Good morning,

This spring has been highly revealing from a standpoint of parent and community involvement in schools.  Recently, we had more than 100 families attend our Countdown to Kindergarten event, and enjoyed incredibly high participation in concerts, family dances, transition events and community activities.  Families really want to get out and attend school events.  

Over the weekend I was able to attend the spring musical, "Working" at Yelm High School.  It was really, really good.  The production involved a high number of students, and more than 200 people attended the closing performance.  At the start, director and teacher Hannah Motyka asked the audience if this was the first performance they had attended.  More than two thirds raised their hands.  That is outstanding. 
 

It is really inspiring that our families and community are taking the time to join in support of their students and schools.  Thank you for including families in school celebrations.

Have a great week of learning.

Brian

Good morning, 

Recently I received an inspirational book as a present.  The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy chronicles the powerful and uplifting conversations between four unlikely characters.  It is a fifteen minute read, and worth every minute of it. 
 

The characters talk about their experiences on the journey home.  At one point in the conversation the mole asks the boy, "What's your best discovery?" "That I'm enough as I am." said the boy. I truly enjoyed both parts of that passage.  What is your best discovery?  Then, what is your answer?

Have a great week of learning.

Brian

Last Thursday evening our Community Outreach team held a 5K run/walk event to support the Learners Without Limits program.  If you are unfamiliar with this program, it is new to the district this year.  Learners Without Limits is a fund within the Bounties for Families non-profit organization.  The community-based fund provides financial resources to students and families who need additional help with food, clothing, household items, connectivity to medical services and more. 
 

At Yelm High School, Ridgeline and Yelm Middle Schools, our Outreach staff connects with students for all sorts of needs.  There are resource pantries in each school, but at times there can be additional financial needs, and this is where Learners Without Limits comes in.  This year the program has expended approximately $20,000 and has purchased shoes, clothing, winter blankets and coats, food, laundry services and hygiene items for hundreds of students.
  

The 5K event raised $7,000 for the fund.  Ft. Stevens gets the "Coming out in droves" award for the most staff participating.  Thank you to our school outreach staff, Community Relations, school counselors and the Office of Student Supports for their teamwork this year.  You all have made an incredible impact.

Have a great week of learning.

Brian

Good morning,

Can you believe it is the last week of April? I want to focus on our Portrait of a Graduate this week because of its powerful connections to everything we are doing with and for students.  As more and more activities and events return to our practice, students are getting increased opportunities to demonstrate their progress toward becoming Leaders, Learners, Collaborators and Critical Thinkers. 
 

In the development of the Portrait, we relied heavily on student voice.  Students were adamant that they should always be moving toward the traits, and not have the traits viewed as an ending point.  We can always get better. 
 

Please reflect this week on how your work with students develops the traits in each.  The connections are endless, yet so important for each student's well-being.  

Have a great week of learning.

Brian

Good morning,

Last week afforded me many great opportunities to visit schools, classrooms and co-curricular activities.  I was so impressed and gratified.  The commitment to students shown by our staff, both in the classroom and through student activities is just one of the many positive trends we are seeing.  Other positive district trends include a rise in student attendance and increases in the number of students passing their classes.

These trends are the result of strong practices by everyone.  Many of our schools have engaged the No Excuses University structures to build daily systems of excellence.  Three of the six core NEU beliefs reminded me strongly of what I witnessed last week.

Belief #2:  The academic accomplishment of every student is an obsession. 

Belief #3:  The school can neutralize many challenges that students bring to the classroom.

Belief #4:  Student achievement is the number one topic of conversation

Thank you for all you do.  Have a great week of learning.

Brian

I sincerely hope all of you enjoyed a pleasant, relaxing and family-filled break.  I don't know who ordered the snowy forecast for this week, but please be careful this week as we navigate some strange April weather.  

Yes, April means the start of baseball season.  It is one of my passions, and also led me to the education profession.  What is even more exciting is that the choir from Fort Stevens Elementary will be singing the national anthem at the Mariners game on Saturday night.  If you are going to the game, get there early to celebrate our students, their families and the Fort Stevens staff.  They will be there in force.  It is so great to see the return of these school/community activities this spring.

Again, welcome back to what I know will be a great spring of learning.  

Brian

Good morning,

I sincerely hope that all of you were able to enjoy the warmer weather this weekend.  

Spring conferences can embody one of the strongest assessment pieces we know.  Student self assessment offers strong representation of the impact of instruction.  When students can accurately articulate their own performance against grade level standards, we know that deep learning has occurred. Similarly, when students are able to articulate what they need to do to improve toward standards, we also know that we have achieved strong clarity in establishing learning targets and success criteria. 

Let's make student voice loud and powerful this week.  Let's engage students and their families  in deep discussion about high levels of achievement.  That voice should also establish powerful goals for the last three months of the school year.  

Have a great week of learning, and demonstrations of learning. 

Brian

Good morning,

Rick Miller is the author of the Soul, Science and Culture of Hope. He is often a featured speaker in our area and has worked with several of our school staffs.  Last week provided our students and staff a change with respect to our progression through the pandemic.  Given the choice around wearing face coverings is a step forward, but we still have many steps ahead in regaining all parts of our learning system. 

Miller offered 5 research conclusions about regaining hope in the face of trauma.  They are 5 tenets I often return to when planning for the future:

1.  It is not risk or adverse childhood experiences that prevent children from succeeding emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and economically; it is the absence of hope.

2.  We don't control most of the risks our children and youth experience, but we do control much of the hope.

3.  Even within the child who is mostly at-risk, there equally exists a youth at hope.

4.  Hope is taught and learned.

5.  Programs or curricula alone do not improve a child's sense of hope - relationships do.  

Have a great week of learning. 

Brian

Good morning,

We spend a lot of time talking about graduation and graduation readiness in our district.  Our school board goal in this area states that, "Each student will be on a path (starting in Kindergarten) to graduation, continuing education and work."  Our Graduate Yelm initiative seeks to connect our community so that we all are supporting students on their way to their plan for post-graduation. 

Last Saturday night, our community came together to put that mission into motion.  At the 27th Dollars for Scholars Auction, the all-volunteer committee raised more than $130,000 for the upcoming class of 2022.  The money, along with additional scholarships from Yelm and Thurston County, will be given to graduating seniors in the form of direct financial aid.  

It feels really great to know our community supports the ongoing plans of our students.  Who knows what goals the support will fulfill.  Maybe future staff in our district?  Let's hope so.

Have a great week of learning. 

Brian  

Good morning,

This will be an eclectic memo as this week features several, but different items.  

It is Dollars for Scholars week.  The online auction opened over the weekend.  The live auction is Saturday night at the Yelm Community Center.  This is the 27th auction to support graduating seniors with scholarship money.  Thank you to all the schools and departments for their donations.  I am also thankful that we live in a community that gives a great deal to its students. 

This week we also celebrate and acknowledge Billy Frank Jr. both in our classrooms and in our partnership work with the Nisqually Nation.  Our most current partnership is the development of a friendship or welcoming pole at the new Southworth Elementary. 

The legislative session is scheduled to end on Thursday.  It has been a very unusual session in that the significant measures impacting education still are not clearly defined despite claims of record revenues.  There is a lot of talk about enhancements in the area of social emotional health with adjustments in funding for nurses, social workers, counselors and family support personnel, but how and when that funding may arrive is still unclear.  

And, just to stay eclectic, Daylight Savings Time  starts on this weekend.  Just a normal week, right?

Have a great week of learning.

Good morning.

Last week I was working with several of our schools who are re-engaging with our partners at No Excuses University (NEU).  You may remember that Southworth Elementary became a network endorsed school earlier in the year.  Later this spring and summer many of our schools will be working with NEU to re-certify their endorsement, or to have new staff members attend professional development.  

One of the most inspiring aspects of working with Damen Lopez, NEU founder, is his attitude that education is a servant institution.  In his many training sessions he pushes educators  to ask the reflective question, "How would I want something done if I were in that person's shoes?"

Throughout the past two years we have been looking forward to higher levels of "normalcy" as well as trying to learn how the pandemic has impacted students and their families. As changes occur over the next several weeks, I suspect we will continue to learn more about what staff, students and families need moving forward.  Let's continue to listen and discover what our students need to achieve in school. 

Have a great week of learning.

Brian

Good morning and Happy Valentine's Day!

In their book, Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity, Cobb and Krownapple provide an inspirational exploration of the word dignity.  The word's Latin roots refer to being "worthy" or of "equal worth."  I was particularly struck by this quote, however, "Even though we are born with it (dignity), we aren't born with an understanding of how to recognize, reclaim and extend it to others.  That is our ongoing work.  Dignity stands above differences."

Dignity is extended through personal interactions, greetings, events and classroom strategy.  I love the mindset of viewing our work as offering and recognizing the dignity of each student in every action we take.  

Have a great week of recognizing and extending dignity to each student and adult in our school system.  

Good morning,

February is established as a time to celebrate the accomplishments of Black Americans and institutions.  From a historical standpoint Black History Month acknowledgements date back more than 100 years.  Formally, President Ford officially declared Black History Month in 1976 and every subsequent president has done so since. 
 

In our district we are working extremely hard to create school cultures where each student feels welcomed, supported, represented and safe.  The expected outcome of that work is our commitment that each student is on a path to graduation, their continuing education and work.  Through relationship-building, school events and classroom lessons, we are dedicated to engaging students in meaningful ways. Thank you to all staff and students who are working so hard to create strong celebrations and strong school culture.  

Have a great week of learning everyone. 

Brian

Good morning,

As we say hello to February and to the start of the second half of the school year, the word promise rings strong in my head.  I am genuinely excited about the promise of continued growth and achievement for our students. I sensed a changing narrative last week as I was engaged with principals and teachers who were openly excited about the growth students have shown from fall to winter.  There was also excitement and promise in that more of our facilities improvements are either reaching completion, or making great progress.  

What is most inspiring to me is that conversations about achievement, supporting families, or about the future ended with positive and goal-oriented, hopeful language.  The best way to approach the obstacles in the path to our goals is to figure out how to knock them down.  

Find those things that give you energy and promise.  Good luck to all our winter athletes who are making the transition from regular to postseason this week. 
 

Have a great week of learning. 

Brian 

Good morning,

I have written previous memos about the four dispositions of dignity.  Authors Cobb and Krownapple write that the four dispositions - empathy, patience, openness and listening are foundational to building a culture of dignity.  They also refer to them as, "...self care in action."

Empathy is the "ability to see the world through the eyes of another person."  Patience implies "careful deliberation and consideration of the whole person." Openness encompasses "being receptive to new experiences, environments, ideas, cultures, people and behaviors that are different from the status quo."  Listening is a "complex process that builds on receiving information by constructing meaning," in new situations. 

The four dispositions came to mind as I reflected this weekend that we are nearly halfway through the school year.  There are many, many examples of incredible work and growth in our classrooms.  There are also examples of how we are still getting to know our students after a long time in remote instruction.  What are we learning that allows us to create schools where each student feels welcomed, supported, connected and safe?  Relationships matter. 

Thank you all for your work and commitment.  You continue to make a difference.  Have a great week of learning. 

Brian