Friday Notes- 10/09/15

It's been awhile...

My last blog post here was in January of 2014...and I have a bunch of excuses for why I stopped writing...none of which will anyone likely care about. 

But I have a good reason for why I'm starting to write again...I've always liked the idea of a weekly staff bulletin because I think it serves an important role in all of us being on the same page. I'll be using this space for that purpose for the foreseeable future. 

Stuff that happened this week:

On Monday - board/administrator retreat - quite a bit of discussion occurred between 14 administrators and 6 board members in the following areas: employee relations, academics, and student life. There was an article in this week's Sauk Prairie Star that seemed to focus quite a bit on bullying, though I would say that was a minor topic in terms of time dedicated in the meeting. We talked a lot about the changing world educators have found themselves in recently and how we as leaders in the district can lighten the load to make all jobs more "doable." Also, the board encouraged administrators to be innovative and progressive in our instructional leadership and to be student centered. Retreats aren't good or bad in the moment; they can only be defined after we learn if they sparked any action and if that action was positive or not. So...we'll see where any of that conversation goes. 

On Tuesday, I attended the foundational meeting of a community coalition to address suicide prevention. The attendees represented our schools, local clergy, law enforcement, and local business leaders. I am hopeful that something will come of this. I'll let you know more as this group moves forward. Also, new staff began ALICE training Tuesday. I believe all new staff will be trained by next week Tuesday. We will talk about next steps with ALICE once all staff are trained. Two next steps on the table are: Establishment of rally points in the event you have to evacuate in an ALICE event and the training of students in ALICE. 

On Wednesday, our student Mental Health Event planning group met. They have decided to move forward with "action." So they have committed to the following: an awareness walk on Sunday Nov. 15th from 5-7 pm and a day of learning centered on mental health for Wednesday, Jan. 27th, 2016. Subcommittees of staff and students are working to firm up the details for both of these events, but I wanted to have you put them on your calendar. There are also plans for smaller awareness raising and learning activities between the two events, but those need additional clarity before I can share what those are. 

This morning I met with Kurt Rossbach, the advisor for the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) here at the high school. Kurt wanted to fill me in on some of the efforts of the GSA to enhance our already supportive school. They will be placing a post-it note on all lockers in the coming weeks with a message of support and access to numbers students can reach out to if they need someone to talk with. Additionally, the week of Nov. 16-20th is Transgender Awareness week. As the assembly debates a bill looking to mandate where students can go to the bathroom, it probably makes good sense for all of us to learn a bit about transgender life. The GSA is planning some informational sessions for students and staff that week. 

Fifty new chromebooks went online in the high school this morning. I've had lots of conversations about the relative scarcity of computers this fall, and almost everyone I talk to has sent the message that SPHS is ready to pursue 1-to-1 computing. So I've begun those conversations with the necessary district level administrators to move us in that direction. If you feel strongly one way or the other about 1-to-1, you should make sure you carve out sometime to meet with me and share your thoughts. 

Classroom Visits

I've made roughly 29 classroom visits this year. (I'm being pretty strict about that only counting if you are working with kids in an academic sense, so while I've physically been present in more rooms, I'm not counting every trip as a "Classroom visit.) To meet the goal I set in Sept., I need to make 271 more. I hope to finish this writing up and get out there yet today, so well see if I can't make that number a bit smaller yet this week. 

I've answered ACT practice questions in math, talked about the Cask of Amontillado in English. I've tried, and failed, to answer multiple questions asked of me in Spanish. I learned that clay holds less water than sand because sand has bigger particles. I discovered that a nut-driver is like a screw-driver but with a socket head instead of a blade. I heard some information about unit conversion and ratios but I admit I'd have to review my notes before I could say I learned anything :). And I engaged in a conversation about waste management in early European civilizations. And I think that is pretty much all just this week. So, not too bad.  

By my count, I HAVEN'T made one visit yet to at least 33 teachers. If you haven't seen me by the end of the month, you need to hold me accountable, OK? That was the promise!

Something to think about:

In my classroom visits, I've seen lots of students answering lots of teachers questions. I happened to be catching up on some professional reading earlier this week, and I thought this might be an interesting article for us to read and discuss with each other in a spare moment. Take a look at "Let's Switch Questioning Around" by Cris Tovani in the September issue of Educational Leadership. I think you'll find it interesting.

Next Week Significant Events

October 12 - Staff Meeting 3:40pm - River Arts Gallery

October 14 - Picture retakes
                   - Badger Conference Meeting @ Mt. Horeb (Parker, Massey, Packard, Mussack)
                   - PLC Day 1:50pm release
                   - Mental Health/Suicide Prevention Training - office staff 2 - 4pm @ SPMS Library

Week After Next Significant Events

October 19 - NHS Induction Ceremony 6-7 RAC
                   - Fall Music Concert 7 pm - South Gym

October 20 - Parent-Teacher Conferences 4 - 7:30 pm (held in commons)
                     (Rita Henn will cover the office for this.)

October 22 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
                   - Parent-Teacher Conferences 8 - 11:30 am (held in classrooms)
                     (Marcia will cover the office for this.)

October 23 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
                   - Professional Development Make-up day

October 24 - Celebration of Life for Sue Halloway
                   - 1:30 pm SPHS Gym