Last Announcement video of 2017!!

Last Announcement of 2017!! from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

HUGE thanks to Cameron and Zach for being such great sports!

Dec. 4 announcement

Dec. 4 Announcement video from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Nov 27

Nov. 27 announcement from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Nov. 20th announcement

Nov. 20 announcements from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Nov. 13 announcement video

Nov. 13 announcement video from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Oct. 30 announcement

This month is Mo-vember at JCP. Whichever class reads "mo-re" minutes in Mo-vember gets to shave whatever they want into my beard at the end of the month. These are AFTER SCHOOL reading minutes only.


Oct. 30 announcement from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Oct. 23 announcement

Oct. 23 announcements from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Oct. 16 announcement

Oct. 16 announcement from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Why Read at Home?

Research shows that if students can read 60 minutes a day they can grow as much as 3 grade levels during the course of one school year. This is the primary reason why we do not assign homework packets at JCP. The only academics we ask that parents do with their students at home is read.

We are doing everything we can to get them as much "face in book" time during the school day. If you can read with them for 15-30 minutes a day, every student in our building can leave 2nd grade reading at a 2nd grade level or higher.

Parents: This Thursday we are having a Viking University for parents, 5-7:30pm in the Sunset Building. The evening includes multiple 25-minute workshops on everything from our new Reading Curriculum to Technology at Home, Bilingualism to Math Games. You'll have the chance to attend 4 different workshops, and be fed in the middle with free pizza and door prizes. There will also be booths set up during dinner time from community partners like the Selah library, Selah Police Department, etc.

If you're needing help on how to get your kiddo to read for 15-30 minutes this night will have some answers and resources for you to take home and implement immediately. And if you can't attend this Thursday but want to learn more about how to help you student, ask your teacher first, then come find me. We'll get you whatever info and resources you need.

Oct 9 announcements

Oct. 9 announcement from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Oct. 2 weekly announcements

Oct. 2 morning announcements from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Sept 11-15 morning announcement video

Sept 11 morning announcement from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Welcome back Vikings!

Welcome to John Campbell Primary!

Bienvenidos a la escuela John Campbell Primaria!

We've been looking forward to the start of this school year ever since students left for summer vacation. Last year we had a lot of amazing student successes and can't wait to build on them this year. 

We have a few areas of focus at JCP that we would love for you to discuss and support at home:

1. We believe that going to college, or at least graduating from high school with vast career options, begins in our building. Please talk with students about your career and/or collegiate experiences. They'll be hearing about it from us on a weekly basis. JCP students are preparing to change the world.

2. We love and celebrate mistakes! We believe that mistakes are stepping stone to success. We celebrate them and learn from them and hope that our school is such a trusting and supportive environment that all students are willing to try and not be hampered by the fear of failure. 

3. We believe in equity, not equality. A doctor would never give every patient the same treatment and we believe that the classroom is the same way. Our teachers are skilled at providing each individual student with exactly what they need, to help them reach the grade-level expectations, and to push them beyond their current limits. You will see classrooms that look busy, kids everywhere, with very few working on the same thing. That is the sign of a powerful learning environment.

4. Lastly, we need children reading at least 60 minutes a day for them to be successful. We will provide them with as much guided instructional reading time and free read time in class as possible, but, in lieu of homework, we require every student to read 15-20 minutes (minimum) every night. For our youngest readers, this may mean they sit with you and you read to them, pointing to the words as you read so they can start connecting sounds with letters.

I strive to have an open-door policy (se habla espanol) so don't hesitate to stop by if you have questions, want to chat about education, or want to know how you can help. If I'm not available, any one of our secretaries have access to my calendar and can set up a time for us to chat.

This is more exciting than opening day for the Mariners!

Cheers!

Dr. Rob Darling

To know more about me, and our administration staff, see our personal pages on this website. or Click Here

Final Weekly Announcement of 2016-17

June 12th Announcement :( from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

May Reading competition winners

May is oftentimes a tough month to keep student excited. So we did a little reading challenge. The top class from each grade level who read the most minute in May got to either shave my head (Ms. Siekawitch, Kinder, 8,180 minutes), duct tape me to a pole (Mrs. Tullis 2nd grade, 9,840) or throw 100 water balloons at me (Ms. Smeback, 1st grade, 10, 641 after-school minutes read in May!!)

We also included the second place winners and they joined in the fun.

Here, watch this...

June 5th announcement from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

May 15 morning announcement video....Dancing teachers

May 15 announcements from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Award-winning film screening at Selah School District

Beginning last spring a group of teachers representing each building in the district, called the District Advisory Council, has been meeting with Superintendent Shane Backlund to discuss innovative ways to help meet the needs of the 21st Century learner.  The foundation for the group’s discussions has come from their book study of the text titled, Most Likely to Succeed.  The book is a call to action for educators and communities to reimagine public education to help meet the needs of today’s learner.  The book is also an award winning documentary film that has been shown in schools all over the country.  On May 31 at 6:30 PM, the District Advisory Council will be hosting a screening of this film for the entire Selah educational community.  The purpose of this event is to foster meaningful discussion among educators, administrators, parents, and students about how current obstacles can be overcome and steps toward change can be taken on a local level.  The hope is that these discussions will continue into next year and turn into partnerships, ideas and meaningful change to help our students be more prepared for their future.

The screening and brief discussion will take place at Selah Middle School in the VPAC on Wednesday, May 31 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM and childcare will be provided.  If you’re interested in attending and being a part of the conversation please RSVP here.

If you have questions please contact Crystal West at 698-8001. We look forward to seeing you there!

Final Reading Challenge for JCP

Here is our final reading challenge of the 2016-17 school year: Record all of the minutes you read after school during the month of May. The class from each grade level with the most minutes read will be selected.

These three classes will do one of the following:
1. One class will duct tape Dr. Darling to a pole.

2. The next class will pelt Dr. Darling with water balloons

3. The final class will shave Dr. Darling's head.

Teachers aren't the only ones who cry...

This is hanging in my office. The sticky note reads, "...or this office!!" but no one listens. I have teachers and parents crying in my office quite often. But as principals, we encounter things that really get to us. Sometimes, they are heartbreaking issues or events we are forced to deal with. But occasionally we have heartwarming ones that make the tears flow as well.

A short time ago, I had a little guy who was besides himself when his mom dropped him off for school that morning. He did not want to be here. He was throwing a tantrum, flailing about, causing quite a scene. I managed to get him into my office where he proceeded to kick the walls, push over chairs, all the while becoming more and more adamant that he didn't want to be here. After about 15 minutes (and some applesauce, crackers and juice) I was able to get him seated in a chair and we talked for a few minutes. I told him how lucky he was to have Mrs. X as his teacher, how much she loves him and cares about him and how much she misses him when he's not there. I told him that I'd walk with him to class when he was ready, but was still a bit worried that he'd try to run out the front door once we left my office. A walk that would normally take 2 minutes to get to his room took about 8, with pausing, stopping, and even moving backwards a few times. But eventually we made it to his classroom.

His teacher had absolutely no idea what his morning had been like. She had no idea what sort of struggles we had, and how long it took to finally get him to the point of actually entering the classroom. Even now, I really don't know what transpired with his morning, though I do know a good deal about his homelife and needless to say, school is his safe place.

But when we opened that door, I saw his classmates and teacher seated on the carpet. His teacher immediately turned towards him and said, "Oh Johnny! (not his real name) I am so glad you are here. We miss you so much when you're not here and we were worried you weren't here today. We are so happy to see you."

The shoulders that had been drooping were not raised. The eyes that had been staring at shoes were now fixed on the loving, smiling face of his teachers. Without hesitation or even a look back at me, he walked over to the carpet and joined his class.

I had a tough time finding my way back to the office because of the stinging and blurred vision that comes with pushing back tears. But I couldn't hold them back. She had no idea how badly he needed to hear that. We never have any idea how badly our students (staff, parents, children...) need to hear that. And we may not always believe it, but as the great Rita Pearson said, "You can never let them know that."

Greet every students as though they are the most precious, important, capable person in the world. When you do, watch their reaction, and even greater, watch their academic and behavioral growth. When students believe that you believe in them, they'll move mountains.

Can Your Thoughts Physically Impact Others?

I can teach you how to change the behavior of others. You can actually change how they act. No, it doesn't require a weekend retreat with Yoda trying to move boxes or lift your star-fighter out of a bog (Star Wars fans, I'm sure it's not really called a star-fighter, please don't send hate mail.)

Researcher Bob Rosenthal scientifically demonstrated this, first with rats. He labeled some as smart and some as dumb without telling anyone. When they were put in a Skinner Box, the "smart" ones completed the task twice as fast as the "dumb" ones. Problem is, they were the exact same ordinary white lab rats. 

So, the question then is: Why did they perform better?

Answer: because of the perceptions of the people handling the rats. Researchers touched the "smart" rats more, treated them more warmly, even talked to them differently. The Pygmalion Effect: A type of self-fulfilling prophecy where if you think something will happen, you may unconsciously make it happen through your actions or inaction. 

Carol Dweck, (psychology researcher at Stanford, Author, Growth Mindset), in this recent podcast said when we have negative expectations or perceptions we usually stand further away from people, we touch them less, make less eye contact. And we are COMPLETELY UNAWARE of how our expectations impact the way we engage people.

Our perceptions and expectations (our thoughts) literally move people.

• Teacher expectations can increase student IQ scores. John Hattie's research found that this teacher belief has the highest impact on student achievement. 
• Mothers' expectations can impact drinking levels of middle school students
• Military leaders expectations can impact how fast soldiers run

There are many studies showing the impact of how people perform in relation to how they are expected to perform. Even the very labels placed on them impact their performance. Read about "Brown Eyes vs. Blue Eyes" experiment or watch this documentary. This obviously takes the thinking concept and brings it to a whole new level, but it still applies to my Jedi-way of thinking. Read this article/watch videos (Warning: 2nd video has a swear word) on how thoughts impacted rice in water. 

Rosenthal did an experiment similar to the rats but with teachers. They were told they could expect X from this group of students and Y from the other. Rosenthal found that "teachers appear to teach more and to teach it more warmly to students for whom they have more favorable expectations." 

-How are you using your powers? 

-Are your students performing better because you

 have positive perceptions and expectations for them? 

-Or are you, without even knowing it, 

actually causing them to perform worse?

-DO YOUR STUDENTS BELIEVE 

THAT YOU BELIEVE IN THEM??

March 6 morning announcement -Buddy Benches

March 6 morning announcement from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Sharks will either make you better....or eat you. (a repost)

Fishing boats will often travel for days and days to find that prize catch. The problem they encountered was, when traveling 3-4 days back to unload their catch, their prize fish were no longer valuable. They spent so much time floating around in their little container, swimming in the same waters, they lost their muscle tone. Stagnant. Complacent. In a rut. This is how we have always done things.

So fisherman started adding sharks to the tanks in the boats. Sure, a few fish were eaten, but the rest stayed active and alive. Adding sharks improved their success.

Admin: Hire sharks. Anyone can join the pack, follow in line, do what the others do. But NO ONE IMPROVES. We need to hire employees that will challenge and extend our teams.

Teachers: change things up, for you and your students. Routines are valuable, but are they routine because it's easy for you, or are they routines that still challenge students. How many times during the school day do you make your students uncomfortable by challenging their thinking? How many times a day are you challenged, chased by a shark?

Parents: there are good "sharks" you can throw into the mix: engaging and fun summer learning programs; academic rewards for students making academic gains (ex. if they read a book, their reward is you buy them a new book, or check out a new book from the library); find ways to challenge your child to get them outside of their comfort zones. It's good for them.

I'm both a stick and a carrot guy. Sharks would work great for me. But I also like having that reward dangling for me to work towards. Find what your team needs, what your students need, what your child needs. But whatever it is they need to be motivated, you need to motivate them.

What if you had to pay for your kids to attend public school?

We had the Matsiko World Orphan's choir here again in Jan. We were one of their very first performances together last school year, and we were fortunate enough to see them at the very end of their year-long adventure this year, only weeks before they left for home. Their homes are in Peru, Liberia and India. They leave the comforts of warm clothes and hot food and hope, to a situation of despair and struggle, poverty and helplessness.

An education that we often take for granted in the US is a luxury in their countries, where students can attend school and earn an education if they can afford it. Do you see the problem with this? People in poverty can't afford to attend school, which can educate them, and liberate them from the bonds of poverty. The mission of this choir is to "provide as many of our world's 600 million orphaned and at-risk children sponsorship for a complete education through their nation's highest university or vocational levels."

Our Art teacher, Ms. Howard, along with the help of a few others, took it upon themselves to "adopt" as many of these these orphans as they could, in order to help them receive an education upon their return. We have staff members, and parents of students who are making donations. We know it's a financial burden to pay for a whole donation, so Ms. Howard is coordinating a month-by-month donation. If 12 people donate $35 each, we can provide an education for one child. Like they've done with Ruth already.

If you'd like to help, please don't hesitate to contact me (robdarling@selahschools.org) so I can put you in touch with Ms. Howard, or go directly to the Matsiko website. 

I know we do a lot for our students in our classrooms and schools. But why not do just a little bit more for students all across the globe? 

A dabbing unicorn?

Feb. 13th morning announcement from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Attendance Matters!

Our goal at JCP is to have 95% attendance for every student. (We understand that kids will always get sick and need to miss a day or two.) We've even started posting our daily attendance around the main entrance points on campus to make parents aware. 

We had a group of 1st grade teachers who found a correlation between student growth in reading and their attendance rates. Here’s what they found:

• Students who were gone 8 or more days, about two weeks of school (that is roughly 10% or more of our year so far,) grew an average of 2 reading levels over the first 90+ days of school. It didn’t matter if these students were struggling or strong readers.
• Students who were gone less than 8 days grew an average of 6 reading levels over the first 90+ days of school.

Yes, you are reading that correctly. Those students who had better attendance increase their reading levels 3x's more than their peers with poor attendance. And this growth was the same whether the student was an advanced reader, or a struggling reader.

If their attendance rates remain the same, students with more absences will increase only 4 reading levels, while the group of students with less will increase 12. Which group do you think will be more prepared to the rigor of second grade?

If they're "big" sick, please keep them home. But with the sniffles, or a bad case of extra-whiney, please sent the our way. We can deal with the whining and snot. They can wipe their noses on their sleeves as they read, we're ok with that. 😀

Please, help students fail...

Your best teacher was your last mistake. (the internet says many different people are the author of this quote, pick your favorite.)

When you make a mistake often times you have immediate data, immediate feedback. Having spent 7 years as a pavement maintenance contractor, I have to admit that I made mistakes when striping parking lots and roads, but nothing as ironic or visible as this:

Sometimes our mistakes are very public. Sometimes we don't realize they are mistakes until some time later. But I bet the gentlemen (sorry guys, but I'm assuming a lady didn't make this one) who made this mistake will never misspell a certain word, ever again!

As an adult, the success of my professional life (and my parenting and husband-ing, for that matter) hinges on minimizing my mistakes. The way I do this is by using all of my knowledge and experience to make the best decision I can, in the most timely manner possible. Much of that knowledge and experience was gained by doing it the wrong way, many times. Hopefully I have remembered all of the wrong ways I did it in the past, or the wrong ways I've seen others do it to make sure this decision/action is better than before. 

The phrase "Well, I'll never do that again!" is powerful. You did something wrong, and you learned something valuable from it. 

From a child's perspective, their whole growth process hinges not on whether they make mistakes, but how they learn and grow from them. And our reactions to their mistakes and failures play a key role. This is connected to a quote in my previous post: If the brain is unrewarded or punished for curiosity, it learns to hide, avoid risks, and stick with what is familiar and safe. (Cozzolino) If our students (children) do not feel safe enough to make a mistake, it is devastating for them when they do. They will shut down, close off, and hide.

Imagine how your child's world will be, how their learning and imagination and potential will flourish, when they know that they were free to make mistakes because they are a necessary part of learning! Imagine how much they will change the world because of the risks they are willing to take!

So, what's my point? Please let them fail. And when they do, teach them how to learn from it. And when they do it right or better the next time, praise their effort, their grit, and point out how it was because they learned from their mistake that they showed this growth. That is an amazing learning lesson they can use the rest of their lives.

Building Resilience in Students

Here is a great article by Karen Hey-Sigmund, providing 20 research-based strategies on how to build resilience in our children. Click here

I don't think it's a coincidence that the first one is:

"Resilience needs relationships, 

not uncompromising independence.

Research tells us that it’s not rugged self-reliance, determination or inner strength that leads kids through adversity, but the reliable presence of at least one supportive relationship. In the context of a loving relationship with a caring adult, children have the opportunity to develop vital coping skills. The presence of a responsive adult can also help to reverse the  physiological changes that are activated by stress. This will ensure that the developing brain, body and immune system are protected from the damaging effects of these physiological changes. Anyone in the life of a child can make a difference – family, teachers, coaches – anyone."