Updates - 30 March 2018

Me

Hello everyone,

Not only did I learn recently that I am more Neanderthal than some 95% of the human race, I also found out that I am 99.9% of northern European extraction, which, as a repeated skin-cancer survivor, comes a no surprise to me.  However, I was quite excited to learn from this same 23andMe test that I am something like one-tenth of one percent (approximately a hang-nail's worth) Askenazi, which is a broadly dispersed, generally European subset of the Jewish people.

I am quite excited to have learned this about myself, that some seven or eight generations ago I had a Jewish ancestor.  Turns out, I now fit right in with my wife and daughter in this respect. The same 23andMe test that I took told Lisa that she's almost 30% Ashkenazi and also that she's nearly 10% African, and even a skosh east Asian, most of which she didn't know about herself at all before (and the story of her previously unknown 63-year-old long lost sister that 23andMe told her of is great story for another time, too).  All of this, of course, makes Bek a wonderful amalgam of just about every continent and many of the major people groups in the whole entire world. Kinda like Marshall School.  Which thrills me to no end.

All that said to say this: חג פסח שמח... happy Passover! Which is an admittedly religious thing to say to you on this Friday afternoon after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (or something like that). But a religious remembrance to which, in view of my newly discovered cultural and ancestral heritage, I hope you will indulge me, just this once.

Testing Season Is Upon Us
Just another heads-up: we dive full force into our annual state-mandated AzMerit tests next week, and will continue to plug away at them for all students in grades 3-5 throughout the next several weeks.

Thanks for keeping your head, and the collective heads of all your students, in the game.

If you're one of the lucky ones who will be proctoring these sessions, please ensure that your tests are secured each night, that you follow all protocols and instructions to the letter, that you review and honor the security agreement that you signed, and that your students comply at all times with the state's expectations for how, where, when, and who must take these tests.

If your position let's you out of this obligation, nevertheless, we will expect that you will respect the effort that is being made in this regard by so many members of our school community and that you will demonstrate this at all times by moving quietly throughout the building during this period, by reviewing the many small changes and modifications that have been made to schedules and calendars, and by giving, as you are able, both moral and professional support to your cohorts who are reasonably anxious to see their students succeed in this endeavor.

Calendar

• Monday 02 April
• Third grade AzMerit: Writing
• Kinder Suzuki performance at FHS, 5:30
• Tuesday 03 April
• Fifth grade AzMerit: Writing
• First grade Suzuki performance at FHS, 5:30
• Wednesday 04 April
• Fifth grade AzMerit: ELA & Math #1
• PTO meeting in the Library, 4:30
• Second grade Suzuki performance at FHS, 5:30
• Thursday 05 April
• Fifth grade AzMerit: ELA & Math #2
• Friday 06 April
• Kevin and Kathy Brown visit to some K, 3, 4 classes for book presentation, 9:00
• STEAM Council in the Science Lab, 12:45

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Updates - 16 March 2018

I'm just a caveman...

Hello everyone,

Happy Spring Break eve!  I hope you have many wonderful plans to enjoy the next nine days off work in the company of those you love.

I plan to do likewise and have, as I told you earlier in the week, taken a half-day of vacation this afternoon in order to start my ski-week a little early by heading up the hill to schralp the gnar with Bekah, my brother Dave, and his kids.

Just so you know, I've taken three vacation days (Mon.-Wed.) next week, too, to do much the same thing (mas gnar schralping, that is), so I won't be in the office at all during the Break (Thurs. and Fri. are official district holidays) .  Nonetheless, if you urgently need me for whatever reason, please don't hesitate to call me on my cell.

Hallway PBIS Updates

Click images to embiggen

Some encouraging progress has been made in recent weeks to regain appropriate decorum in our hallways during transition times throughout the school day.  Except when students are moving into and out of and in-between their special classes.  Several times a day, just about every day of the week, there are moments where the the corner near the Library in the kindergarten wing is super congested, albeit for only a few minutes at a time.

Our in-house computer-guru, McA, has provided this helpful graphic to help all of us better understand when these moments of considerable congestion most commonly occur down that way.  All of our specials teachers and I ask you to please take these times into careful consideration when you're moving your students around in the building for any non-specials-class related purposes (e.g. you're headed to the playground, kinder-wing bathrooms, the Library, etc.) and that rather than contributing to (or worse, colliding with) the cluster, you make a deliberate decision to instead take a different and less congested route to your destination at these brief-but-busy times of day.

Of Specials and Lunches and Tests
Our awesome special-classes team has been working diligently all week in an attempt to make arrangements to reschedule some of your classes during the weeks of AIMS Science and AZMerit testing.  In the end, however, there were too many complexities to make such a radical rearrangement of the master schedule a reality.

Therefore, be it known: if your class has a special-area class that coincides with one of your testing days, that your special classes will, of necessity, need to be canceled.  If your scheduled testing day does not coincide with a special class, or if your class does not participate in state-mandated standardized testing, there will be no changes to your otherwise well-established schedule for specials.

Also, our excellent RTI team would like to remind you that, during some of our upcoming testing weeks, "lunch times for grades 2/3 and 4/5 will be switched on Apr. 4-5, as well as Apr. 11-12 to provide the 4th and 5th grades extended AzMerit testing sessions."  Please take note.

Long Distance Calling

I found out recently that there's a secret code with which it has long been possible to call long-distance from the phones in your classrooms. I'd never been told about this code before.  And, to be honest, I still don't know what it is or how it works.

But I guess it doesn't matter.  Because I've also recently come to learn that it's the district's intent, "given the wide variety of area codes included in cell phone numbers that  move into our district, [to remove] the long distance code so family communications can be more easily accomplished."  I don't think it has been implemented yet.  But, it's probably wise to keep an eye out for an email from FUSD Tech Services in the near future advising you that this new service is now available on your phone.

New K-8 ELA Curricula Trainings

Calendar

• 19-23 March
• Spring Break!
• Tuesday 27 March
• Fourth grade AIMS Science testing
• Site Council in the Library, 4:00
• Wednesday 28 March
• Coe at Elementary Admin meeting, 9:30-11:30
• Thursday 29 March
• Faculty Meeting in the Library, CANCELED
• PTO Family Fitness Night, 5:30-7:00

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Updates - 09 March 2018

Hello everyone,

Rain rain, go away.

Actually I don't mean that.  But it does look like it's gonna rain (not snow) in the Saturday-Sunday timeframe this weekend.  The way I'm looking at it, this winter, I'll take any and all precip in whatever form it comes and try, as always, to never begrudge the rain for raining.

Another storm in the 16-17 March window, I think.  And, at the moment, this one looks like it could be doozy.  Stay tuned...

International Women's Day
As many of you know, yesterday, 08 March, was International Women's Day and, as I've said many times in the past, it continues to be my great privilege to have been included, for the entire duration of my career as a professional educator, amongst so many amazing women. I love riding bikes and drinking beers with my buddies. Still, it's no secret that I generally tend to prefer the company of your gender to that of my own, especially on a professional basis.  Likewise, most of you are aware of the fact that I'm not reluctant to blame my oft clouded judgement, and inherited inability to access certain components of my still nascent emotional intelligence, on the Y chromosome I got from my father.

Nonetheless, I remain grateful for the instructive insight, the ceaseless compassion, and the ever-patient instruction in what I've come to view as my second-language, which I have received from the many awesome women who have played strong, passionate lead roles in my life as I've grown from boyhood to manhood.  It's not always easy to be a boy (nor a girl, either, I'm sure), both nature and nurture too commonly conspire to make us complicated, interpersonally tone-deaf, and sometimes even broken creatures.  It has been, without a doubt, the women in my life who have collaborated to save me from this fate, often from myself, and always from my baser selfish impulses.

I am indeed one of the thousands of man-children (and women-children alike) who would not be who we are today, were it not for the roles strong women have played in our lives.

Beginning with my mom and extending now through my long loving partnership with Lisa, and of course to our daughter, and finally to so many of you, please know: my (hopefully always appropriate, never creepy) affection and admiration for you, and for all that you do, abides, always, in both my heart and mind.

Yes For FUSD

There hasn't exactly been a run on the Yes For FUSD raffle tickets that I mentioned here last week.  So, I'm gonna republish the information below, just in case you forgot about this opportunity to support this important public school advocacy group.

If you would like to be involved in this effort, I would encourage you to reach out to the organization via their webpage.  Or, if you'd like to help them raise funds for printing and mailing, you might want to buy a raffle ticket or two... I've got them in my office.  There are two kinds, red and white.  The first, for five bucks each are the white ones.  They will enter you to win Diamondbacks pre-season tickets.  The game is on 24 March and the drawing will take place on 15 March.  The second kind are red.  They are ten bucks each (or two for $18, five for $40, or 15 for $100) and they will enter you to win a week in a condo at Lake Tahoe which will be available between 30 December 2018 and 06 January 2019.  As a bonus, the more expensive red tickets will go into the white ticket drawing, too.

All the proceeds go to Yes For FUSD.

Early Release Lunch Schedules
Next week Thursday and Friday, 15 and 16 March, lunches will run on our regular Friday lunch schedule.  Regular school lunches (not sacks) will be served both of those days and school will be dismissed at 12:25.

On Wednesday, 14 March, 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

 Janelle also made
the front page of the
Arizona Daily Sun on Sunday

Viola Awards Update
Congratulations to Janelle Reasor!  Janelle won the Flagstaff Arts Council's Arts Community Impact (Individual) Viola Award at this season's event last weekend.

Calendar

• Monday 12 Mar
• Grand Canyon Univ in staff lounge at lunchtime
• Wednesday 14 Mar
• Payday!
• Early dismissal for Conferences, 11:10
• Thursday 15 Mar
• Early dismissal for Conferences, 12:25
• Friday 16 Mar
• Emergency drill (fire), 9:30
• Early dismissal for Conferences, 12:25

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P.S.
Several of Eva Herberger's and Amy Ronn's students successfully participated in the regional winter Special Olympics games at Snowbowl this week.  Congrats to all!

Updates - 02 March 2018

Snowday with Bekahcoe!

Hello everyone,

I am so pleased that we were granted our first (and possibly last/only) official snowday of the 2017-2018 school year this week.  I often tell people, snowdays, federal holidays, and summers alone are not enough of a good reason to get into our profession.  But, I'll be danged if, after we've enjoyed another awesome snowday, I'm not fully convinced they're definitely a great reason to stay in it.  I really do hope you enjoyed your bonus day-off as much as I enjoyed burning one of my vacation days.

For the record, 25 April becomes a regular day of school because of Wednesday's snowday.  The master calendar has been amended to reflect this change.

PBIS Stuff
Representatives of the PBIS Committee (well, just Casey, actually) and I met with the lunch duty folks on Thursday afternoon to review and revamp out cafeteria and playground expectations together in an effort to ensure that student safety and well-being remain on the top of our collective priority list.  We were very productive and accomplished a lot in a short time.

One thing that arose out of our discussion, which both the PBIS Committee and our awesome lunch duty bunch would like to encourage you to express to your students, are the following ideas:

• Every student should find one spot in which to sit whenever they are eating in the cafeteria; lunch aides will make every effort to ensure that students stay in that one seat for the duration of their eating time except to throw away trash.
• No food should be taken from the cafeteria to the playground.
• Students cannot be permitted to play in the garden, behind the bushes, or anywhere else outside the immediate oversight of an adult.  All staff should reinforce the idea to our students, "If you cannot see an adult, they cannot see you. And if they can't see you, they can't help you.  The grown-ups on the playground are there to help."
• No students will be permitted in the hallways during the lunch periods without a teacher-issued hallpass except to use the restrooms near the cafeteria.
• Lunch tubs/bins should be retrieved from the cafeteria and returned to classrooms well after the lunch period, ideally towards the end of the school day, in order to reduce student traffic in the halls.

Yes For FUSD
Several members of Marshall's community met together with folks from every other school site, the district office, and the community at-large to kick-off the 2018 Yes For FUSD initiative this week.  A growing body of information about this important effort will continue to be added to their website over the course of the next many days, weeks, and months as the school board makes its final decisions about tax-rates and actual dollar values, allocations, and things such as that.

If you would like to be involved in this effort, I would encourage you to reach out to the organization via their webpage.  Or, if you'd like to help them raise funds for printing and mailing, you might want to buy a raffle ticket or two... I've got them in my office.  There are two kinds, red and white.  The first, for five bucks each are the white ones.  They will enter you to win Diamondbacks pre-season tickets.  The game is on 24 March and the drawing will take place on 15 March.  The second kind are red.  They are ten bucks each (or two for $18, five for $40, or 15 for $100) and they will enter you to win a week in a condo at Lake Tahoe which will be available between 30 December 2018 and 06 January 2019.  As a bonus, the more expensive red tickets will go into the white ticket drawing, too.

All the proceeds go to Yes For FUSD.

End Of The Grading Period Stuff
It's officially March, which means the end of the grading period, parent-teacher conferences, and spring break are right around the corner.  Gradebook czar Overton sent the following information earlier in the week:

• Friday, March 2nd:
• Special Area Teachers have the afternoon to finalize grades.
• Friday, March 9th:
• End of 3rd Quarter
• All specials grades must be in by 12:00 noon.
• Office staff will do the attendance rollover by noon.
• Regular classroom teachers can transfer grades at anytime. However, they must wait to print until the announcement has been made.
• March 14th-16th
• Parent-Teacher Conferences
• Please be sure you present Standards Reports to parents at conferences.
• Friday, March 16th
• Deadline to enter or change grades in Report Card.  To be safe, you will want to make any changes by 11:59 PM on the 15th.
• All Standards Reports should go home with students unless you have a conference scheduled for a later date.

Likewise, FUSD transportation has given us our early dismissal schedule for parent-teacher conference week.  We will release students as follows:

• 14 March -- 11:10 (sack lunches, too)
• 15 March -- 12:25
• 16 March -- 12:25

Calendar

• Saturday 03 Mar
• Viola Awards at High Country Conference Center
• Cocktail Hour: 5:00-6:00
• Awards Gala & Dinner: 6:00-9:00
• Monday 05 Mar
• Coe at Admin Council, 1:00-4:00
• STEM Night at NAU Skydome, 5:30-7:30
• Wednesday 07 Mar
• Coe to chaperone Grimmett/Arnold ski trip, 9:00-2:30
• Kindergarten registration in the Gym, 4:30-6:30
• Thursday 08 Mar
• Flagstaff Symphony Link-up concert at NAU, 10:00-12:30
• Friday 09 Mar
• End of third grading period
• PBIS Committee meeting in the Music room, 2:15

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