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Inside this issue
  • GCED Day 2018
  • 2018-19 MTSS - The Framework of Our Work
  • Secondary Principals' Book Study: Answering Why: Unleashing Passion, Purpose, and Performance in Younger Generations by Mark C. Perna
  • The Importance of Home-School Connections
  • RBEC meets its 2017-18 Q-Comp Goals
  • RWPS: Re-building PBIS​
  • ​​In the Spotlight: Nicole Jack, Director of Special Education
Important Upcoming Events/Meetings

September 7                   Special Education Directors' Forum @ MDE
September 12                  Late Start @ RBEC (PLCs)
September 17                  Special Education Leadership Team
                                      AT Cohort
September 24                  SE MN CTE Meeting; Mark Perna, Keynote Speaker
September 26                  ADSIS Orientation @ MDE
September 26                  EL Team & Instructional Coach PLC
The Progress, August/September 2018:  ​
​Volume 4, Issue 1

The Progress archive
Click here to view past issues from the current school year.
Comments? Suggestions for new articles?
Contact Jillynne Raymond, Editor, The Progress,
jraymond@gced.k12.mn.us
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GCED Day 2018

Once a year GCED has the honor of hosting our own staff members and the special education staff members from our member districts for one day of collaborative learning.  This year was no different.  Over 150 educators participated in professional development at River Bluff Education Center.  The focus is designed to continually make us better at what we do.  Highlights from 2018 included:
Lighting Round Sessions:
​
  • Assistive Technology (AT) considerations
  • MTSS/SAT Processes
  • All Things IEP
  • Data Collection
  • Supervising Paraprofessionals
Large Groups:
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All County Nurse Meeting
EL Teachers Writing Title III Grant
Special Education Teachers:
  • Functional Behavior Assessments
  • Behavior Improvement Plans

Keynote Speakers:

Tom Cady & Willow Sweeney
Top 20 
Engaging Disengaged Students
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The EL Team collaborates to write their Title III grant.
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Keynote speakers introduced the term, Kaizen. Its meaning resonated an ongoing message of continual improvement...an important status for public education.
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Willow Sweeney and Tom Cady, of Top 20, inspire all to help our students change the narratives they have in their heads to re-engage them in education.

2018-2019 MTSS - The Framework of our Work

Our work implementing MTSS continues; MTSS is the framework of all we do.  From an individual student standpoint, it is the framework we use to ensure all students' needs are met in order for each student to be proficient with expected academic and behavioral learning targets.  From a system lens, MTSS is a framework that helps us allocate resources in a sustainable manner.  In order to sustain our programming, it is important for us to reach at least 80% of our students' intended outcomes with first best instruction.  

Just as we use a 5 step problem solving model for individual student problem solving, the same process can be used to evaluate our implementation.  This will be the focus of our work with the principals cohort during the 2018-19 academic school year.  This group, along with our school psychologists will identify and evaluate districts' MTSS implementation.  

The principals meeting on August 13, 2018 also included instructional coaches and began with a review of the problem solving model.  The problem solving model is followed in the MTSS Problem Solving Team Packet, which begins with the first team of problem solvers:  teacher, student, parent.  All districts will go back to using the same documentation this year. The documentation for the MTSS process is now in one packet rather than multiple forms.  This MTSS Problem Solving Team Packet is available as a word document and a Google doc.  Nothing is changed in the MTSS process, we are simply helping users walk through the problem solving process in order to become fluent in the work.  GCED Executive Director Cherie Johnson uses learning how to drive as an analogy to explain the need.  When you first learn how to drive you have to intentionally think through each step, how to turn on your blinker, when to turn on your blinker, where to begin to turn and so forth.  After years of driving experience most of us can arrive at our destination without any thought to those individual steps because our learning has been firmly established.  As we learn and continuously improve, we need to exert more energy into the process itself.  

To help support that learning, we are pleased to offer specific problem solving training through CAREI, U of MN"s Center of Applied Research and Educational Improvement.  Although we can't take all the principals (you know...limited resources plus districts can't have all of the administrators gone), we can take some team members from each district.  Those individuals have received invitations to participate in this professional development. 

And now for a random side comment....if you are reading this, act now to possibly win a fabulous grand prize for reading the September issue of The Progress.  All you need to do is to email Jillynne (jraymond@gced.k12.mn.us) with the phrase "MTSS Teams" in the subject line.  The first responder WINS! 
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Reminder:  The fall FAST assessment window is open through September 21, 2018.

2018-2019 FAST Assessment Window Calendar.pdf
File Size: 214 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

2018-2019 FAST Assessment Framework.pdf
File Size: 197 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


Secondary Principals' Book Study

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When we use the term MTSS, we are not looking at one data point.  We are looking at multiple areas that would indicate our students reaching their full potential.  Student engagement is essential in doing so.  At the secondary level student engagement can present unique challenges.  Programming can help.  It helps so much that considerable resources are put into CTE (Career Technical Education) to help engage students.

Our CTE point person, Brian Cashman, will lead a book study with secondary principals as a part of our principals meetings this year.  The book's title sums up the work and the need: Answering Why: Unleashing Passion, Purpose, and Performance in Younger Generations.  

Author Mark Perna will be speaking at a Perkins sponsored event to "unveil the groundbreaking innovations that are making the difference for students nationwide."  The event is funded by SE Minnesota's Carl D. Perkins grant. There is no fee to attend, but registration is needed (click here to registration link on GCED's website). 

​Event details:

Mark C. Perna
Monday, September 24, 2018 8:00-10:00 AM
*Book signing immediately following*
Chatfield High School, Potter Auditorium
401 Main St. South, Chatfield, MN 55923

The Importance of Home - School Connections

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by Kristin Kirk, School Psychologist assigned to Cannon Falls

The 2018-2019 school year is beginning!  Students fill our hallways with their energy and stories from the summer.  We will have some familiar faces in our classrooms, but new faces as well.  With these new students are their families who support them.

Research shows that a strong parent, child, and educator relationship helps boost student achievement and outcomes.  Parent-teacher relationships are built over time through consistent communication, collaboration, creative problem solving, a common goal and, most importantly, trust.  In our busy day of juggling papers, lesson planning, and managing students, we can easily forget the group that could lend significant support -- parents and families.  Here are some helpful tips to start building those home-school connections:
  • Smile When You See Parents
Open house night is a great way to make those first positive interactions. Most parents only occasionally interact with teachers so make sure that at least 90 percent of your encounters with them are positive, warm, and friendly. ​
  • Invite Parents to Share
Distribute a survey at the beginning of the year. Find out what parents know about and what skills they have. Invite them in to the classroom, especially if they have knowledge that helps connects the curriculum and content.  Let them share with you their cultural traditions, interests, passions, skills, knowledge.  Parents can also share information about their student and their likes/strengths.
  • Communicate Often and in Various Forms
Provide information about what's going on in your class (weekly would be ideal): what students are learning, what they've accomplished, what you're excited about, what they're excited about, and the learning and growth you're seeing.  Suggest things that they might ask their child about: "Ask them to tell you about what they learned last week about sharks," or "Ask them to read you the poem they wrote."
  • Make Positive Communications to Home
If you teach many students, identify those students who perhaps need a positive call or note home.  Parents love to hear about the little things their student has done to help out a peer or something academic that the student accomplished.
  • Lead with the Good News
Give positive praise first when calling parents or meeting with them to discuss a concern.  Every kid has something good about him/her.  Find it. Share it.  Then share your concern.  Adhere strictly to this rule.
  • Actively Listen to Parents
Parents know a whole lot about their kids.  Take the time for phone conversations, face-to-face meetings, and notes that come in the backpack. Parents want to be an active part in their education and as educators we need to take the time to listen. ​
  • Thank Parents
Both individually and publicly for their support, perhaps in your weekly newsletter.  Recognize what they do to help your class and how it's impacting students.


River Bluff Education Center meets its 2017-18 Q-Comp Goals

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​RBEC's 2017-18 Q-Comp Goals
​
  1. The percentage of students enrolled October 1 in grades 3 through 10 at River Bluff Education Center who earn an achievement level of Meets the Standards or Exceeds the Standards in Reading will increase from 11.1% in 2017 to 22% in 2018.
    2018:  42%
    ​GOAL MET
  2.  The K-10 students (participating in universal benchmarking) at River Bluff Education Center will increase this year’s median Student Growth Percentile (grade level peers) from 31.5 (2016-17 school year) to 40 when measured by the FAST Bridge Learning reading assessments from Fall 2017 to Spring 2018.
    Student Growth Percentile = 40
    GOAL MET
  3. Teachers will engage in the GCED Teacher Development Evaluation Plan.
    Continuing contract teachers will earn a rating of Applying or Innovating.
    Non-continuing contract teachers will earn a rating of Beginning, Developing, Applying, or Innovating.
    GOAL MET

​CONGRATULATIONS on the awesome learning, RBEC Staff and Students!  

Red Wing Public Schools - Re-Building PBIS

Every child has a set of social skills.  They may not match what we are expecting,  but it is our job to help them practice and assess their progress.  Embrace the logic of good, effective instruction, teaching social skills just like academic skills.

                         - Dr. Tim Lewis
Multiple resources are available for PBIS teams.  
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Teachers and administrators from Sunnyside Elementary School, Twin Bluff Middle School, and Red Wing High School attended PBIS Tier 1 training in August at RBEC.  All three schools have gone through the formal PBIS training in Mankato, but over time team members change.  With changes in teams and staff members, programming efforts can use a boost from time to time.  This 1 day refresher course allowed teams an opportunity to review all essential components of PBIS and to work out action plans for individual site work and transitions between sites within the district. 

Spending part of their summer on this important collaboration allows the district an opportunity to jump start their Winger Pride.
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​In the Spotlight:  Nicole Jack, GCED Director of Special Education assigned to Red Wing Public Schools 

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Nicole Jack, GCED Director of Special Education

You never know what human beings are capable
​of until you give them a chance.
​

                          - Nicole Jack
​
Rapid Round of Nicole's Favorites

Book  -  Serena (This book is about a girl growing up in a logging community in 1929, bought on recent trip to Tennessee; it helped her connect even more to the area she visited.)

Movie   -   It's a Wonderful World

TV Show   -   Drain the Lakes/Drain the Rivers

Exercise/Sport   -   I love to walk.

Disability   -   EBD

Age Group to Teach   -   8 to 12 year olds

Food   -   Fresh veggies from the garden this time of year
​

Veg out Activity   -   ​Watching mindless TV, any stupid show on Bravo

We are happy to introduce and welcome Nicole Jack to Goodhue County.  Nicole is GCED's new Director of Special Education, assigned to Red Wing Public Schools.  Although new to GCED, she is not new to the area.

Her most recent position was here in Red Wing as the principal for Walter McGinnis High School, located on site at the Red Wing Correctional Facility.  That position may sound a bit scary for some, certainly not for Nicole. She loved that job and enjoyed working with the students. She was able to witness their growth through building strong relationships.  It is certainly a part of her professional why - to help students see the value in themselves.

Nicole grew up in River Falls, Wisconsin and attended the University of WI - Stout for her undergraduate college years.  She knew she always wanted to be a teacher and Stout offered a vocational rehabilitation program; she worked with adults and students with TBI (traumatic brain injuries).  After college she taught in public education, working at first with DCD (developmental cognitive delay) students. Until then, she had not been working with young children and found that she loved the young students and the work.  She was hooked. She taught in Spring Valley and Boyceville, Wisconsin before moving to Illinois for 5 years. In Illinois she worked mostly with 11th and 12th graders in work study programs. At that time she was working on her administrative degree and ended up as an assistant principal.  All was fine until her sister had a baby in the Lake Elmo area; Auntie Nicole knew it was time to “come home.”  She continued her career in the Midwest as a transition coordinator for the Chisago Lakes School District, a special education supervisor at SCRED (St. Croix Education District) and then principal at Walter McGinnis High School.

Her career began with a focus on DCD, which is admittedly her second favorite disability to work with her. Those students know so much about others, yet they are not given that credit in Nicole’s experience.  Although not licensed in the area, her favorite students are those served for EBD (emotional behavioral disorder). Nicole believes strongly that “the EBDers are truly the students that need help in seeing the value in themselves.”  This is a challenge that can look differently for the Es and Bs. Nicole would like to see more recognition between the two and believes that someday the disability category may change to recognize that an emotional disorder can look much different than a behavioral disorder.  

This summer Nicole was able to recharge before the school year.  She recently returned from a week in Tennessee, where she enjoyed the Smoky Mountains.  It brought back a happy memory of her last visit to Tennessee; she and her grandmother attended the World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1992.  Now hard at work for GCED and RWPS, Nicole is hopeful of a positive upcoming school year.  Her greatest hope is that by working together she can help meet tier 1 needs; she hopes that more and more students get their academic and behavioral needs met prior to a referral for special education evaluation.  

Equally so, she understands the challenges facing special education teachers today.  They have abundant responsibilities with paperwork, data, student goals, and writing compliant IEPs that meet kids’ needs.  Through this intensive work she offers this advice to all, “keep communicating with team members! No matter what, we need to keep talking about things.  We need to keep having the tough conversations.” It is through those tough conversations that problem solving on our common goals can be strong.
​

Join us in welcoming Nicole to the team!

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          ​Remember that you have access to free resources through Infinitec.  


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Goodhue County Education District, 395 Guernsey Lane, Red Wing, MN 55066         651-388-4441      
Goodhue County Education District is a group of six southeastern Minnesota school districts: Cannon Falls, Goodhue, Kenyon-Wanamingo, Lake City, Red Wing and Zumbrota-Mazeppa. Working  together, the districts provide effective and efficient educational services and funding for special education programs, staff development, extended and alternative summer school services.