Updates -- 31 January 2014

Hello everyone,

Friday, pay-day, and (for the time being) a return to a more seasonal weather pattern!  Yay!

I'd typically never admit to enjoying indoor recess, but at least for today, it sure felt great to need to prep for the contingency of inclement weather.  The kids, likewise, seemed especially docile during their movie time indoors at lunchtime today... I think we were all grateful to see the flurries flying.

Move On When Reading
Here's news: The state has amended its requirement for us to retain students who cannot pass AIMS Reading (rated as Falls Far Below) at the end of third grade.  Students identified as SPED, or ELL students who have had less than two years of SEI, will be permitted to advance to fourth grade.

Non-SPED, non-ELL students rated as FFB on AIMS will be retained and will likewise be required to enroll in the district's summer Reading Camp.  At the end of Camp students will take the state's required exit exam.  If they pass they will be promoted to fourth grade.

Students who fail to pass the exit exam at the end of summer school will be retained in third grade and then be given another opportunity to take the exit exam again in the middle of the school-year.  If they pass the state's test mid-year they will be promoted to fourth grade mid-year.

Students who fail to pass the state's test mid-year will continue to be retained in third grade for the balance of the current school year. They will be promoted to fourth grade at the conclusion of the school year regardless of their achievement on AIMS.

Did you know? Had MOWR been in place last year, only three third graders would have met the AIMS FFB criteria for retention.  Of those three, two would have passed on to fourth grade due to their SPED status.  Only the third student, an ELL student with three years in SEI, would have been retained as a third grader.

It's reasonable to conclude that a similar scenario will play out at Marshall this year.

We have been assured that Pearson will provide us with 2014 third-grade AIMS Reading scores (only) no later than 23 May.

IDMs

Most parents have a very limited idea of what RTI is and what RTI does.  That's why it's so important for our classroom teachers to make the initial contact when it comes time to invite parents to IDM meetings.  It's ideal if this contact occurs at a point prior to receiving a letter from our RTI Specialists or someone else at the school.  

Our parents know and trust you, their child's classroom teacher, immensely.   And it's reasonable to assume that they have already heard from you regarding their child's academic and social achievement on many occasions throughout the school year.  It's best, then, for the invitation to attend an IDM meeting to come from the classroom teacher.    

Plus, it's really unproductive for us to hold IDM meetings without parents.  Their attendance is essential (as is yours).  A friendly reminder, such as a note or a phone-call home, just prior to the day of the IDM is a super-good thing, too, in order to ensure that everyone who needs to show up will show up.

Thanks (on behalf of the entire IDM-team) for making the call!

Parent Teacher Conferences
Next week we're already half-way through our third quarter (Will you be sending home mid-term grade reports?) and that means we're headed toward spring conferences at a rapid pace.  We will release students early for conferences on the following dates and times:

• Wednesday, 12 March: 11:10
• Thursday, 13 March: 12:25
• Friday, 14 March: 12:25

Tier 3 Reminder
Tier 3 students should go to to their Tier 3 intervention prior to going to their homeroom class in the morning.

Calendar
Week B
4-Sight second benchmark (all week)

• Monday, 03 Feb.
• Coe @ National Title 1 (Reasor has the helm)
• Tuesday, 04 Feb.
• Coe @ National Title 1 (Reasor has the helm)
• Grades 3-5 to Sympony at NAU, 8:50-11:00
• Wednesday, 05 Feb.
• Coe @ National Title 1 (Reasor has the helm)
• PTO in the Library, 6:30 (Bob Kuhn will attend to discuss playground plans)
• Friday, 07 Feb.
• Kindergarten Valentine Dance in the Gym, 6:00

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Updates -- 24 January 2014

Hello everyone.  Happy Friday!

I don't know what it is about four-day weeks, but they always seem soooo long to me.  Don't know about you, but I feel exceptionally ready for this weekend.  Should be beautiful but chilly, like it's been the past couple days.

Maybe some reason to hope for a little winter-weather around 02-03 Feb?  We'll see.  You heard it here first.

GDMs
How much did I enjoy sitting through your grade-level data meetings this week? So much!  I think it's just great that I get to sit and watch and listen as you so expertly discuss the placement of each child into the appropriate intervention group, scrutinize your data, and review or modify the programs at your grade-level.

You all have really become quite expert at this RTI-business.  The excellent outcomes of our most-recent benchmark, which are evident almost universally throughout the school, are proof of that fact.

Marshall Values
I'm hoping to have posters of our newly-minted collective values printed and displayed next week.  Here's what they'll look like (click to enlarge):


National Title 1 Conference
I, along with Sylvia Johnson and the principals from the other FUSD Title 1 elementary schools (which is everyone except Sechrist, DeMiguel, and Knoles), will attend the National Title 1 Conference in San Diego (I know! Right?) from 01-05 February.

Janelle Reasor and John Albert will provide administrative supervision in my absence.

Calendar
Week A
RTI cycle #3 begins

• Tuesday, 28 Jan.
• Fifth Grade meeting with Asst. Super. Walton, 7:30 in rm. 26
• Wednesday, 29 Jan.
• FAST Works potluck, 5:30 in the Gym
• Thursday, 30 Jan.
• Coe @ Move On When Reading meeting, 10:00-12:00

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Updates -- 17 January 2014

Hello everyone,

Happy Trifecta-Friday!

Gosh. Nothing but mostly-sunny blue skies and breezy conditions ahead as far as the eye can see.  Hard to view that as depressing news in January, and yet somehow, at least to me, that's how it feels.  We're on the cusp of yet another weather-record, I hear, due to this prolonged  mid-winter period of no precip.  Alas...  A hint of a little something-maybe in the 23-24 Jan. time-frame, but whatever it is, it looks pretty paltry right now.

So ya might as well get out there and enjoy it somehow.  For the record: Sedona's been lovely.

As for me and my family, we'll continue to pray for snow.

Flagstaff Symphony Concert
Ms. White corresponded with third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers this week with the details of our upcoming trip to NAU to listen to the Flagstaff Symphony on Tuesday, 04 Feb.

If you teach at these grade levels, please review her email again prior to the fieldtrip.

Practicum Need
Coconino Community College has a need to place a student taking EDU 235 (Relationships in the Classroom) into a classroom for 30 hours of observation and assistance.  The student is available on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8:00-12:00.  Please contact Emily McRobbie if you are interested in hosting this student in your classroom.

The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe
I am still available to read to your class if you'd like to schedule a time for me to come in.

Route Home
We sent home a flyer and also did a robo-call this week reminding parents to contact the front office any time their student has a change in route-home or after-school plans. It is NOT sufficient to have such changes-in-plans communicated solely via the student's daily agenda. I'd like you, also, to please take the time to remind your parents of this, too.  Something to the effect of:

"Thanks for using your child's planner to communicate with me about homework progress as well as your nightly discussions about classroom and playground behaviors and things like that.   But please remember, if you are changing your plans for what your child will do after school, it's essential that you call the office with your change in order to ensure the message is received.  It's fine to leave a note to this effect in the planner, but it's not sufficient.  Planners get lost.  Please ensure you've called the office whenever you're changing your child's after school plan.  Thanks!"

Marshall Values
Thanks to all of you who took the time to complete the Marshall Values form in last week's Blue Note.  If ya haven't yet, please do so; it's also your requisite acknowledgement for last week's blog.

Earlier this week I went through all of your responses, and highlighted common themes.  It wasn't hard, in truth this process turned out to be much simpler than I had anticipated.  The main themes, which I believe are basically our Core Values, were pretty obvious and bubbled to the surface quite organically. There are five of them by my reckoning: Passion, Collaboration, Honesty, Innovation, and Persistence.

After my initial read-through, I once more reviewed every narrative you wrote and highlighted the key components of each and put the behaviors you identified into one the five Core Value groups.  Here are the behaviors you identified as fundamental to our Core Values:

Marshall Values: Passion

• You maintain a positive attitude as you seek the best for all our students.
• You are enthusiastic about teaching and learning.
• Your enthusiasm is contagious.
• You are dedicated to our entire community and love the work you do.
• You are committed to making every effort for every student.

Marshall Values: Collaboration

• You enjoy being part of a team and view your colleagues as part of your extended family.
• You seek to be supportive of your coworkers at all times.
• You communicate effectively.
• You willingly share of your expertise, time, and resources.
• You work to include our parents and broader community as valued partners.

Marshall Values: Honesty

• You desire to trust and be trusted by your colleagues.
• You have a strong moral compass.
• You practice empathy and act compassionately toward others.
• You are respectful at all times and forgiving when necessary.
• You are expressive but professional as you communicate with others.

Marshall Values: Innovation

• You are driven to seek improvement in all aspects of your work.
• You are creative, curious, and willing to take risks as a professional.
• You are unafraid of change.
• You work with purpose to overcome obstacles and challenges.
• You enjoy creating new and useful things to enhance student achievement.

Marshall Values: Persistence

• You persevere in your role despite challenges and setbacks.
• You are, at all times, dedicated to the success and well-being of your students.
• You work hard to be efficient and effective.
• You own your responsibilities.
• You pursue excellence in your practice and expect the same from your students.

This may not be an exhaustive list of all the behaviors we value at Marshall (it shouldn't be), but personally, I am thrilled with it nonetheless.  There was such a great deal uniformity to your responses, and compiling the five core values and the five key behaviors for each happened so naturally for me, that I can't help but be encouraged by this list!  To me, I'm inclined to recognize that it appears most of us are "on the same page" when it comes to who we are and what we value about our workplace and coworkers at Marshall.

As we move forward in planning to hire several new members of our team for next year, we will hopefully be able to utilize this list of Core Values to provide the members of our interview committees with insight into the kind of applicants we want to hire, as well as to help our applicants better understand what sort of a place Marshall is.

Likewise, as a faculty, it's my hope that we will use these Core Values to help us establish better norms and expectations for ourselves as professionals working together at Marshall Magnet School.

Calendar
Week B
GDMs in CTs

• Monday, 20 Jan.
• NO SCHOOL -- MLK Day
• Friday, 24 Jan.
• Lockdown Drill (rescheduled), 9:30
• Two-hour PD: Team Mastermind, 1:00-3:00 in the Library

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Updates -- 10 January 2014

Hello everyone,

Happy new year and a warm welcome back!

Core Values
I learned the other day that Enron had it's core corporate values engraved on marble plaques in the lobby of their office building.  

Impressive, aren't they?  Integrity. Communication. Respect. Excellence.

Good stuff.   Except they weren't.

In the end, Enron's core values would seem to have had little or no effect on the organization.  Enron's demise in 2001 remains the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and "it was revealed that its [falsely] reported financial condition was sustained substantially by an institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud."  Twenty-thousand people lost their jobs when Enron collapsed. Innumerable stock-holders and business partners lost millions if not billions of dollars.  In Enron's wake their accounting firm, Arthur Anderson, was also compelled to surrender its license and was subsequently dissolved. Enron's CEO, Ken Lay, who was to stand trial on charges that would have imprisoned him for up to 45 years, died of a heart attack before his trial began... though rumors that he faked his death (too) persist. 

So, there's that.  Core organizational values are great.  Unless they're not.  If they're just platitudes, empty words engraved in stone, what's the point?

On the other hand there's Netflix, one of the most successful tech-companies in the world right now, having successfully negotiated a rapidly changing marketplace and quickly adapted from a company that sends DVDs to customers through the mail into a company which now streams a whopping one-third of all the Internet content in the U.S. on a daily basis.  Netflix has grown immensely in both size and profitability in the last several years.

Netflix corporate values and its statement of corporate culture (called "the most important document ever to come out of the [Silicon] Valley" by no less that Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg) are widely admired in the corporate world.   In all they have nine core values at Netflix which are all focused on maintaining optimal "freedom and responsibility" within their organization.  The values that matter to Netflix are Judgement, Communication, Impact, Curiosity, Innovation, Courage, Passion, Honesty, and Selflessness.

Click to enlarge

 According to Patty McCord, who was the "chief of talent" at Netflix for many years, Netflix' corporate values were deliberately written as a set of ideal behaviors, rather than as esoteric or generic ideas, for the members of the organization to abide.  And they've served them well.  Netflix has grown from 30 employees to thousands in the years since these values were first written and, as a company, their financial success as well as their status as a "great place to work" is nothing less than legendary.

I will admit to being intrigued by these core values and the postive impact they may (or may not) have on an organization.  I believe Marshall has a number of great core values, but I don't believe we've identified them well at this point.  If someone were to ask us what we held as the key, most-important attributes of our "corporation" what would we tell them?  Who do we want to work alongside here at Marshall and what do we want them to be like?  What traits and ideals do we aspire to live up to as coworkers and team-mates at Marshall?  And, as we peer a ways into the future, what attitudes do we want our new coworkers to embody? 

I think it's important that we become better able to articulate these ideals.

Most especially because I anticipate that we will start the year next year with a number of new faces in our midst.  As we plan to replace a number of excellent teachers with new faculty members, I think it would be of great use to us as we seek, interview, and hire new employees to be able to identify, first for ourselves and subsequently for our candidates, what attributes and behaviors we value in our coworkers here at Marshall.

I'd like to begin the process of identifying and articulating our core values at Marshall Magnet School.  As a first step in this process, I'd like to know what you value about our community, your coworkers, and our culture at Marshall.  In lieu of our typical "Please acknowledge" link, please complete and submit the form below.

Kahtoola Agassiz Uphill
Nurse Gilmore sent the following to you via email on Wednesday.  Please consider joining in this effort: 

Hi all!  It's almost February and that means the Agassiz Uphill is right around the corner.  This is a wonderful event/fundraiser put on by Kahtoola with 100% of the proceeds going to Camp Colton, attached are more details.    

I think it would be REALLY fun to get a Marshall team together to support Camp Colton!  You may remember me sending out a similar email last year around this time but I ended up doing the race alone (guilt trip).  The event is Saturday February 8th at 5pm and is always a blast!  I would like to make it clear that this event is not a race but an uphill fundraiser.  Teams are not required to finish the race together but function more as a collective way to raise money for Camp Colton.  I do realize however, that many of you might think the idea of climbing up a snowy mountain nearly 2,000ft on a Saturday evening sounds horrid and you're probably smart.  However, there is still a way you can participate and be a part of the Marshall team.  If you are a lover, supporter, or believer in Camp Colton, and believe that children benefit from the rich experiences nature has to offer, you can participate in Support a Friend up the Mountain (SFUM) hike-a-thon.  This is a one time tax-deductable donation of any $ amount you feel you could pledge, an remember 100% of the proceeds go directly to Camp Colton.    

There is a pledge form posted outside my office where you can sign-up to donate.  This year Agassiz Uphill's fundraising goal is $30,000.  Let's raise as much as we can for Camp Colton to help ensure that the students we have at Marshall today will have to opportunity for the wonderful experiences Camp Colton will offer them down the road!  

Round Two TPEC

Click to enlarge

You may recall that the state of Arizona now requires that all teachers, regardless of tenure status, must complete two annual observations each school year (two observations equal one evaluation).  At this time, I have all-but-completed everyone's first-round observations.  Here are a few things you should know about our next steps in this new process:

• Your TPEC evaluation rubric will show you both an overall numeric score (ie: 2.85) and a narrative identifier such as Emerging, Applying, Integrating or Innovating (see image above). 
• If you have received all Integrating (3.0) or Innovating (4.0) scores on your eval and  thus have an average score of 3.0 or higher, you and I can together determine if you should sign a waiver to forego your second observation (effectively duplicating your first score).  
• If you have any Applying ratings you will need to do a second-round observation to "fix" those areas.
• If you are a teacher with less than three years experience in FUSD you must complete a second observation.
• If you have a score in the 3.0-3.5 Integrating range you and I together may elect to sign a waiver, however, please keep in mind that this number, coupled with your years of experience, committee participation, as well as with a few other variables, may become components of your RIF Rubric, should we end up in a RIF year.  If your score is at the low end of this range, it might be advisable to consider doing another observation (both scores are averaged) in order to raise your overall points and thus make you more competitive among your peers during a RIF.  If you have an average score of 3.0-3.5 and would like to discuss the option of signing a waiver, please make an appointment to meet with me.
• If your score is 3.5-4.0, or if you are a well-seasoned veteran teacher with many years of experience with a score in the 3.0-4.0 range, I have already prepared a waiver form for you to consider signing.  I will be seeking you out next week to discuss this option with you.

Calendar
Week A

• Monday, 13 Jan.
• Coe @ Admin Council, 1:00-4:00
• Tuesday, 14 Jan
• Clark Headstart visit, 8:15
• Science Council in the Science Lab, 4:00
• Site Council, canceled
• Wednesday, 15 Jan
• Coe @ Elementary Admin @ Kinsey 7:30-10:30
• Federated Headstart visit, 8:15
• Thursday, 16 Jan.
• Faculty Meeting, canceled
• Coe @ Move On When Reading meeting, 3:30
• Friday, 17 Jan.
• Lockdown drill,  ~9:30
• Monday, 20 Jan.
• NO SCHOOL, MLK Day

Please complete the Marshall Values form above to acknowledge this post.