Week of September 18, 2017
Hello Shining Stars,
Nice job, everyone, making it through our first full week of school, smoke filled indoor recesses and all.
Several items of note for this week:
• Staffing Update – This week Pilar Zentz was hired to be our BEST Coordinator. Congrats to Pilar for doing this important work. This gives Pilar an opportunity to coordinate and design a top notch BESt program serving our bilingual students. I am thrilled to have such a strong bilingual coordinator working with our students this year. We will be posting a new 5 hour position soon to do bilingual Title 1 reading instruction.
• Keep Submitting Tech Help Tickets. There is a team of people to help you! – If teachers are having any type of technical issue – sound, interactivity, 8-button touch, cables – submit a ticket to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu
If you’d like help and/or training on any of this or any other technology topic, Misty will be back again at next week. Just send her an email at jackson_misty@4j.lane.edu with what you’d like to meet about and if there’s a particular time you’d like to meet. You can also always email Peggy at 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu
•Informal Walk-throughs: I am determined to be in classrooms more this year. One reason, to give teachers extra behavioral support and to know students better. The second reason, is to know you teaching style better and give you more authentic informal feedback. I also will let you know if I begin to write something down for an informal observation ahead of time. Let me know if you want to get an informal out of the way early in the year.
• Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting Wednesday September 27th – Reid Sheppard is going to help us out in a week and a half! On Wednesday September 27th at 2:00 in the Library will be an optional meeting to discuss potential building wide SMART Goals. My current thinking is to continue to use reading and math easyCBM as the two academic goals with adjustments to how we measure growth, and also to change the professional goal to focus on either something around the math adoption or possibly a technology goal around teachers specializing/getting certified in a particular piece of educational software . Teachers are, of course, welcome to create their own goals, but it’s nice to have everyone with the same goals and I know it also saves teachers time of drafting their own. Understanding how to use Learnzillion materials will also be a great professional practice Goal. Reid Sheppard is going to help us guide this work. Remember that Smart Goals are due on October 1st.
•Staff Meeting This Week- Our Wednesday staff meeting begins at 2:00 and ends at 3:00. You will have from 3:00-4:00 to work in your rooms or to collaborate. This week we will meet as a full instructional staff to discuss our first PD topic, ELD strategies to support strong language. This is our PD theme of the year. It may be supporting better writing strategies or better math strategies. The first topic will be how to build strong anchor charts. All instructional staff are EXPECTED TO ATTEND. This includes: music, PE,Title 1, Special Education, instructional assistants. If your shift ends at 2:30 or 2:45 you may leave at the end of your shift. The goal this year is to work together to support our students. Lily Gold our ELD Coordinator of the district is leading this PD session.
•PBIS Checklist To Nancy- Please do not forget to turn in your PBIS checklist. Remember, you will get a free drink from Global Delights for doing so. It also helps us verify that every student has reviewed school wide PBIS expectations. Thanks!
•Parking Reminder- Please park as far from the front of the school as possible. There are many kinder families who have to park all the way across the lot and walk with their child through traffic. Please park by the ball fields so our youngest families can get their child inside safely. At least the first three rows are reserved for parents unless you need ADA access.
•Olivia Randall Retirement Celebration- As you know Olivia retired and we would like to honor her with a dinner and a gift basket. Thank you Karen for organizing this.
1. Teachers 3rd-5th please have your students write a memory or a card/class card for Ms. Randall
2. Please sign the card for staff to sign in the staff room.
Families start eating at 5:30
Childcare will open at 6:15
Principal presentation at 6:30
Principal presents staff at 6:50
First teacher classroom session is from 7:00 to 7:25
Second teacher classroom session is from 7:30 to 7:55
Parents will have children under 3 with them.
• Student Care Team Info – Our first Student Care Team meeting is not until the first week of October and there is already a on family situation referred to the team, but I did want to extend the offer to staff if you have any student situations you would like brought to the team, please let me know.
For staff newer to El Camino del Rio, The Student Care Team is part of DHS’s Self-Sufficiency Program. Meetings are intended for directing community resources and services to families looking for help, and avoiding families falling through the social services cracks. The goal of the team is to prevent child abuse and neglect by working together as a team to discuss concerns about children/families, problem solve solutions, collaborate, and assist in brokering resources for families. Families typically sign a disclosure form, which allows DHS to do a lot of research before we meet, looking into family history and what types of resources they would or would not qualify for. In addition to situations where families are seeking help, we’re also able to discuss hypothetical situations (not using names) with DHS representatives, which can be very helpful for how to address challenging situations where families will not sign a release. Our partnership with DHS’s Self-Sufficiency Program has been an extremely valuable resource for us and for our families.
Common referrals, though not limited to, are:
• Death of a parent
• Incarcerated parent - concerns about recent incarceration or pending release
• Homeless or impending homelessness
• Unknown if open child welfare case but has concerns that were called in
• Domestic Violence
• Extreme behavior issues – additional supports needed outside of school
• Specific resource needed but unknown where to refer
• Medical concerns about the child or other family
DHS staff have been great about connecting families in difficult situations with various community resources and helping out with difficult situations, so please let me know if you have any students/families you’d like referred to the team. Linked below are the release form that families sign for their situation to be openly discussed by the team. One release form is editable with Adobe and the other is a standard PDF (editable and non-editable).
• Tardies Definition – To make sure everyone is on the same page for when to mark a student as tardy, here’s the agreement. Any student not inside the classroom before the 8:20 bell rings is considered tardy. Yasmin begins giving out tardy passes and recording tardies in Synergy after 8:20. For any students in the building before then who are not yet in class, teachers need to record that as tardy in Synergy. Please make sure you record your attendance on time and updates if needed!
•Wednesday Assemblies This Year for Virtudes: This year we are moving our assemblies to Wednesdays. This next week will be our first opportunity to award students with Virtues awards. Please ask Nancy for wards this week if you do not have them. Please begin writing virtues on Monday. Each week we will be recognizing students for these positive school attributes. Also, the assembly will be run primarily in Spanish in order to focus our attention on raising the status of the target language Spanish.
• Level 2 Forms Coming The new Minor Behavior Referral Forms (Level II) should be delivered by InstaPrint later this week. No update on when the new Major Behavior Referral Forms (Level III) will be finalized and sent out to schools. They are bilingual too!
• Air Quality Guidelines – I’ve mentioned this to quite a few people, but so everyone knows, the guidelines schools are following in regards to air quality in and whether to allow or not allow outside activities is done by monitoring the Air Quality Index (AQI). If the AQI is above 100, schools are to hold indoor recess and limit any outdoor activities. There is to be NO outside exertion between 100-150. Kids should not be running around or breathing hard until the AQI drops below 100. If you want to monitor the AQI, you can go to the Lane Air Protection Agency website.
• REPEAT: District Policy Review – If you haven’t done so already, please review the District Back-to-School Memo (link or PDF). Signed acknowledgement form put out by the District are to my mailbox next week by Friday, September 29th. Copies of the form were given out at the August 30th meeting.
• Managing Concussion in the Classroom – Principals were asked to share that the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team for 4J wants to get the word out about a free 3-hour presentation on Tuesday, October 3rd, titled, Community of Care for Managing Concussion In and Out of the Classroom, featuring nationally recognized presenter, Gerry Gioia. The sponsor of this free training for educators is the Center on Brain Injury Research and Training.
• Helping Children After a Natural Disaster – Children watching the news about natural disasters can feel anxious and afraid. As an educator, there are a number of ways to support both the students and families immediately impacted, as well as those watching from afar. Linked here are resources offering guidance to families and schools for offering support following a natural disaster.
• DACA Resources-Here are the most recent DACA Resources provided by the LatinX Alliance. Use them as appropriate for families. Share with students.
September 23 is a key date. There is another flyer for an event in Portland but it is pretty short notice. That is today, September 17th.
Flyer Jornada Gratuita renovación DACA esp
PME110671.17 Anexo 3 Infografías DACA (1)
DACA Renewal Clinic English Poster
DACA Renewal Clinic Spanish Poster
• Schedule of Events for the Week
September 18 (M)
10:30-11:30- Joel in BEST Planning Meeting with Pilar, Aline, and Molly (Conference Room)
4:00-5:30, Joel to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)
September 19 (T)
11:00- Joel in volunteer orientation meeting.
1:00-2:00- PSS Meeting
3:00-4:00- New Teacher Check in- Discuss PBIS
September 20 (W)
2:00-3:00 Staff Meeting- All instructional staff are expected to attend. This includes PE, Music, Instructional EA’s.
September 21 (H)
Rosh Hashanah – Do not plan any assessments on this day. Children who’s families celebrate Rosh Hashanah may not be in attendance.
Joel out all day.
September 22 (F)
First Data Team All Day- See Karen’s email forthcoming for the schedule.
September 25 (M)
2:45-3:45, Joel at IEP for 1st grade student.
September 26 (T)
8:15-11:15, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
1:00-4:00- Joel off site for personal reasons.
September 27 (W)
2:00-3:00 Optional Teacher Goals Writing Session with Reid Sheppard and Joel (Library)
4:00-5:00, Joel to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)
September 28 (H)
3:00-4:00, Mod Squad Meeting- Intensive Positive Behavior Supports Team for Students
5:30-6:00- Tacos , Beans and Rice for Families and Staff together in the Cafeteria.
6:00-8:00- Curriculum Night
September 29 (F)
Regular Day
October 5 (Th) – Grand Opening Celebration
Joel
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