October 28, 2016

October is now (for the most part) over....We say it every year: we dread October.  In the last few busy weeks, we have noticed adults not being as nice to each other (we are specifically speaking about comments to us) as they had been in the past or being mean to each another. We are all in this together and, while we may want to lash out at the nearest adult due to frustrations with our students, personal lives or something else, we ALL come to Green Valley with a common purpose of supporting our students to the best of our ability.  EVERYONE who works in middle school has a tough job.  EVERYONE in every capacity.  We have such caring adults who get to know our students, care how they do here and in life, and want to make their lives better.  We both know that everyone comes with different backgrounds and experiences when it comes to supporting our students AND, while we all may not completely agree with each other, we MUST support each other here at Green Valley.  We are with each other MORE than we are with our own families during waking hours.  If you have no idea what I am talking about, then please disregard.  And if this messages hits home for you, please know that we are on the same team and WE LOVE YOU ALL!

We had an amazing week we have had with all of the students coming together for our three Challenge Days.  I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing it was to see our students share, care, cry, hug, and more.  We had some amazing moments of tears, laughter, caring, and smiles. We are ALL truly grateful for those that participated and those that really helped with the flexibility of the schedule.  We truly want this feeling our students have to continue and appreciate YOU helping to continue that!

Thank you for those who are remembering to show up for your assigned yard duty.  We are having MANY issues and many areas are being left unsupervised, especially after school. PLEASE show up so that students are supervised and we don't have to search for you!  Thank you!

SUPER HERO SHOUT OUTS!

• SUPER shout out to Elizabeth for making Challenge Day happen for our kids!
• SUPER shout out to Katherine, Tom, Tamia, Carla, Kristy, Josiah, Brenda, Teesha, Alex, Pozzesi, Kevin, Tiffany, Christen and Aurea for coming to Challenge Day!
• SUPER shout out to Heather, Lorraine, Dalal, Pozzesi, Alex, Montz, and Anita for going to CUE today and tomorrow!  Can't WAIT for you to share with us and learn what you learned!!!
• SUPER shout out to Rosa, Mimi, and Kristy for delivering the spirit wear!
• SUPER shout out Jason, Dalal, Dave M., and Allison for completing the request for assistance forms so well!  It's in the Google Folder :)  
• SUPER shout out to our PE Department for working outside three days in a row to support Challenge Day!  THANK YOU!
• SUPER shout out to Sue for taking the proposal for Honors 7 and 8 to Committee!
• SUPER shout out to those that have already reached out OR sent up GOOD NEWS REFERRALS, especially to those that have NEVER written them before!! We have already had written 218for OCTOBER!!  Keep them coming!  Can't wait to see how POSITIVE and FABULOUS NOVEMBER IS!!!
• What to nominate a fellow SUPER HERO to be recognized at our next faculty meeting?  Click HERE!!  PLEASE!!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

*October 28, 29- CUE Conference for 7!
*November 1- Faculty Meeting in Library!
*November 7- Kris Corey here! *Date Change*
*November 8- Leadership Meeting!
*November 8- High School Fair at FHS!
*November 9- Chipotle Dine and Donate!
*November 11- No school for Veteran's Day!
*November 15, 16- DOK/Academic Training in our library!
*November 16- PBIS Training at SCOE!
*November 18- PTC Meeting in Library!
*November 21-25- Thanksgiving Break!
*November 29- Department Meetings
*December 15- RALLY SCHEDULE for Honor Roll/Perfect Attendance!

October 21, 2016

Thank you to Dalal, Sue, Cristina, Julie, Lynn, Dustin, Aubry, Barb, Allison, Dustin, Josiah, Katherine, Paula, and Tamia for coming to our IPR and adding your thoughts, feedback, input, and ideas!  We truly appreciate all of your different ideas and perspective!  We truly have remarkable teachers, staff, and students and we love to see each of you grow in your profession and practice.  We are so incredibly encouraged to see more and more of the sharing, "stealing", collaborating, modeling, visiting others, and more!  Make our heart so happy!  We will discuss and creating a plan for moving forward at November's Faculty Meeting!

It's become more and more clear that we need to review our agreements again with regards to hats indoors, gum on campus, and students wearing IDs. Please remind students that hats come off in class, gum is not allowed on our campus, and all students need to be wearing their IDs.  We can also discuss more at the November faculty meeting if there are more that need to be reviewed! Thanks!

With conferences two weeks ago and progress reports coming out again in the next two week, NOW is a GREAT time to follow up with families to follow up with them.  Super fast email to families to say a) this is improving.... b) this is still a concern..... c) this is now a new concern.....

Heading off potential issues before parents get the formal progress report gets mailed home will SAVE you in the long run!

Thank you for those who are remembering to show up for your assigned yard duty.  We are having MANY issues and many areas are being left unsupervised, especially after school. PLEASE show up so that students are supervised and we don't have to search for you!  Thank you!

Thank you to those for submitting Student of the Month names on time so I don't have to hunt you down for them!  Much Appreciated!  Please note that we really don't want people to fill out months in advance.  Please just do one month at a time!  Thanks to LAFFEY, PECKHAM, GARZA, KEFFER, MONTZ, MORACE, SCHWARZBACH, MANSOUR, FULTON, KINDER, RUSSELL, CLOUD, WALTON, POZZESI, OLVERA, WHEELER, NITTO, PHILLIPS, RICE, LUCERO and TOLL for completing this!   Click THIS LINK for October as names are due October 21 for "Caring"!

Thank you to Kimberly, Rosa, Annette/Karen, Mimi, Ken, Dalal, Lorraine, Allison, Anita, Carol, Alisa, Shawna (noon duty), Don, Sandy, Josiah, Christen, Kristy, Lynn, and Montz for writing Good News Referrals!!  LOVE THEM and please KEEP THEM COMING!  I challenge those that have NEVER written one to do so....Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside =-)

SUPER HERO SHOUT OUTS!

• SUPER shout out to Mimi, Rosa, Kristy, Teesha, and Aida for the tag team efforts all over campus during our drill this week!  SUPER AWESOME!
• SUPER shout out to Rochelle for working with our classes getting them used to Naviance!
• SUPER shout out to Wheeler, Olvera, Pozzesi, and Diaz for helping out on the blacktop during the drill during their prep 1st period!
• SUPER shout out to ALL of our staff for handling the traffic and coverage at school on Wednesday!  It was awesome to be a part of it!
• SUPER shout out to those that have already reached out OR sent up GOOD NEWS REFERRALS, especially to those that have NEVER written them before!! We have already had written 158for OCTOBER!!  Keep them coming!  Can't wait to see how POSITIVE and FABULOUS the rest of this month is!!
• What to nominate a fellow SUPER HERO to be recognized at our next faculty meeting?  Click HERE!!  PLEASE!!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

*October 25, 26, 27- Challenge Days!  Sign up to come!
*October 28- Halloween Dance
*October 28, 29- CUE Conference for 7!
*November 7- Kris Corey here! *Date Change*
*November 11- No school for Veteran's Day!
*December 15- RALLY SCHEDULE for Honor Roll/Perfect Attendance!

October 14, 2016

As if October isn't crazy enough, let's add the teenage changes that are happening AS WE SPEAK and a full moon.  Here are some facts (as "stolen" from Kristen Witt's blog!):

• The teen brain is going through massive changes
• Youth perceive, process, and respond MUCH differently than adults
• Youth don't see, hear, understand or act like adults consistently
• The brain finishes growing at 25
• Adolescence is a period through which youth pass (hopefully unscathed!)

So, keeping this ALL in mind, please remember that what you see is only the surface.  When we are dealing with our kids (and EACH OTHER) keep in mind ALL that lies under the surface.  Behaviors are just the surface, there is always something more going on, and life experiences are underneath...

Sometimes, we must adjust our style, not everyone is coming to us with the same background experiences, and we MUST have patience (which mine has been tested lately too!).

With conferences two weeks ago and progress reports coming out again in the next two week, NOW is a GREAT time to follow up with families to follow up with them.  Super fast email to families to say a) this is improving.... b) this is still a concern..... c) this is now a new concern.....

Heading off potential issues before parents get the formal progress report gets mailed home will SAVE you in the long run!

Thank you for those who are remembering to show up for your assigned yard duty.  We are having issues and many areas are being left unsupervised. Please show up so that students are supervised and we don't have to search for you!  Thank you!

Thank you to those for submitting Student of the Month names on time so I don't have to hunt you down for them!  Much Appreciated!  Please note that we really don't want people to fill out months in advance.  Please just do one month at a time!  Thanks to LAFFEY, PECKHAM, MANSOUR, FULTON, KINDER, RUSSELL, CLOUD, WALTON, PHILLIPS, RICE and TOLL for completing this!   Click THIS LINK for October as names are due October 21 for "Caring"!

Thank you to Kimberly, Rosa, Mimi, Ken, Dalal, Lorraine, Allison, Anita, Carol, Alisa, Shawna, Kristy, Lynn, and Montz for writing Good News Referrals!!  LOVE THEM and please KEEP THEM COMING!  I challenge those that have NEVER written one to do so....Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside =-)

SUPER HERO SHOUT OUTS!

• SUPER shout out to Dalal making STEAM interaction assembly happen and Sue for her work on the schedule!
• SUPER shout out to Sarj, Alisa, Kevin, Liz and Jamie for helping to make the STEAM Assembly work!
• SUPER shout out to those that have already reached out OR sent up GOOD NEWS REFERRALS, especially to those that have NEVER written them before!! We have already had written 90 for OCTOBER!!  Keep them coming!  Can't wait to see how POSITIVE and FABULOUS the rest of this month is!!
• What to nominate a fellow SUPER HERO to be recognized at our next faculty meeting?  Click HERE!!  PLEASE!!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

*October 18- Department Meetings after school
*October 18- Cross country/Volleyball at GVMS
*October 19- GATE visit in the AM
*October 19- Football at GVMS
*October 20- Volleyball at GVMS
*October 20- IPR after school in library!
*October 21- PBIS Site Visit
*October 25, 26, 27- Challenge Days!  Sign up to come!
*October 28- Superintendent here!
*October 28- Halloween Dance
*October 28, 29- CUE Conference for 7!
*December 15- RALLY SCHEDULE for Honor Roll/Perfect Attendance!

October 7, 2016

Thank you for your attention, participating, and competitive nature for our Academic Discussion time!  We KNOW that you can use all of the modeled behaviors with procedures and handouts to remind our kids HOW to hold each other accountable, how to include vocabulary in their discussion and how to remain engaged in what you're teaching.  Check out this short article HERE too for more positives!

Thank you to those for submitting Student of the Month names on time so I don't have to hunt you down for them!  Much Appreciated!  Please note that we really don't want people to fill out months in advance.  Please just do one month at a time!  Thanks to LAFFEY, PECKHAM, MANSOUR, FULTON, KINDER and TOLL for completing this!   Click THIS LINK for October as names are due October 21 for "Caring"!

Thank you to Kimberly, Rosa, Mimi, Ken, Dalal, Allison, Anita, Carol, Alisa, Lynn, and Montz for writing Good News Referrals!!  LOVE THEM and please KEEP THEM COMING!  I challenge those that have NEVER written one to do so....Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside =-)

SUPER HERO SHOUT OUTS!

• SUPER shout out to Dalal, Sue, and Lynn for presenting and acting in front of adults at our meeting!  It's way intimidating and we appreciate you!
• SUPER shout out to 8th grade teachers who went to KROC Center!  We appreciate you
• SUPER shout out to Christine and Elizabeth for organizing the bus and dismissal schedule and communicating that with staff!
• SUPER shout out to Rochelle for getting the kids signed up and the slips sent out!
• SUPER shout out to those that have already reached out OR sent up GOOD NEWS REFERRALS, especially to those that have NEVER written them before!! We have already had written 81for OCTOBER!!  Keep them coming!  Can't wait to see how POSITIVE and FABULOUS the rest of this month is!!
• What to nominate a fellow SUPER HERO to be recognized at our next faculty meeting?  Click HERE!!  PLEASE!!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

*October 7- Band Rock a Thon with Mr. Peckham
*October 10- No school!
*October 11- Cookie dough early lunch release/DJ in gym
*October 13/14- STEAM Assembly modified schedule coming soon!
*October 20- IPR after school in library!
*October 25, 26, 27- Challenge Days!  Sign up to come!
*October 28- Superintendent here!
*October 28- Halloween Dance
*October 28, 29- CUE Conference for 7!
*December 15- RALLY SCHEDULE for Honor Roll/Perfect Attendance!