To Do:

• If you haven’t already (and if needed), please email Jody McBride when you will be needing translation services at your building during conferences.  As mentioned earlier, your request should be received at least two weeks in advance, which is next Wednesday (if you can believe it!).
• Let me know if you are conferencing on Friday, Oct. 28.  My assumption is that your staff’s have all elected to conference on Wed, 26th and Thurs, 27th – but if you are instead conferencing on Thursday and Friday please let me know.
• Early next week you will be sent a link for completing a short survey (10 questions or less) regarding this past Monday’s Leadership time.  Jay, Gary and I are interested in your feedback in order to make our time together as valuable as possible.  We value your thinking and thank you in advance for your input!

This and That:

• As you likely are aware, Talent Ed is up and running! This year, to help ease your set-up burden, you only need to select one of two processes for your staff – those that will have a summative eval this year and those that will not. The SLGG form is a part of both of these two processes and you can have your staff begin completing this at any time.  Remember, Category I goals (SBAC) are no longer required and should not be used. The target date to have SLGGs completed is the end of October, but I understand if all are not completed until the middle of November due to the delay in making Talent Ed available to you. Let me know if you have any questions regarding this.
• I hope you take the 6:30 needed to watch this video called the Oak Park Positivity Project.  Following is a blurb from ABC Good Morning America regarding this video: Jamie McSparin, a teacher in charge of the school’s academy program for at-risk sophomore and juniors, posed a challenge for her fellow teachers: tell an individual student that they are important and appreciated. We’d look up their schedule and pull the kids from class for 30 seconds and the kids were all like, ‘Oh my gosh, did I not turn something in?’ and we’re like, ‘No, no, just stand there.’ Any teacher/student interaction always seems to be negative, and that was something that bothered me, too. No matter if they’re a good kid or a trouble maker or anything, they always thought they were in trouble, she explained. Some teachers would come up to me two or three days later and say, ‘I’m having a bad day. Let’s do another video.’  I challenge you to not only view this video, but to also think about how your “Positivity Project” might look at your school – and of course video your project to share with others!
• Shay has expressed an interest in joining me during some of my future visits with you at your building.  I have passed along a number of dates and times and anticipate that you may see both Shay and I in the coming months.  Just wanted to give you a heads-up and allow you time to have fresh baked goods ready for each of my visits – as we can never be sure which Shay will join us at, right?! 🙂

• [A good reminder from Julianne this week] With Halloween right around the corner and ‘clown sightings’ on the rise in the West – including CMS this week, I thought it would be a good time to remind you that we have policy in place that prohibits wearing clothing that is disruptive to the learning environment, that prevents identification (hoods, masks, etc.) or poses a threat to the well-being and safety of students or others. Feel free to report any suspicious persons/situations to law enforcement if warranted. 

  Details at: https://www.bend.k12.or.us/application/files/8714/5280/2180/JFCA-AR.pdf

• I was able to attend a couple of district-wide PD opportunities recently and want to pass along how impressed I was with your counselors and math teachers in attendance.  These folks were engaged, enthusiastic, passionate about their craft, and seemed to truly love working and problem-solving with their peers across our district.  It was a pleasure to see the zeal they bring to their profession. Just another reminder to me that we have good people working with our students!

Reminders:

To Do:

• Determine if and whom you would have attend Mary Ehrenworth’s workshop during the COSA conference here in Bend.  Communicate this to Stephanie Bent no later than Oct. 13.  (Additional details below.)
• If you haven’t already, sign up for a time to have your SRO talk to your staff, at a SIW prior to Dec. 31st, regarding EPT.  (Surveymonkey and details in “Reminders.”)

This and That:

• Gary Timms pointed me in the direction of this Ted Talk – and I thought it was worth passing along to you.  In this “lollipop moments” talk, Drew Dudley emphasizes that “leadership” is not reserved for the extraordinary individual, but more closely resembles everyday moments when one person chooses to interact with another in a positive way.  Take a look at the video Everyday Leadership.
• Two reminders/heads-up from Tami Pike that related to field trips with students who require direct care nursing services.  Here is Tami’s instructions:

  When field trips are scheduled with parental volunteer transport (or bus), students requiring emergency medication (Epi-Pen, Glucagon, inhalers) need to ride with a Bend-La Pine staff person who has been trained by a school nurse on medication administration. If the staff person (teacher) does not have a type 10 license to transport students, the staff person and the student must ride in a vehicle together along with the driver (parent volunteer). If there is not enough room to accommodate all of the students and the medication administration trained staff person, a bus transport will need to be requested.

  *Epi pen and Glucagon trained staff need to be CPR/first aid certified.

  **Please remind your staff that if direct care nursing services are required for field trips, we ask that a 2 week advance notice via direct care nursing request form is completed.

• Monday is a Leadership meeting at the Ed. Center, beginning at 3:15 (unless your last name is Stancliff, then you start at 2:00).  We’ll be getting into groups for discussion and future school visits.  (These will not be the same groups you’ll be in for our forthcoming MS Horizontal PD work.)  Here are the groupings we’ll be using for Monday, feel free to find and sit with this team when you arrive:
  • Group 1:Roger, Steven S., Wendy
  • Group 2: Chris, Stephen D., Teri, Hayley
  • Group 3: Robi, Brian U., Steph
  • Group 4: Lisa, Brian M., Scott
• As you probably are aware, the annual COSA Principal’s Conference is once again coming to Bend on Oct. 23-25 at the Riverhouse Conference Center.  The district will not be paying for conference registrations this year, with one exception. Mary Ehrenworth, a co-author of Units of Study for Teaching Writing, will be providing a workshop for BLS employees on Monday afternoon.  There will be no cost for buildings to attend this training, but sub costs will be the responsibility of each school.  See this flyer for more information and the number of slots each school has received (because of the cap number of participants we’ve been given). Please be aware of the Oct. 13 deadline for submitting names of those attending from your school.

Reminders:

• You received an email from Dave VanLoo on 9/23 regarding the Gallup Student Poll.  I just wanted to highlight a few points from his email again here:
  • This survey is open now through Oct. 28 – and we’d like to get as many students taking this as possible
  • It would be good to communicate with home that students will be asked to complete this survey, as well as communicating the types of questions that will be asked.
  • There is a “Parent Consent” form, but don’t feel like you need one from each student – or even need one from a student (or parent) who does not want to take this survey. If a student chooses not to participate that is enough. But again, we want as many students as possible to complete this survey.
  • Each school has a unique URL for taking the survey.  Dave recommends providing this link to your students for taking the survey on her/his iPads, then removing the link after they have completed the questions.
• Next Wednesday is the second of our four District SIWs.  All math will be meeting at HDMS (at 1:45), ELA/SS have an optional StudySync training at the Ed Center (room 312, 1:30 – 4:00). Everyone should know this, but a reminder might not hurt.
• Friendly reminder that annual Emergency Protocol Training (EPT) needs to be completed prior to December 31^st, 2016. Please coordinate with your school SRO, Julianne Repman, or Scott Bojanowski to set up a training date for your staff. The Emergency Protocol Training focuses on “All Hazards Training” to include discussion on identifying hazards and re-fresher training on protocols and guidelines for: fire drills, room clear, evacuation, reverse evacuation, shelter, Lock Out, Lock Down, and earthquake drills.
  •  You may utilize this survey site to request your 1^st, 2^nd, & 3^rd choices for EPT training dates: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KG8PGKM

Hayley was hanging with her Tam Fam at Skyliners Lodge this week!

To Do:

• Have 0ne building admin attend the Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Plan design meeting on Wednesday (from 8:00 – 3:00) at the Ed Center (board room).
• Share information below with your math folks regarding next week’s SIW PD.
• If you haven’t already, finish up any building certified evals today!  (See Jon’s email from Wednesday of this week if you have questions.)

This and That:

• Here is a video that I recently ran across (because I was scanning the instructional technology blog and read this post from one of the coaches whom I follow quite closely!). As I watched, it made me think about another way Student B (and the 4 C’s) can be reimagined from a teaching/leading perspective. I have recently heard Scott O. say that this would be his preferred way to “test” students – by evaluating the types of questions they come up with related to a topic (Scott said it better than this, but I think I caught the gist).  Hope this makes you think of potential applications like it did me…

• Alyx Lyons, our district’s new Secondary Literacy Coach, will be in touch with each of you at your building soon – if she hasn’t already.  Alyx will not only be introducing herself, but is also interested in hearing your thoughts around ELA curriculum implementation, how she can support your instructional leadership voice, or provide assistance to your teachers.  Connected to that, you will be receiving a flyer from her with information regarding some upcoming ELA PD opportunities for your teachers during our next two district SIW dates.
• As you know, first round of conferences are coming up on October 27, 28 (or more likely, the 26th and 27th with staff consensus).  If you are wanting an interpreter to be at your building you need to request this service through Jody McBride (email or ext. 1056) no later than Oct. 12 – preferably sooner.  Jody will then work with the HDESD to get them scheduled.  Additionally, please make an attempt to block out times when an interpreter will be requested – rather than requesting someone to be present during all conference hours.  All of our elementary schools will also be conferencing during the same dates/times, so planning ahead and “chunking” time will be important in order to have an interpreter available at your desired times.  Lastly, please provide the interpreter with a schedule (or radio) upon her/his arrival as they will likely not know where their services will be needed.
• Here is information from Tara and Matea that includes more details about this week’s SIW math PD – please share it with your math folks!

  Details for Wednesday, 9/28 middle school math meeting:

  1:45 – 3:15 at High Desert Middle school, in the Media Center.

  Bring Module 2 materials for each grade level you are teaching.

  Bring charged iPad and / or computer.

• The following is from Jay – regarding our next Leadership/Building Admin meeting on Oct. 3…

  As we move into our second year of school design work, it is critical that school leaders have time to think with and learn from each other.  To that end, this coming October Leadership Team meeting will provide minutes for us to discuss school design efforts and learnings across our schools.  With an eye on a commitment to collective genius, we are structuring this coming, and some other meetings, with a premium on time to think together.  Part of our agenda below will outline a year-long process that will provide even more time for that work as we will be asking you to visit schools and press into and learn from each other’s design work.  Please read far enough to note the what each administrator will be asked to share on the 3rd.

  Below is a draft of the agenda content for our Leadership Team meeting on October 3 that runs from 3:15 – 4:45.

  • Good of the order
  • “Thank You” from Shay
  • School Design – Why?
  • Design Cycle Visits
    • Design peer teams
    • Story from each school
    • Design process notes
      • Systems, calendared data reviews, successes, failures, ICCL involvement, “bucket teams”, other…
    • Cycle 1 visit focus and direction
    • Calendaring Cycle one dates and times

  ***Each administrator should come prepared to share the following:

  1.  120 second version of your school’s story
  2. Process around design that is helping you move from words on paper to a design that is the driver of the work in your school towards a broader definition of student success…Student B.  Think about who you are engaging in your design work, how you are engaging them, and what they are engaged in.  Consider the following questions to help you with this process part of the discussion on the 3rd:
     • Who is in the room(s) when we are working on school design?
     • How are school teams digging in to this work?
     • What data will we be reviewing as upstream indicators of progress towards goals?  Who will review it?  When will those reviews happen?
     • How will we communicate internally and externally our design values, elements and results?
     • Other thinking that contributes to how your school design process is driving the work to Student B…again moving from words on a paper plan to working the plan in real time.

  Thanks for leading and designing towards Student B…

  Jay

• Another PD opportunity for anyone on your staff (front office secretary, office manager, dean, SPED, teachers, etc.) is a de-escalating training.  The next two trainings are on Oct. 25 and Nov. 9 and available now in PD Place.  Here is a description of this training:

  De-escalation Training

  Over 90% of all crisis situations are emotionally driven.  In this class we will examine the mechanics of a crisis.  By understanding the contributing components of a crisis, and the variables that influence them, it is more easily possible to manipulate those components to bring subjects in crisis to a more rational state of mind.  We will discuss obstacles to communication and how to deal with them.  We will examine Composite Emotions and how to deflate them.  Emotional Prediction will be presented as a rapport building tool.

  If time and technology allow, the lecture will be followed by an interactive training DVD focused on active listening skills.

  Time Requirements – Lecture = 1.5 to 2 hours      Active Listening Video = 30 minutes

Reminders:

• Don’t forget that in order to receive the full stipend, all of your Fall Extra Duty personnel needed to be hired by the end of August (29th).  All Winter Extra Duty must be hired by December 14, and all Spring Extra Duty must be hired by April 3.  Any year-round stipends (e.g. drama, robotics) should have been hired by Sept. 1 of this year.  Seasonal extra duty will be paid in two checks, while year-round stipends will be paid over the course of 10 months.
• SLGGs are due (for teachers to you, VPs to principals, and principals to me) by Oct. 31.  Category I goals (SBAC) are not required this year. You will be able to find the Goal Setting Form in Talent Ed (once it is opened up for this year).  I’ll add this to the To Do list as we get closer to the deadline.

This and That:

• Scroll below for a few photos that I took when visiting your school last week.  Some come with more of a story than others, but all reflect the excitement and energy of the first few days of the year.
• You may recall (except for you Steve S.) that we had a couple of guest speakers from the county talk to us at our May Horizontal meeting at REALMS about a project that they had piloted in La Pine that year.  The project is called Positive Community Norms (PCN) and the focus is to, through media and guest speaking, reduce drug and alcohol use among adolescents by communicating n0n-use in a positive light.  For example: 93% of LPMS 7th graders did not drink alcohol in the past 30 days.  This year this project will be available at all middle schools in our district.  You do not need to participate, but I would encourage you to consider if it would fit within your system/structure/SDP at your school.  I’ll touch bases with you in the coming weeks to gauge your interest and answer any questions you might have.  As you consider becoming involved, and because this is a research-funded project, there are a few requirements for you to be aware of:
  • This project has been approved by our district’s Health Advisory committee
  • You would need to provide one SIW time to the county for PCN training with your staff
  • Your staff would need to conduct pre and post project surveys with your staff
  • You would need to have your students participate in the 2017 Health Teens Survey
  • County would work with your [health] teacher(s) and students to create PCN media posters for your school
  • County would mail home a pre and post survey for students and parents to complete and return to them
  • County would provide a parent/community PCN informational evening session.
• One more try!  Looks like there were some “settings” issues with Dean’s calendar/spreadsheet used for signing up for a time to meet with him at your building.  That issue has been resolved and here is the link that should work to get on Dean’s calendar. I apologize for the run around…
• Following is some information from Kerry Morton regarding a math PD opportunity for you that would strengthen your voice as a mathematics leader: Throughout the year, you are invited to attend professional learning designed and catered to your leadership needs. This is a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with other instructional leaders around mathematics teaching and learning.

  Fred Rectanus from Teachers Development Group is designing an Instructional Leadership Studio. The school is the “unit of change” and a distributed view of leadership requires specialized learning for principals and district administrators. You will receive coaching to develop your leadership voice for mathematics, organize your school for mathematics learning, and practice analyzing mathematics teaching.

  Attendees can be principals, assistant principals, student services, coaches and other instructional leaders in your building.

  Dates and Times:

  September 22^nd 11:45-2:45 tentative location is Mt. View High

  One other session in October, November, or December is still being scheduled

  January 13^th 8:00-11:00

  March 9^th 8:00-11:00

   Throughout the year, we will visit various school sites.

   Please sign up in PD Place so we know how many people will be in attendance for each session.

• Dave VL sent out the 2016-17 Assessment Activities calendar recently, but I thought it would be worth sharing again.  I’ve also loaded this within the BLS Docs folder.

Reminders:

• Next Monday we’ll be meeting at LPMS at 3:15 for our Horizontal meeting.  Don’t forget to add a few minutes to your drive due to construction.  The agenda can be accessed here, or in the Agenda folder within TRIBE.

Looks like Steph is enjoying her salad from home more than the one Terry grabbed from the salad bar. Stephen was outside supervising and enjoying the weather!

First day and all smiles!

That is a pretty good photobomb happening on the first day!  Is that Brian U. behind Scott?

A selfie with great smiles on day two!

Brian is thinking of a new idea that makes Wendy wonder (and me nervous)!

Roger has this whole school leadership thing dialed in!

Steve and Teri had a memorable first day. I wish the hand sanitizer didn’t have to be a clue of how they spent the afternoon!

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.

This and That:

• As promised in my last blog posting, I want to provide you with an update on some duties you will have need for this year that have been reassigned here at the Ed Center:
  • Stephanie Bent: In addition to what you have come to expect from Stephanie, she has also added TAG and First Aid/CPR responsibilities.  If you have a question about either of these two items please feel free to contact her.
  • Heather Cornett: Heather is the new Office Manager for STRIVE (formerly working at Summit and BLPSO) and will be taking on all discipline issues, including scheduling expulsion hearings.  (Sal will oversee K-12 discipline this year but if you have a question you may call me first and I can check with Sal if I don’t have a ready answer.)
  • Jody McBride: (The new Chris Huff) Will be in charge of translation and interpreter needs, risk screens (send her your paperwork), safe school assessments, collect monthly leave records from principals, receive any child abuse report forms, and update confidential pocket directory (admin cell numbers).
  • Charissa Gilmer: In addition to checking ID upon entrance to the building, Charissa will also reserve a room at the Ed Center if you have need for one.
  • Marsha Baro: Marsha will continue to be the District insurance, incident report, and emergency drill liaison, so continue to send questions or paperwork related to these topics her way.  The biggest change in her role this year comes as the District’s risk assessment and management specialist – meaning she will work side-by-side with you to proactively reduce or eliminate risks (and visit schools) to help creating a safe learning environment.
• A very early heads-up that there will be a crunch at conference times this year for interpreters.  In October all elementary and middle schools (except LPMS) will likely be conferencing on the 26th and 27th, with a likely interpreter need during the evenings on these dates.  The April conferences will be even a bit more tricky as Crook County schools will also be conferencing on the same dates as our elementary and middle schools (and we use the same pool of interpreters).  Our middle schools were thoughtful in making some adjustments at last spring’s conferences in terms of the structure and timing of when interpreters were requested – which really made a positive difference in interpreter availability, and hopefully still provided the support your parents needed.  Thank you in advance for thinking creatively on how you might structure this year’s conferences to again best provide interpreters when needed.
• And speaking of interpreters, here is a general rule of thumb when requesting translation services (through Jody): Interpreters should be requested 2 weeks in advance.  Translation services (e.g. newsletters) should be requested 3-5 days in advance and the document should be sent in it’s original format (no PDF please).
• You may have also recently received Phagan’s Hair Cut Passes in an email, but if not, feel free to print and hand out these free coupons to any students that may need one.
• MindUP is a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum that all of our middle schools will be provided materials and training for this year through a generous partnership with Deschutes County Health Services.  Last year a few buildings in our district, including LPMS and PCMS, piloted this curriculum in their schools.  At our September 12 Leadership meeting you will be provided with curriculum for your teachers (if you haven’t already received it) and a 3.5 hour training will take place at the Ed. Center on Sept. 22 for one person on your staff.  Please read through this MindUP document for an overview of the program and to help you decide, if you are interested, whom from your staff should attend this training. A couple of highlights from the linked document include the fact that the County is going to pay for the half-day sub (have our office manager “bill Deschutes County”) if you send someone to the training, and the training will likely last 3.5 hours, not the 3 hours noted in the overview sheet.
• If you haven’t heard, we will be going to a standard district photo ID badge this year.  When your staff members have their picture taken by Life Touch, on student picture day in your building, a district badge will also be created for her/him at that time.  Please have all of your staff wear these badges.  However, a different lanyard or clip can be worn with the badge.

Reminders:

• Last May (TRIBE, 5.27.16 edition) I notified you of Dean Richard’s availability to work with your school to support your efforts around EBISS.  The expectation was for each school to contact Dean (email or call @ ext. 1078) and set up a time to have him come to you and discuss your current state of EBISS affairs.  The bonus opportunity – although not required – is to also have Dean observe a live EBISS meeting at your site (wether this is all staff, grade level or other configuration).   The timeline is for Dean to complete these site visits by Thanksgiving.  With the limited hours we have Dean as a consultant, he will then work with a few schools (who have both a desire and a need for his support) during the rest of this year.  Let me know if you have any questions regarding this.
• As I have emailed you already (late last week), all middle schools will have Synervoice attendance calls go out beginning at 10:30am this year.  What this means is that any unexcused absences in Synergy at 10:00am any day of the week will generate an automatic call to that child’s parent/guardian notifying of their child’s absence that day.  Obviously, it will be important for your attendance secretary to have accurate attendance entered (which your teachers also plan an important role in) by this 10:00am timeframe.  Additionally, it also means any unexcused absence that initially occurs after 10:00am (student was present in the morning, but not in the afternoon) will not be reported via automatic phone call – but will rely on your staff to catch and report to you or manually call about.

This and That:

• Hot off of the presses!  This afternoon you received an email from Lora stating that our first district MS SIW date will be moved from Sept. 14 to Sept. 28.  We didn’t realize until today that the original date was your first opportunity to meet with all of your staff after school started – and we don’t want to take that time away from you.  (There is a possibility of also changing the Oct. 5 date as many schools have their staff meetings on the first SIW of the month.  Stay tuned for more on this potential change.)
• Speaking of new information, I heard yesterday afternoon that the annual Illegal Acts training (attendance from one admin from each building required) will be held on Aug. 23 from 8:00 – 12:00, but location was still undecided.  More to come from Sal regarding this.
• Linked here is our best thinking/communication regarding certified work calendar/fall in-service days.  Feel free to share all or parts of this with your staff.  If you have any questions or need additional clarification please let me know.
• Another piece of information that you may want to share with staff this fall (or at least know you have access too so you can refer back to it during the year if needed, is regulations around various types of employee leave.  This is a nice, concise document created in HR that you might want to also share with your office manager.
• Following are this year’s district calendars for your reference.  Bend-area middle and Three Rivers School  have one calendar – while La Pine Middle has a slightly different calendar due to having different grading terms.
• Here are two calendars related to classified employees that may be useful for you – and likely your office manager.  The Classified Employee Work Year Calendar provides a guide to work days for various classified positions.  The EA Work Year Calendar is specific to that employee position.
• And one last calendar to share.  This one is yours.  Please print out this year’s Administrator Calendar and mark off the days that you won’t be working.  Principals, please turn in a copy of yours to me by the end of September.  Assistant Principals, please work with your principal for deciding a turn-in time, to whom you’ll submit yours.  Remember that most of your non-work days should coincide with non-student and staff days.  That is not to say that you can’t take a day when students are present, but it shouldn’t be the common occurrence.
• Please share this information with your counselors and anyone else who might be involved in the registration of new students:  We are changing our practice this year regarding students who live in our attendance boundary, are enrolled in another institution, but want to take some classes at his/her home (BLS) school as well.  In the past we have allowed this.  Simply put, if we cannot collect ADM on a new enrolling student (e.g. because they already attend an online school) then we should not enroll him/her – unless they would want to pay tuition for the classes they want to take from us, which is unlikely.  This decision was made mainly for financial (we were not collecting any ADM on these students) and class size (often these students were enrolling in popular elective/specialty courses) reasons.  If you would like to make an exception for a student affected by this change in practice please let me know.

Reminders:

• This year’s MS Extra Duty should be sent out to each school soon – if you haven’t already received it.  Don’t forget that you need to have all of your extra duty employees hired prior to the start of the (fall, winter, spring) season in order for them to receive the entire stipend.  With this in mind, all fall employees need to be hired prior to September 6.j
• Chris Huff retired this past spring.  Chris had her hands in a number of pieces of activities that occur often in your schools.  Jody McBride, most recently in the SVMS main office, is transferring into Chris’ spot and will be charged with the difficult job of trying to corral Gary and I.  Jody’s first day will be this Monday and Chris will spend some time here early next week training her.  With that said, many things that Chris was responsible for has been parceled out to other people, while Jody will be picking up a few things that Chris didn’t do.  I will share more details about who is doing what in my next blog post (on Sept. 2).

This and That:

• The focus of our August 10 Leadership Academy (with your ICCL building team) will again be around School Design Plan.  We will be meeting all day at The Riverhouse – so feel free to share this date with your ICCL folks if you haven’t already.  In terms of agenda items on this day, you will have time to review and reflect (and possibly do some minor tweaks) to your building’s Design Plan. It would be helpful if you brought your most up to date version with you (with copies to share) or shared it electronically with those who will be joining you from your building. Please also plan to have your most recent SDP update in the Google Doc folder I shared with you last week – so you are able to take a peak at what other middle schools are thinking about in terms of Student B.
• You may have already heard that a blog has been created which highlights various PD opportunities BLS employees have available to them.  I would encourage you to share this link with your staff regularly (now and in the fall) as it will become updated throughout the summer.
• This is the last TRIBE update for the next few months.  This is the time of year when I normally reflect on the fact that the last nine months went extremely fast, but quite a bit was accomplished. I am so blessed to be able to work with each of you – and proud of the educational opportunities and teaching that you and your entire team (teachers, classified, support personnel) provided to our students this year.  Following are a few of the big picture achievements that went above and beyond the day-to-day excellence that was occurring in your classrooms:
  • CMS: No existing school experienced more loss (students, staff, programs) this year… and yet they rallied around the changes in schedule, standards-based instruction, grading and student management.  They have embraced their “losses” and used them  to launch into the “new.”
  • HDMS: Changes made to their House system in order to add back a number of elective offerings for students. To change the structure of how students are organized to learn – and have staff buy in to these changes in their establishment – has been a fascinating transition.
  • LPMS: Took advantage of the SDP process to re-evaluate current practices; which led to the creation of core belief, mission and vision statements – providing a lens of how to spend time and resources in the future. Big work for a new principal (working on her Doctorate) to get after.
  • PCMS: Everything was new.  This can be a blessing in many ways, but also present some challenges experienced in no other educational setting.  Creating culture, building morale, creating common language and expectations is easier said than done. But the team at PCMS have done amazing work this year.
  • PBMS: Taking the next step in the MYP implementation required some heavy lifting and a whole lot of encouragement and support.  School-wide standards based grading, and communication to parents, takes patience, planning, collaboration and a whole lot of PD.
  • REALMS: No current admin at the MS level has been at the helm longer, but it has been anything but a Groundhog Day experience this year.  Balancing the great EL work they have been doing with all of the “new” requirements of joining our district is no easy task.
  • SVMS: Strategic planning and delivery of staff and student celebrations this year have paid great dividends in creating culture and overcoming huge obstacles. The work around and associated with curriculum development, consistency of delivery, and building expectations have begun!
  • Tamarack: The process for transitioning a student back to her/his neighborhood school was analyzed and individualized for each student.  The student’s home school was seen as a partner to student’s success, with processes set up to reflect this belief.

Reminders:

• I will be out of communication reach from June 21 – July 10.  If you need help or assistance with anything prior to my return please contact Gary Timms or Lora Nordquist.

This and That:

• Please remember to update your staffing plans in Google Doc if/when you make adjustments to your staffing appropriations.
• I have heard many times this year (during school visits or various meetings) that there is a need for additional support for those students who are struggling with mental health issues – and that the percentage of students struggling with these types of issues seem to be on the rise.  With that in mind, I wanted to highlight an one day training that will be offered free of charge to BLS employees on August 24.  The training is called Youth Mental Health First Aid and I have heard strong endorsements from those who have received this training.  Click on the link or find the flyer within the PD documents in this blog for additional information.  Because only 30 slots are available (and 10 have already signed up as of this morning) I’d encourage any that are interested to sign up in PD Place soon.
• I’m sure you will be aware of this next fall without me saying anything, but I wanted to remind you that all of your math teachers and 2/3 of your ELA teachers will be teaching new curriculum (Eureka and Writing Workshop/Lucy Calkins respectively) – in addition to the NGSS for science.  They may likely need your support, guidance, knowledge of these materials and listening ear when issues or concerns arise.  Please let me know if you have issues emerge within your building as I’d love to work through those before the possibility of frustration settling in.
• My family will be traveling to Germany this summer with my sister and her husband – and our departure is just around the corner!  We have never been to Europe before and have been saving (and my sister planning) for a few years now.  Maybe those two years of German in HS will finally pay off!  We fly out of PDX on June 21 and return on July 10.  If you have any anticipated needs during that stretch please let me know in the coming days as I will have limited at best communication availability during that time.
• (The rest of “This and That” is a repeat from last week.  If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to read this article.  If you have already read it, then I am not adding to your reading this week!)  A May article out of The Atlantic magazine, How Kids Learn Resilience by Paul Tough is definitely worth reading.  An excerpt was highlighted in a recent Marshall Memo, but it did not include the entire article. Mr. Tough has packed this article full of golden nuggets that you will want to reflect upon, share with others (e.g. ICCL or other leadership teams), save for later, or begin implementing right away as you have need in your building. Don’t be in a hurry to get through the pages, but rather enjoy the journey of the message.  This message includes topics such as: academic achievement gap, how to teach grit, toxic stress, executive functions, ACE score, zero tolerance, behaviorism, non-cognitive ability, classroom environment, acting gritty, mind-sets, EL Education, and more.  Here is an excerpt from page 16:

  They identified three key human needs—our need for competence, our need for autonomy, and our need for relatedness, meaning personal connection—and they posited that intrinsic motivation can be sustained only when we feel that those needs are being satisfied.

  In their writing on education, Deci and Ryan acknowledge that many of the tasks that teachers ask students to complete each day are not inherently fun or satisfying; learning anything, be it painting or computer programming or algebra, involves a lot of repetitive practice. It is at these moments, they write, that extrinsic motivation becomes important: when tasks must be performed not for the inherent satisfaction of completing them, but for some separate outcome. When teachers are able to create an environment that fosters competence, autonomy, and relatedness, Deci and Ryan say, students are much more likely to feel motivated to do that hard work.

  The problem is that when disadvantaged children run into trouble in school, either academically or behaviorally, most schools respond by imposing more control on them, not less. This diminishes their fragile sense of autonomy.  As these students fall behind their peers academically, they feel less and less competent. And if their relationships with their teachers are wary or even contentious, they are less likely to experience the kind of relatedness that Deci and Ryan describe as being so powerfully motivating for young people in the classroom. Once students reach that point, no collection of material incentives or punishments is going to motivate them, at least not in a deep or sustained way.

Reminders:

• Wednesday, June 15, is a regular length day (non early release).  The last day for students, Thursday, June 16, is an early release day – with students dismissed at the normal SIW time. If you haven’t already, please begin communicating this with your parents/community.
• Friday, June 17, is a staff work day and last day for certified folks.  (Based on job title, classified employees may/may not have this as a work day.)
• We will be having our end of year Leadership BBQ on Monday, June 20 at noon here at the Ed Center.

This and That:

• I know that the end of a school year is near when high school graduations start occurring.  That is exactly the case for BLS high schools next week, with MVHS kicking things off Thursday evening, Friday evening in La Pine, followed by SHS and BSH on Saturday and finishing with Marshall on Monday.  Although these students are being (mainly) recognized for their accomplishments in high school, I wanted to shine a light on the work you have done with them during their years in middle school.  Every day you encourage, spur on and motivate students to keep going, try harder and strive for more – often not seeing the fruits of your labor.  Although it isn’t the only milestone, high school graduation is one street sign of success along a student’s journey.  So as seniors walk across the stage next week and earn his/her diploma be proud of the fact that you helped them get there.
• A May article out of The Atlantic magazine, How Kids Learn Resilience by Paul Tough is definitely worth reading.  An excerpt was highlighted in a recent Marshall Memo, but it did not include the entire article. Mr. Tough has packed this article full of golden nuggets that you will want to reflect upon, share with others (e.g. ICCL or other leadership teams), save for later, or begin implementing right away as you have need in your building. Don’t be in a hurry to get through the pages, but rather enjoy the journey of the message.  This message includes topics such as: academic achievement gap, how to teach grit, toxic stress, executive functions, ACE score, zero tolerance, behaviorism, non-cognitive ability, classroom environment, acting gritty, mind-sets, EL Education, and more.  Here is an excerpt from page 16:

  • They identified three key human needs—our need for competence, our need for autonomy, and our need for relatedness, meaning personal connection—and they posited that intrinsic motivation can be sustained only when we feel that those needs are being satisfied.

    In their writing on education, Deci and Ryan acknowledge that many of the tasks that teachers ask students to complete each day are not inherently fun or satisfying; learning anything, be it painting or computer programming or algebra, involves a lot of repetitive practice. It is at these moments, they write, that extrinsic motivation becomes important: when tasks must be performed not for the inherent satisfaction of completing them, but for some separate outcome. When teachers are able to create an environment that fosters competence, autonomy, and relatedness, Deci and Ryan say, students are much more likely to feel motivated to do that hard work.

    The problem is that when disadvantaged children run into trouble in school, either academically or behaviorally, most schools respond by imposing more control on them, not less. This diminishes their fragile sense of autonomy.  As these students fall behind their peers academically, they feel less and less competent. And if their relationships with their teachers are wary or even contentious, they are less likely to experience the kind of relatedness that Deci and Ryan describe as being so powerfully motivating for young people in the classroom. Once students reach that point, no collection of material incentives or punishments is going to motivate them, at least not in a deep or sustained way.

Reminders:

• Wednesday, June 15, is a regular length day (non early release).  The last day for students, Thursday, June 16, is an early release day – with students dismissed at the normal SIW time. If you haven’t already, please begin communicating this with your parents/community.
• Friday, June 17, is a staff work day and last day for certified folks.  (Based on job title, classified employees may/may not have this as a work day.)
• We will be having our end of year Leadership BBQ on Monday, June 20 at noon here at the Ed Center.