Thursday Thriller, March 2, 2023

 Thursday Thriller

March 2, 2023

Photos from the Field

Students LOVED the popsicles on the 28th!  Yaneth does know how to 'photo bomb' :D

Fun math game for practice before the test

 in 8th grade co taught

Garrison is one of the cleanest schools in the district!  Brent, Marco and Ian do a great job! When you walk by the lunchroom after both lunches, you can smell the bleach :D  THANK YOU, BRENT for having a great custodial team. 

Nuts-n-Bolts

1. Conferences are next week.  Paras work all day Thursday -not Tuesday evening.  Please check in with Stephanie on Thursday.  Certificated staff- If there is a family you need to meet with and would like admin, counselors, Yaneth and/or Addison to sit in with you, please let us know.  If you have 8th grade students, there will be information on a flyer regarding 9th grade registration that we would like you to hand out.  We of course will make sure you have the flyers prior to Tuesday evening.

2.  

WE NEED YOUR HELP! Sources of Strength is super excited to announce a spring color run/walk! This will take place at the GMS track. This event is open (and free) to all GMS students. We're going to have a DJ and fun booths with activities.

Here's where we need you- in order to participate, students have to walk/run with a mentor or a trusted adult. Many students will attend with a parent, but others may not have a family member to serve as a mentor. We hope that this event encourages our students to reach out to trusted adults within our school community. 

If a student asks you to participate as their mentor, please consider it! Mentors should have no more than two students to run/walk with. By connecting with our students as a mentor, you're making our school community more resilient!

If you have questions, talk to Christy, Addison, Agnes, Yaneth, or Becky Jo.

3.  An idea was brought to me to help acknowledge students for persevering through a test, activity, task, etc.  "You were a TROOPER today!"  A staff member can hand them out how they see fit.  Student comes to the office-gets a WHOOP !! WHOOP!!, piece of candy and they get to take their note home.  We will keep part of the ticket to create a bulletin board.  It's a way to recognize and acknowledge when students perseveres a tough task.  The more we name, recognize and acknowledge perseverance the more students know what THEY are doing to get the job done.  Let's teach them that we can do hard things.

Office will get them copied and distributed.  Again, use if you like.  This is not a 'have to.'

FRONT

BACK 

4.  Classroom Exclusions: Reminder of the process. AND YOU CAN EXCLUDE! Exclusions come after reasonable requests to comply with classroom expectations.  

                                1.  Classroom teacher excludes student
                                2. Student comes to the OFFICE with the exclusion slip.  If you need the student escorted, text Ruben or call the office.  Ruben's number:  509 301 7978
                                3.  Counselor and/or Admin has a discussion with the student, calls home and lets family know they will be receiving communication from the classroom teacher.
                                4.  Student is then taken to SSR for the remainder of the class period
                                5.  The following day the student is welcomed back into the class. IF the classroom teacher would like a counselor or admin to help facilitate the re entry conference before student goes into the classroom, the classroom teacher needs to ask.

5. Spirit Week March 13-17

6.  Sydney and Beth are taking students on a field trip to Pullman on Monday for "Misinformation Day" I applaud teachers who plan and take students on field trips!  YOU ROCK!!!

7.  iReady Wednesdays -We implemented this schedule so students would have roughly 20 mins on Wednesdays to complete PATHWAY LESSONS.  Students should NOT be playing the games or working on teacher assigned lessons.  When looking at the data, students are not passing the number of lessons like they should be.  We must be vigilant!  This means walking around and looking at the personal pathways lessons.  We will have Nancy, Christy, myself, Scott, come around to help you look up the class and see the number of minutes of 'time on task' since January. We can't let up. :D  Students still need holes filled. 

Something to Ponder

There is so much good and greatness happening at Garrison!  Here are just a few:

1.  iReady scores from last winter to this winter -we have made substantial gains
2.  On our CEE/EES survey we closed the gap between I vs They -went from 36% down to 14%!!!
3.  LOOK at the PLC data:

4.  

5.  The unified Buddy System with Michelle's students and Agnes' 7th period class

6. Art Chopped Family event last night had 46 people who attended.  Have had 5 family nights which is....5 more than last year

7. MS Solo and Ensemble participants with all students scoring 1-3-no 4's or 5's (1-3 are superior to good)
 8.  CTE and STEM clubs that Mike and Stephanie run in the mornings not to mention the competitions they take students to. AND that they spear-headed the 8th grade field trip to CTE and WA HI

ALL of the above don't just happen.  It takes GREAT STAFF MEMBERS to make events happen!!!

Here is the Golden Onion Nomination.  Let's nominate our colleagues and SHARE the great things that are going on at Garrison because of YOU!!!!

Golden Onion Award nominations now open

Nominations are now open for the annual Golden Onion grant award program and are due Wed, March 8. Longtime Walla Walla resident and one-time teacher Sue Gillespie and her husband Mike established the “Golden Onion Award” to support Walla Walla Public Schools’ educators. The Gillespie Teacher Development Fund is a component fund of the Blue Mountain Community Foundation.

The “Golden Onion Award” will be presented to four district teachers this school year. Each teacher recipient will receive $700 for use in their classroom or to better their teaching skills. Recipients will be recognized at the March 21, 2023 school board meeting. I hope you will take time to nominate a deserving teacher.

Golden Onion Nomination form 2022-2023

Smile

I’ve heard it said that nothing can prepare you for teaching
except for teaching, but I don’t think that’s true. Here are some of the things I really needed to know that the teaching books left out that would have made my first few years not entirely un-horrible, but a little less horrible.

1. How to perform copier machine surgery. I will estimate that approximately 50% of my tears during my first year were due to the copier jamming and me not being able to fix it. I can’t tell you how many total hours I wasted trying to fix jams or trekking over to another part of the school to find a non-jammed copier. Now, I’m like Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman or Cesar Milan with the copy machine. “Yeah, I think it doesn’t like Tray 1,” I found myself saying to a newbie the other day, as if it were a wild mustang I was taming.

2. Expo Marker Management. Store them upright, cap-end down. Game-changer.

6. Medical care. No Band-Aids unless you’re bleeding, the nurse can’t fix your headache, if your stomach still hurts in 15 minutes let me know, OR you can go to the nurse, but after you’ve turned in your test.

Quote

“To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone. “ – Reba McEntire

Calendar of Events

Friday, March 3rd    - GC @ 7:30, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEATHER ABAJIAN!!!

Saturday, March 4th HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SEAN!

Sunday, March 5th HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHRISTY!!!

Monday, March 6th --"Misinformation" field trip all day, MS to HS Transition meetings for SPECIAL EUCATION, spring sports begin, "30 for 30" for 8th grade students begin.  Identified math students head to room 117 after school.

Tuesday, March 7th Arena Conferences from 4:00-7:30, Families are providing dinner for staff , HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CALEB!!!!