Diario Camino del Río

Week of April 25, 2016

Hi Everyone,

This Wednesday is Administrative Professionals’ Day, and I’d like to take a moment to recognize our excellent office staff, Myka and Yasmin, and thank them for all they do to keep our school running and also for the many things they do during the day that often go unnoticed and unappreciated. They have amazing skills and do it all bilingually. We’re all very lucky to have you here at Camino del Río!

 

Some items of note for the week:

• Friday, May 6th PD/Planning Day – Not this week, but next week will be a district PD/Planning day. There aren’t any required district training sessions this day, so we’ll meet here in the building at 8:00 to complete our final day of AIMS4SCubed training with Lisa Meyer.  She will help us put all the pieces together and  help us see how much we have accomplished this year.

Reciprocal Visits with Guy Lee Elementary – We have started a project with Springfield School District to collaborate between our dual language programs.  Mike Garling has helped us design these visits after his rural schools project initiative. Guy Lee and Camino del Río have a special opportunity to learn from each other and help each other to improve our programs.

OAC Construction Meetings officially begin on Wednesday April 27- Well, we are very close to construction season.  Our meeting this week will focus on the beginning stages of construction and setting up the breaking ground time for the school construction. Its about to get busy and noisy on the west side of the school. We are about one week from full construction mode.

• Classroom Spending and Reimbursement Deadlines – May 10th will be the last day for district credit card use or purchase orders against the general fund (stuff I might buy for out of building funds). May 25th will be the last day for district credit card use when coming out of student body funds (i.e. PTO teacher funds or grant funds). The deadline for staff reimbursements out of student body will be June 15th.  If you need to know your balances, please check with Myka.

• Fire Drill, April 27th at 12:00 – Our last scheduled fire drill was rained out, so we’ll try again this Wednesday, April, 27th at 12:00. If it’s raining at that time, I’ll wait for a break in the weather and try to squeeze it in before Friday afternoon.

 

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Week of April 18

 

Here are some of the most important items of the week:

• TalentEd Tasks Update – I need to correct myself from last week on the End-of-Cycle Goals Reflection. I do see teacher comments on this section. I also had some questions from teachers regarding goals since most people are using the spring benchmark as their end of year measure, I wanted to say that it’s okay to go ahead and do your reflection now and use the winter benchmark or other measures as an indicator of progress towards your goal. And like I said last week, I’d encourage teachers to begin working on the End-of-Cycle Goals Reflection sooner than later. Let me know if you have any questions on any of this or need any help with TalentEd.

• EEF Grant Applications Reminder – EEF sent an email reminder to principals that grant applications are due soon. We will be meeting in Site Council tomorrow  Monday the , April 18th for Site Council approval (final grants need to be emailed to EEF by April 30th).  So far I’ve received two $2,000 grant proposals for $2,000 one is for library books by Joy Marshall and Edith Gomez, the other is from Karen Ramirez Gutierrez for the Math Software IXL.  We will prioritize these grants on Monday at 3:00 PM. If others come later, I will reconvene site council to re-prioritize the grants. Grants most favored focus on Arts, Literacy, and STEM, as do proposals that serve the greatest number of students. For technology focused grants (EEF has stopped funding hardware requests), EEF said they will only consider tech related grants if they have been coordinated with Kim Ketterer. If you are submitting a grant, be sure to use the linked EEF Application DOC file instead of the old online application on their website. Let me know if you have any questions or would like help with any potential grants.

 

• Fire Drill, April 27th at 12:00 – Our planned fire drill last week got rained out, so we’ll try again next week on Wednesday, April, 27th at 12:00.

• 2016-2017 PE/Music Update – We do not yet have our official allocation or specialist job assignments for this yet, but I did get the official word that there will be an increase in specialist and prep time next year so that full-time classroom teachers will get three 30 minute preps per week all year long. This will be done by adding music specialist time once a week to the PE semester and continuing to have PE once a week during the music semester. Also, and I’ve shared this before, the current plan is for all schools to flip flop which specialist they start the year off with next year, meaning that we’ll have PE first semester and primarily Music second semester.

• Artist in Residence Scheduling  – I have begun to create an artist in residence schedule for Mid May.  The Artist session will run from May 16-June 6. Maiya Becker will be our recycled artist specialist for the month. She and I have been talking about how to run the sessions.  I will be working closely with her to coordinate these assignments and send out a rough draft this week. If you have field trips planned but have not shared them with Myka yet , please do so quickly I want to avoid conflicts during this session. The grant we received paid for three 45 minutes sessions with each classroom. This did leave some flexibility in our three week window, so let me know if you see any issues with your times or if you have times that would work better than what’s on the schedule.

 

• Care Team Referrals – The Student Care Team will be meeting next week, which means referrals to the team are due this Friday. Linked here is the 4J Release Form (PDF or DOC) if you can obtain a parent or guardian signature, but you can also refer “hypothetical” student or family situations. Let me know if you have any potential referrals or questions.

• District Admin Updates – Molly Hammans has been named principal of Early College & Career Options (ECCO) next year. She is currently an assistant principal at Churchill High School. Molly has served as a CLC EA at Kelly; taught math, English language arts and social studies at Monroe; and completed administrative internships at Monroe and Holt. Greg Borgerding has been appointed as principal of Churchill High School next year. Greg currently serves as principal of Spencer Butte Middle School. He has been a middle school principal for the past five years. Before that, Greg was focused on the high school level, including overseeing CTE and AVID programs as a district director, serving as a high school assistant principal, and teaching high school English language arts.

• Supporting Critical thinking Through Philosophical Inquiry, May 20th & 21st – On May 20th and 21st at the Ed Center there will be a public forum for teachers, students, parents and administrators. Participants will have an opportunity to participate in philosophical discussions with kids and to take away useful strategies for leading critical thinking across the curriculum. See the linked flyer and scheduled for details. Also linked here is a 4-minute video about what the UO program.

• Earth Day, Friday, 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.

 

• Teaching Gifted Kids To Explain Their Thinking – It’s a weird trap: because a child is “so smart,” everyone thinks any gaps in their skills are a result of laziness or defiance. But sometimes the brightest kid needs small group instruction for a skill the rest of the class already gets. See this post from Byrdseed (a blog I quite like dedicated to better understanding gifted learners) for more on this topic.

 

Schedule of Events for the Week

April 18 (M)

7:30-8:00, End of Cycle Goals Conference

8:30-9:00, End of Cycle Goals Conference

11:00-3:00, Joel at district office for meeting at Ed Center

3:00-4:00, Site Council Meeting
6:30-7:30, Superintendent Meeting w/North Region Families (NEHS)

April 19 (T)

7:45-8:20, IEP Pre-planning meeting (Conference Room)

11:00-11:30, Summative Evaluation Meeting  (Conference Room)

2:30-3:30, Title 1 Visitation from Tasha (Aline attends)

1:30-3:00, 4th Grade Garden Project- M. Murphy (Front of School)

2:45-4:45, Staff Meeting (Library)

April 20 (W)

9:00-10:30, Joel at the Immersion Principals Task Force (Ed Center Tower Room)

12:00-1:00, Blazers Grant Writing Session (Joel’s Office)

1:45-2:45, PLC Planning Time – Math Focus (Library)

1:45-2:45, ELD Meeting with 2nd Grade  (Room 9)

3:30-4:00, End of Cycle Goals Meeting
April 21 (H)

Life Touch Group Photo Day

9:00-9:30, Joel doing school tour.

8:30-12:00, LCC Dental Clinic Visit #2

2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting MOD SQUAD! (Room 7 )

3:00-4:00, Furniture Tour at Howard (Design Team)

3:45-5:15, Kindergarten Teacher Monthly Meeting (El Camino del Rio Library)

April 22 (F)

All Day- Jones & Randall classes to the ZOO

Earth Day

12:00-1:00, Culturally empowered literacy Project with UO (5th Grade)

9:00-11:00, Joel at PDAT (Proyecto Juntos)  Meeting in Springfield PS

April 25 (M)

8:00-9:30, Joel at meeting downtown (Ed Center)

10:30-11:00, Joel in Summative Meeting (Principal’s office)

2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

April 26 (T)

3:00, Joel in Summative Meeting  (Principal’s Office at ECDR)
April 27 (W)
Administrative Professionals Day (formerly Secretaries Day)
12:00, Fire Drill

1:45-2:45, PLC Team Time, Math Focus

1:45-2:45, 1st Grade ELD Planning 2016-2017
2:30-3:30, Care Team Meeting (Howard Staff Room) Jennifer and Joel attend.

April 28 (H)

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day

7:30-8:00, End of Cycle Goals Conference

8:45-9:30, Venezuelan Opera Concert  (Whole School in Cafeteria) SBAC Cancelled (9:00 AM Session)

April 29 (F)

No events scheduled.

It’s going to be a sunny week!

Joel

 

 

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Week of April 11

Hello Shining Stars,

Last week the Carrying Forward Seminar trained many staff members to begin to see race in their classrooms. We now have an entire classroom teacher staff trained in this work. Our specialists are mostly trained as well.  The classified staff is +50% trained including most EA’s.  It is our goal to have the entire staff trained by next Spring, including office staff, cafeteria, and custodial staff. This is good news.  I am extremely proud of our staff and their willingness to step up and engage in these conversations and anti-racist initiatives. With that said, our work has just begun in the area of race.  Each day we must push ourselves to be aware and interrupt things we see in our community that we feel needs to change.  In order to do that we have to be comfortable to communicate with each other and support each other in this work.

Here are some items of the week:

• TalentEd Tasks Reminder – I’ve sent emails to individual licensed staff members who are missing or overdue on required items in TalentEd. Every licensed employee, regardless of where you are in the evaluation cycle, whether you’re Temp, Probationary, Contract Year-1 or Year-2, will need complete the End-of-Cycle Goals Reflection and schedule a time to meet with me. I have already had about 8 of these meetings. This form, like the start of the year Self Evaluation form, is something I don’t have access to see, but only see whether you completed it or not. I would encourage teachers to begin working on the End-of-Cycle Goals Reflection sooner than later. You can add Easy CBM Data as soon as it is complete and submit. Please let me know if you have any questions on any of this or need any help with TalentEd.

Book lovers seek treasure in annual Eugene library fundraiser: A big thanks to Joy Marshall, Edith Gomez, and Aline Baissic for their hard work collecting books for our library from the Friends of Eugene Book Fair. This last weekend when the Friends of Eugene Library held this book sale, they allowed us to collect as many leftover books as we could find to add to our library for free.  This is a very generous gift for us and invaluable to support our circulation. A big thank you is in order to Edith, Aline and Joy for supporting our library.

 

• Care Team Referrals – The Student Care Team will be meeting soon, which means referrals to the team are due Friday next week. The Care Team can help with a wide variety of stations. The DHS Self Sufficiency Program staff can also provide us with updates for any reports we’ve made. Linked here is the 4J Release Form (PDF or DOC) if you can obtain a parent or guardian signature, but you can also refer “hypothetical” student or family situations. Let me know if you have any questions about potential referrals, but if it’s a situation that’s on your mind, it’s probably a worth referring to the team.

• 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 School Calendars – In my 16 years in 4J, this is the first time I’ve seen the district put out the school calendar for the next TWO years, with the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 School Calendars! As a building, this will certainly help us in planning out our Professional Development plan for the next 3-years. It will also help families in our community know really far ahead of time when there is no school.

Eugene School Board approves $22.7 million construction bid for new River Road school-
Well, it’s official!  We have a contract to build. Read this Register Guard article for more details.  The design is ready to go and we have a contractor ready to begin building our new building.  I do not have details on the start date but it will definitely begin before April is over. Dexter Rummel is the site manager who works with the contractor and communicates with us about these details.  He and I will be in contact next week to give you the latest information on this exciting new development.

 

• Schedule of Events for the Week

April 11 (M)
National Library Week
National Volunteer Week (AKA Volunteer Appreciation Week)
9:00-2:40, Visitors from Guanajuato
9:00-9:30, Joel in informal observations.
9:30-10:00, Joel and Aline Meet about Parent Involvement.
11:45-12:15, Joel in an Informal Observation
12:30-1:00, Joel in an Informal Observation
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

April 12 (T)

7:30-8:00, Summative Meeting
8:00-2:45, DATA TEAM IIPM
9:30-1:00, LCC Dental Clinic Visit
10:15-11:00ish- Cafecito with Parents (Joel and Alicia)   in FRC.
3:00-4:00, PLT Meeting
4:00-5:00, Joel Meets with Aline about 2016 -2017 Master Schedule
6:00-7:00, Grupo de Padres

April 13 (W)
8:00-4:00, Karen and Joel out at OLN Conference until 4:00 PM
9:00-1:30, Nikita Brougher’s Class on Field Trip to JC School House and Emerald Park.
1:45-2:45, PLC Time in the Library- Math Assessment Focus except for 3rd Grade ELD Meeting
4:00-5:00, Joel Hosts North Region Principal’s Meeting (El Camino del Río Library)

April 14 (H)

7:30-8:00, Summative Meeting
12:00-12:20, Fire Drill
3:00-4:00, Karen’s Baby Shower

April 15 (F)

9:00-11:00, Joel at  Culturally Relevant Parent Curriculum Planning Meeting at Ed Center

ATTENTION:

2:00-2:15, School Wide Recess-  All teachers EAs and Students on the Playground for 15 minutes.  This is a reward for fundraising.

April 16 (S)
9:00-12:30, North Region Kindergarten Orientation (NEHS)
10:30-12:00, 4J Future Chefs Competition (Sheldon HS)

April 18 (M)

8:30- Summative Meeting
11:00, Summative Meeting
3:00-4:00, Site Council- EEF Grant Writing Session and Parent Involvement Report
6:30-7:30, Superintendent Meeting w/North Region Families (NEHS)

April 19 (T)

9:00-11:00, Immersion Task Force Meeting
12:00-1:00 PM Flores Dunk Tank  Reward for Fundraising  (1st Grade only Invited)
2:30-3:30, Title Visit from Tasha Katsuda
2:45-4:45, Staffing Meeting (Library)
6:00-7:30, ACE Awards (Hult Center)

April 20 (W)

Wednesday Collaboration Time- Math Assessment Focus except 2nd grade ELD Planning Meeting

April 21 (H)

Life Touch Group Photo Day
LCC Dental Clinic Visit #2
3:45-5:15, Kindergarten Teacher Monthly Meeting (River Road)
3:00-4:00, Furniture Meeting Library

April 22 (F)

Joel out to do Teacher Effectiveness Write Ups
2nd Grade Zoo Trip (Out All Day)

Earth Day

Upcoming Community Events:

180 Prince Lucien Cambell (PLC) Hall

This is designed for kids!  Invite families to go.
Cuentos para Dormir (Bedtime stories by deported parents) is an original book series of children’s books written by deported Mexican parents living in Tijuana, BC, Mexico. The have reached national and international attention for their uniqueness and their purpose. The books were written during the spring and summer of 2015 and were published in late 2015. There are 7 books in the series and the Department of Education Studies has acquired two sets of the books. The UO is the first university in the nation to have these books.

Lecture by Sophia Sobko, the teacher who helped the parents from DREAMers Moms USA/Tijuana with the writing process and the publishing of the books. In addition, the parents will be broadcast in from Tijuana, Mexico to discuss their books and to discuss issues of deportation and family separation. There will be a binational book reading with students from the Colegio de la Frontera Norte and the DREAMers Moms organization. In addition, a set of books will be given to UO libraries for check out.

Have a good week, everyone!

Joel

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Week of April 4

Hello Estrellas Brillantes,

This last week I was very proud of our teaching staff. The work we did together on peer observation raised the level of quality in instruction several fold. In addition, we are getting noticed as a progressive group of educators. The activities, methods, and focus on instruction that we have is looked upon by district level staff with great interest and possible as a model of adult professional culture. THIS is where we want to be!  We are supporting our emerging bilinguals and Spanish learners with a very high quality education and things are coming together for them. Thank you for your hard work to make this program the best dual language program in the Willamette Valley.  We have many talented staff here at El Camino del Río, so it’s always nice to see some of our staff getting district-wide recognition.

That being said, now is the time to support our intermediate staff. They have been working hard all school year. Now, our students are about to enter SBAC Testing. Please rally behind them and give them the support they deserve.  State testing is a stressful time for both the students and their teachers.  Lend a hand and give support to this amazing group of teachers.

Here are some news items and resources of note:

• Charis McGaughy, 4J Assistant Superintendent, Visiting Howard Tuesday – Charis, our Assistant Superintendent, is visiting El Camino del Río on Tuesday from 12:45-2:40. Just like when Gustavo visited in December, Charis doesn’t need to attend a staff meeting and will instead walk around un-escorted after meeting with me for a quick check-in, so don’t be surprised if Charis stops by your classroom.

• Staffing Update –  I was told Gustavo has indicated that no additional staffing will be added until late June (if any) and later in August or start of the year. We will have Katie Hynes Petty (0.6 FTE) back next year as well was Michelle Williams as our EA for 4.5 hours. We are still waiting for official music and PE staffing though I am guessing that we will maintain David Adee in our building year long. I think this also means we should wait to tell families next year’s class lists until Fall rather than the start of  Summer.  This has actually been our practice the last three years. Waiting would also allow us to re-balance classes for move-ins and move-outs over the summer. However, we should make our class lists this Spring before leaving for the Summer.

• Draft 4J School Calendar, 2016-2017 – This isn’t official yet, but linked here the DRAFT 4J School Calendar for the 2016-2017 school year that was in the last School Board minutes. Tuesday, August 30th will be the first day back for most staff. Students will start on the Wednesday, September 7th, the week of Labor Day. There are three district PD Days scheduled in January, April and May. Once the district calendar is official and approved by the School Board, we’ll start building our meeting calendar for the following year. I have been hearing that Science will be the main focus for PD on the District days so we will have a discussion about how to implement PD this year with academy days and some other possible strategies.

• Weyerhaeuser Community Giving Grants – Weyerhaeuser is accepting grant applications now through August 31, 2016. The minimum grant amount awarded is $1,000. For those of you writing larger EEF grants, which you need to tell me about before the April Site Council meeting, you can mostly cut-and-paste your EEF grant into the Weyerhaeuser grant along with some additional information they ask for which I can provide to anyone wanting to apply. Just let me know if any of you are applying and need that additional info.

• Field Trip Reminders – With field trip season fast approaching, Risk Management wanted to share a few important reminders:

• The field trip guide is available on the Google Risk Handbook (look for revisions in the Fall);
• Non-Local trip forms must be completed and approved prior to taking the trip;
• The chaperone guide is also available on the Google Risk Handbook.

Please spend some time reviewing the handbook and you’ll find many valuable resources. Let me know if you have any questions.

• Local Apple Event: Enhancing Teaching and Learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) – At the Ed Center on Wednesday, May 11 from 2:30-4:00, Apple will be presenting a free hands-on event where you’ll see how educators can use iPad and Mac laptops to create and deliver engaging STEM content. Follow this link to register. And you’ll learn how digital content can personalize learning and help students of all learning styles grasp challenging concepts. Participants will:

• Use a range of engaging STEM apps on iPad that enable anytime learning.
• Explore a variety of Multi-Touch textbooks and learning materials available for iPad.
• Learn how educators are using iTunes U, an ever-growing collection of free educational resources, to deliver an amazing array of interactive STEM content.
• Experience a variety of tools for developing STEM projects for your students.
• Discover why iPad and Mac are the ideal tools for creating and sharing STEM content.
• Don’t miss this opportunity to discover how Apple products can enhance STEM learning.

• District Title 1 Newsletter – Here is the latest district level Title 1 Newsletter that went out to Title 1 Coordinators and principals. As usual, this month’s newsletter is mostly coordinator specific information and tasks, but there is an interesting TEDTalk by Peter Benson entitled “Sparks: How Youth Thrive.” Dr. Peter Benson shares the idea that sparks (a child’s hope, meaning and a purpose are in life) will impact his or her future.

• District Admin Updates – As I shared earlier, Tom Maloney, current principal at Camas Ridge, will retire in June. Wes Flinn, current principal next-door at Kelly Middle School, will replace Tom as principal of Camas Ridge. In addition to being a South region parent himself, Wes has a passion for project-based learning, which is an important component of the Camas Ridge program. Juan Cuadros, principal at Buena Vista, will be Kelly’s new principal. Juan is a veteran bilingual/bicultural school leader with dual language program expertise, middle school experience, and even relationships with some Kelly families since he stepped in as River Road/El Camino del Río principal in 2013–14. This leaves building principal vacancies at Buena Vista, Cal Young and Churchill.

• Google Kid Safe Search Engine: Kiddle – Although certainly not foolproof, Kiddle is a visual search engine for kids that is powered by Kiddle editors and Google’s safe search, allowing kids to do a Web, images, news or video searches. Once a child enters a query into the search bar, Kiddle will pull up a list of related links. The first one to three results will include safe sites and pages that are written specifically for kids that are handpicked and checked by the editors. The next four to seven results will feature sites that include content that is written in simple language so that young children are able to comprehend what they are researching. These too are handpicked and checked by the editors. Results eight and onward include sites written for adults that are still filtered by Google safe search but are a bit harder for children to comprehend.

• Bloom’s, SAMR, and Beyond: A Practical Guide for Tech Integration – Using technology to redefine learning tasks and get students engaged in higher-order thinking need not be a lock-step progression through pedagogical frameworks. Discover user-friendly tips in this ASCD article to get students choosing how to creatively showcase their knowledge.

Schedule of Events for the Next Two Weeks

April 4 (M)

7:30-8:00- Joel in Summative Meeting

3:00-3:30, Joel in Summative Meeting

3:30, Joel meets with parent.
4:00-5:00, Joel to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

5:00-6:00, Joel and Myka meet on finance.

April 5 (T)

9:00-11:15-SBAC testing begins.

7:30-8:00- Joel in Summative Meeting
12:40-2:40, Charis McGaughy, 4J Assistant Superintendent, Visiting ECDR

2:55-3:45, Staff Meeting

3:45-  Joel in Summative Meeting with at teacher.

Agenda-

1. ALICE Debrief and next steps (25 minutes)

2. Professional Development Planning for 16-17 (20 minutes)

3. 16-17 Calendar (5-10 minutes)

4. Guanajuato Visit questions (5 mins)

April 6 (W)

7:30-8:00- Joel in Summative Meeting

9:00-11:15-SBAC testing

1:45-2:45, PBIS

1:45-2:45, 4th Grade ELD Service Model Planning

1:45-2:45, PLC Time for Math Planning

4:00-6:30- CIF Agenda Planning with Jennifer and Joel

April 7 (H)

Many staff at Carrying It Forward

Gig Nelson is our guest principal.

9:00-11:15-SBAC testing

April 8 (F)

Many staff at Carrying It Forward

Gig Nelson is our guest principal.

9:00-11:15-SBAC testing

April 11 (M)
National Library Week
National Volunteer Week (AKA Volunteer Appreciation Week)

Guanajuato Visit- Expect 30 students, teachers and administrators from Mexico throughout the building.  Many students will be in your rooms to help for 2-3 hours.  They will need some direction. Be prepared.

9:00-11:15-SBAC testing

9:00-1:30-The Reality Kitchen- Maestra Marcela
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

April 12 (T)

SBAC testing

9:00-1:30-The Reality Kitchen- Maestra Tracy

April 13 (W)

9:00-1:30-4th Grade Trip to Emerald Park Nikita Brougher’s class

SBAC testing
4:00-5:00, Joel to North Region Principal’s Meeting (River Road)

April 14 (H)

9:00-1:30-The Reality Kitchen- Maestra Bucklew

SBAC testing

8:30-8:40, Fire Drill and Lock Down Practice

3:00, Karen’s Baby Shower (Staff Lounge)

April 15 (F)

9:00-11:30, Joel at University of Oregon for PDAT Curriculum planning with Charles Martinez

SBAC testing

Have a good week, everyone!

Joel

 

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