April 20, 2015

By Allan  

Administrative-Professionals-Day

Howdy Roadrunners,

I hope folks were able to enjoy a well deserved Friday at Four at the end of last week. I wasn’t able to attend, but as I explained to a couple staff members last week who’s the boss in the Chinn house, the boss had long week teaching kindergarten and had made a pedicure appointment.

And be sure to give an appreciation to Mrs. Henry this Wednesday for Administrative Professional’s Day. We all know that the above image is too true!

Twenty items of note this week (six of which are articles):

• Staffing and Job EXPO Updates – I got some good news last week that downtown will be adding a 3rd kindergarten session for us next year, rounding up our 0.5 Kindergarten position to a full-time position. You may have already seen this on the last Job EXPO email HR sent out, but I’ll be going to that next week to hire us one more kindergarten teacher for next year.

At last week’s EXPO we had just one applicant for our part-time 5th grade facilitating position, but I wasn’t obligated to hire anyone unless there were two or more contract teachers applying, so our part-time 5th Grade is still open and looks like it’ll remain open if no one else applies.

And one bit of sad news in the Learning Center, Sandra has made the decision to retire at the end of the school year. She has done a great job in the Howard Learning Center and will leave some big shoes to fill. ESS has placed River Road Learning Center teacher Bryan Prideaux into the position for next year as a result of River Road’s LC position being reduced to less than full-time, so please welcome Bryan to Howard.

• Curriculum Library Discard Timeline, May 1st – It’s time to start clearing out our Curriculum Library materials to make room for that to become an instructional space next year. I’m going to give teachers the next two weeks to go through the materials to see if there is anything out there you want keep and store in your classrooms. Anything left out there after our May 1st PD/Planning day will be boxed up and shipped downtown for discard. After May 1st I’ll go through the materials myself to keep math manipulative for our soon to be added classrooms so those teachers will have some materials, but most of the old curriculum materials are just collecting dust and are not current. Follett actually wasn’t interested in any of them they were all so out of date.

• Building Leadership Opportunities – Shared in prior announcements and also at last week’s Staff Meeting, we will be deciding leadership positions for next year by the end of this school year. All position will be considered vacant and anyone can sign up for one. The current list of leadership/rep positions are; IPBS, PBIS, Technology, Literacy, Math, Science, Site Council, Social Committee, Garden, Being a Writer and Caring for Kids. If you would like to sign up for a leadership or rep position, follow this link to the 2015-2016 Leadership/Building Rep. Positions on a Google Sheet. I made this a public document, so you don’t need to do any kind of log on to access the document.

If there is more than one person interested in a leadership position, those people can decide to be co-leaders or one can decide to drop out or staff can vote. I’ve also left a blank section where people can add a new leadership or rep positions if there is one people think we need to add. I’ve also included the duties for our compensated leadership positions that are in our building Leadership Plan. Once leadership positions are settled, we will begin the process for developing our building Leadership Plan, which is 20 sub days that can be distributed between up to seven licensed staff members.

• Draft Artist in Residence Schedule – Now that the testing schedules are a bit more nailed down, here is a draft schedule for our Artist in Residence dates and times. Samuel Becerra will be here for three weeks for 13 classes, visiting each classroom for four sessions. I made sure to avoid recess, lunch and specialist times, but let me know if anyone sees anything that doesn’t work or needs changed. I know there are some conflicts for 4th and 5th during the 4th grade play and also on Field Day, so just let me know what alternate times you’d prefer on those days. I’ve also run this past Samuel and he said this schedule works for him.

Monday, May 18th to Thursday, May 21st

• 8:00-8:45 Silver
• 9:00-9:45 Seno
• 10:10-11:10 Swift
• 11:50-12:50 Corliss
• 1:05-2:05 Kirk

Friday, May 22nd to Thursday, May 28th (Memorial Day, 5/25)

• 8:00-9:00 Kreider
• 9:15-10:15 Zimmerman
• 10:30-11:30 Larsen
• 12:20-1:20 Gaston

FIRDAY, MAY 29TH, NO SCHOOL, PD/PLANNING DAY

Monday, June 1st to Thursday, June 4th

• 8:10-9:10 Callihan (5th grade)
• 9:10-10-:10 Rock (5th grade)
• 10:30-11:30 Frank (4th grade)
• 12:30-1:30 Groshong (4th grade)

FRIDAY, JUNE 5TH, NO SCHOOL, GRADING DAY

• Spring Writing Work Samples – Attached are the K-2 writing prompts for the spring writing work samples. Grades 3-5 will use the written copies of the Smarter Balanced writing performance task. Intermediate teachers, be sure to keep these papers secure until we grade them on May 29th. Linked here is the teacher script and directions, which K-2 teachers should read before administering the assessment. K-2 teachers may administer the assessment anytime, but all student final copies will be due to me by the end of the day on Thursday, May 28th. We will grade the work samples at the May 29th PD/Planning Day. I’ll put hard copies in K-2 teachers mailboxes Monday. Let me know if you have any questions.

• 15/16 Specialists and Teacher Prep Time – The EEA contract requires that elementary teachers receive additional prep time next year. The plan that was shared with principals last week is that schools will continue to get one semester of PE and one semester of Music, each providing two 30 minute sessions per week during their semester. What is being added is that during the Music semester, which is second semester for Howard, there will be a third 30 minute prep which will be provided by a once a week PE class. So second semester there will be two sessions of Music and one session of PE per week. Howard was spoiled this year getting a full year of PE, but I did want to let everyone know that I plan to apply for this grant again next year. And to give you an elementary versus secondary prep time comparison, with middle and high school teachers getting a one period prep five days a week, that takes around 120 FTE compared to the 16 FTE that’s been allocated for elementary PE and Music teachers. Grrrrrrrr!

• PRIDE Awards Wednesday, April. 29th – Not this week, but next week will be the April PRIDE Awards. Teachers should pick a letter (Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, Excellence) to honor students and fill out the PRIDE certificates located in the office. Invitations to families are also in the office. If you think families are interested, there’s a coupon for a free adult meal on the Lunch Menu. Students will receive their certificate and wrist band during their lunchtime. There is no minimum or maximum number of PRIDE recipients per class, but it’s usually 1-3 per class. And remember, as you turn in your PRIDE nominations, be sure that you let Lori know who and why each student is being recognized so she can put their name up on the board.

• PTO Meeting, Tuesday at 6:00 – The April PTO meeting will be this Tuesday, 6:00-7:00 PM in the library if any staff are able to attend. Meeting attendance tends to shrink as we get closer to the end of the year, but PTO events are ramping up with the Tech Trot and the School Carnival, so it would be great if there are any staff who are able to come to weigh in on these events and other topics. They’re also looking to elect some new PTO Board members if there are any extra ambitious staff who’s like to run for PTO President, Treasurer or Volunteer Coordinator. Hope to see you there!

• Student Care Team Referrals – We do have a student lined up as our main case for the April meeting, but I did want to extend the offer to staff if you have any student situations you would like brought up as hypothetical situations. This can be a chance to find out from DHS staff their thoughts on a variety of situations, ranging from abuse/neglect situations to potential resources for families looking for assistance.

• Construction & Furniture Updates – Attached are the minutes from the last Owner/Architect/General Contractor Meeting and here are the highlights along with some furniture related notes:

• East Parking Lot – Todd Construction will be putting up signs in the east parking lot for “No Construction Parking” since this has been an ongoing issue.

• Howard Access Plan During Demolition Attached is the access plan for how students, staff and families will access the new school between spring break and summer next school year. The thick black line will be a paved path to walk to the new building. Drop off will continue in their current locations in front of the old building for April, May and June next year. There will be a fence around the paved path to keep students out of the construction and demolition areas. There will also be a fenced path from the west courtyard outside of the cafeteria leading to the track for students to access the old playground since the new one won’t be finished yet.

• Spring Break Move is in Question – Facilities is not quite as certain about a spring break as they were earlier due to cost and logistical challenges, the above item being a big one. I asked Ryan Spain, our project manager, and he estimated it’s about a 50/50 proposition at this time whether we’ll be moving in over spring break or summer next year. I’ll be sure to keep folks posted as things develop.

• No Kidney Tables to New Building – At the last Design Team meeting the possibility of taking some of the nicer kidney shaped tables to the new school in order to save some on the furniture budget was discussed. However, Kay and I did a walkthrough last Thursday and none of our current kidney tables passed the ugly test, so we’ll be getting all new small group furniture in the new building.

• Downtown Admin Updates – ESS Administrator Amy Tidwell, who’s in charge of elementary SPED for the North and Sheldon regions, has accepted a position of Director of Special Services in Bethel (their equivalent of ESS). So if you’re keeping score, 4J is in the market downtown for a new elementary ESS administrator, a Director of Financial Services and a Human Resources Director.

• News from the Emerald Empire Reading Council – Here’s the April Newsletter from the Emerald Empire Reading Council. This month’s newsletter includes professional development opportunities, grant opportunities and other items, like their Annual Whine and Wine event. If you’d like more information, visit their (un-ironic 1990s style) website.

• McKinney-Vento Identified Student Count – I thought staff might find this report interesting. Deborah Dailey, the 4J McKinney-Vento (homeless) Coordinator shared a report with principals that had the total number of students identified in the district by region and by school. Howard has 45 students who are McKinney-Vento, which is more than any other elementary or middle school in 4J and percentage-wise is higher than any elementary, middle or high school beside ECCO (the alt ed HS program at Lane). I was pretty shocked to realize that nearly 12% (more than one out of every ten) of our students are homeless.

• School: A Healing Place – Educators are often trained to recognize trauma related to grief, loss or abuse, but poverty-related trauma has its own set of symptoms. Read this article from Teaching Tolerance how schools in California and Texas are helping poverty-traumatized students at the classroom and building levels

• Hunger Games star Amandla Stenberg explains the nuances of cultural appropriation – From my favorite blog, BoingBoing, Here’s a powerful video on “Cultural appropriation,” which can be a tricky concept to understand. Amandla Stenberg, the young actress who got her start as Rue in “The Hunger Games,” does a brilliant job of explaining the complex concept in this video. She created the clip for a history class project, and after posting it to her Tumblr a few months ago it’s recently gained traction. If not for the twerking clips, this would be a great video to start a discussion with our students. She explains, “The line between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange is always going to be blurred. But here’s the thing: Appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes where it originated, but is deemed as high fashion, cool, or funny when the privileged take it for themselves. Appropriation occurs when the appropriator is not aware of the deep significance of the culture that they are partaking in.” She ends her video with a simple question: “What would America be like if we loved black people as much as we loved black culture?”

• Helping Young Students Feel Positively About the Color of Their Skin – Here’s an article with some ideas about how to open the topic of skin color with young students. The activities are some that I have seen in variation, but the activities expand to include poetry writing which I believe will touch on the creative side of students’ thinking. Allowing space for this type of learning is necessary and can develop conversations and results for learners of all ages.

• Report: Schools Should Focus More on Soft Skills – A new study from Wainhouse Research finds that a large minority, 39 percent, of education stakeholders say their schools should be doing a better job of preparing students for the workforce. Many believe that schools are doing a decent job focusing on the 3 R’s, but the two soft skills respondents said were important most often were problem solving, at 96 percent, and the ability to collaborate, at 95 percent.

• How teachers incorporate coding literacy into student learning – This article describe how educators are integrating computer coding into subjects from English to art to develop the skill as a type of literacy. Some teachers are having students use the free block-based coding programs such as Scratch to express learning by coding interactive media, or App Inventor to create mobile applications that benefit their school community.

• Massive galaxy search turns up no evidence of sophisticated alien life – Here’s a science news story students may find interesting. After conducting a detailed search of more than 100,000 galaxies outside the Milky Way using NASA’s radiation-detecting WISE satellite, astronomers say they have found no evidence there are energy-producing alien societies as sophisticated as our own. “Our results mean that … none of them is widely populated by an alien civilization using most of the starlight in its galaxy for its own purposes,” said Penn State University’s Jason Wright. “That’s interesting because these galaxies are billions of years old, which should have been plenty of time for them to have been filled with alien civilizations, if they exist.”

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

April 20 (M)
Reading Progress Monitoring Week 12
8:00-8:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 19)
8:30-9:15, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 3)

April 21 (T)
8:00-8:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 19)
8:30-9:15, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 3)
12:30-1:30, Observations with Tasha Katsuda
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Room 7)
3:45-7:00, Allan to Job EXPO (Ed Center)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Library)

April 22 (W)
Administrative Professional’s Day (formerly Secretary’s Day)
Earth Day
8:00-8:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 19)
9:00-11:00, Allan to Construction Progress Meeting (Construction Trailer)
10:45, 5th Grade Class Picture (Howard Sign)
2:45-3:30, Writing Benchmark Scoring Meeting (Library)

April 23 (H)
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day
8:00-8:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 19)
8:30-9:15, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 3)
10:55, Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Library)
5:00-6:00, Human Growth & Development Parent Preview (Room 18)

April 24 (F)
8:00-8:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 19)
8:30-9:15, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 3)

April 27 (M)
Smarter Balanced Testing Begins (No Groups)
7:55-8:40, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 6)
8:45-9:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 20)
10:25-11:10, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 7)
11:55-12:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 2)
12:30-1:15, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 13)
1:15-2:00, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 14)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, Site Council Meeting (Staff Room)
7:00-8:30, Allan to River Road Community Organization Meeting (River Road Annex)

April 28 (T)
7:55-8:40, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 6)
8:45-9:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 20)
10:25-11:10, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 7)
11:55-12:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 2)
12:30-1:15, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 13)
1:15-2:00, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 14)
1:10-1:40, 5th Grade Music Performance – Assembly (Gym)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Library)
5:00-6:00, ACE Awards Reception (Hult Center Lobby)
6:00-7:00, ACE Awards Ceremony – Ticketed Event (Hult Center, Silva Concert Hall)

April 29 (W)
9:00-11:00, Allan to Construction Progress Meeting (Construction Trailer)
7:55-8:40, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 6)
8:45-9:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 20)
10:25-11:10, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 7)
11:55-12:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 2)
12:30-1:15, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 13)
1:15-2:00, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 14)
10:55-12:30, PRIDE Awards at Lunch (Cafeteria)
3:45-5:15, Allan and KG Teachers to Full-Day KG Implementation Meeting (Ed Center)
6:00-7:00, 5th Grade PE/Music Performance (Gym)

April 30 (H)
7:55-5:30, 2nd Grade to Oregon Zoo
7:55-8:40, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 6)
8:45-9:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 20)
10:25-11:10, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 7)
11:55-12:30, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 2)
12:30-1:15, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 13)
1:15-2:00, ACTion Lab Classroom Presentation (Room 14)
2:30-4:00, Specialist Furniture Meeting (Library)
2:30-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Room 21)

May 1 (F)
No School – PD Planning Day
8:00-12:30, Professional Development (Library)
12:30-4:00, Planning Time

And unless folks object, I think I’ll start phasing back in the end-of-the0day music again starting this Friday, so feel to send me your class’ (or your own) requests. I’ll start with one day a week and slowly build as we get closer to the end of the school year. :)

Allan