Madison Middle School

By gaston_e 　https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/madisonstaff/2019/09/15/september-16-2019/

Greetings!

We survived our first full week of school. Only 35 weeks left 🙂 I really thought that dual Full Moon and Friday the 13th would be way more of a problem than it was. Here are this week’s update:

• Insurance Open Enrollment Deadline TODAY (SUNDAY) – If you haven’t yet participated in Open Enrollment, please do so. We don’t want you to lose your 4J health insurance benefits. The deadline is TODAY!

• Fire Drill this Thursday at 9:10am – We will have our first fire drill on Thursday during Focus. Please review with your students the expectations for a fire drill. Students should turn off lights, close doors, and walk out in a quiet, calm, and orderly manner. If you’re not sure where your class lines up outside, please check in with your teammates. 

• Open House this Thursday – Please see the attached schedule for Open House. If it’s your first open house at Madison, please check in with your team about how the evening is run.

• iPad Rollout – It sounds like the iPad roll out is going well. If there are any issues with iPads, numbers, log ins, etc, please let me know. I’m happy to help however I can.
   
  • iPad Assignment and Tracking – Just a reminder to use this document to track any student infractions. Don’t forget to include the date, issue, and your initials.

  • Tech Agreements – We’ve gotten most of the tech agreements back. We are still missing agreements from 11 sixth graders, 36 seventh graders, and 33 eighth graders. Here is the list of students still missing agreements. They shouldn’t be taking iPads out of Focus is they don’t have an agreement signed. 

• ISLA – Many thanks to those who have had reconnection conversations with students last week. We are still working on some of the logistics and are realizing how challenging it can be to reconnect with students during a class period. If a student is returned to your room and you weren’t able to reconnect with them during the period, please use the reconnection card in your mailbox as a reminder to reconnect with them as soon as possible the next day. Peter, Audrey, and I will try and help facilitate that process, but there may be times when we won’t be able to.
   
  • W.O.W. – The final W, Wrap Up with Intention, can often get missed when class ends before we know it. But we know that how we end a lesson is just as important as how we open it. Middle school teacher Gretchen Vierstra details 5 Ways to Close a Lesson in this article from The Teaching Channel.

• Staff Meeting Wednesday at 7:45 – The agenda for this week’s staff meeting is in the Staff Meetings and PD folder in the team drive. Kimberly will be our first recorder. A list of future recorders is in the folder and on the agenda.

• BEST – Students who are interested in BEST can stop by the office to pick up information. Many families were asking about BEST at Fee and Schedule night. We didn’t have any information available at that time and told families to have their kids check in the office for more information.

• North Region Student Care Team – The first North Region Student Care Team meeting is on Wednesday, September 25th, so if you have any student situations you would like brought to the team, please let me know by Friday, September 20th.

  The Student Care Team is part of DHS’s Self-Sufficiency Program. Meetings are intended for directing community resources and services to families looking for help, and avoiding families falling through the social services cracks. The goal of the team is to prevent child abuse and neglect by working together as a team to discuss concerns about children/families, problem solve solutions, collaborate, and assist in brokering resources for families. Families typically sign a disclosure form, which allows DHS to do a lot of research before we meet, looking into family history and what types of resources they would or would not qualify for. In addition to situations where families are seeking help, we’re also able to discuss hypothetical situations (not using names) with DHS representatives, which can be very helpful for how to address challenging situations where families will not sign a release. Our partnership with DHS’s Self-Sufficiency Program has been an extremely valuable resource for us and for our families.

  Common referrals, though not limited to, are:

   

  • Homeless or impending homelessness

  
• Medical concerns about the child or other family

  
• Extreme behavior issues – ­additional supports needed outside of school

  • Mental health concerns (child or family member)
• Death of a parent

  • Incarcerated parent -­ concerns about recent incarceration or pending release

  
• Unknown if open child welfare case but has concerns that were called in

  
• Domestic Violence

  • Specific resource needed but unknown where to refer

  DHS staff have been great about connecting families experiencing difficult situations with various community resources and in providing assistance, so please let me know if you have any students/families you’d like referred to the team. Linked here is the Care Team Release Form (English and Spanish) that families sign for their situation to be openly discussed by the team. 

• Team Meetings This Week –  TLC and Climate will meet this week. Climate team is planning the River Walk kick off and rewards, so please let a team member know if you have any ideas for making this a great fundraiser. Here is the list of team members for this year.
  • TLC = Tuesday at 7:30
  • Climate = Wednesday at 3:45

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday is scheduled to be our first PLC meeting. Our PLCs are set up as interdisciplinary teams allowing for teams to provide students with wrap-around supports. We will first examine what we want students to know and be able to do. As interdisciplinary teams, we have opportunities to see where learning overlaps across the students’ day and how we can support student learning and proficiency across subjects. Second we will discuss how we will know when students have learned what we wanted them to learn. Finally, we will discuss what we will do for students who did and did not learn what we needed them to learn. If you’d like to read more about the structure and foundational beliefs of PLCs, here is an article from Richard DuFour, whose structure our district has adopted.

• Enrollment Update – As of Friday, we are 435 students strong. This puts us 30 students over our projection. We still don’t have any news about whether or not we will receive some extra staffing. We have heard from several parents who are concerned about large class sizes. We will let you know when we have any news.
  • If you’d like your voice heard regarding class sizes and funding, be sure to complete the linked Student Success Act Survey and/or attend the last Staff Input Forum (9/17, 4:15 at ATA) or one of the Community Input Forums (9/25, 7-8 at ATA, 9/26, 5:30-6:30 (English) & 7-8 (Spanish) at North). The district is required to document staff and community input before submitting to the state for the Student Success Act funds and there are a narrow set of things the funds can be spent on, reducing class size being one of them, so make sure your opinion is counted.

• District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – DUE 9/30 – Linked here is this year’s District Back-to-School Memo, which covers a variety of district rules, policies, and guidelines. All staff must review the memo and sign & return the Check List Acknowledgment Form by Monday, September 30 to signify you have read and understand the memo.  Let us know if you have any questions.

• SELCO Creative Learning Grants DUE 9/30 – Don’t forget about SELCO Educator Mini Grants for up to $1,000 to bring creative classroom ideas to life. Applications are due September 30. Visit https://www.selco.org/community-giving/spark-creative-learning-grants for details and to apply.

• Repeat: Talent Ed Self-Evaluation and Safe Schools Training – Just a reminder to complete your Talent Ed Self Evaluation and your Safe Schools Training. Talent Ed self reflection is due September 30.

• Looking Glass Community Services  – Looking Glass Community Services provides counseling services, emergency shelter and housing assistance, educational and vocational assistance, and addiction treatment to young people. Linked here is a Looking Glass Brochure that summarizes their services if you ever want to pass this along to families.

• Eugene Math Circle – The Eugene Math Circle will continue offering classes for math loving kids in grades 2-12. The program has been operating for six years and all classes are taught by University of Oregon professors or instructors. If you have students who enjoy math and want to be challenged, please share the linked Eugene Math Circle Flyer. The deadline to apply was today (Sunday), but if kids get their applications in quickly, they can likely still join in. The cost is $100, but financial aid is available.

• Experts: Making Middle School Transition Easier – This article from Edutopia details a low cost writing activity that can help sixth graders alleviate some of the academic and belonging fears they have about middle school. 

• A Bit About Erin – My second year of teaching my principal moved me to 8th grade teaching 2 classes of Gifted and Talented ELA, 1 class of 8th grade ELA, and 2 classes of the 6th grade AVID elective. Not going to lie, 8th graders scared me. I quickly learned all middle schoolers are basically just really big 5 year olds. They want to know if they’re liked, where they fit in, and they want people to see them. I also was asked to join our school’s Safe and Civil School team. We participated in trainings with Randy Sprick and his team. This work transformed my teaching. I learned about CHAMPS and what good classroom management looked like and began feeling way more confident about my teaching. I later became a classroom management coach through Randy’s program. I love working with people on classroom systems, routines, and expectations. If that’s something you’re ever interested, let me know. I miss that work a lot!

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Zimbra calendar for future events, but here is what is coming up in the next two weeks:

September 15 (Sunday)
     Open Enrollment Insurance Deadline

September 16 (M)
     Regular Day

September 17 (T)
     iPads go to classes
     7:45, TLC Meeting (Conference Room)
     12:30-3:30, Erin, Jan, Anne, and Jessica to iPad (District Office)
     4:15-5:15, Student Success Act Staff Forum (ATA)
     4:15-6:15, ELA, Math, and SPED teachers to FastBridge training (Roosevelt Cafeteria)

September 18 (W) Audrey’s Birthday!
     7:45-8:30, Staff Meeting (Library)
     Fire Drill lesson during Focus
     3:45, Climate Team Meeting (Anne’s office)

September 19 (H)
     9:10, Fire Drill
     4:15-5:15, SPED Staff Student Success Act Conversation (Howard Cafeteria)

September 20 (F) Kimberly’s Birthday!
     Referrals due to Care Team (send to Erin or Anne T)
     2:45, Early Release PD – PLC Meetings (Library)

September 23 (M) 
     9am, Honor Roll and Crystal Apple Assembly

September 24 (T) Nikki’s Birthday!
     7:30, TLC Meeting
     8:15-11:30, Erin covering Allan at Howard

September 25 (W) Arleigh’s Birthday!
     3:45, Climate Team Meeting
     7-8pm, Student Success Act Community Conversation (ATA) Spanish translation & childcare provided

September 26 (H) Jason’s Birthday!
     7:30, Justice League Meeting
     4:15-5:15, Student Success Act Community Conversation(North Eugene HS) Spanish translation and childcare provided
     7-8pm, Spanish Student Success Act Community Conversation (North Eugene HS)

September 27 (F) 
     2:45, Early Release PD – Building Based PD