Week of September 5, 2017
Dear Camino del Rio Staff,
This is my weekly blog to inform you of events and information you need to succeed this school year. I try to place things here that you need to know about that are important. This year, I will try to keep it as brief as possible for you. The new building is weighing heavily on all of us and I do not want to put extra things on you to read or do. However, there are some items that excite me that I can’t pass up to share.
• Staffing Updates – Over at the YMCA after-school program, Jordan Young is the new Site Coordinator and will be partnering with BEST this year. If you ever need to get ahold of her, her email is emma@eugeneymca.org Lastly, we still are working on hiring a new BEST Coordinator. The position was closed on Friday. We will have screening of applications this week.
• Updated 2017-2018 Master Schedule –
Master Schedule including PE/ Music/ EA Assignments/Bells
• PE & Music Start Date – David is ready to support you with music at the start of the year. Ronny is working hard to complete organization of her space. As long as Ronny has a PA system she should be able to begin PE by the end of the week. Ronny have said they are ready to start seeing classes the first day of school, but they also understand if teachers want to wait a few days before starting. Communicate with Ronny or David about your schedule. For now, plan for full operation on Monday, September 11.
• Library Start Date – Classes will begin visiting the library as soon as it is unpacked and ready to go. Please give us a few weeks to get this completed. Expect to have the library accessible by September 25.
• Meet Your Teacher – Meet Your Teacher begins on Tuesday at 2:00 to 4:00 PM. All non-classroom staff should be available to direct families and support the contribution collection areas. We are moving the contribution areas and transportation tables out of the gym. It is not ready. See Yasmin if you have not gotten an assignment to a table yet. Families can enter the classroom wing, the office and the media center. They are not allowed on the playground, the gym, or the cafeteria at this time. If you do not have an assignment, come to the office and we will provide maps for you to share with families. Each person will be provided with a complete set of class lists to be used this day and also on the first day of school.
• First Day of School – The morning of the first two days of school I would still like to have all-hand-on-deck. At 7:45, when the doors first open, all available staff should help guide students to the cafeteria, and then when the first bell rings at 8:15 help students gather in the gym. Staff helping should again hold onto their class lists and maps from the day before to help guide families.
• District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – The District Back-to-School Memo, which covers a variety of district rules, policies and guidelines. Section 1 is the portion that staff are required to review. I covered much of this at the BTS staff meeting, but as I shared there, all staff must review the memo and sign & return the check list acknowledgment form signifying that you have read and understand the memo. Forms should be returned to me no later than Friday, September 29th. I’ll place hard copies of the acknowledgement form in staff mailboxes this week. Looking over the memo, take note of updates to the Notice Requirements for Leave section, which is regarding sick days, personal days, various leaves, etc. An addition was also made to the district’s non-discrimination policy, clarify how the policy applies to supporting undocumented students, adding the policy.
FAQ on undocumented students.
• New Level 2s and 3s – I shared last year that all schools across 4J will be using the same minor (Level II) and major (Level III) behavior referral forms. The new minor forms are finished and being sent to schools this week. The formatting is different from our form, but the content of what it’s asking for is pretty much the same. We’ll continue to use our own Level 1s referrals (Ay Yay Yay’s) this year and the the major referral forms are almost ready to be sent to schools. Yasmin will have the Level 2’s available in Spanish and English on paper next week if you need one.
New English and Spanish (Level 2)
• School Bus PBIS – Just as last year, school bus drivers are handing out Transportation Dept. PBIS positive slips and schools are asked to treat them the same as our positive Beep, Beep slips. The same also goes for the bus Incident Reports, with teachers talking to student if they receive a Minor Referral and the principal talking to students if they receive a Major Referral.
• LearnZillion – Here are a few notes from Friday’s LearnZilion PD:
• Website – If you haven’t already, bookmark the 4J LearnZillion website. On this website is the 2017-2018 Pacing Guide for each grade level, individual lessons and units, the videos, additional supports, and other resources. Additional math resources can be found on the 4J Curriculum Server.
• Unit Zero – Unit Zero is a suggested (not required) lesson. If teachers have a different back-to-school refresher/team-building type of math lesson for the start of the school year, it’s fine to continue using that, although Learn Zillion Lesson Zero does introduce students to some of the LearnZillion routines.
• Pacing Guide Start Date, 9/14 – The pacing guide for Unit 1 starts on September 14th, so everyone should start the new math curriculum on this date.
• Classroom Newsletters – I’d love to have copies of classroom newsletters when teachers send/email them home to families. This helps me get school events on the building calendar, keeps me up to date on what’s happening or going to happen in classes when families ask, and it also lets me know details of any class activities that I might be able to get the local media to come out and cover. School-wide expectation is that these go out every Monday with homework folders. Thank you.
• Student Username/Passwords and Other TeacherVUE Reports – If teachers need a reminder how to find your students’ usernames and passwords, linked here is a quick-sheet on Printing Reports in TeacherVUE. There are several reports teachers can generate from TeacherVUE. For example: To see which students have permission restrictions. A list of student user names and passwords for testing. To print a class list, student/parent directory, health conditions, emergency contacts etc. To print labels to send mail home.
• Staff Parking Areas (not the front row) – Starting this week, I’d like staff to use designated staff parking areas, which is anywhere in the parking lot except for the front row of parking spaces. The front row is reserved for families. We have 67 parking spaces. When in doubt, ride your bike or carpool!
• Enrollment Updates – This is the latest enrollment shot of our school. Kinder may be a little inaccurate since we have many school choice families who are not in synergy yet. I over estimated there based on reports from kinder teachers last Friday at the playdate. Also, we have 18 pre-k head start students on campus. They do not count in our 4j enrollment but are part of our program. Our overall projection was 363 from Oscar Lauriero. This is a little less than I expected. I was thinking we would be at 350. October 1st is when enrollment settles out for us I expect us to be about 350 by that date.
• Learning About Learning Network – For several years, 4J has had Learning About Learning (LEL) Networks. Each school has the principal and two teachers participate, where a team of school meets at one school to conduct classroom observations, which this year will focus on math instruction. Teachers commit to the LEL for two years.
The purpose of a Learning About Learning network is to orient members to the Instructional Rounds process and to begin the process of building teams of leaders who are able to learn from one another around the craft of leading instruction. The goal of instructional rounds isn’t to provide feedback to the teachers being observed, but for LEL members to compare their own instructional practices with those of the teachers they observe. The chief benefit of this approach resides in the discussion that takes place among LEL members at the end of the observations as well as in subsequent self-reflection. Nancy will be stepping down this year and Alexis will stay on one more year. We need a new participant. It is preferable to have a classroom teacher. Let me know if you are interested.
Instructional Rounds link.
Edutopia article on instructional rounds.
• ThinkCentral – If anyone has tried to log onto Journeys’ web portal ThinkCentral, you likely noticed it did not work because students and teachers are being uploaded this weekend. It should be up and running by Tuesday.
• Student Username/Passwords and Other TeacherVUE Reports – If teachers need a reminder how to find your students’ usernames and passwords, linked here is a quicksheet on Printing Reports in TeacherVUE. There are several reports teachers can generate from TeacherVUE. For example: To see which students have permission restrictions. A list of student user names and passwords for testing. To print a class list, student/parent directory, health conditions, emergency contacts etc. To print labels to send mail home.
Base Camp– I have been using this software with an organization I have been a part of. It is free to teacher and educators. I think it could be a very valuable tool for our staff to organize PLT, PBIS, Site Council, and Staff Meetings. It is a modern tool that helps you keep track of various documents and to use for collaboration. This could be an alternative for Wiki’s and the difficult to navigate Google Drive. Did I mention it is free and ad free? Check it out and let me know what you think.
• Classified & Licensed Goals and Self Assessment – All staff, both classified and licensed, need to complete a self assessment before the end of September. Licensed staff need to complete their self assessment in TalentEd. Classified staff need to complete the Classified Employee Self Assessment form.
• 4J Vision 20/20 – You might have noticed that Superintendent Dr. Gustavo Balderas has made the Vision 20/20 a major focus of the school district this year. Linked here is the school district website 4J Vision 20/20 website as well as the 4J Vision 20/20 Strategic Plan Framework, which details the 3-5 year guiding plan. If you attended the District Back-to-School Event at SEHS, this was a major focus of Superintendent Balderas’ speech to staff. During his speech he actually used the What Do You Hope? video. He also ended his speech with a video I hadn’t seen before that I liked quite a lot, which was a nice reminder of why we all work in education. In fact, it made me cry.
Schedule of Events for the Week –
September 5 (T)
Meet Your Teacher 2:00-4:00 in lobby and media center.
5:30-6:30, Garden Meeting
September 6 (W)
The First Day of School
All staff supervise 7:45-8:15 in cafeteria.
1:40,Early Release
All staff dismiss in the gym, bus loop, or pick up zones.
2:00, Quick Stand Up Meeting in Media Center
3:30, Teacher Meeting
September 7 (H)
KRA and Easy CBM
Joel Screening BEST coordinator applications
Principal visits classrooms
3:15, Teacher Meeting
September 8 (F)
KRA and Easy CBM
Principal visits classrooms
3:30, Joel to LatinX Alliance
6:00, Saludos y Sandía Open House Social Event
September 11 (M)
KRA and Easy CBM
September 12 (T)
KRA and Easy CBM
1:00 PM, Fire Drill
3:00-3:45, Diabetes Training Meeting- All staff attend.
September 13 (W)
PBIS Meeting- All EA’s attend and some licensed staff.
4:00-5:00, Joel to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)
September 14 (H)
1:45-2:15, Glucagon Training for some staff. (Leave KRA and CBM work for this training.)
3:00-3:45, Equity Meeting (Conference Room)
September 15 (F)
3:00-3:30, PLT Meeting (Conference Room)
Joel to LatinX
Let’s make the first week with kids a great one! Joel
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