Thank you for a great time in Student Services. I appreciate all of you and what you do for our students! I am not leaving the district but I am moving into a teaching position at Bend Senior High.
From Colleen Funderburg
Professional Development for Inclusion Educational Assistants
We are very excited to share that we are partnering with The National Resource Center for Paraeducators, NRCP, to provide monthly professional development opportunities for all Inclusion Educational Assistants. These trainings are designed to help deepen the understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Please read more about these trainings HERE. For additional questions please contact Krista Hought and Stephanie Smith.
Hope you are having a great start to your October! The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California Berkeley creates a monthly Happiness Calendar for Educators. You can access it here or even subscribe to their monthly calendars.
From Dean Richards
SECONDARY Teachers:
There is a professional development day that is designed for middle school teachers but may be of interest to high school teachers who are teaching students well below current grade level expectations in Language Arts. This professional learning class would be appropriate for teachers teaching in co-taught or in credit recovery situations. Special Education teachers may also benefit from this professional development. A Mathematics course is planned for late October, details to come.
Language Arts: October 16th from 8:00 to 4:00 in the Wall Street Lab (basement of the Education Center)
Topics to be discussed:
- Increase understanding of the role of foundational skills in reading
- Strategies for teaching multisyllabic words
- Strategies for improving word and world knowledge
- Comprehension strategies
To attend this professional development, please email Dean Richards with a request to attend.
Please see the reminder about the 70 hours of emergency subbing that was sent to your schools Principal:
Need emergency EA Support Now? You have funds for that. All building discretionary budgets contain a line item titled “High Needs”. These dollars come directly from the Student Services discretionary account for buildings to use. The purpose of these funds is to support building administrators to quickly staff for students with high needs. The funds are available to use at your discretion for supplemental subs and equates to 70 hours of a substitute classified educational assistant. This is an annual allocation and the typical carryover (10%) rules will apply as with all other discretionary monies. These funds are only to support high-need students that you believe require additional staffing. Some other considerations when utilizing the high needs students discretionary funds:
- The high needs student discretionary funds are not exclusively tied to students on an IEP or 504 and can be used with any student
- Supplementary substitutes should never work directly with a high needs student. Rather, the substitute should fill-in for our trained staff that can work with high needs students
Additional Student Services Staffing Requests: Any requests for additional Student Services staff (included unfilled positions) need to come directly from building administrators and not from learning specialsts. Each request will be reviewed by a team of Student Services administrators and level leaders for consideration. Some considerations when requesting additional student services staff:
- All high needs student discretionary funds (see above) must be spent first
- Prior to requesting additional staff, develop a plan for how the person will be utilized, duration of the request, plan to fade support, and the name of staff member facilitating the sub and plan implementation
- Any additional student Services staff requested via this process would need to directly serve students under the umbrella of special education (unlike the 70 hours above).
Restorative Practices Training Opportunity Next Week:
Certified staff: Our fabulous Culture of care coaches have curated some great training opportunities. Please note that you will need to work with your building admin and procure a substitute ahead of time to attend this training. You request a sub funds below. If those are not available, student services will split sub costs with your building admin.
Introduction to Restorative Practices
Tuesday, October 3rd: 8:30am-12:30pm
- Overview of fundamental theory and practices, including the Continuum, Social Discipline Window, Fair Process and Circle Planning & Facilitation.
- Limited sub funds available (note in your registration if requesting)
- High Desert ESD (2804 SW 6th St. Redmond)
- Register here!
Certified Staff: More restorative practices Trainings throughout the year. Again, for trainings occurring during the work day, please note that you will need to have sub first in order to attend the training. Also, student services will split the cost with your building administrator.
Restorative Practices Overview & Circles (Tier I/II)
Description: Abbreviated intro of fundamental theory and practices, including the Continuum, Social Discipline Window and Circle Planning & Facilitation. Schedule: Saturday, November 4th, 2023 from 9:00am-11:00am
Location: Virtual on Zoom
Using Restorative Questions & Circles Effectively (Tier II) Description: Builds on the Intro course, diving deeper into using the RP questions and facilitating proactive and responsive circles.
Schedule: Tuesday, February 13th, 2024 from 8:30am-12:30pm
Location: Bend La Pine Schools Education Center (In person)
Restorative Conferencing (Tier III)
Description: A responsive process to engage with those who cause and experience harm, along with related community to bring about healing, facilitate reentry and repair relationships. Introduction and Circles training recommended as prerequisites. Schedule: Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024 from 8:30am-12:30pm
Location: TBD Bend or Redmond (In person)
RP Community of Practice (Tier I/II/III)
Description: Follow up sessions to trainings for professional consultation, connection, implementation support, practice and troubleshooting around restorative practices. Schedule: Virtual on Zoom
Tier I: 11/16/23, 4:15-5:15pm Tier II: 2/27/24, 4:15-5:15pm Tier III: 5/7/24, 4:15-5:15pm