5.3

Hi All, 

I hope that you all had a lovely end to your week and that you made the best of this kind dreary weekend. Some how the two days we have "off" always feel way shorter than they should! I'm looking forward to another great week ahead. One of my goals for the week is to have a more clear plan for staffing and placement by the end of the week, at the start of next week at the latest. Thank you for your patience as we've waited for returning of contracts, etc.  What is one of your goals for the week? Write it down, share it with a colleague, or stop me and let me know what you're working on. 

As we are approaching the typical parent's day celebrations, I wanted to share a few reminders from writing and personal experience. These days are particularly challenging for students who have:

• experienced loss
• are living in foster care 
• have strained parental relationships 

https://www.naesp.org/resource/helping-kids-cope-on-mothers-day-and-fathers-day/

Shifting the focus to being a "hero" day or celebrating someone special is an okay shift and please make sure to check in with the student first and make sure that they have an "out" if they'd like. I know that personally it always felt like an afterthought and I would have deeply appreciated a personal check-in and plan with my teachers prior to the class project or discussion. 

Observations from the Field: 

• Teachers flexing schedules and supporting students with multiple entry points 
• Staff supporting each other's work in celebration 
• Conversations staying student centered 
• Professional conversations 
• Solution focused thinking 
• Staff supporting the creation of a new schedule for next year
• Staff stepping in and supporting the finishing of VTCAP

News and Announcements: 

• This week is BES Staff Appreciation Week, expect some fun surprises throughout the week. Wednesday Morning the PTNA is hosting an appreciation breakfast starting at 8:00 in the Art Room. Please know that this is a small gesture of how thankful we are for all of you. 
• The 5th/6th Grade Team is hosting a Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser on Friday Night. Please support our oldest learners. Sign-Up Here https://forms.gle/dt9p8djJUE1y8vvC7
• End of Year--Reflections
• We will be scheduling meetings in the first weeks of June to reflect on your goals. Please make sure to login and identify progress, upload documents and start to think about that conversation. 
• End of Year-- Field Trips 
• Please know that I am working on placements for adults on Field Trips and will be working with special educators on ensuring that all students are supported. If you know now that you are able/unable to attend one of the trips and support a student please let me know ASAP. 
• Heads Up: Relocation 
• By the end of the year we will have to do a relocation drill-- we will spend some time as a staff on May 6th and May 29th talking about and walking to our "rally points" and will have discussions with our students about where we could go in the event of a run.  

Upcoming Events/Dates:

• May 6th: Community in Bloom Library Night 
• May 8th: 6th Grade Spaghetti Dinner 
• May 13th: Half Day Release---Inservice
• May 19th All School Dress rehearsal for Music Show ---- 1:00 pm 
• May 19th: Art/Music Show 
• May 26th: No School---Memorial Day
• June 10th--- Field Day/BBQ 
• June 16th– 6th Grade Graduation at 6:00 
• June 17th–Half Day Grading 
• June 18th—Inservice Day 

Field Trips

• Friday, May 15 - 3rd Grade goes to Shelburne Museum
• Thursday, May 28 - 1st Grade goes to Book Buddies at U32
• Friday, May 29 - Kindergarten goes to Autumn Raynes Farm
• Friday, June 5 - 5th & 6th Grade goes to Great Escape
• Tuesday, June 9 - 4th Grade goes to VT Statehouse and History Museum
• Tuesday, June 9 - 1st and 2nd Grade goes to Montshire Museum

What's Happening at BES?

• Monday 5/4	HJC 8:15-9:00 Steven in Building 10:00-12:00 Curriculum Council 4:00-5:30
  Tuesday 5/5
  Wednesday 5/6	PTNA Staff Appreciation Breakfast 8:00-8:45 Staff Meeting 3:10-4:45 Art Room  Community Library Night 5:30-7:30
  Thursday  5/7
  Friday 5/8	Team Meetings K-2 Academic 3-6 Attendance/Behavior

  Where is Celia?

  Monday 5/4	Union Meeting 9:30-10:15  Meet with Steven 10:00-12:00 SPED Meeting 11:40 Curriculum Council 4:00-5:30
  Tuesday 5/5	WCLT 8:30-12:30 **Celia Out
  Wednesday 5/6	Teacher Appreciation Breakfast  WCLT Nuts and Bolts 1:00-2:00  Staff Meeting 3:10-4:45 Art Room
  Thursday  5/7	Meeting w/Stephanie 8:15 BES SST 10:00-10:45 UVM CSC Site Visit and Grant Review 12:00-3:00
  Friday 5/8	Team Meetings K-2 Academic  3-6 Attendance/Behavior

4.26

 

Hi All, 

I hope that this week brought you everything that you needed. I am feeling excited to welcome you all back as well as our wonderful students. We had a productive week at home getting spring projects done. In fact, we had some fun escapees from down the road. Check out the surprise Rowan and I got yesterday while we were working in the yard! Never a dull moment in the town of Berlin. 

The start of this week is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. This is a great time of year to revisit the rules both inside and outside of the school building. I've linked a couple of articles in News and Announcements. Here are some simple check-ins post break. 

Inclusive & Gentle Reconnectors

• Sticky Note Anonymous Board: Put a prompt on the board like "Something I learned over break" or "How I feel about coming back" and have participants add their thoughts anonymously.
• "I am Proud Of..." Partner Share: Participants share a moment from their break (or a personal achievement) they are proud of and give each other a compliment, which boosts confidence and builds social bonds.
• Set the Scene with Music: Play upbeat, fun music during arrival to set a positive, welcoming tone immediately.

Visual & Non-Verbal Check-ins (Low Pressure)

• Emoji Mood Board: Display a chart of emojis and have participants select the one that fits their mood.
• Color-Coded Emotions: Use a color system where each color represents a feeling (e.g., green for ready, yellow for tired, blue for calm).
• "What's Your Break Vibe?" Photo Check-in: Display 4–6 photos representing different types of breaks (e.g., a photo of a snowy mountain, a cozy bed, a fun game, a busy street) and ask participants to pick the one that best matches their time off.

Visual & Reflective Activities

• Memory Drawing: Have students draw one picture of a favorite moment from their break to share with a partner or the class.
• "Before and After" Drawing: Ask students to draw what they thought they would do on break versus what they actually did

News and Announcements

• Over the break we had National Administrative Professional's Day. We'll take Monday to celebrate Lori and Doreen for all that they do to keep us all afloat. Take a minute to say thank you to them for all they do. 
• https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/reaffirming-community-after-a-vacation/
• VTCAP Make-Ups: I will be working with classroom teachers and Special Education through this week (T-Th) to ensure that every student finishes the VTCAP. Stay tuned. 
• Coverage---I understand this used to be a practice. So, I'm putting it out there as a solution as we have zig-zag days in the spring.
•  If there is a whole school activity during a classroom teacher's special time the allied arts teacher will provide coverage during that activity. This coverage allows the teacher their planning time as well as provides seamless coverage to the students who were expecting to see that teacher during that time.  
• With everything there are always exceptions but generally this is the practice of supporting colleagues and meeting the needs of our students. 
• Teaching Positions: 
• Reminder: Letters of Intent are due by May 2nd (that's Saturday).
• Math Interventionist: Given Kim's one year leave of absence please let me know if you are interested in being an interventionist next year ASAP either in person or in writing. 
• We have gotten clearance to have three 5/6 classrooms next year! 
• Kitchen Information---Amber and I have been working on a "cheat sheet" of any kitchen changes and information. More information will be available in the next few days.
• Principal's Challenge--- I had SO much fun on Friday after break, thanks to Christine and Doreen for making the challenge and the blades happen. I'm looking forward to more "challenges" in the future. 

• Pricing: WCUUSD à La Carte Items ***Adults pay à la carte for all breakfast items.

  Item Category	Item	Price
  Breakfast	Milk, Juice, Fruit, Dried Fruit, or Cheese Stick	$0.50
  	Muffin, Zee Zees Bar, Boiled Eggs (2), or Cereal	$1.00
  	Bagel (w/ butter or cream cheese), Cinnamon Roll, or Biscuit	$2.00
  	Smoothie, Yogurt Parfait, or Breakfast Sandwich/Wrap	$3.00
  Lunch	Full Adult Lunch (1.5x portion, no seconds)	$7.00
  	Adult Special Theme Lunch (1.5x portion, no seconds)	$7.50
  	Salad Bar or Salad as a Meal (with protein)	$7.00
  Sides/Misc	Dinner Roll	$0.50
  	Garlic Bread, Garlic Knot, or Corn Bread	$1.00
  	Side of Vegetable, Starchy Veg (Potato), or Main Entree only	$2.00
  	Side Salad (with veggies and dressing)	$3.00

• Marshall Memo 1134

This week's quotes and articles come from National Catholic Reporter, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Cult of Pedagogy, Theory Into Practice (more next week), Adrian's Newsletter, Leadership Freak, and Urban Education. Here are the headlines:

- The seven secrets of great teams that continuously improve

- Preventing discipline problems by teaching "replacement skills"

- Orchestrating reflective feedback with teachers: it's difficult!

- Short, frequent classroom visits followed by face-to-face debriefs

- How to murder Shakespeare for teens

- Trying to go into meetings with a curious frame of mind

- How to assess a leader's social-emotional skills

- Recommended children's picture books about African-American boys

If you want an HTML version of this week's Memo, please click here.

To listen to a podcast of last week's issue (#1133), click here.

For a podcast of this week's Memo, just log in at www.marshallmemo.com later this week and click Podcasts.

• Upcoming Events: 
• May 8th: 6th Grade Spaghetti Dinner 
• May 19th All School Dress rehearsal for Music Show ---- 1:00 pm 
• May 19th: Art/Music Show 
• June 10th--- Field Day/BBQ 
• Field Trips
• Tuesday, April 28 - BES Band and Chorus Students go to U32
• Friday, May 15 - 3rd Grade goes to Shelburne Museum
• Thursday, May 28 - 1st Grade goes to Book Buddies at U32
• Friday, May 29 - Kindergarten goes to Autumn Raynes Farm
• Friday, June 5 - 5th & 6th Grade goes to Great Escape
• Tuesday, June 9 - 4th Grade goes to VT Statehouse and History Museum
• Tuesday, June 9 - 1st and 2nd Grade goes to Montshire Museum

What's Happening at BES?

Monday 4/27	Curriculum Council 4:00-5:30
Tuesday 4/28	Steven in building 9:00-11:00  All School Band/Chorus Field Trip to U-32
Wednesday 4/29	K-6 Teacher PD 8:20-9:20 Staff Meeting 3:10-4:45 Art Room
Thursday  4/30
Friday 5/1	Team Meetings K-2 Attendance/Behavior 3-6 Academic

Where is Celia?

Monday 4/27	Union Meeting 9:30-10:15  SPED Meeting 11:40 Curriculum Council 4:00-5:30
Tuesday 4/28	Student Meeting 9:00-9:30 Union Meeting 9:30-10:15 Student Meeting 3:45 Steering Committee Meeting 4:00-5:00
Wednesday 4/29	K-6 Teacher PD 8:20-9:20 WCLT Nuts and Bolts 1:00-2:00 VT Elementary Scheduling "Bootcamp" 1:00-4:00 at Capital Plaza **Celia Out  Staff Meeting 3:10-4:45 Art Room
Thursday  4/30	Student Meeting 8:00-9:00 BES SST 10:00-10:45 Scheduling Meeting
Friday 5/1	**Celia Out---Community School Symposium at UVM Team Meetings K-2 Attendance/Behavior 3-6 Academic

4.12

Hi All, 

I hope that you are all healthy. The germs are still really circulating, keep washing and hydrating. We've got a busy week ahead but we're almost to that Spring Break...we've got this! If you need a pick-me-up take a peek at the Artemis II footage and crew. Reading about them and watching footage definitely reminded me that there is good in the world!  

I wanted to thank you all for being flexible with me last week and helping this nugget at staff meeting. Christian was down and out last week...parenting and principaling down a partner is not easy!  Thank you all for supporting and being a village for me and my family, I appreciate you. 

Observations from the Field

• Staff stepping up/in to help out across the board to cover duties, support kids 
• Teams communicating challenges and solutions 
• Staff looking carefully at what will help students be successful 
• Staff asking for meetings and communicating directly with supports for families to ensure that students stay on track with attendance 
• Celebrating when students are making gains  
• Folks inviting other students in to celebrate learning 
• Staff providing multiple entry points and make expectations clear for students

News and Announcements 

• No Teacher PD This Week
• There will be no intervention services this week---any IEP services will still be delivered 
• We will be continuing testing with VTCAP next week. Please double check on space reservation. If we happened to double book something please allow the students to finish their assessments. 
• Please remember to: 
• Keep noise to a minimum in the hallways
• Do not enter a space that has a testing sign up
• Covering supporting information in your classroom (posters/anchor charts/etc.) 
• Here is the link to the VTCAP Training document that we utilized during staff meeting. It also houses the newest Test Administrator's Manual that was just updated last week! 
• Cards and supporting materials will be printed and distributed tomorrow. 
• Here are the testing days/schedule and locations for groups outside of the general classroom setting: 

Week 3  —- April 14th — April 16th
Day/Date	Time	Who	Activity: Focus
Tuesday, April 14th	9:15-10:45	Downing	ELA Session 1	Addie — SPED Office   Jessica Maurais—  Conference Room
	1:00-3:15	Downing	ELA Session 2	Becky P—  SPED Office  Jessica Maurais - Conference Room
	9:15-!0:45	Rob	ELA Session 1	Christine – Jessica’s Office   Brittany—Music Room
	1:00-3:15	Rob	ELA Session 2	Christine— Jessica’s Office  Brittany– Music Room
Wednesday, April 15th	10:15- 11:30	Velez	ELA Session 1	Christine— Art Room
	1:00-3:00	Velez	ELA Session 2	Amadeus— His Space
Thursday, April 16th	10:15-11:30	Armstong	ELA Session 1	Becky P - Art Room Egizi - Her Space Sarah D - EEE/Speech Room Dorfman  - His Office
	12:50-2:50	Armstrong	ELA Session 2	Christine - Art Room Egizi - Her Space Sarah D - EEE/Speech Room Dorfman  - His Office
	10:15-11:30	Wagner	ELA Session 1	Smith - Her Space Jessica - Her Space Colby - Library Office
	12:50-2:50	Wagner	ELA Session 2	Smith - Her Space Jessica - Her Space Colby - Library Office

Marshall Memo 1132

It might be a good time of year to check out the Best of Memo website collections on Literacy and Mathematics. Each has a super-curated collection of summaries that you can preview, download as a PDF, or listen to. You might also try using Claude, Gemini, or another AI tool to search the Best of Marshall Memo website with a well-crafted prompt. Since there's free access to the website's content, AI can search for anything that you're curious about.

This week's quotes and articles come from The New York Times, AI x Higher Ed, Education Gadfly, Kappan, 4QM Teaching, Educational Leadership, American Educator, The Harvard Gazette, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Education Week, Social Education, and Language Arts. Here are the headlines:

- Curriculum: what's intended, what's taught, and what's learned

• Making effective use of in-class checks for understanding
• "Storyboarding" a historical event
• Making science a curiosity-provoking adventure
• Cellphones and students' attention span
• How to be receptive to the other person during a disagreement
• Four ways to make professional reading a habit
• What happens when parents read daily to their kindergarten children
• Thomas Guskey on two false premises on grading
• Audio interviews with U.S. workers
• Recommended nonfiction books for children
• If you want an HTML version of this week's Memo, please click here.
• To listen to a podcast of last week's issue (#1131), click here.
• For a podcast of this week's Memo, log in at www.marshallmemo.com later this week and click Podcasts.

If you're curious about origin story of the Marshall Memo and how it's put together each week, here's an interview I did a few weeks ago with Eric Worcester and Nathaniel Provencio on The Community Connection.

Here are some summaries I would suggest taking a peek at: 

https://www.bestofmarshallmemo.org/beliefs-about-students-top-13/**This has some learning about increasing student self-efficacy, something that is foundational to UDL practice. 

https://www.bestofmarshallmemo.org/grading-practices-top-12/

https://www.bestofmarshallmemo.org/making-learning-stick-top-18/

• Upcoming Events: 
• VTCAP Testing 
• April 16th: Reading to End Racism 9:15-10:15
• May 8th: 6th Grade Spaghetti Dinner 
• May 19th All School Dress rehearsal for Music Show ---- 1:00 pm 
• May 19th: Art/Music Show 
• June 10th--- Field Day/BBQ 
• Field Trips
• Tuesday, April 28 - BES Band and Chorus Students go to U32
• Friday, May 15 - 3rd Grade goes to Shelburne Museum
• Thursday, May 28 - 1st Grade goes to Book Buddies at U32
• Friday, May 29 - Kindergarten goes to Autumn Raynes Farm
• Friday, June 5 - 5th & 6th Grade goes to Great Escape
• Tuesday, June 9 - 4th Grade goes to VT Statehouse and History Museum
• Tuesday, June 9 - 1st and 2nd Grade goes to Montshire Museum

What's Happening at BES?

Monday 4/13	SST Self-Assessment 8:15
Tuesday 4/14
Wednesday 4/15	K-6 Teacher PD 8:20-9:20 Staff Meeting 3:10-4:45 Art Room  Community Library Night 5:30-7:30
Thursday  4/16	Reading to End Racism 9:15-10:15
Friday 4/17	Team Meetings K-2 Attendance/Behavior 3-6 Academic

Where is Celia?

Monday 4/13	SST Self-Assessment 8:15 Meeting with Kim 11:00-11:40 SPED Meeting 11:40 Curriculum Council 4:00-5:30
Tuesday 4/14	Student Meeting 9:00-9:30 Union Meeting 9:30-10:15 CLiF Meeting 12:30-1:30  Student Meeting 3:45 Steering Committee Meeting 4:00-5:00
Wednesday 4/15	K-6 Teacher PD 8:20-9:20 Senate/House Committee Testimony 9:15-10:15 WCLT Nuts and Bolts 1:00-2:00 Staff Meeting 3:10-4:45 Art Room
Thursday  4/16	Reading to End Racism 9:15-10:15 BES SST 10:00-10:45 Scheduling Meeting 1:00-1:30
Friday 4/17	Team Meetings K-2 Attendance/Behavior 3-6 Academic