http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=2787
Hi Everyone,
Well that was a pretty strange week! After all that time off and just one week until winter break, I know it’s hard to get back into “school mode,” but let’s all try to keep things routine and instructionally focused for students, not just to make sure they are learning, but also to help keep them from veering off into vacation mode too early.
Nine items of note for this week:
• School Design Update – The School Board has made a decision regarding LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification of the new building. Facilities, administrators, the school board and architects were weighing whether to pursue LEED silver, gold or platinum standards and also deciding whether they wanted to pay the additional and on-going costs for an official LEED certification. The board decided to pursue LEED silver as a minimum standard, but decided not to pay for an official certification, which is what I felt was a better use of taxpayer dollars. This way we’re doing the right thing by meeting LEED standards, but are putting more money into the school rather than towards a piece of paper that says we’re a LEED building.
• PBIS Referral Free Incentive – Our high flyers will get a bit of a pass with most of last week off, but I wanted to remind everyone that we have our referral free class parties at the end of this week for students without any referrals between Dec. 2 to Dec. 20.
• Staff Holiday Party, Thursday @6:00! – Thursday at 6:00 is our Staff Holiday Party at Mellissa’s condo. Be sure to sign up for one of the food items (Appetizer, Main Dish, Salad, Dessert or Other) in the mail room. And remember to wear your most festive outfit to the party (there may be a prize for the best one) and a white elephant gift if you’d like to participate! See you there!
• CLC EA Temp Position Update – Gina Carter had agreed to work the CLC EA 5 hour position through mid December and her last day was this past Friday, though I’m sure we’ll continue to see her in the building as one of our most regular substitutes. Taking her place is Bryon Dudley, who has worked as a BEST EA for two years and has an extensive background working in behavior support settings with students, so he should make a great addition to the program.
• TalentEd and Updated SMART Goals Due 12/31 – Be sure that your SMART Goals have been entered into TalentEd by the end of the month. The attached shared building goals (in MS Word and PDF) may be cut and pasted into TalentEd if you choose to use these goals. Also, if you haven’t completed the Self Assessment, be sure to complete that as well. Lastly, my plan is do combine the Performance Standards Overview Meeting, which I should have done at the start of the year, with the January Mid-Year Conference. Let me know if you have any questions.
• Feed Hope Food Box Prep & Delivery – Tuesday is the last day for the for collecting food for Feed Hope and the boxing of the food will be this Wednesday at 6:30 PM in the cafeteria. If you want to mention this to your class, we’re collecting juice boxes, cereal bars, cups of fruit, granola bars, pudding cups, fruit snacks or strips, non-refridgerated milk, beefaroni or spaghettios and single serving cereal boxes. Students, staff and families can also volunteer to help boxing up the food on Wednesday, but email riverroadserves@gmail.com if you’ll be volunteering.
• Make-Up Snow Days – The schedule for the make-up days has not been decided yet. Days will be made up on scheduled furlough days and/or at the end of the year. I’ll let staff know as soon as the district and unions have agreed to when these will be made up.
• Argumentative Writing Resource – This is a great argumentative writing link where you will find useful ways to formulate structures for teaching writing at all grade levels.
• Schedule of Events for the Week – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for this week:
December 16 (M)
Roadrunner Tail Feather Challenge Begins
2:30-5:00, Allan to Elementary Principals (Ed Center)December 17 (T)
Feed Hope Food Box Donations Due
9:00-9:30, December Book Giveaway (Office)
2:55, Allan to daughter’s preschool holiday performanceDecember 18 (W)
9:00-11:00, 1st Grade Field Trip to Food for Lane County
6:30-7:30, Feed Hope Food Box Prep & Delivery (Cafeteria)December 19 (H)
Costco Breakfast Goodies for Staff!!! (Office)
8:30-10:30, 3rd Grade Salmon Release Field Trip
11:50-1:45, 3rd and 4th Grade to Symphonic Safari (SEHS)
2:30-4:30, Howard Design Team Meeting (Library)
2:30-3:30, Parent Laptop/iPad Training (Room 6)
6:00, Staff Holiday Party (Mellissa’s House)December 20 (F)
10:15-10:30, Allan Reading to Class
11:00-12:30, Birthday Lunches with Mr. Chinn (Room 2)
1:00-2:00, PBIS Referral Free Parties
Have a good week everyone, and hope the snow in Thursday’s forecast holds off until after our staff party!
Allan
Here are the Howard die hards who braved the roads last Monday to attend the PD at Awbrey Park. Robin S. also came shortly after this picture was taken. Go Kindergarten and 5th grade!
