Updates - 21 December 2012

Happy payday, last-day-before-vacay, Winter Solstice, and Mayan Apocalypse, everyone.

 I hope your break is pleasant.

Special Thanks
Before we go any further, I'd like to thank our heretofore "unnamed staff member," Janelle Reasor, for all her assistance with the T-shirt project.  You won't be surprised to learn that, honestly, the T-shirt-project would have never (eh-ver) gotten off the ground at all without her prodding and very careful planning.  I think the shirts turned our great, and I'm grateful to her for making it happen.

New reporting procedures for CPS.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: Here a few links to some new documentation regarding how you should report any/all concerns to Child Protective Services.  Remember: you are considered "mandatory reporters" per state statute, therefore all school personnel (not just teachers, by the way) must never deliberate about whether or not to make a CPS report, even for third-hand information.  Certified personnel can lose their certificate, or worse, any one of us could end up in jail, should we fail to report our concerns about a child's well-being to the authorities.  You should open, download, and probably print out both of these documents:

• New CPS Reporting Procedures
• CPS Hotline Reporting Form

Here are the new procedures in a nutshell:

• The blue trifold pamphlet is not longer accurate; DO NOT refer to it.
• Use only the attached reporting form (dated 11/28/12) when making a CPS report
• DO NOT contact parents regarding your report
• DO NOT examine the child; ask only four questions: who, what, where, when.
• If the suspected abuse has been committed by a non-family member, call police not CPS
• If you suspect an imminent threat to the child, call 911
• Notify your principal and the nurse AFTER you've made your report
• Complete the form and fax it to CPS within 72 hours
• Submit a copy of the completed CPS reporting form to your principal and school nurse within 72 hours

Winter Break & Report Cards

We return to work on 07 January.  Report Cards are due to be sent home shortly thereafter. My thanks, once again, the Heather McFall for coordinating all the this stuff so capably.  The deadlines for the 2nd Quarter Report Cards are as follows:

• Today, Friday, 21 December: All special area grades and attendance must be submitted by noon. 
• General classroom teachers may use this afternoon to work on report cards. Do not transfer your marks until after school please. 
• Wednesday, January 9: All teachers should send report cards home with their students after school on this day.

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Updates - 14 December 2012

Hello everyone,

Hope you're doing your best to enjoy your snow-day.  I must admit to having developed, quite unexpectedly over the last year and a half, a new sort of fondness for them myself.  It's so dark and quiet here right now, it changes, rather completely, the whole dynamic of my job... the background-music is much louder today, too.

Needless to say, by now you've probably spent some time watching or reading about the tragic news in Connecticut.  Like you, I find this deeply upsetting and fundamentally unsettling.  Beyond grieving along with this distant community with whom we share so many characteristics, there is but one pragmatic take-away for all of us in this, I think: we must always be vigilant in conducting the drills we conduct with integrity and with a mindset that they are not imposing interruptions to our schedule but, instead, the best kind of insurance we can give to our students and ourselves.

There is little else to report to you on this snowy morning.

Celebrations
Next week is the last week before break.  Many of you have parties planned.  In your celebrating, please try to remember that real-school still needs to occur next week and that, whatever you're doing, it really-and-truly is supposed to have some sort of academic or curricular connection.  I have to say that.  But, that's okay.  Because I believe it, too.  This is school after all.

Calendar

• Monday, 17 Dec.
• Coe at Elementary Admin 7:45-9:00
• Tuesday, 18 Dec.
• Teacher Appreciation Breakfast in the Library, 7:30-8:30
• Wednesday, 19 Dec.
• Marshall Band Concert, 4:00
• Friday, 21 Dec.
• End of Grading Period 2

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Updates - 07 December 2012

Hello everyone,

Happy payday-Friday!

Fire Drill
Sorry for being a little too-dense about the fire drill I tried to schedule for Friday this week.  Let's try it again on Thursday, 13 December at 9:30 instead.  Should be a slightly more agreeable, less chaotic time of the day to conduct a drill, rather than during the kinder-first lunchtime on a Friday.  Yeah.  I know.  Someday we really do need to have a drill during lunchtime on a Friday.  But not right now.  We'll do that some other time.

Satisfaction Survey
I've finished writing-up my report about the results of the recent Marshall School Customer Satisfaction Survey (which, you may recall, I was required to do to complete my internship).  I shared my overview of the results of this survey with the Site Council at our monthly meeting this week, and I've delivered it to the superintendent and my university supervisor, too.  Now, I'd like you to have a chance to take a look at it as well.  It's available as a .pdf online.

At an upcoming faculty meeting one of these days, probably after the holidays, I'd like to spend a few minutes talking about it with you.  But, in the meantime, you can get a pretty good impression of how I think it turned out by reading through my report.  I hope you do, it's not very long.  But I think you'll find it very encouraging and uplifting.  I think it's safe to say: our peeps are pretty stoked on us...

Dismissal Procedures
During afternoon dismissal, please ensure that your students listen carefully to which buses are being dismissed and that they leave the classroom only when their particular bus has been called.  It may be worthwhile to review with your class who rides which bus (I know lists were made at the beginning of the year, but they may have grown a little stale at this point).  We've done a great job implementing our new dismissal procedures thus far this this year.  And we'll be able to continue to get our buses loaded in a safe and timely fashion if we always-and-only have the right students at the front of the building at the right time.

Calendar

• Wednesday, 12 December
• Coe @ Elementary Admin meeting 7:30-10:30
• Thursday, 13 December
• Faculty Meeting in the Library, 7:45
• Title 1 Family Meeting in the Library, 5:15-5:45
• Cookie Walk in the Gym, 6:00-7:00
• Friday, 14 December
• All faculty & staff Holiday Party at Fisher's, 4:00-6:00

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Updates -- 02 December 2012

Bruised but not beaten

Happy Sunday, everyone.

In view of this post's terribly belated status, we'll just focus on calendar issues for the time being and I will hope to update you on a few other things during the week to come.

• Monday, 03 Dec.
• Coe @ Admin Council, 1:00-4:00
• Wednesday, 05 Dec.
• Site & Science Councils, 5:00-6:20
• PTO, 6:30-7:30
• Thursday, 06 Dec.
• Coe @ Internship post-conference/presentation (wish me luck), 4:00 
• Friday, 07 Dec.
• Fire Drill, 10:30
• Two-hour Professional Development - Music Mindgames 1:00-3:00

But I'll be in on Monday.