Week Ahead: Sept. 19

It’s been another great week of learning, laughing, and fun.  For me the week didn’t start out quite the way I expected – being diagnosed with a small spine issue and having migraine for 3 days put a significant hitch in my giddy-up over the past week or so.  So I did something I’ve never done before – saw a different type of doctor, an osteopath.  The results have been amazing for me.  So am I writing to tell you all to go to the osteopath?  No.  What this experience made me realize is that I’ve been actually living in a state of pain for quite some time.  Over time it slipped up on me and became my new normal.  Now that it is gone, I can’t believe I never really noticed that it was there.  It seems so obvious now.  Looking at the issue from a different lens, I found a different perspective and a different answer leading to a better result than I ever expected.

How could this apply to our work as educators?  What has become a new normal just because it has slipped up on us but isn’t because we purposefully decided it should be that way?  What could we be looking at through a different lens in order to come up with better answers to problems we weren’t even really aware we had?  Because when we do, that’s when the light shines, the burdens lift, and we are ready to learn, laugh, and have fun!

Here is what’s up this week:

• Saturday, September 17 – PTA Family Day, 9-12
  • Attendance expected, length of time attending is variable (see Mark’s email for clarification)
• HS WWW for Gr 9 and 10 this week

Monday, Sept. 19
Day 1, ABCD (Adv)
1:30-3 Admin Team Mtg

Tuesday, Sept. 20
Day 2, EFGH (DEAR)
10-11 HOS /MS Principal Mtg
3:15ish A Team BBall v. ABC

Wednesday, Sept. 21
Day 3, BCDA (DEAR)
3:15-4:30 Full Faculty Mtg, Atlas Rubicon, Auditorium

Thursday, Sept. 22
Day 4, FGHE (Adv)
3:15ish B Team BBall v. CIS

Friday, Sept. 23
Day 5, CDAB (DEAR)
*Tech Sessions in Science
7:30 Breakfast Club sponsored by Gr 8
3:15ish C Team BBall games @ SSIS
5-8pm MS Dance

Saturday, Sept. 24
*Happy Birthday Khan Tran!

Upcoming (on the radar)

• September 30 – HOS / MS Faculty Reception, 4-5:30pm
• October 5 – End of Quarter 1
• October 6-9 – Learning 2 Conference
• October 7 – No Students, PD Day
• October 13 and 14 – Parent Teacher Conferences (Oct. 13 early release, conferences 4-8pm; Oct. 14 no students, conferences 8-1)
• October 17-21 – Fall Break

Q1 Grades/Comments: Just to get this on your radar – Quarter 1 ends Oct. 5.  Grades and Comment due dates fall after the quarter this time because of the timing of Parent Teacher Conferences.  Please see the MS Faculty Handbook for information regarding our agreements on comment writing (Report Card Comments is the topic).  Here are the dates/deadlines for Q1 reporting:

     October 13, 2016: Quarter 1 Report Completed

• October 12 – comments completed and peer reviewed (in Q1 bin) and grades completed by 3:00; verification reports printed at 3:00
• October 13 – verification report reviewed, signed (can be completed digitally in PS) and returned to office by 12:15
• October 13 and 14 – Parent Teacher Conferences;  Oct. 13 from 4-8pm and Oct. 14 from 8-1)

Grade Reporting Guidelines:   After doing a mid-quarter review of student progress, I noticed a few areas for improvement.  Please look through your classes and check for the following things:

• Students should receive feedback in the form of a PS mark approximately every 2 weeks.  That would result in at least 2 pieces of feedback/marks in PS at this point.
• Test/project grades should be entered into PS within 3 class meeting after the test/project was given/due (as well as shared with students in class).
• Homework/quiz/”smaller work” grades should be entered into PS with 2 class meetings after the item was completed/due (as well as shared with students in class).

Morning Announcements:  Please remember to display and/or read the announcements each morning in 1st Block.  This is the only way we have to share information with our students.  It is essential that this be done.  If you have any announcements that you’d like posted, please email the announcement to Sang along with the dates you’d like it published.

Prepping for our 1st MS Dance: This coming Friday is our first middle school dance.  This brings up lots of excitement and nervous feelings in our students.  When asked why we have dances in MS, I always answer that kids need opportunities to practice new social skills in a safe environment.  As their thoughts and feelings begin to grow up, they need places to figure out those new strange feelings and thoughts.  What better place than a MS dance!

Please help prep the kids by taking opportunities to talk about how to have a successful dance experience.  Things to emphasize with kids: get to know other people; take the risk and dance; take a bigger risk and ask someone to dance; if someone asks you to dance, recognize the courage it took and really consider saying yes (2 minutes isn’t that long even if you are a bit uncomfortable); show respect to those dancing by not taking pictures, pointing, or staring; running is bad (yep, just bad – 🙂  too dangerous for others to have kids running).  If you have 10 extra minutes, think about having kids practice a few dance moves.  Put on some music and teach them the side to side shuffle, or go big and try out the sprinkler!