idea of trying to withhold emails to you throughout the week regarding “stuff” coming up, but will try and capture these things and send you an email on Friday or over the weekend highlighting these things.  With that said, if I don’t have updates to report I definitely won’t make things up just to send you an email.  However, if you would like to hear from me or be disappointed in not seeing my name in your inbox at least weekly just let me know and I’ll come up with a quote or funny photo to send you.  Deal?

This week there are some, I feel, important items to pass along…

• You may have heard me talk about Reid Training in the past.  It is, by far, the best training you can get regarding doing your work related to student management/discipline.  Occasionally you may need it with adults too, which is just a bonus.  This training isn’t cheap, but not expensive considering it is three days.  With this said, the good news is that it will be held here in Bend for the first time of my knowledge.  The bad news is that it is next week!  (I just learned about it being here in Bend earlier today.)  Bar none – great training.  Check out this link for more information or to sign up: https://www.reid.com/training_programs/semdetail.html?serial=1430493856842689&secondary=&type=regular&third=

• Next Wednesday is our first district SIW day.  (A calendar of dates was previously sent to you.)

• There has been an update to the district SIW calendar!  (Click Here!) Math has been added to existing district SIW dates – including next week.  Your math folks don’t know this yet, but any that are involved in the CMP3 pilot are being asked to attend a meeting at Pilot Butte MS to discuss and plan for this pilot.  Time will be from 1:45 – 3:15 and rooms will be determined and communicated in the coming days (or your teacher can stop by the office and ask upon his/her arrival).  There will be three rooms available for meeting space and your teachers will need to choose between attending one focused on 6th, 7th, or 8th grade instruction.  Please communicate this add/change to your CMP3 math folks!

• Likely this will not be the final version of the district SIW calendar.  I believe the last three district SIW dates (all but next week’s) will include time for our science teachers to gather and do some work around NGSS and alignment.  This is not reflected on the attached document, but will likely be added in the coming weeks.  [I feel confident enough about this happening that you can feel free to let your science teachers know that the planning for this is in the works.]

• Monday afternoon we’ll be meeting at CMS at 3:15 for our first Horizontal of the year.  I’ll send you an email with an agenda and other documents on Monday morning related to this meeting.  See you all there!

The first full week of the 2015-16 school year is nearly in the books.  I want to relay to you again how much I enjoy working with you and appreciate the oversight and leadership you provide to our MS staff and students!  Enjoy the coming days…

Jim

As you slide into the Friday afternoon of your first week with students I wanted to communicate what a pleasure it was to visit your building this week and see first-hand the great things that you are doing with and for kids.  I have never had the opportunity to be in other buildings on the first day of school and I enjoyed seeing and hearing what you were doing to welcome and connect with students.  It was a gift.

My guess is that you are feeling a little spent and are ready for the weekend… Hope you don’t stay long at school this afternoon and get out and enjoy the next couple of days!

A few items for you to know or be reminded of that I wanted to pass along:

• We have a pretty full agenda for our Sept. 21 Horizontal meeting at CMS (and I’ve already started a list for our Nov. meeting).  With that said, if you have an item you think should be discussed please send that to me and I’ll triage what needs to be on this agenda and which can wait until we meet again.  We’ll be meeting from 3:15 – 4:45.

• Smarter Balanced results will be released on September 17.  Just as an FYI.

• ODE is creating an “opt out” letter/form for parents related to SBAC testing.  We are hearing this will be sent to districts the first part of November.  By law we need to provide parents opt out notice at least 30 days prior to testing.  We will work on a plan for the district of how and when to do this – but it will likely not happen until at least after the new year.

• Leadership meeting this Monday from 3:15 – 4:45.  One item on the agenda is Safety Drills Calendar.  Julianne will be sharing a drill calendar for each month of the year.  This is new and we hope very helpful.

Glad to be a part of your work –

Jim