http://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=99
Welcome Back Everyone!
Another school year is about to get started and we already have a packed calendar.
As I did last year, I will try to communicate informational items in my weekly announcements, instead of taking up staff meeting time or flooding people with individual emails throughout the week. There are quite a few items included in this week’s announcements. Some of the items will be discussed at out back to school staff meetings, but I wanted folks to have the information now.
• Building Staff to Administer easyCBM Testing – Principals learned last week that buildings will be responsible for administering the easyCBM benchmark testing this Fall, instead of district testers coming out to buildings. The expectation is that all teachers will eventually be able to administer the benchmark assessments themselves, but because of the late notice of this change, the district is providing some support and options. We will discuss the options at our Back to School Staff Meeting, but our choices are:
o Teachers assess students during regular class time.
o Have district paid roving subs relieve teachers to tests students for individual measures.
o District paid subs to relieve a cadre of teachers who can test all students building wide.
o Teachers train a cadre of building IAs to administer tests.The district is offering a training to certified staff at the Ed Center on Friday, September 4th. The trainings will focus on administering the benchmark tests and not how to use the website. The trainings are divided into primary and intermediate levels:
o K-2, 8:30-11:30 or 12:30-3:30
o 3-5, 8:30-9:30, 10:30-11:30 or 12:30-1:30The measures themselves are the same as last year, with the exception of Math, which is now divided into three short measures. The Reading and Math Testing Window is from Sept. 14 -25.
o MATH (1-2) – Paper/pencil test. No Kindergarten test
o MATH (3-5) – Three Online Math Measures at 7-10 minutes per measure
o READING (K-1) – Three adult administered one-on-one tests
o READING (2-5) – Mix of one-on-one and online testsThe district will pay for someone to enter the data for all reading and math scores into the EasyCBM system, so teachers do not need to do this task. I was just as surprised by this as I’m sure you all are. Please see me if you have questions, thoughts, or ideas.
• Back to School District Inservice Schedule – Attached is the district Back to School Inservice Schedule for Thursday, September 3rd. Please take note if you are a staff advocate (SPED, Math, Health, Science, PE, Music, etc…) for one of these areas. inservice sched 2009
• Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – All staff must review the district policies under section 1 of the website below and return the acknowledgment form (which you will get at the staff meeting) to Allan no later than September 30th. http://www.4j.lane.edu/superintendent/2009infoandreminders
• 4J Math Correlations Website – The promised math correlations, detailing which lessons to teach in order to meet the newly adopted math standards can be found here: http://www.4j.lane.edu/instruction/curriculum/standards/math
• 4J Math Wiki – 4J has created a Math Wiki, which is a place to ask questions, help other, and to share ideas and materials. On there already are links to different resources, including Lesson Plans, SMART Board lessons, Keynote and PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, links, clickers activities, podcasts, and vocabulary. If staff want to add content to the wiki, you should send files or suggested links to Marna Knoer, Math TOSA, at knoer_m@4j.lane.edu or to the school Math Teacher Leaders.
http://4jmath.wikispaces.com/
If you’re new to wikis, here is a short clever video that explains how they work: http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english
• Assessment Windows – To help folks with long range planning, below are the district and state testing windows:easyCBM Reading and Math:
o Fall: 9/14/09-9/25/09 (2 weeks)
o Winter: 12/1/09-12/18/09 (3 weeks)
o Spring: 5/10/10-5/28/10 (3 weeks)OAKS:
o Reading & Math (grades 3-5), Science (grade 5 only): 1/11/10-5/14/10
o Writing is 1/11/10-2/26/10 (grade 4 only, window set by state)• Website Subscription Passwords and Links – Below are the passwords and links to various useful websites:
o Tumble Books – Our subscription to Tumble Books will be renewed for this school year. The site provides animated, talking elementary age picture books, along with puzzles, games, book reports, and quizzes. The username and password for each school is below:
http://www.tumblebooks.com/• USER – yujin, PASSWORD- books
• USER – corridor, PASSWORD- bookso Learn 360 – If you have not yet registered on Learn 360 (the new United Streaming), below are the links to register and set-up you account:
o COR – http://www.learn360.com/PassThrough.aspx?PassKeyCode=9ba2202f-5890
o YG – http://www.learn360.com/PassThrough.aspx?PassKeyCode=9ba2202f-5944
o Main Website – http://www.learn360.com/o NetTrekker – Nettrekker is a student search engine that is organized by grade and reading level and is aligned with state standards. Staff, students, and parents can create their own username and passwords from the registration page. Direction on how to register can be found on the page below.
http://www.4j.lane.edu/tilt/onlinesubscriptions
http://www.netTrekker.com/
o TSS Help Request Page – Follow this link to place request for TSS assistance with hardware, software, or network issues. You can also see what other staff request are being make, so you can get an idea of where you are in the queue.
http://www.ultraguest.com/sign/1251488737
o Online Pay Stub – Monthly pay stubs are now viewable only online. It’s always good to check your pay stub for accuracy each month. You can follow the directions on the 4J website listed blow, which can also be found under “For Staff” on the main 4J homepage.
http://www.4j.lane.edu/staff/paystub• Electronic Planning Book – A few staff members at each school have expressed interest in using an electronic planning book that program that is relatively inexpensive for us to purchase. You can download a preview of the program here and also view a demonstration video on the site below if you think this is something you might want. If you are interested using this application, please let me know soon so I know which license to purchase for the building.
http://www.hellmansoft.com/
• University of Oregon Student Teacher and Practicum Student Placements – The UOTeach Program is looking for Winter Practicum placements (16-20 hours a week for 10 weeks) and Spring Student Teaching placements (full-time 10 weeks). Please let me know in the next couple week if you are interested in hosting a university student at one of these times. I have more details about the placements if you have any questions.
• Classified and Certified Work Calendar – Attached are detailed calendars of the classified and certified 09/10 work year. Please let me know if you have any questions. The classified one can be somewhat confusing. Web_Calendar_CLAS Web_Calendar_LCND
• Electronic District Calendar – If you use an electronic calendar, like iCal, you can download and add an isc file that you can import into your calendar. It contains all school district calendar dates as well as all major holidays. https://mail2.4j.lane.edu/home/4jcalendar@4j.lane.edu/calendar.html?view=month&date=20091017
• 2010 Census in School Curriculum – Scholastic and the US Census Bureau have provided maps and curriculum materials for teacher interested in integrating the 2010 Census into reading, social studies, or math. I’ll put information into teacher’s mailboxes. There are also big census maps in my office if you’d like one. Go the website below for further lessons and support materials. http://www.census.gov/schools
• Izzy’s Pizza Gift Certificate Awards – Izzy’s Pizza is offering free Academic Achievement Awards for students, similar to Pizza Hut’s Book-It-Awards, which rewards kids with a free Izzy’s Classic Buffet. Izzy’s will give you the gift certificate/awards for a projects such as reading a certain number of books, completion of a difficult assignments, meeting class attendance goals, and such. If you would like to start a reward program with these awards, send an email to Nancy George at nancyg@izzyspizza.com
Whew! If I had read that out loud, I’d be out of breath. I’m certainly not going to start podcasting my announcements with this week’s edition.
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone the week! Here’s to another great school year!
Allan