Hello everyone,This, my 345th post to you here, will be my final entry on the Blue Note blog. The domain, www.bluenoteblog.com, will officially expire in September 2018. You will forever be able to refer to the content herein, as an historical record, at marshallbluenote.blogspot.com.
My affection for you, this special place, and the students we have served together will not diminish as I step away from this role to rejoin the teacher corps and a new faculty across town. My time at Marshall has blessed my life immeasurably, with truly life-changing friendships, a bagful of genuinely astounding stories (some of which I think are worth retelling over and over, some of which I would love to forget), and total absolute confirmation that I can, in fact, do hard things. Because, quite frankly, I believe, for the past 2520 days, I have. The 10 canary-yellow to-do notebooks, which I've filled line-by-line, top-to-bottom, and margin-to-margin in the course of the past seven years, likewise attest to this fact. I've learned a lot about myself, and about how other people perceive me, and a thousand-thousand other mostly valuable things during this experience.
I will always be grateful to many of you for sticking with me through it all. Your occasional words of encouragement and support over the years have equipped me, sometimes at precisely the right moment, to persist for yet another day in this difficult work, and in many, many cases have touched my heart deeply, and meant more to me than you will ever know.
But we all know, I was really only ever the interim principal at Marshall, holding a place between Mrs. Zanzucchi and the next "guy" while trying not to break the place in the meantime. I'm glad we've come to a point where I can step away, confident that I really did work super hard everyday to do my best by Marshall while you needed me to, to return to a role that's far less contentious and much more in line with what I feel I've actually been called to do with my life: teach. I'm also pleased to know that so many of you are involved in the process of finding someone to serve in the principal's role here who is committed to understanding you, and loving you, and to working sincerely on your behalf to make Marshall ever-better for all, as I, likewise, have always tried to do.
Year-end Check-out Check-list
Also, please don't forget:
- Dismissal will happen at 12:25 on Thursday 31 May
- Send report cards home on Thursday 31 May
- Come to work around 8:30 on Friday 01 June
- Complete cum folders for each student in your class
- Complete each component of your Year-End Check-Out form
- Sign-up in the office to have someone check-you-out on Friday 01 June
- If you're leaving FUSD, do not forget to turn in your tech. They will hunt you down.
- Marshall would like your keys/badge back, too, if you're bailing on the FLG. But we will be less ruthless in our pursuit of you if you forget.
Report Cards
Friday, May 25:
Special area teachers, please have your grades entered by 12:00 noon TODAY.
School office staff will need to do the initial attendance rollover at 12:00 noon TODAY as well.
Classroom teachers should not print report cards until an announcement is made that both of the previous steps have been completed.
If teachers choose to print report cards prior to May 31st, please add this message in the comments box on the standards report...
"Student attendance is accurate as of May 25, 2018. Actual days membership through May 31, 2018, will be entered in students' permanent files."
Thursday, May 31: Last Day of School
Standards reports will be sent home with students at the end of the day.
School office staff should do the final attendance rollover by 12:00 noon.
Friday, June 1: Teacher Work Day
Teachers should print a final standards report with the "official" attendance documented.
TPPP Logs
Certified 301-eligible personnel, don't forget to turn in your Teacher Performance Pay Plan logs to the appropriate folder next to my in-basket in the office. Would be great if you could do this TODAY. I will be submitting a spreadsheet of your hours to payroll as soon as the district provides it to me.
TPEC sign-offs
 |
| Mr. Spock says, "Without a completed eval, teachers are not eligible for [TPPP] payment." |
First, you'll need to review and sign-off on the details of your pre-conference under the Plan Details tab. You should have already done this. But if you haven't, you can still (and must) do it now.
Second, after your first (and/or second) formal observation(s), you should have logged-in and acknowledged the evaluation under the Observation Acknowledgements tab. But, again, if you haven't, you can still (and must) do it now.Don't forget to click the Mark Complete button at the top of each of these pages. If you forget, your eval will not be complete and the circle-flower-icon-thing will be orange (or blue or grey) but not green. If it's not green, that's bad... Please heed Mr. Spock's word of warning (above) if this becomes the case.
Finally, if you are a continuing-contract teacher and were granted a Second Observation Waiver recently, please sign the form that was placed in your mailbox yesterday to acknowledge it. You should place your signed waivers in the folder labeled TPEC Waivers next to my in-basket in the front office TODAY. I am required to turn these forms in to HR no later than 72 hours after the waiver has been granted, which was done on Wednesday 23 May.
Calendar
- Monday 28 May
- NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day
- Tuesday 29 May
- Payday!
- Wednesday 30 May
- First grade Minute-to-Win-it in the Gym, 9:00
- Thursday 31 May
- Kinder graduation in the Gym, 9:00
- LAST DAY early dismissal, 12:25
- Staff Fiesta at casa de Milios, 4:00
- Friday 01 June
- Teacher contractual work-day, 8:30
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