11/16/2017
November 15, 2017
Hello Ockley Green Families and Community,
It’s hard to believe we are halfway through November! Last week we had an incredible turnout at Parent/Teacher conferences. Thank you to all the families who were present to connect with their student’s teachers. This week we have five full days of school followed by another shorter week next week because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Then we will return with three weeks of school up to Winter Break.
Thank you to all the parents and families who participated in the listening sessions with the Middle School Planning Principals. Your feedback is valuable and important to their process moving forward to plan for new middle schools as well as to our ongoing work here at Ockley Green. We recognize that there are challenges and concerns. In order to ensure that all of our students are high achieving and reaching their full potential, we know we have work to do. Here is what we have in place to address these challenges:
SCHOOL CLIMATE
Tracey Briggs, our School Climate Specialist, supports school wide classroom behavior by using Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS) as supported by Portland Public Schools. Adding to the work we’ve done all year, we will continue with several weeks of professional development planned for the upcoming weeks to review specific in-class routines and structures that will better support our students to be engaged, on task, and successful with their learning.
As a school wide positive incentive to motivate students, we currently have weekly PRIDE drawings on Thursdays where students can win prizes, tech time, popsicle parties with friends or have lunch with the principals. We will soon open a student store stocked with student favorites they can purchase, using PRIDE slips. Students can earn PRIDE slips from any staff member for demonstrating school PRIDE expectations.
Our Restorative Justice Coordinator, Keela Tillery, works with teachers to utilize the many aspects of classroom circles to help us build strong classroom relationships. Classroom circles give students and teachers the opportunity to sit together where they can open up conversations, share perspectives, ideas and thoughts in a safe, proactive and caring environment. We believe Restorative Circles are an essential component in developing a positive school climate. Circles can be used to build both classroom communities, friendships and also to heal when a conflict has arisen. Keela has provided several hours of professional development to our teachers over the past several weeks. She is also available to support teachers in leading circles in their classrooms. We recently created a Restorative Justice Committee that will guide school-wide restorative practices.
Our counselors, Jillian Stone and Brian Meyer, members of our Ockley Green Climate team and Jessica Lingenfelter, our 7th grade Science teacher, have started an OG Student Council to build student voice and leadership. Student Council elections are going to take place before Winter Break. This will be in tandem with our student leadership team, the Dragon Leaders. Dragon Leaders are 8th grade students who have been working since the school year started to support 6th grade students in their transition to middle school as well as support with school activities and events.
BEHAVIORS AND CONSEQUENCES
Middle schoolers are in a highly social developmental phase and need many opportunities to connect with their peers. When student behavior becomes a challenge and they need redirections or supports there are multiple systems, supported by staff and administration in place to help both the student and teacher as outlined above. We continue to prioritize a focus on engagement strategies during our weekly staff meetings as well.
Tier 1 behaviors are managed by teachers in the classroom in order to maintain an inclusive learning environment. This might be talking out of turn, not completing work or leaving the classroom.
Tier 2 behaviors are repeated Tier 1 offences and require intervention from the school support team which includes administration.
Tier 3 behaviors are chronic or unsafe behaviors and the severity of their behavior requires immediate intervention from school support team including administration.
The consequences for these behaviors follow the Portland Public School’s Student Responsibilities Rights and Discipline Handbook. These include but are not limited to: restorative reset, conferences with students, family contact, restorative justice circles or conversations, community service, in-school suspension or out of school suspension.
OCKLEY GREEN PARTNERS & VOLUNTEERS
We have invited Kaiser Permanente and the Oregon Children's’ Theater to bring their performance of Above, Between and Below to our students this week. This play’s predominant messages are to help students understand that everyone needs to take personal responsibility for their own power to harm or help others and that our actions can have unintended consequences. This will be followed up with classroom workshops to reinforce the important messages of the performance.
We have connected with ‘The Sisters of the Road Cafe’ to organize a winter donation drive to support individuals who are in need. There will be a school-wide endeavor to collect everyday articles for the organization. Our Dragon Leaders will be leading the program. This is one way our students will be able to give back to others and expand their awareness of the needs of others. We hope to continue this special partnership for years to come.
Other valued partners who support both our students, staff and families are the Coalition of Black Men, SUN School, and our onsite SEI Coordinators. We also have parent voice and input via our strong Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and our Ockley Green Site Council. They welcome all families to their monthly meetings. We couldn’t do it without the many volunteers who support in the library, in the main office and in our Ockley Green Garden. All of these partnerships strengthen and build the programs at Ockley Green.
We are excited about the ongoing improvements within our school and value your partnership and commitment to the Ockley Green community.
Have a wonderful week,
Paula McCullough
Prinicpal
