Week of October 27
Schedule of Events of The Week
October 27 (M)
2:45-3:45, Site Council Meeting for October
October 28 (T)
8:30-9:30, Three Guys and A Ball Assembly on Bullying and Harrassment (Gym)
1:00-3:30, Superintendent Berman to observe classrooms and chat with staff at Staff Meeting. Classified Staff, please come and accumulate comp time to be part of the conversation.
3:45-5:30, PLT Meeting for CAP Revisions (Extra Duty Contract for PLT Members)
October 29 (W)
1:45-2:45, Wednesday Collaboration Time
2:45-3:45, PBIS Meeting for November
October 30 (Th)
3:00-5:00, Design Committee
October 31 (F)
Halloween- Costumes to be worn in classroom parties only.
November 3 (M)
IIPM Data Consult Meeting to be rescheduled due to conflict.
1:30-2:30, Aline and Joel to Title 1 Coordinator and Principal’s Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principal’s Meeting (Ed Center)
November 4 (T)
8:00-12:00, Picture Retakes (Library)
November 5 (W)
8:00-3:30, Joel to Learning About Learning Network Meeting (BV)
2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting in Recker’s Classroom
November 6 (H)
1:00, Fire Drill and Lock Down Practice immediately afterwards.
4:00-8:00 PM, Conferences
November 7 (F)
8:00 AM -8:00 PM Conferences
Hi everyone,
Here are several items of note for the week. Last week felt like a marathon and I think it was! I am looking forward to a more routine week though we all know any day in our building is filled with richness of discussion and learning. I am also really looking forward to our Día de Los Muertos Event as it’s my first time to go. I am planning on bringing my kids to the event to celebrate, decorate and learn.
Site Council Agenda October 27th
A Conversation about Parent Involvement, Decision Making, and Language of Power.
Staff Meeting Agenda October 28th- begins at 2:45 and ends at 3:45.
1. Greeting and United Way Presentation by Nancy Schaal McHarry -5 minutes
2. A Conversation with Superintendent Dr. Sheldon Berman -40 minutes
3. A Short iPad Training- 10 minutes
The Growth Mindset and Malcolm Mitchell:
Many of you have heard of Carol Dweck and the Growth Mindset. This video explores a great example of how the growth mindset actually manifests itself in everyday life. I loved this story. I encourage you to share it with your classes and have a discussion about reading and working hard at it.
New Building Design Update
We have moved quickly into the stage known as schematic design in design committee. This last week, our team was able to see some rough models of initial layouts. As most of you should know by now, the building will be sited on the west side of our building. In addition, our team is also exploring the idea of removing our old gym early in order to design a building with less constrictions on space.
On Friday, I also had a chance to see Trillium Creek Elementary in West Linn. This was inspirational and clearly a building designed with kids in mind. This gave me motivation to always keep the child in the forefront of my mind when working on our design. Here is a short clip of me coming down the slide in the Trillium Creek Library.
Earl Boyles Visit
Our visit to Earl Boyle Elementary was truly inspirational. I was amazed to see a school designed to support families from age 0 to 11. There were so many features of their program which we would like to emulate. I will share more about this in a future staff meeting. The greatest learning for me was their parent group structure. It is called Parents United. The group conducts all parent meetings in Spanish. They set an educational agenda for them selves and their bi-cultural parent coordinator helps them find the resources to learn what they need to further their parenting skills. Fundamentally, all parents are seen as asset holders in the children’s learning, and they are assets!
Tasha Katsuda will be forming an early learning task force which I will be joining. This group will be looking to find partnerships in the community to help us to find a way to include a preschool program in our building in the future. I will also begin to work with the design team to discuss possibilities of making space in our building for a preschool program.
Some November 6 and 7 Conference Details
Dinner on November 6 and 7- I am still working out the details of this. I will be checking in with Parent Group to see if they have a way to support us with a meal one night. The school will have a meal on a second night. I will share this with you next week. Email me if you have suggestions for dinner.
Free/Reduced Meals Forms at Conferences- Be sure to have free/reduced meal forms on hand during conferences and please highlight this program for families. We’ll have extra copies available in the office.
November 10 Classified Staff Expectations- Monday, November 10 is a regular work day for Classified Staff, but is not a work day for licensed staff who worked extended hours for conferences. Since this is a non-student day, I would encourage classified staff who have comp time coming to use it this day. Please submit your comp form to me to ensure you have these hours accumulated. If you are planning to work on Monday, please connect with your primary cooperating teacher on how best to help out this day.
Linda Darling Hammond on Equity and Literacy in the 21st Century
This is an excellent article on equity in schools. Linda Darling Hammond from Stanford is one of the giants of multicultural education. When I read this article, I realized that we as a staff are battling many factors that are out of our control and some that we can control. Fortunately, we have resources, very qualified staff, and expertize to help our students and support them in high levels of literacy. Some of the questions asked of Linda in this interview article directly relate to our building. It was affirming to hear that there are a lot of things we are doing right!
Math PD Planning
Last week Karen and I met with SDS Reid Sheppard and Math Director Maddy Ahearn. They shared many ideas about how to support our staff with more math professional development. In addition, we discovered with their research many things that could help us this year. One, there are math Investigations Teacher Editions in Spanish. We are exploring how to acquire these for our staff. Two Smarter Balanced or New OAKS Math Assessment will be offered in Spanish! Our students can study math in Spanish and take the test in Spanish! This is huge! Reid and Maddy will be planning more PD with a focus on math practices this year. Our major focus will be on using the 8 math practices at appropriate times to improve students math thinking skills. Here is a document that Kathy Larson shared that unpacks ways to consider using the CCSS in Math. It is North Carolina’s Math Common Instructional Framework
PBIS Cafeteria Plan Reminder
Our PBIS focus on improving cafeteria behavior continues. This week, the tables will begin getting points for their class behavior in their seats. Teachers, please remind students about this system and give them positive feedback for points earned for appropriate cafeteria behavior next week.
Common Core ELA in kid friendly Language
Here is a link to a poster/ word wall anchor standard poster of the new ELA CCSS Standards in very kid friendly terms. They are in Engish.
ELD Project with UO
Abby lane and I have been working with Julie Heffernan on a new practicum program for students who are in the UO Teach Out Program. There will be many students learning from our ELL’s by interviewing them. They will use the data to share plans on how to support ELL’s in the classroom. More details to come, but this will begin in Winter term.
iOS Apps of Note – Here are a smattering of interesting apps I’ve come across from various sources:
Engagement, Equity, Evacuation Drills, Math Discourse, Parent Involvement, Staff Meeting Agenda, Title 1 | Comment (0)• Free app teaches lessons about digital citizenship – A new app aims to help students become responsible digital citizens. DigitalCitizen, by Learning.com, teaches students about online safety, the proper use of digital tools and how to handle cyberbullying through the use of games, videos and quizzes. The app is available at no charge from the Google Play and Apple store.
• Classroom Management Apps – In the School Library Journal article, “Classroom Management Tricks” by Richard Byrne, he recommends three apps that help with classroom management:• Random student name selector
• Countdown timer
• Noise regulator• Flocabulary App – Flocabulary is a collection of content-based songs and videos using hip-hop themes and catchy phrases and mnemonic devices to help students remember basic content.
That’s all for this week. Have a spooky week!
Joel