SEL

April 12, 2021

By Allan  |  2021/04/10 19:01 Posted in Articles, Arts, SEL, Video  |  Comments Off on April 12, 2021

 

Howdy Holt Bolts,

Last week seemed to go well and I think it shows that class size matters. And the break of sorts on Wednesday was quite nice.

Eight items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – Four staffing related updates:

• 2021-2022 Staffing Plan & Expo Updates – With 4th grade going down one classroom, Ashley Wolf is planning to apply for an opening at the Job Expo. HR requires all current staff to be placed in open positions, so for the first round of the Job Expo, Holt will have a kindergarten and music opening. If Ashley gets a job at another building, we will have a 5th grade opening in the second round of the Job Expo. Linked here is a copy of the 21-22 Staffing Plan, which includes all FTE and funding sources.

• CLC EA Interviews Thursday – SPED staff are lined up to help with interviews to fill Clay’s vacancy, but if any other staff are interested in joining the interview committee, we”re conducting interviews this Thursday, 1:30-3:30 on Zoom. Let me know if you’d like to join.

• Hybrid Utility EA – Sharon Alberts has officially been hired as our Hybrid EA. She’s been subbing in the position up until this point, but is now officially with us through the end of the school year.

• Part-Time Night Custodian – Facilities changed their mind and Mark Elmore did start with us last week as our part-time night. Mark is currently Edgewood’s night custodian and is at Holt only a couple hours later in the evening, but please give Mark a “Howdy” if you happen be working late one night.

 

 

• Hybrid & Hybrid-SSO Handbook Updates – Fourteen hybrid updates and updates made to the Holt Hybrid-SSO Handbook:

• NEW: Hand Washing Before AND After Meals – Students are now supposed to wash their hands both before AND after they eat meals. This was shared with principals at Friday’s COVID Site Coordinator Meeting (lined here are the complete meeting notes).

• No Student Teacher Supervisors in Building – Also new as of last week, supervisors of student teachers are not considered essential visitors and are not allowed inside schools (see email for details). Student teachers will instead need to record themselves in some manner (ZOOM or camera) so university supervisors can evaluate the candidates.

• C-Wing Door Update – Facilities is going to re-key door near the gym that C-Wing is using as an entrance/exit to be opening with a classroom key. That’s the short term fix. For the long term they agreed to install a card reader, but that will likely be a summer project, though it could happen earlier depending upon the complexity of the install, crew workload, and parts availability.

• Child Face Coverings – If any students are wearing gaiters, face covering that are too loose, or need a replacement mask for any reason, the office has disposable child sized masks we can give students the day. Linked here is the 4J Mask Requirements.

• Recess Restroom Badges – Facilities wasn’t crazy about the restroom badges having multiple door access, so the new plan is for students on the playground to enter through the main front entrance, which will also allow for office staff to supervise students.

• Kickball at Hard Play Only – At the staff meeting I said we could do kickball at both soft and hard play in the grass, but after looking at the space they were closer than I thought, so soft play will not have kickball, but we will allow kids to play in the grass as long as there is sufficient supervision.

• Hybrid Model – FAQ’s – Downtown shared the Elementary Hybrid Model – FAQ with principals earlier, but we were told not to share it. However, we are now allowed to share it. They will continue to update the FAQ as regulations change. I’ve added this link in the left column of my blog under District & State Links.

• TAG During Hybrid – Debbi already connected with teachers who have students referred for TAG testing, but if others are interested, linked here is the TAG Email Update from the district TAG Coordinator.

• 24 Day Student Quarantine if COVID Positive Parent – If a student has a parent or family member who tests positive for COVID, they must quarantine for 24 days. They will be marked as an excused absence for contact tracing purposes, but the school should still provide instructional opportunities, which would be what we already do for off-site days and for on-site days providing them with some form of teacher directed learning, whether that a choice board types of activity (i.e. Dreambox, Lalilo, independent reading, etc.) or something else the teacher decides.

• REMINDER: Notify Allan of Positive COVID Cases – With case counts rising, remember to notify me if you become aware of any students or family member who have tested positive for COVID.

• REMINDER: Notify Office of Cohort Close Contacts – If students from different cohorts come into close contact with one another (i.e. within 6-feet for more than 15 minutes), contact the office so we can document this in Synergy.

• STAFF MEETING REPEAT: Late Arrivals Enter at Office – All doors will close at 7:55 this week and any students arriving after that point should enter through the office so we can begin recording tardies.

• STAFF MEETING REPEAT: Guest Teacher Start Time, 7:15AM – Normally 7:30 is our start time for subs, but now that students come into class at 7:40, please put 7:15 into AESOP for the sub hours start time. Katie has set 7:15 as the default start time, so make sure your sub plans match accordingly.

• STAFF MEETING REPEAT: Meals into Classroom Garbage Cans – Ryan was originally going to order more garbage cans, but decided instead that he’ll empty classroom garbages each morning after breakfast and after school for lunch.

 


Sound On and click image for video!
 

• Virtual Artist in Residence – LaneArts is offering for free to Title 1 Schools a virtual artist in residence. How it works is they have recorded lessons ready to go that teachers can do with their class in-person or push out as async work. Linked here is the ArtStream Access Instructions for Teachers.

They only ask that we DO NOT share the log-in information and that we DO only share the lesson URL with students and families.

• Teacher Observations – Now that we actually have children in the building, I’m going to start teacher observations. For teachers on the observation cycle this year, I’ll start with informal observations and later this week will email a proposed date & time for formal observations. For the second informal observation, I may just do an async Seesaw lesson, which won’t require anything on the part of teachers.

• District Admin Updates – Principal shuffling season has begun. The Adams principal, Teresa Martindale, is moving to be the principal at Family School, and the Family School/Chinese Immersion School principal, Jen Hebard, is following Chinese Immersion for when they relocate to Kennedy Middle School next year. Chris Benz, the current assistant principal at Kennedy MS, will be the new principal at Adams. For full details, see this email, which includes some secondary principal appointments of interim principals who are now permanent and some assistant principal shifts.

• COVID-19 Surveillance Project – Would you like to find out if you have Covid-19 antibodies now and again this summer? Linked here is an opportunity through the Oregon Health Authority to do a prick test to learn about your antibody load and help OHA learn more about Covid-19 antibodies around Oregon. 

• “Why teachers should “go slow to go fast” – Despite pressures to focus on rigor and academic progress over the past year, educators should take time to rebuild relationships, establish communities and make connections, asserts the author of this EdSurge Opinion Piece. In this commentary, they suggest educators “go slow to go fast” and assert these foundations for learning will improve outcomes for students.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

April 12 (M)
1:30-3:30, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)

April 13 (T)
2:30-3:15, Allan to Referral Review Meeting
6:30, Holt Kindergarten Orientation for Fall (Zoom)

April 14 (W)
8:15-9:00, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
9:00-11:00, Allan to Elem Pool Interviews (Zoom)
12:30, Lunch Bunch w/Ms. Darla (Zoom)
1:40-2:40, Leadership Meeting (Library & Zoom)

April 15 (H)
1:30-3:30, CLC EA Interviews (Zoom)

April 16 (F)
Regular Day

April 19 (M)
National Volunteer Appreciation Week
4:00-5:00, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Zoom)

April 20 (T)
Regular Day

April 21 (W)
Administrative Professionals’ Day
8:30-9:00, Student Council (Zoom)
9:00-9:45, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
9:30-10:00, KG Data Team – Tier 3
10:40-11:10, 1st Grade Data Team – Tier 3
12:00-12:30, 2nd Grade Data Team – Tier 3
12:30, Lunch Bunch w/Ms. Darla (Zoom)
1:40-2:40, Staff Meeting (Library & Zoom)
2:40-4:00, PD/PLC Time – SEL – Anti-Racism Training

April 22 (H)
Take Our Daughters & Sons to Work Day
3:00-7:00, Allan to Job Expo (Zoom)

April 23 (F)
7:30-8:30, Allan to 4JMAPS Board Meeting (Zoom)

Have a good week, everyone!

Allan

 

March 29, 2021

By Allan  |  2021/03/27 17:11 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Grants, Science, SEL  |  Comments Off on March 29, 2021

 

Hi Everyone,

Hope folks were able to refresh over the break and are ready for kids to finally return to the building.

Twelve items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – Four staffing updates:

• CLC EA Vacancy – Clay has left his position and a posting for his replacement should get posted to 4J Jobs sometime this week. We’ll have a sub in the position until someone is hired, but if you know anyone good looking for a 6-hour position, please encourage them to apply. This is not a temp position, so they would be a permanent hire.

• Hybrid Utility EA Position – Our Hybrid Utility 5.5 hour EA position is still vacant, but it was reposted before spring beak and I’m hoping to get candidate names from HR soon.

• ELD Staff – Holt’s ELD staffing will stay the same for next year.

• 2021-2022 Classified Staffing – Good news and bad news. The bad news is Classified Staffing is not finalized, but good news is it’s not finalized because downtown has given schools additional classified hours to support 1st grade reading from state Student Investment Act (SIA). Holt is getting 12 additional hours from SIA funds and principals on Monday will get more information on the rules for how to include these in our classified staffing plans. 

• Week of Mach 29th Notes – Seven notes about this week.

• Badge COVID Sign-In is Ready – All staff have completed the two required forms for staff badges to be reactivated. I’ve let downtown know, but haven’t heard back if they actually reactivated badges for building-wide door access, but even if they haven’t, as of Monday staff no longer need to complete the paper sign-in/sign-out and badging in on a card reader counts as your daily COVID Attestation.

• YMCA After School Beings (tell kids where to go) – Holt’s after school YMCA program surprisingly did not fill up, so it is being combined with Gilham’s program, which also did not fill up. Holt students will be driven by van to Gilham. The YMCA van will park curbside in front of the building on the parking lot corner by the hard play area. Be sure to tell any students attending YMCA this is where they should go. And if this plan causes traffic issues, we’ll change the pick-up spot.

• 2-5 “How Are You Getting Home?” Parent Form for Orientation – Melanie let me know about a Holt form to document how kids plan to get home at the end of each day. She will put copies of the “How are you getting to School?” form in teacher mailboxes. At orientation this week, teachers should give parents the form when they drop kids off and tell them to return it when they return at the end of the orientation.

• Intervention Groups Cancelled this Week– Title, SPED, ELD, and other intervention groups are cancelled this week to focus on the return on K-1 students on-site and for 2-5 orientations. Groups will resume the following week, April 5th.

• 2-5, Async Only on Orientation Day & Sample Lessons – Grade 2-5 teachers are not required to do any synchronous teaching on orientation days, but should provide async lessons, which could be modified versions of the Sample K/1 Hybrid Lessons focused on COVID protocols. 

• Grade 2-5 Attendance – On your orientation day, attendance will be taken paper/pencil for students who attend the on-site orientation. Look for an attendance sheet in your mailbox from Melanie.

• Extra Help for K/1 On-Site Students – With intervention groups cancelled this week, any extra staff able to help with arrival, recess, dismissal, and other times requested by K-1 teachers would be much appreciated. Times we could use help would be:

• ARRIVAL, 7:40-8:00 – Helping at buses, at the C and D Wing Entrances, and directing student, adults, and vehicle traffic in front of the building.

• K-1 RECESS, 10:20-10:50 – Reminding students stay 6-feet apart and in their designated hard or soft play areas, as well as helping reinforce the typical recess rules and safety practices.

• DISMISSAL, 12:50-1:10 – Normally we’ll end supervision at 1:05, but things always take longer the first few days of school. We can use help xtra help assisting students to find their buses, finding their adult, and reminding kids and adults to stay 6-feet apart.

• Week of April 5th Notes – Three notes for next week:

• K-5 Full Hybrid Starts & Extra Help Needed – If any EAs with hours shorter than 5 hours are able to extend you day MTHF, helping with arrival and/or dismissal, you could utilize trade time on Wednesday to compensate for working longer other days. Check in with me if you’re able to do this. Also, any non-classroom licensed staff able to help would also be appreciated. 

• Intervention Groups Resume – Title, SPED, and ELD groups will resume this week.

Comprehensive Learning Center – Service Focused
ELD – Zoom
Learning Center – Service Focused
Speech – Zoom on off-site days
Title 1 – Service Focused

• New Wednesday Meeting Schedule Begins – Building meetings will shift to Wednesdays, 1:40-2:40, starting this week. Staff Meeting will be the 1st and 3rd Wednesday, Leadership the 2nd Wednesday, and PBIS/IPBS the 4th Wednesday of the month.

Wednesday PD/PLC time will continue to be at 2:40-4:00, meaning the workday on Wednesday is continuing with the 8:00-4:00 schedule. The current district Wednesday PD/PLC Calendar has the next three weeks as building based, so unless something comes up that can’t wait for a Staff Meeting, I will plan on not holding any meetings during the Wednesday PD/PLC time until April 21st.

Outside of the morning “Blue” Zoom times and afternoon Staff Meeting times, teams can decide their own Wednesday collaboration times.

 

 

• Hybrid-SSO Handbook & Other Hybrid Updates – Nine hybrid updates, including a few updates to the Holt Hybrid-SSO Handbook:

• New 3-Foot Guideline – Are teachers ready to cut those 6-foot PVC pipes in half? If you missed it, the Friday before the break ODE released a revised Ready Schools, Safe Learners that said students only need to be 3-feet apart (it’s still 6-feet for staff-to-student and staff-to-staff). No word yet from downtown on how 4J will respond to this. Right now it’s optional guidance from the state (my sense is downtown wants to avoid any more radical shifts unless it becomes mandatory, but who knows), so stay tuned.

• Lunch Process Update – For the next two weeks, lunches will be delivered to classrooms by kitchen staff in a paper bag with all the food and a separate container for cold milk. After two weeks, we’ll start a lunch count for how many regular meals, vegetarian meals, and gluten free meals are needed each day. This may be a Google Sheet, but I’m checking with other schools to see how they are handling this.

• Recess Restroom Door Change – If a student needs to use the restroom during recess, they will use either the A or D wing doors in front of the building to access their designated cohort restroom, even if it’s not their regular entrance/exit, which will help with supervision.

• Inside Recess Supervision – There will be at least two staff members supervising classes per wing on rainy days, thought my thinking is unless it’s a downpour, kids can deal with a little bit of rain:

K/1 Recess: Barbara, Connie, Lisa G., Lisa P.
2/3 Recess: Connie, Lisa P. SPED EA (plus Hybrid EA)
4/5 Recess: Kelly, Lisa P., Theresa (plus Hybrid EA)

• Safety Drills & Evacuations – See the Non-COVID Holt Staff Handbook (which is permanently linked on the left column of my blog) for standard evacuation procedures. Below is what we’ll do different during hybrid:

Room Clears: Same procedure as normal, except room clear into your wing’s designated alternative learning space (A02, B01, C02, D02) and not into another classroom.

Fire Drills: Same drill procedure as normal, except classes should use their designated entrance/exit door and K/1, 2/3, and 4/5 cohorts should do their best to stay separate when lining up. We’ll decide line-up spots for classes/grades at the next staff meeting, but let me know if anyone has a proposal before then. 

• Arrival/Dismissal Staff Supervision Assignments – Below is where EAs will be stationed at arrival and dismissal once we are in full hybrid, K-5. At dismissal, classroom teachers will walk their class to their designated area. 

For the week after spring break, when it’s just K-1 in the building, EAs stationed at A and B Wing Doors for arrival should help at C and D wing doors or hallways this week.

ARRIVAL
Buses – Lisa
A Wing Door – Connie & Mandy
B Wing Door – Tasha & Hybrid EA
C Wing Door & Bike Cage – Marilyn, Theresa, Kelly
D Wing Door – Lori & Cheryl
Crossing Guard – Barbara & Jason

DISMISSAL
Library Hallway Area – Theresa
Buses – Lisa, Cheryl, Lori, Connie, Hybrid EA
Crossing Guard – Barbara & Darrin

• No Hand Sanitizer for Classrooms – Schools are now only being provided with the hand sanitizer stands and not sanitizer for individual classrooms. Students in the classroom are now supposed to use the sink for hand sanitizing.

• Separating Classes at Recess Proposal – I mentioned this at the Staff Meeting, but after talking with the district contact tracers, they said keeping classes separate on the playground would not make a difference in terms of potential quarantines, so we will stick with our current plan of just separating grades by soft play and hard play.

• Meals for SSO & Off-Site Students – Since school kitchens are now focused on serving meals to students on-site, 4J is now offering a once-a-week food box delivery on Wednesdays to families. Families can sign up for a free weekly food box delivery for their 4J student or children 18 years old and younger at bit.ly/4Jmealdelivery. More info at 4J Nutrition Services. Feel free to share with families. 

• Coffee Run on Monday! – Want a coffee on Monday? Kim is offering to make a coffee run and here are the deets!

WHAT: Drink run to Starbucks

WHEN: Drinks arrive at 10:30 am on Monday

HOW: Sign up here by 9:00 a.m.: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lJ-KHSxJrd50gQIPKoDeaAxrUz79zamyacz_RvulcYQ/edit?usp=sharing

MENU: https://www.starbucks.com/menu

DELIVERY:  Drinks will be in the office. Kim will deliver to K-1 teachers and staff who are working with students in the building. You will note that on the sign up:)

PAYMENT:
• You can pay anytime during the day in the office.
• There will be some change in the envelope, but if you can, bring the exact amount
• Short on cash – no worries. One of Kim’s simple pleasure in life is buying a coffee for a friend!

WHY: ‘Really – we need a reason:)

• PAHS Welcome Back Breakfast Burrito Orders! – From our FABULOUS parent group:

Welcome to hybrid! The parents at Holt want you all to know how grateful and appreciative we are of your hard work and flexibility this year. They want to offer you a hearty breakfast to get your day started just right. Fill out the Quick PAHS Burrito Survey and PAHS will take care of the rest. Thank you for making Holt such a special place for our children. Orders are due Friday, April 2nd. Your burritos will be waiting for you when you arrive Monday, April 5th at 7:15am!

• Food for Lane County Cereal Update – I called Food for Lane County and they are continuing to offer their Cereal for Youth program for schools, but their program coordinator wanted to connect with 4J Nutrition Services before allowing schools to pick-up cereal, so right now I’m waiting to hear back from them once they have the all clear.

• Earth Day Opportunity – April 22nd is Earth Day and 4J offering a “4J Loves Food Not Waste at Home” project. The 4J Loves Food Not Waste at Home project involves:

-Distributing reusable produce bags with waste reduction educational materials
-Love Food Not Waste Challenge/ PSA art contest with prize drawing with prizes
-Connecting to the 4J Climate Justice Earth Week educational opportunity

See the linked Email and the No Time to Waste website for details, but if your class is interested in participating, let me know by Friday.

• Lenovo Teacher Giveaway – Jacque shared this one with me. Every month, teachers can be entered, by themselves or nominated, to win $1,000 to be used toward their AdoptAClassroom.org classroom fundraiser. At the end of 12 months, 1 grand prize winner will win $2,500 + a Lenovo device of their choosing. Visit Lenovo Teacher Appreciation Giveaways for more information.

• When Young Children Return to the Classroom – This Edutopia Article takes a look at how one first grade teacher created routines and fostered a safe, nurturing environment for her students. Below is the short version of the strategies she found helpful (I especially like the last three):

• Make safety protocols fun
• Offer flexible seating
• Provide individual storage tubs
• Use a long rope for moving as a group
• Create a peaceful learning environment
• Focus on social and emotional connection
• Lower your expectations
• Get outdoors

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

March 29 (M)
Grades 2-5 Orientation Week & continue hybrid classes on CDL schedule
7:40, Door Open
7:55, K-1 Begin On-Site Learning (Cohort A)
8:30-10:00, 2nd Grade Orientation (Cohort A)
10:45-12:15, 2nd Grade Orientation (Cohort B)
1:30-3:30, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
5:30-6:00, This Week in Sports w/Mr. Cole (Zoom)

March 30 (T)
9:00-10:00, 3rd Grade Orientation (Cohort A)
10:30-11:30, 3rd Grade Orientation (Cohort B)
3:00-4:00, PBIS Meeting (Zoom)
6:00-7:00, 5th Grade Family Night for ODS (Zoom)

March 31 (W)
8:00-8:45, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
9:00-11:00, Allan to HR Early Hire Interviews (Zoom)

April 1 (H)
7:40, Door Open
7:55, K-1 Begin On-Site Learning (Cohort B)
9:30-10:30, 4th Grade Orientation (Cohort A)
11:00-12:00, 4th Grade Orientation (Cohort B)
3:00-4:00, Allan to SSD Elem SPED Meeting (Zoom)

April 2 (F)
9:00-10:30, 5th Grade Orientation (Cohort A)
1:00-2:30, 5th Grade Orientation (Cohort B)
3:00-4:00, Allan to Outdoor School Meeting (Zoom)

April 5 (M)
7:40, Door Open
7:55, All Grades in On-Site Learning (Cohort A)

April 6 (T)
School Librarian Appreciation
12:00, Allan to Attendance Meeting (Zoom)

April 7 (W)
9:00-9:45, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
1:40-2:40, Staff Meeting (Library & Zoom)

April 8 (H)
7:40, Door Open
7:55, All Grades in On-Site Learning (Cohort A)
5:00-6:00, Site Council Meeting (Zoom)
6:00-7:00, PAHS Meeting (Zoom)

April 9 (F)
9:00-10:00, Allan to Physical Distancing Coordinator Meeting (Zoom)

 

And Awaaay We Go!

Allan

 

March 15, 2021

By Allan  |  2021/03/13 21:32 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Math, Science, SEL, Video  |  Comments Off on March 15, 2021

 

Hi Everyone,

Kids are finally coming back into the building this week. Guess that means it’s time to put away my “work slippers” and get out my principal ties.

Eight items of note for this week (though the second one is a long one):

• Staffing Updates – Three staffing updates

• Recess/Title 1 EAs – Please welcome Lisa Phillips and Kelly Stapp as our two newest EAs. Lisa and Kelly interviewed for Ben’s old position, but we had enough funds left in our Title 1 budget to hire two new staff members. Lisa comes to us from Utah where she worked as a Title 1 EA and is currently in the process of getting her teaching degree. Lisa is also a new Holt parent this school year. Kelly comes to us from Redmond, OR where she was a Title 1 EA for almost 10 years before moving to the Eugene area. Please welcome Kelly and Lisa to Team Holt!

• Hybrid EA – None of our Hybrid EA candidates worked out, so we’re back to the drawing board. However, I’m wheeling and dealing with HR to get a reliable sub into the position who was not in the original candidate pool, so hopefully I’ll have something to good announce next week.

• 21/22 Secretary Staffing – One bit of upsetting news, which I’m not done pushing back on downtown yet, is that HR informed me they are not staffing Holt with two secretaries next year. Their rationale is this is an equity issue concerning other large elementary schools who only have one secretary. I’d agree this is an equity issues, but there seems to be some even more gross inequities when every middle school gets a program staffed secretary and registrar, when a majority of 4J middle schools are smaller than Holt. Size of school should really determine whether a school gets additional office staff program staffed. I’m not sure I’ll be able to win they battle, but I’m certainly going to try.

 

 
• Hybrid Updates – Several Hybrid related items of note:

• Holt Hybrid & SSO Handbook – Linked here is the Holt Hybrid & SSO Handbook. I don’t expect staff to read this cover-to-cover, but use this as a reference guide if you need to look up something specific. There is no new information in the above plan, outside of the items listed below. It’s really just a consolidation of all the emails, slide shows, meeting minutes, district videos, and various docs that have been shared over the past few months. Let me know if something is missing or wrong or if you have questions on anything.

• Snacks for Grade 2-5 Orientation – Nutrition Services is not providing snacks for the K/1 Orientation this week, but they will provide snacks for the grade 2-5 orientations. Deb said she would bag up a snack to simulate the morning breakfast pick-up when studnets first enter the building and which students can practice the meal protocols in their classroom later.

• Attendance/Contact Tracing – Student attendance is now less about tracking attendance and more about contact tracing. Classroom teachers will meet students at classroom door to complete the Visual Screener, looking for student symptoms of COVID.

• Unusual color
• Unusual behavior (behavior change, lethargy, unusual fatigue)
• New or significant coughing
• Respiratory symptoms not typical for student (noisy breathing, voice changes, nasal dripping)
• Shortness of breath
• Chills (shivering, teeth, goosebumps)
• Appearing ill (sweating, sunken eyes)
• Vomiting

Teachers will then ask ALL students the following two questions:

• Are you feeling okay?
• Have you felt anything that’s different for you in the last few days?

If students answer yes to either question, they are to be escorted by an adult to the office. Call the office if you need assistance.

Classroom teachers are expected to take attendance daily before 8:10. The district is working on logistic if this will be done through Synergy, paper/pencil, email, or other means.

• Routine Cleaning by Teachers – Teachers are responsible for spot cleaning throughout the day within the classroom. This includes items or objects students or adults touch that will then be handled by others, such as shared items or any object students touch that shouldn’t be touched. Teachers will also need to spray down student desks and wipe them down after meals. All classrooms will have disinfectant spray, rags, and “Tech Wipes” for teacher use (not for student use). Place dirty rags on the lip of your garbage can and a clean rag will be left for you near your sink.

• Outside Recess Protocols (UPDATED) – Students will get a daily 30-minute recess with their cohort group. Students are allowed to play all the usual playground games that allow for 6-feet distance (4-Square, Horse, Hopscotch, etc.), minus those where they would come within 6-feet of one another (i.e. soccer, basketball, tag, etc.). Masks will continue to be worn at all times.

Before Recess: Teachers will walk students from the building to either the soft play or hard play if it is their day in that area. Students are released once EAs signal readiness.

During Recess: One grade level will be assigned to soft play and the other to hard play. The next day, the grade levels will rotate.

Restrooms: If a student needs to use the restroom, they will use their wing’s designated entrance/exit and will use their designated cohort restroom.

Equipment: Each cohort will have their own set of balls, jump ropes, hula hoops, etc. which will be sprayed down nightly.

End of Recess: At the end of recess, students on hard play will line up on the tic marks. Students on the soft play will line up on their own sidewalk (up front next to the fence by the parking lot, middle by the tether balls, and next to fence by the buddy bench). Bolts will be painted on the ground where students will stand. Teachers will meet their class to walk them into the building, maintaining 6-feet distance.

All classes need to have an assigned line for the end of recess times. Please work with the teachers/grades to assign class to lines. Consider flow, entrance to buildings, etc. when determining lines. A copy should be given to the office so that supervision staff can be informed.

• Inside Recess – Each class must be supervised by an adult. An indoor recess supervision schedule will be drafted. Students must remain 6-feet apart. Students should not share items. Electronics are allowed.

• Students may not go in the cubbies
• Students should choose a seated activity
• Games and activities should be provided and taught
• Students must stay in their own classroom
• Permission is needed by supervision staff to use the restroom
• When the lights turn off turn and look at the adult by the door
• Classroom expectations/choices should be posted above your classroom door
• In the future we may allow some access for under cover supervision
• Classroom teachers will have expectations in Guest Teacher binder and post on the wall (near or above the door) what room expectations are.
• All certified staff will teach their students what appropriate activities are prior to the first indoor recess.

• Hybrid Meals (Breakfast & Lunch) Process – All students will be provided with a free breakfast and lunch, which they will eat in their classrooms. Students will eat meals at their desks and are allowed to remove their masks while eating. All meals are supervised by their classroom teacher.

Breakfast: Students will receive a bagged breakfast upon entry at their designated entrance.

Lunch: Lunches will be delivered to classrooms on a rolling cart. There will be a box of cold food (milk, fruits, veggie, etc.) and a warmer-bag of the individually packaged hot food (bagged pizza, hamburger, burrito, etc). The teacher will hand students one of each bag.

Extra Food: If there are extra breakfast or lunch bags, these may be given to students to take home. However, do not send home any hot items from breakfast, since that will go past their 4-hour lifespan.

Home Lunches: It’s encouraged that students eat food provided by the school but if students bring food from home, students should be able to open containers and bottles without staff assistance. Of course, we won’t allow a student to not eat because they can’t open their food and we can step in and help but we will want to follow up with the family to ensure they practice with their child so we don’t make a practice of touching students’ food/containers. Home lunches need to be nut-free.

• Lost & Found Cohort A & B – We will have two separate lost and found racks. One will be out for Cohort A on Mondays and Tuesday. The other will be out for Cohort B on Thursdays and Fridays. Custodial staff will move the lost and found racks between cohorts.

• Transportation Update – The Transportation Department has contacted all K-1 families eligible for bussing and will soon reach out to grade 2-5 families. The number of students allowed on buses is limited this year, so the Transportation Department is wanting to know who is riding the bus and who is getting to school by another method. Health and safety measures for riding the bus will be:

• Students will receive a visual screening before entering the bus
• Seats by the driver will be reserved for ill students and the school will be contacted
• Green dots will be marking places for students to sit. They are staggered left to right and on each row of seats.
• Drivers will assign a seat to each student
• Students will wear face coverings while on the bus.
• Students may not eat while on the bus.
• Drivers will use windows, fans, and roof vents to increase ventilation.

• REMINDER: IEP/504 Collaboration Log (UPDATED – Left of Unit Info) – The IEP/504 Collaboration Logs are to be completed each Monday by 5:00pm for the previous week of lessons or at the end of a unt. This has been the same all year and will continue into hybrid. You will complete a separate entry each week or unit for reading, writing and math instruction (for the entire week or unit, not for each daily lesson). One response is required for each content area you teach in which students with disabilities are receiving specially designed instruction or 504 accommodations. If you do not have any students with a 504 or IEP related to reading, writing, or math, you do not need to complete this form. Linked here is an SSD Slide Show w/Voiceover on this topic.

504 Documentation – Since 504 Plans are typically not content area specific, if a teacher completed at least one log entry for a student with an IEP in any content area, that will cover the requirement for students with a 504 Plan.

Social Skills Only IEP Goals – If classroom teachers are delivering the Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) to meet social skills goals, they would fill out the log form, but in most cases it is SPED staff delivering social skills instruction and they will be the ones documenting this SDI on their own log.

Grade Level Content Specializing? – If one teacher at a grade level is creating the math lessons for the entire grade level, they can also fill out the log for their entire grade level IF (and this is a big IF), all of the teachers at that grade level are proving the same accommodations (since IEP accommodations can vary widely).

• Contact Tracing and Attestation Google Forms – I will cover this at Tuesday’s Staff Meeting, but if you want a preview, downtown is going to reactivate staff badges to work at all entrances. Swiping your badge will take the place of the paper/pencil sign-in we’re currently doing for contact tracing. For this switchover to happen, all staff will need to complete two Google Forms. One, the COVID-19 Attestation: Daily Screening and Reporting Requirements for Reporting to the Worksite form, and two, the Eugene School District 4J Contact Tracing form. Once all staff have submitted their forms, I will notify downtown, who will activate all of our building’s card reader access pads.

• Monday Mailer Pause – Leadership discussed continuing to primarily use digital communication over using paper. This is for reasons of being a green school, trying to avoid germ transmissions, and also making sure families during hybrid all get the same information at the same time, since we’d have to end up with Monday and Thursday Mailers for each cohort. There will be families with extenuating circumstances where will need to do paper communication, though that should for exceptions and not a family preference. We want families to get used to digital communication.

• Hybrid Master Schedule – Survey feedback on the hybrid schedule was generally supportive, ranging from I can live it (a 3) to it’s the greatest thing ever (a 5) and no 1s or 2s. After discussing with the Leadership Team, we are going to move forward with the Holt Hybrid Schedule. The schedule should be up to date, but let me know if you spot any mistakes or something that needs tweaking.

• Schedule the Next 4 Weeks – Will all the calendar changes, here’s the current plan:

Week of March 15: Kids shift into their new classes but nothing else changes. CDL schedule stays the same. K/1 zooms for blue time and does orientation events. 2nd-5th zoom as a whole group in their new class using the current CDL schedule. Interventionists continue to provide services.

March 22-26: Spring Break

Week of March 29: K/1 shifts into their cohorts and begins following the new hybrid/SSO schedule. 2nd-5th stay in their whole groups and continue to follow the CDL schedule, but each grade has an assigned day where they will do an in-person orientation (no optional Zoom orientation is required, as is for K/1). Grade levels DO NOT have any synchronous time on their orientation day. K-5 groups are canceled this week.

Week of April 5: 2nd-5th shift into their cohorts and begin following the new hybrid/SSO schedule.

• Synergy Rollover – The new hybrid cohort sections became “real” in Synergy Friday night. The SIS staff will be end-dating student class enrollments in the original homeroom sections. That should cause those original classes to drop out of Clever and probably anything that pulls data from Clever. The new cohort sections should be available in Clever as of Saturday. It may take a day or two (or three) for them to find their way into the other online applications that roster from Clever, depending on how often a vendor pulls data.

• Food Box Deliveries – Weekly food box deliveries will continue through the end of the year. Location for pick-up may change. If you become aware of a family needing food assistance, please contact Darla.

• Purell Professional Disinfectant Spray Product Literature – If you’re interest, linked here is an Email and Product Information for the replacement disinfectant products coming to schools. The Oxivir Five-16 Disinfectant spray bottles currently in classrooms will be replaced by Purell Professional Disinfectant Spray and the bottles in restrooms will be replaced by Oxivir Tb Wipes. Directions on using these products are in the above link, but will also be delivered to classrooms when you get your new products.

• Welcome Back Bolts Video – Here’s a short video covering some of the protocols we’ll follow when student return to in-person learning in the coming weeks:

• Erin’s Law & Second Step Child Protection Unit – Even though we are in CDL, the state still requires we cover the child safety lessons required by Erin’s Law. 4J uses the Second Step Child Protection Unit to meet this requirement. For each grade level, there are six lessons, which are to be covered at three points in the school year. The recommendation is to teach lessons 1-4 in the fall, lesson 5 right before spring break, and lesson 6 right before summer break.

I’m not sure if each teacher has a copy of your grade level’s Child Protection Unit and since CDL makes sharing more difficult, I’ve posted scanned versions of Child Protection Unit in the Staff Google Drive. Holt Staff Documents > Curriculum/Instruction > Social Emotional Learning (SEL) > Second Step

• Changes to the Staffing Timeline – As an FYI, this year’s Staffing Timeline was revised. The main impact for elementary is the Job Expo dates got moved back a week.

• Single Desk Samples – I went over the Edison to check out the furniture samples they had. There were a couple single desks that kind of worked with Holt’s extra wide chairs. Below are a few pictures. School Specialty is getting me a quote on these to make sure they’re in our price range and will then bring us some physical samples for staff can check out. Ignore the wheels on the one desk. We’d get them without wheels. Also, desks come with different styles of book boxes; clear plastic, solid colored plastic, wire basket, or no basket.

 

• REPEAT: 2021 ACE Award Nominations – How about nominating a fellow Bolt! Nominations can be made in three categories: teachers and licensed specialists, administrators and supervisors, and classified staff. Nominations are due by April 15th. Linked here is the ACE Awards Email and the ACE Awards Nomination webpage.

• Mars landing engineer is Jaime Escalante’s former student – Here’s a cool inspirational education story. Decades before leading a team of more than 100 engineers responsible for The Perseverance Rover that landed on Mars recently, East L.A. native Sergio Valdez was a student of none other than Jaime Escalante at Garfield High. In case you’re too young to remember or so old you forgot, Escalante was such a bad-ass math teacher that they made a movie about him in the ’80s called Stand and Deliver. Guess he’s still got it.

 

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

 

March 15 (M)
K/1 Distance learning ends for K/1 Orientation Week
Grades 2-5 shift to hybrid class lists, continue following CDL schedule
12:00-1:00, Kindergarten Orientation
2:00-3:00, Kindergarten Orientation
2:00-3:00, 1st Grade Orientation
1:30-3:30, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom) & KG Orientation
3:15-4:15, 1st Grade Orientation
4:00-5:00, Allan to Admin Meeting (Zoom)

March 16 (T)
12:00-1:00, Kindergarten Orientation
1:00-2:00, 1st Grade Orientation
2:00-3:00, Kindergarten Orientation
3:00-4:00, Staff Meeting (Zoom)

March 17 (W)
St Patrick’s Day
9:00-9:45, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
10:00, Allan to Title 1 Budget Meeting (Zoom)
12:00-3:00, Bolt Stencil Party (Playground and Sidewalks)
4:00-5:00, Allan to BusinessPLUS Training March (Zoom)
4:30, Poetry Club w/Ms. Katharine (Zoom)

March 18 (H)
12:00-1:00, Kindergarten Orientation
2:00-3:00, Kindergarten Orientation
2:00-3:00, 1st Grade Orientation
3:00-4:00, Allan to SSD Elem SPED Meeting (Zoom) & 1st Orientation
3:15-4:15, 1st Grade Orientation

March 19 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Board Meeting (Zoom)
10:45-2:00, Food Box Distribution (Cafeteria)
12:00-1:15, Lunch Bunch – KG 12:00, 3/4 12:20, 1/2 12:40, 5th 1:00 (Zoom)
1:00-2:00, 1st Grade Orientation

March 22-26
SPRING BREAK!

March 29 (M)
K/1 Begins Full Hybrid
Grades 2-5 Orientation Week & continue hybrid classes on CDL schedule
2nd Grade Orientation Day (No Zoom this day)
1:30-3:30, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
5:30-6:00, This Week in Sports w/Mr. Cole (Zoom)

March 30 (T)
3rd Grade Orientation Day (No Zoom this Day)
3:00-4:00, PBIS Meeting (Zoom)

March 31 (W)
2:40-4:00, PD/PLC Time – SEL – Trauma Informed Module #3 (Library & Zoom)
4:30, Poetry Club w/Ms. Katharine (Zoom)

April 1 (H)
4th Grade Orientation Day (No Zoom this Day)
3:00-4:00, Allan to SSD Elem SPED Meeting (Zoom)

April 2 (F)
5th Grade Orientation Day (No Zoom this Day)

April 5 (M)
All Grades in Full Hybrid

It’s the first day of school again the last third of the year.

Ready or not, here they come!

Allan

 

March 8, 2021

By Allan  |  2021/03/06 22:57 Posted in Announcements, Assessment, SEL  |  Comments Off on March 8, 2021

 

Greetings Holt Staff,

Nine items of note for this week:

• Hybrid Updates – I’m working on a Quick Sheet of all the Holt specifics COVID and Hybrid procedures, but below are hybrid and SSO updates I’m putting in Monday’s Quick News.

Hybrid School Hours – School hours for hybrid are 7:55-12:55. Doors open and supervision begins at 7:40. Students arriving before 7:40 are NOT supervised.

Arrival Procedures – To help maintain 6-feet physical distancing, each wing has their own entrance/exit with spots along the sidewalk for where student should stand. See the map below for your child’s entrance. A staff member will be stationed at each entrance to welcome students and to do a visual check for any signs of illness. Students will walk directly to their classroom where their teacher will greet them and will also do a daily visual screening of students for signs of illness. Any students showing signs of illness will be walked to the office.

If a student arrives before the doors open at 7:40, they will wait in their car or stand on a sidewalk spot by their assigned entrance.

Families dropping students off by car are encouraged to park in the North Park Community Church parking lot across the street and walk to school. This greatly reduces traffic congestion in our parking lot.

Dismissal Procedures – At the end of the day, students will exit the building with their teacher, using their designated entrance/exit doors. Bus riders will walk directly to their bus. Students biking or walking will be dismissed. Students waiting to be picked up will wait with their teacher in the designated areas below.

Drivers should follow the one way direction traffic flow indicated in the map below.

Breakfast & Lunches – All students will be provided with a free breakfast and lunch, which they will eat in their classrooms. For breakfast, students will pick up their meal upon entering the building and will take it to their classroom. Lunches will be brought to classrooms. Students will eat meals at their desks and are allowed to remove their masks while eating. All meals are supervised by their classroom teacher.

Classroom Set-Up – Students will be spaced 6-feet apart and all students will have their own individual desk and chair. Students will not share supplies and school supplies will be provided for each students.

School Supplies – 4J is providing all students with basic supplies, but families may also want to send students with extra masks (we hear they can get quite wet by the end of the day) and also a water bottle, although we are ordering some custom Holt Bolt water bottles!

Recess – Students will get a daily 30-minute recess with their cohort group. Students will be allowed to play all the usual playground games, minus those where students would come within 6-feet of one another (i.e. soccer, basketball, tag, etc.). Masks will continue to be worn at all times.

Cohort Groups – Students are limited to 100 people they can have close contact with at school each week. We have divided our cohort groups by grade level into K/1, 2/3, and 4/5. These cohort groups will have designated restrooms and designated recess times, so not to come into close contact with other cohorts.

Health Rooms – If a student does become sick, they will be escorted to the office. We have two designated rooms for student showing signs of illness to wait until their family is able to pick them up. These rooms have been outfitted with air purification systems to help prevent the spread of germs and viruses.

Daily Cleaning – Teachers will sanitize desks after each meal. Custodial staff will clean high frequency touch points through the day. Nightly, a school district crew will sanitize every classroom space using an electrostatic spray.

Masks – All people, both students and adults, MUST wear masks at all times while on school property. The only time students may remove their masks is during mealtimes.

Visitors & Volunteers – Only students and staff are allowed inside the building at this time.

Hybrid & Online Transition Schedule – This is the current schedule, but be aware that with the Governor’s announcement on Friday for K-5 students to return to school the week of March 29th, the 4J timeline below may be changed:

March 15-19: Grades 2-5 will shift into hybrid classes, but will continue following the current CDL schedule.

March 22-26: SPRING BREAK

March 29-April 2: K/1 begins full hybrid schedule with in-person students.
March 29-April 2: Grades 2nd-5th continue with hybrid classes and continue following the CDL schedule.

April 5: All grades in full hybrid schedule with in-person students.

• Hybrid Miscellaneous – In other Hybrid news…

• Governor’s Reopening Order – If you missed it earlier, linked here is Cydney’s Email regarding the governor’s new order for K-5 schools to offer full in-person or hybrid by March 29. The above attachement includes the Governor’s actual order and also includes the email sent to principals, which more plainly states that the hybrid start date for 2-5 may be affected by the order.

• Health & Isolation Rooms – If you’re interested in the protocols for how health and office staff will handle the Health & Isolation Rooms, see this linked email. The main thing is that the HEPA air recirculation devices in these spaces need to run all day with the door closed.

• 6-Food PVC Pipe – I’m copying some other principals and was thinking I’d go to Jerry’s and get some 6-foot PVC pipe for each classroom to give staff and students a nice visual of what it means to be six feet apart.

• Mask Breaks – There have been questions about “Mask Breaks” for students. I’d advise staff NOT to inform students about mask breaks or else you’ll likely end up with a parade of students asking for one. However, if there is a student who is genuinely struggling, here are the official guidelines from Ready Safe Learners:

Group mask breaks” or “full classroom mask breaks” are not allowed. If a student removes a face covering, or demonstrates a need to remove the face covering for a short ­period of time:

● Provide space away from peers while the face covering is removed. In the classroom setting,
an example could be a designated chair where a student can sit and take a 15 minute “sensory break;”
● Students must not be left alone or unsupervised;
● Designated area or chair must be appropriately distanced from other students
and of a material that is easily wiped down for disinfection after each use;
● Provide additional instructional supports to effectively wear a face covering;
● Provide students adequate support to re­engage in safely wearing a face covering;
● Students cannot be discriminated against or disciplined for an inability to safely wear a face covering during the school day.

I think the best spot at Holt for these would be to seat the student in the commons area outside a classroom, where you can continue to supervise them through the glass.

• Cohort & Pathway Change Requests – Principals now get to decide whether to approve or disapprove any pathway changes or cohort changes, and we do not have to go through downtown. I’d like to be flexible on pathway change requests during our build up the switch, but after the switch I will, as a general rule, consider pathways locked. I’ll plan to connect with affected teachers of any future requests for a change of pathway or cohort.

• District Provided Math Lessons – Jaimee Massie Emailed teachers an update on Math, Science, and ELA. Also in the above link is her reply to my question about prioritized lessons, where she stated downtown will continue to create the SeeSaw and Slides to accompany the LZ lessons. They are hoping teachers will use the FP days as workshop or asynch practice so they’re putting less emphasis on identifying their connection to priority standards.

And don’t forget there are links up on the HUB for science units that are already SeeSaw-ready. They are from Portland Public (4 weeks of 4 lessons each) and the hope is that not only will this get science to kids but will also take some planning for async days off teacher plates.

• Holt Meal Distribution Ends March 19th – There will be a Food Box distribution with food boxes containing 7 days worth of food on this final day. When we return from spring break, the plan is for kitchen staff to focus on preparing to serve students who are on-site. There will be food distribution sites for students who are SSO or who are on their off-site days, but details on that are yet to be worked out.

• SDI and other SSD Updates – Linked here is an SSD Email that went to SPED teachers and principals. The main to points of interest are that SDI (specially designed instruction) should still be happening during gen ed and we still need to record that time. The other item of note is the acknowledgement that SSD realizes it is impossible to stay 6-feet apart at all times. Kids will need help and for us to show them how to do something. It is okay to get close to kids when necessary and is inevitable new will need to do this. Just don’t linger. Be short and sweet.

• Intervention Models – These came out in various emails, but so they are all in one place:

• Comprehensive Learning Center – Service Focused
• ELD – Online
• Learning Center – Service Focused
• Speech – Online
• Title 1 – Service Focused

• Science Kits Collected Monday – Speaking of science, I only heard from one teacher who plans to teach science using the kit, so I’ve asked Ryan to start collecting kits to ship back to the warehouse on Monday. If you do want your kit, let Ryan or myself know by Monday morning.

• NEW INFORMATION Process for Volunteers This Spring – Volunteers are not being allowed into schools this spring except for rare circumstances. However, if teachers would like virtual volunteers, that is allowed. If this is something you’re interested in, linked here is the Principal Email on Volunteers, The Volunteer Liability Waiver, and the 20-21 Volunteer Guidelines.

• Erin’s Law & Second Step Child Protection Unit – Even though we are in CDL, the state still requires we cover the child safety lessons required by Erin’s Law. 4J uses the Second Step Child Protection Unit to meet this requirement. For each grade level, there are six lessons, which are to be covered at three points in the school year. The recommendation is to teach lessons 1-4 in the fall, lesson 5 right before spring break, and lesson 6 right before summer break.

I’m not sure if each teacher has a copy of your grade level’s Child Protection Unit and since CDL makes sharing more difficult, I’ve posted scanned versions of Child Protection Unit in the Staff Google Drive. Holt Staff Documents > Curriculum/Instruction > Social Emotional Learning (SEL) > Second Step

• Staffing Updates – Two staffing updates:

• Hybrid Utility Support – Educational Assistant – HR gave schools our candidates on Thursday. Districtwide there are 19 candidates for 17 positions, so I wanted to hold interviews quickly before other schools scooped up candidates, so I’m holding interviews Monday morning 8:30-10:00. Melanie and I have it covered, but if anyone wants to join us, you’re more than welcome.

• REPEAT: Recess Supervision EA Interviews, WED@2:00 – I now have the applications for our Recess Supervisor EA Position. I’ll plan to hold interviews on Wednesday, March 10th from 2:00-3;30. Interviews will be over Zoom. Let me know if any of you are interested in volunteering your time to help with interviews.

• Holt Jumpathon Wednesday @1:00 – Don’t forget to get kids pumped for the Holt Jumpathon this Wednesday at 1:00. Wear your shirt this Wednesday and feel free to join the virtual event to show off your jump roping skills (if you’re looking to take a break from prepping for hybrid).

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/91417087656?pwd=WkhvNmdqSFh4bGZTYXpucDNBcWlidz09
Meeting ID: 914 1708 7656
Passcode: jump

 

• 2021 ACD Award Nominations – It’s ACE Awards season! Holt has an exceptional staff who make a difference for students every day and are worthy of recognition. Now is the time to recognize them! Nominations can be made in three categories: teachers and licensed specialists, administrators and supervisors, and classified staff. Nominations are due by April 15th. Going by past experience, winners are usually selected when a staff gets together to nominate an individual with a flood of nominations, so let me know if staff want to coordinate anything. Linked here is the ACE Awards Email and the ACE Awards Nomination Webpage.

• 4J State Testing Update – The district testing coordinator emailed building testing coordinators that following the blanket national waiver being rejected, 4J’s state waiver has not been processed. That means we don’t know whether we’ll be testing or not, and if we do test, we don’t know what that will look like exactly. See the above email for details, but mostly we’re just waiting.

• Brené Brown on Empathy – Here’s a fabulous short animated video that shows you the difference between empathy and sympathy and is narrated by Brené Brown. The four qualities of empathy are: 1) Perspective taking. 2) Staying out of judgement. 3). Recognizing emotion in another person. 4) And then communicating that you recognize their emotion. She says, rarely does an empathic response begin with the word “At least.” Lots of good lessons here that can be applied to when we talk with kids, parents, colleagues, and others.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

March 8 (M)
8:30-10:00, Allan to Hybrid EA Interviews (Zoom)
1:30-3:30, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
5:30, This Week in Sports w/Mr. Cole (Zoom)

March 9 (T)
2:00-3:00, Leadership Team Meeting (Zoom)
3:00-4:00, OPTIONAL 2021-2022 Staffing Discussion

March 10 (W)
Elementary Transitional Prep Day
9:00-9:45, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
11:00-12:00, Allan & Darla meeting w/4J Wrap Coordinator (Zoom)
1:00, Holt Jumpathon! (Zoom)
2:00-3:30, EA Interviews (Zoom
4:30, Poetry Club w/Ms. Katharine (Zoom)

March 11 (H)
11:00-10:00, Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream – Holt Night Out Fundraiser
2:30-3:30, IPBS CDL Meeting (Zoom)
5:00-6:00, Site Council (Zoom)
6:00-7:00, PAHS (Parents at Holt School) Meeting (Zoom)

March 12 (F)
Elementary Transitional Prep Day (Async Only)
9:00-10:00, Allan to Physical Distancing Monthly Meeting (Zoom)
12:00-1:15, Lunch Bunch – KG 12:00, 3/4 12:20, 1/2 12:40, 5th 1:00 (Zoom)

March 14 (SU)
Pi Day

March 15 (M)
K/1 Distance learning ends for K/1 Orientation Week
Grades 2-5 shift to hybrid class lists, continue following CDL schedule
1:30-3:30, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
4:00-5:00, Allan to Admin Meeting (Zoom)

March 16 (T)
12:30-1:00, Interventionist Team Meeting (Zoom)
3:00-4:00, Staff Meeting (Zoom)

March 17 (W)
8:30-9:00, Student Council (Zoom)
8:40, Allan Reading to Kindergarten (Zoom)
9:00-9:45, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
10:00, Allan to Title 1 Budget Meeting (Zoom)
4:30, Poetry Club w/Ms. Katharine (Zoom)

March 18 (H)
Regular Day

March 19 (F)
Elementary Transitional Prep Day (Async Only)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting (Zoom)
10:45-2:00, Food Box Distribution (Cafeteria)
12:00-1:15, Lunch Bunch – KG 12:00, 3/4 12:20, 1/2 12:40, 5th 1:00 (Zoom)

March 22-26
SPRING BREAK!

March 29 (M)
K/1 Begins Full Hybrid (maybe grades 2-5)
Grades 2-5 continue with hybrid classes and CDL schedule (but maybe full hybrid)

Spring break is almost here!

Allan

February 15, 2021

By Allan  |  2021/02/13 23:04 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Equity, Grants, SEL, Technology  |  Comments Off on February 15, 2021

 

Howdy Bolts,

Five weeks until spring break. Let the countdown begin!

Nine items of note for this week (though one if really long):

• Staffing Updates – We held interviews for our two EA postings last week and have hired Connie Gilhuber for the 5.25-hour KG EA positions and Ben Duncan for the 4-our Title 1 EA position. Connie has been subbing at Holt a fair amount this year and is a former Holt EA. Ben is a current Holt EA, but is now moving into position with more hours and more instructionally focused, so we I’ve submitted a posting to hire for his 3-hour Recess Supervisor position. We’re glad to have both of you as part of Team Holt!

We have three Holt Bolts retiring at the end of the year, our librarian Theresa Garnsey, secretary Katie Mackey, and music teacher Tim Walter. All three are finishing out the the school year, but please congratulate Theresa, Katie, and Tim as they set out on their retirement adventures. Also, staff should start beating the bushes to recruit for an excellent new librarian, secretary, and music teacher! Tell your educator buddies they want to come to Holt!

• Hybrid/SSO/COVID Updates – Eleven hybrid/SSO/COVID items of note:

• Updated Hybrid/SSO Slide Show – Linked here is an Updated Hybrid/SSO Slide Show I’ll share with families in the Monday Quick News. I updated last week’s Quick News on the website to this version, but on Monday I’ll delete the slide about the changing pathways since the deadline will have passed.

• Arrival/Dismissal Planning Committee, Feb. 23 @2:00 – Not this week, but Tuesday next week on February 23rd at 2:00 I’d like to meet with anyone interested in drafting an arrival/dismissal plan for when students return. We’ll need to discuss which entrances and and exits we want to use, where we want students to link up, and how we will supervise and move cohort groups to and from various locations (buses, car pick-up, crosswalk, etc.). Let me know if you’d like to join and also let me know of other issues this group might want to discuss and plan for.

• PE & Music Online – PE and Music will be online during hybrid. Downtown is still working out schedule details (times, days of the week, teaching which cohorts, etc.). It’s sounding like PE and Music will see students on their off-site days, but that’s not officially decided yet.

• Building Space Updates – 4J is having all schools clear out gyms for after school childcare. I’m checking with YMCA to see if they might be able to provide additional child care before school and/or during the day for students on their off-site days.

• Nutrition Services Updates – Once hybrid is in full swing, walk-up meal distribution will end. All students will get additional food to take home for their off-site days. More details are coming.

• Daily Visual Screening – Once students return, teachers will use the linked Visual Screener & Questions with students daily. This is already being used at secondary for LIPI. Classroom teachers will first do a Visual Screening for symptoms (see below) and if symptoms are observed will ask the two follow-up questions. You can ask more questions, but these two are required.

Visual Screening (observation only):
Unusual color
Unusual behavior (behavior change, lethargy, unusual fatigue)
New or significant coughing
Respiratory symptoms not typical for student (noisy breathing, voice changes, nasal dripping)
Shortness of breath
Chills (shivering, teeth, goosebumps)
Appearing ill (sweating, sunken eyes)
Vomiting

Screening Questions:
1.) Are you feeling OK today?
2.) Have you felt anything that’s different for you in the last few days?

• iPad Carts Coming to Classrooms – Brian is wiring old computer carts with chargers for each classroom. Teachers should start thinking about where you want your cart. It will need to be near an outlet and can be either inside your classroom or outside in the commons area. Each cart will have one spare iPad as a back-up if a student’s iPad fails.

• Holt Testing Center Ending – Once hybrid starts, Holt will no longer be the Sheldon Region testing site and school psychs will resume testing students are their regular schools.

• COVID Protocol HR Updates – Principals peppered HR with a number of procedural questions regarding COVID protocols. Karen Hardin Emailed principals a number of follow-ups. Here are three of the most interesting:

• Students Arriving Early – Transportation will work hard to schedule buses to not arrive early. Early parent drop off will happen and schools will need to plan some supervision for those that arrive early (perhaps 10-15 minutes before the doors open). At Friday’s walk through at Howard, this topic was discussed. Facilities is working to determine an appropriate method to mark 6 foot distances outside the entrances to communicate to parents/students how to wait for doors to open.

• Face Shields – These were sent to all schools to have on hand should an employee request one. These may not be worn in place of a mask, but are to be worn in addition to a mask.

• 2nd Dose on Fridays – This one isn’t in the above email, but HR has arranged for all of the second dose clinics to happen on Fridays so that if staff do have an adverse reaction the vaccine they will have the weekend to recover.

• Safety Drills During Hybrid – Three items here:

• Drill Resume During Hybrid – Principals learned that once students return, within 10 days we will have to resume required safety drills (monthly fire drills, one earthquake and one lockdown/lockout drill before the end of the year). We also have to do the drills for each cohort group, meaning we’ll do two fire drills a month. If you’re interested, linked here is the Oregon Fire Marshal Guidance for Safety Drills as well as Kari Skinner’s Email to principals.

• Post New Evacuation Poster – Downtown gave schools evacuation maps to post in every classroom and offices, which should be posted near doorways. I’ll put these in staff mailboxes this week

• Safety Drill Instruction – Most schools are not in compliance with this, but Oregon State Law requires that we provide 30 minutes of instruction per month on fire safety. This will need to start once students return. Linked here is the State Fire Marshal’s Website, which provides age appropriate activities for teachers to use, though I’m thinking it may be easiest to find a different video each month and have a short discussion before and after.

• Have a Hybrid Instructional Question? – Elementary principals were given a Google Form link for us to submit questions to the Operations Committee regarding hybrid and SSO instruction, so if you think of something you’d like asked, let me know and I’ll submit it to the group.

 

 

• Wednesday PD/PLC Time – Principals got some clarity on Friday about Wednesday PD/PLC topics. This week is an Anti-Racist PD Slide Show presentation. The presentation was created by Misael Flores Gutierrez the 4J Equity, Instruction & Partnerships Administrator. He is also planning to offer an optional PD exclusively for the staff of color this same day. It will be an affinity space where staff of color can engage in conversations from a non-dominant standpoint. Staff of color may choose to attend this optional PD instead of attending the building-led PD.Next week will be Hybrid PD focused on a lot of nuts-and-bolts hybrid protocols (more procedural and less instructional), which was originally planned for this Wednesday. See you on Zoom at 2:40!

• Jump-a-thon, March 10th – At last week’s PAHS meeting some details were worked out for this year’s Jump-a-thon. The event will be March 10th at 1:00, about when the first Wednesday bonus PE/Music class starts. If teachers have office hours during this time, you can cancel them this day. Staff and students will wear their Holt shirts that we’ll give out at the March 4th Supply Distribution, along with their jump ropes. The plan will be for 15 minutes of jumping and 10 minutes of awards/live drawings. There will be a pre-made Seesaw lesson for classroom teachers to push out on Friday, March 5th to promote the event and also for students to make a submission, which is where winners will be drawn from. Stay tuned for more details as we get closers.

• Lottery Update & Kinder Orientation/Registration – The school choice lottery for next year is being done mid-February (a little later than normal) and downtown is wanting schools to hold Kindergarten Orientation Zoom events during the first three weeks of March. More information is coming regarding how registration will work, so stay tuned.

• Video Adapters for New Laptops – A number of teachers got new laptops this fall, but we’ve realized not every teacher got a new adapter to go with it. Since we’re inching closer to in person teaching again, please check to make sure you have the adapter you need for your classroom AV set-up.

• REPEAT: 2021-2022 Staff Survey, Due MONDAY – To help prep for 2021-2022 Staffing, please complete the linked 2021-2022 Staffing Survey by this Monday.

• DonorsChoose Matching for SEL Projects – ODE Announced that DonorsChoose is currently matching donations towards new social and emotional learning projects. You can visit the DonorsChoose Help Center for instructions on how to take advantage of this valuable offer for your students. Submit your project by March 5th, 2021

• A Simple Way to Self-Monitor for Bias – Teachers concerned that they might be showing bias against students in marginalized groups can use a short checklist for self-assessment. Those five areas are Discipline, Calling on raised hands, Cold calling, “This kid is in the wrong class,” and Good Times. See this Edutopia Article for further explanation.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

February 14 (SU)
*DANCE BATTLE* Virtual Assembly Videos Due

February 15 (M)
Regular School Day – Presidents Day
2:00-3:30, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
4:00-5:00, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Zoom)
5:30, This Week in Sports w/Mr. Cole (Zoom)

February 16 (T)
3:00-4:00, Staff Meeting (Zoom)

February 17 (W)
8:30-9:00, Student Council (Zoom)
8:40, Allan Reading to Class (Zoom)
9:00-9:45, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
9:30-10:00, KG Data Team – Tier 3
10:40-11:10, 1st Grade Data Team – Tier 3
12:00-12:30, 2nd Grade Data Team – Tier 3
2:40-4:00, PD/PLC Time – District Anti Racist PD (Zoom)
4:30, Poetry Club w/Ms. Katharine (Zoom)
6:30, Cheer with the Ducks – Holt Virtual Event! (Zoom)

February 18 (H)
11:00-10:00, Bo & Vine – Holt Night Out Fundraiser
2:00-3:00, IPBS CDL Meeting (Zoom)

February 19 (F)
12:00-1:15, Lunch Bunch – KG 12:00, 3/4 12:20, 1/2 12:40, 5th 1:00 (Zoom)

February 22 (M)
11:30, Allan to CICO Planning Meeting (Zoom)
1:30-3:30, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
5:30, This Week in Sports w/Mr. Cole (Zoom)

February 23 (T)
No Dynamos Groups – Title Staff at SIPPS Training
12:30-1:30, Allan to Attendance Meeting (Zoom)
2:00-3:00, OPTIONAL Arrival/Dismissal Planning Meeting (Zoom)
3:00-4:00, PBIS Meeting (Zoom)
6:30, “Pictionary With the Ducks!” – UO Athlete/Holt Virtual Event (Zoom)

February 24 (W)
9:00-9:45, Virtual Coffee w/the Principal (Zoom)
9:30-10:00, 3rd Grade Data Team – Tier 3
10:40-11:10, 4th Grade Data Team – Tier 3
12:00-12:30, 5th Grade Data Team – Tier 3
2:40-4:00, PD/PLC Time – District Hybrid Information (Zoom )

February 25 (H)
PAHS Holt Staff Appreciation Day at The Human Bean
2:00-3:00, IPBS CDL Meeting (Zoom)

February 26 (F)
Fancy Day – SPIRIT DAY!
7:30-8:30, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting (Zoom)
9:00-10:00, Allan to Physical Distancing Monthly Meeting (Zoom)
12:00-1:15, Lunch Bunch – KG 12:00, 3/4 12:20, 1/2 12:40, 5th 1:00 (Zoom)

If you’re reading this on Sunday, Dance Battle videos are due today! Here’s my ridiculous dance, which I posted onto TikTok to the shock and horror of my own children. I believe the word “cringy” was used to describe my dancing.

Allan

 

October 12, 2020

By Allan  |  2020/10/10 15:21 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Equity, P.D., SEL, Video  |  Comments Off on October 12, 2020

 

Howdy Bolts,

We had a great turnout for the supply distribution and and the shave ice was a nice moral boost for everyone, kids, parents, and staff. We’ll have to do that again!

Fourteen items of note for this week:

• COVID Protocol Updates & Reminder – As there have been a few COVID cases in 4J schools, here are a few updates and reminders regarding Return to Work protocols.

• Home Visit Approval Required – Home visits are allowed, but require prior approval from downtown, so let me know if you need to visit a family and I will seek approval. At another school, there is one staff member now in quarantine after a 20-minute contact with a parent on a home visit.

• Deliveries to Families Not Allowed – Schools are no longer allowed to deliver supplies, devices, or food boxes to families. If this is a need, there is a ticket system for principals to request a delivery. Let me know if you have a need.

• Shared Equipment – One outbreak at an elementary school was the result of transmission by staff sharing equipment that had not been disinfected. Try not to share equipment, but when you do use shared equipment, like a copier or paper cutter or even a refrigerator, disinfect it after you’ve touched it.

• Face Coverings – Face coverings are worn over your mouth and nose, are required upon entry to school, when completing the sign in/out process, and when working and moving about in common areas. You are not required to wear a face covering when working privately in an office or classroom. However, when working with colleagues, a face covering must be worn if the 6’ physical distancing requirement cannot be met. If another employee asks you to wear a face covering while interacting at a distance greater than 6 feet apart, you are encouraged to follow their reasonable request. Employees may choose to wear a face covering at all times if they so desire. Face shields may be an additional (optional) barrier of protection but must be accompanied by a face covering. Linked here is additional information on face coverings.

• Sign-In Log – Please write your name legibly (I’m an offender on this one) and also be sure to use your legal name and not a nickname, so if downtown needs to contact trace, they know who contact.

• Notify Allan of COVID Symptoms or Exposure – If you are experiencing COVID-like symptoms, are being tested for COVID, or have potentially been exposed to someone who possibly has COVID, call, email or text me. What then happen is I’d ask the staff member to telework and would notify the appropriate district staff.

• Weekend Access – The building is open to staff on weekends, but you must continue to follow all the same protocols as you do during the work week (i.e. sign-in/out, face masks, no visitors, etc.).

• Family Technology Agreement & Expectations – Downtown has created a Family Technology Appropriate Use and Protection Letter that will be distributed to families soon, which now has three-strikes type of rule for lost or damaged devices. I’m waiting for the Spanish translation before sending it out. The letter includes points for teachers to take note of, such as expectations that students not record the teacher or others or take screenshots without permission.

• Classified Subs and AESOP – Absence Management has been updated so that when any classified staff member enters an absence, you will now have the option to specify if a sub is needed or not. If a sub is needed, you will be able to assign a sub or let the system find an “available” substitute. Clerical and EA subs must have received COVID-19 trainings before they are listed as “available” in Absence Management. Human Resources is asking everyone to really think if you need to call in a sub before you make the request. Is the work something that could be done by another person in the building? Is there anyone in the building doing non-urgent work who could fill in? If the work cannot be divided up, then a classified sub may be appropriate and in those situations, the Holt will pay for the cost of the sub. Linked here is the email sent to principals, but please let me know if you have any questions or if you have questions about whether a sub is needed or not.

• Crazy Hair Day, Oct 22nd! – Next week on Thursday, October 22nd is Crazy Hair Day. Mark your calendar, start planning your crazy hair, and get your kids pumped! These are the thinks that will keep kids coming back to virtual school. :)

 

 

• Journeys Links All Grades Updated – Linked here is an updated Journey Links for All Grades that Kellyclare Gardner sent me (a few links on the prior doc was not linking correctly). Feel free to click the individual links and copy the address from the URL bar to share with students on Clever or Seesaw. Kellyclare also reminded us to not post the entire page on any public sites or share directly with families since the content is copyrighted. This link will also be on the Elementary Learning Hub on the K-5 Technology Resource Page.

• Classified Staff Meeting, 10/22 – There was interest expressed at Site Council to hold a Classified Staff Meeting, so I have put one on the schedule for next week, Thursday, October 22nd at 1:00.

• UPDATE: Shared Building SMART Goals – In light of Rob Hess’ Email regarding the new ODE Guidelines for goals and evals, licensed staff can still use the linked Optional Shared Building SMART Goals and cut-and-paste those into TalentEd if you’d like, but it may be better to instead focus on 4J Sample SEL Goals as suggested by ODE and the district.

• REPEAT: Allan Reading to Classes – Something I like to do every year is introduce myself to students and read a book to each classroom at the start of the year. I’d like to continue to do this during CDL, so if classroom teachers can let me know a date and time I could read to your class online, that would be great!

• Free mini yoga classes for kids during virtual learning! – If you’re looking to mix up your movement breaks, a friend shred with me that the owner of a local yoga studio, Hardcore Yoga, made two yoga videos (one for elementary and one for middle/high) for kids during distance learning. The elementary one is 10 minutes minutes. It’s combination of mindfulness and movement. She said she’d do more if people like them. More free classes and resources can be found on their Instagram account.

• 4J Student Services Newsletter – If your’e interested, linked here is a copy of the latest 4J Student Services Newsletter that was sent to SSD staff and principals.

• Oct. 23rd Professional Development/Planning Day – Details are still coming for what this day will be. It may be district led Zooms or it may be me doing more “PowerPoint Karaoke” and presenting someone else’s slideshow. Stay tuned!

• Focusing on Student Well-Being in Challenging Times – Wellness strategies like positive self-talk and mindfulness practices can help students feel calmer and more in control in this difficult year. See this Edutopia Article for details on how to promote student well-being during a crisis by doing the following:

• Focus on connections
• Place students at the center of mindfulness and social and emotional learning
• Incorporate music and movement
• Breathe
• Introduce positive self-talk
• Encourage social engagement and activism

• FREE COOKIES! – Here’s your reward for making it to the bottom of my announcement. All October long at Insomnia Cookies on campus (632 E 13th Ave), all teachers & school-staff get 1 FREE 6-Pack with any in-store purchase when you show any proof of employment at an educational facility (school I.D., paystub, etc.) to their in-store staff. Offer valid in-store only. exp. 10/31!

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

October 12 (M)
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Speech Small Groups Begin
Fall Benchmark Testing Window Opens
12:30-3:00, Title 1 EA Interviews (Library)
5:00, Gaming & Roblox Talk w/Mrs. Reich

October 13 (T)
3:00-3:15, Stand-Up Staff Meeting (Gym & Zoom)
3:00-4:00, Optional Leadership Plan Meeting (Gym & Zoom)

October 14 (W)
8:30-9:00, Student Council (Zoom)
3:30, Allan to SPED Evaluation Planning Meeting

October 15 (H)
Regular Day

October 16 (F)
Regular Day

October 19 (M)
1:30-4:00, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
4:00-5:00, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Zoom)

October 20 (T)
3:00-4:00, Staff Meeting (Gym & Zoom)
7:00, All About Pets Zoom! w/Ms. Kim McManus! (Zoom)

October 21 (W)
4:00-8:00, Holt Night Out Fundraiser – Chipotle Mexican Grill
6:30, Drawing w/Ms. Potter! (Zoom)

October 22 (H)
Crazy Hair Day!
1:00-1:30, Classified Staff Meeting (Gym & Zoom)

October 23 (F)
No School — Professional Development/Planning Day
7:30-8:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Board Meeting (Zoom)

And if you want to join in on this month’s virtual assembly video and watch me eat a gross salad selected by students during supply pick-up (spinach, hot sauce, Taki’s, Cheetos, pickles, Goldfish, etc., stop by the cafeteria on Tuesday at 8:30!

Allan

 

September 14, 2020

By Allan  |  2020/09/11 21:53 Posted in Announcements, Articles, P.D., SEL, Technology  |  Comments Off on September 14, 2020

 

Hi Everyone,

After two weeks of being slammed with PD and trainings, let’s take this week to catch our breath and use this time to get the nuts and bolts of distance learning ready to go.

Twenty items of note for this week:

• Inservice Week #3 Schedule – Linked here is the Sept. 14-18 Inservice Week Calendar. Downtown is giving building principals more autonomy this week, so I’m planning to minimize meeting time and maximize prep time. Do attend the Content Collaboration Meetings if the sound useful (I heard the plan is for SDS and TOSAs to model synchronous lessons), but for the Tech PD, only attend the session that are relevant to you if you have other prep that is more pressing. The one required building meeting will be a Staff Meeting on Tuesday, 8:00-9:00, which is a time change from the original 3:00-4:00 time so that it won’t conflict with the afternoon Tech PD. Here’s a breakdown for the week:

September 14 (M)
8:00-12:00, Building Time/Prep
10:00, Class List/Teacher Welcome Emails Sent
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-4:00, Building Time/Prep

September 15 (T)
8:00-9:00, Staff Meeting (Gym & Zoom)
9:00-6:00, iPad Distribution (Front Entrance)
9:00-12:00, Licensed Collaborative Planning District Wide (4J Zoom)
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-4:00, Licensed & Classified Instructional Tech PD (4J Zoom)
1:30-3:00, Allan to Elementary Principal’s Meeting (Zoom)

September 16 (W)
8:00-12:00, Licensed & Classified Instructional Tech PD (4J Zoom)
9:00-6:00, iPad Distribution (Front Entrance)
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-4:00, Licensed Collaborative Planning District Wide (4J Zoom)

September 17 (H)
8:00-12:00, Licensed & Classified Tech Office Hours (4J Zoom)
9:00-3:30, iPad Distribution (Front Entrance)
11:00-11:00, Holt Night Out – Papas Pizza
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-2:00, IF NEEDED – Staff Meeting (Gym & Zoom)
2:00-4:00, Protected Planning

September 18 (F)
8:00-12:00, Allan to Admin PD
8:00-4:00, Protected Planning
9:00-3:30, iPad Distribution (Front Entrance)

September 21 (M)
First Day of School

• Classroom & SPED Teachers Collaboration Log – I’m adding this to the staff meeting because this is an important one to make sure we’re in compliance with. The Student Services Department (SSD) is having classrooms teachers complete a Weekly Collaborative Planning Log for Sped and 504.

Logs are to be completed each Monday by 5:00pm for the previous week of lessons. You will complete a separate entry each week for reading, writing and math instruction (for the entire week, not for each daily lesson). One response is required for each content area you teach, in which students with disabilities are receiving specially designed instruction or 504 accommodations. If you do not have any students with a 504 or IEP related to reading, writing, or math, you do not need to complete this form.

The emphasis from ODE is to provide access to general education classes, with gen education teachers delivering substantial amounts of of specially designed instruction (SDI) via collaboration logs and collaborative planning.

You might want to look at the logs now before you start teaching, but when you do respond to the narrative sections, don’t feel you need to write a novel. A quick one sentence description or some key words is sufficient.

If you want more information on this, linked here is an SSD Slideshow that was gone over with principals.

• Staffing Updates – Our current TSS, James, is moving getting more time at Sheldon and will begin transitioning our new TSS, Brian Lambert, to take over the next few weeks. Brian is new to 4J, but has 20 years of experience in tech and network support at Peace Health. Please welcome Brian to the team!

Also, the interview committee for our Essential Skills Coordinator (ESC) position decided not to select anyone from this pool (it was three and one of them dropped out to teach a pandemic pod), so we’ve reposted the position. Feel free to recruit anyone you know who would be good!

Lastly, and I mentioned this at a meeting last week, but I just asked my boss at a principal meeting about EOA and staff shifting. She said EOA is fully staffed and there will be no more teacher movement at this time.

• Attendance Update – The Instruction Department sent principals an Updated Attendance Guidelines Slideshow, which has just one change for elementary, which is that in TeacherVUE there will be only one absence code (ABS), meaning that the student was absent from both the synchronous and asynchronous portions of learning. When teachers take attendance in the morning for the prior day’s attendance, students who participated either synchronously and asynchronously (does not have to be both) are considered present. Those who did neither are considered absent.

• Non-Attending Students – Once classes start, if teachers have students who are regularly non-attending, teachers should reach out to families to find out if there are any extenuation circumstances and then also follow-up with Darla or myself if you’d like support from us if you’re not successful getting students to regularly attend.

As I’ve said before, I think the key is investing A LOT of time up front building relationships with kids, building a classroom community, and keeping it fun is will keep kids coming back. If they feel connected to their teacher and want your approval, they’ll keep coming back.

• Return to Work Guidelines Confirmation – Linked here, attached to my email, and in staff mailboxes on Monday are Return to Work Guidelines Confirmation forms (PDF and DOC) that I need all staff members to sign and return to me. This document affirms that you attended and understood the Return to Work Presentation I gave the first day staff reported back. If you do have questions on anything in the presentation, please let me know.

• Family Needs from Conferences – For when teachers hold conferences next week, if you find out any families are in need, wether it’s with food, housing (staying with a relative or couch-surfing), daycare, transportation, an incarcerated family member, or other challenges, please let Darla or myself know so we can help direct families to the appropriate community resources.

• Conference Schedules and Google Form Surveys are Optional – There are a number of resources for conferences I shared earlier (they’re all on the Holt Quick Links), but know that they are all optional. Teachers can use whatever approach works best for your style. These are simply optional resources.

• Specialist Zoom Link Templates – I shared a sample Specialist Zoom Link Template for how students could easily leave their virtual homeroom Zoom, go to a specialist (Title, SPED, ELL, etc.), and then come back to their homeroom easily. My above link has minimal directions and a pretty basic specialist page template. Linked here is a SUPER Detailed Specialist Zoom Link Template the principal at McCornack made that you might like to use as an alternative or at least use her super details directions. I’ve added these to the Holt Quick Links doc, but we’re not doing small groups for a couple weeks, so no rush on getting these ready right away, but let me know if you’d like any help setting up your slide or getting the link ready in Clever.

• Zoom and Clever Resources – I also put these on the Holt Quick Links Sheet, but here are:

• Building Level Student Codes (Single Sided) – Link in email, not on blog (these are being passed out at iPad distribution)
• Zoom for Students with 4J iPads (K-12) (Updated)
• Clever for Teachers: Getting Started (For Teachers)
• Logging in to Online Tools with Clever for Students (Elementary) (Great Visual Handout to share with students)
• Logging in to Online Tools with Clever for Students (Elementary in Spanish)

• HR Info on Subs and Student Teachers – HR emailed principals with info on how subs and student teachers will work during CDL:

• Putting in for a Sub – HR has a group of subs trained in Zoom and Seesaw should anyone require a sub. Here’s how the process will work during CDL:

1. Teachers put their absence in AESOP and notify the office they are absent and who they would like be their substitute if they have a preference.

2. Office staff assigns the preferred substitute to the absence. The system does the rest. If no preferred substitute is known or available, office staff contacts subdesk@4j.lane.edu and HR will select one for the absence.

3. All Guest Teachers will report to the building to work. There is no telework arrangement for substitutes. They have been trained on the safety protocols.

4. Once the Guest Teacher signs in, office staff will direct them to a work station for the day. This could be the library or computer lab or other space. They will need a district computer to do their work. If the absence was not pre-arranged, the Guest Teacher may need to be added to the teacher’s SeeSaw by the principal or tech support.

5. HR is in the process of getting ZOOM accounts for preferred substitutes. If you have a list of preferred substitutes, please send those names to Sonja ASAP (subdesk@4j.lane.edu) so we can get them accounts.

HR realized this probably doesn’t cover all situations, so if you have questions, send them my way and I’ll pass them along to HR.

• Student Teachers – Student teachers are classified as volunteers, so there are many steps they must go through before doing any student teaching activities. Once they have gone through the HR intake process, they will get a 4J email address and can be a teaching assistant in SeeSaw and have access to our all of our digital resources. They can also co-host/host ZOOM meetings (under the supervision of their cooperating teacher), but they will not have their own ZOOM accounts. Student teachers are not required or encouraged to report to the building.

• Blue & Green Time Clarifications… Coming Soon! – It’s become pretty clear at the districtwide content Zoom meetings that there is a lot of misunderstanding over what’s expected during the “Blue” and “Green” times. The best explanation of these times can be found on the Elementary Student Schedule Explained, which includes an audio explanation if you view the slideshow in presentation mode, but downtown is going to send something out on Monday in writing that will provide additional clarifications. Please check in with me if you are unsure about about what is expected or if you realized you and colleagues have differing views of what’s expected.

• Zoom Dos & Don’ts… Also Coming Soon! – A number of principals asked for clarification this week on what is and is not allowed while Zoom (i.e. Can you work 1:1 with a student? Can classified staff be in breakout rooms with students? etc.) The answer we got is that JCAC is meeting next week and will provide us with clarification on the dos and don’ts of Zoom.

• SEL Lessons Update – There is now a video for teachers in the SEL Resources Folder (the one with the grade level Second Step lessons I shared on Sept. 3rd) that explains how to use the lessons in that folder. Each of the lessons docs are intended to last a full week, including songs and activities, which will take some time to go through.

• SSD Info – As an FYI, below are two items that were shared with SPED teachers and principals, if you’re interested:

• SSD Newsletter – Highlights from the SSD Newsletter include info on how case managers should response if families request tutors, in-person instruction, and how to conduct IEP meetings during CDL, as well as info on communication logs.

• Parent Communication – Linked here is an SSD Parent Communication regarding SPED services curing CDL. There is mention of “some limited, targeted on-site supports for some individual students or small groups” but this is EXTREMELY limited and there are no current plans for on-site instruction at Holt. Instead, we will continue to host Sheldon Region SPED testing out of the Conference Room and A02 (that location may chance once our ESC and Student Success Coordinator start).

• 4J Wraparound Newsletter – I’m not sure if this was shred with staff last spring, but the 4J Wraparound Smore has been updated for the fall, which contains resources for teachers to share with families and is updated daily.

• REPEAT: Papa’s Pizza Fundraiser, 9/17 – The first Holt Night Out Fundraiser of the year is scheduled and it will be at Papa’s Pizza on Thursday, September 17th. It’s good for dine-in or take-out, but not deliveries. Mark your calendars, bring a flyer, and spread the word!

• Classroomscreen.com – This was shared in one of the content Zooms and it’s something I’ve recommended to teacher before in brick nd mortar teaching, but it might actually be really good for teaching over Zoom and sharing your screen during live teaching. A teacher from the Netherlands made a simple tool with all their favorite digiboard widgets. It used to be fully free and look like it’s now monetized, but the free version of classroomscreen.com is still really good. For synchronous distance learning, just share you screen and you can:

• choose a background
• type your instructions in the textbox
• choose a work symbol
• set a timer or show the clock
• use the traffic light
• pick a random name
• do some simple math
• draw in-screen or full-screen
• generate a QR-code
• drag and drop the icons in the right place

It’s a pretty cool simple tool for interactive white boards or screen shares!

• 22 Unique Ways to Introduce Yourself to Your Students, In Person or Online – See this WeAreTeachers Article for fun ideas on how to introduce yourself to students this coming week. The also have a related article on 15 Ways To Virtually Welcome Kids Back to School.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

September 14 (M)
8:00-12:00, Building Time/Prep
10:00, Class List/Teacher Welcome Emails Sent
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-4:00, Building Time/Prep

September 15 (T)
8:00-9:00, Staff Meeting (Gym & Zoom)
9:00-12:00, Licensed Collaborative Planning District Wide (4J Zoom)
9:00-6:00, iPad Distribution (Front Entrance)
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-4:00, Licensed & Classified Instructional Tech PD (4J Zoom)
1:30-3:00, Allan to Elementary Principal’s Meeting (Zoom)

September 16 (W)
8:00-12:00, Licensed & Classified Instructional Tech PD (4J Zoom)
9:00-6:00, iPad Distribution (Front Entrance)
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-4:00, Licensed Collaborative Planning District Wide (4J Zoom)

September 17 (H)
8:00-12:00, Licensed & Classified Tech Office Hours (4J Zoom)
9:00-3:30, iPad Distribution (Front Entrance)
11:00-11:00, Holt Night Out – Papas Pizza
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-2:00, IF NEEDED – Staff Meeting (Gym & Zoom)
2:00-4:00, Protected Planning

September 18 (F)
8:00-12:00, Allan to Admin PD
9:00-3:30, iPad Distribution (Front Entrance)
8:00-4:00, Protected Planning

September 21 (M)
First Day of School

September 22 (T)
3:00-4:00, PBIS Meeting (Gym & Zoom)

September 23 (W)
Regular Day

September 24 (H)
Regular Day

September 25 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting (Zoom)

September 26 (SA)
9:00-12:00, Holt Clean Up Day

Take advantage of this unexpected extra week of planning & prep to get ready for the start to the most unusual school year of any of our careers in education!

Allan

 

September 7, 2020

By Allan  |  2020/09/05 23:19 Posted in Announcements, Articles, SEL, Technology, Video  |  Comments Off on September 7, 2020

Howdy Everyone,

It was great finally getting to see folks this past week and getting to see Team Holt in action! It was kind of lonely this summer in a near empty building, but it feels good to be back in a school with real live people again, even if back-to-school inservice week wasn’t the same as in the past. I know not everyone is able to work on-site, but I do feel lucky so many people did come back to work in the building, compared to what I heard from other principals, which makes me feel like Holt is a team who will work together through this bizarre distance leaning thing. Go, Bolts!

Twenty-two items of note for this week:

• Inservice Week #2 Schedule – Below is the schedule for the week. I’ve noted which sessions are for licensed and/or classified staff.

September 7 (M)
Labor Day, No School

September 8 (T)
8:00-12:00, Classified & Licensed Various District PD Topics (Gym & Zoom)

1. Trauma Informed Care (1hr),
2. Mental Health Referrals & Tiered Services (30 min),
3. PBIS in CDL (1 hour),
4. Community Building in CDL (90min)
5. Others

12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-4:00, Licensed Collaborative Planning Cross District Content Teams (4J Zoom)

September 9 (W)
8:00-12:00, Licensed & Classified Instructional Tech PD (4J Zoom)
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-2:00, Classified & Licensed Culturally Responsive Teaching PD (Gym & Zoom)
2:00-4:00, Protected Planning

September 10 (H)
8:00-12:00, Licensed & Classified Instructional Tech PD (4J Zoom)
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00, Class List Welcome Emails Sent to Families
1:00-2:00, Classified & Licensed Building Operations (Gym & Zoom)
2:00-3:00, Protected Planning

September 11 (F)
Protected Planning Day

Folks seems to like the option of meeting in person, so I’ll continue to hold building led PD in the gym with a Zoom option.

For Tuesday’s PD, much of what principals are to deliver is informational, so to avoid holding a long meeting that could have been an email, I’m going to share the slideshows ahead of time. I will plan to efficiently cover the material, give folks a chance to ask any questions, and maybe end a little early.

Trauma Informed Care and 321 Insight Sept 2020

Mental Health Supports in 4J Fall 2020

PBIS in CDL

Community Building in CDL

• Grade Level Alignment Clarity – It’s important when teachers communicate with families and once we begin working with students that grade level teams are aligned in what they are communicating and teaching. Teachers do not need to be lockstep in everything you do, but we should not have outlier classrooms where one class is doing far less or far more than the others. Grade level teams need to stay in close communication throughout CDL so they are doing mostly the same or similar of communication and instruction.

• Updated “Slow Rollout” Schedule – Downtown gave principals on Friday an Updated 4J CDL Elementary “Slow Rollout” Schedule that fixed some mistakes (such as the green blocks marked “Yellow Time App. Practice – non-content” which was in reference to when the green blocks used to be colored yellow, until the Communications Department sent out the parent version that changed the color from yellow to green), but it’s mostly the same.

One important note on the schedule principals were also told on Friday we should ignore the teacher tabs to the left and to instead go off of the student tabs on the right. They said they would work on updating the teacher section, but hadn’t had time to update those tabs yet.

Regarding the missing and conflicting break/lunch times and the Wednesday schedule issues brought up last week, I asked about these at a principals’ meeting on Friday and the answer I got was that this is being negotiated and then needs to be ratified, so nothing is decided at this point. With conferences next week, hopefully that’ll be time for this to get sorted out. If it doesn’t, we can figure something out at the building level.

• Meeting Zoom Links – To make things easier, starting this week I’m using one reoccurring Zoom link for all building meetings if you want to save the info below (below on my email, but not on my blog). I’ll continue to post building and district Zoom links into the notes section on Holt Staff Zimbra Calendar events, but I’m not going to send calendar invites, which I figure clutter up already full inboxes.

• Holt Quick Links – If you feel like I do, you’re drowning in a sea of Google and Zoom links scattered across dozens of emails, slideshows, and documents. I’ve tried to capture all of those links and put them all onto one document I’ve linked on my blog along the left column called Holt Quick Links. I’ll plan to continue to update this document.

• Class Lists & EOA Student List Update – I emailed teachers earlier, but to keep everyone in the loop, downtown emailed a clarification to principals on the EOA student list they sent last week, which was that it was simply the results from the earlier parent survey, not students who actually enrolled in EOA. Friday at midnight was the deadline for families to enroll in EOA, so I’ll share EOA enrollment info as soon as I get it, and then we’ll finally be able to finish class lists. If you’re curious, linked here are the latest District Enrollment Numbers. We’re under our projection, but so is pretty much every school in 4J right now.

Melanie is continuing to update the 20-21 Incoming Student Spreadsheet she shared earlier. Please have all changes to the Big Class List Spreadsheet by Wednesday. Specialists and classified staff, please take a look at the lists for any potential student combinations you think we might want to reconsider.

FUN FACT! If you have elementary age kids of your own at other schools and want to know their teacher, have your child log onto Seesaw using clever and you’ll see which class they are in. I tried this myself with my 3rd grade daughter Josie and it worked, but the Tech Department is actually trying to unlink Seesaw and Synergy until after teachers notify families on Thursday about class placement, so it may not work for long.

• Thursday Teacher Welcome Email to Families – A few things teacher may want to include in your welcome email to families:

• Slow Rollout Schedule for Families – Linked here is a useful Slow Rollout Schedule for Families by Grade Level in English and Spanish that teachers can make a copy of and customize for your class or grade level. And linked here is another Sharable Schedule for Families you could use that is more specific to the A/B, C/D, E/F schedules, but is not grade level specific. Further down the road, another option is this Sample – Parent Weekly Plan.

• Conference Schedules – Use whatever method works best for you to schedule conferences, whether that’s SignUp.com, MeetingBird.com, or Google Forms. The BV principal made a 2-Minute How-To Video on the Google Form method.

Linked here is a Sample Pre-Conference Form teachers could send to families before conferences.

• Technology Pick-Up and Support – I’m putting this in my Quick News on Monday, but it may be good to remind families. Here’s a blurb you can feel free to use:

Holt is distributing student iPads for students to borrow during distance learning 6:00PM today. Families are strongly encouraged to borrow a device over using a personal device because you will get access to paid apps, subscriptions, and school district tech support. Also, 4J has created e a new Parent and Student Tech Support Portal to support families. This is intended as a self-help resource and contains many quicksheets designed to help with common problems encountered with devices that went home. Many of these documents are also available in Spanish. 

• Papa’s Pizza Fundraiser, 9/17 – I sent this one out too, but here’s another quick blurb you can cut-and-paste:

The first Holt Night Out Fundraiser of the year is scheduled and it will be at Papa’s Pizza on Thursday, September 17th. It’s good for dine-in or take-out, but not deliveries. Mark your calendars, bring a flyer, and spread the word!

• Family Conference Notes – For family conferences next week, linked here is the Conference Survey Template teachers can, if you choose to, fill out during conferences for each family, which will give you a nice spreadsheet summary of all your conference info. Linked here is a Sample Conference Schedule Google Sheet you can use if you’d like.

• Student QR Clever Codes – The Tech Department has created a custom Student Login Code for all 4J students to support distance learning from home that will be passed out with iPads later this week (Sample Login Code Sheet). These will provide families with the information they need to access their student’s online learning tools from one location (Clever). They also provided a set of Zoom Instructions for how families will access Zoom on student devices that we’ll pass out as well.

• Holt Shared Google Drive – After surveying a few people it sounds like folks preferred the old Holt Staff Documents Shared Google Drive over using the aa-Principal’s Shared Folder. There’s more functionality with a shared drive versus a shared folder and it also just seems easier to use. I’ve moved the “aa-Principal’s Shared Folder” into the Holt Shared Drive as an archival item that won’t be updated. I’ve updated access to the shared drive for all current staff, but let me know if for some reason it does not show up under your shared drives.

• Leadership Team Notes – Linked on the Holt Shared Google Drive and here are the Leadership Team Minutes and Slideshow from last week. Most of the meeting was helping me learn some past building practices as to how we will proceed with master schedule, calendar, the leadership team process, and how best to share information.

• 2020-2021 Elementary Leadership Plans – Elementary Leadership Plans (see linked email for details) are proceeding as usual and are due to HR November 6th (not that we have enough to do already). In discussion with the current leadership team, it sounds like the vision for the Holt Leadership Team has changed multiple times over the years and it it has also varried how the Leadership Plan connects with the Leadership Team. My feeling is a leadership team should be representative of stakeholder groups and that staff should be the ones primarily deciding the purpose and membership of the team. I’ll plan to work on a protocol to use at a future staff meeting for us decide how all these intersect.

• Building Meeting Calendar – I’ve added building meeting dates to the Holt Staff Zimbra Calendar for Staff, PBIS, Site Council, and Tech Team meetings. Meeting will primarily be on Tuesdays, 3:00-4:00, due to the Elementary CDL schedule that has Wednesdays as protected time for PLC Meetings (which we will not have the first few weeks of school).

• Kona Shave Ice Fundraiser Thursday 11:00-12:00 – Kona Ice it coming to Holt this Thursday from 11:00-12:00 during iPad Distribution and Lunch Distribution, where they will give us a percentage of all sales. As a bonus, they’re also giving free shave ice to all staff members! So turn off you video for a few minutes during the Tech PD Zoom, grab your badge, take a movement break, and enjoy a yummy shave ice!

• BTS Meeting Minutes – I apologize for got having minutes written up from the 9/1 Back to School Staff Meeting. I’ll post them in the Staff Shared Drive and link them here on my blog later this week.

• COVID Protocol Updates – I got a few answers from Dawn Strong, the HR Administrator in charge of COVID Protocols to a few questions asked earlier this week at staff meetings:

• Grant Funded Student Supplies Distribution – Teachers are allowed to include these items when we distribute student supplies as well as other student supplies we deem “essential.” The dates, times, and logistics of supply distribution is yet to be decided by downtown.

• Book Sets Sent Home – Teachers are to send home class sets of books to support online teaching, and for returning books we can simply put a box outside the front office during office hours for student to return them. However, we have not been given an okay to send home student textbooks. This is a bigger issue at middle and high school and is still under discussion.

• Outdoor Socially Distant Conferences – A few teachers were interested in offering parents a chance to do in-person socially distanced conference in the school garden or other outdoor areas instead of Zoom. I did not get a “no” on this, but she said she’d have to talk to the district leadership team about this one.

• No Volunteers in Zooms – Downtown has decided we cannot let volunteers assist with Zooms, either whole group or small group, and only school staff and students can join during lessons.

• Custodial Uptakes – If you’re interested, Custodial Services Supervisor, Trevor White, shared the linked Custodial Updates related to COVID-related Supplies and PPE Locations, Requirements, and Replenishment Request Procedure Update, Cleaning and Disinfecting Protocols for Fall 2020 – 9.1.2020 Through Early CDL, and Plumbing System Flushing for Legionnaires Disease Prevention.

• 4J Elementary Learning Hub – You may want to bookmark the 4J Elementary Learning Hub, which is a collection of resources for CDL.

• Oregon Family Support Network (OFSN) – OFSN has created Reach Out Oregon, which is a resource website and chat-line for parents, by parents, providing resources for families specific to their regions and counties, newsletters and updates, discussion forums for parents, COVID-19 specific resources, and the opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with staff over the phone or through their live chat feature. They can also provide assistance for any staff member looking for assistance with a child they work with with. Feel free to share this information with families as appropriate. Besides the above website, linked here is a Reach Out Oregon Flyer.

• Architects in Schools – Architects in Schools is a program that for 50 years has provided free architecture and design programming for 3rd through 5th grade students. This year, they are prepared to provide virtual curriculum and programming for 3rd through 5th grade teaching staff. See the linked flyer for more info and any interested grade 3/4/5 teachers should complete the linked Teacher Application. Deadline is November 6th.

• Extra Yards for Teachers Nomination – The UO and the Pac-12 have teamed up with the College Football Playoff’s Extra Yards for Teachers program to award one local teacher with over $3,500 to help continue molding young minds during this difficult time of social distance learning. Nominations are being accepted through September 14th.

• 20 Fun Zoom Games for Kids – See this WeAreTeachers Article for 20 fun Zoom games for kids that you can use to take a break from the traditional curriculum and keep kids engaged.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

September 7 (M)
Labor Day, No School

September 8 (T)
8:00-12:00, Classified & Licensed Various District PD Topics (Gym & Zoom)

1. Trauma Informed Care (1hr),
2. Mental Health Referrals & Tiered Services (30 min),
3. PBIS in CDL (1 hour),
4. Community Building in CDL (90min)

12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-4:00, Licensed Collaborative Planning Cross District Content Teams (4J Zoom)

September 9 (W)
8:00-12:00, Licensed & Classified Instructional Tech PD (4J Zoom)
9:00-6:00, iPad Distribution (Front Entrance)
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00-2:00, Classified & Licensed Culturally Responsive Teaching PD (Gym & Zoom)
2:00-4:00, Protected Planning

September 10 (H)
8:00-12:00, Licensed & Classified Instructional Tech PD (4J Zoom)
9:00-6:00, iPad Distribution (Front Entrance)
11:00-12:00, Kona Ice – Shave Ice Fundraiser (Front Parking Lot)
12:00-1:00, Lunch & Planning Time
1:00, Class List Welcome Emails Sent to Families
1:00-2:00, Classified & Licensed Building Operations (Gym & Zoom)
2:00-3:00, Protected Planning

September 11 (F)
Protected Planning Day
8:00-12:00, Allan to All Admin PD (Zoom)

September 12 (SA)
9:00-12:00, Holt Clean Up Day

September 14 (M)
First Day of School

September 15 (T)
9:00-12:00, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Zoom)
3:00-4:00, Staff Meeting (Gym & Zoom)

September 16 (W)
Regular Day

September 17 (H)
11:00-11:00, Holt Night Out – Papas Pizza

September 18 (F)
Regular Day

Enjoy you Monday off, everyone, and see you Tuesday!

Allan

September 2, 2020

By Allan  |  2020/09/02 21:51 Posted in Announcements, P.D., SEL, Technology  |  Comments Off on September 2, 2020


 

Hello Holt Staff,

I don’t usually send out mid-week announcements, but information is coming fast and furious and I don’t think it can wait.

Ten items of note:

• Second Step Activation Codes – For Thursday’s afternoon SEL PD, teachers will need to have set up an account on the Second Step Website using your 4J email. Next, you will then need to use the activation code in the front of your grade level’s Second Step Binder. I’m not sure where those binders are located here at Holt, but I’m guessing someone at each grade level is in possession of it. Also, if any grade levels want to have a PDF version of their Second Step teacher guides, let me know and I can get a scanned version of it so that 3-4 teachers don’t have to share the one binder.

• Classified Laptop Requests – If there are EA needing to borrow a laptop during distance learning, please send an email to James at 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu.

• Classified Help w/iPad Distribution, 9/9 & 9/10 – The Tech Department changed their mind and is now requesting buildings staff student iPad distribution. Holt is scheduled to distribute devices next week on Wednesday, September 9th and Thursday, September 10th, 9:00-6:00, so that’s two shifts of 4.5 hours. If there are any staff who are able to flex their hours either of these days to help distribute devices, please sign up on the linked iPad Distribution Sign-Up Google Sheet. We minimally need three people each of the time, but five would be even better. We’ll do it the same as last time out of the front of the building, though there is a new tracking system for checking out the devices, using something like the library barcode reader. Tech Department asked for names by 9:00 Thursday morning, so please add you name as soon as you can if you can help.

• Class Lists and EOA Transfers – Principals just tonight received the list of which families are selecting EOA. I did not link it on my blog since there was quite a bit of other student info on there, but I sorted the spreadsheet so EAO students were at top and sorted by grade level. Grade level teams should use this to final class lists by the end of the week. I’d like to give specialists and EAs, who see students in different settings or may have knowledge from prior years about any student combinations we might want to take into consideration before emailing parents of classroom placement on Thursday, 9/10 at 1:00.

• Schedule A/B, C/D, E/F – Interventionists met yesterday to do the math on which grade level caseloads best match up, along with running this by leadership team members for input, and here’s what we came up with:

A/B = Kindergarten and 3rd Grade
C/D = 1st grade and 4th grade
E/F = 2nd grade and 5th grade

For quick links to the various schedules, see here:

CDL V2- Elementary Schedule Ideas_THIS ONE (the very detailed teaching schedule)

Family Version of the Sample Student Day

CDL Elementary “Slow Rollout” Schedule/Calendar

Elementary Student Schedule Explained

• Office Hours Clarification – I got some clarification on the “District Office Hours” listed at the bottom of CDL V2- Elementary Schedule Ideas. I learned that teacher schedules on Wednesdays are one hour shorter, so the expectation is that teachers will communicate with families a scheduled either an early morning or evening 1-hour office hours option for families between either 7:00-8:00AM or 5:00-8:00PM.

• Staffing Updates – Kelly Kirk is our new school psychologist for this school year. This is her 15th year as a school psychologist, most of that time was spent in Roseburg in elementary schools (which are her favorite assignment). Please welcome Kelly to Team Holt!

• Seesaw Don’t Make Classes – Don’t start making any classes in Seesaw because these will be populated by the tech department once final class lists have been entered into Synergy.

• 321 Insight Modules – You should all have received an invitation to 321 Insight, but know that you DO NOT have to complete any modules at this time. These will be done later in the year.

• Allan Open Office Hours, Friday @1:00 – Since some folks are teleworking and since we’re all stuck in meetings most of this week, I thought I’d set a time where I’m available by Zoom or in the school garden if anyone is wanting to connect with me on anything. A Zoom link is posted on the Holt Staff Zimbra Calendar and also in my email (this is the new reoccurring link I’ll start using for all future meetings).

Two more days until a well deserved 3-day weekend!

Allan

 

February 24, 2020

By Allan  |  2020/02/22 15:29 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Caring for Kids, Grants, P.D., SEL  |  Comments Off on February 24, 2020

 

Hello Roadrunners,

Need a little cheer going into this week? I just realized there’s really only THREE months of school left! I say only three because this month is almost over and June doesn’t count, right?

Eighteen items of note for this week:

• March 13th PD Day Info – Principals were sent a March 13 PD Email to share with staff. See the link for details, but the short version is:

8:00-10:30: Licensed Tech PD
Grades K-2/Music/PE (Gilham)
Grades 3-5/SPED/Title (Holt)
8:00-10:30: Classified PD (Chavez & ATA)
10:30-1:30: Travel time, lunch, prep time
1:30-4:00: Behavior Framework (Howard Cafeteria)

Linked here is a complete list of the K-12 PD Sessions for March 13, 2020. Classified staff will need to register for trainings on TalentEd Develop (TED). Linked here are the TED Registration Directions. Licensed staff do not need to register, but will sign in at your PD site.

• UPDATE: Classified Self Evaluations Due FRIDAY – Classified Staff Self Evaluations are due this Friday. I’ve realized many staff , you’re good and don’t have to do it again. Self evaluations need to be completed online using TalentEd. Your login is your full email (username@4j.lane.edu) and your password is your regular email password. Let me know if you need any help or have any questions.

• REPEAT: February Fire Drill, TUESDAY – We’ll plan on holding our February fire drill Tuesday at 1:15. If it’s raining, we’ll try again the next day at the same time, but right now the weather looks good.

• UPDATE: PLC Meetings This Week – This week is our PLC meetings with roving subs. Rebecca has unexpectedly had to travel to help her mother, so I will facilitate the meeting and retired 4J principal Tom Maloney will cover for me during the PLC meetings. Please come to the meetings with your math “stuff” and ready to work with your team on what’s useful to you.

WEDNESDAY
Kinder 11:10-12:10
3rd Grade 12:20-1:20
5th Grade 1:30-2:30

THURSDAY
2nd 8:10-9:10
1st 9:30-10:30
4th 10:55-11:55

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is designated for Building Based PD. My plan is for licensed staff to have time to review and discuss potential staffing scenarios for next school year. We should be able to discuss classroom configurations and I’m hoping to get more information from downtown what additional staffing from SSA funds might look like. I’ll plan to send some potential classroom configurations to all staff later this week and welcome feedback.

• REPEAT: Storytelling Assembly, FRIDAY – This Friday is the Lane Arts Storytelling Assemblies with Noah McLain Philpot, who was one of our Artists in Residence last year. The first assembly for K-2 is 8:10-8:45 and the grade 3-5 assembly is 8:55-9:30. Linked here is the Assembly Map & Directions.

• Statistics in Schools Program for 2020 Census – Not this week, but next week, March 2-6 is Statistics in School Week, which is intended to create awareness about the upcoming census, which can greatly impact future federal, state, and local funding, political boundaries, and much more. This is completely optional for teachers, but the Census Bureau has a free educational program called Statistics in Schools (SIS) that teaches children in a fun and informative way why the census is important.

• BJ Blake Covering for Allan, Tuesday – Retired 4J administrator BJ Blake will cover for me while I catch up on some formal observation write ups. I’ll still be in the building, but will be hiding in the STEAM Room or the Looking Glass office while BJ does the kid wrangling for the day. OOPS! MEANT FOR NEXT WEEK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS. 

• March PBIS Focus: Safe Bodies – The March PBIS monthly focus is Safe Bodies. The PBIS team created a PBIS/CSC Cheat Sheet that matches our PBIS monthly themes with corresponding Caring School Community (CSC) class meeting lessons. This is an easy way to tie the two activities together.

• Kona Ice Fundraiser, March 5th – The Kona Ice of North Eugene (i.e. shave ice) truck owners contacted me about an easy fundraiser. They’ll park out front after school on Thursday, March 5th and Howard will get 20% of all sales. Linked here is the Fundraiser Flyer we’ll send home Friday. I’ll also plan to make an announcement 15-20 minutes early for any bus riders who bring money and want a shave ice, so they have time to order and eat before getting on the bus. ALSO, Kona Ice said all staff can get a FREE shave ice. I didn’t tell them we have over 80 staff members. ;)

• Library Happenings – Items of note from Ms. Hopkins!

Sadly I am seeing a trend happening in classes. Kids are borrowing other kids library books, and sadly they are getting lost. Please, Please have a visit with your students and ask them not to borrow other peoples books. Thank you :)

With the short weeks we have had lately it has shown in the amount of over due books we have. I have sent out email notices to parents lets hope that helps. Monday we had 131 over due book, yikes…. the good news is our kids are reading! That makes my heart happy.

Book fair is just a couple weeks away.

5th – 17th the Library will be closed March .
March 6th Book Fair preview for students and staff
March 9th – 12th M-W 8am – 6pm Th 8am -5:30pm Literacy Night 6:30pm – 8:00pm

There will be a sign up sheet in the office for classroom previews. I will start showing the book fair video Thursday.

Have a great week!

Julie

• REPEAT: Staff Needed for Outdoor School – Thank you to those who have already stepped forward, but please let me know if any other classified and licensed staff are interested/willing to help at this year’s 5th grade Outdoor School happening April 22, 23, & 24 at Sky Camp. Extended contract is available for both classified and licensed staff. For classified staff, if you stay overnight, you even get paid while sleeping! Subs will be provided to cover for staff here at school while you’re at camp. Some of us are planning to stay at Sky Camp all three days and we’d love to have more staff join us for all three days, but we will also take any help for people who can help during the day or who can help be there the two nights.

Linked here is the ODS Parent Packet that went home, which describes what will happen at camp. Coyote Camp staff pretty much run all of the activities and school staff simply assist, with the exception of classroom teachers running at Class Meeting at 4:45 on the second day.

Let me know if you’re willing to join us all three days, help during the day, or can spend the night (6:00 until morning). See me if you have questions, but I think spending three days out at Fall Creek with a bunch of kids getting to doing fun activities sounds like a pretty good time.

• Emerald Park Construction & Gate Access – Starting Monday, EWEB is replacing a water main behind by the back Emerald Park gate, running from Lake Drive to Hatton Ave. between the fence and skatepark. This will prevent access to that gate, but I’ve worked with EWEB so they won’t start until 8:00 and they will shutdown during dismissal. Construction is supposed to only last two weeks.

• Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program (FFVP) Reminders – We haven’t had a USDA inspection for several years, but I thought it may be good to remind people the expectations around our fresh daily snacks:

• Should be served daily
• Should not be served during breakfast or lunch period
• Leftovers should be given to the students or returned to the cafeteria
• There should not be carry-over of Fruits or vegetables from one day to the next
• Containers used for FFVP should be returned to the cafeteria the same day the FFVP was delivered
• Adults and/or students passing out snacks should wash hands first or use gloves

• Free Preparedness Skills Presentation – The Red Cross is offering free lessons for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms. The program teaches about safety rules for home and how to be prepared in an emergency. It is about 40 minutes including a Q&A. If your grade level is interested in a presentation, contact Alberta Cook, alberta.cook@redcross.org

• Kindness Mini Grants – The Everyone Belongs School Kindness Project is offering mini grants, which are due March 19th. See the linked flyer and application for details!

• Promoting Prosocial Behaviors in the Classroom – According to research, nurturing prosocial behaviors may improve academic outcomes—both classroom grades and test scores. See this Edutopia Article for ideas on practicing gratitude in the classroom, ecouraging random acts of kindness, and building empathy. On a related note, remember that you have my full permission to do Second Step and/or Caring School Community Lessons in place of core academic times. In my opinion, social emotional learning is equally if not more important and traditional academics.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

February 24 (M)
9:15, Allan to IFSP Meeting (Conference Room)

February 25 (T)
12:00, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Conference Room)
1:15, Fire Drill
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM26)

February 26 (W)
Ash Wednesday (avoid scheduling schoolwide events)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
11:10-2:30, PLC Meetings (Conference Room)

Kinder 11:10-12:10
3rd Grade 12:20-1:20
5th Grade 1:30-2:30

4:00-8:00, District First Aid Class (Library)

February 27 (H)
8:10-8:55, BSU Meeting (STEAM Room)
8:10-11:55, PLC Meetings (Conference Room)

2nd grade 8:10-9:10
1st grade 9:30-10:30
4th grade 10:55-11:55

2:45-3:45, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

February 28 (F)
PTO Read-A-Thon Begins
8:10-8:45, Storytelling Assembly, K-2 (Gym)
8:55-9:30, Storytelling Assembly, 3-5 (Gym)
10:30-12:30, February Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room & Library)
12:00-1:00, Human Growth & Development Parent Preview (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – 2020-2021 Staffing (Library)

February 29 (SA)
10:00-1:00, UO Eugene Math Festival (MacArthur Court)

March 2 (M)
Classified Employees Appreciation Week
Statistics in Schools Program for 2020 Census – SIS Week
PTO Read-A-Thon Continues
PBIS Monthly Theme – Safe Bodies

March 3 (T)
Book Fair Delivery
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (R&R Room, RM21)
6:00-7:00, Howard Kindergarten Round-Up (Library)

March 4 (W)
Walk+Roll to School Day
BJ Blake Covering for Allan
11:00-10:00, PTO Papa’s Pizza Fundraiser (W11th Location)
2:45-3:45, Equity Team Meeting (Imelda’s Room, RM7)

March 5 (H)
Book Fair Set-Up
8:45-11:30, Niccum to Corridor Play (NEHS)
2:00-3:00, Kona Ice Fundraiser (Front of School)
2:45-3:05, Allan Meeting w/KG Team – Staffing Input (Robin’s Room, RM3)
3:30-3:30, Allan Meeting w/1st Grade Team – Staffing Input (Jasmine’s Room, RM11)

March 6 (F)
Popcorn Friday!
Book Fair Student and Staff Preview
8:00-12:00, Allan to HR Early Pool Hire Committee (Ed Center)
1:30-2:00, EA Supervisors Meeting – Staffing Input (Title Room, RM26)
2:05-2:25, Allan Meeting w/Licensed Specialists – Staffing Input (Title Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – PLC (Teams Decide)
2:30-3:30, Allan Title 1 Budget Meeting (Ed Center)

March 8 (SU)
Daylight Saving Time

Have a good week, y’all!

Allan