CHS Staff Bulletin
August 2019
Oh, August...
How many ways do I love August? So many, yet also so sad to see our summer dwindle to an end. I had a fantastic summer. I spent a week in Seattle and Sacramento working with AVID. I returned and took my kids on a long road trip through Glacier National Park and then Banff. We had a fantastic time seeing the splendor of the continental divide and its abundant wildlife. Since our return I have found myself working during the day and fishing in a river by evening. It has been truly relaxing and enjoyable.
I am sending this communication to you earlier than usual as I am out of the office for a sizeable chunk of August. I had my hip replaced on last Monday and will need some time to recover. In my absence both Casandra and Misael will be in the office and available to support you. I will be monitoring my email from home and working as much as my energy levels will tolerate.
I hope your summer adventures are in full swing and that you have many more plans to engage with the time that we have left.
Enjoy!!
In The Know
Changes to EA - Kevin Summerfield is returning to Churchill next year, but in a new capacity. No longer will he be serving as a campus supervisor, but instead he will be joining forces with our 9th grade transition team to provide resources and support for our students struggling with academics, attendance, and home resources. He will be serving in an academic intervention role that helps narrow our gap of students who are off track for graduation and helping them to actualize a vision of success and completion. I am proud of this new direction for Kevin. Congratulations!!
New Teachers - We have been busy hiring this summer. Please join me in welcoming new staff members to Churchill. In the science department we hired Joseph Emory (Physical Science), and Chris Docher (Physics). We hired a new counselor who has a lot of post secondary knowledge, Court Wirth. We have a new office department assistant replacing Marcos Alvarado, Paola Massingham, Michael Gonzalez is our new Athletic Trainer, Elizabeth Henderson will cover Credit Recovery and Leadership, and we still are looking to hire a Credit Recovery, Testing, and Data Coordinator to replace Matt Myers. We will share that news with you once that happens.
Discipline System - The best discipline policy is a positive and respectful relationship with the student. This is the most important connection we can make with our students. I remember something that a colleague asked me. First she asked me if I could remember the best teacher I ever had. I was quick to respond to that question. She asked me if I could remember my worst teacher ever. That was a response as well. Then she asked me why my best teacher was so great. My reason was that she knew me. She made me feel important. She invested in me. I would have done anything she asked of me. On the flip side, my worst teacher didn't know me. He made assumptions about me and sized me up inaccurately. To this day I remember both of these teachers so deeply and simply because of how they responded to and treated me. Teachers have the awesome power to build and nurture or erode and destroy a relationship with a student.
That being said, some days are harder than others. Tensions and emotions run high and hot from time to time. Sometimes teachers need to have the ability to create effective change in their classrooms to support the learning of all students. As I suggested last year and I will continue to advocate, I believe an excellent strategy for addressing student behavior is to call admin to your classroom to cover your class while you step into the hall to: redirect, provide clear direction on classroom procedures, engage student behavior with strength and love, provide support, coach the student, rectify, or reinforce a teacher/student relationship and the boundaries and expectations that drive that relationship. I believe in this method for a few reasons: 1) It shows the class that having an administrator cover class reinforces the notion that the teacher is the authority figure in the classroom. This message is received by everyone in the class and by the offending student. Secondly, it shows support and intentionality between teacher and administrator.
Now sometimes we need other options to correct student behavior. This year we are setting up a discipline system so that teachers may assign lunch detentions to students as well as Friday School detentions. Additionally, we will discuss how we will address cell phones as a school and how to be accountable to this system as a school. We will cover this in greater detail on our days together at the end of August. I mention this now in the event that you need to add this to your syllabus.
Syllabi - Please make sure that when you draft your syllabus, that you edit it for growth mind set language. When discussing discipline, attendance, grades and expectations, please review your language and look for opportunities to add a value gain approach as opposed to a deficit or negative perspective.
Counselors: We are working to create greater connections with students. With this focus we have split up the alphabet so that counselors will be connected to the same kids for 3 straight years. Here is the breakdown: Casey will serve all Freshmen. All 10th-12th grade students will be split by last name in the following fashion.
Nita Halstead - A - G
Katy McAuliffe H - Q
Court Wirth R - Z
504/IEP - Again, this goes without saying, but it is something we address because it matters for kids. This year we will be experiencing new shifts and changes in Special Education as the entire department has been busy focusing on what specific students need and how to provide resources to the students. This is an exciting time for SSD and I look forward to the growth they will have. Our General Ed response is "What can I do to help?" Well the first thing we need to be sure we do is check our until plans and make sure that we have pre-thought how students who need access to special services are being met with their accommodations. This should be a department discussion with thoughtful entries in the unit plan that detail how a teacher could potentially meet the needs of students in different ways or how to chunk assignments so that they are accessible to all students. It will be very important this year that we demonstrate compliance in this area as we will be looking to the use of strategies to drive our intervention programs.
Looking Forward
August 26th TBD May be postponed based on my ability to function. (10-2pm) Lunch Provided - Team Leader Training (All staff are welcome and will receive extended contract. The training is aimed at Curriculum Council prospects, but the information is good for any teacher. The training will occur in the afternoon this year due to schedule conflicts. RSVP required for lunch count.
August 27th - Teacher Work Day
August 28th - Day 1 Building Directed Professional Development 8-4pm
All staff required to attend (Classified and Licensed) 8-10am
Licensed staff required to attend all day. Lunch provided.
August 29th - Day 2 District Direct Professional Development 8-4pm
August 30th - Day 3 Building Directed Professional Development 8-4pm
Kudos
AP Testing Results - We had a very successful year in our AP courses. We administered 201 exams with 70% of our kids receiving passing scores of 3 or higher. As an entire AP group we did exceptionally well with our AP results. It is great to see such hard work and education pay off for these young students.
Special mentions go out to AP Physics and Calculus! AP Physics had a pass rate of 86%. Four students scored of 3's, ten students scored of 4's, and four scored of 5's. AP Calculus had a pass rate of 100%!!! Four students scored 3's, four students scored 4's, and six students scored 5's! Excellent work Evan Munger and Alex Patton! A tip of the hat to two amazing teachers!
Churchill High School
Website: https://chs.4j.lane.edu/
Location: 1850 Bailey Hill Road, Eugene, OR, USA
Phone: 541-790-5100
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChurchillHighSchool
Twitter: @CHSLancers