Thursday, October 21, 2010

This blog posting will be relatively quick as it is very late already.  I am currently in Couer d'Alene at the Idaho Elementary School Principal's conference.  The theme has been on school safety and the keynote speaker was high energy with a powerful message.  There are many things that we can implement, without cost, to make our school a safer place for students.  I will discuss these with you during our inservice time next Thursday morning.

All grades and comments should be complete in your Skyward grade books on Friday.  Comments need to be added to only ONE section, not individual subjects.  If you need any help with input details, Darcy will work the morning hours just for support.  Resource Room grades for students with supplanted curriculum should be hard coded into the subject area with a free form comment added specifying that a particular grade was assigned from special education and that a full report is attached to the report card.  If you are unable to make the Friday deadline for grades, PLEASE notify me.  I will be running report cards over the weekend to preview for errors and then printing first thing Monday morning.  Any grades added later than Sunday will automatically be included in second quarter.

Next Thursday during our break from conferences, dinner will be provided by PAC and a generous donation from Treasure Valley Digital Printing.  They will bring in a nice spread of food and drinks for you to enjoy while taking a few minutes between sessions. Social Committee has planned lunch for that day.  Be sure to turn your order into Marilyn Gibbons and your money into the office.

Remember that our conference schedule Wednesday and Thursday evenings are in exchange for having Friday off so that all are expected to stay till the end of conferences even if completed early.  I do need you to turn in conference attendance before you leave on Thursday.  I need the number of conferences held and the number of students.  Remember our goal is 100%.  I'm willing to help you meet that goal by doing home visits together or making reminder calls earlier in the evening. 

Toni would like to introduce the new Health Curriculum to all classes and proposes to divide up the instruction over the next two quarters.  She will try to use your first quarter running times.  So if two classes had running at 9:00 on Wednesday, she will teach health to one of those at the same time during second quarter and the other third quarter.  She will communicate with you the particulars.  But please note that she will not be able to cover all of the health curriculum.  other pieces will be the responsibility of teachers, nurses, counselors and the SRO.