Holiday Edition

Seasons greetings, team!  I hope you are having a great December. My month has been B-U-S-Y (more of those personal updates below).  One bright spot is the amount of time I've been in schools, which filleth my cup (and my cup needeth).

A few updates for this week:

1. NST Alignment Process Updates:  We wrapped the last AP session on NST alignment yesterday and Lauren will be working to aggregate the survey feedback and elevate key themes.  We'll share those with you after Winter Break as we lay out the design process for responding to the feedback and ensuring our supports and services are clear and impactful.

2. JV's Principal Empathy Interviews:  As you may know, I've been spending November and December sitting down with principals to better understand their hopes and desires with the NST alignment.  Because we will be re-centering on Instructional Leadership, we will need to redefine the role of principal as instructional leader and then cascade that refreshed vision across AP groups.  Our academic support services should then serve as aligned support to that vision.  I have a draft memo I'm getting input on that I'll share with you in the new year on just how that process could play out, with your important input baked into the process. 

3. Shadowing Shout-Out:  I had the pleasure of shadowing Danielle, who was shadowing Allison at Hardy High this week.  We saw some great student leadership in Mr. Patterson's Biology classroom (pictured above) and I wanted to shout-out Dr. Porzillo's new approach to teacher coaching which includes a folder system for her and the teacher that includes a) the coaching plan, b) the pacing guide, and c) the benchmarks - she's really working on DDI and I thought this was so concrete and practical!

4. NST Holiday Party:  please come!  This year, there won't be a Chiefs ugly-sweatshirt decorating contest (Dr. Cruz's reign from last year will remain) but there will be a GINGERBREAD HOUSE competition.  Please bring your creativity, efficiency strategy and team ideas to the holiday party so we can show the NST how multi-dimensionally fabulous we are!!!

Now some personal Varevice updates:

  • I had the pleasure of hosting my brother-in-law from Tacoma last weekend.  He came into town to see a concert with my husband.  One perk, is he is a tech executive and helped me set up a sophisticated project with Claude to get my data cleaned up!!! (sister-in-law WIN!!)

  • My son won his Championship in late November.  These little guys worked so hard all fall, ending with an undefeated season and a blow-out championship game.  Now Maximilian has 2 rings!!! 

  • We are hosting our annual family Christmas party tomorrow night, and my mom is in town which is delightful.  It is so much effort to prepare for and causes my husband and I great stress, but I am trying to remember the memories we create with our kids and the gratitude for being healthy and blessed to host family and friends!  I also find it infinitely entertaining (albeit slightly irritating) when my husband turns into Clark Griswold this time of year.

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