tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813813530746221922024-03-12T18:21:49.209-07:00Learning, Leading and ReflectingI serve as the superintendent of schools in Rugby, ND. I write about my experiences in education. These thoughts are my own and do not represent RPS. Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.comBlogger245125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-6881199676166204262022-08-19T11:45:00.001-07:002022-08-19T11:45:04.016-07:00Welcome Back! <p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We are looking forward to welcoming
our educators and learners back in a few weeks to start the 2022-2023 school
year. We have a lot to be proud of in the Rugby Public School District. We
continue to score above state averages in reading, math, ACT, and graduation
rates. We continue to be a leader in the region in core student outcome
indicators for reading and math. We hope you enjoyed the summer break with your
family! I’d like to share a few updates related to our schools in Rugby.</span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Career and Technical Education
Updates<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Beyond our success in core
academics, I’d like to highlight our wonderful Career and Technical Education
Programs. We are proud of our Agriculture Education programming in Rugby, the
coursework provides important lifelong skills for our learners. These programs
are led by Ms. Kristi Tonnessen and Mr. Isaac Ripplinger. FFA is a national
student organization that is connected to our Agriculture Education courses. We
continually perform very well in regional, state, and national events in FFA.
This past year, our Ag Technology and Mechanical Systems Team took home the
national championship in Indianapolis. This team consisted of Thatcher Volk,
Zach Jaeger, Kordell Kraft, and Carson Mattern. Earlier this summer, twelve
additional students qualified for next year’s national conference.</span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We are excited to announce a full
course listing of Family and Consumer Science courses for our high school
students. Available courses include Clothing and Design I and II, Family
Living, Independent Living, Child Development I and II, and FACS Grade 7.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">In conjunction with these courses,
we have also started a Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA)
chapter this past year. These programs will be under the direction of Mrs.
Brittany Lovcik.</span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Finally, our Business Education
programming provides a plethora of offerings for our students in Rugby. These
courses include Desktop Publishing, Word Processing, Business Fundamentals, Web
Design, Entrepreneurship, and Cooperative experiences within local businesses.
These programs are led by Mrs. Paola Trottier. Like the above-mentioned
programs, Business Education also has an active student organization called
Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). This past summer, we sent two
students to the FBLA National Conference and Tambrey Brossart took home first
place in Digital Citizenship in front of 14,000 people in Chicago!</span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Career and Technical Education
(CTE) are important programs for students in Rugby, and as you can see, they also
perform at high levels. These programs provide students with experiences that
help shape their decisions about post-secondary education. We know that four-year
colleges may not always be the right option due to the amount of student debt
incurred. Two-year and certificate programs are great options for students, and
we continue to see a high percentage of graduates that choose this career path.
CTE programs help provide learners with experiences that help them choose a career.
91% of our 2022 graduating class will go on to post-secondary education, 40%
will attend a two-year or certificate program, 31% will attend one of the four-year
research institutions in our state (NDSU or UND), 8% will attend a four-year
regional college, and 8% will attend an out of state four-year institution.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Ely Elementary Addition Update<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Construction began on the addition
and renovation of Ely Elementary this past July. The area around Ely will be a
bustling construction zone for the next 18 months and we will be making some
adjustments to parking and drop-off/pick-up at the school. Mr. Gullickson will
be communicating a plan in the coming days. Phase 1 of the project will focus
mainly on the new construction on the west and north sides of the school. A new
kitchen and commons area will be added on the west side of the school, along
with a relocation of the main office, and an expansion to the gym on the north
side of the school. Phase 2 will begin in April 2023 with renovations to the
existing areas of the school. Please bear with us as we complete these needed
updates, we know that this will be a congested area until we can get the
parking lot and the bus turnaround completed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Mental Health Counseling / School
Nurse</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We will continue to provide trained
experts on mental health for our students. Our school district will provide
individual and group therapy for students at the Rugby Early Learning Center,
Ely Elementary, and Rugby High School. If you are concerned about your child’s
behavior(s) please contact your respective school to get more information on
this program. A school nurse will be contracted for the 2022-2023 school year,
you can contact Sam Wentz at 701-776-6783.</span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Health and Safety Plan <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We are required to update our
Health and Safety Plan in response to COVID-19 until 2024. The school board
approved the updated plan on August 9th. You can access the full plan here: </span><a href="https://www.rugby.k12.nd.us/Page/2165"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">https://www.rugby.k12.nd.us/Page/2165</span></a></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Important Dates<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Parent Teacher Conferences: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">October 17, 18, 2022 and February
13, 14, 2023 for Ely Elementary and October 17, 18, 2022 and March 13, 14, 2023
for Rugby High School.</span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Report Cards <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr style="height: 3.55pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td colspan="2" style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 3.55pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 231.5pt;" valign="top" width="309">
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Ely Elementary<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td colspan="2" style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 3.55pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 231.5pt;" valign="top" width="309">
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Rugby High School<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.75pt;" valign="top" width="154">
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Report Cards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
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<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Progress Reporting<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.75pt;" valign="top" width="154">
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Report Cards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.75pt;" valign="top" width="154">
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Progress Reporting<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.75pt;" valign="top" width="154">
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">11/18/2022 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(Sent w/ students)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">2/13/2023 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(PT Conferences)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">5/26/2023 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(mailed)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.75pt;" valign="top" width="154">
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">10/6/2022 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(PT Conferences)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">1/6/2023 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(Sent w/ students)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">4/18/2023 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(Sent w/ students<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.75pt;" valign="top" width="154">
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">1/13/2023 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(Mailed home)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">5/26/2023 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(Mailed home)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.75pt;" valign="top" width="154">
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">10/17/2022 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(PT Conferences)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">3/13/2023 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoHeader"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">(PT Conferences)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="margin-right: -.25in; tab-stops: .5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Contact info<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoHeader" style="margin-right: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">You
can follow me on Twitter at <b><u>@mdmcneff</u></b>
and visit my blog at </span><a href="http://mikemcneff.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">http://mikemcneff.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> for current school-related
articles or news. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions at
(701)776-5201 or send me an email at </span><a href="mailto:mike.mcneff@k12.nd.us"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">mike.mcneff@k12.nd.us</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-58948734726357585832021-11-01T08:16:00.001-07:002021-11-01T08:16:12.033-07:00Ely Addition Survey Results Clarification<p>I would like to clarify
the survey results provided by the Pierce County Tribune as reported in the
October 23, 2021 and again in the October 30, 2021 issues. The Tribune included
survey results from their Facebook page that asked the following question: Do
you approve of plans to expand the Ely Elementary School campus? What wasn’t
included was the total number of people that took the survey. At the time of the
publications, according to the Pierce County Tribune’s Facebook Page, this
survey was taken by less than 30 people. After these results were published in
the paper, I have been asked if that data came from the survey issued by the
school, and why the data was different than what the school provided in the
Fact Sheet that was recently mailed to district residents. In short, the survey
data provided by the Tribune on October 23<sup>rd</sup> and October 30<sup>th</sup>
were not the surveys conducted by the school district.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The following information
comes from the survey that was sent out to all stakeholders in September. The
school district mailed 1,905 surveys and the survey was able to be taken online
or by paper. The district received 543 completed surveys. This was a good return
rate and provided the district with valuable information on how the district
residents feel about the Ely Elementary Addition. Survey data indicated that
68% of residents who took the survey support the addition and renovations at
Ely Elementary. The resident data included the following subcategories: 1)
Staff Residents, 2) Parent Residents (Non-Staff), and 3) Non-Parent Residents
(Non-Staff). Staff Residents or those who work for the school district support
the project at a 94% rate and 5% were undecided. Parent Residents that do not
work for the school district support the project at a 77% rate and 8% were
undecided. Non-Parent Residents or those that do not work in the district, and
are not parents support the project at a 56% rate and 15% were undecided. When
you include all of these data points together (543 completed surveys) 68%
support the proposed addition and renovations at Ely Elementary.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Based on the feedback from
the survey results, the school board moved forward to call for a referendum
vote that will occur on December 1, 2021, at the Rugby High School Gymnasium
from 9:00 am – 7:00 pm. Ely Elementary has significant space issues and the proposed
addition and renovation will add the following: 1) classroom space for students
with special needs, 2) classrooms for band, choir, and courses in STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), 3) update existing classrooms to
provide more square footage for large-group and small group instruction, 4)
redesign car and bus traffic, which will keep students safer during busy
pick-up and drop off times, 5) install updated safety features at the main
entrance, 6) expand the undersized cafeteria to provide students more time to
eat, 7) expand and enhance recreation areas by renovating the current gym and
playground areas to improve physical education and large group music
opportunities. The school district can address all of these needs and it will
represent no tax increase over the current level. We can accomplish this by
using $1.3 million in one-time COVID Relief Funds to help buy down the cost of
the project and leverage the expiring debt on the 2010 Rugby High School
Project. In short, the current mill levy will not increase.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">It is important to note
that there are three opportunities to participate in public meetings to hear
more information and help voters to make an informed decision. We will conduct
our final public meeting on November 17<sup>th</sup> from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm at
the Ely Elementary Gym. We are also providing tours during the school day on
November 17<sup>th</sup> from 9:30 am – 1:00 pm. If you are interested, please
RSVP by calling 775-5757. If you cannot attend, I recommend visiting our school
website at <a href="https://www.rugby.k12.nd.us/domain/2165">https://www.rugby.k12.nd.us/domain/2165</a> to find more factual information about the project.
You can view a recorded video of the 1<sup>st</sup> public meeting held on
October 27<sup>th</sup>. The referendum vote will occur on December 1, 2021 at
the Rugby High School Gymnasium from 9:00 am – 7:00 pm. If you have further
questions about the referendum, you can reach out Mike McNeff at 701-776-5201,
or reach out to the following chairs of the Ely Elementary Citizen Committee,
Carlie Johnson, Cory Geiszler, and Suzie Schmaltz.<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-71816636997114798242021-08-10T14:14:00.000-07:002021-08-10T14:14:09.160-07:00Family Update - Welcome Back! <p> Dear Families, </p><p>We have a lot to be proud of in the Rugby Public Schools. Our motto—every student, every day—is really paying off. Rugby students score above state averages in reading, math, ACT, and graduation rates. We accomplish this while spending less per student than the average district in the state. We are extremely pleased with this rare combination of top performance coupled with responsible spending. We hope you enjoyed your summer break! The school year will begin soon, and we are looking forward to welcoming back our learners and educators for the 2021-2022 school year. I have some important highlights to share with you. </p><p>Ely Elementary Addition</p><p>The school board is planning on moving forward with a referendum vote on adding an addition to Ely Elementary that will help with existing needs. The school board has been developing a solution since 2018 and hired a firm to develop a capital maintenance plan for the elementary school. A Citizens Committee was created and the following areas of need have been identified: create a safer solution for busing and car traffic, add specially designed spaces for students with special needs, redesign classroom spaces for flexible learning to meet the changes to teaching and learning, increase the size of the cafeteria, improve the playground space and increase the size of the gym. </p><p>The School Board and district administration believe now is a good time to consider a bond referendum for the following reasons.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The proposed Ely projects can be completed with no increase to the current tax level.</li><li>Interest rates remain near historic lows.</li><li>Federal COVID-19 relief funds can be used to offset costs for local taxpayers.</li><li>The District will soon be debt-free.</li></ul><p></p><p>The School Board will be gathering feedback from the community through a survey that will hit your mailboxes soon. These results will help inform the Citizens Committee and School Board to make the best decision to meet our needs at Ely Elementary. </p><p>Health and Safety Plan </p><p>We are required to update our Health and Safety Plan in response to COVID-19. The school board approved the plan recommended by our Health and Safety Committee on August 10th. The full plan can be found on our website or you can access it here: https://www.rugby.k12.nd.us/domain/2149 </p><p>The following topics are frequently asked questions related to COVID-19:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p>Are masks required? No, masks are recommended for students and staff. </p><p>Will the district require students and staff to quarantine? Yes, the district will require a quarantine for only those that test positive and those who are identified as household contacts. Close contacts identified at school will not be required to quarantine. Parents should continue to monitor their children and keep them home if they are sick. </p></blockquote><p>Online Grading Portal Change</p><p>The school district will be transitioning away from Powerschool and into a new grading system called Empower. This change will provide more access for parents and students and aligns better with our standards-referenced initiatives. This transition will occur over the first month of school. Parents and students will be given access within the first few weeks of school. We appreciate your patience as we implement this new system. </p><p>Mental Health Counseling / School Nurse</p><p>We know the COVID-19 Pandemic has likely increased rates of anxiety and depression. We will continue to provide a trained expert on mental health for our students. Our school district will provide individual and group therapy for students at the Rugby Early Learning Center, Ely Elementary, and Rugby High School. If you are concerned about your child’s behavior(s) please contact your respective school to get more information on this program. A school nurse will be contracted for the 2021-2022 school year, you can contact Sam Wentz at 701-776-6783.</p><p>Contact info</p><p>You can follow me on Twitter at @mdmcneff and visit my blog at http://mikemcneff.blogspot.com for current school-related articles or news. We appreciate your flexibility and understanding as we head into the 2021-2022 school year. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions at (701)776-5201 or send me an email at mike.mcneff@k12.nd.us </p><div><br /></div>Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-67432406982652952662021-03-15T09:22:00.001-07:002021-03-15T09:22:38.418-07:00A reflection on the past year<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It's been close to a year since our world changed abruptly due to
the COVID-19 virus. This time last year we thought that this would be a short-term
situation and that it would all be over in a matter of weeks. Little did we
know at the time how long term the situation would become. I was interviewed
recently by KMOT and was asked to reflect on our experiences over the last
year. This caused me to look back at my emails, notes, agendas, and planning
documents. It became an opportunity for me to reflect on the past year and all
of the challenges, logistics, and frustrations we faced.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">On March 9, 2020, we asked educators to talk to children about
COVID-19 in their classrooms and help reduce their fears and anxiety. We began
instituting a mandatory handwashing schedule at both the elementary and high
school. Cleaning and disinfecting were ramped up by teachers and custodial
staff. Food service changed, we no longer allowed self-served foods and this
greatly reduced our lunch offerings. Attendance incentive programs were
suspended at both schools. We placed travel restrictions in place for students
and staff until April 3rd (little did we know that this would remain in effect
for the rest of the year). We started to educate ourselves and others on the
importance of handwashing, cleanliness, and staying home when sick (which was
hard to get used to for many). We began talking about masks and face coverings
(yikes). If you traveled out of the state at the time you had to quarantine for
14 days. This was only the beginning...</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Thinking back, I could feel a cloud that hung over the week of
March 9</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> – March 13</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> last year. Cancelations and state
shutdowns were occurring across the country and there was talk within the
superintendent circles that North Dakota may shut down as well. I can remember
the somber feeling at the regional basketball tournament at the time. Our team
had just advanced to state, but all in attendance were uncertain of the future.
Schools were eventually closed by Governor Burgum on March 15</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
(today). It was a Sunday evening, this left us scrambling to get a plan
together. We went to work the next morning with teachers and began planning the
next two weeks. Immediately we were thinking about the students and how we
could educate them. We quickly realized that we needed platforms to help us
deliver instruction remotely. We began researching Google Classroom and Zoom. Those
two platforms became the delivery models that we continue to use to this day. We
worked quickly to develop content that could be accessed easily by students and
parents. At this point, we didn’t have a directive from the state, we felt we
needed to provide our families with something at home. We worked quickly and
were able to provide course content remotely a week later. We held our first
Facebook Live on March 19</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> to update families – close to 700 people
connected to hear our plan. Facebook and the Live feature became our social
media platform to share and gather information with our school community. We held
around 7-10 Facebook Lives over the next year.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Logistics was a challenge from the beginning. I am so THANKFUL for
our people, I was feeling overwhelmed with the immensity and our team pulled together
to problem solve. Within a few days, we were able to provide breakfast and
lunch deliveries and pickup sites, we took our show on the road </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">😊</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">. Our food service staff did a tremendous
job making this happen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We were very concerned about student mental health. Our kids were isolated
and their school year had just come to an abrupt end. There was so much uncertainty
for them, would their activities continue, would we have prom, would we have
graduation? Our counselors began calling their regular visitors to begin
connecting remotely. Our therapist modified her schedule as well to meet her
student’s needs.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Equity was a major problem at the beginning of the pandemic. Many
students lacked high quality internet. We worked hard to provide free internet
to those that could not afford it, the internet companies were great to work
with! Remote learning was not appropriate for many students with special needs
and the pandemic exposed equity issues that existed in our district. Some
students lacked the support at home to log in or complete their work at home.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">We needed to get technology deployed to families that did not have
a device. We issued around 200 total Chromebooks for families throughout the spring
of 2020. Our teachers needed training, we were not ready for a full remote learning
transition. Fortunately, we had local experts (our educators) that were able to
get all staff up to speed and comfortable with technology. We worked quickly to
get our content uploaded to our remote learning platform. Students were able to
access content by March 23</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">rd</sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> from our school website (a week later).
Educators prepared lessons that were tied to the remaining essential standards.
We began having conversations about how long should students spend on a device,
what was appropriate? How would we mark attendance? How should we grade them?
What about security issues related to Zoom?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Eventually, we were required to create a
distance learning plan that was to be implemented by April 1<sup>st</sup>. We
began to realize that we may end the year in this distance format. We started
talking about the "new normal” which later became a cliché.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> As we progressed in this new environment, we learned along
the way through trial and error. Week by week we got better together, and these
experiences prepared us for the 2020-2021 school year.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s hard not to get emotional when I reflect on these
experiences, I am so proud of our district. We have been able to be in session
all school year face to face. I could not have done this alone, and I am so grateful
for our educators, support staff, parents, and students at Rugby Public Schools.
We have navigated what might be the most challenging experience we will likely
face in education in our careers. We have done it with a positive and “whatever
it takes” attitude. We still have a way to go with this pandemic, but I am
confident that we can handle whatever gets in our way. Little did we know how real
the last line of our vision statement would become: Our vision is to create a
safe and caring environment in which all learners are engaged with authentic,
innovative, standards-referenced learning centered on collaboration,
communication, creativity, and critical thinking. Every learner will be
empowered to pursue personal excellence and make a positive impact in an <b>ever-changing
world.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thank you! <br /><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mike</span></b></p>Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-36000947994772498582021-01-25T12:45:00.000-08:002021-01-25T12:45:12.512-08:00Instructional Rounds Medical rounds have been used in the world of medicine for many years for improvement. Instructional rounds are a spinoff of this process. We began researching a more robust process for our teachers to observe each other and improve their practice in the spring of 2020. We started with our Teacher Leader Academy educators and have since rolled out a formal process for this school year. Our two instructional coaches (Mrs. Seykora and Mrs. Hager) have provided a simple five-step process to follow for our teachers. We are currently targeting our newer staff and their PLCs. <div><br /></div><div><b>1. Identify a problem of practice</b></div><div><div><br /></div><div>Your PLC will identify a problem of practice. The problem of practice is something that would make a difference for student learning if you improve it. A rich problem of practice includes:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Observable goals </li><li>Actionable goals (is within the teacher’s control and can be improved in real-time)</li><li>A broad strategy of improvement (school, system)</li><li>High-leverage actions (if acted on, student learning would be significantly increased)</li><li>A focus on the learning you want to see, not teaching (focus on students, not teachers)</li></ul></div></div><div><b>2. Observe the team's practice</b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Each PLC will observe all team members; also, you may observe other teachers. You will try to improve learning in a network, not evaluate any educator. Be descriptive, not evaluative. Focus on what students are actually doing, not what the teacher has asked them to do. </div><div><br /></div><div>Questions to help identify what evidence will be collected and shared:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>What are teachers doing and saying? </li><li>What are students doing and saying? </li><li>What kinds of evidence would the group like to gather for the host teacher? </li><li>What did you hear and see? </li></ul></div></div><div><b>3. Observation debrief</b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>The purpose of the debrief is to consider the collected evidence together and to move from agreeing on what people saw to eventually agreeing on what learning would result from what they saw. There are three steps to the debrief: description, analysis, and prediction. </div><div><br /></div><div>Basic principles for debriefings: </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Stick to evidence</li><li>Designate a facilitator/timekeeper and a note taker</li><li>Debrief by questions or by classroom</li><li>Share talk time (everyone speaks once before anyone speaks twice)</li></ul></div></div><div><b>4. Reflection</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Individual teachers should continually assess where they are at concerning the learning goal. What support do they need? Is student learning effective as a result of the goal? </div><div><br /></div><div><b>5. Next level of work </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Group members think together about what the resources should be and what kinds of support will best meet the needs of teachers to move instruction to the next level (i.e., Watch Lincspring lessons together, read research on the topic, record sample lessons, etc.). </div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/v3ds58jww4dvw6z/Instructional%20Round%20Process%20-%2010.16.2020.docx?dl=0"><b>guiding document</b></a> we have developed to guide this process in our district. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you're looking for an excellent resource on this topic, you'll want to check out this book: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Instructional-Rounds-Education-Approach-Improving/dp/1934742163" target="_blank"><b>Instructional Rounds in Education</b></a></div>Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-46233009581602954012020-03-09T16:39:00.000-07:002020-03-09T16:39:07.891-07:00Frequently Asked Questions: Petition to close street and alleyway reroute<iframe height="800" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O_plpit984KGy41c0FADN7epRNP3tOQq/preview" width="640"></iframe>Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-69074533341576449342019-11-21T15:58:00.000-08:002019-11-21T15:58:38.476-08:00You should read: No More Telling As Teaching<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Direct instruction or lecturing have always played a significant role in classrooms, but is it really the best way to engage students in the content? No More Telling As Teaching does not demonize lecturing like the title may imply. It simply recognizes that lecturing may not be the most effective instructional technique. We are often drawn to lecturing, because it might be the quickest way to cover the myriad of standards that exist in each content area. By the way, I don't like to use the word "cover" when referring to teaching the content. I'm in favor of the less is more philosophy to develop deep understandings for learners. </div>
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We need to consider who is doing the work in the classroom. I would argue that if the teacher is doing most of the work in a classroom, I would bet most of the learners are likely compliant or unengaged. Tovani and Moje ask us to consider these three things when we think about engagement: a learner must know how to behave in a way that is productive to learning, a learner should be connected to the topic emotionally, and a leaner should be intellectually stimulated. The "pedagogy of telling" may not be the best method to achieve behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement.<br />
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According to Tovani and Moje (2017) the best way to learn is through a mix of classroom experiences. </div>
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"They should include projects driven by questions or problems, whole and small group discussions, participation in real-world activities that make use of targeted learning skills, the reading and writing of multiple texts, interactions with challenging problems, and yes, just-in-time lectures (the best are usually interactive)" (p.21). </blockquote>
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To me the most important statement in the above mentioned quote is the focus on applying concepts from the content in a real-world environment. I have seen deep levels of engagement when teachers embed opportunities for learners to engage in the world outside of our school. Learners are more engaged in the activity when they know their work will be viewed by those on the outside. Too many times students don't find value in their work, because it is often done in a silo and we fail to make connections to our community and the real-world.<br />
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Tovani and Moje provide some questions to ask ourselves when we plan for our learners.<br />
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<li>How can I connect my content to the world outside of school?</li>
<li>Why should my students care about this? What real problem will they be attempting to solve?</li>
<li>What will they create? Is it something that exists in the real world? Which disciplines will they be relying on to solve this problem? </li>
<li>Who will hear or see their work besides me? </li>
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Content needs context. </div>
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I ran across this on Twitter recently. I think these are some good guidelines for all of us from young children all the way to adult learners. </div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/No-More-Telling-Teaching-Learning/dp/0325092443">Check out No More Telling As Teaching </a></div>
<br />Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-77480709720222452812019-08-29T09:13:00.000-07:002019-08-29T09:13:20.522-07:00Rugby Public School District Learns <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rWxGEUtQDF4/XWf3aMNIweI/AAAAAAAAGqc/3fmJtHtUsNo1TdlQ2UNfhfpDST_jG87rACLcBGAs/s1600/TED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rWxGEUtQDF4/XWf3aMNIweI/AAAAAAAAGqc/3fmJtHtUsNo1TdlQ2UNfhfpDST_jG87rACLcBGAs/s320/TED.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0p5ECxmdTR0/XWf3r7NNRHI/AAAAAAAAGqk/iopzMli_Zq8jDLI_SM1hvb_5jV4eRMBugCLcBGAs/s1600/Vocab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0p5ECxmdTR0/XWf3r7NNRHI/AAAAAAAAGqk/iopzMli_Zq8jDLI_SM1hvb_5jV4eRMBugCLcBGAs/s320/Vocab.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I recently shared a <a href="https://mikemcneff.blogspot.com/2019/07/rpsd-to-increase-time-for-teacher.html"><b>blog</b></a> about changes to our professional learning practices at Rugby Public School District, we had our first professional learning day on August 28th. Teachers, support staff, and administrators spent the morning learning from Donalyn Miller and Valinda Kimmel. Miller has written several books on establishing a reading culture in schools. Kimmel is a literacy consultant that has been helping our school district with early literacy practices. The theme throughout the morning was developing a reading culture from preschool to grade 12.<br />
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Staff learned about the power of read alouds, book talks, and different ways to study vocabulary. We often think that reading a book aloud is only good for young children, but the research shows that this is a powerful practice regardless of age. The peak for read alouds often occurs around third or fourth grade. Book talks align with our focus on building classroom libraries and allowing more choice for students over what they read. A Book Talk is a method used to share a book with another person without giving away the whole story. Finally, teachers were able to gain some easy to implement vocabulary activities that can be used across grade levels and subject areas.<br />
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We will have three different book studies this year. Our first book discussion was on the book Fundamental Five. Teachers were mixed into different groups and they discussed the five instructional strategies found within the book. One of our teachers commented, “we enjoyed this book and thought it was a nice reminder of what we can be doing to make our lessons better. I also think that because this was a small group session and that we were mixed between schools, it was an awesome way to build community and trust with other colleagues. This was a good experience.”<br />
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In the afternoon, we held a debrief session with a focus on next steps to implement these strategies learned in the morning. Teachers then spent the remainder of the day in teams focusing on the following questions: What do we want students to know and be able to do? How do we know they know? What are we doing collectively to intervene when students don’t know? What are we doing collectively to enrich students that already know?<br />
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Our district appreciates the ability to provide our teachers additional time for learning and the time to implement our school initiatives. Yesterday was a great day of learning and collaboration! <b>When we know better, we do better. </b><br />
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-41048235272162971862019-07-29T08:41:00.002-07:002019-07-29T08:41:41.683-07:00RPSD to Increase Time for Teacher Training<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At
the February 12<sup>th</sup> school board meeting, the Rugby Public School
Board voted to increase the amount of time for teacher training by adding seven
additional days of training to the 2019-2020 school calendar. The school board
took advantage of a recent law change that provides schools with additional
flexibility for teacher training and storm day makeup.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
approved school calendar for 2019-2020 provides 10 days of professional
development for teachers and support staff. This equates to one professional
development day per month. The school district will not have students in
session on these training days. In the past, we would front load most of our
training during our two days of professional development prior to school
starting. Due to the time constraints of the school day and a traditional
school calendar it has been extremely difficult to gain momentum on our key
school initiatives. According to research on adult learning, high quality
professional learning is job embedded and continuously occurs throughout the
year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
general, the calendar change will provide teachers more opportunities to engage
in school improvement, curriculum planning, and personal professional
development during their working hours. It is the belief that quality is
greater than quantity in relation to time in front of kids. All professionals
need time and opportunities to update, to train, to interact with other
professionals, to hone their craft, to reflect on their work, to get better.
Effective professional development is distributed over time and not jammed into
a single day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professionals
need opportunities to: become aware of best practices, observe others modeling
new or different practices, have opportunities to practice, receive feedback,
reflect and interact with others. When teachers are able to meet regularly to
reflect on practice, examine student work, agree on common outcomes, research
best practice, observe others, share effective practices, everyone benefits.
The traditional structure and length of the school day has not allowed for this
type of practice. Sometimes the lumberjack must stop sawing to sharpen his
blade to improve production. This is no different than the teaching profession,
sometimes we need time away from teaching to improve teaching. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
can view the new calendar at this website: </span><a href="https://tinyurl.com/y25zzqkw"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://tinyurl.com/y25zzqkw</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-17305973370596101682019-04-18T14:04:00.000-07:002019-04-18T14:04:56.492-07:00Deep Learning This post has been influenced by a recent book I have been reading, Deep Learning by Fullan, Quinn, and McEachen. Fullan et al., share their insight on deep learning. They define deep learning as, “valuable learning that sticks – it situates the learner as someone who acts upon the world (usually with others), thereby transforming her or himself and the world itself.” This is really about relevance, students need to find relevance in what they do in the classroom. We need to give them opportunities to apply what they learn in real world situations. We need to provide them opportunities to pursue their passion. Real world application and finding their passion will make their school experience more engaging and relevant.<br />
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“Put a young person in a stagnant situation or one demanding irrelevant activities, and they will appear unreachable” (Fullan et al., 2018, p. 9).<br />
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According to Jenkins (2013), student engagement levels peak during kindergarten at 95% and slowly decline to 39% by the time students reach grade 11. This is very concerning and something we should be considering within our school improvement efforts. How do we create classrooms that students want to attend every day for 175 days of school? I love when my own kids come home from school excited about what they learned at school and continue to explore the topic at home. All kids should experience this sense of excitement throughout their school experience.<br />
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Deep learning is the process of acquiring these six global competencies: character, citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking.<br />
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“In the past, we mostly asked students to solve problems that have already been solved. Today we have moved from asking our students to be consumers of knowledge to asking them to apply their solutions to real-world problems” (Fullan, Quinn, McEachen, 2018, p. 82).<br />
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Over the past few weeks, I have been able to witness a few examples of what I would consider deep learning.<br />
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Last week, our seniors presented their capstone projects as part of fulfilling the requirements of their senior English course. Seniors were able to pick a topic that they were passionate about and complete a mini-research study on the topic. They researched their topic, conducted surveys, analyzed the data, and provided a presentation on their topic to the public on April 11th. I included a few of the topics in the image below. I was thoroughly amazed by the knowledge they acquired and how they were able to apply it to a real-world situation.<br />
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Earlier this week, Mr. Leier and members of his Community Development class were invited to meet with Governor Burgum to discuss their work on the Mainstreet Initiative. These students participated in a community forum earlier this year and were asked to gather information on the following: What are the strengths and weaknesses of our community? If Rugby were to be able to build a Multi-Purpose Community Center, what would residents want to see and how might they support it? The culmination of this project involved a meeting with the Governor and his Main Street Initiative Team in Bismarck, ND.<br />
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“Students have untapped potential, but given voice and choice through deep learning we see them influencing dramatic changes to organizations, society, and pedagogy” (Fullan, Quinn, and McEachen, 2018, p. 47).<br />
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The challenge with these types of learning experiences is that they take considerable time to complete, but I’ll bet what they learned about their topic will stick with them for years to come. We need more of these types of learning experiences in school. Let’s trust students to take on real world problems and apply their learning. We will be surprised about what they can accomplish.<br />
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-67313150087783130402019-03-11T16:27:00.000-07:002019-03-11T16:32:48.237-07:00Quality Over Quantity I prepared this information in support of House Bill 1346. HB 1346 shifts our instructional day requirement to hours. This bill creates flexibility for school districts to do some pretty innovative things. I believe that the amount of instructional time may not be as important as the quality of the instructional time.<br />
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How does North Dakota’s instructional time requirements compare to other states? </div>
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Currently, North Dakota Century Code requires 1,050 instructional hours for high school and 962.5 instructional hours for elementary school. NDCC also includes a 175 day requirement for all school districts. The chart below compares North Dakota to our neighboring states. Rugby Public School District requires a longer school day than the state requirement. It should be mentioned that many school districts in the state of North Dakota require more instructional time than the state requirement. </div>
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How does North Dakota’s instructional time requirements compare to international educational systems? </div>
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The country of Finland’s educational system has long been admired internationally. Finland continually scores near the top of international educational assessments in math, reading, and science. Finland requires approximately 600 instructional hours for elementary and high school. Finland outperforms the United States with half of the amount of instructional hours. The top 36 international educational systems in the world require 800 hours on average for elementary school and approximately 700 hours for high school. The United States’ average is approximately 1080 instructional hours for both elementary and high school (Sahlberg, 2010, p. 91). </div>
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Why do international educational systems spend less time in front of students? </div>
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In general, lower teaching hours provide teachers more opportunities to engage in school improvement, curriculum planning, and personal professional development during their working hours. It is the belief that quality is greater than quantity in relation to time in front of kids. All professionals need time and opportunities to update, to train, to interact with other professionals, to hone their craft, to reflect on their work, to get better. Effective professional development is distributed over time and not jammed into a single day. Professionals need opportunities to: become aware of best practices, observe others modeling new or different practices, have opportunities to practice, receive feedback, reflect and interact with others. When teachers are able to meet regularly to reflect on practice, examine student work, agree on common outcomes, research best practice, observe others, share effective practices, everyone benefits. The traditional structure and length of the school day has not allowed for this type of practice. Sometimes the lumberjack must stop sawing to sharpen his blade to improve production. This is no different than the teaching profession, sometimes we need time away from teaching to improve teaching. </div>
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Leading the world in the time we spend in front of students is not the answer, redirecting a portion of that time for personal professional development is. The world’s educational systems spend less time in front of students and use that time to improve their practice. </div>
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Our board recently approved our instructional day waiver for our 2019-2020 school calendar. This calendar will have 10 professional development days and 36 (50 minute) late starts for teacher collaboration. HB 1346 would allow districts the flexibility to make structural changes as needed and districts would no longer have to submit a waiver. </div>
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-17541083670828930172019-02-26T12:23:00.002-08:002019-02-26T12:46:38.570-08:00RPS and HAMC partner to become a Reach Out And Read Site.Rugby Public Schools has partnered with HAMC Johnson Clinic to become a “Reach Out and Read “site. Reach Out and Read is a national nonprofit organization that gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together.<br />
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“We are excited to partner with HAMC by purchasing the books through our Striving Readers Grant” says Mike McNeff, Superintendent of Rugby Public Schools.<br />
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Through Reach Out and Read, practitioners at HAMC Johnson Clinic will “prescribe” reading aloud to infants and toddlers. At each well child/well baby check, HAMC practitioners will be giving a book to the child and talking about the importance of reading out loud.<br />
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HAMC Physician Assistant, Dustin Hager says “We know that childhood experiences early in life can have a lasting impact on later learning, behavior, and health. Many studies have shown a strong, association between a home reading environment, such as access to books, frequency of reading, and variety of books read, and brain development.”<br />
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Jodi Schaan, Medical Staff Coordinator for HAMC says, “We are excited to partner with Rugby Public Schools and the Reach Out and Read program, fostering a love of reading & learning in babies & preschoolers that will benefit them throughout their life.”<br />
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Reach Out and Read currently serves 4.7 million children and their families. The Reach Out and Read has 6,000 program sites in all 50 states. The Reach Out and Read model is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-59423531214209226082019-01-23T10:23:00.000-08:002019-01-23T10:23:02.995-08:00Striving Readers Grant is an Opportunity for the Whole CommunityYou may remember that Rugby Public Schools was awarded a North Dakota Striving Readers Grant this past fall. It is a federal grant aimed at improving literacy from birth to grade 12. This a wonderful opportunity for our schools, but also for our community! <br />
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Not only do we have some exciting new things going on in K-12 due to this grant, but we are now able to provide literacy programming for children in our community who are in the birth to age five range. <br />
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Karen Black and Gail Rham have been hired to assist us with the birth to age five literacy programming in our community. Many of you will recognize these names as they were both teachers at Ely Elementary for many years. They have extensive knowledge working with young students, and are very excited to start working with little ones in our community. <br />
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The Heart of American Library and many of Rugby’s daycare providers have agreed to take part in this literacy programming. Twice a month Karen and Gail will be doing Story Hour at the Heart of America Library. This month’s topic will be “Rhyming, Sequencing, and Retelling.” Story Hour is every Friday from 10:15-11:00AM. We hope to see more families attend this great opportunity!<br />
Similar programming will be provided to our local childcare providers. Mrs. Black and Mrs. Rham will be working with the following childcare providers, Growing Place Daycare, The Kids Next Door, Mindy Stier, Connie Grove, Mandy Kuhnhenn, and Terry Lemar. <br />
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RPS has partnered with the Heart of America Johnson Clinic and the First District Health Unit. RPS will be providing books to both clinics. The medical providers will provide books to babies and toddlers as they come in for their well-child visits, as well as continuing to talk about the importance of literacy at an early age. <br />
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Reading, rhyming, singing, and talking — beginning from birth — profoundly influence literacy and language development, the foundations for all other learning! <br />
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-67887612358494820092019-01-16T12:47:00.001-08:002019-01-16T12:47:43.574-08:00The Barrier of Time<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have been thinking about the structure
of our school calendar for a long time. It is incredibly difficult to lead complex change within our current calendar. Staff development for educators often occurs during small chunks of time throughout the year (early outs and late starts). Due to our school calendar a considerable amount of time passes between each training. This makes it difficult to develop momentum and continuity from one training to the next. Quality staff development should be continuous and job-embedded. Due to our schedule and the busyness of the school day, learning something new is
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I did a small study of the large employers within our community. I wanted to see how the other large
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Note: HAMC = Heart of America Medical Center, JD = John Deere, Bremer Bank, FIB = First International Bank, and RPSD = Rugby Public School District. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">Unfortunately, I wasn’t shocked from the data in the chart above. Our teachers receive significantly less staff development than other professional positions within our community. </span>This is a problem and schools need to build more time for staff development into their schedule. We should be investing in our teachers and support staff like the hospital, banks, and area agricultural businesses. </div>
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Here are our core initiatives: </div>
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Professional Learning Communities </div>
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Teachers are grouped by grade level and subject area and these meetings occur every Wednesday from 8:00 - 9:00 AM. Each group focuses on these four questions: 1) What do we want students to know and be able to do? 2) How will we know if they can do it? 3) What will we do for students who already can do what is expected? 4) What will we do to support and help students who have not achieved the standards?</div>
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Standards-Based and Competency-Based Learning</div>
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Students at Ely Elementary have been receiving what we call a standards-based report card throughout their school experience. This method of reporting progress is helpful to parents and educators to identify weak areas for the student. It allows teachers and support staff to apply appropriate interventions to improve these identified areas. </div>
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Social and Emotional Wellness</div>
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A recent student survey indicated that our students are less happy and have been experiencing an increase in depression. The reported increase in depression is not a localized problem that is only impacting our community. State and national survey results suggest that this is a state and national problem for adolescents and adults. To be proactive, we have recently implemented a curriculum that focuses on social and emotional wellness. All students take part in social and emotional wellness activities on a weekly basis. </div>
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Literacy Curriculum and Instruction</div>
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Our school district was awarded a $700,000 Striving Readers Grant to focus on literacy from birth to grade 12. We have purchased a new English and Language Arts curriculum for grades K-6. We have also purchased a new intervention curriculum for struggling readers as well. These new curricula will be implemented during the 2019-2020 school year. </div>
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Each of the above mentioned core initiatives require an immense amount of time to carry out with fidelity. For us to continue to build a great school system, we need more time. We are in the midst of developing a calendar that will address the time issue. The proposed calendar will provide 60 hours of staff development time along with approximately 30 hours of late start time for teacher collaboration. We believe the new calendar for the 2019-2020 school year will help us manage our initiatives in a more efficient way. The 2019-2020 school calendar will be approved within the next few months. </div>
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-57578796963394801782018-12-03T15:36:00.003-08:002018-12-03T15:36:22.958-08:00Ely Capacity ConcernsEly Elementary has been experiencing positive enrollment growth over the past few years. Please take a few minutes to hear how growth has created space challenges at Ely Elementary.<br />
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<br />Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-11216224715163584242018-11-13T14:24:00.001-08:002018-11-13T15:08:12.376-08:00Urgency and innovationOur school district was invited to take part in an innovation academy led by Dr. Scott McLeod. Dr. McLeod has led several innovation academies across the country. Members from our school district will take part in seven days of training over the course of this school year. The goal is to explore innovative practices, examine current practices, and reimagine them. I came away with many questions and a sense of urgency. The challenge is how quickly are we able to lead this type of change within a school district? Like most districts, we do not have a lack of things to do. Our teachers are working extremely hard and are engaged in all types of change initiatives. The type of change described by Dr. McLeod requires us to redesign professional learning for teachers. Our current school schedule/structure is a barrier to adult learning. Teachers speed from class to class with one period dedicated to preparation. At the end of the day their plate is full and learning something new is often put on the back burner. Learning Forward provides schools with some recommendations in regard to the amount of time needed for professional learning.<br />
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Learning Forward has recommended that professional learning occur “several times per week among established teams of teachers, principals, and other instructional staff members where the teams of educators engage in a continuous cycle of improvement” (NSDC, 2009, p. 2).</blockquote>
Does your school have this amount of time set aside for adult learning? Unfortunately, in most schools adult learning takes a backseat due to the school schedule/structure. Along with adult learning, McLeod challenged us to think about student engagement levels, higher order thinking, and 21st century skills.<br />
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<b>Engagement vs. compliance</b><br />
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Students are engaged when they are able to work on problems that are important to them and their community. Engaging classrooms are less teacher centered and more student centered. Are our students engaged or are they compliant? There is a definite difference. Do lessons include a real world impacts? Are they displayed or presented publicly? Are they engaged in the learning process? To what level are students involved in the decision making process?<br />
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<b>Higher order thinking</b><br />
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Higher order thinking is extremely important to our student’s future success. They will need to be able to think for themselves. Deeper learning schools are moving away from low level thinking tasks like factual recall and procedural regurgitation. They are more focused on the 4 C’s (Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration) when designing instructional programming. We should all reflect deeply on this quote, what percentage of our students think this way?<br />
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When we teach in "mother robin" fashion — trying to mentally chew up everything for our students so we can put it into their intellectual beaks to swallow — students tend to become, if I can slightly mix my metaphor, "Polly parrot" learners: </blockquote>
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"I can't understand anything unless you tell me exactly how and what to say and think. I need you to figure out everything for me. I shouldn't have to do more than repeat what you or the textbook say." - <a href="http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/the-art-of-redesigning-instruction/520">Foundation for Critical Thinking</a></blockquote>
<b>Content vs. Skills</b><br />
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Deeper learning schools are less focused on content and more focused on the skills needed to navigate complex content. According to McLeod, “innovative schools are moving from isolated, siloed academic work to environments that provide students more opportunities to engage with and contribute to relevant local, national, and international interdisciplinary communities.”<br />
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<b>Relevancy</b><br />
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This really all comes down to relevance. How will we (public education) remain relevant? There are many choices for parents and students these days. These choices will only get better and more appealing for parents and students. How will we reimagine and redesign our educational systems to fit our students?<br />
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Find a few minutes to watch this video.<br />
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Check out What School Could Be by Ted Dintersmith.</div>
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-76339957921708593752018-11-06T06:00:00.001-08:002018-11-06T06:03:02.445-08:00Parent Advisory Meeting Agenda<iframe width=700 height=500 src="https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vT7kgdvV_yItIEWn_7DZjdiw5q40U6ID6qaMoay9h9UvIn3wsHEGyhNQRIMcNoQ9MFt-MUQtlAG5qXk/pub?embedded=true"></iframe>Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-59989674293351738722018-10-15T17:07:00.001-07:002018-10-15T17:11:19.664-07:00Consequences don't motivate challenging students. I have given my fair share of consequences to students as an educator over the past 14 years. Rarely, have these been effective at changing the behavior of our most challenging students. Most students with challenging behaviors have been challenging throughout their entire school experience, and yet we continue to impose consequences <i>without teaching them the skills to not be challenging</i>.<br />
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A consequence is a common method used to control student behavior. When a student does something that is undesirable, we often let them know through a consequence that the behavior was inappropriate. Consequences work for most kids in school, because most kids have the skills to do well. If our philosophy is, “kids do well if they want to,” then when a kid doesn’t do well, we believe he or she doesn’t want to. Adults often think this is a motivation issue for challenging kids and we need to make the kid want to do well. Consequences rarely motivate challenging students.<br />
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As you read this, you might be thinking if we don’t hold challenging students accountable, then how will we prepare them for the real world? I would argue that we aren’t preparing them for the real world if a consequence is our only method to teach them how to behave. We have to teach them the skills to handle different situations and manage their emotions in a productive way. This involves collaborative problem solving between the adult and student. It doesn’t involve imposing adult will, because this is usually ineffective when dealing with challenging students. <i>Kids do well if they can</i>. A kid will do well if he or she has the skills to do well. I am not suggesting that we get rid of consequences, because they have their place in schools. I am merely suggesting that we teach challenging students (a small percentage of the student population) the skills to do well. Using only consequences will not prepare them for their future. We need to identify when challenging behavior typically occurs, what skills are they missing, and teach them the skills that are needed to be successful.<br />
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Differentiation is a successful means of reaching a student’s academic needs, why not differentiate based on a student’s behavioral needs as well?<br />
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I recommend <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lost-School-Behavioral-Challenges-Falling/dp/1501101498/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539648344&sr=8-1&keywords=lost+at+school"><b>Lost at School</b></a> by Ross Greene if you are interested in approaching behavior differently in your school and classroom.<br />
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-47499655157960593052018-10-02T14:15:00.000-07:002018-10-02T14:21:18.528-07:00You should read: The Book Whisperer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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According to a recent poll by the Associated Press, the average adult read four books in a year. One quarter of those surveyed did not read a book at all. This is a concerning statistic to me. How can we promote literacy to our youth if we are not reading ourselves?<br />
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Why are adults not reading more?<br />
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Unfortunately, many of the causes may occur at a very early age. We set the stage for a lifelong reader as soon as they exit the womb. Reading to them as an infant through preschool is important to their literacy development. Children begin to develop early language and literacy skills long before they begin talking.<br />
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As children get older and enter our formalized school systems, how do we (educators, parents, and support staff) encourage or hinder the development of a lifelong reader? Donalyn Miller, a former classroom literacy teacher and author, recommends embracing reading as a lifelong pursuit and not just a collection of skills for school performance (2009). Take a minute and reflect on how often your child reads for enjoyment. Is their reading only associated with school tasks? This is something we as parents and educators need to reflect on. Reading shouldn’t only be something children do for school, a student’s motivation to read should go beyond school tasks.<br />
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We know that interest level is very important for all ages of readers. I think we have all picked up a book at some point in our life and struggled through it, or even quit reading it. Interest level is a touchy subject and challenging to implement. There are literary works that many educators would say are extremely important for all kids to read. The challenge is that not all kids are motivated to read the required text. If students are only reading the classics, then they may never have the opportunity to investigate their own reading interests, and therefore never develop into the reader they could have been.<br />
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“Reading has become schoolwork, not an activity in which students willingly engage outside of school” (Miller, 2009, p. 121). </blockquote>
Miller (2009) recommends schools provide time for independent reading within the classroom and that we should allow students free choice over what they want to read. Whole-class novels take considerable instructional time and no one text can meet the needs of all readers. Fluent readers will speed through, while lower readers may struggle through the text. Each level of reader may end with different levels of comprehension based on their reading level. Some alternatives to whole-class novels are: reading the book aloud to students, or share-read, where students follow along and read silently with the teacher. Both of these methods allow the student to spend their mental effort on comprehending the text.<br />
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I think Miller has a valid argument and schools should consider a balance of time spent on reading associated with school tasks, and time spent on independent reading. At the end of the day, when their school experience has completed, we want students to develop into adult readers. Not an adult or child who only associates reading with tasks associated with school.<br />
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If you haven’t read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, I highly recommend it. There are many strategies embedded in the text that help teachers create a more literacy rich environment.<br />
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-77472782005748924972018-09-17T11:10:00.004-07:002018-09-17T11:12:31.332-07:00Parent Advisory Committee 2018Parents,<br />
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I need your help!<br />
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Five years ago we started a Parent Advisory Committee (PAC). We have had several parents take part in these PAC meetings. We typically organize four meetings each school year and try to target dates that do not conflict with other activities. These meetings usually last around an hour.<br />
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These meetings have opened communication between our school district and parents. The topics you can expect at these meetings are insight on current initiatives, feedback from you on our school programs, and a book discussion (you don’t have to read the book to participate).<br />
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Please go to the link below if you are interested in taking part in this opportunity.<br />
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Parent Advisory Membership Link: <b><a href="http://tinyurl.com/qhsf5vn">http://tinyurl.com/qhsf5vn</a></b><br />
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We are looking to schedule our first meeting date in November. If you are interested in taking part in a conversation to improve our schools please visit the link above by October 5, 2018.<br />
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Parents play a key role in their child’s success in school. I am looking forward to hearing feedback from you and building better relationships within our school community.<br />
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-57031764519697044832018-09-07T14:59:00.002-07:002018-09-07T14:59:57.357-07:00Rugby Public School District to begin offering literacy programming to child care providers.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Literacy is “The quality or state of being literate, especially the ability to read and write.” (dictionary.com)<br />
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A synonym for literacy is learning. Dr. Seuss said it so well, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” <br />
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Rugby Public Schools has received a Striving Readers’ Grant. By bringing together people from various entities within Pierce County, a review was conducted of literacy programming from birth to grade 12. Although our current literacy programming is more than satisfactory, various inconsistencies were discovered throughout the entire program. <br />
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The goal for this grant is to powerfully come together from various entities within our county and simply enhance the ability to read and write and learn for all children, intentionally.<br />
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Mrs. Gail Rham and Mrs. Karen Black will be teaming together for the next three years to help facilitate this promising powerful growth within our community in teaching literacy. Mrs. Rham and Mrs. Black each have over 30 years of educational experience with a particular interest in laying the foundation for literacy growth.<br />
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Our focus this coming year will be in early literacy for those children from birth to age 5. We will meet with daycare providers, our public library, and social services and identify literacy needs, discuss how we will strive to provide those needs, and seek continuing education for all early childhood care givers and facilitators. We will explore and research literacy curriculum for early childhood, create literacy lessons, model delivery of literacy lessons, assess and measure our outcomes, as well as provide daycare providers with research-based knowledge of literacy goals and milestones for children ages 0-5.<br />
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Thank you for your willingness to join us as we promote literacy growth in our community!<br />
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Mrs. Gail Rham and Mrs. Karen Black<br />
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-10953228726735964312018-08-08T08:27:00.000-07:002018-08-08T08:27:13.464-07:00Ely Elementary at Capacity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Rugby Public School District is experiencing considerable growth at Ely Elementary School. This school year we are expecting 345 students to walk through the hallways at Ely Elementary. This is very positive news for our school district. From 1990 to 2006, district enrollment had decreased dramatically. In 2006, Ely Elementary enrollment was at an all-time low of 234 students. We are now approaching enrollment numbers that date back to the early 1990s.<br />
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Increased enrollment presents challenges. Ely Elementary is at capacity with our current enrollment. We have now expanded three grade levels to three sections. This means we have added three additional teachers and classrooms over the past seven years. The latest section addition removed our computer lab and technology will now be pushed into classrooms. Currently, every nook and cranny is being used to deliver services to our students.<br />
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Every five years the school district completes an enrollment study through RSP and Associates. RSP studies our community’s changing demographics and provides enrollment projections up to five years in the future. They have been very accurate in projecting our actual enrollment in the past. The current projection has Ely Elementary increasing to around 360 students by 2020-2021. This will force us to create at least two additional classrooms. At this point, we are out of classroom space for the projected enrollment increase. The school district will need to respond to meet the demands of increased enrollment.<br />
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You may have attended Ely Elementary in the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s and wondering why we are at capacity when classes were larger at that time. As mentioned previously, our enrollment numbers have spiked to numbers that we haven’t seen since the early 1990s. It is important to understand that education has changed drastically over the past 15-20 years. Prior to the 2008-2009 school year, kindergarten was an every other day program. During the 2008-2009 school year, kindergarten expanded to an everyday program. This increased the number of classrooms needed to support the new kindergarten population. Special education services have expanded to meet the varying needs of students. Specialized services for occupational, physical, speech and mental health therapies have expanded. Learning is becoming more personalized and more focused on the well-being of the whole child. In the past, it wasn’t unheard of to put 30 students in a classroom. Parents want smaller class sizes for their children. All these changes in education require a space that fits our student’s needs.<br />
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During the August 7th board meeting, the Rugby Public School Board voted to contact an architect to develop a concept and provide a cost that will address our needs at Ely Elementary. A stakeholder committee will be created to help develop a plan to address our space needs. Our enrollment growth shows that our community is healthy and vibrant. Stay tuned.<br />
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Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-86996594286532053632018-07-24T08:45:00.002-07:002018-07-24T12:58:01.365-07:00Rugby Public School District Receives a Striving Readers Grant!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The research is clear on the importance of literacy. It is particularly important for students to develop early literacy skills to be successful in school. If a student is not at grade level for literacy by grade three, we know that they are at risk of struggling throughout their school experience. If they are below grade level in literacy, they will more than likely struggle in all other academic areas. It is imperative that we identify and intervene early to help students have a successful school experience.<br />
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Over the past six months a group of teachers, community stakeholders, our two principals, and I have been working on the North Dakota Striving Readers Grant application. It is a federal grant aimed at improving literacy from birth to grade 12. Our district was selected to move past the first round and were invited to complete the official grant application in March. We held several meetings and worked with community stakeholders to design a plan based on stakeholder feedback. The grant application was submitted on June 29th and we were notified on July 23rd that we were approved for $660,000.<br />
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We brought together over 20 people from various entities (Infant Development, Right Tracks, Head Start, Rugby Public School District, Public Library, Daycare providers, Social Services, Pierce County Health, and Lone Tree Special Education) in Pierce County to review our literacy programming. Our focus was to conduct a literacy audit from birth to grade 12. This process has been an eye opening experience for our school district. Through this process we discovered various inconsistencies throughout our literacy program. We also discovered how powerful our program could be if all of these different entities worked in unison.<br />
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We identified the following areas for improvement and grant dollars will help support our growth across the birth to grade 12 continuum.<br />
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<li>Purchase and provide high quality curriculum to support best practices in literacy instruction. </li>
<li>Improve coordination between agencies on literacy (Rugby Early Learning Center, Social services, Right Tracks, Infant Development, Lonetree Special Education, Heart of America Public Library, Faith-based organizations, Prairie Village Museum, Village Arts, etc).</li>
<li>Improve child care support services: For example: provide traveling literacy centers, trained individuals who provide literacy rich experiences to children in day care settings, sensory experiences, social and emotional learning, and quality professional development on early literacy.</li>
<li>Organize community support services: provide high quality books and promote Imagination Library, traveling literacy centers, trained individuals who provide literacy rich experiences to children at the public library, social and emotional learning, and sensory experiences.</li>
<li>Provide quality professional development to ALL child care providers, support staff, community literacy leaders, and faculty on literacy.</li>
<li>Creation of literacy events and activities that are convenient for parents that occur throughout the year.</li>
<li>Emphasize communication practices, create opportunities for parental involvement, provide clear guidance/education for parents in regard to developmental milestones, address parental apathy, and provide parental support in navigating the system. </li>
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Over the next three years we will be hiring two new positions to coordinate literacy activities and develop a multi-tiered support system for the Rugby Early Learning Center, Ely Elementary, and Rugby High School. We will also be hiring an on site literacy consultant to provide coaching and share best practices with our support staff and teachers. We are excited for this opportunity and I am personally thankful for all of the people who helped contribute to this grant application!Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-85789191078308608712018-07-12T08:23:00.000-07:002018-07-12T08:23:14.334-07:00KXnews: Rugby Schools Will Have A Mental Health Counselor Starting This FallKXnews stopped by recently to do a story on our collaboration with the Pierce County Commission. We are breaking down barriers to mental health services in our rural school district. Students will have access to a highly trained mental health professional in individual and group settings. Please take a minute to view the video below.<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="https://w3.cdn.anvato.net/player/prod/v3/anvload.html?key=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%3D%3D" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281381353074622192.post-9777378302783708562018-06-27T10:02:00.000-07:002018-06-27T10:04:06.555-07:00A focus on the whole child.ASCD defines the whole child approach as, "policies, practices, and relationships that ensure each child, in each school, in each community, is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged." This means that we support students beyond academics and include social-emotional wellness as part of our overall programming.<br />
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In response to our district's Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) results, we are taking steps forward to place more focus on social and emotional wellness. As reported in our YRBS data, students are in general, less happy and indicated an increase in depression and anxiety. As we already know, depression and anxiety lead to more risky life decisions, such as drug and alcohol abuse, and suicidal ideation. Our committee has identified a social and emotional learning curriculum that our teachers, support staff, and administration will begin to implement next year. The curriculum and training are aimed at early intervention and education.<br />
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Our district has also been working with community stakeholders to bring a mental health expert to our rural community. Like most rural communities, we lack the services that are available in the urban hubs throughout North Dakota. I should mention that when I discuss the lack of mental health services with my peers in urban areas, they too find it difficult to obtain these type of services for students. The lack of services impacts both rural and urban areas across North Dakota. In most situations, children and adults within our community have to first travel to Minot (60 miles away) to setup their appointments and attend therapy sessions. The travel is a major barrier for many families wishing to seek help. Based on these barriers and our work over the past year with our community stakeholder group, we have been able to secure funding for a clinical counselor that will be shared between the school district, Pierce County Social Services, and the Heart of America Correctional and Treatment Center. We have hired an individual that will start in August. They will provide individual and group counseling as needed. We also want to make sure that this individual has set aside time for immediate therapy as concerns arise. We don't want any barriers for children and parents.<br />
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When students are unable to regulate their emotions and struggle in social situations they often struggle academically. Similar to teaching students math and reading skills, we need to teach skills to help children regulate their emotions and understand social situations. We believe we are making positive strides by teaching social-emotional skills and removing barriers for accessing mental health services. The YRBS data are alarming and it is our duty to place more of a focus on the whole child. This is a work in progress and we are excited to see where it goes.<br />
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<a href="https://mikemcneff.blogspot.com/2017/12/summary-of-our-youth-risk-behavior.html"><b>Link to a previous blog on our YRBS Data</b></a>Michael McNeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09018216773155029971noreply@blogger.com0