Week of September 11, 2017
Hello Shining Stars,
What a momentous week we had! Our Watermelon Social was a resounding success. A special thank you to David Adee, Marcy Hellman, and all the social service organizations who came to the event. It was wonderful to have Eduardo Wolf’s group playing at the event as well. Navarro’s Latin Creole Cuisine and El Sitio were excellent food. It was great to support these local business and provide authentic food from different parts of Latin America.
Here are many items of the week:
Staffing Updates: Yesica Meza will begin her student teaching this week. As she begins her long term leave, there will be a sub provided for her. This will be a short term sub at first, then a long term sub. Interviews for BEST Coordinator happened on Friday. Molly and I will make an announcement about that position once the reference checks have been completed.
Master Schedule Updates: Here is the latest Update of the Master Schedule https://docs.google.com/a/4j.lane.edu/spreadsheets/d/1I_TvDOGxh9vboYSsnb0YQlY5M-idjCmAKS3Ow3Uswh0/edit?usp=sharing
REPEAT: District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – If you haven’t already reviewed the District Back-to-School Memo (link or PDF) and returned the acknowledgment form to me, make sure you turn it in to my mailbox no later than Friday, September 29th. I have three signed forms so far.
• LearnZillion Unit 1 Begins This Week – To stay on track with the LearnZillion Pacing Guide, all classes should begin with Unit 1 this Thursday. It’s important teachers keep up with the pacing guide so that all material is covered by the end of the year, and that grade level teams stay in the same place so Title 1 and SPED can better support core. Pacing guides can be found on the 4J LearnZillion website. I’ve also linked them here; KG, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade.
• 2017-2018 Leadership Plans – HR just sent an email to principals that Elementary Leadership Plans will be due November 8th and will follow the same process as in the past. The current contract gives us 18 teacher release days not to exceed 6 teachers. Last year’s plan, which compensated teachers for Student Leadership, Technology, 504/TAG Coordination, Parent Involvement, and PBIS leadership roles. If you have thoughts on this year’s plan, please let me know. I’d like to share Leadership Plan proposals at the final September Staff Meeting in a couple weeks and then vote on a plan at the first October Staff Meeting.
• Fire Drill Info for September 12th – Our September Fire Drill will be later this Tuesday, September 12th at 1:00 PM. This time we are going to test utilizing ONE Collection point under the covered play. The evacuation routes for 2nd floor are directly out the West stairwell. The 1st floor routes are out the commons nearest to your room, NOT the West Stairwell. Evacuation procedures can be found in the Camino Staff Handbook. Let me know if you have any questions on this. An updated evacuation route with names will be available to you in your box on Monday afternoon.
• Grupo de Padres this week on Tuesday – This week, September 12th from 5:30-7:00 will be the first Group de Padres Meeting of the year. This year will be a brief mini session on site council to introduce site members and explain Site council’s role. YMCA is providing care in the gym. It’s typically the best attended meeting of the year by families, so it would be great if any staff can volunteer their evenings to come show support for parents who made time to come be involved in their child’s school. Mark your calendars and hope to see you there! We will meet in the media center.
• TAG Identified Students – Teachers, if you have any TAG identified students in your class this year, Katie Hynes Petty will contact you. She is our TAG Coordinator. Please check in with her to begin to address these student needs. Also, consider potential students to add to the TAG identification list as you wrap up your EASY CBM lists. I am considering asking the district to do a school wide screening to look for more students who might qualify for TAG. I believe we are under identified in our school.
• Sub Folders to Office – For both classified and licensed staff, if you haven’t already, be sure to give your completed sub folders to MariCarmen. If it helps in completing your folder, linked here is a list of suggested sub folder information/items HR said staff should consider when making lesson plans. MariCarmen can provide extra folders if you don’t have one. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO COMPLETE FOR EA’s AND TEACHERS.
• SSD Health Services Info – SSD sent principals an email with several pieces of information related to school nurses and health services, but I wanted to highlight a couple points. One is that nurses need adequate notice for field trips (10-14 days) so that they can train persons to cover the field trips, have medications ready, etc. Often they are asked to go on field trips with no notice and this puts other students and schools at risk. And two, for teachers to require that permission slips be received back to the school 3 days in advance of a field trip so that the nurse and teacher has adequate time to review the list of students participating for critical medical concerns. Nurses serve multiple buildings and need adequate lead in these matters. This year Ann has been working a lot of extra hours supporting on of our most vulnerable diabetic students. The training on Tuesday to learn more about diabetes is critical for ALL staff. Everyone must know how to support children with this condition.
• AESOP Absence Data – HR sent principals an email about AESOP Absence Data that was interesting. The one thing I wanted to highlight for staff, particularly for teachers, is that if an absence related to PD was entered within 4 days of the PD, the chance a sub would pick up the job starts is much higher. If it is entered within 2 days the chance of a sub taking the assignment drastically drops. So if you have any planned absences, please don’t wait to put in for a sub and prearranging with one of our regular subs, both classified and licensed, is always the best way to go.
• REPEAT: 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, unless you completed one at the end of last year.
• DACA Info Night – Monday, Sept 11 @ El Camino del Rio Cafeteria – Quick notice on this if you know of families to share this with. The 4J Office of Equity, Instruction and Partnership is coordinating a DACA information night Monday, September 11th from 6-7pm at our school. This night is open to all families and students who are interested from 4J and neighboring districts. The organization CAUSA will be providing Information followed by a question and answer time facilitated by a local lawyer. This is the first of several information nights for our immigrant and undocumented families that 4J will be hosting this year around the district. Linked here is a bilingual flyer for staff and others in the community to distribute.
Here are some of the latest resources I have found on DACA in case you have parent questions. It is important to stay informed on this issue for your parents. These were posted on September 7th so this is the latest information available to the public on the issue.
ILRC DACA Updates Note-Taking Guide
• A Phone Call Home Makes All the Difference – You don’t have to reserve phone calls to parents or guardians for bad news. Try the tips in this article to deepen communication with families, which include introduce yourself by your first name, begin the conversation with a positive, describe only actions— avoid labeling, ask questions seeking support, calling with good news, and tips on sending texts and emails.
• The Impact of Students Reading Culturally Relevant Texts – In this Teachers College Record article, Kathleen Clark reports on her study of the impact of African-American elementary school students reading books featuring culturally familiar characters and settings. The study compared a study group and a control group (reading books without African-American characters and settings) over a semester of instruction. What were the results? Students who used culturally relevant texts significantly outperformed students in the control group. See the above link for more details.
Schedule of Events for the Next Two Weeks
September 11 (M)
9:30 AM -meeting with Janene Block about mural.
6:00 PM, DACA Information Night (Cafeteria)
September 12 (T)
1:00 PM- Fire Drill
3:00 PM- ALL STAFF to Diabetes Training including office and custodians. (Office will be closed.)
Meeting in the Cafeteria
5:30-7:00 Site Council and Grupo de Padres (Childcare Provided and a light meal) -Media Center
September 13 (W)
4:00-5:00, Joel to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)
2:00- PBIS- All EA’s, Yasmin, and teachers encouraged to attend in library. Nancy will share agenda via email.
September 14 (H)
3:00-4:00, El Camino Equity Meeting (Conference Room)
September 15 (F)
3:00-3:30, Friday PLT Meeting
September 18 (M)
4:00-5:30, Joel to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)
September 19 (T)
3:00-4:00- New Teacher Check In (Conference Room)
September 20 (W)
2:00-3:00, Staff Meeting agenda includes leadership plan and some PD on ELD school wide strategies.
September 21 (H)
Rosh Hashanah – Joel not at work.
Do not give any tests or required assessments on this date.
September 22 (F)
8:00-2:30, First Data Team Meeting
Have a great first full week back and let’s make our kids’ hopes for the year come true!
Joel
