October 8, 2018

By Allan  

 

Howdy Rockin’ Roadrunners,

Congratulation to Allison, who was selected to receive an Outstanding Classroom Teacher Award by the the Oregon Science Teachers Association. She’ll be honored at their Annual Conference Awards Banquet at the Oregon Coast Aquarium this Friday. Way to go, Allison!

It’s a short, but busy week with twenty-three items of note:

• SMART Goals DUE OCT. 15 – Licensed staff need to have SMART Goals entered into TalentEd by Monday, October 15th next week. For classroom teachers, linked here are Optional SMART Goals template from SDS staff, and linked here is a Completed Sample SMART Goal with the blanks filled in for the above sample goals. Teachers are, of course, welcome to create their own goals. Non-classroom licensed staff can adapt the language of the above goals for any of your own related work, but let me know if I can be of any assistance.

• CORRECTION: Robinson Family Baby Shower Oct 11th @2:30!– I accidentally posted conflicting dates on my announcements and calendar earlier, but the REAL date and time for the Robinson Family Baby Shower is this Thursday at 2:30 after in the library. Linked here is the their Baby Registry and their Target Registry.

• 18-19 Leadership Plan Proposals– Linked here are two Proposed 2018-2019 Leadership Plans (linked here is a short version) for distributing 22 sub days among no more than 7 licensed staff members. Plan A is the same as last year. Plan B keeps the same days for PBIS & IPBS and for the Literacy Leader, but changed out the Math Teacher Leaders for an Equity Leader (3 days) and two Technology Leaders for the same number of days as last year (4 days split between two people). If anyone has other proposals for new positions or different sub day allocations, let me know soon so I can send it out to everyone before the October 23rd Staff Meeting where we’ll vote on a final plan.

• Synergy Grade Book Training & Building Reps – More information to coming regarding a Synergy Grade Book Training connected to the new report card. Downtown is going to offer two teachers from each building to be trained – paid two hour extended contract – to attend one of three trainings, one of which will be held here at Howard. The meeting date and times are Oct. 16 (Howard), Oct. 18 (Willagillespie), Oct. 22 (Tower Room), all from 4:00-6:00. I only know about this because I was contacted to host one of the trainings, so an official email will be coming out soon, but let me know if any of you are interested in being one of Howard’s reps.

• Volunteers for Open House? – If there are any classified staff interested in accumulating trade time so you don’t have to work on Thursday or Friday, I can use a couple more people to help serve pizza and cookies at Open House 5:15-7:15. I mentioned this at the Classified Staff Meeting on Friday, but if you work over 8-hours this day by working additional time at Open House, you actually get time and a half for each hour worked over an 8-hour day (meaning your ninth hour worked would give you 1.5 hours of trade time). HR sent an email to principals explaining Classified Overtime vs. Comp Time vs. Trade Time vs. Flex Time, which may explain this more clearly. But let me know if any of your are willing and able to help!

• REPEAT – Tuesday: Staff ALICE Refresher – I’ll hold an optional refresher training for staff on Tuesday, October 9th at 2:30 in the Conference Room for anyone who wants to review how to teach the ALICE Student Lesson and to also answer any questions staff may have regarding the drill or safety procedures.

• REPEAT – Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday– School Pride Day – This Wednesday is the first school Wacky Wednesday of the school year, School Spirit Day, so remind kids to wear their Howard gear or Howard’s school colors, blue and white.

• REPEAT – Wednesday: Walk + Roll to School Day – Remind your students that Wednesday is Walk + Roll to School Day, where they are encouraged to walk, skateboard, bike, scooter, or use another non-motorized mode of transportation to get to school. There will also be a “Walking School Bus” where regular ed buses will park at Trinity United Methodist Church. Volunteers can sign up online at the Walking School Bus Volunteer Sign-Up.

• REPEAT – Wednesday: Open House (formerly Curriculum Night) – Linked here is a flyer for the 2018 Howard Open House, formerly known as Curriculum Night. Classroom and specialist areas will open 5:45-6:45, where families will collect their Family Pizza Ticket to redeem in the cafeteria, which will be open 6:00-7:00. There will be a Title 1 Presentation in the library 6:00-6:20. Let me know if you have any questions.

• REPEAT – Thursday: LICENSED & CLASSIFIED: PD Day– Licensed staff will meet 8:00-12:00 in the library for Fall Benchmarking, PLC Mission/Vision Work, and Grade Level Math Planning Time. Title & SPED staff are excused from the PLC and Math activities to attend an “Interventionists PLC” 2:00-4:00 at Chavez. Classified staff will meet 12:00-1:00 in the library for Module 4 of the PBIS Behavior Framework, which focuses on active supervision and educator interactions with students. See last week’s announcements for more details.

• Mission Statement Updates – Related to this week’s PLC mission/vision work, below is the revised mission statement, which took the ideas groups shared at our last building PLC meeting, where teachers generally liked the first sentence of our current mission statement about the joy of learning, cooperation, and optimism for the future, but wanted to add and/or change several pieces in the second sentence, particularly the part about exceeding state standards, and adding some language around connecting to the larger community, while still maintaining high expectations for ALL students. The main thing I want to focus on at our meeting Thursday is whether this accurately captures the big ideas and that these ideas staff can support. I’m less concerned with getting hung up on the wording, as long as the ideas are right.

Howard Elementary School
Staff, students, and families encouraging the joy of learning, the value of cooperative accomplishment, and the optimism of future success. Our goal: every student achieving high academic standards while becoming lifelong learners able to contribute to our local and global communities.

• REPEAT – Friday: State In-Service Day – Friday is a regular work day for administrators and classified staff. For classified staff, this is a good day to use any accumulated Trade Time, such as from working at Open House.

• REPEAT: Safety Week, Oct. 15 – Oct. 19 – Next week is Safety Week. I adjusted the times on the ALICE Drill and Earthquake Drill so avoid some conflicts, so the dates/time for the dills will be:

• Monday, Oct. 15 – Room Clear – Time decided by teachers
• Tuesday, Oct. 16 – ALICE Classroom Lesson – Time decided by teachers
• Wednesday, Oct. 17 – ALICE Lockdown: Evacuation Drill – 8:20
• Thursday, Oct. 18 – Directed Evacuation (i.e. Fire Drill) – 8:10
• Friday, Oct. 19 – Earthquake/Fire Drill – 8:45

See last week’s announcements for details and let me know if you have any questions.

• Pride Assembly Oct. 19th – Not this week, but next week on Friday, October 19th will be our first PRIDE Assembly of the year to celebrate students who have exhibited Perseverance (“Never Quit”). We’ll plan to hold two 20 minute assemblies, with a grade K-2 Assembly 9:00-9:20 and a 3-5 Assembly 9:30-9:50. This assembly is short and sweet due to a time crunch around the Safety Week drills (which I tried to schedule around recesses and PE/Music times so we don’t have to reschedule many preps). See the linked PRIDE Assembly Map and Directions for details. I’ll leave out Perseverance PRIDE Award Certificates by staff mailboxes.

But on a related note, it came up at the PBIS Meeting whether we wanted to continue PRIDE Awards since most other schools are no longer doing them (it was originally done to match something being done at North, but North is no longer doing North PRIDE). Rae is planning to send out a survey to folks on this, so PRIDE Award plans may change (Roadrunner Awards? PALS Awards? Something else?)

• Aesop & Absences Responsibility – For both classified and licensed staff, it is your responsibility to enter your absences and verify their information in Aesop is correct. Too many people are texting Lori at home to “fix” their issues, which she may or may not get fixed in the system in time. Let me know if any of you need a quick refresher on how to use the system.

• BEST and Dreambox – Sue Wilson has convinced me, with data, that allowing BEST to use Dreambox in addition to classrooms using Dreambox during the school day is a good thing. She emailed me that Spring Creek did the same thing last year, and students showed significant growth from doing both.

• Move Lunch Baskets Back – Teachers, please remind your lunch tub helpers to put classroom lunch tubs against the wall in the cafeteria. With more classrooms this year, there are more lunch tubs, which can get in the way of wheelchairs, walkers, or create an obstruction for students with mobility challenges. I’ll put some tape down on the floor this week to give kids a visual of where to put the tubs behind.

• Laminator Updates – Christina now has a bin for laminating on the counter next to the laminator and she is willing to help staff hang things up for Open House. One other laminator reminder if you’re doing it yourself, remember to maximize the lamination roll and try not to leave lots of unused space, which wastes the expensive laminator rolls. See below for what I mean:

• World Book Replacements – Julie share earlier that 4J is cancelling the the district subscription to World Book Online. However, Justin Huntley sent principals a list of World Book Online Replacements for educational videos and research that are either free or that 4J continues to maintain a subscription. Let me know if you want any of these links added to your grade level’s Links for Learners page on the Howard website (which Peggy recently updated and revamped for us).

• Oregon College Savings Plan & Oregon Able Savings Plan – I’ve ordered free promotional Oregon College Savings Plan folders, pencils, and info packets in English and Spanish to go home with all students, to help kids and families starting thinking about and saving for college. Look for these in teacher mailboxes this week. Another program I just learned about is the Oregon Able Savings Plan, which helps Oregonians with disabilities (or their parents in our case) save for eligible expenses, invest for the future, and keep the benefits they rely on every day (in the past saving too much money disqualified many disabled Oregonians and their families from benefits because they had too much money), so I’ll have some of these if anyone wants this information for individual families.

• Tips for handling students with ODD – About 16% of children have oppositional defiant disorder — a condition in which they deliberately and openly defy rules or upset others — writes Nina Parrish, a special-education teacher. In this Edutopia Article, she suggests that teachers can help manage students with ODD by choosing your works carefully, rewarding positive behavior, determining the cause of the behavior, and making a plan.

• How Creative Teachers Are Using Microphones to Rock Their Instruction – For most kids, using a microphone in class is about as fun as it gets. But there are plenty of other benefits, too. Microphones can help promote language articulation, develop public speaking skills, and provide an incentive for active participation. Here are 15 fun ways teachers are using microphones in the classroom.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the rest of the year:

October 8 (M)
Indigenous Peoples’ Day/Columbus Day
9:25-10:25, Natives Presentation, Stone/Cortez (STEAM Room)
10:55-11:55, Natives Presentation, Rock/Callihan (STEAM Room)

October 9 (T)
4:30-8:30, 4J First Aid Class (Library)

October 10 (W)
Walk+Roll to School Day
Wacky Wednesday – School Pride Day
7:15-7:45, Walking School Bus (Trinity United Methodist Church)
5:45-7:00, Open House

5:45 Classrooms Open
6:00 Title 1 Presentation (Library)
6:00 Pizza Served in Cafeteria
6:45 Classrooms Close
7:00 Pizza Dinner in Cafeteria Closes

October 11 (H)
No School – Professional Development/Planning Day
8:00-12:00, Data Team/PLC/Math (Library)
12:00-1:00, Classified Staff Meeting – Behavior Framework Training (Library)
2:00-4:00, Licensed Interventionists (Title & SPED) PLC (Chavez)
2:30-3:30, Robinson Family Baby Shower (Library)

October 12 (F)
No School — State In-Service Day
Regular Workday for Classified Staff
Non-Contract Day for Licensed Staff

October 15 (M)
Safety Week – Room Clear (Time decided by teacher)
Lori Out
SMART Goals Entry into TalentEd Due

October 16 (T)
Safety Week – ALICE Classroom Lesson (Time decided by teacher)
8:30-12:00, Allan to All-Admin/Elem Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:40-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
4:00-6:00, 4J Grade Book Training (STEAM Room, RM16)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Conference Room)

October 17 (W)
8:20-8:40, ALICE Evacuation Drill
11:35-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)

October 18 (H)
School Pictures
8:10, Fire Drill

October 19 (F)
8:45, Earthquake/Fire Drill
9:00-9:20, K-2 PRIDE Awards – Perseverance (Gym)
9:30-9:50, 3-5 PRIDE Awards – Perseverance (Gym)
1:30-2:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Math PLC (Volunteer’s Classroom)

Have a good 3-day week, everyone!

Allan