We are near the end of the 21-22 school year with one big week left with our students. As we look at planning for the week ahead, it's always really important to understand the following:
-Every minute we have with students is an opportunity to grow their skills and knowledge…most will be without these opportunities for the next 3 months, we need to take advantage of these opportunities during the last week…with a strong finish!
-Consider the following (my thoughts):
Bored Students = High Probability for students to look for ways to (undesirably for us) entertain themselves
Busy Students = Lower Probability for students to be disengaged at first…
Engaged Students = Very little chance to be engaged in undesirable behavior
Let's work to design and set up opportunities for our students to be highly engaged in great learning experiences during the last week!
Resource of the Week (Thank you Mrs. Morton)
Mrs. Morton attended a training this past Wednesday about how to best support our transgender students. She shared her learning below. Also included below, you'll see some staggering statistics and a short video that shares perspectives on this issue.
I attended a Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Students training yesterday and learned some new things.
-First, if a student requests different names/pronouns and you don't honor that, you would be in violation of FERPA. Accepting a student's request is also strongly tied with their mental health and feelings of security (see the chart attached). A good way to think of this is to imagine going through your day being called the wrong pronouns over and over again, even after asking people to use the correct pronouns. You would feel uncomfortable and disrespected.
-Second, you cannot limit a transgender student to a certain bathroom, like a single use room. They need to be allowed to use any bathroom/locker room they choose. If other people are uncomfortable with that, accommodations can be made for them.
-Finally, the most important thing to remember is that privacy is critical. We need to ask students permission to share their transgender status/name changes/pronoun changes with others (parents, other staff, students, etc.). Never assume that siblings or parents know. There were many stories of students being harmed or placed in unsafe situations by having their status shared with others unintentionally. Some situations to consider and plan for in advance to avoid "outing" a student include when you have substitute teachers using a roster generated by Infinite Campus, yearbooks using roster names, and standardized testing situations. Right now, we are a small school and students know the biological gender of students requesting name changes, but we could get a new student who is presenting one way and hiding their biological gender. We would need to make sure we are not revealing that to others, even accidentally. One recommendation is having name tags with preferred pronouns ready for substitute teachers so they aren't using Infinite Campus generated lists.
Last Day of School
The last day of school for 8th graders is Thursday, June 3.
On the last day of school (6/4) for 5-7th graders, students will be dismissed at 12:15. Thanks to everyone for communicating your team's last day plans and schedules with me.
For staff, the 2nd part of the last school day is an Inservice Day. Staff should expect to work normal Friday hours, and some options for your afternoon work are as follows:
-Complete grades/comments for 4th quarter, analyze student data preparing for next year, clean up/organize your classroom space (all personal items should be taken home for the summer), lend a hand to teachers that must have their classrooms cleared for renovation, etc.
There are plenty of things to do, so if you are not sure, just let me know and I can always use a hand.
A staff "check-out" form will be distributed mid-week, and I'll meet with teachers to check out during the afternoon as well.
We'll have a brief staff meeting at 12:40 on Friday afternoon in the cafeteria as well. I'd like to treat the middle school staff with lunch. Please sign up for what you would like on this Google Form.
Yearbooks
We will not have student yearbooks to distribute to students at the end of this school year. This year's books will be distributed at the start of next school year.
Our Potential Influence on Some Issues
As educators who have the opportunity to talk with students each day, we have a certain level of influence that we all need to be cognizant of as we lead our students. Our students are a captive audience because they are required to attend school, so we must be very careful not try to impose some of our own views or biases onto them. In many cases, it can be difficult to navigate the conversations around political or medical views, especially when asked by students. However, there are topics like "getting the vaccine" or "who you should vote for" that school staff must walk the line in the middle, not imposing a "you are right if you believe this" feeling among your students.
It's always great to encourage the idea that there are multiple position on issues, and finding credible accurate sources to base your views on (without blindly believing things you hear) is the best course of action. I appreciate the professionalism our staff carries with them surrounding these topics, and am always there to discuss for any situation like this.
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