Saturday Scoop
For Information and Inspiration
Our Collective Work
Consistent Curriculum Implementation In All Classrooms
Meaningful Feedback to Students and Teachers
Social Emotional Learning
Weekly Message
It's so surprising where you will pick up a nugget of information that changes the way you view a topic. The guest speaker at my recent safety meetings was talking about the gap between our learning edge and the cutting edge. She was speaking in relationship to trauma, but it was such a powerful mental image for me that I immediately applied it to many aspects of my life. I think as educators, we live in that gap between our learning edge and the cutting edge. Many times, that is an uncomfortable place to be. It means we have to constantly examine and reflect upon what we can be doing better, which implies that the status quo is not the ideal. That gap is also an exciting place to be. It's the place where we try out new techniques and keep our teaching practices fresh.
The RHK8 staff has been working in that gap this year. We've had many changes and we've risen to many challenges. I keep thinking about how we've added assemblies, we're all tackling consistent curriculum implementation, and you've handled having an all new office staff. I thank you for joining me in that gap and I am astounded by growth I've seen! Let's keep the momentum going!
Speaking of growth edge, one of the things I've been working on is time management in my new role. I simply have to recommend a book to you that has helped me with this and so many other things since I picked it up. It's called Your Brain at Work by David Rock. It has helped me understand so much about how my brain works. Not just with time management, but also with how I respond to issues that arise in my family and when I feel like I have a lot of information coming in at once. If you get a chance, give it a read! I recommended it to my son, who is a pitcher on his high school baseball team, for reframing the situation when you're down 3-0 in the count. You can learn techniques for keeping your limbic system in check. He is really learning a lot too. I can't say enough great things about this book.
The sign ups for mid-years are now live.
Happy grading day on Monday! Enjoy your weekend.
Warm regards,
Jennifer
Update
PLC at Raleigh Hills
Beaverton High School Fire
- my wishes for Beaverton High School are...
- the reasons I can't wait to go to Beaverton High School are...
- hope your spring at Beaverton is wonderful because...
- we love Beaverton because...
You can turn the completed cards into the office and I will collect them to see how they'd like to have them delivered.
Dream Box Data
In the last 30 days, RHills is now #7 when it comes to Percent of Active Students (kids who have done 5+ lessons/week are counted) We started at #26... and it gets better!
We're NUMBER FOUR when it comes to lessons completed. 10,084 lessons in 30 days. This is incredible! but it gets better!
We're NUMBER THREE when it comes to average number of standards kids are proficient in (3 standards on average for the school... we'd like to see more than 13 at the end of the year)
We're NUMBER TWO when it comes to growth! (12% overall growth in 30 days... 100% growth would mean about one year's worth of growth).
The contest goes through this week and ends February 2nd. We'll have the raffle for school-wide prizes at the February assembly. Students who earned a sticker each of the three weeks are eligible for the drawing for Beaverton High School gear. I hope even after the raffle is over, we'll continue to encourage students to keep up their lessons at school AND at home.
Health Lessons
Staff Shout Outs
From Jen:
- Yvett and Vicki for helping with tricky parent conversations
- Krista and Juliet for responding to kids each day
- Teddy and Alaina for going with the flow
- middle school for your engagement and professionalism in the Common MS convo
- Hoai for always stopping by the office in the morning with a smile and a hello
- Adam for helping his students set powerful writing goals
- Kirk for keeping the announcements going, but hopefully they'll stop asking me to dance:)
Middle School Yearbooks
The link for yearbooks went live in the parent newsletter last week. Can you remind students to begin purchasing? It helps them know how to budget for the scholarships, which are still available this year. Everyone will get a yearbook!
Action Items All in One Place
- thanks for signing up with Amy Tipelin on the google doc!
- sign up for a mid year meeting with Jen here
- print most current Status of the Class report from IRLA after report cards
- Thin Slicing is on February 25th. Please collect a narrative writing sample for that meeting.