New and Updates!

Hello Coordinators and Principals ~ I hope this month’s blog finds you well!

March Title I Visitations ~ I look forward to visiting each of your schools the first two weeks of March. As a reminder, please find my visitation dates below. In addition, here is a general outline of discussion items. As always, please come with any questions you may have as this is a great time to get some answers! Please invite your principals to join! Title I School Visits Discussion Q’s (March 2014).

2/28: Laura
3/3: Aline and Cassidy
3/6: Terri, Jenny, Dayna and Robin
3/7: Carissa, Stephanie, Tana, Luann and Gloria
3/11: Corianne and Rhonda

Summer School: It’s time to begin thinking about Summer School. The program will be held from June 30-July 24! Detailed information will be coming soon. In the meantime, here is a general timeline and some deadlines to put on your calendar, as we get the student selection and registration processes underway:

March:
Schools will receive their summer school allotments
Forms will be distributed to Coordinators (incoming data, registration and parent letters)
March/April:
Schools identify students who will benefit from summer school and contact families
May:
Registration forms are due and confirmation letters sent to families

Summer School Specific Deadlines:
4/18: Send information letters and registration forms to families by April 18
5/16: Summer school registration forms to Linda by May 16
5/23: Confirmation letters sent to families by May 23
TBD: Summer school data forms to Linda

For the past two years, Wes Flinn has served as the Summer School administrator; thanks, Wes! With his new role as principal of Kelly Middle School, he is unable to commit to the program this year. The search for a new administrator is currently underway! Likewise, we will begin seeking to fill other staffing positions soon after spring break. In recent years, the teaching positions have been especially difficult to fill. If you, or someone you know, is interested in teaching summer school please make them aware of this upcoming opportunity; they will need to apply through NeoGov once a posting is on line. In addition, please ask them to email me so that I have a sense of who (and how many) is interested! Finally, because we focus on reading support, the teacher must hold a reading endorsement. In the event we are unable to locate enough interested teachers, who hold an endorsement, we may need to shift the primary focus of summer school to mathematics support. We really need your help in seeking teachers for summer school! Anything you can do will be greatly appreciated!

Mentor/Mentees: don’t forget, you’ve got extended contract time, along with two half days of sub release time, to work together! You can send extended contracts in, any time. If you’d like some extended time for more in depth discussions/work, please select “Title One” in Aesop to request a sub.

2014-2015 Title I Budget: During my January visits to each of your schools, I shared a brief update on next year’s budget. This update included an anticipated 10% reduction in Title funding to school districts. In addition, there will continue to be some required “set aside” funds to support our Title schools in improvement (Priority/Focus). As a result, individual schools should expect reduced funding as well. Please know that final allocations will likely fluctuate from this 10% figure based on changes in your enrollment and F/R percentages (December 1 figures are used to determine Title I eligibility/allocations) and the State’s actual allocation to the school district.

Title I allocations will be distributed in conjunction with HR staffing allocations, in April. The delayed distribution of allocations will result in a fairly swift turn around for determining Title budgets and staffing plans. To support you in this process, I will be setting up budget meetings with principals to review, and ultimately, approve school budgets. Principals, as has been done in the past, your Title budget must be reviewed and approved prior to submitting your staffing plan to HR. Bee has set aside some on my calendar for these meetings to occur. She will be in contact, soon, to begin scheduling a time for us to meet.

EA Extravaganza has been rescheduled for Friday, March 21 (8:00-11:35) at the Education Center in the auditorium.  This is a great opportunity for EA’s to receive quality professional development. There is no sign up for the Extravaganza, they just need to show up!  As a reminder, there is no additional pay for this day, so if an EA chooses to attend a training beyond their regular work day hours, it is strictly voluntary. You might consider shifting an EAs hours to fit around the extravaganza, as an option. Finally, because May 21 is a professional development/planning day in buildings, it is understood that many EA’s may already have plans/obligations to attend professional development at your site.  As such, EAs should check with both you (coordinator) and the principal before attending. Please see attached for PD offerings/times: EA Extravaganza 2014

Parent/Family Involvement Survey: On March 31, an electronic Parent Involvement survey will be opened to your families. In TAS, surveys should be given to those families whose child is receiving Title services. In SWP, all families should be surveyed. The survey window closes May 2. Please do your very best to ensure as many families as possible take the survey; we truly value their input as we continually strive to improve. Once the final survey is complete, Tami or I will send you an electronic copy for your preview. While our strong preference is that families complete the survey on line, we recognize the challenges that this may present for parents without Internet access. In these instances, some schools have elected to provide some families with a paper copy. Alicia then, graciously, entered all paper responses into survey monkey. With Alicia on maternity leave, we will not have the capacity to enter data for schools, this year. Therefore, if a school elects to distribute paper copies, we will need to collaborate on the best way to get this information tabulated and entered into the system.

IMPORTANT: Parent/Family Involvement Input from Site Council: With spring just around the corner, it’s time to begin gathering input from parents regarding Title services at your school. Attached, please find a set of questions for Site Council and the Eugene 4j Parent Involvement Policy. Coordinators and/or principals, please share the district policy AND bring these questions to an upcoming Site Council meeting and record feedback on the form. 
District Title I Parent Involvement Policy (English)
District Title I Parent Involvement Policy (Spanish)
Title I Site Council Parent Involvement Q’s 13-14

iPods and iPad Update: Now that Monica has distributed the first wave of equipment that was gathered from the dropped Title I sites, she is preparing to update iPods and iPads, if you have any. Remember, we need to be careful about updating apps in your iTunes for student iPods. Many of the updates are being made for iOS 7 and will not work on our iPods running iOS 6. If you download an app or update an app that only works on iOS 7, and need to restore an iPod, you will not be able to put that app back on the iPod.

Monica has been testing the apps you have in your different iTunes (from online) for iOS 6. She has a growing list of apps that will no longer work on our iPods. When she comes to your school, with her “mothership” to do your updates, she will give you a list of apps you do/don’t want to update. From this list, you can update your iTunes.

There has been an update to iOS 6 released since Monica distributed a number of the iPods back to you. She will conduct these updates when she visits your schools, as well. She can run updates much faster with the “mothership” than you can with your laptops.

To assist Monica in a smoothly run visit, you can help by gathering the Title iPods, from your participating classroom teachers, prior to your assigned day. She doesn’t need any cables, just the iPods. Monica will let you know if there is a change to the visitation schedule below:

3/4: Twin Oaks and Chavez
3/6: Awbrey Park and Kelly
3/13: Howard and Spring Creek
3/18: Family School and ATA
3/20: Holt, Willa-g and River Road

Using Children’s Books to Enhance Mathematics
In this article in The Reading Teacher, Allison Hintz and Anthony Smith (University of Washington/Bothell) suggest ways to use children’s literature to explain mathematics and make it vivid for students. The key steps, they say, are (a) choosing a good text, (b) exploring the text in a read-aloud and discussion with students, and (c) extending the text by getting students to explore ideas after the read-aloud is finished. Here are some books they suggest, along with the math links and suggested age-ranges:
Text-dependent:
Double Those Wheels by Nancy Raines Day – Doubling, counting by groups – Grades K-2
Equal Shmequal by Virginia Kroll – Equal and fair – Grades 3-5
Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry by Cindy Neuschwander – Geometry – Grades 2-4
Pete the Can and His Four Groovy Buttons by James Dean and Eric Litwin – Number recognition, counting back – Grades K-1
Tiger Math: Learning to Graph from a Baby Tiger by Ann Whitehead Nagda and Cindy Bickel – Data and statistics – Grades 3-5
Idea-enhancing:
Actual Size by Steve Jenkins – Estimation, measurement – Grades 1-3
The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins – Adding on, counting up – Grades 2-4
Move Over Rover by Karen Beaumont – Adding on, counting back – Grades K-2
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster – Number sense, geometry – Grades 4-6
Ten Flashing Fireflies by Philemon Sturges – Fact fluency, combinations of ten – Grades K-2
Illustration-exploring:
Ancient Greece by Anne Pearson – Geometry, estimation, counting – Grades 3-5
Anno’s Counting Book by Mitsumasa Anno – Counting on by ones, groups – Grades K-2
I Spy a Dinosaur’s Eye by Jean Marzollo – Counting and cardinality – Grade K-2
Lonely Planet Not for Parents Extreme Planet by Lonely Planet – Representing and interpreting data – Grades 4-6
Shintauro’s Umbrellas by Marjorie Jackson – K-1
There Is a Bird on Your Head by Mo Willems – Addition and grouping – Grades K-2

Friendly Reminders

Don’t forget, all the Title forms and information can be found on the 4j website at:
http://www.curriculum.4j.lane.edu/title/

In addition, information regarding Indistar and the CAP (Comprehensive Achievement Plan) process can also be found on the 4j website at:
http://www.4j.lane.edu/instruction/title/indistar-and-school-improvement-planning/

Beyond the Bake Sale Book Study Chapter 5: Here is the assignment, due by our April 28 Coordinator/Principal Meeting. Coordinators, please share the book with your principals!
1) Read pages 81-84
2) In addition to reading pages 81-84, please read and come prepared to share a summary of your section:

Calendar Items

March
Week of March 3 and 10: Title school visits
Week of March 31: Suzy out of the office
April
4/18: Summer school letters and registration forms sent to families, by this date
4/28: Coordinator PD; 11:00-11:30 lunch/11:30-2:20 PD (Mozart)/2:30-3:45 Principal & Coord mtg (auditorium)
4/28: Beyond the Bake Sale reading due
May
5/16: Summer School registrations to Linda, by this date
5/23: Confirmation letters to families, by this date
5/19: CIP annual meeting (parents to attend)

Compliance Deadlines:

March: There are no compliance items due in March. However, I would recommend pacing yourself on the completion of your Program Review. Here is a suggested timeline for completing sections of the Program Review:
Sections 1-5 should be done
Sections 6-7 by the end of March
Sections 8-10 by the end of April
Sections 11-16 by the end of May

April: Compliance documents DUE at the 4/28 PD for submission to Penny:
1) Budget allocation for the 2013-2014 school year (you should have a copy of your current year’s budget in your notebook. Bee will make a copy for our book, at the Ed Center)

2) Budget allocation for the 2014-2015 school year (this should be completed and approved prior to 4/28)

May: Compliance documents DUE at the 5/19 CIP meeting for submission to Penny:
1) Professional Development Questions for the 2013-2014 school year
PD Questions SWP 2013-2014
PD Questions TAS 2013-2014PD

2) Professional Development School and Title I Plan for the 2013-2014 school year
PD Activities for the School (TAS_SWP) 2013-2014

3) Parent Involvement Questions
Title I Parent Involvement Q’s 13-14

June:
Program Review Document: Completion of this document has been broken down into two parts in an attempt to make the work a bit more manageable. Be sure and include your Site Council (parents) in this process; you will want to speak to your administrator about getting on the SC agenda in the months ahead. Due to the enormity of the document, you may want to consider dividing the work over two SC meetings. Please find the documents below:

Annual Title I SWP Program Review 2014
Annual Title I TAS Program Review 2014

As a reminder, here is a SAMPLE Program Review with notes and sample paragraphs you can reference as you work to complete your own review. Title IA Program Review SAMPLE

Welcome New and Returning Staff!

Welcome to what is sure to be a year filled with challenging opportunities, stretching us to communicate, collaborate and rely on one another more than ever. As with any challenge, success can be found through creative problem solving, perseverance and a unified spirit. I am confident that, despite the challenges presented by a difficult financial environment, we will embrace the year with vigor, enthusiasm and optimism.  My commitment continues to be that of providing strong leadership and support as we continue the important work of educating our most struggling learners.

Essential to the success of any organization is the environment in which we work. As such, fostering an atmosphere in which everyone is eager to “do the work” and excited about learning is vital. I want our Title I Coordinator group to be a valuable resource to one another fostering a spirit of support, encouragement and appreciation for the hard work we do. When one member of our team succeeds, we all succeed. To this end, please be sure and let me know how I can support you as we work together to make this our best year, yet!

As you may know, we have had several changes in personnel this past spring. Sadly, these changes mean a loss of valued staff that we will deeply miss. Still, I am excited by the caliber of people who will be joining our Title community, the experiences they will bring to our group and the promise of new relationships.  Please join me in extending a warm welcome to our newest Coordinators:
River Road: Aline Baissaic
McCornack: Luann Rogers
Howard: Robin Vaughan (moved from Camas Ridge)
Holt: Jennifer Potter
Family: Rhonda Lawson
Twin Oaks: Terri Weston
Spring Creek: Dayna Mitchell (moved from Willa-g)
Willa-g: Cassidy Temple (moved from Twin Oaks)
Eugene Waldorf: Laura Blake

We have two Title schools that will be joining the “School Wide” ranks. Following a year-long process that included working with various shareholder groups to provide input/guidance on the comprehensive examination the school’s needs, priorities, goals, action plans and so much more, I’d like to congratulate both ATA and Spring Creek on a job well done! Beginning this school year, ATA and Spring Creek will operate as a SWP, bringing our total SWP count to 10.

Title I Resource Materials Give-Away: With the recent closing of Title I programs at Camas Ridge, YG, Corridor and ATA (elementary) there are extra resource materials available to interested Title I schools. These items are being temporarily stored at Howard Elementary (room 12). Materials are boxed and should be labeled with contents for easy identification. I will be at Howard (room 12), on 9/6 from 2:00-4:00 and on 9/9 from 9:00-11:30 should you want to stop by and check out the materials. As a reminder, any items you have selected will need to be included on your inventory and identified as coming from school “X”. On a related note, Monica is working on the re-distribution of technology collected through these closures; this equipment will NOT be at  Howard.

Title I Monitoring Notebooks: On September 3, I would like to drop by for a quick hello and welcome each of you back to what is sure to be an outstanding year! I will also be delivering your 2013-2014 Monitoring Notebook and look forward to answering any questions you may have as you get the year underway! I have not created a visitation schedule. Instead, I will begin my visits at the North end of the district (in the morning) and make my way to all the Title I schools following the most efficient path possible. The visit will be short and very informal; it is important to me that I not interrupt your valuable planning time. If you are unavailable when I arrive, I will simply leave your notebook at your desk and we can say hello another time!

Title Webpage Has a New Look: With the “new look” to the district website, I have taken the opportunity to refresh the Title and Federal Programs portion of the site. This update includes a section entitled, Coordinator Resources, which houses compliance documents, forms, templates and samples used to meet State requirements. To navigate the 4j website to locate Title and Federal Programs and Coordinator Resources sections, click on the links below. I would recommend bookmarking these pages.

Title & Federal Programs link: http://www.4j.lane.edu/instruction/title/

Coordinator Resources link: http://www.curriculum.4j.lane.edu/title/

CHECK IT OUT ~ I think you will like it! You will notice that individual school compacts and parent involvement policies will be posted, upon completion. This way, parents will have access to this information via the Internet. Schools will be able to direct families to this information, as well, if they like.

Need Help – Have a Question??? Please reference the attached resource page to use as a guide when you have questions regarding Federal Programs. Title Contacts 2013-2014

Title I Coordinator Professional Development ~ based on feedback you provided in a May, 2013 survey, professional development will be scheduled four times over the course of the year. In addition, PD will take place in the afternoon, prior to Coordinator/Principal meetings. Specifically,

11:15-11:45 lunch will be provided
11:45-2:30 professional development
2:30-3:30  principal/coordinator meeting

Half day substitutes may be request for the afternoon; 10:45-2:45, for example (if that works with your schedule). I am hopeful this will provide you with transition/travel time. On one occasion, principal/coordinator meetings will consist of principals, only. This way, we will reduce your meetings thus easing the demands on your time…at least a little! Attached is the principal/coordinator meeting schedule and the coordinator PD schedule. Please mark your calendar as attendance at each meeting/PD is expected. Thank you!
Title Princ_Coord Mtgs (2013-2014)
Title Coord_PD_Series (2013-2014)

Additional PD Opportunities: I anticipate scheduling two additional PD days (one, 1/2 day and one, full day) to provide (1) a refresher for Fastt Math, Fraction Nation and Go Solve and (2) a Scholastic training on a new purchase to support math interventions in grades 3-5. The curriculum is entitled, Do the Math – more details to come! I will likely couple the 1/2 day PD with an existing Coordinator PD and add one more day, depending on consultant availability. Stay tuned!!

Compliance Documents to be Completed in September:
(1) Both SWP and TAS schools are required to notify parents when their child is taught or assigned, for four or more consecutive weeks, by a teacher who does not meet federal highly qualified requirements. The attached notification letter (English)  ((Spanish)) meets this requirement and should be sent home with all students (SWP), or targeted students (TAS), in September.  Here is the website link to Letters and Notifications where this information can be found, as well.

(2) Title schools are required to include a message, in their September newsletter, notifying families of their Title I status and the services they provide. Please review the September Newsletter Announcement and fill in with specifics relative to your school’s Title services.

(3) The Parent Involvement Policy (both SWP and TAS) and the Family and Community Involvement Questions (SWP) and (TAS) are also due early in the year. As such, you will want to be sure and get on the Site Council agenda as soon as possible. Here is the website link to Parent and Family Involvement where this information can be found.

(4) All Title schools are required to hold a Title I Annual Meeting (what to cover) for parents. For compliance purposes, be sure and include the meeting announcement (this can be a flier or in your school newsletter), agenda and attendee sign in sheet. Here is the link to the website for Annual Meeting Sample Resources (i.e. sample powerpoint, invitation letter/flier and agenda). Under the Parent Involvement section of your notebook, you will also include a list of planned Title-sponsored events/activities (announcements, event description, agendas and sign-in sheets to be added as the events take place); keeping this in mind as the year unfolds will be helpful.

Hard copies of these documents should be sent to Penny in the Instruction Department. OR, you are welcome to bring your documents to our PD on September 30!

Family Engineering Event at Willa-g: As a reminder, Willa-g won the free Family Engineering event (facilitated by Mia Jackson). Coordinators are invited to “work” the event as a part of an extended training opportunity to learn more about how to host an event. Extended contract will be offered ($34.50 per hour) as you work with Mia to set up and run the event! Willa-g has scheduled October 16 for their Family Engineering night. Please let me know, as soon as you can, if you would like to be a part of this training/work; I can take the first six volunteers!

Mentor/Mentee Program ~ once again, we will be offering a mentoring program for Coordinators new to their position OR have been in their position a short while and feel they would benefit from a regular “go to” person to answer questions, help with planning, problem solve, etc. Time to meet will be compensated through both sub release time and extended contract ($34.50 per hour). The time commitment is approximately two hours a month. Please let me know if you are interested in serving as a mentor and/or feel you would benefit from having a mentor.

Title I Schools for 2013-2014:
Here are the Title I schools for the upcoming year, as well as principal contacts. Title Schools (2013-2014)

Title I Coordinators for 2013-2014: Title Coord_list (2013-2014)
Here is a list of Title I Coordinators and their contact information. As information is updated, we will revised this list! Don’t hesitate to contact one another for support, questions and encouragement.

easyCBM Testing Windows for 2013-2014:
Fall Sept. 10th – Sept. 24th
Winter Jan. 7th – Jan. 21st
Spring May 20th – June 6th

DATES TO REMEMBER:
September
30         Coordinator PD; 11:15-2:30 followed by the Principal/Coordinator meeting; 2:30-3:30

Compliance documents DUE to Penny no later than September 30. Please print a hard copy and bring to our 9/30 meeting OR send a hard copy to Penny through inter-district mail. Penny will be available from 11:15-11:45 to accept paperwork on this day.

• Parent notification letter (notifying parents of their right to know about HQ staff)
• Copy of your newsletter containing the required article describing Title services; highlight the article
• Title I Annual meeting announcement (your flier and/or newsletter announcement)
• Agenda and sign in sheets for your Title I Annual meeting
• Completed Family and Community Involvement questions
• Completed Parent Involvement Policy
• A list of Title I parent involvement activities the school has planned for the year (add flyers, agendas and sign in sheets as the events take place)

October: details and links to October documents will be included in the October Coordinator Communication blog. In the meantime, documents can be found on the district website, under Coordinator Resources.

Compliance documents DUE to Penny no later than November 8. There are no Title PD’s or meetings in November, so paperwork will need to be printed and sent to Penny via inner-district mail. You are welcome to drop by the Instruction Department or give the documents to me during my November visit to your school; whichever is most convenient.

Targeted Schools (TAS)

• Copy of Targeting Sheets, by grade level
• Priority list of identified students
• Copy of parent notification of services, including a copy of the “exit of services” letter

School Wide Schools (SWP)

• Copy of parent notification of services

Both TAS and SWP

• Criteria for Services
• Student Profile form (sample from Quickbase – redact student name)
• Copy of both the school’s master instructional schedule and intervention schedule
• Copy of both the EA’s and Title teacher schedules
• Copy of the school Compact
• Copy of your Data Team/IIPM annual meeting schedule
• Copy of one set of meeting minutes, including an agenda

As a Side – IMPORTANT INFORMATION About iPod Touches & Apps (cut/pasted from Monica’s email, sent earlier this week as another reminder):
“Starting this year I will be doing the iOS upgrades and purchased installs on the Touches. Last year many of you told me that you’d get confused with what account to use with what device and that doing the updates/upgrades took WAY too much time. This is one of the reasons for the new system. Also, I discovered while I was doing updates, that personal accounts were being used on the Touches and purchased apps were installed on more than one device under these accounts.  Remember, any purchased app needs to go through me, because we need to use the VPP program to purchase multiple licenses.  Under the new system, any app that isn’t purchased and/or downloaded with your site’s shared accounts will be automatically removed when I sync them to the Mothership (my syncing machine).  Using the Apple Configurator program on the Mothership laptop will allow me to upgrade and sync up to 20 iPods at a time. Instead of taking 40 minutes per iPod, it will do all of them in about 10-15 minutes!

Even if your site purchases apps for you, I will need the code (you don’t need to purchase an extra license) sent to me for the Mothership shared account. Otherwise the app will be wiped from your iPods when I sync them for upgrades.  You’ll need to purchase the correct amount of licenses, but only one code needs to be input to the “shared” account (I will do this).  You will no longer need a code (but you will still need a licenses for each device), as I will be redeeming the code in the site’s “shared purchased” account. You will just need to go out to the account and download it to you iPod Student Acct on your laptop and then sync your iPods to install it. Or make an appointment for me to do so.

Like the iT3 project, we are going to the two-account system for each site.  Your site will have a Title 1 account for purchased apps and another for free apps.  No app should be downloaded/redeemed using the purchased account without contacting me first, for the reasons stated above. Any free apps you want to use, need to be installed under the free account.

I will be changing the passwords on your old iTunes Account in a few weeks, so no one inadvertently use the wrong account, so please take time to look over the apps you have under those accounts. Make notes of which apps you are actually using and will want back on your iPods. I know many of you tried out a lot of apps and decided you didn’t like some of them.  I will compile a list of the apps that the users at your site want to keep and install them under the shared “free” account (if they are free apps).

If you have apps that were purchased through your site Title monies, or from another group, I will need an install code for the Mothership. Coordinators, please contact the person (TSS?) that distributed these codes to you and have them email me one for each app purchased. I will also need to know how many licenses you have for each app and who were assigned those licenses.

Before you can use the iPod Touches this year, I will be meeting with each site and going over the new system.  Suzy mentioned that there are funds available to pay for ½ days subs for you to do so.  I may do more than one site at a time, so we can get these out and being used again as soon as possible. I’ll put a schedule together soon and let you know.

 I know this is a lot of information, but when we do the meeting I will go over it all with you again. If you have questions in the meantime, please let me know. There may be things I overlooked and need to work out ahead of time.”

What’s New?

THE MARCH PRINCIPAL/COORDINATOR’S MEETING
HAS BEEN CANCELLED

2013-2014 Title I Budget: During my January visits to each of your schools, I shared a brief update on next year’s budget. This update included an anticipated 10% reduction in Title funding to school districts, in addition to some required “set aside” funds to support our Title schools in improvement (Priority/Focus). As a result, individual schools should expect reduced funding as well. Feel free to calculate a 10% reduction of your current budget for a rough estimate of what to expect next year. If the reduction is closer to 5%, this will be good news. Please know that final allocations will likely fluctuate from this 10% figure based on changes in your enrollment and F/R percentages (December 1 figures are used to determine Title I eligibility/allocations).

Title I allocations will be distributed in conjunction with HR staffing allocations, in April. The delayed distribution of allocations will result in a fairly swift turn around for determining Title budgets and staffing plans. To support you in this process, I will be setting up budget meetings with principals to review, and ultimately, approve school budgets.

Family Engineering and Parent Involvement Training with Mia Jackson: Thank you to those of you who completed the short survey inquiring about your interest in a training (there were 13 respondents). Eighty-five percent of respondents expressed an interest in having a training (11 out of 13). If you indicated a “no thanks”, and feel comfortable letting me know, please drop me a line.

Please mark your calendars for 5/13, from 1:00-5:00 for the training (this date/time received the most interest); this will take the place of our regularly scheduled Coordinator/Principal meeting on this same date. Extended contract will be offered, at a rate of $34.50 per hour, for time spent beyond your regular contract hours. PRINCIPALS are invited to attend and a book will be provided for each school!

Demo Event ~ four coordinators expressed an interest in hosting a demo event and seven coordinators would like to participate in the demo event to serve as further training. I will likely draw names to fairly select a school to host the event.

IMPORTANT: Parent/Family Involvement Input from Site Council: With spring just around the corner, it’s time to begin gathering input from parents regarding Title services at your school. Attached, please find a set of questions for Site Council and the Eugene 4j Parent Involvement Policy. Coordinators and/or principals, please share the district policy AND bring these questions to an upcoming Site Council meeting and record feedback on the form.  Please return completed forms to Bee no later than Friday, May 10.
District Title I Parent Involvement Policy (English)
District Title I Parent Involvement Policy (Spanish)
Title I Site Council Parent Involvement Q’s Spring 2013

IMPORTANT: Parent/Family Involvement Survey: On April 1, an electronic Parent Involvement survey will be opened to your families. In TAS, surveys should be given to those families whose child is receiving Title services. In SWP, all families should be surveyed. The survey window closes May 10. Please do your very best to ensure as many families as possible take the survey; we truly value their input as we continually strive to improve. Attached are the questions that will be included in the survey; you will notice some changes. Annual Title I Parent Survey (spring 2013)

PRINCIPALS ~ please mark the date to join your Extended Learning w/Technology Team, on May 7th, to view presentations on the learning/work teachers have been doing regarding the use of technology to support student learning in math and reading. We have focused primarily on ipod touch applications, google doc forms, and the use of Edmodo in the classroom. Presentations will run from 8:30 until approximately 10:00 and will be held in the auditorium.  Coordinators ~ attached, please find the expectations for developing your presentation Ext Learning Presentation Expect. 12-13

School Visitations Schedule for March/early April: If a conflict in your scheduled time arises, please contact Bee and she can work to find an alternative time for us to meet. PRINCIPALS ~ please join our meeting, if you can!! March_April Visitations 2013

Teaching Children in the Crisis of Poverty: You may recall Mary Walston (our presenter) mentioning a self-evaluation to help determine your teaching style ~ is your style more “oral” based or “print” based? As a reminder, we learned that students in poverty tend to be more “oral” learners. Attached is the short self-evalution from Mary; check it out!
Oral/Print Communication Self-Evaluation

Summer School: I am please to share that Wes Flinn will be serving as the Summer School Administrator again this year! Summer school allotments will be shared later this month, as an FYI. You can expect registration forms in mid-April with a return due date the first part of May (specific dates will determined as the time draws near). Stay tuned for more information in the weeks ahead!

Electronic Student Profiles: Matt and I had a chance to review the summary reports. I will bring these reports with me during my March/early April visits and share the findings with you! Overall, you are doing a very nice job of ensuring data is entered and current ~ keep up the great work!!

Collaborative Practice Lesson Study Teams: I trust all is going well and you are out of the starting blocks and moving forward with your lesson study. Please let me know if I can be of any support, any time!

Program Review Document: While work on this document may be a month away, I thought you would appreciate receiving the document sooner rather than later. This document can also be found on the 4j website. Completion of this document has been broken down into two parts in an attempt to make the work a bit more manageable. Be sure and include your Site Council in this process; you will want to speak to your administrator about getting on the SC agenda in the months ahead. Due to the enormity of the document, you may want to consider dividing the work over two SC meetings. Please find the documents below:
Annual Title I Schoolwide Program Review 2013
Annual Title I Targeted Program Review 2013

INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES!
Apps, Apps, and More Apps: Here are the apps Monica purchased for the Title 1 elementary iPod Touches:

• Freefall Money
• Freefall Spelling
• Freefall Time
• Mathmateer (Rocket Math)
• Starfall ABCs

I also received a list of apps (see link below) from an elementary principal (thanks, Joel) who stumbled upon it, by chance. The apps are not free and range from .99 cents to $7.99. Still, I think the list is worth a review, especially since reading comprehension has been a major focus of our work this year AND we are always looking for resources in this area.

Link to the apps from Joel:
15 Of The Best Educational Apps For Improved Reading Comprehension:
http://www.teachthought.com/apps-2/15-of-the-best-educational-apps-for-improved-reading-comprehension/

What is Reciprocal Teaching? Reciprocal teaching is a researched-based, comprehension strategy that is recommended for use with the English Language Arts CCSS.  Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions. This process can be used in whole group, teacher-led small groups, and student-led small groups. Teachers model, then help students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. Once students have learned the strategies, they take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading a dialogue about what has been read.

• It encourages students to think about their own thought process during reading.
• It helps students learn to be actively involved and monitor their comprehension as they read.
• It teaches students to ask questions during reading and helps make the text more comprehensible.For more information on Reciprocal Teaching, go to:  http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Reciprocal_Teaching

Get the Gist Reading Strategy: Here are the templates Kathy shared at our last Coordinator’s PD; thanks, Kathy!
Get the Gist Template
Get the Gist Strategy

Somebody Wanted, But So Reading Strategy: Again, here is another strategy Kathy shared last month! Sombody Wanted But So

Close Reading Strategy: Here is a video link that illustrates a 5th grade teacher using a Close Reading protocol in his classroom; it’s great!:

Literature Books That Help Teach the Modes of Writing: I realize Title does not address writing, still…I thought this site would be worth sharing as there are reading resources available as well. Kathy has located a great website from the Ohio Resource Center which has a K-2 bookshelf.  When you go to the bookshelf press the strand button.  Each of the strands for the English Language Arts CCSS will appear. If you press writing tab, a group of books will appear on the bookshelf.  Choose a book, press on it, and a description, writing activities and related common core standards will appear.  Check it out!   There is also a collection on reading resources (information text)!

http://ohiorc.org/Literacy_K5/K2Bookshelf/default.aspx?filter=strand&strandID=4#browse

Deadlines on the Horizon for Compliance Documents:
NOTE ~ deadlines are aligned with Principal/Coordinator meetings
4/15:    Budget allocation for the 2013-2014 school year (I’ve moved this deadline out a month. Still, this may change, depending on when budget allocations are distributed)
4/15:    Program Review, sections A, B, C and D
4/15:    Budget allocations for the 2012-2013 school year
5/13:    Professional Development Questions for the 2012-2013 school year
5/13:    Professional Development School and Title I Plan for the 2012-2013 school year
5/13:    Summer school registrations
5/13:    Summer school data forms
6/13:    Program Review, sections E-P Inventory Sheets

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
3/11:   Principal/Coordinator CANCELLED
4/15: Principal/Coordinators meeting; 2:00-3:30
5/7:  Extended Learning w/Technology PD; 8:00-11:15 for everyone; 8:00-1:00 for Coordinators. PLEASE INVITE YOUR ADMINISTRATOR TO JOIN US!
5/13: District CIP; 12:00-1:00 in auditorium; INVITE YOUR PARENTS TO JOIN US!!!
5/13: Principal/Coordinators meeting; 1:00-2:30

WHAT’S NEW?:

Hello Coordinators and welcome to the NEW YEAR! I am pleased to share that with January upon us, you will have a slight reprieve from compliance documents; yeah!

January Visitations: I look forward to visiting all the Title schools during the 3rd and 4th weeks of January. Attached is the visitation schedule, thus far. There are a few schools that still need to be scheduled ~ if you are one of these schools, please contact Bee to schedule a visit, asap; January Visitations 2013. During my visit, I’d like to:

1) View a one, or two, of your electronic student profiles
2) Hear about a parent involvement activity you have done this year
3) Discuss how interventions are going
4) Open for questions

Electronic Student Profiles: While the expectation remains that profiles are complete and current by the 4th week in January, you will NOT need to print and place a hard copy into a binder, mid-year. Instead, Matt will be running a report that allows me to view each school’s status on the profiles. I will be checking profiles the last week in January. Individuals will be contacted should a question or concern arise. Attached, please find a one-page overview of the profile expectations that were distributed at our December Coordinator/Principal meeting and a Quick Start Guide.

Electronic St Profile for Title
Electronic Student Intervention Profile Quick Start Guide

Extended Learning w/Technology: By now, you should be well into your project with the use of technology in full swing. Ideally, your team has been meeting, periodically, to reflect on progress, make adjustments and share ideas. You can look forward to Misty sending out a list of new apps and Edmodo ideas that were shared during December’s professional development. She will be sending these via Edmodo. Please be looking for an Edmodo survey, in January, that will seek your input for our February PD. Finally, due to a conflict we have changed the February 28 PD to February 12. The times remain the same (8:15-11:15; 11:15-11:45 lunch; 11:45-1:00 Coordinator PD), in the auditorium.

What you think about students matters! Consider the following quote:

“I don’t become what I think I can. I don’t become what you think I can.
I become what I think, you think, I can.”

Collaborative Practice/Lesson Study: I have received a few proposals for extended contract/release time for two+ teachers to participate in a lesson study of your choosing. If you’d like to squeeze in a proposal, pleases do so asap ~ I will be reviewing proposals very soon.
Collaboration Practice OVERVIEW (Title I Schools)
Collaborative Project AGREEMENT (Title I Schools)

More Apps to Explore:
Educreations ~ This is a voice-over app. This app is great for preparing lessons containing various pictures and text. The teacher actually records herself giving information/instructions. Educreations turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. Creating a great video tutorial is as simple as touching, tapping and talking. Explain a math formula. Create an animated lesson. Add commentary to your photos. It can be shown during class and allows the teacher to pause, periodically, to engage the students in discussions. It could also be used as a part of your sub plans; you’re there when you really aren’t! This could even be posted on Edmodo for students to access at times outside of class. Here is a YouTube video on Educreations.

Explain Everything ~ This is a is an easy-to-use design tool that lets you annotate, animate, and narrate explanations and presentations. You can import presentations, pictures, and other documents. These can also be exported as a pdf and notes can be posted on Edmodo. Here is a YouTube video on Explain Everything.

ClassDojo ~ This app allows you to track student participation, student management, etc. Here is a link to Class Dojo.

Inkflow: Think Visually! This app is great for visual thinkers. It works like a word processor for visual thinking. You can capture ideas by writing/drawing on the screen then rearrange and reorganize them with your fingers. Here is a YouTube video on Inkflow.

 2013-2014 Title Budget: Title budget allocations will be provided to coincide with the distribution of general fund budgets. I hope to share budgets in February. I will keep you apprised as specific timelines become clearer.

Title I Funding Eligibility: I am currently working on some figures for the 2013-2014 budget and will be sharing these with Dr. Berman in early-mid January. Ultimately, the “cut off” F/R percentage to determine eligibility for schools to receive Title I funds is the superintendent’s decision. 

Comprehension Toolkit: Raquel is willing to share a copy of her powerpoint on the ELA CCSS shifts, the comprehension toolkit, informational text, and text dependent questions should you want to reference it, or share with others (thanks, Raquel!). Unfortunately, the powerpoint is too large to attach in this blog, so please let me know if you’d like a copy and I will get it to you another way!

Edmodo Access Code to “The Basal Alignment Project”: As a reminder, this resource provides “text dependent” questions for stories found in our basal series, including lesson plans and related CCSS. The code is: etuyrm. Go to folders (upper portion of the page) and then locate your basal series.

RESOURCES: …thought you might find this interesting!

Recommended children’s books: Here are the most-recommended books in Reading Today’s 2012 roundup:

• Children’s Choices: http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/ChildrensChoices2012_web.pdf

• Teachers’ Choices: http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/TeachersChoices2012_web.pdf

• Young Adults’ Choices: http://www.reading.org/Libraries/awards/YoungAdultsChoices2012_web.pdf

“Recommended Reading Lists from Children, Teachers, and Young Adults” in Reading Today, October/November 2012 (Vol. 30, #2, p. 33)

Mathematics Common Core Toolbox – The Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas/Austin has joined forces with Agile Mind, Inc. to launch this free resource for math Common Core curriculum: http://www.ccsstoolbox.org.

“News and Views: Free Online CCSSM Toolbox” by Christine Noddin in Teaching Children Mathematics, November 2012 (Vol. 19, #4, p. 213)

FRIENDLY REMINDERS:

When making purchases with Title I funds, remember to send me a copy of PO or Visa (receipt).  Sometimes the secretary does the ordering, so sharing a reminder with your secretary would be helpful; thanks! Also, don’t forget to include these purchases on your inventory!

Penny continues to accept compliance documents and welcomes copies sent through the district mail and/or hand delivered (please remember to include the name of your school, along with the document title). Feel free to contact her, at any time, with questions. Collectively, you are doing a terrific job of submitting documents in a timely manner. Thank you, so much, for your attention to this important step in the Title process!

Attestations: Bee distributed these to Coordinators/Principals during our December meeting. Please send these, signed, to Bee as soon as possible, through the mail…

Deadlines on the Horizon for Compliance Documents:
NOTE ~ deadlines are aligned with Principal/Coordinator meetings

2/4:      Semi-annual certification (Bee will get these out to Coordinators/Principals, soon)
3/11:    Budget allocation for the 2013-2014 school year
4/15:    Program Review, sections A, B, C and D
4/15:    Budget allocations for the 2012-2013 school year
5/13:    Professional Development Questions for the 2012-2013 school year
5/13:    Professional Development School and Title I Plan for the 2012-2013 school year
5/13:    Summer school registrations
5/13:    Summer school data forms
6/13:    Program Review, sections E-P Inventory Sheets

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

NO Principal/Coordinator meeting in January

2/4:    Principal/Coordinators meeting; 2:00-3:30
2/12:  Extended Learning w/Technology PD; 8:15-11:15 for everyone; 8:15-1:00 for Coordinators NOTE DATE CHANGE FROM 2/28. Please remind your teacher partners of this change!
3/11:   Principal/Coordinator meeting may be cancelled due to a conflict with a LeL group; we may reschedule rather than cancel; stay tuned
4/15: Principal/Coordinators meeting; 2:00-3:30
5/7:  Extended Learning w/Technology PD; 8:15-11:15 for everyone; 8:15-1:00 for Coordinators
5/13: District CIP; 12:00-1:00 in auditorium
5/13: Principal/Coordinators meeting; 1:00-2:30 NOTE TIME DIFFERENCE from other meetings