Thursday Thriller
November 30th
This is going to be a DECEMBER to REMEMBER! Here is a calendar/BINGO card of fun! Each day you participate, you take a selfie and put it on your BINGO card. MAKE SURE AND SHARE IT WITH NICOLE and KIM. Each day there will be a prize. Now, I know we have some SCROOGES out there but NOT this DECEMBER!! ASB will join in and choose the days they want students to participate. This calendar is for STAFF.
Here is the CALENDAR in GOOGLE. MAKE A COPY FIRST!!!!
Nuts-n-Bolts
1. Teachers, please update your iReady trackers for Qrt 2. See Nicole's email that was sent Tuesday morning.
2. Friday, December 8th is a half day. Dismissal at 12:25, staff will meet from 12:55 to 2:20 in the library. Early next week, look for information from Nicole regarding the student day. Because this is a DECEEMBER to REMEMBER, we can't wait to be OVERWHELMED with the TEACHER volunteers for the grade level assemblies! I know, right?!!! So exciting!!!!
3. A few announcements:
1. Welcome to Angela Pauley! She will be working in our kitchen along side Taren and Erika.
2. Brooke Kimball has taken a sped position at the high school. She will begin after winter break at the high school. Sad for us. However, we wish her well! I am working with Barb Casey on the posting.
3. Congratulations to Reggie! He will be the new SEL Intervention Specialist (taking Katie Henry's old position). Reggie will begin his new role on Monday, December 4th. Reggie's office will be Steve's old office. We will relocate our 'tiny' conference room to different locations based on the need of the meeting.
4. Itsel Corona Madrigal, Counseling intern, finished up today. She will start back at Edison after break. She was AMAZING!! AND she loved working with middle school students! Itsel will be missed!
5. Welcome to Brandon Foxx our new Head Custodian! Brandon will begin on Tuesday, December 5th!
4. I will be out of the building tomorrow. My dad's brother-in-law passed away. Uncle Ronald was 92. He and my aunt, my dad's sister, had been married for 67 years and lived in Greencreek, ID their entire lives. My parents and I will be headed to the Greencreek Prairie area tomorrow.
5. We have some frequent flyers who are asking to come to the office to speak with Steve and/or Nicole M. While we don't want to discourage students from seeing a counselor, we do need them to stop in at the office DURING PASSING TIME and fill out a call slip. STUDENTS need to stay in class. Please keep checking the sign out form before they leave class. Getting a drink, going to the bathroom we MUST have students sign out. More often than not the signing out discourages students from wanting to leave class. Even to get a drink a water....sign out!!! Kids have pre planned their meet ups in the bathroom and at the drinking fountains. Let's make it a little bit more difficult for them. AND only ONE student out of your class at a time. PERIOD. Yes, things happen and 1-2 are out of the classroom; I get it. You need to know who is out of your classroom at all times.
6. This Saturday our Latino Club (Yaneth and Gonzalo are the advisors) is entering their Polar Express float in the lights parade. Hope you are able to attend and cheer loudly for them! Mike Bertram is taking 11 students to Chief Jo Middle School Saturday morning for the Robotics Competition! WHOOP!! WHOOP!!!
SOMETHING to PONDER
Did you know that we have 4 generations at Garrison? We have Boomers, Busters/Gen X, Millennials/Gen Y and Coronials/Gen Z. "With the introduction of four to five generations in the workplace and with the rapid pace of change, we can predict we'll see friction on an increasing level."
--Tim Elmore, A New Kind of Diversity
Where are you on this chart? Does it accurately describe you? How about your PLT members where are they? We know our students are Gen Z. Every generation brings strengths and stretches-even our students. Have you heard someone say or even said yourself: "These kids are lazy. They don't want to learn." "Be thankful you have job." "What is this 'mental health' day business? In my day, we just pulled up the boot straps and barreled through." "She is so Old School!"
We will have conflict based on our generation, background, race, religion and experiences. How will we use these experiences to our advantage? Tim Elmore talks about AI. 90% of what knowledge we are giving students they can access on the internet. What they CAN'T access is the person, you, explaining the content in meaningful ways. The power of your colleagues and your PLT team to work together, carry the load to plan those meaningful lessons for students; together makes everyone stronger!
"When each of us can identify the strengths of others, everyone becomes stronger." What strengths do you see in a colleague you may not see eye-to-eye with? What strengths would this same colleague identify about you? Students have strengths. How can we capitalize on them? Not all at once! Maybe take ONE student per class period that annoys the hell out of you. Can you find one strength in them and use it to to help make him or her stronger?
Here is the podcast of Jeff Rose interview author Tim Elmore. The book is A New Kind of Diversity.
I have ordered it and looking to find some gold nuggets. Hope you find a gold nugget in Something to
Ponder.
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