Madison Middle School

By gaston_e 　https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/madisonstaff/2020/02/23/february-24-2020/

Four more weeks until Spring Break – not that I’m counting…

• Sign of the Week: This week’s sign is “have a good day!” Many thanks to our interpreting staff for these videos. They’ll now be the first item on our blog each week.
  
• Earthquake/Fire Drill Monday at 11:10 – We will be doing our 2nd required earthquake drill of the year and will follow it with an evacuation fire drill. Please remember to grab your red folders. If we hit our goal of 7 minutes, we should be done right when the bell rings to move to lunch/3rd period. I’ll also try and get new class lists into your mailboxes by 8:30 Monday morning. We will be shifting a few of the drills in the coming months and I’ll send out new times when they’re settled. My goal is for this to be the last drill during 2nd period 🙂
      
• Repeat – Last Call!: 4J Secondary School Climate Survey – Please plan a time during Focus to have students take this survey. It needs to be completed before the end of February. This one is different than the one we gave earlier this year. Some questions will be similar if not exactly the same, but this one is for all middle schoolers in the district. Here is the info from Shasta Quigley, the district PBIS coordinator. Please let me know if you have any questions.
  
  Directions for administration:
  1. Please administer this survey to as many students as possible in all grades at your school
  2. It is important that we have as many students take the survey as possible, and that we get at least 50% response across each grade level
  3. I have also copied school counselors and middle school PBIS team leaders on this email so that everyone has the same information.
  4. Your survey must be completed by the end of February. We will be pulling and analyzing results the following week to send to you.
          
• FastBridge Report Training, March 5  – The district is holding a FastBridge Reports training in our building on March 5. It will likely start around 4 or 4:15. The training is geared for our staff, but they will be inviting other staff from around the district to attend as well. If you’re interested, below is our data for aMath and aReading comparing fall and winter. The first bar graphs shows the change in students scoring in far below, below, at, and above benchmark ranges. The second bar graph show growth, but I’m not sure I quite understand that graph yet. (Sorry they’re blurry – my tech skills aren’t working today.)
  
       
• Staffing Update – We received our initial staffing for next year and as Peter shared in his email, we’re staffed at basically the same levels as this year. We haven’t received SSD staffing information yet. If you’re interested, linked here is the Staffing Timeline for 2020-21 for both classified and licensed staffing processes. This includes dates for when staffing plans are due, temporary hire staff notifications, displacement timelines, Job Expo dates, and other staffing minutia. The next steps for us is to look at how many core classes are needed at each grade level, map out where openings might be, and get input from staff. We also know that there will likely be more staffing coming with the SSA funds. The presentation to the board last week indicated lowering middle school class sizes and providing behavior EA time to middile schools as priorities. Those funds likely won’t come for a while, though, so we’re staffing based on we currently have and will make some plans for we would like to do if more funds are provided.
            
• March 13 Professional Development Day – Below is all the information for the upcoming professional development day. Linked here is the agenda. The first page details the schedule for certified staff and pages 2-4 detail the offerings for classified staff.
       
  
  • Agenda
    • 8:00-10:30am: Teacher Tech PD by grade level for licensed staff (bring your own device), Classified PD, and workgroups
      • MS Heath Teachers: Mental health training at the Ed Center in the Tower room with Daniel Gallo
      • MS Social Studies Teachers: Social studies knowledge and skill sequencing PD with Jenoge Khatter at Kelly MS library
      • All other teachers – Attend Tech PD training at Roosevelt Middle School. See note below about how this training will be run. 
      • Classified Staff – Use TED (TalentEd Develop) to sign up for PD sessions beginning February 28. Here are the directions to register for TED.
    • 10:30am-1:30pm: Travel time, lunch, and teacher prep time
    • 1:30pm-4:00pm: School-based meetings and/or building-based PD
           
  • Technology PD for Certified Staff – Teachers who don’t have a specific work group to attend, will attend tech training at Roosevelt. This will be run in an “unconference” model. Here’s the description from the agenda: Using an “unconference” format, teachers will gather at grade levels and begin with whole-group brainstorming, then move into discussion sessions by grade level and/or subject groupings led by a facilitator. PROCESS: In whole-group sessions participants move through a brainstorming process to create a list of topics and breakout sessions based on the group’s interests. Topics will then be assigned to sessions in classrooms. Sessions are discussion-based, where participants actively contribute their experience to develop collective expertise. Participants can move between sessions if they find interest in multiple sessions.
         
• 4J Wellness Fair, February 25 4-6pm – This event is for all 4J employees and their families. There will be prizes along with lots of information about the benefits available to staff. Please see the Wellness Fair Flyer for more info. 
       
• Repeat: Reading Intervention Testing Coming March 16 – The reading intervention team downtown is working on a better system for identifying secondary students in need of reading intervention. This year they are sending a team to each building to conduct screeners on any students who have been identified as possibly in need of reading support. Students will be identified for screening through a composite score that includes: FastBridge scores, ELA grades, and ELA SBAC scores from last year. Students with low composite scores will take the Reading Inventory from Read 180 to get a Lexile score in comprehension. They expect to test between 40-50 students per grade level. We will set them up in an empty classroom that day. Please be prepared for students to be called out of class to take their screening assessment. I understand this will be disruptive, but I am happy to see a plan that will help us ensure kids are getting the interventions they need. 
           
• Eugene Math Festival, Feb 29 10am-1pm – While I haven’t yet attended this event, I’m told it’s really well run and a lot of fun. The U of O math department and the National Science Foundation are hosting an event filled with problem solving, games, and fun math activities. It’s held at Mac Court, is free to attend and designed for kids ages 5-14. (website)
       
• Schedule of Upcoming Events:

February 24 (M) 
     9:45, Front Office Group meeting
     11:10, Earthquake & Evacuation Drill
     2:15, Peter to AVID Coordinators Meeting (Mozart room)
     3:45, Peter to MS Principals Meeting (Parr room)

February 25 (T) 
     7:45, TLC Meeting (conference room)
     9:00, Peter and Erin to All Admin Meeting (downtown)
     4:00, Erin and others to ISLA Data Design Team Meeting (Briggs MS)

February 26 (W) 
     2:45, North Region CARE Team Meeting (Howard Conference room) CANCELLED
     3:45, Climate Team Meeting (Anne’s office)

February 27 (H)
     7:30, Justice League (Anne’s office)
     9:00, Peter to MS Scheduling Meeting

February 28 (F) 
     2:45, PLCs
     3:30, Grade Level Team Meetings

February 29 (Sa)
     10:00-1:00, UO Eugene Math Festival (MacArthur Court)

March 2 (M) 
     Regular Day

March 3 (T) 
     *Friday Schedule*
     7:45, TLC Meeting (conference room)
     Anne teaching Naviance in 7th grade Science
     2:30, 7th & 8th to play, 6th to Focus
     6:30, 7/8th grade Play Performance

March 4 (W) 
     8:00, Staff Meeting
     6:30, Board Meeting

March 5 (H)
     *Friday Schedule*
     7:30, Justice League (Anne’s office)
     Anne teaching Naviance in 8th grade Science
     2:30, 6th grade to play, 7th/8th to Focus
     6:30, 6th grade Play Performance

March 6 (F) 
     2:45, OSAS Training
     3:30, Grade Level Team Meetings

March 8 (Su)
 Daylight Savings Time

Have a great week, y’all! 
Erin