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

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