http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=9254
Salutations Roadrunners,
This Wednesday is National Custodial Workers Recognition Day, so please take a moment to thank Crystal and Josh for being Howard’s excellent custodial team who keeps our school facilities running and looking good (one Facilities administrator recently commented how Howard still looks newer compared to schools that opened after us). Thank you, both!
We have a busy couple of weeks coming up, but especially next week. Read on for details!
Twenty items of note for this week:
• Staffing Updates & KG EA Interviews – We’ve finished hiring for our Life Skills EA vacancies and have hired Michael Hatch, who will start next week on Wednesday, October 9th. Michael comes to us with experience working with adults with disabilities and as well as one-on-one support for an elementary age student. Kindergarten EA interviews are scheduled for Tuesday, October 8th 2:45-5:30 and we’ll conduct interviews for our 3-hour LC EA soon after. Let me know if any of you would like to volunteer your time to help with KG EA interviews.
• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is designated for Building Based PD. For this meeting, I am giving teachers time to complete your 19-20 Self-Assessment Form, your Goals Development Form (teachers can use the linked Optional Building SMART Goals) in TalentEd, and also the required SafeSchools training.
• Coffee with 4J Superintendent, Monday @3:00 (Howard Library) – If you didn’t catch it on the calendar in last week’s announcements, Howard is hosting the first community conversation session with 4J Superintendent Gustavo Balderas, where community members are invited to sit down for informal conversations with district leaders to share ideas, express concerns, ask questions, and hear about important things happening in the district. Linked here is the news release.
• REPEAT: Safety Week, THS WEEK – This week is Safety Week, which is a good way to bring awareness to staff, students, and families about the various safety procedures right at the start of the year. See last week’s announcements for details, but the schedule for the week is:
• Monday – Directed Evacuation (i.e. Fire Drill) – 1:15
• Tuesday – ALICE Classroom Lesson – Time decided by teachers
• Wednesday – ALICE Lockdown: Evacuation Drill – 1:15
• Thursday – Room Clear – Time decided by teachers
• Friday – Earthquake/Fire Drill – 8:45• Bike Rodeo, Oct. 8 – After school on Tuesday, Oct. 8th, Howard is hosting a Safe Routes to School Bike Rodeo on the playground from 2:25-4:00, where students are invited to learn about bike safety, try out a bike obstacle course, enjoy free bike smoothies, and much more. Kids can bring their own bike or use those provided. Feel free to share this with students and get them excited for the event.
• Walk+Roll to School Day, Oct. 9th – The first Walk + Roll to School Day is Wednesday, October 9th. We’re keep things simple and are not doing a “Walking School Bus,” but we’ll do our usual incentives for participating that include stickers, raffles, and other swag. Remember to encourage kiddos to participate!
• Tech Trot, Oct. 9th – Next week on Wednesday, October 9th is our biggest fundraiser of the year, the annual PTO Tech Trot, which I believe will run similarly as to in the past, with snacks, drinks, a balloon arch, and music Kids will run the track for 30 minutes and will collect colorful bands around their wrist as they run/jog/walk around the track to keep count of their laps. Drinks and snacks will be provided at the end of each run. At the start of the run, grade levels should gather behind the balloon arch so we can start the times below:
• 8:30-9:15, Grades 2/3
• 9:30-10:15, Grades K/1
• 10:30-11:15, Grades 4/5• Open House (formerly Curriculum Night) Wednesday, Oct. 9th – Linked here is a draft flyer for the 2019 Howard Open House, formerly known as Curriculum Night. Office staff will put class sets, back-to-back in English and Spanish, in teacher mailboxes to go home in Friday Folders this week. Classroom and specialist areas will open 5:45-6:45, where families will collect their Pizza Tickets to redeem in the cafeteria for pizza, which will be open 6:15-7:00. There will be a Title 1 Presentation in the library at 6:00 and any family who attends will get a special Family Ice Cream Coupon. Let me know if you have any questions.
• 5:45 Classrooms Open
• 6:00 Title 1 Presentation (Library)
• 6:15 Pizza Served in Cafeteria
• 6:45 Classrooms Close
• 7:00 Pizza Dinner in Cafeteria Closes• 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, we can use folks to help serve pizza, cookies, and ice cream at Open House 5:15-7:15. Let me know if any of you are willing and able to help!
• Oct. 10th PD Day, Classroom Use & Breakout Presenters – The Oct. 10th PD Day will focus on Technology Trainings for elementary teachers and is being held at Howard. It will start with a keynote speaker in the gym 8:15-9:15 and then there will be breakout sessions teachers may choose from. There will be 20 sessions, so all gen ed classrooms will be used, plus the STEAM Room. Downtown is still looking for presenters for the breakout sessions (which are capped to 25 participants per session) and Misty Jackson asked me to see if any Howard teachers are interested/willing to present or co-present an hour 15-minute breakout session. If you are, just let me know.
• EA Extravaganza PD Requests/Ideas – Downtown is soliciting idea from classified staff on what types of trainings you’d like at future EA Extravaganzas. If you have ideas, just let me know and I will pass it along.
• October PBIS Focus: Positive Bully-Proofing – The October PBIS monthly focus is Bully-Proofing. The PBIS team created the PBIS/CSC Cheat Sheet that matches our PBIS monthly themes with Caring School Community class meeting lessons, which is an easy way to tie the two activities together.
• No Staff Parking a River Road Park (AKA Emerald Park) – The River Road Park Superintended asked staff not to use the parking lot over there during the day. However, the street along Lake Dr. is a public road and available.
• Headspace for Educators – Headspace is a paid mindfulness app that this year is free access to all K-12 teachers and supporting staff. The app gives you access to 500+ guided meditations on topics ranging from anxiety to stress and more, which can be used yourself or with students. Just select your state based on what letter your school district name starts with and enter your school email address.
• Conservation Education: Talks and Field Trips offered by Willamette National Forest – Willamette National Forest is offering conservation education talks and field trips on topics such as wildlife, trees, and climate change. See the linked Natural Resource and Conservation Education Program Flyer for for offerings through November.
• Study: TV, video game time affects academics – As a technology immersion program, parents often ask about screen time and my response is that not all screen time is created equal. This notion is backed up by new research that reviewed 58 studies from 23 countries. The review found that time students spent watching television and playing video games — rather than time spent on the internet and using mobile phones — negatively affected academics. See the article for details.
• 6 Elementary Reading Strategies That Really Work – Strategies like choral reading and ear reading improve students’ reading fluency, expand their vocabulary, and increase their confidence. See this Edutopia article for details on these and other strategies including, partner reading, cross-grade reading buddies, audiobooks, teaching academic English, giving student choice of books, and having students read the same text multiple times in multiple modalities
• 16 Card Games That Will Turn Your Students Into Math Aces – Grab a few decks of playing cards and see this WeAreTeachers article to introduce some of these math card games to your class. I could see these being used during Math Booster time while the teacher works with a small group or as good early finisher activities.
• The Big List of K–2 Literacy Centers – This WeAreTeachers article pulled together this long list (40 in all) literacy centers so you can have plenty of simple options at your fingertips for various primary grade centers.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events for the next two weeks:
September 30 (M)
Safety Week
BEST Starts
Matt Out
7:00, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
1:15, Directed Evacuation (i.e. Fire Drill)
3:00-4:00, Coffee with 4J Superintendent (Library)
3:15, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)October 1 (T)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Bully-Proofing
Matt Out
ALICE Drill Classroom Lesson (done at time decided by teachers)
10:15, Allan to Formal Observation
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (RM23)October 2 (W)
National Custodial Workers Recognition Day
8:10, Allan to Formal Observation
12:25-12:45, 5th Grade Safety Patrol Training (Community Room)
1:15, ALICE Evacuation Drill
2:30-4:30, Allan to Pay Grade Eval Committee (Ed Center)
3:00-7:00, Howard Only First Aid & CPR Class (Library)October 3 (H)
Room Clear Drills (done at time decided by teachers)
7:00, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
8:00-4:00, Allan to Threat Assessment Training (Ed Center)
8:10-9:40, 3/4/5 Native American Music Presentation (Music Class)October 4 (F)
8:45, Earthquake Drill/Directed Evacuation
1:30, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30, Early Release PD – Building Based PDOctober 7 (M)
8:30-3:30, Allan to Leadership Training (LaneESD)
3:45-5:15, Allan to Elementary Principal Meeting (Ed Center)October 8 (T)
Title 1 Groups Begin
9:00-10:30, Allan to All Administrator Meeting (Ed Center)
10:30, Jim Torrey Visiting Kreider’s Class
11:30, Allan to Formal Observation
2:30-4:00, Bike Rodeo (Playground)
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (RM23)
2:45-5:30, Kindergarten EA Interviews (Conference Room)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Cafeteria)October 9 (W)
Walk+Roll to School Day
Tech Trot8:30-9:15, Grades 2/3
9:30-10:15, Grades K/1
10:30-11:15, Grades 4/58:10, Native Presentation – Cortez (STEAM Room)
9:25, Native Presentation – Rock/Callihan (STEAM Room)
5:45-7:00, Open House (formerly Curriculum Night)5:45 Classrooms Open
6:00 Title 1 Presentation (Library)
6:15 Pizza Served in Cafeteria
6:45 Classrooms Close
7:00 Pizza Dinner in Cafeteria ClosesOctober 10 (H)
No School – PD/Planning Day – Details Coming (Howard)October 11 (F)
No School — State In-Service Day
Regular work day for classified and admin
Classified PD – MANDT recertification/building based w/admin/flex
Have a good week, everyone, and keep your fingers crossed we stay dry for Safety Week drills!
Allan
