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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