Long time, No Blog

Yes, it has been a while since I have updated the blog. Since I no longer have email at home, newsletters have been easier to put together than blogs... Since, for the first time this year, next quarter will give Trillium advisors some prep time, I hope to attend to both Blog and still produce our middle school newsletter.

So starting next quarter, check in on the Blog once a week or so to get the up to the minute update, or just catch up once a month—whatever works for your family. I am also available directly at trillium.science@gmail.com and by my cell number 503.522.3392. Communication is great. I really listen to the feedback I have gotten from families, and have advocated this year for some pretty big changes. Here are a few things I have written proposals for, or been advocating in the middle school—much directly due to family input on their needs and concerns at Trillium, and some for the professional needs of the staff:

-Lunch breaks twice a week. This gives staff time to eat—and deal with pressing advising issues during the day. For the beginning of the year we had no breaks.

-Change of afternoon schedule. For those who have braved the upstairs around 3:00pm, you know it can be a kind of overwhelming place. While some of that comes from cramming 160 adolescent bodies in limited square feet, some of the feeling of chaos (and, lets face it, chaos) comes from the lack of structure during the afternoons. With our new schedule most Trillium students will have more structure throughout their day. For some this will be guided classes, for others actual time to work in a focused way around ILP—supervised by a teacher of their choice.

-Addition of daily classes. This was added to address the needs to build key skills during middle school in math, language arts, or foreign language. Shorter blocks, but more consistent meetings should be a boon to the subjects offered. Other subjects, which do better in blocks, will remain in the longer bi-weekly a/b schedule.

-Plan time for staff. Yes, this seems selfish. Why is she writing to tell me she worked and got plan time for herself and other teachers? The biggest boon will be to instruction. When teachers teach 6 different classes, students are offered great variety. For the quality to be consistently higher, teacher need time to prepare lessons for the day. I know science this year has suffered from lack of set up time. Additionally, advisors need time to support their advisees —whether through mediations, stronger home connections, or just checking in. This plan time should increase everyone's positive experience.

-Change of advising. While we will have less time together as a group, the quality of time should be higher. Advising will function, for us, as more of a class, and less of a chaotic hang out time. High school advising in also becoming mandatory, which should help middle school focus. All of the Upper School will be able to work on community building, creating stronger school identity, and on focusing on the framework and individualized learning plans.

-Changes to the middle school. For many different reasons, middle school at Trillium has been melded in with the high school. Over the year it has become more clear that the needs of the different age groups are different: developmentally and academically. We will be working on creating a stronger vision for the middle school: finding a schedule and crafting a identity that fits the needs of our age group, rather than expect all of our new 6th graders to just “fend for themselves around seniors”. While we will still be constrained by shared space, there should be lots of room to figure out who we are. I will be sending home a survey soon to get family feedback: what are the parts of Trillium that have been working? What are the concerns you have? Where do we, as a middle school, need to change? The survey will be in more detail, and your feedback will be key in help create the middle school you want to see.

-Reading assessments. Our TESA reading scores were less than impressive. To understand what was going on with literacy I have been assessing all students who did not meet benchmarks in reading, using a tool that gives us more detailed and concrete information. It will show teachers where we need to be focusing instruction. Often students who have not yet met benchmarks have tested at or close to grade level, showing the need for test prep skills—which were taught to some students this quarter. I will be analyzing each test and highlighting individualized areas of focus for each student—places they need support. One huge issue that already jumped out...struggling readers—students not meeting benchmarks—are not reading much at home. Most middle schools require a minimum of a half an hour of at-home reading a day. For Trillium students to make gains, they will need to do this at home work. If your student isn’t meeting benchmarks, this is one of the best ways we can support them—reading a just right book for a half an hour a night. Yup, weekends included.