Week of April 30

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Fehling and Hamill
Monday 4/30:  Non Work Day
Tuesday 5/1:  
Wednesday 5/2:  Field Trips - Beck and Eastman
Thursday 5/3  
Fri 5/4  

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Cooley and Doering
Monday 5/7: 8:00 staff meeting; 9:30 Department meetings
Tuesday 5/8:  
Wednesday 5/9: Teacher/Staff Appreciation Day - Lunch
Thursday 5/10
Friday 5/11  

Subs and Half-Day Subs
We have been fortunate to have Val available to cover for staff who needs to be gone for a period or two here and there.  However, we are getting to that busy time of year when she needs to be available for other things.  If you need to be gone during your teaching time, please put in for a sub for the full or half day.

Extended Learning Friday
Students and staff are reporting positive outcomes for our extended learning time on Fridays.  We tighten up a couple of issues in order for this to work well.

1. If students haven't earned a pass by 11:05 on Friday, they can't earn a pass.  If they finish the work they have, they can stay with the teacher, go to a different teacher who has work for them or go back to their advisory teacher.  They can't get a pass to go to the gym or commons.
2. If you send a student to another classroom, how do you know they went there?  We need to either come up with a pass system, or use the phone to ensure that kids are going where they're supposed to go.
3. Lunch.  No early release on Friday.  Last Friday, many kids were released about five minutes early for lunch.  This isn't intended to be an extended lunch period.  Lunch begins at the regular time. 
4. Restrooms.  The restrooms are really, really busy during extended learning time.  If students must use the restroom, please - only one at a time and for a short period of time.
5. If you are going to be gone on Friday, please have passes prepared for the substitute.  

21st Century Skills Class

It was a pleasure visiting classes this week and seeing students engaged in activities to help them function better in their personal and professional lives. One class is reading a book together, another is making class flags featuring character traits they value, another was using a class meeting format to talk about a growth mindset and so on. Sometimes it’s awkward. If they were adept at using these skills, they wouldn’t need the class and they wouldn’t need Venture. The work is messy and hard. Thank you for doing it. 

Week of April 23

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Cooley and Doering
Monday 4/23: Non work day
Tuesday 4/24:  Math ISAT
Wednesday 4/25: Administrative Professional Day Math ISAT
Thursday 4/26 
Friday 4/27  Kaiser/Flieger visiting Community School/

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Fehling and Hamill
Monday 4/30:  Non Work Day
Tuesday 5/1:  
Wednesday 5/2:  Field Trips - Beck and Eastman
Thursday 5/3  
Fri 5/4  

Marsha and Amy... THANK YOU!!!!
We are indeed, helpless without you!
You two are the glue that holds Venture together.  You are the cool heads in the office when P.O's are confusing, phone calls are weird, kids are crumbling and parents are frustrated.  You know where things are, you know where things went, and you know which things ought not to be touched.  You know who to call and, more importantly, you know who not to call. And, you have the numbers for both.  You guide us down the haunted passages of Skyward (which should have been dubbed "Hellward"); and you pretend we're in meetings, when we're really just quietly rocking in the fetal position waiting for the clock to strike 2:30.  Thank you for everything you do!

Evaluations

I am working on evaluations, so I will be popping into classes for observations and working to get them written up in a timely manner.  We need to have a measure of student achievement.  The form that I fill out is below.  I will need a summary of evidence.  For example, if you selected CTE exams, include a sheet that tells how many students passed, or what their growth was, or whatever the measure was. When you meet with me, bring that summary of evidence and your summary of student input.  We also need to sign off on your leadership stipends (everybody initials the "hard to get" stipend.)

Measurable student achievement:  The measurement of student academic achievement or growth within a given interval of instruction for those students who have been enrolled in and attended 80% of the interval of instruction.  Measurement will be chosen by supervisor with staff input using one or more of the assessments as checked below and provide summary of evidence. _____a.  Pre-post tests                                                                _____ j. Advanced placement exams _____b.  Idaho Standards achievement test                                _____k. Career Technical Exams _____c.  Student learning objectives _____d.  Formative assessments _____e.  Teacher-constructed assessment of student growth _____f.   Performance based assessments _____g.  IRI (Idaho reading indicators) _____h.  College entrance exams such as PSAT, SAT, or ACT _____i.   District adopted assessment(s); such as End-of-course exams (EOCs)

Week of April 16

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Meeks
Monday 4/16:  7:00 Secondary Departmental Collaboration 8:30-9:00 Faculty meeting.  Use the rest of the day to plan department meetings or collaborate in any way that works best for your classes.
Tuesday 4/17:  ELA ISAT
Wednesday 4/18:  ELA ISAT
Thursday 4/19  
Fri 4/20  Kaiser/Frame visiting Mica Peak

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Cooley and Doering
Monday 4/23: Non work day
Tuesday 4/24:  Math ISAT
Wednesday 4/25:  Math ISAT
Thursday 4/26 
Friday 4/27  Kaiser/Flieger visiting Community School

Phones...
After attending several sessions at the Prevention Conference yesterday, I have a renewed commitment to protecting our instructional time by limiting phones to lunch time use.  I had the good fortune of overhearing educators arguing for their use during classroom time and their arguments were so poorly supported and so obviously based on not wanting to proactively structure an optimum learning environment, that I felt doubly certain we are doing the right thing.  Please, continue to remind students to turn their phones in at the beginning of class.  Please, if you see them with phones, don't continue to offer warning after warning.  It only makes you come across as weak and unsure of yourself.  Take their phones.  If they won't give them to you, send them to the office.  Parents are supporting us.  The kids know it.  They don't like it.  But it truly is in their best interest.

Question to Discuss in Faculty Morning...
Are we giving 'C's?  Or, are we only using incompletes, A, and B?

Week of April 9

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Smith and Gaynor
Monday 4/9:  8:00 Faculty Meeting 9:00 SMART board training - if you have or want a SMART board
Tuesday 4/10:  SAT's only Juniors come to school
Wednesday 4/11:  Kaiser @Prevention Conference through Friday
Thursday 4/12  
Friday 4/13

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: 
Monday 4/16:  7:00 Secondary Departmental Collaboration 8:30 Faculty meeting
Tuesday 4/17:  
Wednesday 4/18:  
Thursday 4/19  
Friday 4/20

Very Good News
Diana Baker has decided to accept the position of full time math teacher at Venture High School!  Diana,  I know I speak for all of us when I extend a warm welcome to you!  We are all here to support one another as we support the kids, so please feel comfortable reaching out to any of us if you have questions or if there is anything we can do to help.

VHS News
I will start posting VHS News on this  blog so we have one easy place to find it. ----> See left.
Please be sure to show it to your 21st Century Skills students.  The kids are working pretty hard on this and it is disheartening for them to hear that some classes didn't see it.  If there is a problem that we should be aware of that interferes with our ability to show it to all kids, please come see me or Lena so we can work it out.

Extended Learning
Today there were many, many, many students with passes.  Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, some of those students had incompletes in the grade book.  I don't want to belabor the obvious, but this won't work.  I don't feel great about the instructional time we're giving up and I feel even worse about managing 57 (yes, 57) kids in the common areas only to discover that a portion of them shouldn't even have passes.  The plan should look something like this... On Thursday, students pull up their grades; the teacher double checks and writes passes based on the information on the computer screen.  If they have some excuse for why it's an incomplete.  Ignore them (or call their teachers).  Students are unreliable reporters of their own grades.  The passes go to kids for whom the computer reports they have passing grades in all classes.  A passing grade is actually a passing grade.  It isn't an "I" with an explanation that it was turned in and is awaiting grading. 

Hard-wiring Happiness
Rick Hanson is my hero.  I've nearly read the words off the pages of one of his books, but for the time-challenged,  he does a nice job of delivering valuable mini-bites of content in his Ted Talks.  This video might be good for kids- especially juniors and seniors.  A brief incident of innuendo makes it slightly less kid-friendly, but I think it provides useful information that lends itself to rich discussion.

Week of April 2

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Meeks and Baker
Monday 4/2: Non work day
Tuesday 4/3:
Wednesday 4/4:  
Thursday 4/5  
Friday 4/6 Flieger and Kaiser ASCA training

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Smith and Gaynor
Monday 4/9:  8:00 Faculty Meeting
Tuesday 4/10:  SAT's only Juniors come to school
Wednesday 4/11:  Kaiser @Prevention Conference through Friday
Thursday 4/12  
Friday 4/13

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: 
Monday 4/16:  7:00 Secondary Departmental Collaboration
Tuesday 4/17:  
Wednesday 4/18:  
Thursday 4/19  
Friday 4/20

SATs
SAT's will be Tuesday April 10.  Only juniors come to school that day.  It's important that we all stress that this is a graduation requirement so students need to make every effort to be here.  Last year our students performed much better than they have in previous years.  This improvement was, in large part, due to our attitude toward testing that we shared with the students.  The message that the SAT is an opportunity for them to show what they know, and the scores are used by colleges needs to be reinforced by all of us for the kids to take the test seriously.  More information and details will be forthcoming throughout the week.  Thank you for all of your support with this!

Sad News!
Bryan and his wife have decided it's time for a warmer climate so, he will be leaving us at the end of this school year.  Bryan, we all wish you well as you move on to the next stage of journey.  We will miss you!

Taking Care of Others... Taking Care of Ourselves...

Week of March 12

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Higgs and Hook
Monday 3/12: 7:00 Secondary Cross District Department Classes 8:30 staff mtg. (Very brief and totally appropriate)  Grades Due by 3:00
Tuesday 3/13:  Trimester 3 begins!
Wednesday 3/14:  
Thursday 3/15 Minds on Math workshop - Kaiser and all math teachers
Friday 3/16 St. Patty's Day BBQ/ Celebration Assembly

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Levy and Mahoney
Monday 3/19: Non work day
Tuesday 3/20:  Special Education Audit 8:00-Noon
Wednesday 3/21:  
Thursday 3/22  
Friday 3/23 Spring break begins

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Meeks and Baker
Monday 4/2: Non work day
Tuesday 4/3:
Wednesday 4/4:  
Thursday 4/5  
Friday 4/6 Flieger and Kaiser ASCA training

New Trimester
Many new students will be roaming the halls on Tuesday.  Our warm and welcoming smiles will set the tone for them. As much as possible, let's all be in the halls to direct, redirect, and deescalate frustrations.

New Classes
Please take a minute to look over your rosters.  Mistakes are more easily fixed before Tuesday, so let us know (well, let Flieger know.)

Phones and Purses
It's important to "begin as we intend to continue."  So, let's double up efforts with phones and purses to remind them to turn purses into the office if they're big, and let's be vigilant with phones.

Speaking of Phones
More illegal copying and pasting from this website:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/16/schools-mobile-phones-academic-results

It is a question that keeps some parents awake at night. Should children be allowed to take mobile phones to school? Now economists claim to have an answer. For parents who want to boost their children’s academic prospects, it is no.

The effect of banning mobile phones from school premises adds up to the equivalent of an extra week’s schooling over a pupil’s academic year, according to research by Louis-Philippe Beland and Richard Murphy, published by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.

“Ill Communication: The Impact of Mobile Phones on Student Performance”found that after schools banned mobile phones, the test scores of students aged 16 improved by 6.4%. The economists reckon that this is the “equivalent of adding five days to the school year”.

Guardian Today: the headlines, the analysis, the debate - sent direct to you

Read more

The findings will feed into the ongoing debate about children’s access to mobile phones. In the UK, more than 90% of teenagers own a mobile phone; in the US, just under three quarters have one. The prevalence of the devices poses problems for head teachers, whose attitude towards the technology has hardened as it has become ubiquitous.

In a survey conducted in 2001, no school banned mobiles. By 2007, this had risen to 50%, and by 2012 some 98% of schools either did not allow phones on school premises or required them to be handed in at the beginning of the day.

However, some schools are starting to allow limited use of the devices. New York mayor Bill de Blasio has lifted a 10-year ban on phones on school premises, with the city’s chancellor of schools stating that it would reduce inequality.

This view is misguided, according to Beland and Murphy, who found that the ban produced improvements in test scores among students, with the lowest-achieving students gaining twice as much as average students. The ban had a greater positive impact on students with special education needs and those eligible for free school meals, while having no discernible effect on high achievers.

“We found that not only did student achievement improve, but also that low-achieving and low-income students gained the most. We found the impact of banning phones for these students was equivalent to an additional hour a week in school, or to increasing the school year by five days.

“Therefore, de Blasio’s lifting of the ban on mobile phones with a stated intention of reducing inequalities may in fact lead to the opposite. Allowing phones into schools will harm the lowest-achieving and low-income students the most.”

The research was carried out at Birmingham, London, Leicester and Manchester schools before and after bans were introduced. It factored in characteristics such as gender, eligibility for free school meals, special educational needs status and prior educational attainment. “Technological advancements are commonly viewed as increasing productivity,” the economists write. “Modern technology is used in the classroom to engage students and improve performance. There are, however, potential drawbacks as well, as they could lead to distractions.”

Week of March 5

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Fehling and Hamill

Monday 3/5:  8:00 staff mtg.
Tuesday 3/6: Talk to 21st CSC students about CTE
Wednesday 3/7 CTE with students during 21st CSC
Thursday 3/8 Parent Conferences/Open House 2:30 - 7:00
Friday 3/9 End of Trimester 2

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Higgs and Hook
Monday 3/12: 7:00 Secondary Cross District Department Classes 9:00 staff mtg. Grades Due
Tuesday 3/13:
Wednesday 3/14:  
Thursday 3/15
Friday 3/16 St. Patty's Day BBQ

Bus/Parking Lot Duty: Levy and Mahoney
Monday 3/19: Non work day
Tuesday 3/20:
Wednesday 3/21:  
Thursday 3/22  Celebration Assembly
Friday 3/23 Spring break begins

Conferences
Val is planning on serving chips and salsa.  Parents will be invited to come in and meet with teachers.  Please call home and schedule meetings with parents for any student who has been struggling.  This is a chance to set them on a better path next trimester and remind them that Incompletes can be changed to passing grades!

Grades
Please have grades turned in before leaving on March 12.  We need to get them mailed out.  We can still change the incompletes, but we need to let parents know how their students are doing.

From Gang Leader to Graduate:  An uplifting message