Madison Middle School

Dear Madison Staff,

We hope you were able to have a restful and productive (whatever that looks like for you) winter break and a good first week with the students.  Here are this week’s updates:

MADISON INFORMATION     

• Staffing Update: I am super excited to announce that Shawn O’Connell has accept the 5.5 hour EA job working with Amy Brooks.  Shawn comes to us with a lot of differences and we think he will be a good fit with the Madison Community. I hope he will be starting on January 13th, but I have not confirmed that with HR or Shawn.  When you see him, please give him the Madison welcome and introduce yourself.
               
• Peter Out This Week, January 9-13: I will be helping to take care of my mom.  She is doing a lot better and this is currently my last scheduled week to help.  My siblings are taking the weeks now until early February.  I will keep you all in the loop if anything changes.  Mike Riplinger is going to be subbing for me.  He was a long time Awbrey Park principal and will probably know a lot of our students.  When he is not doing supervision or supporting Gina with discipline, I have asked him to do some (or a lot) of the Talent Ed Informal walk throughs.  When you see him in your room, just welcome him.  If you really do not want him in your room, please let Gina know.  He is retired and wants to only do positive/easy evaluations so if he in your room, you will probably only hear positives.
  
• Attendance Intervention Punch Cards: I’m hoping that in the next few school days, many of the students that we started on attendance punch cards will begin to fill their cards and earn some fun gift cards, etc. Please remember to be checking in with any kids in your focus class on these punch cards, and we they fill their card, you can send them down to the office. We will celebrate them and help them to choose a reward. Alternatively, if you would PREFER to be in charge of the reward for your student, just send me an email letting me know that they have filled their card and what you have arranged for a reward.
• Supporting Gender Expansive Student: Yesterday ODE came out with a document supporting gender expansive students and I thought I would have it with you.  If you have any questions after skimming it, please do not hesitate to reach out to Gina, Beth or I.  Beth is going to look at part of this document with the GSA today.
• Winter easyCBM testing: Great news! For winter easycbm testing, we only need to test our SPED students and any students who DIDN”T test in the fall. SO….. Amy and Matt will make a plan to get their students tested, and Audrey and I will be calling gen-ed students to the library for testing during Focus class for 2-3 days per student, grouped by grade-level, beginning after the MLK holiday. This means that Focus teachers do NOT need to handle easyCBM testing for winter, unless you choose to for any reason. That said, I will probably remind you of this stroke of luck when it comes time to test the entire student body again in the spring.
• College and Career Exploration Planning Committee Update: The committee is going to start meeting later this month. Here is a quick 3 questions google form survey for staff interested in joining the committee. Even if they don’t have the time to commit to the planning committee, Beth is also looking for people who may have an idea for a presenter. We are looking for people from all different kinds of fields of work and any local college to come talk to our students about 4 main things: 

  1. Talk about their job or program & skills required and what they like about their job

  2. Why it’s important to show up every day on time (dependable)

  3. Why it’s important to try your best every day (work ethic)

  4. Why it’s important to be able to work well with others (communication, teamwork, collaboration)

• Formal Observations: Gina and I will work this month to schedule formal observations with all probationary staff.  For those contract staff who are on a formal observation cycle, we will work on doing yours in February and March.
   
  

DISTRICT INFORMATION     

• School Choice Season is Coming: January brings the school choice season.  We will hold our evening event on Tuesday, January 17 at 6:30 and morning event on the 18th at 10 am. Last year, we had one parent total for our presentations. If you’d like to join, parents love to meet and hear from teachers and staff about how awesome Madison is, but feel ZERO pressure to do it.  Gina and I will be there to sing how awesome Madison is for the students. 
                  

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PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION   

• Teaching Perseverance: One thing we’ve heard from many staff members is that kids are giving up much sooner or not even starting tasks they perceive to be hard or not worth their time. We’re going to talk on Tuesday about a perseverance challenge.
  • Linked here is a blog post from Angie Olson at Lucky Little Learners on teaching students what perseverance is along with a list of books that demonstrate people persevering even when things are hard.
    
  • Linked here is a blog post from Engaging Literacy on the books she uses for specific mini lessons centered around perseverance including goal setting, making a plan, learning to fail, and working through your fears. We know these are elementary books, but middle schoolers like them. 
  • And here’s a list of 20 more books about persistence and perseverance.
    
    

Looking Ahead:

Have a great week!

Peter and Gina

Dear Madison Staff,

Here are this week’s updates:

MADISON INFORMATION              

• Staffing Update: The 5.5 hour EA position has closed and we hope to be doing interviews next week.
  
• Friday Assembly: AVID 8 is planning a Spirit Assembly.  Students will meet in their first period class and wait to be called down to the assembly.  After the assembly, the students will go back to first period so there is no reason to bring their stuff to the gym. Please keep you students until you are called down.  Here is a link to the schedule.
• Academic Common Areas: With the TOSAs in the building, I have been able to walk around a lot more lately.  I have been seeing a lot of group work (which I love), but some of it is in the commons unsupervised.  Please do not let groups or individual students work in the commons without adult supervision.  For some reason, students do not alway make the best choices unsupervised.
• Dessert Potluck: Beth is helping to organize a dessert potluck for us during our PD time on Friday.  There will be a sign up sheet in the Staff Room.              
• Upbeat Survey: On Monday, we all received an email directly from a third-party vendor, Upbeat, inviting us to share our experience as a member of the Eugene School District 4J. For more information on this process please review the district newsletter shared last week. Participating in this survey is an important opportunity to share your individual insight. The survey should take no more than 30 min to complete and we have set side Friday after the dessert potluck as a time to complete this important feedback. The data gathered will provide leaders with an important understanding of areas of strength as well as those that may need additional attention. Thank you for your attention to this task and please let me know If you need assistance in identifying a time to complete the survey.       

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION

• Highlighting “Good” Mistakes in Student Work – Many moons ago, some of us learned about “My Favorite No” in a PD session. “My Favorite No” is a way for teachers to anonymously highlight a student’s work where they made a good mistake – one they and others can learn from. This article from Edutopia talks about the impact of having students look at classmates’ work (anonymously unless the student asks to share) and learn from their mistakes. This works especially well in math, but can be generalized to other subjects as well.
      
• Holiday Free Art Ideas: As we discussed at our meeting on Thursday, we should refrain from centering Christmas in our classroom. Many consider December to be the “holiday season” because of Christmas. However, major holidays for many other religions happen outside of December. Thanks to Lupe for sharing this resource of artmaking ideas that focus on winter, nature, and other more inclusive December activities. I’d love to do Winter Fest next year as described in the article. 
     
• Winter Break Bingo: To add a little fun and help maintain high expectations, consider a round of bingo with behavior goals during the lead up to Winter Break. Use the link here or make your own, but this is a fun way to reinforce expectations at a time when behaviors tend to ramp up.
  

Looking Ahead:

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Peter and Gina

Dear Madison Staff,

This week officially begins the countdown to Winter Break (at least in my world!). I am so thankful to all of you for the work you do every day, the way you take care of each other, and the fact that you continue to show up and do your absolute best every day. I’ve said it often but there’s no team I’d rather do this work with than the Madison team.

MADISON INFORMATION                 

• Staffing Update:
  • Please welcome Mark Taylor as our new TSS, helping out with all things technology. He’s already been super helpful to have around the building. 
  • Also, we’ve finally been able to hire an additional part-time night custodian. Her name is Isabel Camarena, and she’ll be starting on December 12th. Mark sure to say hello to Mark and Isabel when you see them in the hallway.
  • Lastly, we’ve posted Alan’s position because he will be on leave through the date that he is scheduled to retire, in order to continue his treatment and work on getting stronger. We anticipate that the posting will show up on the website next Wednesday. If you know of anybody that would be interested, please encourage them to apply.
•  Registrar grading support –     We are working on arranging for the district registrar to support Madison with any steps in the grading process that are normally done by the registrar. Stay tuned for more details.        

DISTRICT INFORMATION                   
    

• Technology Tips/Checklist for end of Trimester from Nicholas Hadley – In case you missed his email from this morning

• December 2nd, Work Relief Day: This transition day should be treated much the same as a grading day.  Staff may work from home on this day, but should be available to team members.  Any staff that intend to work from an alternate location, will need to let us know their intentions.  In that communication staff should also identify how they will communicate with their colleagues on this day.  Staff that have not communicated a desire to work from an alternate location will be expected to work on site.
         

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PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION

• Classroom Screen: If you haven’t played with Classroom Screen, take about 10 minutes and check it out. It’s a free website that let’s you customize a display screen with timers, a random name generator, your choice of background image, notes, etc.    

Looking Ahead:

Have a wonderful week!

Peter and Gina

Dear Monarchs,

It’s finally here! Enjoy the 3 day weekend!!! Thanks to everyone who showed up for collaboration and PD today. Your participation is noticed and appreciated.

Here are this week’s updates.

MADISON INFORMATION                   

• Staffing Update: We interviewed on Wednesday for the open registrar position. Thank you to Queenie and Amy for serving on the interview team. We are currently checking references and share any updates on hires.
  
• Notes from Friday Staff Collaboration – If you missed Friday morning’s discussion and grade level time, please look over these notes from that time. Key topics included:
  • Group agreements around kids in hallways and classrooms during break and lunch
  • Updated Teacher Supervision Schedule
  • Early Warning Data 40+ percent of our students received D or lower, any next steps to help these students? 
    • Look at GL systems discuss data. Is there something that we can do to improve any systems for our grade level?
    • Please call or email home for any students in your Focus class who are failing multiple classes or really really struggling with attendance. Try to learn a bit about the home situation and how you, as their Madison advisor, can best be supporting their success.GLT:

      Early Warning Data Conversation

  • Look at Trimester 2 students and see if you want to change any students around to help your class dynamics

•  District Support – Please join us in welcoming Joel Lavin, SSD SPED administrator, who will be in the building for several hours each week, in coming weeks, to help support students and also helping with some office supervision in service of releasing Peter and Gina to be in classrooms. 
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• North Region Ruby Bridges Walk, Monday, Nov. 14:
  For anyone interested, we will be meeting on the 14th of November at 7:45 a.m. at  Daysprings church on the corner of River Road and Howard Ave and walk down river road..sidewalk to North’s football field to release balloons.

  
  

  We will have snacks provided by the school and one or two of our students will be speaking about the life of Ruby Bridges before we start walking that morning.

  
  

   Any District staff that would like to join is welcome to.

     

DISTRICT INFORMATION                   

• Friday PD Day: They have paused all Friday PD until January, with the exception of Teacher Choice PD days.
           
• District Building Support: Teachers received emails last week from our content TOSAs letting you know they are all being temporarily reassigned to support buildings. There are 3 things happening to support schools:
  • • Behavior Systems Teams: 4 elementary schools and 2 middle schools will get a team of 3-4 people who will come in this month and possibly next to help establish systems around and respond to student behavior. Those schools are Chavez, Spring Creek, Gilham, McCornack, Kelly, and Cal Young. 
          
    • Triage Supports: Much like last year, there will be a team assigned to help cover absences that aren’t being filled.
           
    • Administrative Relief: We’re told that district administrators will be assigned to buildings in the middle of the day (10am-1pm or so) to free up principals to support instruction or strengthen systems. We don’t yet know when or how often these supports will be provided.
            
         
• Repeat: Vector/Safe Schools Training: You should have received your Safe Schools training link. It does seem to have fewer modules this year than in years past. If for some reason you didn’t receive this email, please email Melissia Morphis at morphis_m@4j.lane.edu and cc me. 
       

Looking Ahead:

Have a wonderful weekend!

Peter and Gina

In honor of Daylight Savings & these first few days of
arriving in the dark and leaving in the dark.

IDear Madison Staff,

Here are this week’s updates.

MADISON INFORMATION         

• Staffing Update: Madison’s Registrar job is posted.  If you know anyone who is interested and you think would be good, please encourage them to apply. We also have the 5 hour night custodian position posted.  This is a hard job to fill so if you know someone, please encourage them to apply.
       
  
• Safety Week, November 4: The slides we’ll use are linked in the Focus Calendar. Please plan to review them in Focus classes, prior to each day’s drill. 
     
  In the event of an actual emergency, office staff will do their best to email everyone a quick explanation of what is going on if we don’t feel it’s appropriate to announce it over the loud speaker. 
    
  
  • 11/1 Tuesday: Shelter & Evacuate @ 3:30  We’ll focus on an earthquake safety for this shelter drill. Students will practice “drop, cover, and hold”. We’ll have info in the Tuesday focus slides.
                   
  • 11/2 Wednesday: Secure drill (danger outside the building) @ 11:05am. For a secure drill (formerly known as a lockout), I will announce “Secure! Get inside and lock outside doors.” All exterior doors are to be locked and no one is allowed in or out of the building. It is business as usual inside the building – to the greatest extent possible – until the all-clear signal is given. I will do that 8-10 minutes into the drill, right before passing period. This drill is done if there was something or someone unsafe in the neighborhood. These are most often called by local law enforcement due to police activity in the area.
        
  • 11/4 Thursday: Lockdown drill (for a danger inside the building) @ 12:05pm. I will announce that we are going to do a lockdown drill, giving a brief explanation of how it will work. I will then announce “Lockdown. Locks, lights, out of sight.” Classroom doors are to be locked, lights turned out, and students moved out of sight. The goal is for rooms to appear unoccupied,  Doors remain locked until a first responder or designated staff member (Peter or Gina) unlocks the door to announce the all clear. In a real lockdown, if there was an immediate threat and it was safe, staff and students would also self-evacuate.

• Conferences Week: 
  • Dates: Dates for conferences are –
    • Tuesday, Nov 8, 4:15pm-8pm, Evening Conferences
      • Meals for Conferences: We will provide dinner on Tuesday night. Let me know if you have any requests or suggestions for Tuesday’s dinner.
      • Dinner Schedule – Talk to your TLC rep about the dinner flag plan
        • 5pm – SS + Wilcox + McLauchlin
        • 5:30pm – Math + Hobie + Goodband
        • 6pm – Science  + Brooks + Dunlap
        • 6:30pm – LA + Stead + Marvin
    • Wednesday, Nov 9 8:15am-noon, Half Day Conferences, afternoon is off for those who stayed for Tuesday night.
    • Thursday, Nov 10, PD
    • Friday, Nov 11, No School, Veterans Day
               
  • Gina and Peter Available for Conferences: Let us know if you have any tricky conferences you’d like me to attend. 
     
  • Conference Tips: Parents generally want to see that you know their child and care about them. Share a few personal details and positive anecdotes during your conference to put them at ease. I also recommend asking parents about what they think is going well and what they’re concerned about before sharing your positives and concerns.
        
         

DISTRICT INFORMATION                            

• Vector/Safe Schools Training: You should have received your Safe Schools training link. It does seem to have fewer modules this year than in years past. If for some reason you didn’t receive this email, please email Melissia Morphis at morphis_m@4j.lane.edu and cc me.
      
• ODE Report Cards and Detail Sheets: Madison At-a-Glance Report Card and Detail Sheet
   

Looking Ahead:

Have a wonderful week!

Peter and Gina