Updates - 26 September 2014

Hello everyone,

Happy Friday, happy pay-day, happy belated autumnal equinox.

TPEC TEAR and TPPP
Teachers received two copies of their TPEC TEAR reports this week, the second of which contains revisions of AIMSWEB scores and should be an accurate picture of your performance based on your TPEC evaluation and student achievement data last year.  Please refer to the 301: Program Info Packet that you were given at our first faculty meeting for clarification on how these scores will be applied to your compensation.

In a nutshell, of the $1000.00 total award that is available to teachers, 75% (up to $750.00) of it is called the Individual Component of the Teacher Performance Pay Plan (TPPP). For this component:

• You will receive 30% ($300.00) if you are listed as Innovating on your TPEC evaluation or 20% ($200.00) if you are listed as Integrating. 
• There is no award for teachers listed as Applying or Emerging on TPEC.  
• You will receive 25% ($250.00) if at least 85% of all your students (if you worked as a team, this means all of the students in your team's cadre) showed growth on the measure(s) you chose during your TPEC pre-conference last year.
• You will receive 15% ($150.00) if between 70-84% of all your students (if you worked as a team, this means all of the students in your team's cadre) showed growth on the measure(s) you chose during your TPEC pre-conference last year.
• There is no award for student achievement below 69% growth.

The remaining portion of the Individual Component of the TPPP is the Professional Responsibility Component which is an all-or-nothing 20% ($200.00) for teachers who complete "a minimum of thirty hours [of eligible activities]... during the school year."  A non-exhaustive list of eligible activities can be found in the packet.

For the record, the remaining 25% of the TPPP award (up to $250.00) is based on district and school letter grades.  Because we are a C school in a B district, you will receive 10%, or $100.00, for this part of the TPPP.

TPEC sign-offs

Pre-conference review and sign-off

You will need to sign-off on this year's TPEC evaluation in two places.

First, you'll need to review and sign-off on the details of your pre-conference.  You should do this soon.  If you've had your pre-conference already, you can do it now.

Formal observation acknowledgement

Second, after your first (and/or second) formal observation(s), you'll need to log-in and acknowledge the evauation, too.

There's a link to TrueNorth Logic in the sidebar of this blog.

Post Conferences
I have blocked out the 2:00-3:30 timeframe on Friday afternoons to conduct post-conferences with you following your formal evaluation(s).  I have scheduled three observations a week between now and December, so this block of time should allow for three 30-minute blocks to meet with each of the teachers evaluated in a given week.

A post-conference is not required to complete your evaluation, but I think it's a good idea, especially if you hope (as I do) to view your evaluation as part of a formative, professional-growth process.  Following your formal observation, please correspond with me to let me know if you'd like to sit and talk about your evaluation.  In reply, I will let you know what time between 2:00 and 3:00 to arrive.

Review of Amendment
I posted an Amendment of our Professional Expectations on the Blue Note earlier this week.  Most of you have complied with my request to review and acknowledge it.  Thanks.

Please remember: if you choose to adjust your start-time to 8:20, you must work until at least 3:50 in order to fulfill your contractual obligations.

If you have not already done so, please correspond with me if you are unable or unwilling to assist with recess duty at 8:15 so that I can arrange my schedule to be outside with students until you arrive at 8:20 on the morning you are assigned duty.

Connect To School Night sign-in sheets
Do you have sign-in sheets from Connect To School Night?  If you do, please deliver them to the wire in-box outside my office door.  I'd like to hang on to them. Thanks.

Findlay Honda
If you refer a friend or relative to Tyler at Findlay Honda and they purchase a vehicle Findlay will donate $100.00 to Marshall School.

Calendar
Week B

• Monday 29 Sept.
• Coe @Admin, 2:00-4:00
• Wednesday 01 Oct.
• FMC/Fit Kids Heights & Weights, all day
• Friday 03 Oct.
• Mustang Gallop, all morning
• Coe @ Admin 2:00-3:30

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Amendment of Expectations

Hello everyone,

Here's a curious thing that's recently come to my attention:

FUSD School Board Policy G-4600 states:

All professional staff members shall report to their duty stations on time each workday and shall, as scheduled, be available there until the designated time(s) they are scheduled to leave.

FUSD School Board Policy GCL-R states:

Elementary Schools: The teacher workday is from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day.

However, FUSD School Board Policy GCL states:

The professional work day for staff members shall be: Elementary from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.  

Additionally, FUSD School Board Policy GCL states:

Elementary teachers shall decide their own arrival and departure times (based on a seven and one-half [7 1/2] hour workday.

Finally, FUSD School Board Policy GCL-R also contains this policy as well:

Teachers will not be required to supervise students until fifteen (15) minutes before class time. 

As you know, in FUSD the school-day bell schedule is set district-wide and, at present, runs from 8:35 until 3:20 each day.  

As you likewise know, as a part of our Professional Expectations document, which you all were asked to sign at the beginning of the school year, I have asked that you arrive at work no later than 8:15 and that you be present at work until 3:45, in order to be in compliance with your 7.5 hour contracted work-day.

For the record, I would like to point out that I have, as your principal, made every attempt to abide by Board Policy GCL where it states:

On Fridays, or on days preceding holidays or vacations, staff members may, with prior approval of their principal and upon dismissal of students and the discharge of professional responsibilities, be permitted to terminate their work day prior to the normal departure time as stated above.  The building principal may, at his discretion, authorize staff members' early departure on such days when they have discharged their duties.

And Policy GCL-R which similarly states:

An employee who has received prior permission from the principal or immediate supervisor may be excused from arriving late to work or departing early due to special circumstances that are short-term in nature.  An employee who has an actual documented emergency may be excused from arriving late to work or departing early.  The employee must contact the supervisor as soon as possible to provide notice of the emergency.

In view of all this, I will no longer require you to be present at the school from 8:15 until 3:45.  You may choose to arrive at 8:20.  However, if you do so, please note that your end-of-day departure time must be similarly revised to 3:50 in order to remain in compliance with your contracted work-day.

On your established morning-duty day, I will appreciate it if you would be willing to be on-site for your once-per-week morning recess duty at 8:15.  However, if you are unwilling or unable to do so, I will perform the five extra minutes of this duty in your stead.  If this is the case, please arrive for your duty no later than 8:20.

For the record, I have revised the language in our Professional Expectations document to state:

Faculty members are expected to be at work from 8:15 until 3:45 or 8:20 until 3:50.

If you elect to change your "shift" from 8:15-3:45 to 8:20-3:50, let me know, in order for me to be prepared to start recess duty five minutes prior to your contractual arrival time on the day of your once-weekly duty assignment.  Sending me an email to this effect will suffice.

Please note: this amendment of my expectations has been reviewed by the Superintendent. 

If you have persistent questions about these policies, please feel free to bring them to me.

I hereby acknowledge that I received and read this post.

Updates - 18 September 2014

Hello everyone,

In the midst of the tragedy we experienced this week I found myself profoundly moved to see, at every turn, our entire community collectively drawn together in order to reach out compassionately toward one another, especially toward our most deeply saddened members and a family in the throes of profound grief.

That part of this tragic business was quite beautiful.

The way Marshall rallied on Monday, parents, students, and staff together as one grieving community, was another confirmation to me of why I love this place and its membership.  Marshall is special, a place like no other.  That was proved to me again this week.

In view of the week we've had, it is truly my hope that you have a safe and relaxing weekend.

Connect To School Night
Thank you for completing the Connect To School Night reflection survey (and if you haven't yet, there's still time to do so).  I am pleased with the preliminary feedback you've provided.

Please have a look at the results by clicking this link.  The graphs are easy to interpret, but pay close attention to the comments at the bottom, too.  On the upside: I think you will see that, in general, most of you appear to have felt very positively about this event and that most of you would repeat it next year, with some of you hopeful to consider repeating it later in this school year.  On the down-side: Turn-out was less than we'd hoped for, but actually pretty darn close to par for a more-traditional Open House Night, I think.  Definitely a point-for-growth as we look at carrying out this event in the future.

I'd like us to discuss our first-ever Connect To School Night further as a staff, focusing on the feedback you've provided and with a view to developing our plans for doing it again (whether or not we choose to do it sooner or later).  We have begun to do so in your CTs this week, but I have reserved our 23 October morning faculty meeting for this purpose as well.

What's been especially cool is the amount of universally positive feedback I continue to receive from our parents on an almost daily basis since last Thursday, quite often from folks who otherwise rarely-if-ever seek me out for any reason.  Here's a great example:

Mr. Coe,
    In the wake of the tragedy that Marshall has experienced this week I thought I would share some good news with you.
    In the 14 years I have been in education and the 9 years I have been a parent of a student in the Flagstaff Public Schools I have never been a part of an Open House that has been as productive and meaningful as the one Marshall put on last Thursday evening. It was impressive to see how Marshall School is embracing the philosophical shift that is occurring in education right now and putting theory into practice. Marshall School took the idea of a true parent/school partnership and put into place a plan of action.
    It was obvious that a lot of time and energy was spent training the faculty and staff on presenting the student information to parents both delicately and inclusively. There are two elements from Open House that made an impression on me. One was the concept of parents looking at their student's data, making goals for their student's next benchmark, and then, and this is the best part, encouraging parents to commit to what they will do at home to help their student reach their goals. Secondly,knowing that some parents have the right intentions, but don't know how to help their students, the teacher utilized the Ipads and showed us a couple of educational sites and how they would work for us as parents. It's one thing for a school to provide a list of resources for parents. However, it's another for a school to take the time to demonstrate and utilize technology to help parents discover how a specific tool would work for their child.
    Lastly, I was happy and grateful for Mrs. ____'s willingness to take the time to walk parents through the entire process. It was obvious that she was well-prepared for the presentation. I am thankful my daughter has her as a teacher this year.
    Please share my thoughts as you see fit.
    Proud Marshall Parent,

Projectors
FUSD technician John McCooey has asked that you immediately notify the Help Desk (or if you have trouble with this, Malinda) to create a work order whenever you see the "Please clean filter" notice on your projector's screen.  Each day of delay in doing so threatens to turn your projector into a boat-anchor.

Calendar
Week A
Observation Calendar begins

• Monday, 22 Sept.
• Coe at Flagstaff Community Foundation awards, 10:00-12:00
• Wednesday, 24 Sept.
• Coe off, all afternoon (dermatologist)
• Friday, 26 Sept.
• Fire Drill, 10:00

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Updates -- 12 Sept. 2014

Hello everyone,

Thanks, all y'all, for your hard work getting ready for and carrying out your team meetings and/or assisting with childcare during Connect To School Night last night.  It really was a team effort that was required to pull this thing off, and I was so pleased that each and every one of you rallied and contributed in any way necessary to ensure it went well.

My thanks especially to Paulsen and Ronn for coordinating the most well-organized, safe, and secure on-site childcare arrangement imaginable.  Well done!

My own personal impressions during the event, as well as the feedback that many, many parents have deliberately taken the time to share with me since, has all been universally positive.  No kidding.  Overwhelmingly, universally positive.

Turn-out for most of you was such that most of your classrooms looked quite full, but I have a sense that because many of our parents arrived in pairs, turn-out was probably in the 50% range in actuality, which is far short of our goal of 100% turn-out.  That's probably something to work on, should we decide to do this event again in the future.

I'm sure there are other things for us to work on, too, as we move forward.

I'd like to know your thoughts and reactions to Connect To School Night, as we start to process the successes and/or failures of this first-of-its-kind event.  Regardless of your assignment or role during Connect To School Night, please take a couple minutes to complete this brief reflection form TODAY.  If you feel that, due to your role during Connect To School Night, you cannot answer a question, please leave it blank.

Pre-conferences
I will be in attendance at your CT meetings next week to review the TPEC Rubric as well as many of my expectations for your formal observations/evaluations for this school year.  Meantime, it would be a good idea to review the rubric for yourself.  It's always available online on TrueNorth Logic under the TPEC Resources tab.

Please remember(s)...

• Morning Math: Please remember, Morning Math from 8:45-9:15 (or shortly before the beginning of your first special) is a mandate, not an option.  I appreciate your compliance.
• Math Grouping: Please remember, your weekly schedule has been arranged to provide you and your grade-level cohorts with large blocks of uninterrupted common teaching time.  I will appreciate your careful consideration of how your team might best plan to collaborate during these times in order to differentiate instruction to disparate ability groups at your grade-level.  Such collaboration is not a mandate at this time... but it's safe to assume it's something I very much hope will occur.
• Standards: Please remember, it's appropriate to have a standard and learning goal posted on your white-board or Promethean for each lesson you are teaching throughout the school day.  Likewise, it is ideal if your students are able to articulate this goal to me whenever I stop in.
• Snow-delay Schedules: Please remember, when we start school two-hours late after a snow-delay, our morning rotation of special classes will be canceled entirely.  You should begin your day with Morning Math at 10:45 on such mornings and resume your regularly scheduled day 30 minutes later at 11:15.
• Web pages: Please remember, our www.fusd1.org/marshall website is our first-face to much of the outside world.  If you have not already done so, please update your classroom/teacher page today. At minimum, your page should feature the following updates:
• correct school year
• correct grade-level or assignment
• correct email address
• correct telephone extension
• correct room number

Parent-Teacher Conferences
Fall 2014 conferences will occur on Monday 13 October, Tuesday 14 October, and Wednesday 15 October.  On Monday and Tuesday we will release at 12:25.   On Wednesday, we will release at 11:10.  As we have done before, we will serve sack lunches each of those days.  Our Wednesday 15 October lunch schedule will be as follows:

• 9:35-9:55 -- K-1 eat lunch 
• 9:55-10:15 -- K-1 on playground 
• 10:00-10:20 -- 2-3 eat lunch 
• 10:20-10:40 -- 2-3 on playground 
• 10:25-10:45 -- 4-5 eat lunch 
• 10:45-11:05 -- 4-5 on playground

Fit Kids
Anna Hudson has submitted her resignation from our morning Fit Kids position.  She has been a part of this program from the beginning and we will miss having her on our staff.  Her last day at Marshall will be 24 September.  If you are aware of anyone who would like to apply for her position, please send them my way or refer them to the FUSD Human Resources webpage where they may apply.  The reference number of the posting is CL001251.

Travis Agnew has agreed to fill in for Anna in the morning as well as during his afternoon shift for a short time while we look for someone to fill this role.

Calendar
Week B

• Monday, 15 Sept.
• Coe at Admin Council, 11:00-4:00
• Tuesday, 16 Sept.
• Science Council in the Lab, 4:00
• Site Council in the Library, 5:00
• Thursday, Sept 18
• Faculty Meeting in the Library, 7:45
• Dr. Garland, Mr. Sauer, and Board-member Kulpinski will attend
• Friday, 19 Sept.
• Mustang Gallop Kick-off assemblies in the Gym, 9:00 (K-2) & 9:30 (3-5)
• Coe at conference in PHX, all day

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Updates -- 05 Sept. 2014

Hello everyone,

Happy Friday!

Connect-To-School Night
Thanks for all your hard work as you continue to prep for Connect-To-School Night.  I've been quite pleased this week to encounter a number of you during your "spare" time working diligently on this project.

In light of this effort, please remember: we're doing this with the best of intentions, to better ensure that, by partnering with our parents in meaningful ways, our students will be poised to be even more successful at school.

At the same time, please keep in mind: this is an experiment, an opportunity to put to the test a method for building home-school partnerships which has proven to be successful elsewhere.  However, if we are able to assess at year's-end that it has not been a valuable exercise for us here at Marshall, or that the investment of our time and effort has not returned a measurable yield, we will come up with a new, and hopefully better plan for the future.  On the other hand, if it proves to be of value, we'll hope to refine and revise the process in productive ways by working together going forward into next year.

All that said, I think we're just about ready to go.  And frankly, I'm growing ever-more excited to see it happen!

We will issue another robo-call to remind our families about Connect-To-School Night this evening (Friday) and one more early next week, too.  Likewise, one final paper-flyer reminder will go home next week, with a Spanish translation on the back-side this time (Thanks, Mrs. Soto!).

A small army of "volunteer" childcare workers (mostly Marshall special-area staff members!) will be on hand on Thursday evening to ensure that all of our kids are well-cared for during your meetings (Thanks, Paulsen and Ronn for coordinating all of this!).

You should have (or soon should have) all the (hand-compiled) AIMSWEB data that you require for your graphs at your meetings (Thanks Grant and Hanno for laboring for long hours to get this data parsed for us, despite Pearson's persistent AIMSWEB glitches and snafus!).

Malinda has been extremely diligent in helping you secure all you need in terms of supplies and materials for your meetings and send-home parent strategy/resource packets.  If you have abiding concerns or requests in this regard, please make them known to her ASAP.

CCC Practicum Students
Emily McRobbie, an instructor at Coconino Community College has requested that several of her Education 200 students complete their practicum obligations at Marshall.  They are looking for placements as follows:

Jessina – most interested in grades 3-6; she has other contacts, also, so may not need a full 15 hours at your school – she has volunteered before and helped teachers set up classrooms last summer
 Beverly – she already knows a teacher at Marshall  (Peggy?), also would like to spend some time at a middle school, so perhaps only 7-10 hours at Marshall
 Raeaunna – open to any grade level, she has already shadowed at Marshall before, but does not have a strong contact there, also would like to spend some time at another school in town, so perhaps only half the time at Marshall
 Shawnti – she attended Marshall and knows several teachers there well (Mr. Macias, Ms. McFall, Mrs. Ballard, Mrs. Bianco and she helped Ms. Shaw a few years ago), most interested in K-3, she feels that she knows the teachers there very well and is comfortable contacting them directly, as long as you approve

If you are interested in having one of these students in your room for up to 15 hours, please correspond with Ms. McRobbie.  I have asked her to clarify what compensation or other incentives may exist to encourage your participation in this program, but at the time of this writing she has not provided me with that information.

Evaluations

Please keep in mind: TPEC pre-conferences will take place in your CTs during the week of 15 September.

Also, please remember: at IBS negotiations, it was established that teachers will be provided with a minimum of one week notice prior to the week of their evaluation and that principals will arrive at a time of their choosing during that week to evaluate a lesson.  Your "evaluation week" has already been established and published.  A link to the observation calendar is available in the sidebar of the Blue Note (see: Calendar: Observations).

Please take note of the calendar and provide me with a copy of your teaching schedule for the week of your observation no later than Friday afternoon of the week prior.  I may ask for a copy of your lesson plan for the lesson I arrive to observe afterward.

You may not request changes to the observation calendar.  I must complete all of our first-round observations prior to the winter break and, as the sole "qualified evaluator" at Marshall, cannot reasonably do more than the three-per-week that the schedule already insists I accomplish.

School Compacts

Please don't forget: School Compacts are a required component of our Title 1 plan and must be completed by every teacher/parent/student at Marshall no later than October during parent teacher conferences.  You may, however, complete them at any time (a few of your already have!), including during Connect-To-School Night.  The form is available online.

Trees

Please remind your students that, in addition to our other PBS playground expectations, there should be NO tree-climbing, too.  Thanks.

Emergency Folders

A new class roster, school map, and incident assignment sheet (including staff cell phone numbers) has been placed in your faculty mailbox.  These materials should be added to your existing red emergency folder.  If you are a new staff member and cannot locate the red folder for your classroom, please let us know in the front office.  We will work with you to create a new one.

For an overview of all that should be included in your folders, please review the video below (updated this week... now with fewer "uhms"):

Calendar

• Tuesday, 09 Sept.
• Coe at NAU Practicum Seminar, 4:00-5:00
• Wednesday, 10 Sept.
• Coe at Elementary Admin mtg, 7:30-10:30
• Thursday, 11 Sept.
• Connect-To-School Night!
• K-2 5:30-6:15
• 3-5 6:30-7:15

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Greatness At Marshall: Tier 1 PBS Review

The PBS committee has identified and outlined a set of expected behaviors for Marshall School's playgrounds, hallways, and bathrooms.  Using this list as a guide, it has, for many years, been the committee's goal to have all faculty and staff consistently reinforce these desired behaviors.  

Please review these attributes of Greatness At Marshall with your students.  Signage which reiterates these components of our school-wide Tier 1 positive behavior support framework has been placed in the common spaces throughout the school.

Your commitment to recognizing 2-3 students per day for demonstrating positive behaviors in the following areas is appreciated.

• Playground:
• Climbing Wall: 
• Always continue moving with 3 points of contact. 
• Avoid sitting and sliding down the bars. 
• Climb down carefully and avoid jumping off.
• Spinnies: 
• Only have 3 little kids and 2 big kids on at one time. 
• Each turn should be only 30 revolutions and then switch. 
• Make sure feet are in contact with the plate at all times. 
• Avoid jumping off, swinging out and sitting on the top.
• Swings:      
• Always sit on your bottom only. 
• Swing back and forth only. 
• Avoid jumping off, swinging sideways, or twisting the chain. 
• Avoid swinging too high. 
• Slide:      
• Slide down one at a time. 
• Always slide down on your bottom. 
• Avoid climbing up the slide. 
• Areas to Avoid:      
• bushes underneath any windows 
• garden area, aka Hamra Hollow
• Hallways:       
• Always have silent voices. 
• Always keep to the right. 
• Always keep body parts of the walls. 
• Always have single file lines. 
• Bathrooms:       
• Always use quiet voices 
• Do your business and leave immediately. 
• Avoid hanging from stalls
• No playing with the water or soap
• Cafeteria:
• Walk at all times
• Use an indoor voice
• Stay seated except to dump trash