Thank You For Being AWESOME!

This has been the most unique and challenging opening of the new school year imaginable.  Our work and our mission to educate every student continues with purposeful thought and creativity despite the challenges of the pandemic. Each and every one of you has risen to this challenge and you are making a difference for our students.  Your courage, your hard work, and your grace under pressure is what makes Venture High School an amazing place for students and adults.  You are AWESOME and I thank you for the tremendous effort you are making on behalf of our students.

Moving to Yellow

Finally the day we've all waited for - all of our students physically present in the building every day.  As we welcome students back into the building full time it's important that we continue to socially distance students (as much as possible) and ensuring everyone is wearing their masks appropriately.  The kids have been pretty good about it, but it becomes even more important as we are squeezed together a bit more.  Also, the disinfecting of surfaces needs to continue.  All of these factors work together to help ensure that we can keep kids in school, full time for the rest of the year.

Thank you for everything you do to make them feel welcome, connected and safe at school!

Evaluations and Homeroom

At our last collaboration we talked about evaluations being housed in Homeroom this year.  Here is a video that Mike sent out to administrators:  Homeroom Evaluations  Mike produced this for administrators, but I think it helps to clarify the process for all of us.  Let me know if you have any questions and I will help to find the answers.

Powerful Teaching and Learning

A powerful, researched-based learning strategy worth consideration is Retrieval Practice which is the process of trying to remember information without having it in front of you.  This learning strategy is certainly not new.  We've all used flashcards and self-quizzes  to learn material, but memorization has fallen by the wayside as we focus on more "active learning."  Unlike many of the instructional dinosaurs sent to the strategy graveyard, this one is supported by cognitive research.  

Often the first time we ask students to recall information is for an assessment.  The student answers questions incorrectly and this is usually the first time they know that they don't know the material very well.  Retrieval practice is an instructional tool, not an assessment tool and spacing opportunities for retrieval out over time increases the likelihood that the information will make it's way into long term memory.  Practice quizzes or other techniques that require students to remember without looking up the answer prior to the assessment can help them organize information into long term memory that will benefit them for the test and help them build a fact base that improves future learning and thinking.

I have questioned whether this practice runs counter to our efforts to develop a culture of thinking.  However, thinking requires that we manipulate information to form new concepts, solve problems, or make decisions.  That process is hampered if we have to continually look up information that can committed to memory.  For example, simple math problems become unreasonably tedious if a calculator has to be used for simple computations.  

Despite our widespread scorn of factual knowledge, research suggests that the more factual knowledge a person has on a topic, the more critically and analytically they can think about that topic. Studies also show that poor readers can outperform good readers when they have more factual knowledge about the topic (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.494.4592&rep=rep1&type=pdf)

Additionally, the practice of memorizing information helps increase the brain's ability to learn in general. It serves as exercise for the brain.  Forcing the brain to retrieve information builds neural pathways which is active learning as opposed to listening, reading, or watching that can be quite passive.  If thinking is about shuffling information in new and creative ways, let's not forget the importance of memorizing and learning facts as one component of helping our students become better thinkers.

For more information, check this out:   http://pdf.retrievalpractice.org/RetrievalPracticeGuide.pdf        or this:  https://www.the-learning-agency-lab.com/science-of-learning-research-retrieval-practice.html

Bus/Parking lot duty:  Bauman and Hamill

Monday 9/28:  

Tuesday 9/29  Picture day #2
Wednesday 9/30 Whole group collaboration:  Agenda  Dept. meetings; 
Thursday 10/1: 

Friday 10/2: Flex Day  no School

Bus/Parking lot duty:  Higgs and Levy

Monday 10/5: We're in yellow!!!  (all students every day) 

Tuesday 10/6
Wednesday 10/7: Non work day
Thursday 10/8: 

Friday 10/9: 

Many, many thanks and heartfelt appreciation all you do to make a difference in our students' lives.  I feel so fortunate to work with such an amazing group of educators.  You are AMAZING!

Now for some fun...

And some more fun...

Managing Learning Remotely

Lessons Learned 
None of us could have imagined that a day would come where virtually every child in the world would be educated via remote platforms.  None of us could have predicted how the reality of an isolated, quarantined world would play out.  One lesson learned is that working, teaching, and learning from home is, in some ways, more exhausting than doing the same things in a brick and mortar building with a typical work schedule.  Most of us are sleeping a little later, skipping some fashion and make up routines of the normal work day.  We aren't managing student discipline or the usual annoyances and conflict inevitably present when lots of people occupy the same space.  And...we aren't laughing together.  We aren't sharing a quick story in the halls between classes.  We aren't debriefing tough experiences with colleagues at the end of the day.  Neither are we touching base with a friendly coworker for quick reassurances.  No words of encouragement shared in a passing moment.  No "aha" moments when we see understanding light a young person's eyes.
We don't need easier days, we need each other - lesson learned.

Another lesson learned... teachers hold the wealth of the world in their hands.  Beyond the economy, beyond political opinions, beyond all annoyances related to quarantine, the health and well-being of our children is what we most cherish.  We trust teachers to help shape and nurture our children and we suffer as a community when their ability to do that is negatively impacted.  However, teachers have an amazing capacity to overcome incredible hurdles to teach and support their students.  Venture staff... I am in awe of you.  Thank you for stretching the definition of what it means to teach.  Thank you for finding resources and re-imagining what school can be. Thank you for finding a way when it seemed that a way didn't even exist.

Some Cool Ideas
Venture staff have devised a variety of ways to inspire learning for it's own sake to replace learning for a grade.
 
These two math lessons have inspired some fun thinking.  Kevin made the videos using an iPhone and edited with iMovie.  The students post answers and explain thinking using flipgrid.com
Canfield paper Airplane
Cookie Task

We are showcasing student art and poetry on our Venture High School webpage
Check it out and share with students.  If you have assigned student projects that can be featured on this page, please get student permission and then share it with Lena to have it uploaded. 

Please, email me the innovative things you're doing with kids to share next week.  Some of our best learning is from each other.

Working with the weird paradox that more time and more freedom is more exhausting... At first I thought with all this extra time we would all enjoy a book study.  I was wrong.  People who initially agreed it would be a great time to do some professional learning have shared with me that they are maxed out.  If you want to read "Creating Cultures of Thinking" then please do, it's a great book.  However, we will save the book study for next year.

Week One of Remote Learning

Welcome to Remote Learning, Remote Collaboration, and Remote Social Interaction, Isolation and General All Around Weird Stuff

The past few weeks and the weeks ahead are really stretching our capacity to rethink the basic interactions of our lives.  Nothing encourages me more than hearing from each of you the stories of how you fill your time.  Everything from being with children and grandchildren, planting gardens, completing house projects, reading professional literature and exercising have come up in conversations.  Also, mentioned are the stressors... spouses who work with COVID positive patients, financial struggles as family businesses close, facing the death of loved ones in a time when memorial services can't be held, and babies born without the supportive presence of close family members. 

Wednesday we checked Chromebooks out to students.  Our Venture families are facing some heartbreaking challenges.  One mom cried as she told me about losing her job days before she was scheduled to close on her first house.  Another mom with COPD was hospitalized and is very worried about her daughter. Some are struggling with loss of income and other parents are working extremely long hours and are worried about their children home all day.

Our mission is to provide remote learning that engages students, encourages them through their challenges and allows them to use this time to grow and excel at something.  We do not need to prepare them for a test.  What will that look like for your class?  How can we work together to help one another find solutions?  Please, don't hesitate to reach out to me or each other for ideas or just to think through ideas.  And, as you work, please drop your plan into the appropriate folder in this COVID-19 Remote Learning Plan

If we have files and links in one place, I can better communicate to the district and the community what we are doing to help students learn.

Expectations for Teaching, Learning and Grading
I am really feeling your frustration over remote learning... the first week I had lots of free time.  Now, I'm tied to a computer.  I don't like it either.  Thank you... you are the heroes in this crazy mess providing some normalcy (whatever that is) for kids who are pretty scattered right now.

At our district administration meeting this morning, we clarified some grading issues.  As we discussed at our faculty meeting, we are not actually going to grade anything.  Students will be given a pass/fail, or to be more clear, they will be given a pass.  I know this runs counter intuitive to everything we have learned about accountability; however, we have to hold students harmless in a set of circumstances where their ability to participate might be seriously compromised and we can't fully accommodate for that situation.  So, let me doubly clear:  everyone is going to pass.  If we say that upfront to students, many of them won't engage with us at all.  Our mission is to do everything we can to engage them in learning.
Here are some specifics we talked about today:

• Please do not assign due dates
• Do not use words like "mandatory" or "required"
• Please do give feedback on student work and encourage them to redo and resubmit
• Encourage them to participate, note their participation and the work they've completed, etc. but don't do anything beyond encourage.
• Please, do NOT try to meet with classes more than once a week
• If possible, try to do some cross curricular projects. This might be easier for you and the kids.  If it isn't easier, then don't do it.
• Please, do NOT try to take on too much.  If it feels complicated and time consuming, do something else.  If it is fun and energizes you, maybe it will energize the kids too.
• Please do NOT take their criticisms to heart.  Kids are getting a little grumpy too and you're the safe person to take it out on.  
• Please, DO reach out to me or colleagues for some positive stuff.  We need some uplifting interactions.  I am SO INCREDIBLY THANKFUL for the kind interactions I have had with all of you.  You are AWESOME!!!

Please invite me to join your Google Classroom

Resources

by Rachelle

Local Food Bank Resources:

• Lake City Community Church (across from LCHS) has a pretty large food bank that's open from 10-2:00 on Wednesdays.

• Community Action Partnership is open Mon-Fri. from 9-4:00. Their contact info is: 4144 W. Industrial Loop in CDA. (208) 664-8757

• Parker Subaru in CDA has a food pantry that's almost always stocked and you just drive by and take what you need.
• 

Counseling Resources:

Heritage Health has a male clinician that is able to take on 10 students from each high school in a "tele-health" model. He could complete their intake, diagnostic and begin therapy over the phone or via video chat and bill Medicaid. If/when we return to school, these students could transition to seeing the clinician in person (at the school site or at the Heritage office).

When you speak with students or parents who are struggling, please inquire if they would like our counselor to give them a call. Rachelle has a mental health background and is available to speak with any of our families who are needing additional support and/or resources in the community. Please email Rachelle with their names and best contact info.

Human Resource Information:

Leadership Stipends:

The District will be paying the leadership stipends.  I will send in the forms so you all get your stipend.

Evaluations:

As previously discussed, the second observation has been waived.  I will complete and email your summative evaluations to you (they're due by June 1)

• We still need some measure of student improvement.  I would recommend a pre/post test, but you can use another one that might be more relevant for you.  When I email you the evaluation, please note in the appropriate space the evidence of student improvement you are using. "Targets may be based on grade- or department – level achievement or growth goals that create collaboration within groups"
• If you are working on an Individual Professional Learning Plan, could you mark yes (on the evaluation)? this may be important for the non-renewable staff not on the professional rung and those working on the Master Educator Premium - we don't know if this will be waived or not).
• I will start working on those summative evaluations when some of the work settles down a bit.  Like most of you, I'm spending of time an unusual amount of time with emails and writing a blog post that everyone has to read :)

Helpful Links:

COVID Folder with files for each discipline.  

Student Contact Sheet (this is only viewable if you log in with your district ID

Newletter from District

Bus/Parking Lot Duty

How many of you would happily do bus duty every day in exchange for getting to come back to school???

Week of March 9

Student Exhibits
The library and halls are looking AWESOME for the student exhibits.  The building is buzzing with student energy around this project.  There will be pizza and salad for staff in Angie's room from 3:00 until we close up shop.  Thanks to all of you who are making this meaningful learning experience possible for students.

Superintendent Listening Session
Dr. Cook will be here on Thursday, March 19 from 2:00 - 3:45.  He will be in the library and available to listen and talk about anything that's on your mind regarding Venture,  Coeur d'Alene public schools, or any education related topic that you'd like to talk to him about.

Bus/Parking lot duty:  Doering and Baker

Monday 3/9 PD DayAgenda

Tuesday 3/10 First Day of Term 3  Kaiser out @ am;  Idaho Capacity Builders at Venture@pm
Wednesday 3/11 
Thursday 3/12

Friday 3/13 

Bus/Parking lot duty:  Smith and Cooley

Monday 3/16  Non Work day

Tuesday 3/17 Kaiser out AM
Wednesday 3/18 Learning Walks 
Thursday 3/19 Dr. Cook Listening session 2:00 - 3:45

Friday 3/20 

Bus/Parking lot duty:  Gonzalez and Fehling

Monday 3/23 Non work Day

Tuesday 3/24  Kaiser, Meeks, Smith, Doering, Hook @Deeper Learning Conference through Friday
Wednesday 3/25 
Thursday 3/26 Spring BBQ

Friday 3/27  First day of spring break!

Week of February 24

Bus/Parking lot duty:  Hook and Beck

Monday 2/24  PD Day Agenda

Tuesday 2/25: Kaiser out pm
Wednesday 2/26: 
Thursday 2/27: 

Friday 2/28: 

Bus/Parking lot duty:  Gaynor and Frame

Monday 3/2 Non Work Day

Tuesday 3/3 
Wednesday 3/4 
Thursday 3/5 Exhibit night

Friday 3/6  Last Day of Term 2

Bus/Parking lot duty:  

Monday 3/9 PD Day

Tuesday 3/10 First Day of Term 3  Idaho Capacity Builders at Venture
Wednesday 3/11 
Thursday 3/12

Friday 3/13 

Week of February 10

Congratulations Mrs. Frame - VHS nominee for Coeur d'Alene Teacher of the Year!!!

Congratulations Mrs. Eastman - CDA Secondary Teacher of the Month!!!

February 10:  Professional Development...

Edmentum is an online program that offers a wealth of opportunities for students to recover credits and for teachers to enrich their programs.  We will have an Edmentum trainer here on February 10 from 10:30 - 1:30.  I would like for all certified staff to attend training from 10:3- noon so we all have a better idea of how we can implement the programs.  Prior to Feb. 10, please access your account by going to:

https://login.edmentum.com/

Account Login: CDSD271

User name (your CDA username)

Password:  PLATO271

Update Your Teacher Page For A Chance To Win Movie Tickets:

The Communications and Technology Departments are teaming up with all school web editors to work with (cajole, bribe, strong-arm) all teachers in the District to update their teacher web pages BEFORE SPRING BREAK. Quite a few of these pages have been neglected for years. Many gently guide the visitor into a solemn space unencumbered by words or images. You get the point. Let's give our families a better experience when they learn who their child's new teacher is and go to the school website looking for that smiling face, contact information, background, class schedule, learning resources. (Below is a great example of a dynamic and informative teacher page.) To sweeten the deal, all those whose pages are up to par by March 9th, will be entered into drawings for Regal movie tickets. We will get rolling on this next week with communications directly to all teachers, plus tips on what should be on their pages, how to log in and do it, and who can help them if they need it. We would appreciate any help you can provide in reinforcing why this is a good thing to do. Thank you!

Sample:

Student Engagement Survey

This is just a reminder that the student engagement survey opens in 11 days. The survey will be available from February 18^th through March 31^st.  We will try to complete as many as possible on the first day.

These are the minimum percentages of completion required by the State:

• Parent - 20% of parents/guardians of current students;
• Staff - 90% of all classified and certified staff in your building; and
• Student - 95% of students in grades 03-12; students will need their state ID number

* Reports by building identifying students who have not participated

Bus/Parking lot duty:  Levy and Eastman

Monday 2/10:  PD day - Edmentum Training:  Agenda

Tuesday 2/11: Kaiser out@am; 
Wednesday 2/12: 
Thursday 2/13: Kaiser out 11-2

Friday 2/14: No School (PD flex day)

Bus/Parking lot duty:  Mahoney and Meeks

Monday 2/17:  

Tuesday 2/18: Administer Student Engagement surveys/advisories 
Wednesday 2/19: 
Thursday 2/20:

Friday 2/21: