October 25, 2016

By Allan  

messy

Hi Everyone,

I can tell the school year is starting to settle down a bit, now that my weekly announcements are getting shorter and not filled with quite as many of immediate of items.

Nineteen items of note for this week:

• Día de los Muertos Assembly – Jill is awaiting a final confirmation for Friday’s Dia de los Muetros assembly, but we’re planning on two 25 minute assemblies, with a grade 3-5 Assembly 8:10-8:35 and a K-2 Assembly 8:45-9:10. See the linked Assembly Map and Directions for details.

• Teacher Goals Entry Into TalentEd Due Friday – Thank you to teachers who’ve already entered your goals. Please have these entered into TalentEd by the end of the week if you haven’t already. Linked here are the shared building goals if you’d like to use these. I’ll start pestering delinquent goal setters Monday next week.

• Thriller Dance Practice Invitation – The fourth and fifth graders who’ve been staying after school on Wednesdays to practice for the Thrill the World performance would like to issue a general invitation to all Howard staff to join them on their last day of Thriller practice. This time, the students will be the teachers. Join them this Wednesday from 1:05-1:35 in the gym.

• Conferences Reminder – With Parent/Teacher Conferences not too far out, I wanted to remind teachers that if you have concerns you’re planning to share with parents (academically, socially, behaviorally, etc.), it’s much better to share those concerns now, rather than springing concerns on parents at conferences. If families go into conferences already knowing any concerns teacher may have, it can make for a much more positive of conversation between teachers and parents.

• Lockdown System Test Wednesday @3:30 – Since Safety Week is coming up, I want to test to office panic button (which is really a switch) before then. It closes the blinds and sends a message to all school projectors and screens. I’ll be testing the system after the Student Care Team Meeting on Wednesday, so if you’re still in the building at this time, please feel free to ignore the alerts, but if you’re outside the building when I test the system, your badge will not open any doors until the lockdown ended.

• Color Copier Reminder – I wanted to remind staff to be judicious in your use of color copies (we do see a fair amount of unclaimed color copies), but I also wanted to share a tip that if you are printing from your web browser, particularly Chrome, it’s easier to open the file as a PDF in Adobe or Preview (I prefer Preview). If you print from Chrome, you actually do not get many print options, including whether to print back-to-back or in color or black & white. Also, if you print from a web browser, it takes much longer to send the print data to the printer or copier.

• PTO Updates – There was a decent turnout for last week’s PTO Meeting and we had a few staff members in attendance, which is always nice. Linked here is the PTO Board’s PowerPoint from the meeting, summarizing the topics covered. The main items of note are that we earned over $9,000 on the Cookie Dough Sale (WOW!) and that next week on Friday, Nov. 4th from 6:00-8:00 will be a Family Spaghetti Feed/BINGO Night in the cafeteria. They are also holding their annual Holiday Bazaar fundraiser on Saturday, Nov. 19th.

• Staff Parking – At the PTO meeting during the Q&A, some parents asked if staff could leave the front row of parking spots (the row closest to the gym) open for families. It was brought up that there are good reasons staff wouldn’t want to park far away from the building (dark mornings, carrying large items, etc.), so I left it with parents saying I would not mandate staff park in certain areas, but I would share this request with staff.

• Night Custodian Interviews, Tuesday 8:30-10:10 – I know most staff are working during this time, but Tuesday, 8:30-10:10, we are holding interviews for our new 12-month, 8-hour Night Custodian position. Facilities will hopefully post for Mike’s replacement son, although I’m also campaigning with downtown that this should be an 8-hour position and not 6-hours at Howard and 2-hours at Kelly. Kelly MS has two 8-hour night custodians, plus the two hours that Mike used to work over there, but Kelly is a smaller building in terms of square footage and also has fewer students and staff.

• Elementary Math Adoption Open House Nov. 1rd & 3rd 4:00-6:00 – Next week, on Nov. 1st and 3rd, 4:00-6:00, families, staff, and community members are invited to the Ed Center Auditorium for a self-guided preview (no formal presentation) of curricula & materials of the math curriculms being consdiered for adotiopn and to also provide feedback. See the linked Open House Flyer for details and feel free to share this with families.

• New Building Updates – Here are the items of note regarding our new building:

• Handheld Classroom Wireless Microphone – Handheld wireless microphones for classrooms have finally arrived and will be in teacher mailboxes on Monday. Each classroom gets one. They use the second pig tail from the teachers microphone charger.

• Small Group Stools Delivery Update – The 15” and 18” Neoroks (mushroom shaped stools) have an updated ship date estimate of 11/30. Enough stools were ordered to go around the two back tables in each classroom and around the two tables in the commons areas. This is a possibility they will arrive earlier, but we should have them by 11/30 at the latest.

• Furniture Wish List – We’re approaching the end of the “3-Month Rule” for when downtown will start opening up bond funds to purchase additional furniture for our building. Start thinking about items you’re in need of and let me know so I can start building the list.

• Gate Trial for Closing and Opening Function – The trial gate by the playground courtyard has been installed on one of the gates leading to the playground from the cafeteria (it’s the one with a hinge on top). The intent is to ensure this setup works to limit the slamming motion, and also ensure the gates close and latch. Facilities would like staff and students to use this door as much as possible the next few days before ordering the hardware for the rest of the gates.

• Playground Rubber Mat Timeline – The bark chip holes under the playground swings, slide and spinners are getting pretty big, so I checked with Dexter about the timeline to get the rubber mats installed. He said that unfortunately they need to lay concrete to install the mats and it’s about a weeklong process, meaning we’ll need to wait until winter break, since shutting down most of the playground for a week isn’t really an option. In the meantime, I had a couple kids very excited about filling in holes with rakes the other day, so I left a couple rakes locked up in the bike cage if anyone would like to have kids fill in these holes.

• Keep the Tech Issues Coming – Facilities and the Technology Department are asking us to continue notifying them of all technology related issue people are having. Please email me if you are having any tech issues or you can add then to the Google Sheet of Howard Tech Issues.

• Safety Week, Oct 31 – Nov. 4 – A repeat from last week, but we’ll conduct our annual Safety Week next week. The schedule (which changed a bit from last week’s announcements) will be:

• Monday, Oct. 31 – Fire Drill, 8:15
• Tuesday, Nov. 2 – Room Clear, time decided by teachers
• Wednesday, Nov. 2 – Lockdown/Lockout, 8:30
• Thursday, Nov. 3- Earthquake/Fire Drill, 1:15

Linked here are the first floor and second floor evacuation routes, along with where everyone should line up.

• Costume Parade & Thrill the World Performance – Another repeat from last week is that linked here is the Thrill the World directions and map and also the half-sheet flyer that went home. On Monday, October 31st at 1:05 the costume parade will start and the Thrill the World performance will happen at approximately at 1:20. And don’t forget to stay in costume for an all-staff photo at 2:15 in the library!

• TEACH-IN: Equity Professional Development Opportunity for Teachers – This is a one-day TEACH-IN of workshops on Saturday, Nov. 18th, 8:00-4:00, with sessions on classroom instruction focused on equity and social justice in the classroom. Current classroom teachers will share resources, practices, and examples from their everyday work to bring together the best of culturally sustaining instructional theories and everyday classroom teacher practice. Local elementary and secondary teachers and UOTeach alumni will share and showcase equity, inclusion, and social justice related curriculum and project based learning from their experiences. Registration is $25 and includes lunch catered by Yi Shen.PDU Certificates available on site. To Register, please visit the UO College of Education UOTeach Equity & Social Justice Teach-IN Program website.

• Lane County Emergency Management Survey – Lane County Emergency Management is hosting an online Community Engagement Campaign during the month of October. It involves a 5-minute survey about natural hazards. The results of this survey will be incorporated into the Lane County Hazard Mitigation Plan 2017 Update which will be brought to the Coalition Steering Committee for adoption and promulgation in late winter or early spring. The goal of the campaign is to achieve diversity in participation to ensure that Emergency Management represents the whole community in the plan. Follow this link to the Hazard Mitigation Plan Survey if you’d like to weigh in from a school and/or community member perspective.

• Ready4K Resource for Parents of Children Aged 3, 4 or 5 – We’ll be sending this flyer out with the school newsletter, but Ready4K is a research-based text-messaging program for parents of KG and Pre-K students. Each week, they will receive FUN FACTS and EASY TIPS to boost their child’s learning. I signed up for it for my 4-year old and am giving it a try.

• Stop, Walk, Talk Video – A good chunk of the office referrals I’ve had this year end with me reteaching Stop, Walk, Talk to students who said or did something when they were annoyed with someone. I found a good video that could be used for a class review of Stop, Walk, Talk at a Caring for Kids/Caring School Curriculum class meeting if anyone would like to use it.

• How does race influence special education? – Students of color more often are referred for special-education testing when they exhibit emotional or behavioral problems than white students with similar problems, according to a recent study from researchers at New York University’s Steinhardt School. The study found that black and Latino students also were less likely to be labeled as gifted.

• 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:

October 24 (M)
9:40-11:10, 2nd Grade Fire Prevention Month Visit
12:20, Matt & Allan Safety Patrol Training for Torres Students (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

October 25 (T)
9:00-12:30, Pond & Larsen to Mount Pisgah
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, B203)

October 26 (W)
9:00-12:30, Swift to Mount Pisgah
1:30-2:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (LC)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team (Conference Room)
3:30, Lockdown System Test
2:30-5:00, District PE Meeting (Howard Gym)

October 27 (H)
Regular Day

October 28 (F)
8:10-8:35, 3-5 Dia de los Muertos Assembly (tentative)
8:45-9:10, K-2 Dia de los Muertos Assembly (tentative)
10:00-12:30, Life Skills Pumpkin Patch Field Trip
10:30-12:30, October Birthday Lunches (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Allan to IEP Meeting

October 29 (SA)
10:00-2:00, EWEB Parking Lot Fundraiser (EWEB)

October 31 (M)
Safety Week
8:15, Fire Drill
1:05, Costume Parade – Classes to Field
~1:10, Thrill the World Performance (Kelly Field)
2:15, Staff Photo in Costume! (Library)

November 1 (T)
Ewok Appreciation Day
Room Clear Drills (done at time decided by teachers)
7:50-11:45, Data Team Meetings (Title 1 Room)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-6:00, Elementary Math Curriculum Open House (Ed Center)

November 2 (W)
No Title 1 Wednesday
8:30, Lockout/Lockout Dill
8:50-10:30, Casey the Fire Dog in KG
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (Spring Creek)

November 3 (H)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
1:15, Earthquake/Fire Drill
2:30, Allan to Evaluation Planning Meeting
4:00-6:00, Elementary Math Curriculum Open House (Ed Center)

November 4 (F)
6:00-7:00, PTO Family Night – Spaghetti Feed (Cafeteria)
7:00-8:00, PTO Family Night – BINGO (Cafeteria)

And if you’re someone who likes three-day weekends (and really, who doesn’t?), we just have one more full week after this one before Veteran’s Day weekend. :)

Allan

jumanji