Madison Middle School

By barsotti_p 　https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/madisonstaff/2022/02/19/february-18th-2022/

Hi Madison Family,

Here are this week’s updates:

MADISON INFORMATION

• Focus Lessons and Slides:
  • Tuesday : Academic Check-in and Missing Assignments Activity
  • Wednesday : Anti-racism Work
• Peter Update: I do not love sharing news this way, but I wanted to let you know if I do not seem like my normal self.  I would tell you in a staff meeting but I would be crying too much and not be able to get any words out. Last week, my mom was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia.  I am a huge mommas boy and this hit me hard.  She was supposed to live into her 90s like her mom and she is only 71 years old. Sometimes when I sit down (especially driving), I just start crying.  She met with a new doctor yesterday and the doctor is cautiously optimistic that a bone marrow transplant could extend her life.  As you could probably guess, I signed up to be on the bone marrow donor registry last night.  Some staff already know and have asked if they can do anything, that is very nice, but we are good. We are a very blessed and privileged family and do not need anything except grace, positive thoughts and prayer.
  

DISTRICT INFORMATION                               

• SEAL: Summer Enrichment & Academic Learning Program: Our traditional summer school program is undergoing an overhaul this year. It will blend academics with enrichment, include 5 weeks of additional schooling with a longer school day. Linked here is a quick sheet on some of the features and the timeline. If you’re interested, jobs should be posted in early March.
       
• Covid Masking Update: As you may have heard, OHA has announced that the mask mandate for indoor spaces will be lifted no later than March 31 provided case counts continue to drop. Each district will determine if they will continue the mandate after March 31. Should a district choose to make masks optional, rules+ about Covid exposures and testing policies will change. Schools wouldn’t be able to use the “Test to Stay” program for kids exposed to Covid at school. We would have to contact trace every positive case and put kids out on quarantines more often as well. We don’t know yet what the district will decide. For now all the usual requirements are in place.
• Contact Tracing Update: Beginning on Tuesday, we will resume contact tracing students who test positive. However, we will ONLY be contact tracing during meals eaten indoors.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION       

• Get Ridiculous: From Ian Byrd’s blog Birdseed:I used to aim for “real world” problems when planning lessons. But this was often a pathway to the mundane. I mean, how many times did I ask students to calculate how much paint they’d need for a wall? Real world? Yes. Interesting? Not even close. Our brains are drawn to the unusual and the unexpected. Let’s take advantage of that and purposefully seek out weird outliers, oddball examples, and unexpected constraints. Let’s get ridiculous!Get ridiculous with Math:If you’re writing a fraction problem, PLEASE don’t make it about pizza! No one uses fractions when eating pizza. But if your question has to be about a pizza, then make that pizza unbelievably huge. Make it the size of a football stadium. Or have Tiny Tim eat just 2/999 of the pizza. Make the numbers weird!Get ridiculous with Language Arts:Rather than pushing kids to write 500 word stories, we’d practice very very very short stories. Or ask students to rewrite sentences or paragraphs without using a particular letter.See the full Byrdseed Article for more ideas on how to get ridiculous and grab kids’ interest. If you’re intrigued by this, you can subscribe to the Brydseed Newsletter.

Next Week at a Glance:

I hope you have a great week!

Peter and Gina