No Idle Time Around GCMS!

This Week at GCMS:

In Proverbs 16, we read about idle hands being the devil's workshop.  That has not been a problem around GCMS lately!  It has been another very busy week at GCMS, with two Future Cougar Nights, Reality Store, Operation Preparation, transition meetings, and tomorrow’s instructional rounds.  Teachers are working hard to meet deadlines and still teach students as well.  I have just a few notes to share with you as the week winds toward its end and a well deserved weekend!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to our newly elected GCMS site based council representatives.  Our parent reps will be Jenny Cummings and Jackie Stanton.  Our teacher reps will be Ashley Johnson, Ellen Thomas, and Don Logsdon.  I appreciate all of these folks being willing to serve, and I look forward to working with them in the coming year.  I also want to thank departing council members, parent rep Keith Lucas and teacher rep John Cariel.

After interviewing some very good candidates, I am happy to announce that I plan to recommend Alex Lovell for our math opening.  I believe he will be an excellent addition to our staff at GCMS.  If you see Mr. Lovell as he finishes up his student teaching assignment with Mrs. Gallagher here this week, please welcome him to our staff.

If you see 8^th grader, Ethan Pierce, congratulate him for breaking the school record in pole vault again!  That’s right; he broke his own record by vaulting over 10 feet this week! 

Future Cougars:

We had a great turnout on Tuesday evening, and I anticipate another great turnout tonight for our annual Future Cougar Nights!  Current 5^th graders and their parents get an introduction to our school.  Our counselors and administration share some information with the students and parents, and our Beta Club students lead them on a tour of our building.  I appreciate our 6^th grade teachers coming out to meet their future students and parents.  It helps our incoming Cougars feel more at ease about their transition to middle school.

Instructional Rounds:

Our district instructional rounds team will visit GCMS tomorrow.  As we discussed at our last faculty meeting, we will continue to focus on our problem of practice in the area of questioning.  Guiding questions that our observers will be looking for are:

•        Do the teacher and students refer to the common language for questioning?
•        Do student responses match the level of questioning?
•   ·         What are the frequencies of student generated open and closed questions?

The team will get in about half of our classrooms.  To my knowledge, no one has ever been bitten during an instructional round.  They are here to help us get better at something we have identified as a focus area for improvement. 

Reality Store/Operation Preparation:

I would like to thank Faye Critchelow, Kelzey McCubbin, and Angie Jones for all of their work in organizing and carrying out this year’s Reality Store and Operation Preparation.  With both events on the same days, it really helps out as far as reducing the impact on instruction and our regular school schedule.  It does create quite a challenge though, in recruiting more volunteers to work with each program.  I appreciate many GCMS staff members volunteering alongside our many community volunteers!  I even saw our Board of Education Chair, our County Court Clerk, a Leitchfield City Councilman, a State Senate candidate, and on and on!  I appreciate so many great folks pitching in to pull this off!

Quote of the Day:

“Real optimism is aware of problems but recognizes solutions…has reason to complain, but chooses to smile.” ~William Arthur Ward

Coming Attractions:

April 29….Instructional Rounds at GCMS

April 30….Summative Conferences due for non-tenured teachers

April 30….All teachers should have organized and analyzed SGG data.

April 30….End of Year Reflections on PGPs should be entered into CIITS (non-tenured)

May 1…..Teachers should have completed final roster verification in CIITS

May 15… End of Year Reflections on PGPs should be entered into CIITS (tenured)

May 15….Summative Conferences due for tenured teachers

May 17….PLC Day for teachers and staff (no school for students)

May 18-24..KPREP Testing (makeup testing, May 25-27)

Bang, Zoom, to the Moon!

This Week at GCMS:

The full moon has been out this week, and our GCMS cougars must have known!  It’s been one of those crazy, busy weeks around the old school house!  I have just a few notes to share as our week winds toward the weekend.

Staff Concerns:

With several staff members and their family members having health concerns, please remember our GCMS family in your thoughts and prayers.  One positive note in this regard is that Tina’s husband, Jerry Poindexter, had an appointment this past week, and his doctors say that Jerry is cancer free!  I know that Tina and Jerry appreciate everyone who has prayed for them. 

Congratulations Viola Williams!

I believe this school year may be the highest in my 9 years as principal for the number of retirements.  I have known for quite a while but was hoping she might change her mind that our front desk receptionist/secretary, Viola Williams, will be retiring at the end of July.  Viola has worked in Grayson County Schools for the past 27 years, starting at the high school about the same time that I did.  She has done an outstanding job and will certainly be missed at GCMS. 

Congratulations to GCMS Music Performance Groups:

The pressure was on last Friday for the GCMS band as they performed in the annual KMEA concert festival.  This is because our GCMS orchestra and chorus programs had already scored all distinguished ratings in all grade levels the week earlier.  Our band also came through with flying colors and scored all distinguished ratings at KMEA.  Congratulations to all of our music students and to their directors.  We are truly fortunate to have great music programs at GCMS and in the district.  Over half of our 1,000 GCMS students participate in band, orchestra, or chorus.  This is an amazing statistic, and I believe music education benefits our students in many other areas of education as well. 

Vaulting to New Heights:

Two middle school track athletes are currently ranked number 1 in the state in their individual events.  Laura Vincent is number 1 in girls pole vaulting, and Ethan Pierce is number 1 in boys pole vaulting.  Ethan actually broke the school record with a vault of 9 feet 6 inches last week!  Great job!

Congratulations Mr. Parker:

I emailed earlier this week, but I want to congratulate Mr. Gary Parker on being named as 2016 Outstanding Education Administration student at WKU!  Only four students out of 70 in the program were chosen for this award. 

Instructional Rounds:

The district instructional rounds team will be back at GCMS next Friday, April 29.  We will use our same problem of practice and the team will be looking at the following guiding questions:

·         Do the teacher and students refer to the common language for questioning?

·         Do student responses match the level of questioning?

·         What are the frequencies of student generated open and closed questions?

Retirement Breakfast/Brunch:

This year, the district will be hosting a retirement breakfast/brunch on June 7.  This will be instead of the traditional evening retirement banquet.  Retirees will receive invitations and will gather that morning for a nice meal and recognition.  We will still have our closing day breakfast and pause to recognize our retirees at that time too. 

Quote of the Day:

“High expectations are the key to everything.” ~Sam Walton

Coming Attractions:

April 29….Instructional Rounds at GCMS

April 30….Summative Conferences due for non-tenured teachers

April 30….All teachers should have organized and analyzed SGG data.

April 30….End of Year Reflections on PGPs should be entered into CIITS (non-tenured)

May 1…...Teachers should have completed final roster verification in CIITS

My 15….. End of Year Reflections on PGPs should be entered into CIITS (tenured)

May 15….Summative Conferences due for tenured teachers

May 17….PLC Day for teachers and staff (no school for students)

May 18-24..KPREP Testing (makeup testing, May 25-27)

Making the Turn into the Home Stretch

This Week at GCMS:

I hope that everyone had a nice and relaxing Spring Break week last week.  It is always quiet around the school during the breaks and a chance to get caught up.  I was able to read and score several Domain 1 and 4 binders during break, and I was quite pleased with the work that our teachers put into those.  I know that it is a huge commitment to carry out the planning and preparation as well as the other professional responsibilities that sometimes “do not meet the eye” during a classroom observation.  Thank you for putting in the countless hours, not just preparing a binder, but preparing for your classes and being a professional with our students’ success in mind.  Thanks for all that you do!

Progress in Frankfort:

The state house and senate negotiations have finally produced a compromise budget that is expected to pass both the house and senate tomorrow.  If this budget goes through as proposed, K-12 education would not see funding cuts as the Governor had proposed.  The budget compromise also includes over $1 billion to state pension programs (including KTRS).  This is great news for Kentucky schools!  Stay tuned.

Congratulations to Lisa Robards!

Some of you are already aware that Mrs. Lisa Robards has decided to retire from teaching at the end of this school year.  Mrs. Robards has taught at GCMS for the past 4 years after teaching for many years in Hardin and Jefferson Counties.  She quickly became “one of us” at GCMS, and she has done a wonderful job with our students.  Lisa will certainly be missed at GCMS.

Welcome Back Decker!
I want to announce our once and future 7th grade social studies teacher, Shane Decker.  Mr. Decker will return to GCMS next school year after a one year hiatus in another district. I know that everyone will welcome this prodigal son back with open arms (finest robe, fatted calf, etc.)   

PBIS Student Reward:

Our “Ready, Set, Jump” Assembly will be Friday afternoon for all of those students who have not had an office referral since our last PBIS reward assembly in the fall.  Almost 85 percent of our students will get to participate in the assembly because of doing a great job following our rules and expectations at GCMS!  We will start calling students out of 6^th period at about 1:15.  Teachers should come to the gym to help supervise your team’s students.  We will need our related arts teachers to help supervise students from the team(s) that you have during 6^th and 7^th periods.  It will be fine for teachers to work in your rooms during your normal planning time.  The program should conclude at around 2:15, and we will send the students to 7^th period after the assembly. 

Faculty Meeting on Monday:

Just a reminder, we will have our April faculty meeting after school on Monday, April 18.  Mrs. Purcell will be here to familiarize teachers with the VAL-ED survey.  This survey is given every other year.  In Kentucky schools, teachers take the TELL survey one year, and the VAL-ED survey the next year.  The VAL-ED survey takes about 15 minutes, and the window will be open for the survey from Monday through Wednesday.  We will also spend some time discussing our problem of practice and classroom questioning using the school wide format.  If anyone still needs posters, please get with Becki Pearl.

Quote of the Day:

“If you want to get the best out of a person, you must look for the best that is in him.” ~Bernard Haldane

Coming Attractions and Due Dates:

April 18….Faculty Meeting/VAL-ED Survey
April 18-22....Teacher and Parent SBDMC nominations
April 20.....GCMS site based council meeting
April 26.....GCMS site based council elections, 6:30-3:30

April 30….Summative Conferences due for non-tenured teachers

April 30….All teachers should have organized and analyzed SGG data.

April 30….End of Year Reflections on PGPs should be entered into CIITS (non-tenured)

May 1…..Teachers should have completed final roster verification in CIITS

My 15…… End of Year Reflections on PGPs should be entered into CIITS (tenured)

May 15….Summative Conferences due for tenured teachers

May 17….PLC Day for teachers and staff (no school for students)

May 18-24..KPREP Testing (makeup testing, May 25-27)