Week of September 8
Weekly Schedule
September 8 (M)
Fall Benchmark Testing and KRA Continues8:30, Reading to Piper’s Class
9:15, Reading to Nikita’s Class
10:30, Reading to all of first grade.
1:30-1:45, Website Design meeting with Peggy (Principal’s Office)
1:45-2:30, Joel to BEST Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting (Conference Room)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
September 9 (T)
Fall Math Benchmark Testing and KRA9:00-9:30, Family Night Planning Meeting (FRC Rm. 9)
10:15, Joel reads to Recker’s Class
12:00-1:00, Meeting with Federal Programs Director, Tasha Katsuda (Principal Office)
2:30-3:30, PLT (Conference Room)
4:00- 5:00, Joel meets with Kerry Delph to set up Facebook Page.
6:00-8:00, Parent Group Meeting (Library)
September 10 (W)
8:30-9:00, Family Resource Center Meeting (FRC Rm. 9)
1:40-2:40, Grade Level Collaboration Meeting (Objective and Unit Planning in classrooms together)
4:30, Joel to United Way Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-4:45, First Design Committee Meeting with Staff (Library)
September 11 (H)
Joel begins walk through observations in classrooms.- Personal notes taken on iPad. No notes will be added to the Teacher Effectiveness and Growth System.
2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting (Library)
September 12 (F)
Joel begins walk through observations in classrooms.- Personal notes taken on iPad. No notes will be added to the Teacher Effectiveness and Growth System.
September 16 (T)
8:15-11:30, Joel and IPBS Team to CICO Training (Lane ESD)September 30 (T) Life Touch Photo Day
Hi Everyone,
We did so well our first week back and the school year seems to be off on a great start thanks to everyone’s hard work!
Some items of note this week:
• Skillful Teacher (Cohort 3) Camino Rep – 4J is starting a third Skillful Teacher cohort and is reserving a spot for each school to send a rep. Speak with Karen and Megan can let you know their experience with it, but the first session for Cohort 3 will be Friday, September 26th. Attached is a calendar of Skillful Teacher Trainings for the year. There is a possibility of multiple teachers from our school being able to attend if other schools do not fill their spots. If you are interested in being part of Cohort 3, let me know by the end of the week.
• Safety Week, Sept. 29 – Oct. 2 – I’d like to again hold a Safety Week this year and schedule it for the end of this month so we can practice all of the most common safety drills (and also take care of the September and October fire drill requirements all in the same week). Craig and I will be reviewing the previous year’s drills and will update manuals in the next week or so. We are also working with Matt Cornwall from downtown in order to ensure that our evacuation routes are clear. This is a good way to bring awareness to staff, students and families about the various safety procedures right at the start of the year. The schedule for Safety Week will be:
• Monday, Sept. 29– Fire Drill, 9:00
• Tuesday, Sept. 30– Room Clear, time decided by teachers
• Wednesday, Oct. 1 – Lock Down (Code Blue and Code Red), 9:00
• Thursday, Oct. 2– Earthquake/Fire Drill, 8:30
It’s not for another three weeks, but I wanted to let staff know now to help with planning. All of these drills are listed in the “Emergency Procedures Manual” which is the rainbow tabbed notebook that should be hanging in every classroom. I won’t be making any announcement before the drills, so it’s okay for staff to prep your students before these drills take place. For the Lock Down drill, please review the Code Blue and Code Red procedures. These steps are more detailed about our lockdown procedure than the more general ones in the Emergency Procedures Manual. Please let me know if you do not have a manual or if you have any questions.
• Principal Visits to Classrooms – If you haven’t already set up a time for me to come read to your class, let me know a good 15-20 minute block for me to come in this week or next. I’ll read a favorite story to your class and chat with the kids a bit. Thank you!
• Being a Writer Training for Teachers – On September 29th, representatives from the Developmental Studies Center will be conducting a Being A Writer Training for principals from 8:00-11:30 here at the Ed Center in the Auditorium.
• News Crew Starts This Week – Megan will be training some 4th graders in News Crew this week, which means we’ll be starting morning announcements this week! We will make the bilingual announcements short and they will begin at 8:30 so we do not disrupt morning meeting.
• Copier Codes – The copy code for teachers is the last 4 digits of the teacher employee number in case you need that.
• Please take attendance early. –It is very important that you input attendance IN SYNERGY before 9:00 AM. This is a safety issue and parent communication issue. All classroom teachers should have Synergy up and ready to input attendance before class begins. Please make this part of your regular routine.
• Confidentiality of Free and Reduced Lunch Information.– The district expects that the Food Service Coordinator will not share any private information with staff. The only person who is authorized by the Superintendent’s office to use this information would be the administrator. Please do not request this information of Rene as it puts her in a difficult situation.
• District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – Attached and linked here is the District Back-to-School Memo, which ALL staff must review and sign & return the acknowledgement form to Edna no later than Friday, September 26th.
• Title 1 Newsletter – If you’d like to know what’s happening in Title 1 from the district perspective, here is the September Title 1 Newsletter that went out to all Title 1 Coordinators and principals. This month’s issue is mostly a lot of coordinator business, but here it is if you’re curious.
• Supporting ELL Students Under New Standards (Free Online Course) – This eight-week online course is designed to help teachers support English Language Learners in meeting new, rigorous standards. Specifically, the course will focus on a key practice within both the Common Core State Standards and new English Language Proficiency Standards: constructing claims supported by evidence. Endorsed by the Oregon Department of Education for Oregon K-12 teachers, the content is also open to teachers outside of Oregon. I signed up. Won’t you join me?
• Oct 10 Statewide In service & Professional Learning Opportunities – This is a non-paid day, so staff are under no obligation to work or attend any of these trainings, but if you are interested in knowing what is being offered this day, attached is the 2014 Oregon Inservice Bulletin and also a flyer from Educational Explorations, which had paid classes offering credit through PSU.
• Visitors and Volunteers – We have many families who have been wandering the halls during pick up. We need to be very careful about this.
Please follow this procedure:
a.If a parent or adult is helping volunteer in the classroom, they should go through the volunteer criminal background check process before helping in class.
b. If you have a visitor in your class, they need to sign in daily. If they are visiting, they need to state their purpose, to observe, to share a skill, or to communicate with a teacher. Please ask your visitor if they have signed in each day and make sure they have a visitor sticker.
c. If you have a regular volunteer in your class please communicate with staff what their regular schedule is. Sometimes, there are custody conflicts which you may or may not be aware of. We can help you work through these if both parents want to volunteer in the same classroom.
Some resources for Morning Meeting – Below are some great resources on Morning Meeting if you are looking for ideas on how to integrate language skills in the meetings. I was really impressed with Ms. Noonan’s class. Using sentence frames and a word wall can be great strategies to support our students in morning meeting.
Developmental Studies Center You Tube Channel for your Caring For Kids Ideas
http://youtu.be/PH3vTEKiSTs?list=UUibvNgcTZQ02PucorqcTvLg
Article on Engagement – This article explores the several factors to help teachers know they are actually increasing engagement amongst students in the their classroom. I really liked it because it does not sugar coat engagement. Many times, having fun or seeing students working are described as engagement. This article dispels much of that perspective.
Effective Engagement in the Classroom- “the 7X Effect”
Announcements, Being a Writer, Engagement, Equity, Evacuation Drills, Morning Meeting, Office Procedures, Skillful Teacher, Title 1 | Comment (0)