ARMS Principal Forums #3

001okay it says that we are live so let's begin good afternoon and welcome to the last of three community forums to meet finalists for the Amherst regional middle school principal position I am Doreen Cunningham the assistant superintendent of diversity equity and human resources this virtual platform that you are viewing from YouTube has a chat feature where you are able to submit questions for candidate response questions were also submitted via email we will get to as many questions as possible during the allotted time we ask that communications via chat follow the norms that we would follow if we were in person meaning we will use appropriate language and be respectful with our communication also this is a reminder that the sessions are being videotaped each candidate will begin by giving a brief bio and sharing why

002they believe that they are the best candidate for this position and why they are interested in Emer schools today we have miss Jennifer Sauter miss order please tell us about yourself and why you believe that you are the best candidate for this position and why Amer schools well thank you for having me today and I am very interested in being part of the Amherst Public Schools family and community and I thank you for the opportunity today one of the many reasons why Amherst interests me as a school district and in particular the middle school is the size of the community and the diversity of the individuals within your school and a new district I went to the University of Massachusetts Amherst as an undergraduate and actually started my teaching career at the UMass education school

003as a post-grad cr+ key a student and a lot of the experiences I had as an undergraduate student then in my first years as a residential educator and the public school teacher on our be missed on many of the things that I have learned and hibbity able to experience in western Massachusetts it's always been a desire of mine to come back to Western NASA as my children have gotten older and I see that the Emperor's Medical School position opening at this time it's a great opportunity for me to see if I can come back in some way to the to the place where I found my passion for education in the first place why do I think that I am a strong candidate for the position of principal in your middle school is I come

004to to the point in my career where I have over 20 years of public education experience both as a teacher of high school students and an administrator at the middle school level in my current position I where's the head of school and special education is rated for a special school State Approved special education school program for students with developmental delays and autism and that has increased my experience of my expertise in the areas of how to support students with on learning needs and diverse skills and abilities iam Hearst Middle's school it has an awful lot of tenants of my own personal philosophy about education wanting to build restorative practices which is something I worked very hard on as a middle school administrator and the public schools to establish ways to reduce the number of suspensions

005the number of detentions that student have students have by tying the disciplinary codes to the code of conduct and the core values this world by finding ways in which students behavior can be I identified as opportunity based learning assistants as members of their own community and giving them an opportunity to in some way make amends and do over where they may if I'm ever awarded would be acceptable in school or outside school so there was sort of practices initiative that has a place in your district is is one that speaks very directly to my own interest in maintaining student attendance in school Jennifer can I offer your audio is very choppy so we're having difficulties hearing you I'm wondering if you can close out the link and just re-enter the chat room absolutely I'll try

006that hold on a second hello again hi so just as when we started at the beginning you sounded perfectly fine it was as you continued to talk that you went in and out okay and so I'm going to need you to respond to that first question again so that everyone can hear it thoroughly absalom do you need me to react the question or do you know what it was no I remember what it is okay great thank you thank you um so hello again everybody my name is Jen Sauter and I'm going to make my very best attempt to summarize some of the things that I had said previously in an answer to the question why Amherst and why do I feel I'm the strongest candidate for the position I started my educational career at

007the University of Massachusetts is an Amherst as a student in the post baccalaureate program and my first experience both in residential education and then later public education came in Western Mass some of the strongest foundations for my educational philosophy and my approach to working with people comes from my experiences at UMass as an undergrad in the marching band program with George Parkes he was somebody who identified for me some of the things about myself that really became strengths in the field of education whether it was working with challenging individuals or planning and management and being able to adopt a doctrine of to be earliest to be on time and I feel very strongly that those experiences led me down the path that I had as a 12-year public school educator seven years at the middle

008school level as an administrator and now in my work in residential education currently working with high needs populations and learning a lot more about the services that are provided to special education students and students with diverse social emotional needs I find myself at a point where I realized that my passion and that education is in the school setting and wedding with no school suit on variety of personalities and learning to become better people through their mistakes and their risk-taking is why Amherst Empress middle school teacher is so appealing to me the opportunity to join up with the people looking at restorative practices is something that speaks very strongly to my own interest in my own facilitation of linguistic practice programs in other middle schools in one of the middle schools I worked and we were

009able to effectively use restorative practices combined with some positive supports for students to reduce their out-of-school time by more than 50% in one year it was also extremely important to address how we could take a look at the needs of students academically and balance that with some of the educational ports that we would need in terms of their social and emotional well-being and it seems like Amherst is very invested as a school at the middle school level but as a district in a community and supporting students both emotionally academically so that they can achieve success as strong citizens in their community as well as well-educated individuals in their own right so why I see myself is strong candidate for the position is in a lot of ways what Amherst is looking to continue in their

010traditions and in their expectations for student learning and for students ports for growing a strong and committed faculty are all part of how I feel about what education should be a collaborative second home for our students and for the adults who provide supports academically and otherwise an opportunity to celebrate successes big and small and then the ability to create a connection with the community and to be an extension of the community that is seen as an asset not just for the students but for everybody who comes in contact with the school thank you the audio situation is still where you are going in and out and at time okay there's a lag I'm not sure if you move the computer or what's going on but your responses we heard maybe every other word I'm so

011sorry about that I've I haven't touched the computer although I moved it just now as you were speaking to see if there was a way that I could position it a little better right so I can hear you much better when you're that close so I don't know what's going on so I'm gonna happen I'm going to lean in a little bit you'll get very close to me so with you sounding fine right now I'm going to take the chance and ask the next question the next question how how will you close the equity gaps for students at the regional Middle School I think one of the ways in which you have to look at what the equity gaps are is by taking a look at the the data and having conversations with individuals I

012don't think that it's one it's going to be the the job of just one person but it becomes the responsibility of the the head of the school the principal to ensure that steps are being taken in order to bring students in at whatever ability levels they are academically at whatever emotional levels they need supports for initially and find ways to make connections with caring others find ways to promote collaboration between classmates and to take a hard look at the the struggles that individuals and groups of people have in the school and and open up the school to those conversations they're not easy one to have but planning with a goal in mind knowing what you want that to look like and bringing people in that have different opinions than you but working towards the same

013and I think you need to have the investment of your school staff your students family members and members of the community to take a look at how do we provide those supports to build success in all of the populations of students whether it's it becomes a an ethnicity question if it becomes an academic question if it becomes a situation where some students have greater social and emotional needs outside of school that impact them in school you have to take a look at what those what those individual situations are and identify how can we make those situations that are for more students and how do we identify what can we fix first or what can we work on first and how will working on one particular aspect trickle down and into other other areas of support

014and need for support for students I think you have to have a lot of conversations I think you have to be willing to bring people in in a variety of ways whether it's face-to-face meetings where in some cases bringing people in that can provide supports and opportunities to teach each other and harness the strengths of the people who work with the students every day I think one of the biggest ways that we can impact change is by identifying the ways in which we as caring adults in the school give back to our students and how do we make that or how do we make that stronger how do we develop a culture where success is the center for all students and we take some person a personal responsibility and the initiative to identify what does

015that success look like and how do we then once that small step is achieved how do we move forward with that and one of the ways I think that that would work successfully is making sure that every student has a connection to the school in some way whether it's through an extracurricular club or activity through a sport through a way to volunteer through making connections and having natural mentorships between students and and carrying other staff faculty paraprofessionals members of the school community as a whole and then finding ways to build build from those things once students feel that they are cared for and they're trusted and they can trust then you can have those deeper conversations where we can debulk some myths and we can address the issue is on what do we want to

016see our school look like and how will we get there together and the role of the principal will be to initiate those things to find other ways to attack a concern when the first play fails and to champion those successes and celebrate those with the people who make them possible which are you know in many ways the people that work with our students every day their families at home and the students themselves thank you but next question what do you like about middle school students oh my goodness um there are lots of things I like about middle school students I think one of the things that I really enjoy the most about middle school students is they try on so many personality over the course of their time in a middle school it might be

017the first time where their friendships are not based on where they live in a neighborhood but on the interests that they have I think in a lot of ways middle school is a place where you could meet the same student three times in the course of the day and have three totally different interactions based on you know how they approach a situation - nor what their interests are what their mood is in the moment but it's never tall and and that's I you know what I love that middle school students bring an awful lot to the table they change your conversations frequently they have a lot of interest and they want to try a lot of different things and I think it at the heart of it - middle school students when they come in

018to a secondary level they don't want to achieve they want to be successful and in some cases it's the first time we're their abilities don't match the rigor of the coursework and they struggle and they in some cases that presents itself as them asking a lot more questions in some cases it it presents itself where you have to look a little harder to find out if if if they really understand or if they need some help but those aha moments that come from middle schooler it's when they finally get something where they've finally achieved something that they've been struggling with or they are able to run the mile at the speed that they wanted to rap and it's they find joy in so many opportunities to learn and be successful and they want to tell

019you they want you to be part of that they want you to know more about them and just the communication level that happens at the middle school and the enthusiasm students have for who they are as individuals as they learn about who they want to be I think is the thing that intrigues me most and makes me excited to come to work every day in a middle school thank you thank you if you are chosen to become the next principle of the middle school how will you support students with mental health disorders one of the things that I have had a lot of opportunity to experience recently is working with students with high emotional needs a very delicate situation in a lot of ways when you're working with students with mental health concerns or students

020who meet the emotional supports to be successful in school and I would want to be able to work with our support staff the you know the guidance and the health professionals that work in the school and in the district to be able to provide supports within the classroom and ways in which we can reach those students to develop both the confidence and a competence in themselves and to help them address the needs that they may have that are roadblocks to their ability to participate there is more than one way to address the need of a student and if you're just looking at a mental concern a mental health concern with anxiety that presents in very different ways for very different students and I think being able to address each student individually and identify the ways

021in which we can support their learning in school support their need for additional assistance or additional emotional opportunities it might mean working with an 8 an outside agency or an outside resource to provide some support groups for students with similar concerns bringing in opportunities to have people work in peers on projects within the community that will help them build more confidence and competence for to be able to build a greater sense of self to work with families to provide the supports and the understanding about how we can support them at home through the school and through the opportunities that we can provide to the students and finally I think making sure that we are aware paying attention to the signs and the signals that students are giving us that they're struggling like and paying attention

022to the things that they're doing that are not academically driven and being able to have open conversations with with families with you know with people in the professional community our healthcare providers and the outside resource is to bring bring our students into a place where they can feel that they have somebody there to talk to or that they know that we can find them someone who can be supportive of them and that we can support the families in that in that role that they have to it if they need it thank you I'm looking at some of the chats and the question is do you have the or have access to headphones and maybe an earbud or something because it's still very choppy to monitor let me check very quickly I am Not sure that

023I have if not terminal mic if not what I can possibly do is after I ask you these questions on this platform you and I can go back and I use a different platform maybe Google Google Hangouts or such and I ask you the same questions again so that we can at least try to see if we can get responses without the intermittent gaps okay okay sure so the next question says what is your plan of action to ensure that English language learners and students with special needs at the middle school make significant progress it's a very good question and while English language learners and students with special special education needs and supports have some similar interventions in many cases there is there are some differences in the way in which you might approach that

024in a school I think the first thing that I would want to do is to make sure that those students and their families had had access to in the case of English language learners I would want to make sure that we were able to identify that students had access to materials and resources and their families did on that would provide a strong transition into effectively using on English while at the same time providing opportunities to effectively translate the materials that we have at home so that they can so that students can engage in the work and families can be supportive of that I think regular communication with families the use of interpretive services making sure that our documents and our information that we share with families is updated to reflect the language language spoken in

025the home of the language spoken by the parents and at the same time providing resources to families and and training and how to use them so that information can be communicated and or easily translated back and forth at home for their native language or their language of origin and English which would be used in the instructional practices for the most part in the school I also believe that students appear with other students who have the young and have the ability to collaborate with students in the classroom will increase the experiences of the students who are English language learners and and provide that social support you know the more colloquial language skills that might be difficult working with teachers to engage in more frequent practice and about contextual cues and contextual vocabulary and how do we

026teach something something that is in in written or and spoken word how do we teach that in the way that provides multiple examples and multiple opportunities for practice I believe that students will succeed at a faster pace if they are provided with you know student supports they tend to be able to associate a little bit better and a little more effectively with their peer group in some cases if they have a question or they're not sure so preparing students up with with collaborative learners in their classrooms or in some cases reaching out high school and finding students who are part of the National Honor Society that can come down and provide some service hours for tutoring to provide support in working with the teach the classroom teacher might be all ways in which we can

027engage the student with other students in order to support the learning and then finally looking at how we assess the student at various levels formally and informally on how they're using language and providing supportive feedback on where we might expand their learning or expand their opportunities outside of school to engage in you know to end to engage the families and that I think for language learners would be hopeful and and would provide students with a sense of being part of the community rather than not understanding and being excluded from the learning opportunity for students with special needs I think you have to take a look and rely on the the experience and the expertise of the special educators the families because the feelings are the first educators and in many cases they know so much

028more and have so much more to share with with the schools about how their child does best in certain situations socially academically what their interests are and try to bring their interest into the classroom so that there is some real-life application to their learning finding ways to modify curriculums of those big broad topics the students have working knowledge of but then how do we find those areas of interest that we can hone in on for students with learning needs to keep the information relevant and to make sure that they are learning at a rate that might be best for them but that they are making measurable gains each time and if they're not being able to convene a team and have a conversation about what else can we try what else can we do how

029else can we meet the needs of that student how can we adapt our schedule and our service delivery so that the student is maybe getting a different delivery of the of the service but maybe it's a better a better method to do it that might mean providing books on tape for a student who is more of an auditory learner rather than a visual learner and allowing them to listen along in a classroom and then being able to modify Simon's assessments in accolade according to how they learn best that they can demonstrate learning in a different way for a student who has difficulty speaking the link but it might be giving them an opportunity to use this speech-to-text translator and to develop something that they are able to do and practice and then be able to

030use that as a tool for developing their own presentations I think that there are a lot of opportunities using technology as well as using the resources of the expert teachers in the building to build the capacity of those students without having to pull them out of the classrooms with their peers thank you with change in administration administration comes changes in policies procedures and methodologies how do you plan to streamline existing systems and utilize staff feedback when implementing new initiatives well I think you look at the school improvement plan and you take a look at the things that are working well in your school in your district in the first way that you do that but is to have communication with the sequal ders in the school in a lot of ways things that are working

031well in providing success for students you want to filter all of your future decisions through what is this going to do what is this gonna mean how is this going to impact our school culture and our school community and I would start with talking with members of the the faculty and the staff and the students about what is it that you really love about this school what are the things that we do really really well what are the traditions or the habits and the you know the things that the school does to celebrate success that you want to see remain here and why why are they valuable why are they important and how do they reach the students and they you know and the community in a way that shows that students or successful students

032are capable and that students are going to you know do it you know create them with it within themselves a better sense of being a member of the community and with that it's going to come the question of what do we need to be better at and and where do you think we need to go on and the people that are in the school now know that better than I would and I would want to listen to the things that they are concerned about is there is there not necessarily a culture issue but is there an academic issue is there not an academic issue but is there really a an issue in terms of the emotional sports that we have for students do people need to be better trained in a particular topic related to

033student well-being and how do we bring that in and where are we going to get our our strongest my strongest but forward keeping in mind that we want to put the students needs first and we want to make sure that whatever we bring into the school is going to provide with the largest the largest number possible student successes so I think that when you're looking at changing the culture and the policies and the procedures I would rely very strongly on the people that are already in the building to help me identify what I can't in the data that might be produced by this school through assessments or through surveys or through conversations that have been had with the district leadership team I'd welcome back to the school and find out how do we make our

034school better what is it that we want to see what do we want to be great at in five five years what do we want Amherst middle school to be known for within our community and and how do we get there and then develop the plan that is going to drive drive us in that direction and filter all of the decisions that we're going to make through that plan thank you what is your experience with the performing arts departments and what do you have for the role of performing arts in the middle school just like sports are very important to some students there are many students who come to school every day because they look forward to beyond look forward to chorus they look forward to an art class and in many ways those hooks

035give lifelong skills in the same way that you know learning how to throw a ball or how to kick you know how to play play the game of soccer allows for collaboration and sportsmanship there are a lot of opportunities through music and through the arts that are extremely important for building character and the skills necessary to be strong adult individuals I myself personally learned how to play my instrument in middle school because I had been a vocalist at from elementary school on the school plays and you suppose were a big part of my life in middle school and I played I play the French horn and I played from 8 the summer before my 8th grade year I still dust it out take it out take it out play it every once in a while

036but like I said it was the it was really the marching game program at UMass Amherst that brought me to Western Mass and brought me to the school where I then do you know learned that I was meant to be a person in education and if it hadn't been for my eighth grade music teacher mr. mingle le who said you have a great pair of lungs you want to try the French foreign it's it's not easy but you can do it it it brought a lot to me in terms of building confidence working through struggle it taught me an awful lot about who I was as a person than and what I was willing to to take risks on and I think that music programs are essential to building character and students building collaboration and

037teamwork can't perform well when people don't perform together it allows first to see an ability it time management and the importance of practice the importance of failing before succeeding you know visual arts programs are in many ways it's easily adaptable in professional and professional environments and they by having access to artistic opportunities it allows students to gain a whole lot more of some of those transfer skills and background skills that they don't realize that they need in other areas and I think that they are extremely important I would support their continued success within the school and find ways to create to work with the teachers of everything from budget to scheduling to make sure that students have access to those experiences while they're in middle school so that they can identify if there is a

038a personal interest or a personal passion that can be carried on through adulthood thank you if we have a period of time next year when we have to rotate between in-person and online instruction what will you do to ensure students are engaged in their learning and what will you do to ensure that there's socially no social emotional well-being is being addressed I think in a time where you have to leave the classroom and you can't put eyes on people every day you have to create a sense of community in a different way one of the ways that technology allows us to do that is setting up a variety of forums and chats where you can have multiple faces on a screen at the same time I was I am a big proponent of bringing families

039into the school whenever possible to have conversations I would have you know four times a year I'd have either a pizza with the principal or coffee with the principal four families as well as opportunities to discuss a variety of concerns a variety of topics with families that are pertinent to the Middle's well so I think in the in the event that we would have to go to more of an online or digital type of learning environment I think my role shifts from being the person in the building to the person on the screen providing forms for families to come in to talk in small groups may be setting up opportunities to talk to families by the way in which their students are teamed for learning or talk to organizations and the different the way in

040which students may be organized through sports or the arts or their service programs but also in the same way meet with the students talk with that open up the the lines of communication with the town and with the resource in the resources within the town that we might be using for supports for students and finding ways to connect them you know for for those social emotional supports as well I have two teenage children myself and the the period that we're going through now with them they were on top of their homework but not being able to communicate with friends you know in a meaningful way is they called and for some of our student and the only way they see their friends is is that school they maybe don't they live on the opposite ends

041of town they don't have the ability to get to one another if they can't be outside with one another we need to find ways to create those those spaces in those places for students to meet and to gather and to talk and maybe host do-it-yourself activities through a zoom meeting so students and have materials and you can have a you know a cap ain't day a paint night for for students where they can log in and watch the art teacher and go through the steps the painting something and then display their work visually and you take a snapshot of the zooms screen and you post that online so that people can see it where you have a book club for students where they all can read a book online and then they certainly discuss it

042and that's something that they can do to remain connected with their with their families or with this argument that their friends are with the school community I think you have to engage families in a way that makes sense I recently joined a group chat where a lot of people there their children were in the same third grade classroom my children are highschool age so I didn't have a lot to relate but just putting parents together in the room and being the facilitator for that space they talked an awful lot about what was going on at home and shared ideas and agreed to send each other their projects or a way to you know connect to work on a collaborative assignment and I just listening to the ways in which families just need space to get

043together and the permission to do that it brings about such great opportunities to stay connected I think the other thing that would be my responsibility as a principal to do is to facilitate the discussion with teachers on a regular basis to check in with students and how are we working with them academically how are we making sure that their assignments are getting done and if they're not how do we check in with them using the supports with guidance and maybe our if we have adjustment counselors or other people that we can use to do do the check-ins it might even be a check in with me and and other members of the administrative team just to say hey we see that this is going on do you want to talk about it a little bit

044can you tell me what you're doing so I mean one piece of your work so I can see how you're doing and what can we do to help it's making yourself available in different ways but still making yourself available and making sure people know that you're there and that's a really important piece when being on the other side of a computer can make you feel very isolated thank you what are your fundamental beliefs as to what instruction should look like at the middle school level um there are days where I think the instruction should look like a little bit like organized chaos I like walking into a classroom where information about what the students will be learning is clearly posted and that it guides the instructional practices of the day whether it's what the students

045are doing what the team teachers doing or both I think effective instruction in the classroom setting uses you know learning outcomes objectives for students as a guide to do check-ins but that as much of the as much of the work is going to be demonstrated by the students then you have to have them engaged in the activities of learning and for some that's going to be producing and creating and using their hands and for others it's gonna be using words for still others it's going to be using their gifts app-v online to be able to find supporting evidence for an argument and then being able to create you know it create something or develop an argument to demonstrate what they learned um I talked earlier about ha moments with students and I think that those

046are the things that in a classroom you know when students learn something when they say now I get it and this is how it Connect as to what we did yesterday or I see how this is like what we talked about you weeks ago when and they were able to make that connection without the teacher giving it to them or without the teacher providing several prompts and for every student it takes a little bit of divid you a little bit of time different amounts of time but every student has the ability to get down a ha moment and when we when they get that and they're able to communicate that out you know that learning is a team play it's because the student has figured out for themselves how something relates either to the real

047world to what they've discussed in class and they're able to demonstrate it in multiple ways another way which I think learning takes place is what's do engaged in a very energetic disagreement about what something means or whether or not the answer is correct I think it's learned very well from one another and they're able to in some ways present information and an opposing argument without appearing to be bhaiyya or without giri to have all the answers and sometimes I'm having all the answers or even having the best right answer is a way for students to work together to come to consensus and in a classroom middle school learning does have to have a component of effectively both collaborating with others but also taking personal responsibility for their work when you're working in small group so

048even in partners it can be very easy for a student who wants to do all of the work just do it and I think that the role of a teacher and the role of an educator in general in the in the classroom setting is to a course and a certain amount of personal responsibility so that each person had contributed it's in the success of a group or a partnership and that they can also talk about what they did independently to show that they contributed to that out or that outcome or that success they had together thank you what is your view about discipline in the middle school in your response please include issues such as cell phone use hallway norms and expectations around kindness what I have been able to read a little bit about

049on the school's website is that arms stands for what looks to me to be a set of core values their expectations students and so the first way which I would take a look at student discipline is is what are those centralized core values and what do they look like in different areas of the building what does what does it mean to be safe on in waiting for them posture being on the bus versus what does that look like in a classroom what does that look like in the cafeteria but what the safe look like we're tied when you are communicating with the other on and that that takes on a rule that has both this little attributes and verbal attributes but I think if you use those tenants of what your core values out of

050what your expectations are for students is also a way to guide what your on code of conduct should be and therefore some of the expectations if discipline is required or consequences are in need of being handed out you're looking at what did the student do that violated those expectations that we have as a whole school to be safe if they're running through the hallway with scissors well that's not safe and running in the hallway itself is not say so what behaviors do we want to see so we can and then say why wasn't your behavior what we expected what did you do that didn't line up with what what our expectations are in school and then you have the ability to have that conversation about with students about well what do you think that should

051look like for you how could we how can you change that behavior next time and talk about what it was what it could be and what it should be and then what consequences naturally fit with that type of behavior and in some cases um itself the behavior self-corrects through a conversation in other cases consequences have to be handed out hallway norms I think you have to establish that the hallways need to be safe they need to be somewhat quiet of though we put a lot of students in the narrow space using lockers and walk into class it's not going to be on you know pin drop quiet and I think think what you have to do is you have to identify how do you provide a sense of helpfulness and support for others the ability

052to get to class on time means you're not hanging out I think when you're talking about you know the boss it might be sitting your seat and you make sure the busy appropriate number of people per seat you don't stand up while the bus is in motion and then you introduce and then you infuse what are those acts of kindness that we expect from people and we expect them please doesn't thank-yous go a long way and if we need to model that behavior as adults and caring others in the school if we expect our students to do that we have to have hold the students accountable for what they did and why it was wrong but then we have to give them an opportunity to show us that they can learn from that and not

053do it again and your consequences need to be gradual enough so that students don't feel like they've been so overwhelmed by what they had as a consequence what you gave them rather than seeing you know I did this it wasn't right I earned this consequence I can be better by doing this in the future and I this is where restorative practices and restorative you know it kind of a restorative plan would go into place for a student to allow them to earn back a privileges and at the same time return to the learning pulling students out of school pulling students out of class for consequences prevents them from learning and then they're going to struggle coming back into the learning environment because they were in trouble they missed some school they're now behind and then

054you're gonna pull them back into an environment with they don't have all the tools for success and they're coming off of a consequence that that they were already upset about so I think you have to set up a system for them to maintain as much time in the classroom as possible and you have to have a frequent review of what your what your code of conduct is and what your disciplinary codes are and adapt it to meet the needs of the students to meet the needs of the school to address the issues that might come up when you have a first-time offense it's something that has never been seen in the school you want to make sure that you are addressing that effectively quickly and that the consequence fits the behavior that was shown I

055think that those things that you have at your at your disposal your handbook your code of conduct those things need to be reviewed to take into account of all of those things um and that the consequence is meaningful the students learn from it it doesn't last forever and then when they come back to the environment where they had the issue in the first place they are welcomed back as a learner who's going to take some time to do show better behavior and show a better a better connection with the adults and the students in they're classroom and you're community on the bus and that you follow up follow up with families communicate keep with them and make sure that you follow up with the T teachers and the students later on to say hey how's

056it going how it what what what's happened since the last time we met to discuss this how do you feel about it now in making sure that you close that loop so that the student doesn't feel like they got in trouble and that's all it is and that they don't have an opportunity to process or to you know to check in and to make sure the things are really moving in a better direction thank you what is your vision for what thoughts are ideas do you have for bringing any sense of joy compassion empathy for each other and unity to the middle school at the student level staff level and for the whole school I think one of the things that is essential to building a positive and joyful culture and climate within the school

057is a way in which you responsibly and and at the same time exuberantly celebrate achievements of others and in a lot of ways schools are really great as celebrating when their sports team makes it to you know first place or when the band program gets a gold medal but as a school you I would want to see a way to celebrate straw a small and large successes of students that that may not just be tied to very big organizations or structured clubs and activities or events within the school day I think you I think there's a place for identifying the celebration of students who succeed well academically succeed well athletically succeed well musically a but I think that any system that brings joy to the school and promotes and fosters kindness and empathy you know

058social responsibility is one that captures students and staff doing the things that we want them to do to be good people and identifying what what does that look like do we want to be treated and how do we want others to be treated in our school and when we see those things happening we have a system for celebrating those things whether it's a student helps another student pick up books how do we have acknowledged student who was the helper when you have a an upstander in a situation where a student is not included and that person concludes includes a another student in an activity or you know sits with now sis without new student just came in today and introduces them come around how do we foster that and that might be developing programs like

059student ambassadors who are responsible for introducing themselves to new students in their grade level and following the students schedule for a day so that they can get acclimated to their peer group into the routines and how lunch period works and where do I go to catch the bus at the end of the day so setting up some opportunities for students to become leaders because they are strong in those skill sets and then demonstrating those things throughout the school making peer connections between sixth graders and tenth graders at the high school or you know ninth graders and sixth graders where they talk about transitioning together so that when our seventh and eighth graders become high school freshmen and sophomores they have the ability to talk to six graders incoming to seventh grade about what it's like

060to transition to a new school here is what middle school is like here's what here's what these classes are all about and here's how you have to be prepared so I think finding ways to build that capacity and our and our students by modeling that effectively with staff and really identifying what do we want to do as a school to make our make our environment welcoming making sure that people welcome visitors when they first come in the door having a policy of introducing yourself when you answer the phone it seems really elementary but in many cases those things get overlooked in the busyness and the craziness of the day but they are important how we talk to one another how we stand when we talk to one another how we communicate our needs and how

061we administrate patience and understanding as adults is more readily able to transfer to students when we can model it ourselves and then say and this is what we expect and here's why we expect it and praise and praise and acknowledge when that happens I think that the more you builds the opportunity to celebrate students for all kinds of things we expect them to be and we expect to see I think those are going to be the things that bring the joy because you're able to say I have a group of seventh graders who are phenomenal with including all all students new students I have this group of eighth graders who are motivated to provide service to the community and this is how we're going to demonstrate that and show that and we want to celebrate

062that because it increases the connections that we have rather than decrease thank you as principal communication with families students and teachers is key how will you communicate effectively with each of these stakeholders um I've mentioned a couple of times that I I do like to do sponsor and host opportunities for families to come in and and meet and talk it might be on a particular it might be on particular topic of the month it might just be here's an opportunity to come in and have a conversation about the things that we might be concerned about at grade level or with certain types of curriculum and invite parents in and I do believe you can't just have it one time day because not everybody is available on that one time a day so I alternate my

063when I was when I was having meetings I would alternate so the first one might be in the evening where families could come and I get the on junior Honor Society students to provide babysitting or where my ADA minding service in the gym and have some cooperative games so that parents could come wouldn't bring their younger children to have some babysitting so that they could come and in some pieces it would be having a meeting and that you know in the library with a pot of coffee and some fresh-baked cookies and having with families who could come during the day and not in the evening I say I think making yourself available and providing an opportunity to kind of open and I please excuse the pun because I would have say it this way even

064if it wasn't your acronym but open your arms to the community and the public and let them come in to meet with you to communicate with you I'm a big fan on two-way communication by sending out quick surveys when I when I want to investigate something using your using your school council as a way to communicate to other members of the community and having a having some responsible use of social media to reach out to families who might not be able to connect with us directly because of work commitments or other family commitments being able to get information out and bring information in so I think that that is really an important part I think communicating with students you need to develop opportunities to go into classrooms just sit I'm a big fan of sitting

065at lunch with a group of students and finding out a little bit about what's going on in their world not just at school but what do you do for fun and I see that you're wearing a dance you know a dance studios jacket here tell me about what kind of what dance what what is your your preferred dance the f-type and do you do perform competitively get thing to know the students and talking with them about their interest both in school and out of school is a really big piece and also getting students involved when there are concerns or when we want to make a move to something different we want to try something new you need to have student buy-in if it's going to be related to the students if they if if something's

066gonna fall flat with the students you want to have a heads up on that you want to have people who can chain be in that with their peers you want students to be able to bring other students in to a new activity a new Club a new way of thinking a new behavioral support system a new incentive program you want to have student involvement because they are going to tell you what whether or not something's going to find and you want to know that before you put it out there because if students don't want to be part of it they just won't and so you want to be able to bring them in and of course without without the role of your ear faculty without being involved in the decision-making process you can as a

067principal I could ask you to to do a lot of things but if the faculty doesn't feel invested and if their if their opinions haven't been considered that's a tough thing to just go on blind faith and to do something that you have a lot of questions about so prepping the prepping faculty members and members of the school staff being able to have input from all aspects of the professionals in the school I think that it I think it's a very important part to include a lot of people in making initial decisions about the direction that your school wants to go in because we all work there a principals just a role in the school and sometimes it's not the most important role in the school it's it's the person who has to cheerlead the

068causes and celebrate the successes and provide the support and in some cases filled the tough questions but it's it's a role that is valuable but the rule that everybody plays and what they bring to the table was equally valuable and when you're having those discussions as a principal I would want to step back and be one voice in the room not the only voices thank you can you give an example of a change you have led in one of your schools what stretch did you use to engage staff and teachers and bring people through the process also how did you communicate the need for change and get input from the broader community and how did you evaluate the outcome of the change one of the things that I had done in one of my schools

069was to take a look take a look at why we had students who had difficulty in and and it was a it was an EM cast from a data-driven on situation where we were taking a look at why our students were not performing well on any of the the state based assessments when it came to writing open responses and what we what I did and to look at that was first start with the data and talk with since he's talked with some students and talked with the with the teachers but we found was it wasn't so much about writing it was about the reading portions that they would have to do first and what we found was that students in some cases felt that writing was for English class so maybe social studies class but

070why do I need to write in math so they would they would leave skim the fast and he would write very little and oftentimes they wouldn't Express or describe things effectively so as a group of team department heads in this particular middle school so we started there with the with the leadership team and I unpack a unpack the data with them and said this is what we see let's talk about how do we get students to to write more write better write more effectively write more often and any of those are on the table let's let's brainstorm so we had a brainstorming session with our leadership group and it was the gym teacher who was the you know the health and wellness department chair who said students need to know that they should be able

071to read and write in in gym class that they should be able to read a fitness article and know how to apply what they're doing he says I often times have to demonstrate something when I give them instructions and I give them paper instructions to read over and they asked me to show them again how do I get them to read fool or understanding and it was his comment not mine that led to that discussion of adopting some closer reading practices and through that we were able to almost eliminate the idea of popcorn around Robin reading which had been a staple for MU that particular middle school for a very long time we found that it helped our LLS reall students who struggle to read in English and pronounce things in English because suddenly we

072weren't we're encouraging them to read out loud just for the sake of reading out loud we would oftentimes pair students off and engage them in this saying to somebody read aloud and then having the fashion about the material in gym classic write articles every Friday and just Gerald about how that article might have applied to them or if it didn't apply to them what was something that they learn from the article and so teachers through the work of the the team leaders worked with their departments to develop a way in which once a week in the non the core academic classes students would be an aged in writing and in order to writing I need to read something or discuss something and then run alright so we were encouraging reading in different areas reading different

073types of material but that at the end everybody had a writing sample from every class at the end of the week that was based on whatever it was even the student shows so the teacher chose to share and just by getting students into the practice of writing through generated opportunities brought those those writing scores op students we're getting zeroes not writing anything we're writing things and students who are struggling with getting supporting details and evidence 14 ideas we're doing better with that and we modeled some of our practices based on the the skill set of English teachers but really every every department worked together to come up with some common kind of ways to introduce that class and then track monitor and we keep came back together as small departments and then cross department to

074talk about these variances during our our faculty meetings we devoted a series of our faculty meetings OOP talking about how our students write in who's struggling now class is what different earring up I department with English you talk about those things English teachers understand what skills their students might need remediation on it took two years on but it was very successful over those two years to bring students back into this idea that we do need to write off all the time and we need to practice what we what we think you know and it was really the problem presented itself through data I presented it to the to our leadership team but really took on a life of its own when the teachers became invested seeing students to see overall and not just on the

075Sarai's that suggests in their ability to communicate through with spoken words hi I don't know what changed but the audio is starting to deteriorate more we will we will try another question but I just want to remind the community I mentioned earlier that you and I will go on a different platform and go through the questions again I'm just gonna continue with the last two questions that were asked via email and I believe there are four so questions in the chat once those questions are asked we will go on a different platform and try to pass the questions with better audio and help that video okay alright so the next question says how do you foresee your leadership style influencing teacher instruction and how have you supported teachers in meeting the needs of all students

076I like to I'd like to think I like to think that I am an invitational leader and a collaborative leader I do believe in meeting with people who want to meet and sometimes people who need to meet to discuss ways to improve instructional practices improve student learning opportunities and their their personal achievement both academically and as part of the members of being part of the school community and I think that that that ability to communicate in collaborate brings a lot of people into a room and you put a lot of ideas up and then as a group you gain consensus we want to try first and we don't describe the rest of the list but I think in my role of leadership I believe you that collaborates at early and coming up with lots of

077ideas means that if the first one doesn't work we can try another one but we all have a say in what up on the board we all had the opportunity to speak up you know and teachers donate your time I'm asking them to donate their time again to sit in on certain meetings with certain topics I want to be careful that we you know that we do that when it's something that impacts the school it impacts the students and then impacts them and so you want to make sure that you're respecting and honoring their time that they're giving by giving them a voice in the process and giving them an opportunity to make decision I think that as a leader I'm also somebody who will respect the need to acknowledge when I have made a

078mistake when I have done something that is um is not necessarily how I would have wanted to do it and the the opportunity to make amends to that or to take personal recognition and responsibility for that I think is a key piece in being a leader because you're not always going to succeed you're not always going to know the right thing to say the first time or the right fix for a problem the first time but I think that by being the role model who's able to take ownership of what what I've done or what I need to do or or a way in which I may have dropped the ball is essential to be having other people feel comfortable saying the same thing and being able to go to fix that that error and

079move forward with it responsibly and through you know through actions as well as communication they think is key and that would that's something else that I believe very strongly in and then finally I model what I would expect they would not I would not not do something that I wanted a teacher to be able to do if I if I want to instill a belief about kindness then then I lead with kindness and those are those will be things that are whoo I am NOT we article the community of learners in the community of Li Peters and straitens back on for the rule that everybody plays I think it's a big piece of that and then finally I think how will that impact how will that impact teachers and students I think ultimately I would

080live by our core values and our expectations and I would I would hold people accountable to them but I would hold myself accountable to them as well and those are the guiding tenets of what your school expects academically socially emotionally physically and I would want to demonstrate those things as part of who I am and the role that I play so that when when it comes time to ask others to do the same they have a role they have a model of what that looks like they have a model of how they might do that and then they can take it take it and make it their own and hold people to the idea that is what we are and who we are as a school and what we expect and that message goes directly

081from the top to the to the to the you know to all of the other pieces all of the other parts of the school there really is no bottom of the school it's it's it's from our core and our foundation and it should rise through all of the members of our community so demonstrating and holding people accountable for it and celebrate being those things when they have anything or a big part of how we need the school thank you the next question says please discuss the steps you will take to include restorative practices at the middle school my understanding is from what I've seen is that the process has started so the first step I would take would be to do a review with school leadership and school teachers on where where the school is

082in terms of adopting restorative practices what has been working but has not been working and what hasn't been tried yet and I would want to take I would want to start as a learner of how we sort of practice as a restorative initiatives have been brought into the school so far I would want to then outline some steps on how we're going to take a look at adopting additional practices we would need to do a needs assessment what are the needs of the school where where do we need to see restorative practices take place what are the impacts of certain types of behaviors what behaviors are we seeing that would benefit from less of a disciplinary code and more of a restore process and how do we get there so I would want to ask

083them very direct but some open-ended questions and have members of the of a team of expert others in the school when and as well as members of administration and then perhaps people from other buildings so that there's some continuity there between what we're doing in the middle school and what's being done at the elementary school how do we grow that so that students have an increased sense of we're not going to teach them something they already learned and are able to do in elementary school in terms of behaviors but we may want to expand upon those those expectations and those practices that we have based on the behaviors we see at middle school that they don't see at elementary school and then how do we best tie that into transitioning our students at the end

084of their experience in middle school to high school expectations and how do we gradually build the responsibility within our students to hold them to a higher to a higher level of community responsibility and I think that those that would be the next pieces who is that team and how will we work together to make that that continuity that pathway between the elementary systems the high school systems and what is our role and how do we build our how do we build our restorative practices with those two things in mind so that we can pick up the students where they're at and bring them forward to where they're expected to be by the time they're high school students and then I would want to be part of the implementation process but those initiatives particularly when we're

085particularly when we're rolling out something where you know we need to provide support to staff you know again the principal assistant principal Edina students they are their roles that we play they have certain parts of the discipline that teachers do not but you don't want to um create any practice that disempowers the role of the classroom teacher in terms of developing or developing relationships with students and maintaining positive ones in the classroom so you want to have a series of behavioral interventions at the classroom level that teachers can work through and become experts yeah that can minimize the minimize some of the behaviors that remove a student from the classroom or require the intervention of a school administrator and you also want to have the ability to go back and include that teacher when something

086has happened so that the student in the process of going through the restorative techniques or going through a restorative circle or a service learning opportunity is able to report back to that teacher that they learned something from the experience and that the behaviors less likely to happen and because of what restorative technique was used but to also at the same time close the loop to show the teacher that some some learning and some responsibility taking has happen and that I would want to take a look at getting students involved and being socially positive ambassadors for the practice I would want peer I would want students to come and talk to us about what it is that they're experiencing when their peers engage in behavior but it's not acceptable or inappropriate how can we help support

087the students who are in those areas who are part of that part of that experience when a when a student miss B he's or has some real difficulty and some challenge in the classroom it's not just the teacher and the the student who's acting out or having difficulty that's impacted it is anyone who's heard the exchange it's anyone who has been in the room and how do we provide supports to ensure that students feel continued to feel safe or continue to feel like they can engage with this with with all of their classmates how do they feel that they can support the safe classroom environment and and speak up when when the when need be to help the student who's miss who helped the student get back on track or in some cases to be

088supportive of the classroom as a whole to say any of this behavior is not acceptable and here's why so we have to take into account the fact that behavior that is demonstrated by one student has an impact on a variety of other people who may not be directly involved and how do we support those people to because they walk away from that classroom experience and they may have a memory of it that should be you know should be addressed if necessary um because the communication needs to happen so that they feel secure and their own ability to be safer to learn how and and be active in that classroom thank you know there were some questions in the chat the first one I see how do you ensure that paraprofessionals are seen as important parts

089of the arms community I've never referred to a paraprofessional on as anything other than a caring other and teacher in the building when you're working with students you are their teacher you may not be the content teacher you may not be the lead teacher in the classroom but you're still a teacher of students you still are responsible in some cases for mitigating behavior or to bringing a student back into a learning environment and dealing with the struggle of the challenge and so they are a valuable and integral piece in that student success and they that is a celebration unto itself but para a assistant in the classroom a student support person provides a function of you know a lot of responsible feedback to the classroom teacher in some case just to the administration and certainly

090their their observations their work is important to how do we report out the success of the student the challenges of the student and create the plans for the student that are necessary for their success so I would want to ensure that the paraprofessional had avenues to have time to talk with the teachers about the individual students or group of students that they're working with that they have time to review lesson plans or to ask questions when they're being asked to cover cover an assessment or to be able to teach teach a certain skill that they maybe don't have a lot of practice in themselves I would want to take a look at how we can support them making you know creating lasting bonds with your students and whether or not they need some additional support

091academically or you know some sort of training to provide them with more skills and more resources and making sure that that happens for them their success as a professional in the school leads to the success of the student that they are assigned to and in some cases when they're working with a student in a classroom with many other students in a classroom teacher it's instrumental to the success of the entire classroom that that person as they are I have also found in my experience working with care professionals staff members with students that they have a lot to offer in terms of opportunities to reach out to students that they're not assigned to in a classroom I used to have a student who needed to practice some breathing exercises and the paraprofessional was a it was

092a yoga instructor a part-time after school hours and helped that student and develop some deep breathing techniques and just to address a anxious moments or situations where they became frustrated easily and that eventually translated itself into an after-school Club for 10 weeks to teach students a little bit about yoga because the person was an instructor you know as a certified instructor and there was an interest there in the in the students to to have that opportunity I've had other pair of professionals who worked as EMTs who were licensed instructors and ran CPR for state classes in our school for students who either needed them for first scouting or because they wanted to have that experience and so I find that there's a way to tap into the the skills that all of our staff have

093and you're you are a teacher of students so you become a teacher in the eyes of the school and again it's a rule it's a rule that's different than a classroom or content teacher but highly valuable and I would want I would want on those individuals to know that they're necessary from the success of our students and it makes them extremely important to the success of the school thank you what do you think the role of middle school is in the development of a learner's identity and skillsets we don't have enough time to go through all of it I'm sure middle school is a really important really important part of us student transition again they come from Elementary School where they might be in one class for most or all of the day with with

094one set of teachers and one said students that they become really close to whether it's out of necessity or out of out of a sense of friendship or both and they come to the middle school then they have a lot of transitions they have a lot of different teachers they're being exposed to content perhaps it's a much more at a rapid rate and they have more personal responsibility for their own success it might be the first time that those students try out for something and don't make it you know they may they may want to maybe expose the first time to an activity or a skill that they've never seen before and they want to try it out it's also the one of the first times I've seen an experience this is a parent but

095the experience is a principal where a student might come home that day and say oh mom you don't have to go to that meeting the principal said it's not a big deal when really it is so they suddenly become a little more friend focused a little less family focused a little more interest focused a little less community focused and I think the role of the middle school is essential to allowing students to try different things to succeed and fail in a safe environment where people genuinely care about what they're learning and what they're doing and we maintain a very strong role in communicating with the families I think you know once students get to high school and they're making a lot more choices on their own communication the communication may drift off a little but

096I think the role of a middle school is to still find ways to communicate out to the parents what we're doing and here's the opportunities and here's what's coming next to communicate with families on small struggles and small small successes as well as to be open to the communication that comes in from families when they see or they see something that doesn't make sense they have questions about the curriculum they want to have a conversation about how to better support their student home or they want to know what what else is available in the school because they've heard so many things and they they just want to be able to sort out the conversation of the day from their students so I think middle level education is is a huge part of the students growth

097it's a huge part for parents to transition from you know a small school small classroom one classroom environment to having more communication specifically with certain people at certain times over certain academic concerns who are social concerns or community based concerns and I think it allows the student to have some do overs have some opportunities to try things on say it's not for me and find something else and that's why having a very strong and rich co-curricular program within the school day an extracurricular program outside of the school day is essential for the students to really kind of find what their niche is middle school should be a place where students aren't exploring their skills and deciding you know what are some things I might be good at how does that translate to what you want

098to do in high school or I might want to do if I go to college or I go into a career or I go somewhere else what is what does that look like and it's never too soon to start to expose them to those things so that's another thing middle level education is good for teen taking those students while they're still highly interested in showing what they know and try and channel that some way for them to help them about what they might be good at later on and then finally to be a caring place for students to come to every day to look forward to seeing a new set of faces to being ready to be challenged in in their learning knowing that if they struggle people will be there for them and to

099feel confident that they have become better because of that experience and it's a place where students all students should have someone and some something that they can belong to that matters to them and know that they matter to the school thank you another question from the chat says can you please comment on your very short tenure as principal of two middle schools with the most recent just being one year as principal of North Ridge Middle School mm-hmm in relation to the the tenure that I had North Bridge was a town where I taught for twelve years as a public school high school teacher and I was very passionate about the learning that was taking place there and I felt a very strong connection to the school in district so when the opportunity came to go

100to North Ridge School District I was out as principal ah I was very happy that sense of wanting to we join the community we're done my teaching and they had really felt the wrong connection to this one the community unfortunately I had um you know a I had a personal concern that needed to be addressed in that first year educator on my yacht my children who are now older teenagers were not dangerous then and there was a need to make a decision about what I was for a job in order to support what was going on and my family at the time and I took I took the opportunity at that point to have conversation with my administrator and chose to make a very tough decision you know it's a tough decision to say I

101need to be able to take care of this part of my life and I have a school community and school family that was going to be impacted and if I was taking care of the school and community part of my life then my my family was being impacted and it's hard it's I it was a very difficult decision to make and made in the best interest of what I needed to do for my family thank you for the same time I'm looking at the chat to see if there's something that may be a quicker answer because you only have three minutes left how do you support students and make sure they can reach their full potential if students want to be more academically challenged provides specifics of what you would you have done and will

102do to support them as a principal I can't claim to be an expert in all content areas but knowing that there are needs for students who need greater academic challenge one of the one of the ways in which I have worked with curriculum leaders and with school teachers is to identify what are those areas where students have a personal interest and if they are accelerating through the curriculum at a much faster rate how can we assess quickly they're still in a particular area of learning that you need to need to be able to identify and say that they're successful in and then how do we dig deeper for some students it might be providing them with an opportunity to investigate and use a math class where they might be excited in percentages and you know

103algebraic concepts and move them into a deeper where they can use some of those skills to develop understanding statistics probability give them some deeper instructional practices that are supported by wherever they are in the curriculum but it's it's in addition to and they can receive credit for working on those things that they're able to show that they have already mastered this bill that's being taught in the class in science class that's you know having students develop their own experiments you know creating opportunities for students to participate in geography B's in the National History Day and you know science fairs will allow students to deepen their own learning and and maintain attachment to the to the the school and the curriculum at the same time I think helping students identify what their their areas of interest

104are and it's never too early to have a conversation with an individual teacher appearance in the student about what can they do in addition to the work so that they can learn more about this because they want to be they want to be an aero science you know they want to go into aeronautics oh you want to go into nursing how do we help I'm in the health class develop a greater a greater depth of knowledge and understanding learning and how can we tie that into the curriculum so they can get credit so the work and at the same time it's a you know go off to a different different aspect or a different prong of what you're covering in classes that they can individualize their instruction individual instruction and individual learning shouldn't just be

105based on what learning needs are available learning needs half at the address but it can be based on how well the student already knows them it's material so how can we move them forward and more quickly um I think that that applies in all areas whether it's a student who is able to do an independent study with the music teacher because they want I'm a second instrument and they have an opportunity an opportunity to build that into the students day I think looking at schedule flexibility talking with the teachers about opportunities that help the the school's curriculum grow but at the same time help an individual student girl is all very important to Auntie you look at the needs of all learners the same time being able to go back and find ways to remediate

106small groups or individually with students who struggle having something available for the students are a little more accelerated it keeps all of the students piecing at the same rate in the classes so that by the end of the year all students I've been exposed the same material just a the extent to which they're able to individualize their work maybe more money meter what they already know thank you and thank you miss soda for telling us about yourself and your qualifications for this position as I mentioned in doing two or three times in this forum we will try another platform to see if the the audio is better if the audio is not better than what we have now I will not send out that video if it's the if it's better then I will send

107the video or post the video with the other videos that are here from the other forums so thank you all in the community and staff and families for joining joining us the sessions were recorded and will be available for later time and once again we will try again to have this meeting miss otter and if it comes out well we will post that as well thank you all terrific thank you everybody for coming today I appreciate the time and obviously you know the part of your day that you spent with me