Focus on the Positive

 

This weekend, I ran across this post on Facebook.  Reading this and thinking, "that is nice" is a lot easier than actually being in this mindset daily.  My Grandma Miller and mom are always good at this.  I will call my mom to vent to her and she is always flipping the story on me, making it positive.  It is SO ANNOYING sometimes!  :-)

But, what I have learned about my mom and grandma is they are always happy as they see the world through a lens where the glass is always full.  They know how to create their own happiness by choosing to focus on what is positive.  

Last week, Stephanie shared some SEL activities for teachers to help us flip our script.  She taught us the importance of focusing on things we can control and not on what we can't.  Just like this Facebook post, this work is very powerful and necessary to help us manage our stress.  

All of you have made it through some of the toughest years in education and I know the kids are still struggling, making your jobs stressful.  Thank you for your continued work and care for our students.  We are lucky to have all of you.  I hope you can find all of the positives this week and create your own happiness! (Even if it is annoying!)  

Important Information: 

RECN Survey - Please, please, please fill out this RECN survey.  They have extended the due date to April 5th, so you can take some time on the 4th to do it if you need to.  If we get 3/4 of our teaching staff to take the survey - we get $400 to spend on all of you!   If you have any questions, please let me know.  

https://uncg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0qbzVEZ6744zdY2?=t1&sc=1886

Professional Development Schedule:  Attached HERE is a copy of the tentative Professional Development Schedule on April 4th.  We will make a few updates this week, but it will give you an idea!  Assistants, like the past few times, you are welcome to come in for training in the morning and eat lunch with us.   Remember there will be no students on April 4th!  

8th Grade Dessert and Learn - 8th Grade teachers are invited to join us for cookies and brainstorm ways we can possibly incorporate SEL into the school day.  We are only taking this one step at a time!  You should have received an email as well.  We will meet on Tuesday, March 29th from 11:45 - 12:24 in the Health Science Room.

Reflection Meetings - Thanks to all of you who have met with me so far for our reflection meetings.  They have been so helpful.  I appreciate everyone's honest feedback.  Looking forward to the rest of the meetings!

Spring Dates - HERE is a link to important dates this spring.  We will continue to add to it as we move forward. 

Commodore Pride - Thanks to everyone who met last Friday to discuss Commodore Pride. There will be another meeting this Friday morning in Vanessa Johnson's room.

Special Thank You - A special thank you to all of the assistants for their work everyday and specifically for their help last week covering so many classes.  They all worked together through last minute changes and my mistakes to get it all taken care of.  Our building wouldn't run without them - so please give the an extra high-five this week!

Noticing the Best in our Kids

 

As our students return this week, remember that many of them didn't really enjoy their week away from all of you. Some of the kids that are the toughest, need you the most.

Thanks for being a place where students can feel loved and safe! 

I hope you had a great week that allowed you to rest and be ready to conquer the last 8 weeks!

Important Information: 

* Faculty Meeting - We will have a faculty meeting on Tuesday, March 22 at 7:25 a.m. in the library.  A light breakfast will be served.  

*Reflection Meetings - I would love to meet with all of you over the next few weeks to get your feedback about how I can support you and ideas for making learning opportunities better, ideas for the master schedule, etc.  I am thinking we could have a 15-20 minute individual conversations and use these questions to guide our conversation: 

             * What are your reflections for the year?  Good things?  Struggles?  

             * Your goals moving forward. 

             * What do I need to keep doing, stop doing or change to help you do your job better?  

     Please sign up for a time that works for you.  I know that time is an issue, but we will do our very best.  I have created a google sheet for you to sign up on with times that work for me for now.  If any of these times do not work, please let me know and I will work with you individually.  I know that your feedback will help our school grow and continue to be a better place for our teachers and our students.    Sign Up HERE

* Dual Credit Teachers - Please remember you will need to do your REQUIRED Ivy Tech on-line training by April 1st.  The training will take you some time to complete (it has taken some teachers a couple of hours).  Please see Dana if you need help with this.

* NHS Induction - NHS induction is Tuesday, March 22 at 6:00 p.m.  

* WIN/Lunch Assignments - Thank you for talking to your students about tightening WIN.  I had several students stop and ask great questions and I know they were because you were preparing students for this change.  Reminder that we are working to tighten WIN/lunch.  Please use WIN for remediation/learning - coding out 10-12 students that need academic help.  I appreciate some of you want to eat lunch with students - please do this in the cafeteria or make special arrangements.  Please do your best to take good attendance.  We are printing WIN documents daily and looking at attendance daily to follow up with students in the wrong locations.  Please let us know if you have questions!

* Professional Development Day:  Our next Professional Development day will be Monday, April 4th.  Students will not have class on this Monday, but we will have PD.  A schedule of events will be sent out soon. 

* Professional Development Resources:  The Central Education Center (Keep Indiana Learning) has posted many great resources for teachers.  You can sign up for what you are interested in.  I have participated in many of their events and they have been worth my time.  Please see a list/link below.  I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunities!

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Legislative Update: Please find an update on the legislative process below.  This information is from the Indiana Association of Secondary Principals!

    Bills that DID NOT Pass (the work you did connecting with our legislators made a difference!):

* Partisan School Board Elections - The idea that school board members would have to declare their parties or run in a primary showed up in at least 7 bills - none of them made it out of committee.

* Special Education Conflict Resolutions  (HB 1107)  would have not allowed schools to defend themselves in public - was defeated 0-50 (even the person that wrote the bill ended up voting against it)

* Materials Harmful to Minors (SB17) -  Did not advance.  This would have allowed parents to have control the types of books and resources we provide to students.  

* SB 67/HB1134 - CRT Bill - Bill would have made us post our curriculum on-line and run all of it through a committee of parents, not allowed schools to help students with mental health issues, etc.  - Didn't get a third reading and none of the tenants of the bill made it into other bills, which was amazing!

      Bills that DID pass: 

* Participation in School Sports Bill - Prohibits a biological male (trans females) to participate in female sports (This will be challenged in court.) 

* HEA1093 - No letter grade this year, authorizes DOE to study machine scoring, requires teachers to discuss student state test data at school parent conferences, new e-learning language (virtual student instructional days) which would only allow schools to have 3 virtual days that are asynchronous  

* HEA 1130 - requires testimony at public board meetings (we have always done this)/ allows school boards to set time limits and take measures to ensure that meetings are safe

*HEA1031 - DOE must apply for assessment flexibility waiver with US Department of Ed that would allow us to only test in 3,5,8,11 grades moving forward, DOE must have research study in standards and how they can be streamlined and created the adjunct teacher permit (no education degree or bachelor degree), 

*SEA 2 - Allows for schools to receive 100% funding for virtual students, requires DOE to collect and conduct a study on early graduates (could affect funding in the future)

*SEA 82 - FAFSA Bill - only requires schools to send information to families about the FAFSA/most of the burden ended up on the Commission for Higher Ed and not our counselors, so it is a win!

*SEA 290 - DOE Career Coaching Pilot program/ null of school letter grade for 2022-2023 school year

Power of Tiny Gains

 This weekend was full of college basketball memories, including Duke University's, Mike Kryzyzewski's, last home basketball game.  As I filtered through on-line articles, I found a video clip of the coach talking about some of his best players and how they always wanted to be "coached hard".  He described how they not only had unbelievable talent, but were always asking for feedback and finding ways to get better!

His remarks reminded me of an article I read at from a training this week.  The article is around continuous improvement and how important it is to always be finding ways to move forward and the difference that a 1% change for the better can make.  If you get 1% better each day, by the end of the year, you will end up 37 times better than when you started.  That statistic is phenomenal!  

As we continue to move through the school year, I think this mindset is a powerful way to help us work to continuing to find powerful gains for student learning in a manageable way.  The article was a great reminder to me that even though being "coached hard" is not always easy, the mindset of continuous improvement is powerful and worth it.   

I would encourage you to read the article!  It is a great 3 minute read!  Continuous Improvement Article

Important Information: 

* Grades - The gradebook will dump this Wednesday night at midnight!  Please make sure you have your grades updated at that time.  If you need to issue incompletes, please see Jody or Phil and we can help you with that.  It is also a great time to check your reporting topics for 4th quarter to make sure you are ready!

* Spring Break Week - This is always the week that our students get to be a little squirrely as Spring Break approaches.  It is important to continue teaching bell to bell and providing students with highly engaging lessons.  Please do not allow students to stay by the doorway at the end of the period and hold your high level of expectations like you do all year!  

* Lunch and Learn - High School Assistants, we will be hosting a Lunch and Learn on Wednesday, March 9th.  We will announce the location of the meeting in an email soon!  Please keep a look out for it!  The meeting will be from 11:24-12:24.

* House Competition - We will have our House Competition on Friday, March 11 during 6th and 7th periods.  Students will report to 6th period and we will release them by intercom.  If you are a house leader and have a high school group 6th or 7th periods, please let Jody know so she can find coverage. 

Surprise and Delight - Stop in for a Surprise and Delight in the morning as we celebrate "Rolling" through this week!  We are also looking at a possible Surprise and Delight for students in 2nd WIN on Thursday.  We will determine that tomorrow based on the weather.  

I hope all of you have a restful Spring Break!  We will be back in school on March 21st for the sprint to the end!!!