Sunday Night Memo 9/24/17

SLT Meeting

Our first SLT (School Leadership Team) meeting will be on Monday at 3:30pm in the Library.  We talked about this team at our back to school meeting so I just wanted to give a quick refresher about this meeting, who attends and the purpose.  The SLT meets once a month, unless otherwise noted on the calendar schedule.  The SLT is comprised of team leaders, department leaders and anyone who wants to serve on the team.  The SLT will represent the greater faculty and help the administration problem solve to make things better for kids.   SLT members will also share out the information to teams and departments.  The only requirement is that SLT leaders need to commit to the entire year, which also includes a summer retreat (one-day retreat).  If you are not a team leader or department leader and would like to serve on SLT, please email me and let me know.  I am looking forward to our first meeting.

WGSD Foundation

At our DLT (District Leadership Team) meeting last Thursday, the WGSD Foundation joined us to share information about the direction the foundation is moving, fundraising events coming up and changes to the grant awards.

The Foundation will be awarding grants again this year.  Major grant awards are $5,000 and will be given in two cycles, one in November and the other April.  Mini grant awards are $1,000 and will be awarded in September, October, January, February and March.

There are also different fundraisers that the Foundation holds to raise money for our schools.  They are committed and passionate about serving our community, teachers and schools.  Please consider volunteering or attending a fundraiser to show our Foundation leaders how much we appreciate their support.

Faculty Briefcase 2.0

Our Faculty Briefcase is undergoing a facelift.  In the next week, Aimee and I (really Aimee, thanks Aimee), will be moving files from the old Faculty Briefcase into our new organized structure.  Our hope is that it is more user friendly, easy to navigate and helpful if you are just looking for some specific information. 

New Website

The district will be moving to a new website and Edline will be going away.  Pat Weaver is currently migrating the entire district over to the new website. I was able to get a preview of the new site and it’s nice and shiny and up to date with current websites.  It will also be mobile friendly.  The district is hoping it will be ready to launch in January.   I’ll be stopping by and talking to folks next week who are missing items but in the meantime, please check your websites to make sure they have the basic 4 district requirements.  I realize that there may be confusion around our new team websites and the old teacher websites and it is completely on me.  I sincerely apologize for the confusion and the mixed messages around the websites and technology.  I have a better understanding now and realize the confusion I have caused.  Here is what we need to do for Pat:

On the team website, there is a link with your name on it that takes you to your individual Edline page.  On that page, all you need are the 4 district requirements.  Please add that to your individual Edline page.

Pat will be migrating everyone’s page over to the new webpage to save you time. HOWEVER, if you do not have the 4 district requirements on the page, SHE WILL NOT MIGRATE YOUR PAGE.  What this means is that you will have to migrate your own page over to the new site after you attend a PD session.  If you need help adding to your website, please do not hesitate to reach out to Pat.

Personal Object Picture

At the back to school meeting, Ashley presented about our personal object pictures.  I’ve gotten some from folks and am waiting until I have everyone’s before printing them out and delivering them.  We will put them in the frames that you turned into Kathy.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Field Trip Reminder

Just a gentle reminder to make sure field trips are placed on the school calendar at least 2 weeks before they are set to occur.  Last minute field trip additions that involves kids across both grades makes it difficult for teachers to plan and reschedule assessments, etc.

Vending Machines and Pizza

Our vending machines are coming!  They are set to arrive on Friday, September 29^th.  They will be set on a timer and will not be turned on during the weekdays until 2:00pm and shut off at 7:30am.  On the weekends, they will be turned on the entire time. 

Our first JETS pizza fundraiser was a big success.  The manager at JETS was excited and shared that it was the largest they have ever had.  We are still waiting on a final number but THANK YOU for buying pizza and supporting our kids.

Technology Care

Our technology is fragile as half of the Chromebooks are on its last leg.  Tech support is reporting that there is an increase in broken Chromebooks, misplaced Chromebooks and lost Chromebooks.  Please remind kids about their responsibility to care for Chromebooks.  The increase in repairs ends up affecting our overall building budget.  Please be mindful of how kids care for their tech.  I would like us to start looking at the building budget and work towards creating phases to also improve other areas of our school such as replacing classroom furniture.

This Week

This week, I will be out of the building at a meeting on Wednesday from 10:15am-1:00pm.  I will also be out on Thursday from 11:00am-3:15pm with the PBIS team visiting a National School of Character. 

It is hard to believe that tomorrow will be week 7.  Time has certainly flown by.  Have a great week!

With Gratitude,

Grace

Sunday Night Memo 9/17/17

Faculty Meeting

Tomorrow, we will have a guest presenter, Michael Barolak, leading our Restorative Practices development.  Michael is the Coordinator of Student Discipline in the Parkway School District.  In this role, he has brought the restorative lens to schools to start transforming buildings from reactive practices to developing community.  He travels around the state, providing development and support in restorative practices for various school districts.

Our development will be led in the cafeteria right after school.

To prepare for tomorrow, please read the following article:

http://news.stanford.edu/2016/04/26/teacher-empathy-reduces-student-suspensions-stanford-research-shows/

The Coming Days and Weeks

On Friday, there were a handful of students who were upset about some of the classroom conversations around the verdict.  Please be mindful that student's experiences and thoughts may look different and they may react in ways that may surprise us.  Please also know that the admin and counseling team is here to support you and provide any assistance and/or resources you may need.  Students will talk about the verdict and the protests that are taking place.  It's important that we don't discourage their conversations and provide them a safe place to talk.  In facilitating conversations in our classrooms,  we need to be mindful that our own feelings and beliefs don't overtake student conversations. 

REMINDER:  Responsive Spaces and Screenagers

Peter Lippman will be speaking tomorrow night at Steger, 6:00pm in the auditorium around Responsive Spaces.

The district is hosting a showing of the documentary this week on Wednesday, from 7-8:30pm in our auditorium.

This weekend was filled with a range of emotions for many folks.  I hope you were able to find space to process and take care of yourself.

With Gratitude,

Grace

Sunday Night Memo 9/10/17

Faculty Meeting
For our meeting tomorrow, please wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to run intruder drills.  We will meet in the cafeteria and OC and the team will lead our refresher training.

Just a reminder that meetings were adjusted and we have another all staff faculty meeting next Monday, 9/18/17 and then our first SLT meeting on Monday, 9/25/17.

Equity Committee District Meeting
The first Equity meeting of the year will be on Tuesday, 9/12/17 in the WGHS Library from 5:30-7:00pm.  The meeting is open to all district and community members and dinner will be served at the meeting.

Calendar Committee
We need a Hixson voice at the table for the Calendar Committee.

The committee meets on Tuesdays at 3:45 for about an hour and half in the Central Office Board Room. Here are the dates:

September 19

October 17

November 14

December 5

January 16

If you are interested, please let me know and I'll contact CO.

Screenagers

The District is hosting a showing of the documentary "Screenagers:  Growing Up in the Digital Age" on Wednesday, September 20th from 7:00-8:30pm in the Hixson Auditorium.  I've heard great things about it and a parent shared that she saw it last year and it provided lots of insight and good conversation around technology and kids. Here's an article that was shared that you may also find interesting:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/

PTO Grants

The PTO will continue to award grants two times a year, once in the Fall and Spring.  They have not given me the dates when they will be accepting the grants but I'll let you know as soon as they share the information.

Hope's Role

As I shared from a couple of memo's past, the role of Jill and Hope will be shifting.  I know that Hope's time was used differently before and we are now at a place to problem solve how we meet the needs of our IEPs.  I've shared conversations with Mary Beth and our SSD Department Leaders on how to meet IEPs and 504s.  Please contact the student's case manager about using different resources or making arrangements for assessments and assignments.  Hope will be working with teams to problem solve around kid issues, work with teams on student data, work with administration and SLT leaders on student data and also providing coaching cycles.  There are many other things that she does, but these are the largest areas where I'll have her concentrating on.

Teams or individual teachers can also contact Tim Brown, Director of Instructional Technology, who will provide PD on how to use the applications in the Chromebooks to read an assessment to students, provide dictation options and many more instructional applications.  We have shared a conversation and he will carve out the time to meet with teachers as requested when it works for you.

Telling Hixson's Story

One of the things I appreciate most about Ambrose are the pictures they post every day on their classroom teacher's blogs.  Granted, it's a school for the littles but the pictures give me a glimpse into what Charlotte's day looks like so I can ask her questions about it.  Her responses are a hit or miss mixed in with a toddler's imagination but at least we have a somewhat focused chat.  Every other week, my blog to our families will be a narrative to share out what amazing things kids are doing in our school.  Please share with me things that are happening in your classroom, pictures, etc.  I don't think we can communicate enough with your team websites/blogs and my blog and it's nice to hear or see what's happening at school.  

We will be posting the Selfie Wall Project pictures in the coming weeks and creating a video of it so parents can see.  I'll send out some specific communication soon.  

This Week

On Tuesday, September 12th, I'll be out of the building all day at a Principal Leadership Training. Please don't hesitate to text or email if you need anything as I'll have access to my phone and email.

I hope you had a great weekend and will see you in the morning.

With Gratitude,

Grace

Sunday Night Memo, 9/3/17

Friday PD

Being a part of courageous conversations like the one we began Friday morning can be messy.  The work requires us to speak from our hearts, take risks with each other and allow ourselves to be vulnerable.  I appreciate the space that we created Friday morning and I hope we can continue meeting in the space to work as a family to begin removing the artificial barriers in our system that hold kids back.  As an Asian woman, I've been able to straddle the fence and experience the benefits of being considered a model minority while also experiencing being put back into my place.  The complexity of each of our stories and experiences is what will allow us to collectively work to dismantle the barriers that don't allow everyone a seat at the table.  While the repetition of the work can be frustrating, I hold great hope that we can work together so the current system will "die".   I also know how messy this work can be and hope you know that this is a safe place.  I'll certainly have my messy moments because there isn't always a clear cut solution or answer and trust that our space will be safe so we can really enact change.  Please know that I'm always here to share the conversations with you and hope that you will share them with me.

We had just really gotten started in our conversations when the fire alarm rang.  Really, 40 minutes was not enough time to process Reverand Starskey's words or the questions after.  The district equity leaders shared out the powerpoint with the videos we didn't have time to see along with the questions they created.  If you have time, I would encourage you to watch the TED talk about the danger of the single story.  I showed my students that when I was an ELA teacher and it was a great platform to talk about how we show up in books and why there were some of us missing.

Here are some of the other questions we didn't get a chance to and would not have gotten to:

• How do our biases show up in our classroom spaces?  How do they impact our kids of color?
• Before I became a teacher, I never questioned the absence of Asians in the books I read. During my first year in the classroom, a consultant from Teacher's College introduced me to a world of texts that included characters that looked like me that were outside of the typical Asian stereotypes.  It was in that moment that I realized how important it was for kids to see themselves in books and my own bias that kept me from questioning why the majority of the books promoted in our classrooms were void of kids of color.  It was my awakening to really look at myself and explore my identity because ignoring it was hurting my kids.

• What artificial barriers exist in Webster that hold kids back that we can dismantle?

• Let's make a list of things we know hold kids back but are kept in place because it's "the way we've always done things".

• How do we prepare kids of color to shoulder the rejection and bias they will face in High School in regards to honors and AP classes?
• For this, I share with you Naomi Blair's essay because unfortunately, her experience is not just Kirkwood's problem:

Black Girl, White Space

by Naomi Blair

Kirkwood High School

Winning Essay

Yes! Contest in the Powerful Voices category

              I am black. I know it, and people around me know it. I know they do because when I walked into my AP Psychology class for the very first time, everyone looked at me as if I was a cat in the midst of a field full of lions. The girl in the pink, oversized  sweatshirt was talking to her friend, but she stole a glance my way. She gave me a quick look over and ruffled her nose. Before she looked away, her eyes told me that I didn’t belong in an advanced placement course. The guy two seats behind her pointed his eyes at me, but only for a second. Another guy, a row away from him glanced at me and then started talking to the guy next to me. I could practically hear their words, “What is she doing in this class?”. I didn’t belong there. Of course not. I am black. I was the triangle block trying to fit in a square space.

              Unfortunately, stereotyping isn't an isolated incident. This isn’t the only time I have been stereotyped. And, I am not the only one who has fallen victim to this behavior. Most, if not all, of my black friends complain of the racism we experience in our school. One day, Abi, a black friend of mine, in a fit of rage, told me she wasn’t “black enough for her black friends, but not white enough for her white friends,” as we talked about our groups of friends. I agreed and decided to something about it. To quote Gerald Mitchell, author of I Can’t Breathe Until Everyone Can Breathe, “[we can realize] that there is always an actual human being on the other side of our actions.” I wondered how I could get the people of my school and community to be aware of the consequences of racism whether their actions be conscious or unconscious.  In November of this year, I announced to my fellow staffers on my school newspaper, The Kirkwood Call, that I wanted to do a social experiment. This experiment, I hope, will shed light to the conscious and unconscious racism happening, not only in my school, but in my community as a whole.  I plan on videotaping the different scenarios, similar to the ones I go through, to show my community the discrimination taking place.

              Many people at my school, though they are reluctant to admit it, stereotype, especially towards black people. I see Mrs. Fredrickson, a white teacher, when told of a student mishap, assuming a black student caused it. I see Marissa, a white student in the lunchroom, talking about black people as if they weren’t sitting at the table next to them. One of my white friends once told me I was white because of my academic standing. Another, who was black, agreed and told me that I was an Oreo: black on the outside, white on the inside. They thought that because I am smart, I couldn't possibly be black. So, they tried to rationalize it. My friend, Miranda said, “You’re not really black.” I narrowed my eyes, rammed my arm in front of their faces, and said, “Of course not. If you rub hard enough on my forearm, you can see my real white skin underneath.”

              What I want to do is get people to stop stereotyping, whether they are aware of their racism or not. I am already starting to do so with my social experiment.  I invited a group of both black and white students to participate in this experiment and talked to them about their experiences. When I talked to the group of participants about racism in my school, they pointed out injustices such as an administrator asking a study group of black students to leave the library while a study group of white students were allowed to stay. The white group said they wanted to change the way black people are treated by white students and teachers. When I asked them how they would carry out reforming this perception, no one had an answer. After a few pregnant pauses, I asked them what they thought injustice looks like. They timidly listed off generic answers: not treating someone fairly, discrimination based on skin color, gender, etc.. Then, I asked them what injustice looked like in our school, specifically. One girl’s face turned ruddy and pursed her lips as she frantically described a situation in which she saw a white teacher ignore a black student while having her full attention on a white student.  I portrayed to her my utter disbelief and asked even more students if they encountered instances like these. They all said yes.

              Treating people fairly and humanely by trying to not dwell on stereotypes and teaching others to do the same is an important step to eliminate racism.  Fairness looks like treating every person the same, not just in relation to  race, but also gender and sexuality. For instance, when I walked into the AP Psychology class, people  should have been looking at me  because my outfit was just that cute, or I had a milk moustache from that morning's breakfast, not because of the color of my skin. Justice looks like not assuming that, just because I am black, I am supposed to be loud, prone to fights, uneducated, vulgar, and live in poverty. A white girl once told me, “You’re not like how I imagined. You're not ghetto at all.”

              Stereotyping is racism. I plan to get my peers and teachers to stop judging people by their skin color. I plan on talking, teaching, and exhorting to my peers why discrimination is unacceptable and will inspire my friends to do the same. Through my social experiment, I hope to do exactly that. From the video, to be showcased on The Kirkwood Call’s website, I anticipate students will join me to change our society for the better. Though we will be a small group, at first, we will be mighty. One day, a student like me will be able to walk into an advanced course and feel in the right place.

Professional Development

As a district, we are on a specific course chartered to truly examine the system of education and dismantle the inequity.  As a building, we are on that journey and will continue starting with a Restorative Practices conversation.  My hope, vision, plan is to engage students in the work alongside teachers.  You all started the journey last year and I think it will be important to come together and share one conversation so we are on the same page and using the same language.  Please note the following dates, as there have been some revisions:

• Monday, September 11th - All School Intruder Drill refresher training
• Monday, September 18th - Restorative Practices:  Moving Forward
• Monday, September  25th - SLT Meeting

Book Study

Examining our biases and how they show up in our lives is an ongoing conversation and one we will continue through a book study for anyone interested.  We will read Blindspot and share continued conversations.  Please email Aimee Vogt and let her know if you are interested in this book study. We will order you a copy and email out the meeting dates.  Please email your interest to Aimee by Friday, September 8th.

Picture Day

You should have received an email from Todd Roberts last week outlining the picture day schedules.  Please remind your kids about picture day and the schedule.

Afterschool Activities

Afterschool activities begins on Tuesday.  We've had a great turnout with kids signing up.  Please expect more traffic in the halls afterschool as kids get to where they need to be.  Please be present in the hallways as well to help clear the halls and get kids where they need to be.

Discovery Classes

I should be done this with community building circles this week.  Thank you for letting me share your classroom space.  I appreciate it!

Selfie Wall

If possible, please begin sending the selfies to Jason Heisel this week.  I hope the questions kids were asking about it were answered last week.  Please let me know if there are any additional questions or concerns.  There may be kids who don't want to participate at all for one reason or another.  If they really just don't, please don't worry about making them.  I don't want to create another situation that creates any unnecessary conflict for you guys!  Thank you for rolling this out and once we start getting them and printing the pics, we will start displaying them.  Please don't forget to include your own selfie and quote.

Have a great Labor Day and see everyone Tuesday.

With Gratitude,

Grace