Happy Holidays and a Joyous New Year...Day 173!! And Friday Focus!!!

Snow Day - 

I had started this blog earlier in the week, but now I am rewriting the opening paragraph as I sit at my desk in a near empty school on our first inclement weather day of the year. Empty schools, while nice for getting paperwork done, are boring, dysfunctional places for me. Without kids, and teachers, I can honestly tell you that I hate being in school. I know there are days where it has to happen, and I know there are days where I need to get the "business" part of running a school done, but I don't have to like it! Anyway, I hope that staff, students and families are enjoying this added day to your holiday break. We'll see you in 2014!!!

Mid-point?

In a school year, the semester split, in late January, is technically the middle of the year. But I have a hard time not taking time during the Holiday break as a more natural time for reflection and recharging. So, how am I doing? 

According to the staff's first evaluation of me, here is a "job satisfaction" break down:

Indicator	% Strongly or Somewhat Agreeing	% Strongly or Somewhat Disagreeing
Creates a healthy learning environment	96%	4%
Seeks input from a variety of sources for decision making	90%	10%
Supports a safe and orderly environment	98%	2%
Students know I care and am committed to their growth	96%	4%
Supports programing for all students	94%	6%
Communicates expectations for teachers for high quality instruction	94%	6%
Communicates that all programs are important, academic and co-curricular	98%	2%
Available for questions, reflection and support	81%	19%
Leadership team works well together	80%	20%
Leadership team provides needed coverage and support	88%	12%

I think most people would feel good about a survey that indicates that in all areas 4 out of 5 respondents agree you are providing the necessary support to the school. However, as you get to know me, you'll find out that when I give an evaluation like this, I spend very little time reflecting on what is going well. Instead, I obsess about the areas where people feel I am falling down. And even in the two areas where I scored 98%, I can't help but think about the one respondent in each of those areas who reports that, in their experience, my leadership is falling short. 

So, since I try to have a growth mindset, and encourage each of you to have one as well, I will try to focus on areas where I need the most improvement according to your feedback. In order the areas where the faculty would say I could most improve are:

• Leadership Team works well together
• Is available for questions, reflection and support
• Leadership Team provides needed coverage and support
• Seeks input from a variety of sources for decision making

Our leadership team, Shane, Laurie, Aaron and I, have been working to be more aligned since my first day in the district. These are complicated relationships between us and I do things differently than things have been done in the past here. I think we are coming together and it is an area of constant focus for us. Losing Laurie will inevitably change the dynamic of our working together, but we will continue to focus on our communication and teamwork. I hope that our end of year evaluations reflect that. If they do, great; and if not, we will be more intentional about this going into 2014-15. 

The other two areas, seeking input and being available to me are related. They are about accessibility and listening. Many of the comments are about the need to go through Marcia to schedule time with me, or about my distracted nature when someone drops into my office to chat with me. I am not good at stopping one task I am thinking deeply about to engage with someone. When my brain is focused on a task or on problem solving, I am deeply engaged. When asked "Do you have a minute?" it feels rude, and sort of untrue, to answer, "No I do not." So I will say yes most of the time. The problem of course is that I won't be listening to you with my entire brain...or even most of my brain. Unless your "Do you have a minute?" rises high enough on my priority list to overwhelm whatever it is that I am working on at the time, most of my brain is going to be engaged on that prior task; and that means that you are going to be dissatisfied with my response to you and I am going to feel like I haven't been effective at either thing. 

To eliminate this, I have tried to use Marcia as an Executive Assistant...to assist my executive functioning so that when you have my attention you have my whole attention. If this feels awkward to you I apologize, but I want to be wholly engaged in the issues you bring to me. I am not intending this to be an obstacle to getting your needs met or to avoid talking with you. If you would prefer, my calendar is a publicly searchable document in Google. You can schedule your own meetings with me. And please, if you do so, invite me to your classroom at a time that works. I'd rather meet with you in your room, closer to where learning takes place, than in my sterile administrative office. 

I hope explaining why I am asking for this will help more of our staff understand and accept that the structuring of my calendar is about making me more effective and more accessible, not less. I hope that pointing out that you have the flexibility to schedule your own meetings with me if you are comfortable with that does the same.  And maybe, for some of our staff, I just need to say the following: "I am willing to talk with you about any topic any time I am available in any place you care to meet. Moreover, I am excited to talk about education and learning and students with you. It is the passion of my professional life and I can't think of many things I like more than talking with educators about all things education. Please, please, please approach me with anything, even and especially if it is 'You are doing a crappy job of __________?' or ' Can you help me with_____?'"

The other thing I will be doing in the next few months, to help assure more staff feel I am accessible and responsive to your needs, is to stop in during times you are not with students, before or after school, or other times during the day. My goal here will be to give you a pain-free, uninterrupted time to share any thoughts you have and for us to continue to get to know how each other thinks. If you are busy working on something and would prefer not to be interrupted, please ask me to come back latter. (I don't want to do to you, what I am asking is not done to me with drop-ins. That would be sort of hypocritical, wouldn't it?)

Time away

Teaching is a stressful profession. As we head into the Spring, each of us will feel the pressure of getting our charges ready for the next stage in their journey, whether that is moving on to the next class or graduating from our fine school. These next two weeks are a natural and needed time for each of us to spend with family and recharge our mental batteries. Please take some time for yourself and your loved ones. Enjoy the holidays. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. 

Office Hours

Over the next two weeks, I will be in the office on Monday, December 23rd and Monday, December 30th. If you have need to speak to me, please stop in. Of course, if you need to speak to me any time, you can give me a call on my cell. 

Things I'm reading and thinking about this week:

Gratitude can Fuel School Transformation by Elena Aguilar
I like the idea that we can intentionally make ourselves and those around us feel better about what we do by making conscious decisions about how we respond to the events of our lives. I think we can all attest to the impact Cliff's positive attitude has on us; so can we do the same for others? I think so.

Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning by John Dunlosky
We've had a lot of talk lately here about how to help our students be more successful. Which has had me looking for ways to help and support teachers as they try to do just that. Here is an article that was shared with me, that while it is a little dense, has some great suggestions for how to improve student performance with some researched-based study strategies. Take a look.

More on the Immeasurable by Will Richardson
Only six words of this blog post are by Will. They are his comment on a statement made by Larry Cuban, another big thinker and blogger in American education. Basically, both are a reminder that many things we all believe are important in education, not the least of which is our relationships with our students, are not measured on standardized tests. And in a world where it seems like things that aren't measured are increasingly devalued, how long is it before the importance of relationships with kids becomes devalued? My unspoken question is what can we do about it? (Also, to mention that entire subjects that have historically been very important in American education, like Art, Music, Phy.Ed., to name a few, aren't measured on standardized test either.)

The Biggest Lie Students Tell Me (and how to turn it around) by Jose Vilson
I love this blog post by Jose. "I can't do this" is something I think we have all heard from many students. I heard it this week from a reluctant student when a teacher asked me if I would try to work with them on some math problems. We had a great conversation about it as it became clear to us both that the student was at least as competent at the work as I was. Keep striving to show kids the falseness of this lie they tell, even to themselves!!

How to Help Stressed Out Teachers by Joyce Dorado and Vicki Zakrzewski
A kindly member of our staff shared this with me in recent weeks. A few good tips here. (Not that any of us are stressed out.)

Cartoons: Parents and Kids at Home By Larry Cuban
On the cusp of holiday break, this blog full of cartoons about kids and their parents seemed funny and appropriate to share. Enjoy. 

Friday Focus - 11/15/13...a day late, so more like a Monday Memory

Wow! We have some talented kids!!

Since my last blog post, I've seen Lianna Mack finish 8th in the Division 1 Cross Country Championships, watched the best high school drama production I have ever seen in our Les Miz (involving upwards of 60 students), and watched 6 athletes compete in the Division 2 Swimming Championships, including one of them, Oliva Chao, opening the event with an awesome rendition of the National Anthem on her violin. That's a ton of Awesomeness in just a 14 day period!!

On top of that 56 freshmen scored above the 96th percentile with their composite score on the EXPLORE. And 43 sophomores scored above the 90th percentile on the PLAN. And 40% of all the grades earned by our students during the 1st quarter were As! Again, very good work by our students and faculty.

But, there is more work to be done...

22 freshmen failed to achieve a composite EXPLORE score above the 33rd percentile. The same can be said for 13 of our sophomores on the PLAN. And 119 students earned 203 failing grades during the quarter. 

We have a plan for Wednesday for students to interact with their PLAN, EXPLORE, and ACT results and to discuss with teachers ways that they can access our curriculum such that it will help them get better scores in the future.  And we have begun to talk in ARP revision about making changes that will allow us to have greater access and time with those students who have failing grades in our classes. 

Which leads me to a greater conversation...

about something I meant to have us discuss in our August in-service, but we ran out of time. I've looked for a way to bring it up in staff meetings since, but we always seem to have an already full agenda. Since I know that most, if not all, of our faculty read this blog, maybe this a place to get the conversation started. 

A conversation about what kind of school we are, and what kind of school we want to be. It can be a complicated conversation; one I've had lots of times in schools over the last two decades. As educators we can tend to dive into the minutia of what a school is and have lengthy debates about grading practices, course offerings, staffing plans, and schedules. But it can also be simple. As simple as this example from Rick Dufour, one of the founders of the PLC movement.

Dufour, in just about every session I've seen him give, has identified 4 kinds of schools: The Charles Darwin School, The Pontius Pilate School, The Chicago Cubs School, and The Henry Higgins School. And in every session I've been in, facilitated by a Solution Tree professional, the audience has been asked to identify which of these schools they currently work in, which school they want their children to attend, and which school they would prefer to work in. Of course, the real fun starts when the discussion centers on the respondents who select different kinds of schools for questions 2 and 3. :-)

I won't ask you to respond to these questions publicly in this space today, but as we move forward over the next 5-6 months with redefining who we are at SPHS, I'll ask you to keep these simple descriptors for these 4 kinds of schools in mind and to reflect on which school you want to work in:

The Charles Darwin School

Motto: We believe that all kids can learn – based upon their ability.

• Student aptitude is fixed and not subject to influence by teachers. 
• As a result, we create multiple programs or tracks to address differing ability levels. 
• Tracking gives students the best chance of mastering the content that is appropriate to their abilities.

The Pontius Pilate School

Motto: We believe that all kids can learn…if they take advantage of the opportunity we give them to learn.

• It is the teacher’s job to provide all students with an opportunity to learn by presenting lessons that are clear and engaging. 
• It is the student’s job to learn, and if they elect not to do so, we must hold them accountable for their decisions.

The Chicago Cubs School

Motto: We believe that all kids can learn …something, and we will help all students experience academic growth in a warm and nurturing environment.

• A student’s growth is determined by a combination of his/her innate ability and effort. 
• Since we have little impact on either, we will create an environment that fosters their sense of well-being and self-esteem.

The Henry Higgins School

Motto: We believe that all students can and must learn at relatively high levels of achievement, and our responsibility is to work with each student until our high standards have been achieved.

We'll talk more about this in coming weeks and months. 

Things I'm reading and thinking about this week: 

Uncovering Innovations that are Invisible in Plain Sight by Arvind Singhal
The article discuss a research focus on so-called "positive deviants" and the power of studying the individuals who have the same challenges and resources as everyone else but yet achieve substantially better results. We all know that we have positive deviants in our school, both among the faculty and the students. What could we learn for our own practice by studying the ways they are successful?

Better Ways to Use Technology in Schools by Kristen Swanson
I use Kristen's stuff often. (Jumbo Jenga was a modification of something she shared over the summer.) Here she speaks in this podcast about educational technology. Take away? If you are using technology as a different platform to do something you did without the technology, you are missing the point.

Intended vs. Actual Learning by Cale Birk
I spent a bit of time thinking about this post over the weekend. While the majority of the article didn't seem to apply to me and my work, the final sentence, where the author challenges himself to improve his faculty meetings based on this dichotomy, has me questioning myself. Our staff meetings have not been a participatory as I would hope so far and I think I have to take some of the blame for that. Maybe I haven't done a good enough job of structuring them to be participatory and engaging. I'll need to think longer about how I can improve that.

Points of Entry by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher
With CCSS and our own discussions about literacy, I found particular interest in this month's copy of Educational Leadership, which is focused almost entirely on "Tackling Informational Texts." Since this is a form of literacy that is applicable to all subject areas, and since this article offers some practical solutions to helping students, I thought I'd share it here. Enjoy.

Be careful out there!!

November 1st? Really? ...and Friday Focus 11/1/13

Bam! Blink and 25% of the year is gone!

I am always humbled by the speed of each year's passing. We all know the hard work of the day-to-day running of our school can be all consuming. If we don't take time to reflect on where we are occasionally, we might end up missing the forest. 

So, we've rolled out Google Apps, revised ARP (twice), secured 20 seats with two different online vendors for a year-long pilot, completed a successful fall activities season, are on the cusp of an ambitious fall musical, sent a two-year pilot for a tiered pathway-to-graduation system to the BOE for approval, had a great homecoming week, inducted 25 new students into National Honor Society, been named one of the top-291 FFA chapters in the country, celebrated the 50th Anniversary of our school, raised $65,000 for new bleachers in the South Gym, and implemented a trial run of the ACT Suite of assessments a year earlier than required by the state. And that's just a quick list. I'm sure I am missing something that should be here. (Please take time to list the accomplishment of the last 9-weeks you are most proud of in the comments.)

When I was a youth, I was the kind of person who counted down the days to some future milestone. While you may have noticed my penchant for counting, for example today is my 124th day as SPHS principal, I've stopped counting DOWN to things. A wise mentor pointed out to me that, essentially, countdowns were the act of wishing away your life, of living more in the future than in the moment before you. Confronted with that concern, I stopped counting down. This time of year, countdowns start to proliferate in schools. Countdowns to Thanksgiving, Christmas, 2nd Semester, Spring Break, or Graduation abound from now until June. If you are tempted to start a countdown, think twice about whether you'll be so eager to countdown you last days of anything 50 years from now...and try to focus on the moment instead.

Movember!

I've joined the Lumberjack Eagles team and will be growing a ridiculous beard over the next month while trying to raise money and awareness of men's health issues. I'd like to thanks John Dollar and Stacy Packard and all others who are getting involved with this drive. I have committed to a haircut from the winning team if we raise $2,000 as a school. To give you a preview of my commitment to this, here is a staff only taste of the lengths I am prepared to go:

Les Miserables!!

Thursday the fall musical, Les Miserable opens in the River Arts Center. You can order tickets from any cast member, online at  http://saukprairiemusic.org/, at River Arts on Water or at the Community Center. Let's get out and support our amazing, talented music students as they tackle this ambitious musical drama!

Up-Coming Week:

Monday, Nov. 4th - Chad will be conducting screening interviews for a new EBD position. If you would like to be on the interview team for formal, panel interviews later in the month, let Chad know.

Tuesday, Nov. 5th - Special Education department meeting 7:15 AM

Thursday, Nov. 7th - ARP revision meeting - 3:20 in the Office Conference Room

Things I am reading and thinking about this week:

Online Learning: A guide for schools (DPI Website)
As we pilot some online alternatives for kids, and embrace a way of learning that the rest of the world is pushing us to adopt, I've been thinking a bunch about how to govern, regulate, and manage an online learning environment compatible with our Brick and Mortar school. This web-site I stumbled upon and I spent some time exploring it this week. It seems to mainly be a resource for Charter Schools. but there are some ideas here worth considering if you are interested. 

PHS offers innovative English-science Class (Sheboygan Press Gazette)
I am always fascinated by local news articles about schools that use the descriptor "innovative." I am not sure what is so innovative about this class, though I am excited by the interdisciplinary learning. I also don't understand how credit is earned here. They describe it as allowing more freedom in later years to take additional classes, but then they also say that they take the class all year for a two period block and earn 2 credits. If that is the case, the two statements are contradictory, so one of them must not be true. I'd be way more excited about this class if it was interdisciplinary for a year in a 45 minute period and earned 2 credits; that at least would be decoupling the notion of credit earning and seat-time. That could arguably be called innovative.  

Boss, not Workload, Causes Workplace Depression by Kristian Sjogren
Share with me by one of our colleagues. She assures me that she was commenting on her current lack of depression and giving me credit for it. I hope she was telling the truth. In any case, I don't think any of us are surprised by this finding. I know that I will work till I drop for a boss who cares about me, values my contribution and honors my sacrifice. I hope I never make any of you feel any different. 

Communicating Change: Me Before We Then Us by Gretchen Rosswurm
I sometimes get stuck at the "Us" level of explaining change without focusing enough energy on letting people explore the "Me" stage. I get it, at least intellectually, but I don't live it when I am in the middle of advocating for a change. I need to think more about this.

Be careful out there!!

Friday Focus - 10/18/13

Parent Teacher Conferences

On Tuesday, Oct. 22, we have Parent Teacher conferences from 4:00 to 7:30 pm in the commons and on Thursday, Oct. 24th, from 8-11:30 am in your rooms. Please take steps to invite parents personally to come and meet with you, especially those parents you most feel the need to see. Also, if there are any obstacles to your being available during those hours, please communicate that to me, your students and their parents, and make parents aware of the options for meeting with you outside of those hours.

Professional Development Day - Oct 25th

There is not a building- or district-wide PD offering on next Friday. If you have banked the required amount of Professional Development, it is a vacation day for you. If you are in need of PD hours, please speak with me about your plan for the day.

Google Training Options

Again, I want to take this opportunity to remind you that John and Ryan have developed a Google Training to help all of us be more comfortable with the Google Aps Suite. If you are interested the next offering is at 3:30 on Oct. 30th in John Dollar's Room.

Also, here is another Google training I would support:

Naomi Harm and Tim Nielsen with Innovative Educator Consulting are presenting Get Your Google On! in Iowa-Grant on December 4th. This workshop is open to all districts, but pre-registration is required. The cost is $100/person. If you register a team of three from one district, you can also send an administrator (superintendent or principal) for FREE! More information can be found on our website --http://www.naomiharm.org/upcomingworkshops.html. Or click here to register today!

Come explore the wonderful world of Google Apps, Chrome Apps and Extensions for education. Participants will be immersed in innovative ways of how to use Google Apps and resource tools to extend mobile learning opportunities for all of their students. The Innovative Educator Consulting Team will also showcase how Google tools can support the productivity and efficiency of today’s 21st century educators and administrators. Examples include: mobile walk-throughs to collect instant data sets to support student and educator assessment practices, advance searching techniques, collaborative web-based applications of Chrome Apps and Extensions, Google scripts to automate tasks across Google products and third party applications, and digital product creation. This full day of interactive presentations and hands-on activities will be provided to enhance your instructional approaches and empower the k-12 teaching and learning environment.

Graduate credit is available through Marian University for an additional $175.
Naomi Harm is a great trainer and I would encourage you to attend. I obviously can't afford for the whole building to go, but if you have the money in your department budget to go, I will authorize, and cover the sub cost, for up to 4 staff members to attend that day.

Organizational issues:

I will be out of the office on Thursday, Oct. 24th until 10:00 am. I am attending a regional superintendent and principals meeting with Dr. Thompson. I will also be out of the office all day on Friday, Oct. 25th. I am taking a personal day.

Marcia will be out of the office Oct.29-Nov. 1. She will be chaperoning the FFA trip to the annual convention.

Please plan accordingly if you need either of us during those times.

On a personal note:

Last Thursday, I discovered that one of our retired staff members at Rice Lake High School, Char, had learned she had an inoperable brain tumor. She had been diagnosed three weeks prior, and the news was shared with me via a conversation with my former associate principal. Char elected to seek a second opinion, and flew earlier this week to Houston for a risky surgery at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. On Wednesday, I learned that the surgery was unsuccessful and by 4:00 pm, she had died. I find myself troubled by Char's death. Because of the suddenness of it. Because of her youth. (She had just turned 60.) And because I never felt like Char and I saw eye-to-eye on educational issues and as a result, we didn't have as warm of a relationship as I wish we would have had. 

I had a ton of respect for Char, but because of declining enrollment issues and state finances and the subject she taught, I don't think she ever felt any of that respect. That is my fault. I was young and stupid and arrogant and not willing to spend the time to work through all of that to get to the person underneath...for either of us. Times of loss always force me to reflect on who I am and who I want to be. I don't ever want to feel this regret again. 

So while we may disagree in our future together, I hope I don't ever forget to make you feel the respect I have for you and to interact with you as a human...before we tackle the hard work of school reform. If I don't or am not living up to that hope, please call me on it. 

Things I am reading and thinking about this week: 

The Secrets to Creating a Positive School Culture by Eric Sheninger

I hope you know I love the idea of empowering students to take the lead in their learning. So it should come as no surprise why I love this blog post!

Ten Rules for Living by David Wee
I'm a sucker for lists like this. I enjoy the way they make me think, especially when I don't agree with one of the rules. :)

Clarifying Collective Inquiry by Rick Dufour
I frequently revisit DuFour's writing, just to try to keep my eyes on the prize. I hope you do to. This one is short and thought provoking, especially at the end of a PLC week. 

Friday Focus - 10/11/13

My New Focus

I've been putting myself under a bit of pressure every week to write a witty post entailing deep observations about the world and education and Sauk Prairie. (I know, right? It's amazing that even with that pressure I've been so bad at it.) In any case, that has sometime prevented me from sending out a post every week, just to keep you all in the loop. So to rectify that, I am instituting the "Friday Focus," a kind of weekly newsletter from the principal's desk with the goings on for the week ahead. It might also include a thought or two about the week just past, but basically, the "Friday Focus"  will be the kinds of informational items that clutter up your email or our staff meetings. Hopefully this format will allow us to be more efficient with our time, with our inbox space, and more effective at keeping everyone up-to-date. If you have items for the "Friday Focus" please send them to Chad or Marcia by 8:00 am each Friday.

Long-term Sub for Teresa

While we are all missing Teresa, we can be super happy to welcome Kirsten Johnson to our high school family. Kirsten is very well qualified to attempt to fill in for Teresa in her absence. I know worry over having a qualified sub was weighing on Teresa's mind, so great job by Shane to secure the services of this outstanding young educator. Stop by and welcome her to the building when you get a chance. 

ACT/PLAN/EXPLORE

On Wednesday, we will be administering the 3 different tests to almost 650 students. Because of the three tests and the varying levels of accommodations needed for Special Education, 504, and ELL, we have nearly 50 different testing environments. Laurie, Tonya, and especially Owen, with a big assist from Laura Lang have been working to make this schedule as problem free as possible.

However, we have never had a testing environment anywhere near this complex. What that means is that just about every adult in the building will play a role in the testing. It also means that, because there are three test going on simultaneously, all proctors will be responsible for the administration of the test in their rooms with their group of students. I understand that this will be radically different from our WKCE testing environment, especially in the level of responsibility for each staff member. I trust that each of us will do the best we can, and I plan to spend as much time as we need in our staff meeting on Monday going over everyone's assignments and the test administration procedures. 

I also fully expect that even with all of this planning, something is likely to go very wrong. It has the possibility to be a chaotic day. I rely on your professional judgement to help us limit that chaos and for your feedback to improve. Remember, this is a trial run. Next year we will likely have to do exactly this, only the results will have lasting consequences for our students, our district, and with Educator Effectiveness, each of us. I am very happy we have the foresight to practice this chaos. I hope you are too.

ARP Updates

Thanks for making a smooth transition to the next modification of ARP. I haven't heard any feedback, positive or negative, this week. I have heard some questions about whether we still need to use written passes. The revision committee talked about this very thing and decided to leave written passes as part of the travel plan. Their rationale for doing this was to provide the "receiving teacher" with a means to control which and how many students came to them during ARP. If we no longer think this is an issue, we can talk about modifying that piece, but please continue to use passes until we come to consensus for the sake of consistency. Also, please remember and respect that the other prohibitions against movement during ARP still exist. Movement should be very restricted except at the very beginning and at the half-way point. Lastly, if a student goes for help during the first half of ARP and wants to return to their ARP room, it seems to me this should be allowed. What does the group think? Maybe we can take a quick "fist-five" on this in the staff meeting on Monday.

Managing Chad's Schedule

I love having the opportunity to chat with each of you, either to hear a new idea about how to meet a kid's needs or to laugh or to problem solve an issue you are having. However, through 1 and 1/2 months of the school year, I am as yet unable to get on top of both the management of our school and the instructional leadership that I feel is the most important part of my job. That isn't anyone else's fault except mine. The reality is that I am so excited to be here and I see such potential for greatness around every corner, that I just want to tackle everything.  As a result, I feel I am truly effective in almost nothing I do right now. 

Over the next few months, that will start to change. Both because my newness here will have faded and because I will be better in tune with our needs and our future. However, I also feel I need to make some modifications to how I conduct business, so that I can carve out the necessary time to be with you in your classrooms where the really important work of our school takes place. 

To that end, I am turning over all responsibility for my schedule to Marcia. She will set my appointments, schedule my time in class, and end meetings when the have run over schedule. Marcia is thankfully willing to take on this responsibility and I am sure that she is going to do it better than I ever could. To make that possible, I must ask the following things from you:

• if you need to meet with me, simply make that request of Marcia. (she will know my schedule better than I will)
• please share with Marcia a quick summary of what you want to meet with me about (she and I are going to work to have a common set of priorities for how long to meet and how urgent a request to meet is so that we can better schedule and serve you)
• please understand if Marcia asks if I can meet with you in your room instead of you coming to my office (this will at least get me into your classroom, even if it is when there are no students there.)
• please understand that Marcia will be the new "decider" on the "Do you have a minute?" questions (I'm afraid that if it is left to me the answer is always yes, even when it should be no) while this may be temporarily frustrating for you, you will also get my full attention when you have it, instead of the distracted me many of you are often getting now.

Thanks to all of you for honoring these requests. Following a week where I was in the office after 9:00pm three times and completely spaced on a department meeting I was to be at at 7:15am, on top of only spending about 35 minutes in classrooms in the last two weeks combined, I have to make some changes...or I'm not being the principal you all deserve. This plan shouldn't make me less accessible to you. It is designed to make me more effective in the time we are together. If it is not working after a trial period, like everything else we do, this will be revised. Let me know if you have any questions.

Request to Attend Form Procedures

Please remember to place these in Marcia's mailbox. Very often she needs to fill out a requisition/P.O. associated with it and if you just give it to me and then mail it over to District Office that step is missed. Put them in Marcia's mailbox and she will take care of getting my signature and routing them appropriately. 

Packing Slips

Please make sure that the packing slips for any orders you receive find their way to Marcia in a timely fashion. We were scolded this week and reminded that bills cannot and will not paid until we verify receipt of the order. Thanks for your attention to this. 

Junior Class Advisor (interim)

In Teresa's absence, we are in need of a interim Junior class advisor. If you are interested, please let me know and we can chat about what that interim position might look like.

Things I am reading and thinking about this week: 

Program Halted After LA Students Breach School Ipads' Security In A Week by Fox News
When I read this article, I am struck by how much educators miss the point of tech integration as a goal. The devices I know how to use effectively, are the devices I have integrated into my life: my smartphone, my tablets, and now my Chromebook. If a tool is only "ok" to be used in one aspect of my life, I will replace it with one that I can use anywhere. This is even more true of kids. So, if you feel the need to control everything a kid does on a tech tool you give them, you probably shouldn't give them the tool in the first place. Even if you can figure out how to exercise that control, the tool will never be fully utilized by kids anyway, and thus will, by definition, be a waste of resources.

Leading Innovative Change Series: Excellence Lies Within by George Couros
I've mentioned before that I have a bit of a principal-crush on George Couros. I just really like the way he thinks about leadership and education. Reading him can give you a glimpse into how I think about the world. Caution: That can be scary!!


It's Time to Stop Averaging Grades by Rick Wormeli
Grading and reporting reform has been a topic of debate, and often argument. Rick Wormeli, one of the first National Board Certified teachers, writes compellingly from one side of the debate.


Learning and Failure by David Truss
A great info-graphic to consider the relationship between learning and failure and we as educators can interject ourselves into the relationship to facilitate success.


A Bit About Blogging by Lyn Hilt
Another great look at reasons for students to blog. I know I keep beating this drum, but the power unleashed by allowing, encouraging, forcing students to become creators of content instead of just consumers, cannot be overstated in my humble opinion.

High School Newsletter - October 2013

SPHS 1st Quarter Newsletter

2013-14 School Year

Administrative and Front Office Support Staff

Chad Harnisch Principal 608-643-5620 chad.harnisch@saukprairieschools.org	Marcia Colby Administrative Assistant to Principal 608-643-5904 FAX: 608-643-5419 marcia.colby@saukprairieschools.org	Shari Diehl Receptionist 608-643-5900 FAX: 608-643-5419 shari.diehl@saukprairieschools.org
Shane Been Assistant Principal 608-643-5911 shane.been@saukprairieschools.org	Rita Henn Administrative Assistant to A.P. 608-643-5997 rita.henn@saukprairieschools.org	Aaron Braund Athletic Director 608-643-5906 aaron.braund@saukprairieschools.org
Laurie Genthe Assistant Principal/Counselor 608-643-5912 laurie.genthe@saukprairieschools.org	Joleen Lins Attendance 608-643-5902 joleen.lins@saukprairieschools.org	Julie Lamberty Administrative Assistant to A.D. 608-643-5903 julia.lamberty@saukprairieschools.org
Martha Allan School Nurse 608-643-5628 martha.allan@saukprairieschools.org	Katy Carter Police Liaison Officer 608-643-5913 katy.carter@saukprairieschools.org	Shar Staadt-Scherschel School Psychologist 608-643-5909 shar.staadt@saukprairieschools.org

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL:

Hello, as many of you already know, I am Chad Harnisch and I am the new principal of SPHS. I can’t tell you how excited I am for the opportunity to work in a school with such talented students and staff. I am confident that we are on the cusp of moving from being a really good school to a great school. That is mainly a result of the hard work of our faculty, our students, and in many cases by you, their parents, over the last five decades. I have seven years experience in secondary leadership, fifteen years working in Wisconsin high schools, and twenty years of working with youth; I am confident I can bring a few new ideas to our school, working with the staff already here, and by engaging your children in their learning, we will create a high school that is the envy of the state!!

One of the things I believe has to happen as we journey towards that model is an increased transparency in how we do business. To that end, we will be producing a newsletter, at least once per quarter, to send to parents and guardians in an attempt to keep you all better informed about the activities at SPHS. We will try hard to have this newsletter be of value to you, both in communicating simple information, but also to give you a preview about some of the things we are thinking about doing differently as a school.

Additionally, I maintain a SPHS Facebook page (www.facebook.com/SaukPrairieHighSchool), a Twitter feed (@principal_sphs) and a blog (www.sphseaglesview.blogspot.com). Daily, I use each of these venues to publish information about what is happening in our school, to share links to things I am reading and thinking about with regard to the future of education, and to share my own thoughts about our school, our faculty, and our students. I encourage you to check out one or more of these social media options to increase your awareness of the work being done at SPHS.

Thanks for listening and for entrusting in me the awesome responsibility of leading this high school. I promise we won’t let you down and that we will provide the best possible learning experience for every child you send to us. If at anytime you have concerns you need addressed or successes you want to share, don’t hesitate to contact me at the high school.

ARP - ACADEMIC RESOURCE PERIOD

ARP is an opportunity for all students at SPHS to have a common resource period (study hall) where every teacher in the building is available to them.  ARP was implemented at SPHS in the 2012-13 school year. ARP was successfully used by some students, but many more did not use it to its full potential. In an attempt to rectify this, we began the fall with a much different look to ARP. We assigned everyone to an academic study hall, eliminated much of the movement around the building in an attempt to create a quieter, more professional atmosphere, and to limit access to distractions like music players and electronic devices.

Over the last five weeks, after listening to feedback from staff, students, and parents, we have had a committee working on a second revision to ARP.   The most common student complaints heard were: 1. “quietly listening to music helps me focus on my work” and 2. “I need to be able to get help from more than 1 teacher.”  The most frequent staff issue was: “I need to be able to have access to those students who are struggling in my class and require them to see me.”

So we are implementing the changes below beginning October 7, 2014; we will continue to review how ARP is working for students and staff, and we will be responsive and make any changes that make sense and allow us to continue to meet the goals of ARP. We encourage you to share your opinion on how ARP is working with your student’s ARP teacher or with Mr. Harnisch

ARP Study Hall

All students, 9-12th, will be assigned to a required ARP Study Hall, grouped by grade level.

          

  Expectations of students

• Come prepared to work silently
• Get any passes needed for travel during the 10-minute passing period prior to ARP.
• Get permission of teacher to use any personal electronic device. (Device can only be used for academic use, or for non-disruptive personal music listening.)

  Expectations of Staff

• Maintain a quiet, professional environment.
• Allow group work at your discretion for legitimate academic reasons
• Allow use of electronic devices for academic use, that is not disruptive to other students. (Personal music listening may be considered as long as it is not disruptive.)
• Students may only travel with a pass from a teacher. It is the student’s responsibility to bring a pass to ARP. Students may use up to two passes during ARP, moving to the second option only on the mid-period passing bell.
• Because of extended passing time immediately before ARP, there is no need for a student to travel for ANY reason other than a pre-arranged pass.
• Weekly check-in with every student, with academic monitoring.
• Interact with kids. This period is designed to focus on the immediate needs of students.

Required Resource

• Purpose = Giving teachers autonomy and authority to see those students in need of immediate, course-specific assistance

• Any teacher can assign any student to a "required resource"

• May be for specific “Current” course specific concerns or to address earning credit from a previously failed course.
• Required resource is for teachers to have additional time working with any student who is missing work, struggling in class, failing the class
• Any student failing to attend a "required resource" will automatically sacrifice all privileges to travel during ARP except for a “required resource”, for a period of two weeks.  

ACT SUITE of TESTS - OCTOBER 16th, 2013

We recently shared that in preparation for the full, statewide implementation of the ACT Suite of assessments in 2014-15, Sauk Prairie High School would run a trial of the EXPLORE, PLAN, and ACT this fall. The most common question we received back was, “Is this ACT one my junior can use as an official score to report to colleges?” Unfortunately, that answer is no. We are using a practice test because the ACT administration is rigidly controlled and can only be given at a certified testing site on specific testing days. We are partnering with Kaplan, a test prep provider, to use an expired version of the ACT. The score we get back from Kaplan will be a good estimate of how your junior would do if they took the assessment soon, but it is not official.

Below is a rough draft of the schedule for each class on the day of testing. Please note that the day is an optional attendance day for seniors. We have worked with a number of post-secondary options to plan a menu of choices for seniors. All seniors will be getting an email in their school account with a Google Form to sign up for the options of their choice.

Freshmen

8:00 - 11:35 AM          Explore - with ARP teacher   

11:40 - 12:25 PM        Lunch

12:30 -  1:00 PM         School Satisfaction Survey

1:05 -  1:50 PM           Assembly - Words of Wisdom and Raffle - in south gym
1:55 pm                       Early Dismissal - PLC Day

Sophomores

8:00 - 11:35 AM          Plan - with ARP teacher

11:40 - 12:25  PM       Lunch

12:30 -  1:00 PM         School Satisfaction Survey

1:05 -  1:50 PM           Assembly - Words of Wisdom and Raffle - in south gym

1:55 PM                      Early Dismissal - PLC Day

Juniors

8:00 - 11:35 AM          ACT - with ARP teacher

11:40 - 12:25 PM        Lunch

12:30 -  1:00 PM         School Satisfaction Survey

1:05 -  1:50 PM           Assembly - Words of Wisdom and Raffle - in south gym

1:55 PM                      Early Dismissal - PLC Day

Seniors (Optional attendance day)

8:35 - 11:35 AM          College and Career Fair

11:40 - 12:25  PM       Lunch

12:30 - 1:00 PM          School Crisis  

1:05 - 1:50 PM            Assembly - Words of Wisdom and Raffle - in south gym

1:55 PM                      Early Dismissal - PLC Day

ATTENDANCE REMINDERS:

Parents should call 643-5902 (24 hour line) by 9:00 a.m. on the day of the absence to report the absence and the reason for the absence. Requests to excuse an absence without stating the reason for the absence may be considered unexcused.

Please note: Decisions about excused or unexcused are made by the school attendance officer, not by parents or guardians.

COUNSELING DEPARTMENT

Stacy Chrisler Counseling Secretary 608-643-5910 Fax:608-643-5419 stacy.chrisler@saukprairieschools.org	Tonya Lassanske Counseling Department Chair Last Names N-Z 608-643-5998 tonya.lassanske@saukprairieschools.org
Owen Murphy Counselor Last Names A-H 608-643-5649 owen.murphy@saukprairieschools.org	Laurie Genthe Counselor / AP Last Names I-M 608-643-5912 laurie.genthe@saukprairieschools.org

COLLEGE APPLICATION PROCESS

TRANSCRIPTS - An official transcript of the complete high school record (beginning with grade 9) is required as a part of the application process for both the UW System and the Wisconsin Technical College System.

Transcript requests will now be submitted online through a new service called Parchment.  This service will allow students and graduates the ability to send transcripts electronically 24/7/365 eliminating the need to contact the counseling office or to wait for school hours.  Transcripts will also arrive faster and the chance of them being misfiled will be greatly reduced.  Cost for this service will be $2.55 for each electronic transcript and $4.25 for each transcript if they need to be mailed.  Transcripts can be requested at www.parchment.com

If an applicant completed any course work through a college or university while enrolled in high school, contact the college or university to request that an official transcript be sent directly to each UW System campus to which the individual is applying.

UW SYSTEM / PRIVATE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS - Applications for admission are processed by UW System campuses beginning September 15 for the following fall semester. New freshman applicants should meet priority or deadline dates to ensure full consideration for admission. All new freshman applicants are required to submit a nonrefundable $44 application fee with each application for admission. All applications can be done online at www.apply.wisc.edu

TEST SCORES - The UW System requires new freshman applicants to submit the results of the ACT or SAT. We recommend that high school students complete the ACT or SAT in the spring of their junior year and have the results sent to the appropriate UW System campus(es).Both the SAT and ACT include a Writing Test; however, the ACT Writing Test is optional while the SAT Writing Test is a part of the SAT assessment and is not optional. UW-Madison is the only UW System campus that requires the ACT with the Writing Test and/or the SAT. Test scores can be requested for the ACT at  www.actstudent.org  or the SAT at www.sat.collegeboard.org

MADISON COLLEGE ADMISSIONS - Application dates at Madison College are variable depending on the program.  Some high demand programs close admissions the third Monday in October. Check the availability and admission requirements for the program or certificate you are interested in to make sure that the program or certificate is accepting applications and that you are qualified to apply. High-demand programs may have a wait list. To apply for program admission or for additional program information please visit the Madison College website at www.madisoncollege.edu

COMPASS TESTING - The Compass is an admissions/placement test that is required prior to application for many Madison College programs. To access the compass testing schedule please visit the Madison College website http://madisoncollege.edu/compass-information

ACT 2013-2014 TEST DATES

Test Date                              Registration Deadline         (Late Fee Required)

October 26, 2013                 September 27, 2013            September 28–October 11, 2013

December 14, 2013             November 8, 2013               November 9–22, 2013

February 8, 2014*               January 10, 2014                  January 11–24, 2014

April 12, 2014                      March 7, 2014                       March 8–21, 2014

June 14, 2014                       May 9, 2014                          May 10–23, 2014

JUNIOR/SENIOR PARENT NIGHT - This yearly post-secondary planning workshop for parents of juniors/seniors was held on Monday September 16th. If you were unable to attend, please check out the resource link from our web-page and feel free to call us with questions. http://www.saukpr.k12.wi.us/high/resources.cfm

PSAT - The Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholastic Qualifying Test (PSAT/MNSQT) will be offered at Sauk Prairie High School on Wednesday, October 16^th, 2013.  Juniors generally take this test as a practice test for college entrance exams and to qualify for National Merit Scholarships.  Students should consider taking this test if they are in the top 10% of their class, test well, are planning to take the SAT (most Midwestern colleges and the UW System prefer the ACT for admission), or are taking advanced course work in the core academic areas.

Parents often ask if their son or daughter would benefit from taking this test.  A couple of reasons why a student would take the test would be to qualify for a National Merit Scholarship or as a preparation for the SAT test, which is a college entrance exam.   Very few students at Sauk Prairie take the SAT college entrance exam; the majority elect to take the ACT test.

National Merit Scholarship recognition is another reason to take the PSAT/NMSQT.  Students who are awarded the scholarship must qualify at or close to the 99^th percentile of college-bound students. Students who qualify for the scholarship typically are avid readers and good writers who take advanced math classes and have scored very highly on previous standardized tests.

Cost for taking the test is $15 (Check payable to: Sauk Prairie High School).  Registration will be limited to 35 students on a first-come, first-served basis.  Registration will begin toward the end of September.   If you have any questions about the test, feel free to contact the counseling department at 643-5910.     
WKCE - WKCE tests are Tuesday, November 12th and Wednesday, November 13th. Only Sophomores need to attend the mornings of those two days. All students will attend in the afternoons. We will send out more information in a few weeks.

YOUTH OPTIONS - The Youth Options program allows all public high school juniors and seniors who meet certain requirements to take postsecondary courses at institutions of higher education.  Students may take classes that are beyond the scope and sequence offered at the high school. The program opens the door to greater learning opportunities for students who are considering a technical career, wishing to begin college early or wanting to prepare to enter the workforce immediately after high school graduation. The application deadline for the Spring semester is October 1st.  Please see Mr. Murphy in the counseling office if you would like more information.

CAREER INFORMATION - Please visit the following website for information on accessing Career Cruising and other important career information: http://www.saukpr.k12.wi.us/high/career.cfm

SCHOLARSHIPS - Many scholarship applications are already available.  Please see our website for more information.

PLEASE VISIT THE COUNSELING DEPARTMENT WEBSITE AT:

http://www.saukpr.k12.wi.us/high/counseling.cfm

WINTER SPORTS -

Are you interested in participating in a winter sport?

Monday, November 4th, the Sauk Prairie High School Athletic Department will be holding a MANDATORY ONE NIGHT registration sign-up for anyone interested in participating in winter sports (this meeting is for students and parents). Beginning at 6:30 we will be collecting forms and payments in the high school commons; individual team meetings will follow.

Required forms can be found on our website to fill out ahead of time; and will also be available registration night. If your student has necessary paperwork turned into the athletic office for a fall 2013 sport; the following forms can be carried over to a winter sport if you do not have any updates.

• Medical history/consent for emergency treatment
• WIAA physical form
• Athletic Code/WIAA eligibility
• Payments and concussion agreement forms must be completed for each season.
• Fees are as follows:
• Basketball, girls/boys- $70
• Wrestling- $70
• Hockey- girls $400, boys $450
• Swimming- $70
• Gymnastics- $70
• Dance- TBD

If you have any questions, please contact Julie in the athletic office at :

E: julia.lamberty@saukprairieschools.org
P: 643-5903