Diario Camino del Río

Week of October 26

Sylvia Duckworth has popularized the concept of grit. I think this concept applies well to language acquisition.

Hi everyone,

I spent the weekend on a wonderful trip to Ashland, Oregon with my partner Anna. This is the first time in 11 years (since we had kids) that we have gotten away on a trip together alone.  It was wonderful.  We saw “Much Ado About Nothing” which was fantastic! At the same time, I know some others on our staff spent much of the weekend in a more reflective and emotional way. Both Alexis and Nancy need your attention and support. Please keep them in your hearts during this difficult time for them and their families.

Calendar of Activities:

October 26 (M)

THE GYM IS OPEN! PE will begin in the gym on Monday.
Cafeteria will have kinders in the cafeteria this week.
7:45-8:00, Joel in Goals Meeting with teacher.
11:15-11:45, Joel Meets with Tasha about the CAP Budget.
2:45- 3:45, Site Council #2 for October  in Conference Room. (This will be an EEF Grant Writing work session.)

October 27 (U)

8:30-9:30, Cafecito #2- Joel speaks with families about the new building design. (Room 10)
9:30, Joel meets with Pedro Pacheco about the Parent Services through NAMI.
2:30-3:30, North Region CARE Team at Howard. Hypothetically talking about some ECDR students.

October 28 (W)

8:00-9:00, Joel and Mike Garling to meet Gustavo Balderas on Priority Schools
1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time in Library with Reid
6:00-8:00, La Celebracíon del Día de Los Muertos (Whole School)

October 29 (H)
10:00-11:30, Joel to Pivot architecture office for color selection meeting.
Joel attends the Equity Committee, (Ed Center)

October 30 (F)

10:00-3:00, Joel to Region 1 Priority Schools Forum (Lane ESD)

November 2 (M)

Tech Plan due to Kim Ketterer
10:00-11:00,  Joel at El Camino del Rio Infographics Meeting (Pivot Architecture)

November  3 (T)

Larry Soberman as admin. La Cosecha
Joel, Karen, Erin Reckers leave to present at La Cosecha on our school.
2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting (Cancelled)
6:00-7:00, Grupo de Padres

November 4 (W)

Larry Soberman as admin. La Cosecha
LEL at Awbrey Park- Megan attends without Joel.
4th Grade- Nearby Nature Field Trip
1:45-2:45, Wednesday PLC Collaboration Time on Math
1:45-2:45, PBIS Meeting in the Learning Center including supervising and classified staff.  (Yasmin attends part)

November 5 (U)

Larry Soberman as admin. La Cosecha
2:45-3:45, Mod Squad Meeting

November 6 (F)

Larry Soberman as admin. La Cosecha
Regular Day

November 9 (M)

No meetings. Regular day.

November 10 (T)

4:00-8:00 PM, No meetings. Conferences from 4-8 PM (Conferences will be in your classroom.)
Let me know if you need an extra person present, myself, or Jennifer.

November 11 (W)

Veteran’s Day- No School. Do not go to work. Rest.

November 12 (U)

No School. Conferences 8AM -8 PM  (Conferences will be in your classroom.)

November 13 (F)

Compensation Day. No School. No Work.
Classified Staff, if you have built up comp time hours, please turn in forms to take this day off.

November 16 (M)

2:30-5:00, Joel at Principal’s Meeting (Ed Center Parr)

November 17 (Tu)

All Day- Picture Retake Day
2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting (Library )
4:00-5:00, CAP Review with the PLT Team (Conference Room)

November 18 (W)

1:45-3:45, PLC Collaborative Time to plan math and create formative assessments.
2:40-3:40, Garden Design Meeting (Conference Room )
6:00-8:00, Spaghetti and Safety- A Parent Traffic Safety and Information Night

November 19 (Th)

2:45-3:45, Mod Squad

November 20 (F)

1:45-2:30, Kelly Band Assembly

What is happening?

•Halloween Dress and Party Guidelines
•NO masks
•NO weapons
• NO weapon-like props
• NO dress as another ethnicity or race
• NO especially scary or gory costumes (Nothing that would scare a kindergarten student)

If you are not sure about the appropriateness of a costume, please ask me. A student should not dress as another person’s race. A costume can be of a character or an individual who is of another race than your child, but not of a generalized race or ethnicity. Costumes should not be caricatures or mocking representations of any racial or ethnic group. Students will be asked to change clothes for inappropriate attire.
Pre-halloween/ Harvest Parties (No candy and all food must meet health wellness guidelines)

Be prepared to have an alternative activity for children with religious beliefs to not celebrate this holiday in school. The library can be available for your needs.

•Newsletter going out soon-  Please send any school wide news items to Edna and I no later than Monday afternoon for the November newsletter. It would be greatly appreciated if it is already translated.

• Building SMART Goals Reminder – For licensed staff, if you haven’t already, be sure to enter your SMART Goals into TalentEd by Monday November 2 at 4:00 PM. Attached are the SMART-Goal Templates for reading and math if you’d like to match most people’s cut and paste.

• Leave Balances, Payroll Info & Other Self-Service Lawson Information – Staff may not know about this resource, but you have access to all of your information such as leave balances, personal information, pay stubs, etc. through the Employee Self Help section of Lawson. If you are unsure where to find this, you just need to go to the 4J website >> Staff >> MORE STAFF LINKS >> Employee Self-Service. You can then click on the topic you are interested in and log in using you email log in information.

• Workers Compensation Claims: Staff Injuries – Risk management shared some resources that are good for staff to review. Staff should always try to incorporate safety into every activity every day and below are some easy strategies to incorporate a safety culture our daily work.

Strength and Lengthen
Elementary Safety 4 Children
Tough Caring Contract

• Immunization Exemption State Law Changes – The 4J Nursing Team shared this with building principals, but I thought staff may also be interested in this law change. The previous religious exemption to immunization has now disappeared. Those students will be considered incomplete and potentially be excluded from school in February unless they go through new steps for non-medical exemption. These families received an Auto-dial email from the district last week. There is information on the 4J Health Services website under Health Requirements immunization section that explains how parents/guardians can now claim a non-medical exemption, which includes an educational component either through a health care provider or the state vaccine education module.

• Data Team Meeting Survey due before November 2- Please take time to do this survey on students for academic concerns.  We are trying to compile this information ahead of time to use our time more efficiently. This will make for a more powerful conversation. This IIPM Online Referral Form will help us pinpoint the issues and create interventions that fit the student needs better.

•Getting Ready for Conferences- This year, it is my hope that you will try to do 3 things with your families in conferences.

1. Share and explain English and Spanish reading data with your students.

2. Briefly explain how we are trying to support students in math differently this year using the AIMS4S3 framework. Also, share ideas on how they can help with math.

3. Listen to parents. Set aside at least 5 minutes of your meeting to hear what parents have to say about their child. Really listen to them.

• A Message to all staff about reporting absences- Remember that it is ALWAYS your responsibility to enter all of your absences into the AESOP system.  For licensed staff this is a requirement whether you require a substitute or not.  This is not the responsibility of the office staff.  This reminder includes everyone on a leave of absence. If you are not sure how to complete this entry, there are training videos online at http://www.4j.lane.edu/hr/aesop-q-a-for-licensed-and-classified-staff. Classified staff will also need to enter their absences into the new Employee Self Service system in Lawson.  If you are not sure how to do this please follow up with your school Secretary. Thank you for making sure your absences are documented appropriately.

•Article about excessive testing.  Many of you have mentioned your frustrations with the amount of tests required of children in our district.  We are not alone. Children take on average 112 standardized tests in their k-12 careers.  Our nation is doing some navel gazing on this topic currently. Even Barack Obama has said we have too may tests in schools.  If you have time read this article by Yong Zhao (UO Professor) on the topic of Testing and Authoritarianism in China.  He has a may unique and strong arguments for less testing in our schools.

That is all for this week!

Saludos cordiales,

Joel

Week of October 19

Calendar of Activities:

October 19 (M)

BEST Starts
2:30-5:00, Joel at Principal’s Meeting
4:30-5:30, Joel to United Way Kick-Off (Ed Center)

October 20 (T)

8:00-11:00- LEL Orientation (Ed Center)
2:45-4:45, Staff Meeting- 2 hours, Teacher Goals and School Wide Data Analysis

October 21 (W)

1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time in the Library with TOSA Reid Sheppard
6:00-7:00, Talking with Books 1st Grade (Parent Involvement Activity)

October 22 (U)

2:45-3:45, MOD Squad (IPBS)  Room 7

October 23 (F)

Regular Day

October 26 (M)

2:45- 3:45, Site Council #2 for October  in Conference Room. (This will be an EEF Grant Writing work session.)

October 27 (U)

8:45-9:45, Cafecito #2- Joel speaks with families about the new building design. (Room 10)

October 28 (W)

8:00-9:00, Joel and Mike Garling to meet Gustavo Balderas on Priority Schools
1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time in Library with Reid
6:00-8:00, La Celebracíon del Día de Los Muertos (Whole School)

October 29 (H)

Regular Day
10:00-11:30, Joel to Pivot architecture office for color selection meeting.
Joel attends the Equity Committee, (Ed Center)

October 30 (F)

10:00-3:00, Joel to Region 1 Priority Schools Forum (Lane ESD)
Costumes are allowed. Please no masks.  No costumes that promote cultural appropriation.
Pre-halloween/ Harvest Parties (No Candy)  Be prepared to have an alternative activity for children with religious beliefs to not have this holiday in school.

November 2 (M)

Tech Plan due to Kim Ketterer
10:00-11:00,  Joel at El Camino del Rio Infographics Meeting (Pivot Architecture)

November  3 (T)

Larry Soberman as admin. La Cosecha
Joel, Karen, Erin Reckers leave to present at La Cosecha on our school.
2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting (Cancelled)
6:00-7:00, Grupo de Padres

November 4 (W)

Larry Soberman as admin. La Cosecha
LEL at Awbrey Park- Megan attends without Joel.
4th Grade- Nearby Nature Field Trip
1:45-2:45, Wednesday PLC Collaboration Time on Math
1:45-2:45, PBIS Meeting in the Learning Center including supervising and classified staff.  (Yasmin attends part)

November 5 (U)

Larry Soberman as admin. La Cosecha
2:45-3:45, Mod Squad Meeting

November 6 (F)

Larry Soberman as admin. La Cosecha
Regular Day

November 9 (M)

No meetings. Regular day.

November 10 (T)

4:00-8:00 PM, No meetings. Conferences from 4-8 PM (Conferences will be in your classroom.)
Let me know if you need an extra person present, myself, or Jennifer.

November 11 (W)

Veteran’s Day- No School. Do not go to work. Rest.

November 12 (U)

No School. Conferences 8AM -8 PM  (Conferences will be in your classroom.)

November 13 (F)

Compensation Day. No School. No Work.
Classified Staff, if you have built up comp time hours, please turn in forms to take this day off.

What is happening:

•BEST begins tomorrow – Our first day of classes at BEST are tomorrow Monday 19, at 2:40-5:30 pm. Here is the most important information necessary for office and teachers. There will also be copies of this info in the office.

• Synergy PM Attendance – Here’s a reminder for teacher to make sure you are entering your PM attendance into Synergy and not just the AM attendance. Our theory in the office is that teachers are getting busy and sometimes forgetting to enter PM attendance because everyone is entering attendance correctly sometimes but not always. Please double check that you’re getting both AM and PM when you’re entering daily attendance. I’ll let folks know this week if you miss the PM, so if you don’t hear from me that means you’re doing it right.

• Care Team Meeting Referrals – The Howard Student Care Team will be meeting next week, so let me know if any of you have student or family situations you’d like to refer.We are working with Howard and other North Region schools to support families in the area. If you can get a parent/guardian signature on the 4J Release Form (PDF or DOC), DHS will be able to do some research into the family and situation and see what services they would qualify for. One benefit of families going through the Care Team is that when they are referred for services or community resources, they will often get bumped to the top of waiting lists, whether it’s housing, family counseling or other services. Also know that you can refer “hypothetical” student or family situations if you’re unable to get a signed release form. We have one family referred, but we do have space for more.

• McKinney-Vento Report 10-2015 – If you’re interested, attached is the district-wide October McKinney-Vento Student Report. Chavez has the most McKinney-Vento students of any elementary school with 26 students and Howard and El Camino del Río are the next highest with 23 McKinney-Vento identified students.

• Sensory Processing Awareness Month! – Did you know that October is Sensory Processing Awareness Month. Follow this link for some terrific articles on “Discussing Sensory Needs: A Guide for Parents and Teachers,” “10 Calming Sensory Strategies for Schools,” “Getting to the Bottom of Sensory Behaviors” and “30 Sensory Strategies to Help Kids Pay Attention.” There’s even a free e-book titled “Sensory Processing 101.” Here is another video that was shared with me that’s a nice video titled “Autism Awareness for Elementary School Students,” which teachers may find useful for sharing with students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R6LW3czUmI

• The Growing Demand for Spanish Speaking Teachers, Solution? Puerto Rico! – 

I ran into this article on the big changes to the demographics of the United States and the insatiable  demand for dual language programs.  Spanish Speakers are in high demand. Puerto Rico has become a place for recruiting Spanish teachers that are part of the United States. This article outlines why.

• Oregon Was Founded As a Racist Utopia – Oregon is often thought of as a progressive state, but our state has a long history of racism. When Oregon was granted statehood in 1859, it was the only state in the Union admitted with a constitution that forbade black people from living, working, or owning property there. It was illegal for black people even to move to Oregon until 1926. “Whites Only” signs frequented Oregon businesses just like Jim Crow southern states. And if you thought Eugene might have been immune, take a look at the photo detail of what’s on the side of Skinner’s Butte in this 1921 photo that was posted on the Eugene Reddit recently. Oregon’s founding is part of the forgotten history of racism in the American west that’s covered in this revealing article.

• Micheal Screen’s Celebration of Life

Some of you may be thinking about ways to support Alexis in her mourning of her father. Alexis father’s Dad’s celebration of life is coming up next weekend if you would like to attend.

Micheal Screen’s Celebration of Life will be Saturday, October 24th at 1:00pm at the Northwood Christian Church. Located at
2425 Harvest Ln
Springfield, OR
(541) 746-2790

Have a good week, everyone, and enjoy the excellent video that any kid would be fascinated by: A 360 view from an Airbus Jumbo Jet! Be kind to each other and hold each other close.

Joel

Week of October 12

Calendar of Activities:

October 12 (M)

Kindergartners will eat in classrooms one more week.
4:00-6:30, Dr. Patricia Gándara visits 4J for evening event to speak on bilingual education. (Auditorium)

October 13 (T)

Fire Drill and Lock Down Practice (Mystery Time)
8:00-12:00, Vision Screening  in the Library
8:30-1:00, 4th grade Field Trip to Thistledown Farms
3:00-4:00, PLT Meeting
6:00-7:00, Grupo de Padres

October 14 (W)

8:00-8:30, Joel at Owner Architect Contractor (OAC) Meeting on the Gravel Pad

10:00, Recess Evacuation Practice to Cafeteria/ Front of School (Kinder will practice in the afternoon in their 12:35 recess time)
11:00-1:00, ODE Visit to School and Classrooms (Shanda Brown, Mike Garling, and Kathy Larson will be on the tour including classrooms.)
1:45-2:45, Teacher Collaboration Time in the Library with Reid (planning and math formative assessments are suggested topics)

3:00-4:00- Parent Meeting in Conference Room

4:00-5:00, Meeting with North Principals at Awbrey Park.
6:00-7:00, Talking with Books Kindergarten

October 15 (H)

9:00 AM, Great American Shakedown- Earthquake Drill
4:00-6:00, CLLAS Latinos in Education Event with Patricia Gandara, Gustavo Balderas, Edward Olivos. (University of Oregon Knight Library)

October 16 (F)

The gym reopens for PE and school wide use.  (400 person capacity)

PICTURE DAY
Room Clear Practice by classroom teachers throughout the day.

October 19 (M)

BEST Starts (Tentative)

2:30-5:00, Joel at Principal’s Meeting

October 20 (T)

2:45-4:45, Staff Meeting- 2 hours, Teacher Goals and School Wide Data Analysis

October 21 (W)

1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time in the Library with TOSA Reid Sheppard
6:00-7:00, Talking with Books 1st Grade

October 22 (U)

2:45-3:45, MOD Squad (IPBS)  Room 7

October 23 (F)

Regular Day

October 26 (M)

2:45- 3:45, Site Council #2 for October  in Conference Room. (This will be an EEF Grant Writing work session.)

October 27 (U)

8:45-9:45, Cafecito #2- Joel speaks with families about the new building design. (Room 10)

October 28 (W)

1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time in Library with Reid
6:00-8:00, La Celebracíon del Día de Los Muertos (Whole School)

October 29 (H)

Regular Day

October 30 (F)

Costumes are allowed. Please no masks.  No costumes that promote cultural appropriation.

Pre-halloween/ Harvest Parties  These are Ok. Anyone want to do a parade?

November 3,4,5,6- Karen, Erin, Kathy L. and Joel to New Mexico to share our progress as a school in implementing a dual language program at La Cosecha National Conference.

November 10 & 12 are Conference Days.- Plan ahead.

What is happening?

Here is a list of several activities and announcements for the week.

• Safety Week This Week –Here is a list of all of our   School Wide Safety Drill Procedures  that you will find helpful to read for the week.  I will also send the little bits out as an email to staff to be prepared for each type of safety procedure necessary for that day.

• Building SMART Goals – Attached are the detailed SMART Goals Template (reading & math for student growth goals and AIMS4S3 implementation for the professional practice goal).  These are goals you could use within Talent Ed. You can cut and paste from this document into the “Goals Development Form” in TalentEd. Teachers are welcome to develop your own goals, though our building PD and some district PD will be geared towards to these topics, so using these goals may make folks’ lives a little bit easier. I have cleared my schedule to meet with teachers this Thursday and Friday throughout the day.  Larry Soberman will be here to cover the office and handle discipline.  Edna also called a sub to cover teachers classes for 20 minute stints on both days. This allows most of us to complete goals drafts this week.

Observation Cycle:  The observation cycle has changed to more of an on-year/off-year cycle, so for those of you on the observation year cycle this year, I’ll pair the “Standards Overview Conference” with an informal observation sometime this month or next. I’ll just drop by classrooms for these, though you can feel free to suggest a time if you’d prefer. For teachers on the off-year cycle, I’ll set up a time to meet with you or with your grade level team if you’d rather.

• HMH Reader App – For those of you with iPads (including teacher iPads), 4J has placed their orders for the HMH Reader app this past week, which is where you can get access to the leveled readers, so hopefully we’ll have them available to teachers and staff very soon. At this point, 4J is just waiting for HM to activate the accounts, though it may take some time set the app on iPads, but they should be available through ThinkCentral right away.

• School and District Report Card Release – School and district report cards will be publicly released on Thursday, October 15. The public will be able to access report cards on the ODE Report Card webpage. While much of the content of report cards will look the same, there are a few significant differences to note this year. Most importantly, school report cards will not contain an overall school rating or a comparison school rating. As this is a transitional year with the move to Smarter Balanced, ODE requested and received approval from the U.S. Department of Education to pause the report card ratings for one year. Ratings will resume on the October 2016 report cards. The report card will still contain assessment results – both for Smarter Balanced tests and the OAKS science assessment – however, there will only be one year of data for the new English Language Arts and Math assessments as this past year’s results represent a new baseline.

• No SBAC Interim Assessments – At last week’s TAG Coordinator training, Kerri Sage shared that the national company behind Smarter Balanced, AIR, will only work with states and ESDs for the interim assessments. This year AIR said ESDs need have at least 75,000 students within your ESD catchment to do get the interim assessments, which is less than what we have in Lane County. The only other option is to pay individually, which is more than the ESD or 4J can afford.

• Free UO International Cultural Service Program (ICSP) Presentations – The UO International Cultural Service Program (ICSP) invites teachers to request international UO students to visit your classrooms. What is ICSP? ICSP brings together a select group of University of Oregon international students to provide the Eugene/Springfield and surrounding communities with valuable cross-cultural exchange. ICSP students come from all over the globe and are available upon request to give presentations about their home country and culture. Read more at the ICSP website. You can submit a request by filling out this online form. If at any time you have questions, please feel free to contact the ICSP Coordinator, Sophie Patterson, by email icsp@uoregon.edu or phone (541) 346-7429.

• Art of Survival Exhibit: Enduring the Turmoil of Tule Lake – Wayne Morse U.S. Courthouse in Eugene – This is a extraordinary opportunity for staff and students and an important history lesson about Japanese Internment Camps in the US during WWII. Attached is a letter from Chief Judge Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court in Eugene inviting you and your students to view the Tule Lake exhibit currently on display in the U.S. Courthouse in Eugene. It is open to the public from October 5 through November 30, 2015. Also attached are elementary teachers guides.

• Emerald Park Art Bus – Emerald park gave us postcards to put in teacher mailboxes, but for all staff, Emerald Park is bringing back an old-fashioned art bus, which can come to schools or school events to provide art lessons. They’re still developing how they will bring the Imagination Bus to schools. Dale Weigandt and I discussed  possibly doing an Artist in Residence model, coming into classrooms for lessons (since their bus only holds 22 students at a time). Hopefully there will be more to come on this, but they are holding a dedication & tour of the bus this Thursday at 4:30 if you’d like to tell your students or even come yourself. This is a very nice and valuable resource for us in the River Road Community.

• Reconsider Columbus Day – With Columbus Day this Monday, it’s good to consider what stories our students have learned about Columbus? Chances are they’re incomplete. Amanda Morris has some suggestions for telling a more accurate story in this Teaching Tolerance article.

• Grant Opportunities – THE Journal is a technology education focused website I subscribe to and they always post grant opportunities in their daily email newsletters. I recently checked their website and they actually have a pretty extensive list of K-12 grant opportunities, mostly focused around STEM topics, ranging from smaller $500 grants to ones for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It could be a great resource for those of you wanting to find a little extra funding for that next project.

• Emotionally Healthy Kids – Cognitive science tells us that students’ emotions affect their motivation, attention span, memory, behavior, and, ultimately, their academic achievement. Yet anxiety and stress among students seem to be on the rise. How can educators help all students deal with their emotions to enhance learning? See this issue of ASCDExpress for a series of articles on this topic.

• Supporting Success of EA Substitutes – Karen Harden sent an email to principals and secretaries to share with classified staff in what you can do to help EA substitutes:

“Dear Administrators and Secretaries –

As you all are aware, we continue to struggle to have all of our substitute educational assistant absences filled. We will continue to hire substitutes, but it is not solely an issue of numbers. Currently we have 158 educational assistant substitutes in AESOP. This number is substantially more than the number of vacancies on any given day. We recently sent out a survey to our substitute EA’s to ask what barriers they see in their work.

• There were a few areas that CLEARLY stood out from their responses. I want to share those with you because you can help!!
• Many of them mention that when they get to the assignment, there are not substitute notes for them. They would feel more prepared to support students and staff if they had notes similar to those left for Guest Teachers (schedule, appropriate student information, basic school info, etc). If they feel successful at your building and in the assignment, they are more likely to return as well as speak highly of your program. I suggest you ask your EA’s to prepare substitute folders for their substitutes.
• Remember that for any assignment of more than 2 hours, you need to provide a 15 minute break. Comments in the survey share that many are not given scheduled to receive the required break. Please refer to the information HR shared at the training in August (I have attached a copy to this email).
• There was also frequent frustration with arriving at a school to have the assignment changed from that which they accepted in AESOP. Please keep substitute’s in the assignment they are assigned. If you have a particularly difficult student situation, and to support the success of students and your program you KNOW you will be adjusting the assignment, please make not of it in AESOP so that substitute knows what they are accepting. This will help them feel prepared and successful too!

The other issue that was frequently mentioned had to do with training. Human Resources will continue to explore ways to provide training to help them feel more prepared for their work. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I would appreciate hearing them.

Thank you for your attention to this important information. Please feel free to share this directly with your staff.

Have a good week – Karen

Karen M. Hardin, Human Resources
Recruitment, Retention, Equity and Staff Development Administrator”

There are some great things going on in classrooms I have observed lately.  Keep it up. And if you have not had a chance to “fill someone’s basket” in the staff lounge, I encourage you to do so this week. It is fun and fullfilling.

Thanks everyone,

Joel

Week of October 5

Hello El Camino del Río Staff,

Did you know  that this past Friday was “Custodial Worker Day,” an annual celebration where we pay tribute to those women and men who work tirelessly to clean and maintain our buildings on a daily basis. El Camino del Río is lucky to have a very hardworking custodial team with Craig and Dan, so I want to give them a belated recognition of all their hard work to make our sweet old brick schoolhouse look great! Both Craig and Dan do so many things that directly effect students daily lives beyond cleaning.  It is a gift to work with them each day.

Calendar of Events:

October 5 (M)

11:00-11:30,  Parent Walk a Thon Meeting (Conference Room)
2:45-3:45, Site Council Meeting  (Conference Room)

October 6 (T)

8:30-9:00, Joel gives family tour.
(Most of the Day) 4th Grade Field Trip- Thistledown Farms (Murphy)
2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting (Team Building and Cohesiveness in times of stress and grief.)
October 7 (W)

10:00-11:00,  Joel with Kevin Boling in Truancy Hearing (Conference Room)
1:30-2:00, Joel meets with Randi Bowers Payne about Traffic
1:45-2:45, PBIS Meeting (All Classified Staff Attend) (Room 8)
1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration time for all teachers not on PBIS.
6:00- 8:00 PM, Curriculum and Ice Cream Event (Child care provided for young children in library.)  (Ice Cream in Cafeteria at the end of the evening.)

October 8 (H)

9:00-2:00,Walk A Thon all day. Students will be bused to the Kelly track in 1 hour intervals from 9:00-1:15.
2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting (Room 7)
6:00-8:00, NEHS Latino Advisory Parent Meeting

October 9 (F)

No School, State wide In-service Day
Licensed Staff – Non-Contract Day
Classified Staff – Regular Work Day
5:00-8:00 PM, OALA Social Event at UO. Dr. Gustavo Balderas to speak.  Contact me if you would like to attend. Staff who identify as Latino Hispanic are encouraged to attend. All are welcome.

October 12 (M)

The gym reopens for PE and school wide use.  (400 person capacity)
Dr. Patricia Gándara visits 4J for evening event to speak on bilingual education.

October 13 (T)

Fire Drill and Lock Down Practice (Mystery Time)
8:00-12:00, Vision Screening  in the Library
8:30-1:00, 4th grade Field Trip to Thistledown Farms
3:00-4:00, PLT Meeting
6:00-7:00, Grupo de Padres

October 14 (W)

10:00, Recess Evacuation Practice to Cafeteria/ Front of School
11:00-1:00, ODE Visit to School and Classrooms
1:45-2:45, Teacher Collaboration Time in the Library (planning and math formative assessments are suggested topics)
6:00-7:00, Talking with Books Kindergarten

October 15 (H)

9:00 AM, Great American Shakedown- Earthquake Drill
4:00-6:00, CLLAS Latinos in Education Event with Patricia Gandara, Gustavo Balderas, Edward Olivos. (University of Oregon Knight Library)

October 16 (F)

PICTURE DAY
Room Clear Practice by classroom teachers throughout the day.

October 19 (M)

2:30-5:00, Joel at Principal’s Meeting

October 20 (T)

2:45-4:45, Staff Meeting- 2 hours, Teacher Goals and School Wide Data Analysis

October 21 (W)

1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time in the Library with TOSA Reid Sheppard
6:00-7:00, Talking with Books 1st Grade

October 22 (U)

2:45-3:45, MOD Squad (IPBS)  Room 7

October 23 (F)

Regular Day

October 26 (M)

2:45- 3:45, Site Council #2 for October  in Conference Room.

October 27 (U)

8:45-9:45, Cafecito #2- Joel speaks with families about the new building design. (Room 10)

October 28 (W)

1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time in Library
6:00-8:00, La Celebracíon del Día de Los Muertos (Whole School)

October 29 (H)

Regular Day

October 30 (F)

Costumes are allowed. Please no masks.  No costumes that promote cultural appropriation.

Pre-halloween/ Harvest Parties  These are Ok. Anyone want to do a parade?

November 10 & 12 are Conference Days.- Plan ahead.

What is happening?

• Literacy Leader Opportunity:

• Hour of Code, December 7-13! – This is a great experience for our students and will help more students see how to use technology to create! If you’d like your class to participate, you can register on Code.org’s the Hour of Code website, where you’ll find resources including self guided tutorials (K-5) that you can simply have your students start these tutorials and you’ll have your students coding! Every participating classroom will receive a thank-you gift and you can win $10,000 for our school. Sign up now to hear first about more prizes and new Hour of Code tutorials coming soon!

• 17 Ways to Help Students With ADHD Concentrate – Research shows that students with ADHD can concentrate better when they’re allowed to fidget (here’s that study). But what if this becomes a distraction for the rest of the class? Edutopia received hundreds of Facebook comments from teachers, parents, and students with great ideas for letting students quietly fidget, and here are some of their favorites.

• Title 1 Newsletter – Here is the latest district level Title 1 Newsletter that went out to Title 1 Coordinators and principals. This month’s newsletter is all coordinator specific information and tasks, but feel free to check it out if you’d like to see what Aline is up to. As many of you know, she is working very hard to serve  an unprecedented number of students in two languages.

• Bus Safety Training Requirement – Lori sent this information out earlier, but the state requires all students to receive instruction on bus safety by the end of December. To meet the requirement, teachers can order a bus and driver to come out one day to provide instruction to classes or teachers can also meet the requirement by showing the bus safety video The Safest Way Out. Once you have completed your chosen method of meeting the requirement, please let Edna know the date and the training method used. On a side note, I’m slightly amused the Transportation Department just this year took off the VHS and 16mm bus safety films recommendations.

• Full-time Spring Student Teachers from Oregon International Internship Program – A repeat from a couple weeks ago, the UO Oregon International Internship Program (OIIP) is still looking for placements in 4J for student teachers from China. These interns are very high quality and will truly enrich our students with cross cultural sharing. Interns would work full-time, beginning in February through the end of the year, and can provide classroom management support, individual instruction to students, lead group activities, or other assigned tasks. If any of you are interested in having an extra hand in your classroom second semester, see the attached flyer and contact Mandy Gettler at the UO by phone (541) 346-1773 or by email mandyl@uoregon.edu.

That is it for the record. Have a fulfilling week.

Joel