Updates - 27 October 2017

Hello everyone,

No week is without its complications.

But a week where we're thrust without warning, first, back into the 19th century and forced to conduct school for a time with no electric light and no telephones, and then allowed to creep slowly but incrementally over the course of several days up through each subsequent era of the 20th century, finally regaining a precarious toehold in the 1990s and the (re)dawning of the Internet age at Marshall, makes for an especially complicated one.

Hopefully, now with the advent of working bells and a functioning intercom, this whole ordeal, and my dag-blasted bullhorn, will soon be yet another faded memory of our collective days together at Marshall.  We've had a few others over the years, to be sure.  But this week, and our completely improvised and often primitive approaches to having school, will surely be one we'll recollect as complicated for some time to come.

Thanks for hanging in there through it all.

Apolitical Discussion
The Arizona Education Association has invited candidates for our state's upcoming gubernatorial election to a forum at Flagstaff High School's Hurley Auditorium on Wednesday 01 November at 6:00.  It has been suggested that any Marshall staff interested in attending gather together at the Gopher Hole Pub downtown beforehand, around 4:00.  You may RSVP for the event online.  Might be nice to let your local FEA rep, Casey Reger, know if you're coming to the Gopher Hole, too.

In The Pipeline
Magnet Program Coordinator, Janelle Reasor, writes, "In the Pipeline will be at Marshall from Monday, Nov. 6 - Thursday, Nov. 9! The Children’s Museum of Phoenix exhibit, In the Pipeline, is designed to bring out creativity in children. With this exhibit of pipes, connectors and colorful banners children can construct just about anything they can imagine. Children can build long lines of pipe, towers, shapes, statues, houses, castles and entire skylines. While creating, children gain skill in following a mental plan, communicating with others, using spatial relations and gain knowledge of the physics involved in building.  You may download the activity guide here.

"Please message Janelle Reasor with the day and time that works for you to get your students into the science lab! First come, first served.

"Also, don't forget:

• Taiko Performance - Thursday, Nov. 2nd @ 5:30-6:30 PM in Marshall Gym
• Taiko All school assembly - Friday, Nov. 3rd @ 9:30-10:20 AM in Marshall Gym."

Calendar

• Wednesday 01 Nov
• PTO in the Library, 6:30
• Thursday 02 Nov
• Taiko parent performance in the Gym, 5:30
• Friday 03 Nov
• Coe at Arizona Math Leadership seminar in PHX, all day
• Taiko school performance in the Gym, 9:30
• PBIS Committee meeting in the Music room, 12:45
• STEAM Council meeting in the Science Lab, 12:45

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Updates - 20 October 2017

Hello everyone,

The FUSD School Board passed an Inclusion and Protection Resolution at their 23 May 2017 meeting, which they would like you to read.  It is also posted in the school office.  You may download a copy of it here.

Halloween Stuff
For the record, here's the breakdown of our longstanding Halloween policies again:

If you are planning to incorporate Halloween into your teaching next week or the week after, please ensure that you recognize and honor each individual's position on this issue and their right to hold it.

You may not exclude from instruction any students who chooses not to recognize Halloween or who elects, for any reason, not to participate in Halloween-related activities at school.

Classroom-teachers who choose to allow students to wear costumes at school on Tuesday 31 October may do so provided costumes meet the following criteria. It is the classroom-teacher's responsibility to communicate the school's policies and expectations to students and their parents and to provide acceptable accommodations to all who choose to abstain:

• Costumes deemed unsafe for any reason will be required to removed. It is advisable that students wear school-appropriate attire beneath their costume. If students do not have a change of clothing, they will be required to stay in the office until parents arrive.
• No costume may be worn which would in any way impede the student from moving safely and quickly out of the building in the event of an alarm. 
• Costumes must not obstruct vision or movement or in any way present a hazard to the student or other classmates. 
• Masks covering any part of the face may not be worn.
• Fake knives, swords, or guns may not be used as a part of any costume. Such items will be confiscated and may result in disciplinary action including but not limited to suspension from school.
• Costumes must not be overly gruesome and overtly violent.

Calendar

• Tuesday 24 Oct
• FUSD School Board meeting, 5:30
• Wednesday 25 Oct
• Coe @ Elementary Admin meeting, 9:30-11:30
• Thursday 26 Oct
• Faculty Meeting, 7:45 CANCELED
• SEI Parent Night, 5:30-7:30
• Friday 27 Oct
• Payday!

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Updates - 11 October 2017

Hello everyone,

Have a happy Fall Holiday!

A Little Light Reading
Turns out, we're not the only ones puzzled about Arizona's new school letter grade system.  Lots of important people are asking all kinds of important questions about it, too.  Here's proof:

• Why hundreds of Arizona school letter grades remain 'under review'
• Educators worry Arizona's new A-F school grades will be too complicated

Calendar

• Monday 16 Oct
• Taiko artist-in-residency begins
• Coe @ Admin Council, 12:00
• Tuesday 17 Oct
• FUSD Wellness and Food Advisory committees on-site, 11:20
• Red Ribbon Week assembly for grades 3-5 in the Gym, 1:25
• Site Council meeting in the Library, 4:30
• Friday 20 Oct
• Emergency drill, lockdown and fire, 9:30
• Post conferences, 1:00-3:00

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Updates - 06 October 2017

Hello everyone,

Dang.  We've been super busy again this week. I'm simply exhausted, physically and emotionally, after all that's transpired.  I hope you'll join me in setting about very deliberately to get as fully refilled as is humanly possible over the course of the next two days, looking all the while with even greater anticipation toward the upcoming extra-long weekend to come.

Just wanna say thanks to all y'all, for helping out at Walk To School Day on Wednesday, and for being on time to the faculty meeting Thursday morning, and for your attendance at PTO on Wednesday night, and for prepping yourselves for our official OELAS audit midweek, and for encouraging your kids to be ready for the Mustang Gallop today, and for gearing up to prepare your report cards and your parents and your students for conferences next week, and for the conversations I know you've had during classtime recently (I've been watching and I really can tell) with your kids about our common hallway expectations... and, by the way, I'm still hopeful to get around to your classrooms next week to personally review them with your students, too.

On Fridays, as I'm writing the Blue Note, I always look ahead at the master calendar for the coming week to be sure I've conveyed to you all the relevant deets about what's coming as clearly as I possibly can.  But sometimes in doing this, I also like to look back at the week that was, to see all the things that we accomplished together.  This was a good week for doing that.

We had a lot on our plate over the course of the past five days, and the pleasant realization that comes from taking a glance back is the recognition that we got it all done.  Not that that's a surprise.  We almost always do.  Still, it's nice to reflect on that fact.  Sometimes it's the only win we get in a given period of time: that we got it. All. Done.

And this past week we did get it done.  Together.  'Cause that's how we always do it at Marshall.

Early Release Lunch Schedules
Next week Monday and Tuesday, 9-10 October, lunches will run on our regular Friday lunch schedule.  Regular school lunches (not sacks) will be served both days and school will be dismissed at 12:25.

On Wednesday, 11 October, we will dismiss school at 11:10 and our sack lunch schedule that day 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

School Letter Grade

I expect that our current school letter grade, along with those of the rest of FUSD, will probably hit the front page of the newspaper early next week.  The state has told us they intend to lift the embargo on them on Monday 09 October.  

Because you asked for it, here's a link to the A-F Accountability presentation Dr. Hagstrom prepared for the School Board recently.  If you're able to make sense of it, please feel free to stop by and explain it to me.

As I said earlier today, I'm unable to tell you where we should set our targets for improvement based on this score and the convoluted formulations used by the state to tabulate it.  Nevertheless, I know we will not rest in our efforts but will continually strive to do our best to move all of our students forward as best we (and they) are able.  Not because of our letter grade, but because it is, quite simply, the right thing to do. 

Calendar

• Monday 09 Oct
• Early dismissal, 12:25
• Parent-Teacher conferences, all afternoon
• Clothing exchange, all afternoon
• Tuesday 10 Oct
• Early dismissal, 12:25
• Parent-Teacher conferences, all afternoon
• Clothing exchange, all afternoon
• Wednesday 11 Oct
• Payday!
• Early-early dismissal, 11:10
• Parent-Teacher conferences, all afternoon
• Clothing exchange, all afternoon
• Thursday 12 Oct
• NO SCHOOL - Fall holiday
• Friday 13 Oct
• NO SCHOOL - Fall holiday

Please acknowledge that you read this post.