Madison Middle School

Hi Madison Staff,

My favorite thing about last week’s check in was the two staff shout-outs. I will shared them down below. If you have a shout-out, please use the weekly check in to help us recognize and celebrate one another.

Here’s what’s happening this week:

This Week’s Schedule:

Quick Links: Please make sure you’re signed into your 4J Google Account to access many of these links.

• SPED/Gen Ed Collaboration Log – Please complete the Collaboration Log each week.  Last week only 6 teachers filled out the log and the week before only 9 and we have almost 20 teachers.  Please make this a priority   
• Focus Lesson for Week 5: 
  • Monday: Weekly Self-Check and MLK Flipgrid activity
  • Tuesday: National News Literacy Week Activity – Bias in Social Media Quiz
  • Wednesday: Mid-Week Academic Check-In
  • Thursday: Student Engagement Video – Please do this one!!
• MLK Flipgrid – Teachers, I put this lesson back into our Focus lessons this week because only one student did a video.  Please take time to do one for yourself and then share with your students one day next week.  It would be great for all of our students to be talking about MLK.
  • https://flipgrid.com/6a3745c4

Madison INFORMATION                

• Staffing Update: Jeremy’s EA position just got posted and closes next Wednesday.  Hopefully we will have a replacement soon.
• Admin Office Hours: Beginning this week, Peter and Gina are hosting daily office hours on t for any students or family members that would like to attend. 
• Friday PD:
  • Licensed/Classified: This Friday morning, from 8:30-12:00, we will break down the video of a British Researcher call the The Classroom Experiment. I think it is a cool video with some concrete strategies to help with distance learning and beyond. 
  • Classified: Classified staff also have additional PD opportunities in the afternoon through the EA Extravaganza!

• LIPI Students: Madison LIPI (Limited In Person Instruction) is set to start on February 1st, unless a district-level change alters that plan.  We have group of 6th and 7th graders coming on A – days and a group of 8th graders coming on B-Days.  
  • Student Lists
        
• Weekly Check In: The weekly check in will continue to include a section to celebrate one another. I’ll be sharing these out in our blog and maybe staff meetings. Let us know who we should celebrate and why!  I’d like to know how you’re doing and be able to offer support for those who need it.
  Here are the shout-outs from last week: 
  • I would like to celebrate all of our support staff! They work behind the scenes for our staff, but they’re always on the front lines when it comes to our families! They work tirelessly, and yet address staff concerns with positivity and professionalism. We are SO LUCKY to have all of them, and I miss seeing them in person to say so!
  • Karen Backman – for her openness and continuing the conversation with me when I reached out to my book group because I had to miss the first meeting where everyone shared one hope and fear.

DISTRICT INFORMATION                 

• Repeat: Vaccination Interest and Child Care Needs: This week’s update from the superintendent to 4J staff included a link to a vaccine interest form. The form also gathers information about staff’s childcare needs if/when we return to hybrid. Please complete it as soon as possible because it helps inform how they will plan for vaccine distribution and meeting staff’s child care needs.
       
• January SSD Newsletter: If you’re interested, linked here is the January SSD Newsletter. Please note the section on LIPI is more geared toward secondary. Elementary, according to Brooke, is pausing LIPI to focus on hybrid planning. If hybrid doesn’t seem imminent, then LIPI conversations will likely take precedence. 
• Annually the Oregon UOTeach teacher licensure program collaborates with national scholars of educational equity in teaching and learning to provide ongoing professional development on culturally responsive and culturally sustaining pedagogies. UO faculty, UOTeach pre-service teacher candidates, and k-12 teachers are invited to attend the workshops to explore and expand their knowledge of anti-oppressive curriculum and instruction. For registration information and to register for a session please go to https://teachin.uoregon.edu/registration/
   

What’s Coming Next Week: Start of six weeks in a row of having a flex Wednesday

I hope you get some rest this weekend. 

Peter and Gina

Hi Madison Family,

This was a long and challenging week. Many of us are dealing with significant emotional struggles, whether it be related to national news, local tragedy, or personal trauma. Please know that you are all so close to our hearts and so very much appreciated.

As our district continues to consider plans to begin slowly bringing students back into our buildings, we’re encouraged by the news that, beginning next week, some key 4J employees will be offered the new co-vid vaccine. Please continue to take good care of yourselves, as we cruise into 2021, and let us know if there’s ever anything that we can do to support the wonderful work that you’re doing with kids!

This Week’s Schedule:

Quick Link: Please make sure you’re signed into your 4J Google Account to access many of these links.

• SPED/Gen Ed Collaboration Log – Complete the log if you’re starting a new unit or would like to communicate concerns for specific students this week.    

Madison Information:          

• Focus Slide Deck: Week 3
  • Monday’s slides introduce a fun flipgrid activity that Peter put together. Spend a couple of minutes checking it out before previewing it with kids.
  • Tuesday – Introduce the ‘pre-lesson’ and assign kids to preview the text before engagement in the conversation in class during the week of the 18th.
  • Thursday – today’s slides have a diversity focus and contain two videos: a 7 minute video designed for younger, less experienced audiences and a 4 minute video introducing more mature topics. Please preview both videos and use the one (or both) that you feel most appropriate for your students. Peter, Gina and Anne are also always happy to help guide discussions if that’d be helpful.
  • Friday – Lead kids in a 10 minute reflection on the week. A doc to guide the discussion is linked in the slides.
• Wednesday’s PD Time: Student Engagement continued
• School Choice Info: School Choice season begins this month. Madison will hold two Zoom sessions parents can participate in.  Peter be working on our slideshow this week if you have any pictures you want to include, please send them to me. Our dates and times are January 14 at 6:00pm and January 15 at 9:30am.The deadline for school choice applications is January 31st. I don’t yet have any information on how many slots we’ll have available for kids not in our catchment area. Here is the district School Choice page for more information.      
• Weekly Check In: Linked here is the staff weekly check-in. I’d like to know how you’re doing and be able to offer support for those who need it.    

4J Information:

• Winter EasyCBM – This year, the district is honoring teachers’ desire to do less assessing and focus more on teaching; especially given the many limitations of CDL. So, for winter benchmarking, we are only going to be asked to assess 20-30% of, rather than the entire student body. District data gurus are currently working on outlining the final plan, so watch for more details coming out next week. No action required at this time.

What’s Coming Next Week:

Click here to link to an inspirational story, from several years before co-vid, of a family who wanted to spread hope and love throughout their community by putting up signs for their neighbors and loved ones. 

Thinking of you. Grateful for all that you do. Have a wonderful week with kids!

Gina and Peter

Hi Madison Staff,

Here’s what’s happening this week:

This Week’s Schedule:

Madison Information    

• Meetings & PD Plan: Wednesday is going to be our first Optional Staff Social before our staff meeting at PD.  It will start at 9:45
• FOG (Front Office Group): The FOG plus some EAs are going to be doing some targeted attendance interventions for students that are showing up about 70%-80%.  Please see FOG notes for more details.
• Weekly Check In: Linked here is the staff weekly check-in. I’d like to know how you’re doing and be able to offer support for those who need it.

DISTRICT INFORMATION                 

• School Choice: January usually kicks off school choice season in 4J. The timeline for school choice will remain the same this year, but in-person tours and the school choice fair have been cancelled. 
     
• Hybrid Learning Survey: Families were asked to declare their intentions for the remainder of the school year. Their choices were hybrid learning, remaining at their school but staying in CDL, and shifting to EOA. Families that did not respond were automatically assigned to hybrid. This week we were told that families will not necessarily have the option to change their minds as changes affect staffing. Additionally, new students will be assigned to hybrid learning. Please note that the metrics (change it to Lane County if using the link) currently indicate we will likely not be returning in-person anytime soon as case counts are steadily increasing. We are at 291 positive cases per 100,000 residents and we must be below 100 to return in-person. Here are our families’ responses:

• Regional Subs: As you know the district is exploring multiple strategies to support you and your building as we all navigate distance learning.  One strategy we are using is to assign two “Regional Permanent Subs” to each region.  One to support elementary schools in that region and another to support the secondary schools in that region. 
  The District is happy to inform you all that Annie Whitted has been assigned in Absence Management as our regional permanent sub.  Annie will be set up in the system and automatically assigned to the first absence/vacancy in your region. If Annie already has an assignment for the day, Absence Management will send the job out to the sub pool just like we are used to. You can still assign a prearranged sub to an absence or vacancy if needed.  The system will automatically assign Annie (assuming they are available) but then you will see the option to “reassign sub to this position”.  If you click this green button it will remove the resident sub and you can assign the prearranged sub.  If Annie does not have an assignment on any given day they are going to contact the sub desk.  We will then assign them to one of your buildings so they can shadow and learn more about your school and how they can help the next time they have an assignment at your school.  In preparation of them shadowing at your school please think of what they can do to help and be productive.  Some good examples include running small groups, helping with breakout rooms, co-teaching, reaching out to students and families, and providing Zoom support.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION

• Repeat – Hour of Code: This week brings The Hour of Code. Many of our classrooms typically engage in coding activities during this week. Visit code.org for lesson and activity ideas. They’ve also added Code Bytes which are live video mini-lessons  happening all next week. Other activities can be found at Hour of Code, Khan Academy (more advanced), and Tynker. I recommend testing these activities on your iPad to make sure they’re accessible for kids. Also, it’s always a good idea to start these lessons with a little growth mindset refresher so kids can expect to be challenged, fail often, and have to problem solve. 
     
• Decentralizing Christmas: This was new learning for me and I wanted to share it with staff. In December we often turn our focus to the impending holiday season. With the influx of ads on TV, shopping events, and holiday decorations all over, it’s no wonder the December holiday season often gets a lot of attention. However, we generally do this because Christmas is one of the major Christian holidays and historically federal and school calendars centralize those holidays. Winter Break happens when it does because it used to be called Christmas Break. Spring Break used to coincide with the Easter holiday. However, for many other religions, their major holidays occur outside of December and do not receive the same attention the December holidays receive. As we step into our equity work, one of the things we will begin to address is if we are intentionally or unintentionally centralizing majority culture and what that means for representation and inclusion for all students. Linked here are some resources from Teaching Tolerance around December holidays and considerations for teaching about holidays. 

What’s Coming Next Week: 

Winter Break: December 21 – January 1
January 4: Professional Development Day (5.5 hrs PD + 2.5 hrs Planning)
January 18: Martin Luther King, Jr Day
January 24: No School – Progress Reports

One week! One week! One week!

Gina and Peter

Hi Madison Staff,

It’s Thanksgiving Weekend! Enjoy this time, stay safe, and get some rest!

This Week’s Schedule:

MADISON INFORMATION 

Quick Links: Please make sure you’re signed into your 4J Google Account to access many of these links.

• SPED/Gen Ed Collaboration Log – Complete the full log at the beginning of each new unit.    

• Update to Weekly Collaboration Log: SSD heard teachers’ feedback about the collaboration log. SSD met with EEA members to make revisions and improvements to the log. Here’s a rundown of the changes:
  • AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH UNIT: Teachers now complete the full set of questions ONLY when you are beginning a new unit of study. Ideally, you’d fill this out BEFORE beginning the unit, to help you think about ways to incorporate UDL elements.
  • WEEKLY: Complete the last two questions about students who aren’t engaging or may need additional supports. If everyone being served with an IEP is engaged and succeeding, there’s no need to fill out the form that week.    
• Weekly Check In: Linked here is the staff weekly check-in. I’d like to know how you’re doing and be able to offer support for those who need it. I’ve also learned fascinating things about our staff. Here are a few highlights about some of our staff:
  • Favorite songs as a kid: ABBA was very popular with our group!    

DISTRICT INFORMATION                

• Lifetouch: Parents may have received an email from Lifetouch about taking their own photos at home and sending them in. The district is looking at options for doing photos if/when we return in person. No word yet on how that would work for families that choose 100% at home.  

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION

What’s Coming Next Week: 

Wishing everyone a good Thanksgiving. Four more weeks until winter break!

Gina and Peter