Happy New Year, Team Venture!

I hope you all had a relaxing holiday and are feeling refreshed for the next leg of our school year. I’ve been reflecting on where we are and where we want to be, and would like to share some thoughts with you as we dive into this next chapter together.

Discipline and IEPs

To ensure consistency and clarity, here’s a quick reminder of our roles regarding discipline and IEPs:

• Skyler: Freshmen and TSC
• Brianne: Sophomores
• Teresa: Juniors and Seniors

While we can all step in for each other as needed, big decisions should involve the assigned administrator to align with previously agreed-upon plans.  We are not asking teachers to try and remember who to contact regarding individual students.  Please include all of us on discipline related emails and we will triage as necessary.

Supervision of Instruction

We’ve structured supervision of instruction to provide targeted support:

Brianne:

• English: Levy, Smith, Cysewski, Eastman
• Online: Mires, Fehling, Alison, Doering, Orchard, Whaley
• Counseling: Smotherman
• Electives: Hook, Cooley

Teresa:

• Math: Mazhan, Gonzalez, Mahoney, Vaughan
• Special Education: Mantz, Miller, Njoku
• Science: Pensky, Nettles
• Social Studies: Wilson, Tacke
• MSW: TBA

Addressing the Current Crisis

I recognize that we’re in a challenging moment regarding student academics and behavior. To respond, I’d like to make two promises:

1. One of us will be present in the commons at least 90% of the time to ensure visibility and support.
2. We are here to assist you. Whether it’s working with individual students or providing extra support in your classrooms, we’re ready to help.

Here’s how you can call on us:

• Email one or all of us with the name of a student you’d like us to focus on or details about a class where you need extra support. We can work with students in content areas, we can read with them, help them write, help with their writing or various assignments.  
• Please consider which students might benefit from this additional support and be sure you send any materials that we will need to work with them.  
• My hope is for at least one of us to be working with a student or small group for at least 4 of 5 periods per day.
• We’ll collaborate with you to strengthen students’ social and academic skills.

Moving Forward Together

I believe in the power of this team and the work we do for our students. Let’s continue to lean on each other and stay focused on creating the best possible learning environment.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these plans—what works, what could be improved, or any other ideas you’d like to share. Together, we can tackle these challenges head-on.

Here’s to a strong start to the new year!

Staff Collaboration... Last time we met, small groups chose a lesson plan and made a commitment to helping the teacher adapt and improve that lesson so that it aligned with workshop model for the purpose of improving student learning.  How is that going?  Please check in with the teacher this week to bounce ideas around or offer suggestions to improve the lesson.  We will debrief this on Friday, 1/27.

Also on that day, we will review chapter 5 in Phenomenal Teaching and do a mid-term check in of IPLP goals.  Remember our commitment to get 1% better at something?  We will review progress with that goal as well. 

Week of  January 6
Bus Duty:  Cooley
Monday: 
Tuesday: 
Wednesday:  
Thursday: Trent visiting Venture
Friday: Non Work Day

Week of  January 13
Bus Duty:  Wilson
Monday: 
Tuesday: 
Wednesday:  
Thursday: Trent visiting Venture
Friday: Certified collaboration PD day: meet in library at 8:00 am

Week of  January 20
Bus Duty:  
Monday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day No school
Tuesday: 
Wednesday:  
Thursday: Trent visiting Venture
Friday: Certified collaboration PD day

Week of  January 27
Bus Duty:  
Monday: 
Tuesday: 
Wednesday:  
Thursday: Trent visiting Venture
Friday: Non work day