Excerpts from The Hall Weekly Bulletin - March, 5, 2007 : Volume 12:25
Calendar		Principal's Message
This Week Tuesday, March 6 •10:45am | 8th Grade Graduation Meeting Wednesday, March 7 •7:30pm | CMLSF Auction Meeting | NC Staff Room Thursday, March 8 • 6:30-7:30pm | 8th Grade Night at Redwood (Electives info 6:00-6:30) Friday, March 9 • Deadline for Spring Auction Donations Upcoming Wednesday, March 14 • 7:30pm | Parent Edu. Speaker | NC Thursday March 15 • Enrollment at Redwood | Scheduled Student Appointments • 3:30-5pm | School Site Council Meeting Friday March 16 • NO SCHOOL | Staff Development Day Saturday March 17 • 9:30-12:30 | Campus Improvement Day Monday March 19 • 8:45am | Superintendent’s Coffee Chat | il Fornaio • Teen Transition Day for Eighth Graders Thursday March 22 • 12:30 | District Advisory Committee | District Office Friday March 23 • 7:30pm | Twin Cities Music Festival | Hall Wednesday, March 28 •6pm | School Board Meeting | Hall Library		One of the things that impresses me most about the Hall faculty is that they are in a constant search for a better way to reach kids.  Just the other day Superintendent Pitts asked Daniel and I to share with her some of the great things happening at Hall.  We spent considerable time talking about our faculty and sharing examples of work happening in our classrooms.  A great many of our staff have pushed their thinking to the point where they simply reject the status quo as being good enough.  On a daily basis I see grade-level teams of teachers sharing and challenging best practices in both teaching and learning.  They are committed to discussing and developing strategies and implementing those strategies to build on our strengths.  I am delighted to share with you that I have the pleasure of working with a faculty and staff committed to achieving greatness. During our two most recent faculty meetings we spent time thinking about and discussing our vision as it relates to achieving greatness.  What does an extraordinary school look like?  What must Hall become in order to reach our goals?  We challenged ourselves to look five years in the future and to imagine a spectacularly successful school.  How would we treat one another?  How would we treat our students?  How would we interact with you the parents and the greater community?  How would we measure our progress?  Working through these questions allowed us to begin scratching the surface on what we must become in order to accomplish our goals. Now here is the tricky part - I believe all of these questions become more complex when we pause and pay attention to present and future trends affecting our students, families and communities: biomedicine, video games, digital media, the environment and I could go on and on.  Most of us hear daily that the world is rapidly changing, but how many of us have stopped to consider what this means for education? The KnowledgeWorks Foundation www.kwfdn.org and the Institute For The Future www.iftf.org are two research organizations that recently combined efforts to predict how future forces may affect components of public education.  Together they created the Map of Future Forces Affecting Education that you can view at www.kwfdn.org/map/map.aspx. The map does not claim to be a certain statement of what will happen in the future, but rather is a predication based on field research.  I found it fascinating.  As a next step, I would like to open a dialogue with you and begin gathering your input as it relates to an achievable vision for the future.  What does an extraordinary middle school look like you?  What will a spectacularly successful school look like in five years?  How will you interact with teachers and fellow parents?  How will students treat one another?  What are those forces of change that you see affecting families, learning and communities?  What do these trends mean for education? As educators working in the Larkspur School District, we recognize that the world is rapidly changing and that our strategy must be forward looking.  We are having these conversations today and look forward to our journey working closely with you.  Please share any thoughts and comments with Daniel dnorbutas@marin.k12.ca.us and me aboone@marin.k12.ca.us. We look forward to hearing from you.  - Daniel Norbutas & Andy Boone - Hall Principal & Assistant Principal School News Eighth Grade-Teen Transitions On Monday, March 19, the eighth grade students will participate in a Teen Transitions day.  Teen Transitions covers an area of family life education, which is required by the state as part of our health education curriculum.  The day will be comprised of five speakers from community organizations throughout the county.  The topics and speakers are: The Risk of Early Sexual Involvement ? Marin County Health Department, Sexually Transmitted Diseases ? Dr. Gabriel Farkas (Kaiser Perm.), Healthy Relationships ? Hukleberry Youth Programs, Sexual Orientation/Gender Issues ? Christin Brew (Spectrum), Contraception/Pregnancy ? Cio Hernandez (Marin County Health Department) and Jasmine Serim (Planned Parenthood-Golden Gate).   Eighth grade students will rotate to all of the presentations throughout the day.  A letter to all eighth grade families was sent home with backpack mail on Monday, February 26.  If you do NOT want your eighth grader to participate in the day please return the letter to the school office or call me at 927-6978 ext:2221. Molly Yasuda School Counselor