Ignacio Middle School Field Notes
November 1, 2017
Chris deKay’s talk:
45% NA kids. Hopi, Jicarilla, Diné, and Southern Ute
25% Hispanic
35-40% White, “Anglo”.
Recent influx of people: casino bringing workers
The dumbbell metaphor: bulges of kids who do, a counter-bulge of kids who struggle, the thin bar between the two.
Interventions
WORK HARD & BE KIND a sign
Dana Talamante-Montoya, “the mastermind of the social-emotional”
Character counts.
Grew up in Ignacio
grew up in a restaurant1997 graduate of I.H.S.
worked in Talent Search
Here since 2001Master’s in “At-Risk Youth”
Feels she can influence middle school kids
Chris says of MAE students: “You’re a change agent.”
“They have to know you’re going to be here.”
The feeling of being ‘neighbors’.
198 kids (v. BMS which has 400)
800 in district
13% Sped IEP = 504
• Schoolview off of CDE website
60% FRL
School closest in SES demographics to Sheridan and Ft. Morgan
Collaboration: mentions vertical alignment, grades 5-12
Collaborating on suicide prevention county-wide
There is a middle school principal PLC (LaPlata County)
intervention system“We try to stress the intrinsic”
The school is in “Priority Improvement” [C. doesn’t seem either defensive or ashamed of this; to his credit.]
“school is small for them”—re: those kids who don’t connect academically
Peer observations, 4 times a year
“Collective intelligence in a school district” [An interesting idea; how this might be measured? If we think of collective intelligence in specific schools we’ve been in???? An institution’s collective intelligence? Any cohorts? Any college’s? Any department’s????]
$9000.00 PPOR
Dana’s huge capacity for unending work.Proud of vocational tech.
Tribe does a career fair
Dana’s working on early professional/job identity
THE IDEA OF THE FAR-SEEING middle schooler. Is this possible? Is this a thang? [I meant to ask Marissa this at the teacher panel and got interestingly side-tracked with all the talk of expectations.]
______
How integrated are issues of culture in the curriculum?
Native studies class 6-7 weeks
Tribal essay contest
Leonard C. Bird Day
At the high school: Ute language class
Banks:
Nieto:
monoculture
tolerance
respect
affirmation/solidarity/critique
CD: “We try to honor every group.”
Warrior Poets: Tanea Winder
champeen teen roping, 2nd in USAAthletes mentioned late, not early, as at BHS
Rhea makes cult. comp. link
Julie asks about family engagement
Dana: Open houses, “breaking bread”
Increasing numbers of parents come in for Open House
Dana’s attempting social media push
phone calls.
______
Harry Wong
[I have some problems with Wong and huge problems with Lemov. Lemov’s Wong on steroids…even more corporate, even more teacher-centered. It’s served as being a sort of First Help, Hirste Hilfe, for the new teacher. A crutch, a pacifier, a “starter” for the too busy. More pedagogy for industrial model teaching.]
Me-linnial. Millennial. ME-lenn-ee-ull. [Later, Melanie Taylor’s interested in the same concept;
principals saw a YouTube video on “the millennial mind”]
Taking tour: print beginning to be on walls
inspirational aphorisms, “quotes”White butcher paper posters.
7th grade Pride wall
8th grade Pride wall
I miss the Donald Judd-ian austerity of the design.
Why not make permanent work?
My haiku for this school:
do aphorisms
lose themselves and their meaning
once they are spoken?
Batelle for Kids—the Batelle color system, a sort of “quick and dirty” Myers-Briggs
Kid panel
Julian
Wyatt Teryn
Kayla
How has your idea of school changed? (potential question)
Student Connect: notes in other people’s boxes
Awards for assemblies
Birthdays
Character counts stuff.
Power Hour
Julie’s great question about telling a friend what’s special about this school
Leroy values 1:1 time
Again: the issue of giving MS students
meta-cognitive vocabulary [a key thesis of mine]
Emma’s great question about the big picture.
Wyatt: “Try to have a sense of humor.” “Try not to give people too much technology.”
Teryn: “Push em a little.”
“Always be calm and be patient”
“Patience is a big piece…different pace.”