http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=8854
Hey Hey Roadrunners,
Congratulations to Howard’s four ACE Awards Nominees, licensed staff member Linda Lamb, Zach Stone & Katrina Sugar and classified staff member Julie Hopkins! You are all well deserving of your nominations and you show the community what an amazing staff we have here at Howard!
Seventeen items of note for this week:
• Staffing Updates – One staffing update for this year and two for next year. For this year, Shawna is sadly leaving the Howard Life Skills program at the end of this week and moving to Washington for a new job. SSD will fill Shawna’s position with a substitute for the remainder of the school year, but please wish Shawna the best on her new adventures up north! Some good news for next year is that filling Shawna’s position next year will be Deby Texley, who had originally been displaced by SSD to the new Life Skills program at Charlemagne. The other update for next year is Mati Murdock in Title 1 will no longer be displaced because downtown is adding back her time, so we are very lucky to be keeping more of our awesome Howard team intact!
• Ems Home Run Reading Challenge Assembly, FRIDAY – Linked here is the Assembly Map and Directions for this Friday’s annual Ems Home Run Reading Challenge Kick-Off Assembly. The K-2 assembly will be 8:45-9:10 and the 3-5 assembly will be from 9:15-9:40.
• Wacky Wednesday – Silly Hat/Hair Day – Don’t forget that this Wednesday is the April Wacky Wednesday and this time it’s Silly Hat and Silly Hair Day! Get your students pumped and get your wackadoo hats and/or hair ready for the day!
• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is a Trauma Informed Care Module that all schools are being asked to review with staff. Principals have the option to do this in one or two parts and since we had Kim and Shasta out earlier this year for an extended presentation, I’ve elected to do this in one session. We’ll plan to meet in the library at 2:30 in the library.
And as a reminder for licensed staff, if you want to track PDUs in TalentED, follow these steps:
• Go to http://4jpd.net
• Log in (email username only, not the full email address)
• On the Home page, Search for Howard. Two courses will come up.#10179 Howard Friday Early Day Release PD
#10175 Howard Staff Meetings• Click “View All Sections” below each course and register for each section.
• Fire Drill Wednesday at 9:55 – Since grades 3, 4, and 5 will all be out on a Field Trip this Wednesday and are going to have a whole bunch of interruptions to instruction in the coming weeks with OAKS, I’ve schedule the April Fire Drill for this Wednesday at 9:55. 1st grade will have just finished recess around this time, so teachers are welcome to keep student out there if you’d like.
• EEF Grants Due to Allan by April 22nd – EEF Grant Applications are now open and grants need to be given to me by April 22nd for Site Council to rank order our grant submissions. I don’t need to grant completely written out, but if you can give me a title and general idea of the grant, that’s enough for us to rank order them. The date to submit the completed grants is May 17th, but our May Site Council date falls after that date. Linked here is the 2019-2020 EEF Grant Application Announcement. We can submit up to five grants in any amount up to $5,000. EEF puts a higher priority on grants related to Arts, Literacy, and STEM. Linked here is the EEF Grant Application, but please let me know if you have any questions, want to bounce ideas off of someone, or would like help writing a grant.
• Kindness Challenge Updates – Thank you to everyone who’s been promoting our second annual Kindness Challenge! Our front entryway is starting to nicely fill up with Kindness Shout Outs. We’re seeing if we can get confetti over the whole first floor! Room 1 will still pick up your tickets in the morning during snack delivery or you can leave them under the staff mailboxes. Also, extra Shout Outs can be found under staff mailboxes. Keep the kindness flowing!
• Jeff Johnson Visiting Howard Wednesday – Jeff Johnson, 4J Federal Programs Administrator, was supposed to visit Howard last Wednesday, but ended up having to assist with a Title IX investigation at another school, but he rescheduled with me to visit classrooms this Wednesday from 10:00-11:00, so don’t be surprised if you see Jeff stopping by classes during this time.
• Summer Building Use – Howard is again being used for various summer school programs and we’ll likely again use nearly all downstairs classrooms. We are again hosting SSD’s Extended School Year Program (ESY, 7/9-8/1, T/W/H, 8:30-11:30 Staff 8-12) and the Early Education Program (EEP, 7/8-8/16, M-F, 8:30AM-5:30PM), primarily in downstairs yellow and blue wings. We are no longer hosting KITS, but will host the 4J Deaf and Hard of Hearing program (DHH, 7/9-8/1, T/W/H, 8:30-11:30 Staff 8-12) instead, which will be in downstairs green wing. On a related note, the gym floor will be refinished 6/17-6/28. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll share further details as summer approaches.
• Jump Rope For Heart Update – The American Heart Association let us know that our low-key fundraiser raised donations of $710.00 to help support lifesaving scientific research and critically needed education efforts. Thank you, everyone!
• National Poetry Month – April is National Poetry Month and here are a few useful links from WeAreTeachers of 50 Must Share Poems for Elementary Students, Teaching Tolerance on using Maya Angelou poems to celebrate National Poetry Month, from ReadWriteThink.org, and Edutopia.
• Shade Work Over Spring Break – Facilities did some fixes to the shade system over the break and also changed some of the programming to simplify the operation. The hallway blinds are now set to only go down on weekends (they’d still go down in the event of a lockdown), and exterior blinds are now simply on a manual control and only set to all go down at night. And a related reminder, always make sure no beanbags, desks, chairs, or other classroom items are pushed underneath curtains, which can cause the blinds to become jammed when they retract unevenly.
• Free Hearing Screening at UO – Shelly Watson shared with me that the University of Oregon is offering free hearing screenings in May to celebrate Better Hearing and Speech Month. See the linked UO Hearing Screening Days Flyer for details and please share with any family you think may be interested.
• Blocking Websites – This recently came up over the website http://surviv.io, which I wanted blocked at Howard. It’s not as bad as Fortnight, but it’s still not educational, school inappropriate, and seems to be the latest fad at middle and upper elementary. The short version of the new process for blocking a website is that principals have to submit a request to their director for approval. If you’re interested in the long version, here’s an email with the entire process. So if you ever spot a site you think needs blocked (staff have a much wider level of access), let me know and I’ll work on getting the site filtered.
• District Admin Updates – If your’e interested, downtown is restructuring the Instructional Department, not adding any new positions, but reshuffling current positions and duties. Linked here is Charis’ email to principals, but the short version is that Susan Penrod’s curriculum administrator position is being changed into a new K-8 director position and Brooke’s Elementary Director position also becoming a K-8 Director position, so there will be two K-8 Directors. This model of a K-8 Director and a High School Director is what was in place when I first became an administrator in 4J. Sue Wilson will take over Susan Penrod’s ELA and Humanities duties becoming Director of Curriculum. Also, Karen Pérez of the Office of Equity, Instruction, and Partnerships is taking over the Title III (English Language Learners), Title IC (Migrant Education), and dual language programs. Lastly, they are shifting and revising TOSA positions to both support the upcoming curriculum adoptions and to support the Curriculum Director across content areas.
• Should educators practice mindfulness? – Related to last Friday’s Self Care and Mindfulness presentation (Handouts and Slide Show can be found on the Team Drive, Howard > Meetings/Teams > Early Release Meetings > 2019-04-05), this Education Dive Article makes the case that educators should engage regularly in mindfulness, meditation and stretching. The author shares research showing how these strategies improve job performance and overall wellness.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the rest of the year:
April 8 (M)
PBIS Kindness Challenge ContinuesApril 9 (T)
8:30-12:00, Allan All Admin & Elem. Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)April 10 (W)
Wacky Wednesday -Silly Hat/Hair Day
8:30-10:30, Symphonic Safari, 3rd-5th (SEHS Auditorium)
9:55, Fire Drill
10:00-11:00, Jeff Johnson Visiting HowardApril 11 (H)
Regular DayApril 12 (F)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
8:45-9:10, K-2 Ems Home Run Reading Challenge Assembly (Gym)
9:20-9:45, 3-5 Ems Home Run Reading Challenge Assembly (Gym)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Trauma Informed Care (Library)
5:15-8:00, Kelly MS Benito Juárez CelebrationApril 25 (M)
Penny War – Monday – Friday
Final Week of PBIS Kindness ChallengeApril 16 (T)
8:00-11:00, Apple iPad Training w/Howard Tech Reps (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, Staff Meeting (Volunteer’s Classroom)
4:00-6:00, Allan to TalentEd Rubric Committee (Ed Center)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Cafeteria)April 17 (W)
Regular DayApril 18 (H)
5:00-7:00, PTO McTeacher Night Fundraiser (River Ave. McDonalds)April 19 (F)
Licensed Interventionists (Title & SPED) PLC – Virtual Meeting
1:30-2:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Behavior Framework #8 (Library)
10 weeks of school left until summer! Not that anyone is counting.
Allan
What you missed at the Weezer concert!