http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=759
Hello Everyone,
Five items of note for our four day week.
• “Taking It Up” Workshop Opportunity, Nov. 17 & 18 – 4J is paying for us to send up to two staff members from each school to this excellent two day workshop, November 17 and 18th. Taking It Up is a provocative seminar focused on helping educators, school board leaders, and community members deepen their understanding of the institutionalized racist barriers that hinder elimination of Oregon’s racial achievement disparities. This focus on working from the inside out will challenge participants to step out of their comfort zone and create new entry points for becoming aware of, understanding, and interrupting inequitable policies and practices in our schools. Please let me know by Friday if you would like to attend this workshop or have any questions.
• Furlough Day Reminder, Friday, October 14th – A reminder that this Friday is a Furlough day for all building employees (classified, certified and admin).
• North Region Principals Visit – Collaborative Practice – Just a heads-up that as part of our new superintendent’s initiative to increase collaborative practice in schools, North Region elementary principals are planning to visit each other’s schools over the course of the year. Our building will be the first of these visits and Ana, Suzy, Amy, and Jeanne (taking Karen’s place at Awbrey Park) will be visiting our school later this month on Thursday, October 27th at 1:00 for a tour, so don’t be surprised we stop by your room that afternoon.
• Language-Learning Website, Lang-8 – Here’s an interesting language learning website for about 80 different languages, and not just English, French and Japanese but also minor languages such as Afrikaans, called Lang-8. The site is pretty simple. 1.) Write in the language that you are learning. 2.) Native speakers correct your writing for you. 3.) You can also help others learn your native language. Here’s a short article about the website.
• Teaching Secrets for Taking Care of Yourself – Working with significantly reduced resources and being asked to do more with less, staff often make up the difference at the expense of themselves. This brief editorial has some good list reminders of how to sustain yourself (and your sanity) throughout the school year. For me, the most important one I would want to emphasize with staff is “Keep family time sacred.” Our jobs are very important, but our families should always come first.
Have a good week, everyone!
Allan