Week of April 13
Guanajuato, Mexico
What is coming up?
April 13 (M)
1:30-2:30, Title Coordinator & Principal Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
7:00-8:30, Joel to River Road Community Organization Meeting (River Road Annex)
April 14 (T)
10:15-11:15, Joel and Sara Green meet about the super-boundary (Joel’s Office)
2:50-4:50, Staff Meeting (Library)
Agenda: A Conversation about Race in Dual Language Program
6:00-7:00, Parent Group Meeting in (Room 9)
April 15 (W)
8:45-2:45, Visitors from Guanajuato, Mexico (In classrooms)
1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time
April 16 (H)
Joel out of the building- at the COSA Workshop “All Means All” with Anthony Muhammad
2:45-3:45, PBIS Meeting
April 17 (F)
Joel out of the building -at the COSA Workshop “All Means All” with Anthony Muhammad
12:00-3:00, BAW Teacher Leaders to Being a Writer Meeting (We need someone to go to this.)
12:00-3:00, 504 Training Meeting- Jaime Jones attends.
6:00-8:00, Peace Jam Conference with Rigoberta Menchu Tum- Camino del Rio Marimba Band Plays!
April 20 (M)
8:00-2:30, Fluoride Varnish Clinic at River Road
April 21 (T)
3:45-5:15, Joel to Full-Day Kindergarten Meeting (Ed Center)
April 22 (W)
Admin Professional’s Day (formerly Secretary’s Day)
Earth Day
1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time
April 23 (H)
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day
2:45-3:45, (IPBS) Mod Squad Meeting
April 24 (F)
4:00, Meet up at Hop Valley
What is going on?
• Spanish Spelling Bee A Success– This last Friday was a very exciting day for the Spanish Spelling Bee team. Those students who participated went to Forest Grove and began the competition around 10:00 AM. Leslie and Aiden represented El Camino del Rio and 4j in the competition. In addition, we had 5 other students attend. Aiden’s father, George, and Megan Murphy brought the students all the way to and from Forest Grove. Leslie was able to place in the final 12 students of the 60 or so who competed. I am so proud that our students made it to this event. This event is good for our students, our program, and providing opportunities for students to have their language skills be seen as assets in the public eye. A big thank you goes out to Hannah Golden, the Spelling Bee Coach, Megan Murphy, and the Birns family for their support. Here is an article with pictures of our team included!
Summer School Update – It is a priority for parents to hear from you about Summer School. The office needs all teachers to communicate the need for Summer School directly from you. When they hear from you it makes a huge impact on the importance of the program. Please make those calls for your students so they can take advantage of this valuable resource.
• Expo Process Update– I am proud to announce that we have made a permanent hire for our 1.0 ELL Position. Nancy Schaal McHarry will continue in her position for the next year. Nancy has done a great job in her ELL classroom and has jumped at the chance to help us integrate technology in ELD lessons, create an inclusion model in kinder, design a FLOSOM oral language proficiency model for our building, and participate in our PLT. Her team player attitude and hard work fits nicely with the changes our dual language program has made. Please congratulate her if you see her on Monday on staying with the Camino del Río team.
The 1.0 and 0.5 FTE positions in 1st and 5th grade are still open. We did not find a viable candidate on Thursday last week. If there are candidates who apply, I my attend the 2nd round of EXPO. At this time, I am actively seeking external applicants.
• Attendance Pilot is in Full Swing- This last week we sent out our second set of attendance letters. We sent 23 letters for the month of March. For this last week the attendance letter list dropped to 10 students. That is good. Parents are responding to the letters and we have seen a drop in unexcused attendance in the last couple of weeks. Soon, I will be making referrals to Mark Barr, the truancy officer. This practice will continue on a weekly basis now that the office is trained and the system is set up. We will also use this system in the Fall as well. Thank you to Yasmin for her persistence and hard work on this project.
• Guanajuato, Mexico Visit – Armando Morales will be guiding the Guanajuato students to visit our school this Wednesday. There will be 19 students and 3 teachers. They are very interested in how the United States education system works, and will be especially interested in the dual language program. Several are used to visiting a high school environment so the age level will also be new to many of them. Expect to have 2-3 guests in your classroom visiting and observing. They are all very excited to visit our school. I will begin the day with a presentation to them about how our program works.
• Staff Meeting PD Session with John Lockhart – On Friday, John and I met for a couple of hours to plan and discuss the professional development we will be having at our next staff meeting. The topic ties closely to the conversations we have had in our Taking It Up Equity meetings. We will discuss the dynamic between Anglos, Latinos, and other racial groups in the context of our dual language program. A precursory question to think about is:
“In your role, how does your cultural sense of self and others both allow you to and inhibit you from helping students of color and white students develop healthy racial identities?”
We will reflect, share observations, and formulate ideas together. The meeting will run from 2:50-4:50. You will be paid an extra hour for attendance. Carmen Urbina and Jennifer Harris will follow up with us on May 1st in the morning to help us continue the conversation.
• Lane County Family Mediation Family Check-Up – Lane County Family Mediation are offering a “Family Check-Up” program developed by the UO to provide brief, family-centered interventions that identify strengths and weaknesses in family functioning and help participants become motivated to make positive changes. The services are available to parents and their children, ages 2-17, who are members of Trillium Community Health Plan. They will conduct assessments of family interactions, encourage self-reflection, promote positive family management skills, and provide referrals to community services. Families can earn $150 (provided in gift cards) by attending three appointments, which take place over a four to five week period.
Please feel free to share this information with any interested families. I will also be sending the attached flyer to families. I did check to see if this is available for Spanish speaking families and they said it unfortunately is not at this time.
• Earth Day, April 22nd – Schools across the country will be celebrating Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22. Teach your students how to care about their world — and how they can make it better! — throughout the year with these resources from Edutopia.
• Federal lawmakers may be close to draft NCLB bill – With state testing right around the corner, I thought people might be interested to know that federal lawmakers reportedly may be getting close to a new draft bill for the rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This article offers a glimpse at some of the potential changes, including giving states more flexibility on testing requirements and expunging the language inserting “portability” of Title 1 funds (which would have been a devastating to Title 1 schools like us). The education committee is expected to mark up a bill this week.
• Downtown Admin Updates – HR Director Sarah Brown has accepted a position in Florida, her home state, as the Chief of Human Resources for Manatee County Schools. She will be leaving April 24. There has not yet been an announcement regarding who will be the interim Director of HR.
Have an good week, everyone! 39 more days!
Joel
Being a Writer, English Language Learners, Equity, PLC Collaboration Time, PLC time, Staff Meeting Agenda, Staffing, Title 1, Two Way Immersion, Uncategorized | Comment (0)