Useful Links:
Orchard Ranch Bronco intranet website. Click HERE
INFORMATION & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
(“*” Indicates the number of weeks it’s been in newsletter.)
Emergency Services Day: I have been working with our local CHP, police and fire to come out and talk to our students. They will be here from 9-1 on 5/21. We are currently figuring out a small group schedule for rotations. Due to the short notice and being our first time, we may limit the grade levels in attendance, but will try our best to include everyone. Of course you will not be out there the whole 4 hours. That's just the time those services have set aside for being here. A surprise for the kids is that we will have a CHP helicopter landing and taking off in our field.
iReady and CAASPP: To quote Jamey Schrey, these assessments are photos in the photo album. You can only see what they do in that photo, but they provide us insight into what they can do and we can see them progress throughout the years.
EL Coordinator for OR: We have 2 staff member (Trevor and Bethany) who have taken on the responsibility of coordinating EL information for our site. With Bethany going on mommy duty for next year, we have a spot to fill. This is a 2 year position. Trevor will be training you next year and you will be training to next person the following year. Please let me know if you're interested in stepping in to fill this vital role on our campus. Thank you.
Office/Classroom Communication: We are always growing and changing and trying to find ways that may work best. Office to classroom and classroom to office communication is key to supporting our students and each other. Please follow these steps to communicating with each other. Of course, if you've found yourself skipping a step, it's ok. Just know, this is the protocol we are implementing.
Office:
1. Call room
2. Walkie Teacher
3. Voxer
Classroom Teacher:
1. Call office
2. Walkie Office
3. Voxer office
Josh out: I will be out Friday for a final appointment for my mom. Trevor and Megan are in charge.
Girls on the Run: Congratulations to our GOTR leaders and runners. Thank you for representing OR this weekend! The kids loved it!
BLOG Focus Article: Too often we wait for someone with a certain job description to “fix” a seemingly broken culture, and while it is certainly frustrating when the one tasked with leading doesn’t rise to that occasion, we have a moral imperative to step up to the plate to make our schools places where humans grow and thrive because our students and those who work on students’ behalf deserve it. If we all take responsibility for influencing school culture, how can we best leverage our influence?
2.Surround yourself with greatness.
You are the average of the five people with whom you spend the most time. Research has demonstrated time and again that people are generally unaware of the social influences that surround them and how those influences impact their day-to-day thoughts. And, because our thoughts usually manifest our actions, it is safe to say that the thoughts of those with whom we spend our time strongly impact OUR impact..
So, if you’re hanging around the water cooler with that guy who’s constantly complaining about everything and everyone, chances are you are, in turn, going to start feeling more exhausted, more hopeless, and more easily frustrated … by the very same events or situations that you’d otherwise likely tackle with a positive attitude. On the flip side, if you hang out with people who inspire you, challenge your thinking, are solutions-oriented, and laugh frequently, your engagement and performance at work will likely improve.
3.Elicit feedback from those you trust
Self-awareness is perhaps the most important leadership strategy one can implement … and it’s possibly the hardest as well. One of the reasons people struggle to identify the areas in which they can/should improve is because our greatest strengths are often also our greatest weaknesses. For example, my strength is that I’m a global thinker and an ideas generator. At face value, these are good things, but, there is a shadow side to every asset.
The shadow side of being a big-picture person is that I get bored by and bogged down with the day-to-day details that bring that big picture to life. The shadow side to ideation is that I am unafraid of change and maybe even sometimes instigate change for change’s sake. This can be off-putting to others–especially the 99% of people for whom change is scary and something to be avoided.
However, with awareness of my shortcomings, I can work on and improve upon my blind spots. This awareness, though, usually needs to be purposefully cultivated. It is not innate. I am lucky to have amazing coworkers who double as best friends. Because we trust each other and are willing to be vulnerable with each other, we often ask for brutally honest feedback from one another–feedback that, in the end, will only serve to make us better, stronger, and intentionally growing.
Note: Dates may change. Please continue to double-check the google calendar to confirm dates.
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