Week of September 25, 2017


September 24th, 2017

 

Hello Shining Star Staff,

This was a very exciting week and it feels like we are beginning to get used to more things in our building.  I have noticed some new patterns that are good.  The greatest pattern I have noticed is a lot of student learning.  It is so thrilling to talk down the hall and see so many classrooms engaged.  Honestly, I love it.

Here are many items of note for the week: 

  • Building SMART Goals –  

I encourage you to meet up with grade level teams to formulate your SMART Goals. Here is a generic example of a non-dual literacy goal you can use as a start.  Remember that next Wednesday Audrey and Reid will be available to review your math and reading goals.  Reid is going to show you exactly how to do a math goal with the new learn Zillions. He will also share a Number Talks goal with everyone on staff. I’ll give some additional explanation at the September 27th PLC time.  Teachers are also welcome to develop your own goals, but all goals are to be entered by October 15th. If you area specialist, come see me to set  up an appointment to build a SMART Goal.

  • Attendance Resource: 

    Justin Potts shared a very comprehensive attendance resource passed along by the National School Psych Association (NASP). Come see me if you want a copy. Also linked here is the National Center on Intensive Intervention tools charts (academic/behavioral resource). Our attendance awareness month will be in October and many strategies in this attachment will be used by our attendance team. Data team also is collecting chronic absence issues ongoing.

 

  • Bus Safety Announcement:

     As required by OAR 581-53-002, all students in Eugene School District 4J are to receive instructions on bus safety during the first half of the 2017-2018 school year.  The intent of the rule is to reach the occasional riders who find themselves on a bus because of a field trip, activity trip, etc.  

Bus Safety Elem. 2017-2018 Instructions

Riding The Bus Safely – English

Riding The Bus Safely – Spanish

 

Above are instructions and information to use for this training.  The video link for this training is http://staff.4j.lane.edu/bus/BusTrainingVideo.html.  It can only be accessed through Google Chrome.  If this video link is not working for you , go to the 4J website, go to departments, go to Transportation, to the right side of your screen click on Bus Safety Video. I will submit that you have completed the training  before conferences in November 20. There will be a compliance form to sign on by the mailbox for classroom teachers to sign between now and then. Classroom teachers: It is your responsibility to show this video and inform me of completion.  Please fit it in your plans between now and conferences.

 

  • Restraint and Seclusion Reminder: 
Please remember that the use of physical restraint and/or seclusion is only permitted as part of a behavioral support plan when other less restrictive interventions would not be effective and the student’s behavior poses a threat of imminent, serious physical harm to the student or others. – please see school board policy JGAB 
and this is the SSD best practices guide for Restraint and Seclusion:
USE OF RESTRAINT AND SECLUSION Instructions
 
As soon as the imminent threat has passed the student must be released from the restraint or seclusion. If you need guidance in documentation of these incidents, please let us know. It is especially important that we document any restraints or seclusion performed by untrained staff.
If a student has an incident of physical restraint please follow these steps:
  1. Contact the parent as soon as possible; schools must provide verbal or electronic notification of incident by end of school day
  2. Complete required documentation and provide written documentation to the family
  3. Within 48 hours, hold a debriefing meeting with administrator, staff members involved in the intervention, and invite the parent/guardian. Written notes must be taken and a copy of the written notes must be provided to a parent or guardian of the student, whether or not they are able to attend. 
  4. If there have been 5 or more incidents of restraint and seclusion a team must convene  to revise the FBA/ BSP
  5. Make sure that you are in communication with your SSD administrator and behavior consultant if interventions are not effective
  6. If your school needs more training and assistance with conducting FBAs and BSPs, please register for the trainings offered this fall and/or reach out to your behavior consultant for coaching. Staff can register using this form.

If you have questions about what constitutes restraint please come to me so I can explain the nuances of this practice.

  • LearnZillion update from Jaimee Massie:

Parent Communication:
* Attached is a one-pager to explain our new adoption. Please feel free to post or use this for Curriculum Nights or other parent events.
4j Family MathInfo
* The Family and Community Math Resource page is launched! You’ll notice a QR code and bit.ly for parents. Jaimee will be updating this over the year as we have more home-school connections to share. 
 
Manipulatives:
* Teachers must keep the plastic boxes unless they would like to return the whole kit to the Instruction Department. 
* REKENREKS – These are coming in class sets of 50 for each K-2 teacher. Jaimee will send them to MTLs with a sign-out sheet. They are to be considered part of the manipulative kits for primary. Why 50? Kits will have extras to replace lost or broken items over the years. Teachers SHOULD keep rekenreks at the end of the year.
* Labels are coming in district math by the end of the week! Jaimee will send these with boxes of Rekenreks to MTLs with an additional sign-out sheet. Please give the labels to teachers and have them sign for their kit. Plan to bring the sign-out sheet to our meeting October 5th. 
* Need more materials? Have too many kits? Please reach out so Jaimee can get more to you or extras to a new home.
 
Printing – Unit Materials: (Teacher’s Guides and Student Workbooks details too!)
* Unit 2 will be in buildings early next week. Jaimee will post a calendar of future deliveries to the FAQ page by the end of the week. The goal is to get teacher’s guides out for the first half of the year to assist planning by early October and have 2-3 units of student materials delivered a month. Given storage complaints, this is our attempt to be responsive.
* Exit Tickets (one pager/two per page) can be found on each Unit page under the Unit Planner, next to the Games. These are a building/teacher print budget responsibility IF teacher’s choose to use them.
* Printable Summative Assessments are currently housed on the Grade-level Page but will slowly be incorporated into Unit Pages, as they are currently only one large file for all units per grade.
 
Planning & Prep:
* Some teachers have wondered about prepping games or tasks when blacklines are located in the student workbook. Alternatives to cutting out pages/resources out of student workbooks… Consider using a set of Investigations Cards when possible, make a cardstock partner/class set before the lesson, assign part of the work to a set of students rather than all students assembling individually, or set up as morning work. Our team will take feedback on where resources are best located for next year. We wanted to ensure teachers and students had any resources they needed this year.
* Emphasize preparing for a KEY CONCEPT rather than a lesson. Consider previewing slides and videos for all 2-4 lessons of the key concept to know the target.
* As we move into Unit 1, please prompt colleagues to consider leveraging routines from Unit 0 and exploring the Curriculum Guide. Some questions to ask when planning… What hands-on tools do my kids need from the kit? What questions from the Curriculum Guide should Jaimee be ready to ask? How will students share their thinking?
* Smartboard lessons? Teachers have been eager to share their resources. Options for housing SmartBoard LearnZillion lesson created by our peers are being explored. More to come soon!
Student Accounts:
* All students are uploaded (and updated) nightly. Passwords for LearnZillion are student lunch numbers. If teachers wish to make rosters, directions can be found in the PD Library under Tips and Tools. 
Check it out! Online Practice for Grade 2-5 provides an additional experience for students. It can be found at the top of the blue bar next to the PD Library link.
 

  • Safe Routes to Schools: 

    September is a great time for active transportation like walking and biking to school, whether it’s once a week or every day. Click here for more on why and how a child can walk or bike to school from 4J’s Safe Routes to School program. More questions? Contact Sarah Mazze. She is a parent at our school too!

 

  • Family Preparedness Workshop Hosting:

    The district is  looking for four schools (one in each region) to sponsor a Family Preparedness Workshop for all of the schools in the region. If you wish to sponsor the event, provide the name of one or more people from your school who will work together with Karla Schmidt Murillo (from Community Navigator Organizer & Trainer). Together your school personnel and Karla will plan and organize the families and volunteers for the “talleres”/workshops. The office of Equity, Instruction and Partnerships will support the event by providing the binder and binder materials for each of the participating families. 

     Once they have locations and dates for the events in each region, we will send out a notification for schools to inform their families and community.

If you are interested in our school sponsoring a Family Preparedness event for your region, please contact Dra. Karen Pérez-Da Silva our district Equity, Instruction and Partnerships Administrator at perez_k@4J.lane.edu. By the way, she is a parent in our school too!  Are we awesome or what?

  • 2017 Project Community Awards: A mini-grant program supporting youth education

Submission Deadline: October 15th: Northwest Community Credit Union’s (NWCU) annual Project Community has awarded over $100,000 to educators in the communities we serve over the last two years and we are just getting started. We hope you’ll pass this funding opportunity on to teachers and administrators in your district.

     The goal of Project Community is to help educators create learning experiences for kids that might not otherwise be funded by school budgets. Educators submit their funding needs/wishes to NWCU through a competitive, submission process. From requests for classroom supplies, technology, and books to funding for projects, programs or field trips — Northwest Community would like to hear what you need to engage and serve your students. Submissions will be accepted now through October 15, 2017 with winners awarded in December. Learn more about this program and how to apply for this opportunity athttp://projectcommunity.nwcu.com or contact Kim Clark, NWCU Community Relations Coordinator, at KClark@nwcu.com or 541-744-9738.

  • Be College Ready – Opportunity for Elementary Schools

     The Oregon 529 Savings Network launched the Be College Ready program as a pilot program in five school districts and was implemented in their elementary schools for the 2015-2016 school year. The simple goal of Be College Ready was to help young families learn the value of saving for higher education early in a child’s life using the Oregon College Savings Plan. With results showing an increase in Oregon College Savings Plan accounts among participating school districts and communities, we expanded Be College Ready from five school districts to 15 school districts for the 2016-2017 school year and saw similar results.

Based on the success of our Be College Ready pilot program these past two school years Be College Ready is now a statewide program for the 2017-2018 school year. The program is open to all public elementary schools, private elementary schools and homeschooled children of elementary school age across Oregon.

     Be College Ready was uniquely designed to be easy for elementary schools to incorporate. Here is how the program works:

  • Participating schools will receive free homework folders, pencils and bookmarks for every student. When a school goes online to place their order they will be able to say how many English kits do they want and how many Spanish kits they want, as well as how many English brochures and Spanish brochures.
  • 100 families (20 per each of the five congressional school districts) will be eligible to win a $100 Oregon College Savings Plan account.
  • Schools will simply be asked to distribute information to parents and provide opportunities for parents and families to learn more about funding higher education expenses and how the Oregon College Savings Plan can help.

     Schools/school districts can visit www.becollegeready.net to order free supplies for their elementary school students. Elementary school supplies can be ordered directly by the elementary school.

     If you have any questions or concerns regarding Be College Ready and/or would be interested in having our staff come to your community to inform the public about Be College Ready and/or other programs please contact the Oregon 529 Savings Network Outreach Director John Valley at john.valley@ost.state.or.us or 503-432-1618.

  • New Building Updates:

  1. Blinds- That are being fixed this weekend. Hopefully they will be functioning properly on Monday.
  2. AMX- Send all ongoing AMX  issues including your microphone to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu.  Peggy or Misty will help you get this fixed.
  3. Devices in each classroom.- We are still working with the technology department to get more laptops for 4th and 5th grade.  Let me know if there is any shortage in other rooms.
  4. Recess transitions- Recess is improving with the kinder separation.  Please follow times closely so kids get a full 15 minutes of recess.
  5. Tables in the cafeteria.  We are still working on getting more straight tables in the cafeteria.

  • Wednesday Morning Assemblies–

We will be having green slip drawings every Wednesday in the morning assembly. All staff must be in the cafeterias by 8:10. Right now, the cafeteria is not going so well for assemblies. We need all teacher present to make it work better. Aline, Nancy, and David are working with me to come up with a better assembly arrangement in the mornings. Until we get the full set of straight tables,  we cannot arrange students for maximum attention in one direction.

 

Calendar of Events over the Next Two Weeks:

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.

3:00- RR/ECDR Technology Meeting (Conference Room)

September 27 (W)

2:00-3:00  PLC Time- 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)-

3:00-3:30, PLT (Conference Room)

September 29-30, The 25 hour start of Yom Kippur will be at sundown on Friday, September 29.  This will not effect the school day on Friday unless families take their students early to visit family.  

1:00-2:00, Section 504 Synergy training for new 504 coordinators (or those wanting a review). Bring your computer. (Tower Room, Ed Center)

 2:00-3:30,  504s and the Law – new updates (Tower Room, Ed Center)

October 2 (M)-

3:15-4:15, IEP Meeting in Conference Room

October 3 (T)-

Regular Day

October 4 (W)-

Staff Meeting- Review of PBIS Expectations, Discussion, Clarification, 

October 5 (Th) –

1:00-3:45, Ed Center Auditorium, TAG Coordinator Meeting. Contact Sarah Prater

4:00-5:30, Ed Center Auditorium, Math Teacher Leader Meeting: Facilitating Mathematical Discourse. Contact Jaimee Massie

5:30-7:30, Grand Opening Celebration

October 6 (F)-

9:00-1:30 – Caminata Walk-A-Thon

 

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