Diario Camino del Río

Week of February 8

Dear Shining Hearts Staff,

Some Important Announcements

• Report Card Clarification: SEND REPORT CARDS SIMULTANEOUSLY ON TUESDAY PM

• All teachers will be sending home report cards on TUESDAY afternoon (February 9) in backpacks.
• All teachers can print report cards at any time. (However, the attendance data will be printed on the cards after 7:30 AM on Monday.) This gives you time to stuff cards for Tuesday.We have to run a special report in Synergy to transfer this attendance data to the cards during non-school hours. Marian will do this between 7:00-7:30 tomorrow.
• Teachers are expected to stuff report cards on their own. This is not the responsibility of the office. Make sure to communicate with specialists about their progress reports too.
• Teachers’ 1000 copy count should cover your report card printing. If you run out later in the month, let the office know and we will provide more copies.
• Encourage your students to bring back the envelopes signed by parents. Sometimes teachers offer a small incentive for doing so.  This will help you figure out if parents read it or not. This also helps reduce printing costs of new envelopes and it’s good for the environment too.

♥

• Food For Lane County Produce Plus Program @ DHS – I just learned about this program at our last Student Care Team meeting, but if you ever hear of families needing access to free food, the Produce Plus program is at all DHS offices on Mondays and is open to anyone from the public. This is the same program we offer to families once a month through the FRC but it is offered every week at DHS sites as well. The offices closest to our area are:

West Eugene Family Center
2101 W 11th Ave
Eugene, OR 97402

McKenzie Center
2885 Chad Drive
Eugene, OR 97408

♥

• Staffing Survey Out Next Week: Some of you may remember from last year that I sent our a staffing Survey. I will do so again next week as a Google Survey but slightly revised. Please consider being flexible in how you answer the questions. We try to build a staffing plan that works well for staff. However, our primary purpose as educators is to provide the best dual language immersion experience for our students. Sometimes, that means personal preferences are considered after student needs.

I will be sending the survey out to all staff to find out about your interests and planning for next year. I will be the only person reading the survey. However, if you have news to share with me about moves, retirements, and so on; I encourage you to to come and make an appointment with me as well so we can talk more personally about your bigger life changes.

♥

• District Admin Updates – Randy Bernstein, the Director of Secondary Education, has decided to retire after a 34-year career as a public educator, 15 years of which has been in 4J. Randy will complete the year in his current role before retiring in June. Also, Jon Lauch, our longtime Director of Facilities Management and Transportation, has been tapped for a leadership position in the private sector. Jon will stay will on through April. Lastly, Dr. Charis McGaughy, formerly 4J Chief of Staff, has formally transitioned to the title and role of Assistant Superintendent for Instruction. Charis assumed the leadership and oversight of the Instruction Department in December and this past week the school board approved the final logistical pieces of reinstating the role of Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, which was last filled in 2010–11. This is not an added administrative position but a replacement. Downtown does not plan to appoint a new Chief of Staff.

♥

• Fun Activities for Anti-bias Education – Teaching Tolerance is now offering an archive of webinars on a growing list of topics, but here is a new one that sounded particularly good. Are you looking for fun and creative ways to engage your students in anti-bias learning? This webinar features video footage of educators teaching Perspectives for a Diverse America advisory activities. These team-building exercises break down social barriers and improve classroom climate.

♥

• How to engage, educate with virtual field trips – Virtual field trips can be a fun educational alternative to traditional field trips, Discovery Education’s Kyle Schutt suggests. In this commentary, he shares five tips to help educators make the most of virtual field trips and notes that, in his experience, event-based virtual trips are most effective.

♥

New Building Updates:

• Cabinets in the classrooms:  After some discussion in the last meeting about the new building, facilities listened closely to our suggestions about using COW CARTS in classrooms.  The ideas is that we will have a lockable closet designated for our COW Carts in every classroom.  COW Cart use is a standard in the district and this also provides more usable storage above the student cubbies for teachers. The depth of this storage space will remain at 16 inches.

• Public Meeting this Thursday: There will be a public meeting this Thursday in the Library. We will discuss the main features of the building and answer any questions that participants have about the building. Shane MacRhoades will be there to ensure that all questions about bicycles, pedestrians, and the roadway are answered. Please come to see and be involved if you have interest.

♥

What is Coming Up:

February 8 (M)

Secret Friend Day 1
Report Cards Printed by Teachers with attendance data after 7:30.
7:30-8:00, Joe in pre-conference.
8:45-9:45, Joel in observation.
10:30-12:00, Joel at UO PDAT Meeting on Latino Parent Teacher Curriculum
2:30-3:30, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
3:30-5:00, Joel to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

February 9 (T)

Report Cards Sent Home by teachers in backpacks.

Secret Friend Day 2
7:30-8:00, Post conference meeting. (Classroom)
9:00-9:30, Latino Cooking & Nutrition Outreach Meeting (FRC)
3:00-4:00, PLT Meeting- Main Focus Finalizing the Artist in Residence Schedule, Update on Priority School Status from Kathy and Joel.
5:30-6:00, Kelly Transition Meeting (Library)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Library)

February 10 (W)

Secret Friend Day 3
1:45-2:45, Teacher Collaboration time in the (Library)
3:00-4:00- Camino del Rio Garden Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-5:00, Joel to North Region Admin Meeting (YG/Corridor)

February 11 (H)

Secret Friend Day 3

10:30-12:10,Valentine’s Lunch with a family Friend or Grandparent in Cafeteria. (Extended Lunch) (Cafeteria)
2:45-3:45, Mod Squad!, IPBS Meeting (Recker’s Classroom, Room 7)
6:00-7:00, School Construction Update- Public Meeting (Cafeteria)

January 12 (F)

Secret Friend Day 4
8:30-9:30, Joel in Formal Observation
There will not be a Valentine’s Dance as was previously scheduled.

February 15 (M)
Presidents’ Day – No School

February 16 (T)

8:45-9:30, School Wide Assembly at 8:45-9:30 on Pre Colombian Culture (Gym)
2:45-4:45, Staff Meeting (Library)-Focus Foundational Skills in Reading with Susan Penrod and Reid Sheppard

February 17 (W)
Vaccine Exclusion Day

Artist in Residence Day 1 with Samuel Becerra
4:00-6:00, Digital Learning Day (Ed Center)

February 18 (H)
Carrying It Forward- Order your Sub today Taking It Up (Classified as well.)
Joel out to lead facilitate. Admin coverage included.

February 19 (F)
Carrying It Forward- Order your Sub today under Taking It UP (Classified as well.)
Joel out to lead facilitate. Admin to coverage included.

Have a fabulous week, everyone!

Joel