http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=565
Hello Everyone,
Welcome to one of the five days weeks in April. There will be a planning day on the 15th and a furlough day for everyone on the 18th.
Eight items of note for this week:
• SMART Notebook Search Engine – I haven’t really checked this link out much yet, but it could be a nice tool for finding pre-made SMARTBoard resources to match whatever you are teaching.
• TSS Time for Next Year – I mentioned earlier that CIS is dedicating TSS time to all schools for next school year. Corridor will share Jame Gubic with Awbrey Park and Camus Ridge. Yujin Gakuen will share Anthony Grossnicklaus with Spring Creek and Madison. Both James and Anthony will be here for 8 hours a week. I’ll be working out a schedule with the other buildings, but they will likely be here one full day a week. Both schools will also get some additional TSS time from Alex Zuniga, who is part-time at River Road, and will work under the guidance of James and Anthony.
• IEP Meeting Compensation – Many teachers attend IEP meetings during planning times or outside the workday. EEA contract entitles classroom teachers to be compensated for up to four hours additional pay. Forms will be accepted between 4/29 and 6/10 and can be found on the 4J website.
• Howard Elementary Technology Day – On April 13, from 8:00-2:00 Howard Elementary School is opening their school to visitors interested in viewing technology immersion in action. Guests will see staff and students sharing ways in which technology supports and enhances everyday teaching and learning. Please see the attached flyer for more details.
• Student Summer Reading Camp – Please feel free to share this information with any parents who you think would be interested in a fee based reading boost program over the summer. The Center on Teaching and Learning Reading Clinic at the UO is offering summer reading camps for struggling readers. The program is available to students who will be entering grades 1-8 in the fall and could benefit from extra instruction in reading. They will also have kindergarten readiness sessions available. Students will attend the clinic for small group tutoring sessions that will be conducted for an hour each day, Monday through Thursday. See the attached flyers for details.
• eSIS and Firefox 4 – If any of you are using the new Firefox 4 browser, it is having a lot of problems with eSIS. CIS is advising that until Mozilla (who produces Firefox) or Oracle (who produces eSIS) fix this issues, you should use a version of Firefox earlier than 4.0. You can also, of course, use Safari, which should continue to work just fine with eSIS.
• World Back-Up Day – Unless you are a computer geek like me, you probably didn’t realize that March 31st was World Back Up Day 2011. Why should you back-up your computer data? When a hard drive fails, if the data isn’t backed up, it’s gone. And it’s not a question of if your hard drive will fail, it’s when. Attached are step-by-step directions on how to back-up your computer onto the district server. I try to back my computer files up at least once a month. Let me know if you’d like help doing this.
• Allan for Classroom Volunteer – If you’d ever like an extra hand in your classroom to fill-in for a parent that didn’t show up or you could use an extra hand with a special project you’re doing, just let me know and I’d love to help out. I’m missing working with kids and need a fix.
Have a great week everyone!
Allan