I hope you've had a great week! With being out at two different conferences, I feel like I've hardly been here. A huge thank you to Lorri and Justin Lang for taking the lead on things in the office. Also, thank you to everyone for being flexible this week with different things.
I attended two conferences - one on co-teaching and one on coherence/focus. Both were great and helped give me some strategies to continuing our work on educating all kids.
A couple of random requests/updates:
- Team Pictures- please get me your team pictures ASAP. I'd like to get them framed and hung in the main entryway.
- The community Open House for McKinley and Owatonna Middle School is Monday, October 30th. The celebration will start at McKinley at 5:00pm and then move to OMS at 6:30pm. More information will come on this - however, if you are free, consider joining us!
- This Monday, October 9th, the School Board will meet here at McKinley (Learning Studio) at 5:30pm. They are here for a work session, but also to see our building. Stop by if you are free!
Sumner Visits:
A team from Sumner Elementary (in Austin) are visiting McKinley on Friday, October 13th. The team is here to see our PLC process and the use of formative assessments. This team heard great things from another school who visited last year - and wants to hear more about our work. We will more than likely make a lap through the building and ask people (who are free) about their use of the PLC process.
A huge kudos to our team - we have good work going on in this building!
EL Graduation:
We held our 2nd annual EL Graduation this Tuesday, October 3. We had a large group of students who exited our program. This is a huge reflection of the hard work you are doing to support all learners. It was great to have families, staff, and students come together to celebrate this milestone!
Words You Speak Become the House You Live In...
This came up in my Twitter feed this week - it made me stop and think. This quote made me appreciate all the work you have done to use student-first language. As much as it seems like just words, it truly represents your thinking and actions. There is research to support that an educator's thoughts actually translate to their expectations and interactions with students. A huge kudos to you for all your work on keeping students first - your language and beliefs. All means ALL at McKinley.
Growth Mindset Post-It Notes:
I saw these growth mindset post-it notes on Twitter this week. I can see our building using these - what a great way to give feedback but keep it focused on growth!
Site Team Communication:
Click here to access the site team communication tree. This is your "representative" who will communicate with you to get feedback and ideas to bring back to our leadership team.
Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the weekly newsletter
In closing, I had an email from Amanda Heilman (Director of Business & Operations) regarding the Bus Company this week. She had a conversation this week with the Bus Company who gave the McKinley staff glowing reviews on how friendly, flexible, and happy you are. It's so true... and we know it. It's great to hear it from others.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
-Justin
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