January 16, 2017

By Allan  


Greetings Roadrunners,

Last week wasn’t quite a full week, but we got four whole days in row after almost a month out of school. Good thing (or maybe not a good thing) we had a three-day weekend to recuperate.

Twelve items of note for this week:

• Fire Drill Wednesday at 8:20 – As long as the weather cooperates, we’ll conduct our January fire drill this week on Wednesday, Jan. 18th at 8:20.

• Second Semester Specialist Schedule & PE Staffing Update – Linked here is the second semester PE and Music schedule (PDF and XLS). It’s the same as first semester (with one teacher requested change) except that PE and Music have flip flopped days. So the days you had music this semester, will be the days you have PE next semester and vice versa. Let me know if anything on here looks incorrect or needs updated.

One PE staffing change for second semester which downtown made due to a few variables is that instead of Rachel being here four days a week, she’ll be here only on Thursdays and on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday Chrisanne will teach PE. We’re certainly sad to lose Rachel, but happy to keep Chrisanne who’s done a great job teaching PE here on Wednesdays earlier this semester. This change will not impact the schedule and is simply a change in who will be teaching classes.

• Investigations Workbook Purge – Downtown is collecting any and all unused/unwanted Investigations workbooks. There are quite a few workbooks boxed up in custodial storage that I am planning to send downtown on Thursday if I don’t hear from any teachers before then saying you want them before then. Teachers should also let me know if you have any unused/unwanted workbooks in your classroom that I can collect before Thursday as well.

• TaeKwonDo Assembly Thursday – As I shared earlier, the TaeKwonDo Demonstration Team will hold their motivational assembly this Thursday, Jan. 19th. The grade 3-5 assembly is at 8:10 and the K-2 assembly at 8:45. It’s optional whether teachers want to attend or not, but if you do, linked here is the assembly map and directions.

U.S. TaeKwonDo College

• Chamber Music Amici Assembly Friday – This Friday is an assembly Siera arranged for us last month, a performance by the Chamber Music Amici, who are a local classical chamber music ensemble with five Core Musicians. Their mission is to produce excellent, affordable chamber music concerts which appeal to all ages. For this assembly, they’ve asked to split it by Pre-K/K/1, 2/3, and 4/5. See the linked assembly map and directions for details.

• PTO Meeting Tuesday at 6:00 – The January PTO Meeting will be this Tuesday at 6:00 in the Community Room. We’ve had a great turnout of both staff and parents at this year’s meetings, so I hope we can continue it for this month!

• School Showcase & School Choice Info – School Choice season has begun and the School Showcase (see Kerry Delf’s email for details) will be held this Saturday at the Ed Center, 9:00-12:00 if any staff members are interested/willing to help me brag about our school. This event is for families to learn about all 4J schools in one place at the same time. Last year they provided breakfast for staff helping at the event, including a vegetarian option. Let me know if any of you are interested/willing to help promote Howard and tell families why they should come to our amazing school!

Two related items: One, the first School Choice Visitation Week is next week, January 23-27, so be prepared for families to visit classrooms over the course of the week. And two, all North Region elementary schools are doing one school choice evening event and Howard’s will be Tuesday, January 24th if anyone is interested/willing in helping me talk about our school.

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

• Furniture Needs Update & Excess Furniture – Facilities asked me to check in with staff if you have any excess furniture in your rooms/areas that you DO NOT want. They’re trying to see if there is any excess furniture before they order more, which does make sense. In terms of the timeline for ordering and receiving additional furniture we’ve asked for, I don’t have a firm timeline and am right now in a spot where I’m making our case that we DO in fact need the items we’re requesting.

• Classroom Audio Issues – Huser (the AMX subcontractor) is planning to be on site Monday through Wednesday. They are unsure why the audio isn’t working properly in some rooms (sound not coming out of the ceiling speakers) but is working in others. They will be working on the issue starting Monday and working through Wednesday. This will give them opportunity to discuss with teachers any specific issues. The rooms I know about having issues are A101, A103, A105, A204, B104, and C104, so let me know if your audio is not working properly and your room is not on the list.

• The Blinds Issue Explanation – The mystery of why the blinds were coming down every two hours part of last week and the week before has been solved. It was because during the ice storm, when the building had some short power outages, the internal clock system for the blinds got reset, so that system thought it was the middle of the night during the day. At nighttime the system is set to close all the blinds every two hours so no blinds get left open if staff are working late and leave without closing their blinds. The system is now on the correct time and Facilities has synced it with the 4J time server so this shouldn’t happen again.

• HDMI Adapter Swap Out – The Tech Department went around last week to swap out the white HDMI adapters. These new black ones should work more reliably than the white Monoprice adapters. Let me know if you got missed and still have a Monoprice HDMI adapter, and we can make sure you get one of the new ones.

• Tech Department Tips – Partially related to the new building, here are a few troubleshooting tips and reminders from the Tech Department:

• Epson Pen Troubleshooting – If you experience issues with the pen on the board, verify that you are not gripping the pen near the tip in the black section. This will cause the pen to not function properly.

• Internet Connections – Misty found several people who were still connected through 4jwireless rather than 4jsecure. I don’t know if that was normal or staff just happen to be logged in that day, but 4jsecure is the more reliable of network.

• Old Files on Laptops – Misty also noticed many teachers with old files probably migrated from old machines (lots of documents in downloads folder, zip files and dmg’s on desktops). If you’d like help cleaning up your laptop to help if run more efficiently, you might attend one of Kellyclare’s Spring Clean Your Mac workshops.

• Oregon Battle of the Books Regional Competition, March 18th – If you’d like to root on Howard’s OBOB team (still to be determined), the Elementary OBOB Regionals will be Saturday, March 18th at North Eugene High School. More details to come soon.

• Student Care Team Referrals Due Friday – Let me know by Friday if you have any student or family situations you would like to refer to the Student Care Team. Referrals can be done with the cooperation of the family and a signed release form (PDF and DOC) or they can be referred to the team as a “hypothetical” situation. Let me know if you have questions about the team or any potential referrals.

• Going the Extra Mile for MLK Day – “Martin Luther King Day is not a day off,” asserts Teaching Tolerance Award winner and fourth-grade teacher Leslie Wills-Taylor. Read her suggestions in this article for using Dr. Martin Luther King Day to encourage students to work toward necessary change that’s relevant to their lives and communities. And if you’re reading this in time, the Eugene ~ Springfield NAACP is organizing  the annual MLK Jr. March taking place on Monday at Autzen Stadium and marching to the the Shedd Institute.   See this link for details. 

• 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:

January 15 (M)
No School – Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 16 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)
7:00-8:00, School Choice Informational Meeting (Ed Center)

January 17 (W)
No Title 1 Wednesday
7:30-8:15, Allan to SPED Meeting (Office)
8:20, Fire Drill
9:00-9:30, Allan meeting with PTO (Bank of America)
2:30-3:30, Grade Level Meeting Time (Jenny’s Room, C203)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

January 18 (H)
Deadline to claim stored Investigations workbooks
8:00-8:30, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
8:10-8:40, 3-5 Taekwondo Demonstration Team Assembly (Gym)
8:45-9:15, K-2 Taekwondo Demonstration Team Assembly (Gym)
6:00-9:00 Howard Elementary Nights with the Ducks (UO vs CAL)

January 19 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
8:40-9:05, Pre-K/KG/1st Chamber Music Amici Assembly
9:10-9:35, 2/3 Chamber Music Amici Assembly
9:40-10:05, 4/5 Chamber Music Amici Assembly

January 20 (SA)
9:00-12:00, Elementary School Choice Showcase (Ed Center)

January 23 (M)
School Choice Visitation Week
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)
7:00-8:00, School Choice Informational Meeting (Ed Center)

January 24 (T)
Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, B203)
3:30-5:00, Allan or KG Rep to Kindergarten Task Force Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-6:00, EEA Google Classroom Seminar (Ashley’s Room, B205)
6:00-7:00, Howard School Choice Evening Presentation & Tour (Library)

January 25 (W)
Lions Club Health Vision & Dental Screening (Gym and Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)

January 26 (H)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
10:30-12:30, January Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, B204)
2:30-3:30, Allan to IEP Eligibility Meeting (Conference Room)
4;30-5:30, PERS Education Session (Ed Center)

January 27 (F)
8:00-4:00, Allan to LEL (Gilham)

Break out your shorts and flip flops! It’s going to be a balmy 50-something degrees this week so here’s to no more inside recesses!

Allan

 

Inside-Recess