April 21, 2014

By Allan  

Hi Everyone,

It was a grueling week of OAKS testing and I think the change of schedule definitely effected student dispositions. It was either that or the Blood Moon Monday night. It’ll be very nice to be getting back on a regular schedule this week.

Eleven items of note this week:

• New School Design Updates – The Design Team had it’s last meeting until the end of May. The overall design is pretty well set. This past week’s meeting focused largely on a direction for the courtyards, some landscaping, and checking in on some of the focus group areas.

For the courtyards we talked about wanting the spaces to be able to accommodate up to 60 students. The landscape architects presented a lot of interesting very natural courtyard ideas, although most of them would require a large amount of upkeep that I’m sure none of us want to be responsible for, so we’ll more likely have more hard surfaces with plants and foliage that won’t require a lot of upkeep. We also talked about including elements in the courtyard designs to make them more of a learning space, such as having number lines, shapes, a 100s chart and how we might connect them to the science units. This session was a lot of brainstorming, so be sure to let your staff reps know your thought if you have ideas for the outdoor spaces.

Not a lot new came out of the review of the focus group work, but one interesting idea that is being looked into is having a locking shelf/cabinet for personal learning devices (laptops, iPad Mini, or whatever new technology come in the future) in each classroom, with built-in charging capabilities, which would eliminate the need for classrooms to have a COW. This isn’t a done deal, but it not having to roll carts to a secure barn each day and also not having to take up classroom floor space would be pretty nice.

One new item since the design meeting is that we now have have some dates regarding the demolition of Rooms 4 and 5 this summer. I know Mellissa, Carolyn, Kelly and Jennifer have said they want to have stuff moved early and while they are still on the clock, but this timeline will allow for some flexibility beyond that if needed. Asbestos abatement will being June 30 and will be completed by July 11th. District facilities staff will begin salvaging usable parts (switches, plugs, door handles, etc.) before then. Contractors will begin demolition on Monday, July 14th.

• Being a Writer Teacher Rep Needed – Tuesday, April 22nd, 3:30-5:00 @Gilham Library – I’m looking for an interested teacher rep to attend this presentation with me on a new writing curriculum the district is adopting, Being A Writer, which is made by the same people behind Caring for Kids. We have a few teachers currently piloting this program, but I wanted to open it up to anyone interested in being the teacher leader on this rollout. See the attached email from Kathy Luiten for details and let me know if any of you are willing to take the lead on this. I know it’s short notice, but I had been under the impression we didn’t need a teacher rep since we already have teachers piloting the program.

• SPED Staffing Update – I’ve spoken with CLC and LC staff about SPED staffing I received on Friday from ESS, but here’s the update for everyone else. Next year we will have a full-time Learning Center teacher and ESS has moved Jen from the CLC into the LC. Sandra was a temp hire, though based on the great job she’s done at Howard this year, I’m positive she will be hired somewhere in Eugene. LC EA hours were also increased, moving Cheri’s LC time up to 5 hours. The CLC teacher position is vacant for now. For CLC EA time, Jolene and Katie’s hours will remain the same, though Byron’s time was brought down to 2.5 hours. I think that reduction is something that will be negotiated once we know more about incoming CLC student. At Life Skills, Rae will still be with us full-time, but we are still waiting for Life Skills EA staffing information.

• Kitchen Staff Update – You may have noticed this past week that Joan was not in the kitchen. She’s been recalled to WillaG, but we will have Rene Stinson taking over in the kitchen for the rest of the year (which continues the Howard tradition of same-name staff members). Please welcome Rene to the Howard family!

• Learning About Learning (LEL) Schedule for Tuesday – Attached is the schedule and problem of practice for the LEL visit we discussed at last week’s staff meeting. Most classrooms will have two groups rotate through for a 15-20 minute time block before lunch. Teachers should not feel the need to do anything special or treat this like an Apple visit, turning your technology integration up to 11, but I did think teachers would want to know ahead of time when people will be in your room.

• Concussion Lanyards & New Protocol for Head Injuries – Schools will be starting a new protocol for when students have a head injury. In addition to the current practice of notifying parents, students will receive the attached letter from the office to go home, listing symptoms of a concussion observed by staff or reported by the student. Additionally, students will get a lanyard with a card listing symptoms of a concussion to wear home to inform parents and to also alert staff that a student has a head injury earlier in the day. A couple schools have invited nurses to come share at staff meetings about concussion, so let me know if this is something people would be interested in at our May 31st PD day.

• Breakfast Snack Bags – Nutrition Services is going to do something new to provide additional snacks for Howard students. At breakfast, in addition the the regular breakfast choices, students will also be able to also pick-up a breakfast snack bag to eat later in the day at snack time. The bag will likely be a breakfast bar and/or fruit, so staff should know that if you see students taking food from the cafeteria to eat later, it’s okay.

• Passwords – best practices, and how to change them – Here’s a reminder from David Nelson regarding password security and the recent Heartbleed bug:

Dear Staff,

There have been a lot of password-related problems going on lately — first the numerous “phishing” attempts in 4J, now the “Heartbleed” bug that you may have heard about in the news.

Some staff have asked me how to be proactive and change their 4J passwords, so I have written the steps below.

Please note: It is good practice to periodically change your password, even if you don’t believe it has been compromised. You should also avoid using the exact same password on multiple sites. If just one of those sites gets hacked, then the attackers are likely to try the same combination of name and password and it will let them right in.

How to change your 4J password:
Go to the District website.
Click on the Staff tab, then Change Password.
Put in your username and your existing password in the first and second fields.
In the last two, put in a new password. Remember it must have a mix of upper and lowercase, and must contain a number.
Thanks!

David Nelson
Technology Department
Eugene School District 4J

For tech help please write to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu or call ext 7777.

• Nintendo Wii – At some point, Howard bought a Nintendo Wii. The system has ended up in my office if there’s ever anyone who has a use for this at school.

• Where are all the people of color in children’s books? – Here is a New York Times article on representation of students of color in children’s literature. It is an excellent article and brings up a number of important points about analyzing children’s literature.

• Schedule of Events for the Week – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for this week:

April 21 (M)
EasyCBM Reading Progress Monitoring 12
2:30-5:00, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-6:00, Allan to 4J Nutrition Services Community Advisory Council Meeting (Ed Center)

April 22 (T)
Earth Day
Learning about Learning (LEL) Visit to Classrooms
8:30-12:30, LCC Dental Clinic
2:05, Architechts and Engineers Evaluating in South Wing for Demo Planning
2:30-3:30, Site Council Meeting (Staff Room)
2:30-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Room 22)
2:30-3:30, Talent Show Practice (Cafeteria)

April 23 (W)
Regular Day

April 24 (H)
5:00-6:00, 5th Grade Parent Preview – Planned Parenthood

April 25 (F)
School Spirit Day – Clashing clothes/Crazy Socks
Rooms 4 & 16 Buddies Field Trip to “Bears”
9:00-12:00, Kindergarten to Science Factory
11:00-12:30, Birthday Lunches with Mr. Chinn

Eight and a half more weeks until summer!

Allan

 

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