Week of October 15, 2018
Buenos dias Estrellas Brillantes,
I hope you are reading this on Monday morning. I had a great weekend with my family resting and recharging. This fall weather is so nice. I have a good news update on the driveway. The asphalt company was allowed to turn on the gas so paving did happen on the weekend. However, we will need to hold off using the driveway on Monday due to a couple of other small items that need to be complete. I am guessing we will be in full operation by Wednesday this week on the new driveway.
Here are some of the big announcements of the week:
• SMART Goals DUE TODAY! OCTOBER 15th by 5:00 PM – Licensed staff need to have SMART Goals entered into TalentEd by today at 5:00 PM. For classroom teachers, linked here are Optional SMART Goals template from SDS staff, and linked here is a Completed Sample SMART Goal with the blanks filled in for the above sample goals. Teachers are, of course, welcome to create their own goals. Non-classroom licensed staff can adapt the language of the above goals for any of your own related work, but let me know if I can be of any assistance. Please set aside time to complete this on time.
•Staff Meeting Agenda for October 16, 3:15-4:00- PBIS Meeting agenda and Leadership Plan proposals. By the way, I want to reiterate that all staff meetings are mandatory for licensed staff to attend. If you are working in the building Tuesday, you should be at the staff meeting. Last staff meeting, there were several not in attendance and I received no note or message why they were not there. Please inform me 24 hours ahead of time if you cannot make it. 1/2 time employees should come in the PM if their work schedule is in the afternoon. AM employees should come when they can pre arrange for it. Valid reasons to be gone include coaching, family illness, personal illness, or major life event. Doctor’s appointments are NOT a valid excuse. The staff meetings have been posted on the Zimbra calendar since August. This reflects on your professionalism found in Domain 3 of the evaluation rubric.
• Día de los Muertos planning and organizing – It is time to begin planning and working on the Día de los Muertos educational event. Please contact Alicia Longoria if you would like to volunteer to plan and volunteer this event that will be held on November 1 from 6:00-8:00 PM. It should be a family, teacher, volunteer organized event. It is not a Title 1 event this year. Many of our parents are leading this work. I encourage you to get involved and build meaningful relationships with them during this October.
•Repeat- Synergy Grade Book Training & Building Reps – More information to coming regarding a Synergy Grade Book Training connected to the new report card. Downtown is going to offer two teachers from each building to be trained – paid two hour extended contract – to attend one of three trainings. The meeting date and times are Oct. 16 (Howard), Oct. 18 (Willagillespie), Oct. 22 (Tower Room), all from 4:00-6:00. I hope someone can take this on and help train staff. It will make for a faster and more efficient grading experience in February.
•Reading the calendar and blog weekly.- It is your professional responsibility to read the blog and the Zimbra Staff calendar by Monday afternoon at the end of the workday. Please make sure you are informed for the week. I have had staff tell me that they know of those who do not read the Diario. Please set aside time to read the Diario each week.
PLC and Prep Times: I noticed that I was not able to plan our Plc times together well while still missing the teacher prep time. Here is a draft of the next 1/2 day PLC sessions that we are going to try. Reid helped create these and I think this will still provide each group with prep time.
• HALLOWEEN COSTUME and EDUCATIONAL POLICY: Students may not wear Halloween costumes to school. There will also not be parties on Halloween at the school. The staff made a collaborative decision to change this for the following reasons:
- It is a major distraction from learning in our limited time with students.
- It excludes religious groups that do not celebrate Halloween.
- Teachers cannot be expected to devote time to plan activities for Halloween on top of academics.
- We want to avoid students making the mistake of dressing up as another person’s culture.
- Students feel left out when their family cannot afford a costume while others have costumes.
- Teachers may educate students about all holidays that occur in October and September. This should fit in your social studies time or literacy time. You could also include it in science time if you are discussing fall changes to the biology of plants and animals in our community. Please make sure that you are mindful to be INCLUSIVE of holidays that you educate about to the students. El Día de Los Muertos is one such holiday to educate about. There are other holidays to include. However, we are a dual language school with a priority of learning about Latinx and Hispanic traditions. Please prioritize those traditions in your cultural learning activities.
We will have a dress up day as a favorite book character in April for our literacy week to celebrate reading. Teachers will be mindful of attire so all students can participate in this dress up day in April.
• Student Care Team Referrals Due FRIDAY – The Student Care Team will meet next week, which means student/family referrals to the team are due this Friday. DHS has been great about helping quite a few of our families, pointing them towards resources for a variety of different situations (homelessness, assistance with bills, incarcerated parents, counseling resources, and many others), so please consider referring a student or family in need. Try to get a signature on the 4J Release Form (Englishor Spanish) so DHS can research the family situation to see what services they would qualify for. If there’s a situation where you can’t get a signature for whatever reason, you can refer “hypothetical” student or family situations. Let me know if you have any questions about potential referrals, but if it’s a situation that’s on your mind, it’s probably a worth referring to the team.
• Program helps teachers pronounce students’ names– Mispronouncing a student’s name can be interpreted as disrespectful and even discriminatory, says Tiffany Young of the Washoe County School District in Nevada in this District Administrator Article. The My Name, My Identitycampaign, developed in partnership with the National Association for Bilingual Education, offers best practices to help teachers pronounce students’ names correctly, including greeting students at the door on the first few days of school and asking them to say their names. Teachers should then repeat each name, and ask if they are saying it correctly. Also, a teacher who struggles repeatedly with a name should not do so during roll call, but should practice the name with the student one-on-one.“It sends a very important message—that your name and your identity matter, and we want to get it right. It says, ‘We want to get to know you, and we respect you.’
• OMSI Guest Presenters & Field Trips– Most teachers know about the many OMSI Field Trip Offerings, but you may not know about their outreach program where they will go out to schools for assemblies, classes/labs, and even a giant inflatable planetarium, which may be something fun for grade levels to spend their PTO enrichment funds on. OMSI offers discounts for low income schools. See the linked OMSI Outreach Flyeror the OMSI Outreach websitefor details.
A summary of upcoming events at El Camino del Río through November
October 15 (M)
7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office
SMART GOALS DUE BY 5:00 PM
October 16 (Tu)
3:15-4:00, Staff Meeting -PBIS meeting / Leadership Plan
Joel conducting informal observations
October 17 (W)
8:00-8:20, Peggy Vega conducting a training on Clever use to dispel confusion of it’s use.
3:15-3:45, PLT Meeting (Conference Room)
Joel conducting informal observations
October 18 (Th)
PICTURE DAY- in Room A209.
8:30-10:15, Joel in classrooms with immersion principals. Non- evaluative.
10:18, Great American Shakeout- 10:18 on 10/18- Earthquake Drill and Disaster Preparedness
(No Evacuation)
3:15-4:00, GOTG (Conference Room)
October 19 (F)
2:00-3:00, Math PLC Meetings, Specialists and Classified excused from the meeting.
Joel conducting informal observations
October 22 (M)
7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office
Joel conducting informal observations
October 23 (Tu)
8:30-11:45 AM, Joel at the Elementary Leadership Meeting
6:00-9:00 PM, EEF GALA being held at El Camino del Río
October 24 (W)
3:15-3:45, PLT Meeting (Conference Room)
Joel conducting informal observations
October 25 (Th)
3:15-3:45, Equity Meeting (A200)
6:00-7:00, Talking with books program for kinder students. Title 1 event.
Joel conducting informal observations
October 26 (F)
Early Release- No Meetings or PD (2 hours of prep 2-4)
Joel conducting informal observations
October 29 (M)
7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office
8:00-12:00, Apple Training Kick off event for Technology Leaders, 3 leaders attend PD.
PLC Session 1
October 30 (Tu)
PLC Session 2
October 31 (W)
No costumes for staff or students
3:15-3:45, PLT Meeting (Conference Room)
November 1 (Th)
3:15-4:00 PM, GOTG Session #1 of the month
6:00-8:00 PM, El Día de Los Muertos Event
November 2 (F)
2:00-3:00 PM, Behavior Framework Session #5
Fire Drill TBA time
November 5 (M)
7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office
November 6 (Tu)
November 7 (W)
NO PLT Meeting
Family / Teacher Conferences, 4:00-8:00 PM
Dinner provided at 5:30.
November 8 (Th)
Family / Teacher Conferences, 8:00 AM-8:00 PM
Dinner provided at 5:30, Lunch on your own.
November 9 (F)
No School, Teacher Compensation Day for Family Teacher Conferences
November 12 (M)
No School, Veteran’s Day
November 13 (Tu)
Joel at La Cosecha- Tom Maloney guest principal.
3:15-4:00, Equity Meeting A, Zelene leads.
November 14 (W)
No PLT Meeting
Joel at La Cosecha
November 15 (Th)
Joel at La Cosecha
3:15-4:00, Guardians of the Galaxy Meeting
November 16 (F)
Joel at La Cosecha
PLC Session
November 19 (M)
Regular Day
November 20 (T)
11:00-12:00, Special Thanks Lunch Session in Cafeteria
5:00-6:00, Site Council- Indistar Indicator Questions
6:00-7:15, Parent Group Meeting- Focus:Understanding Math Lessons at El Camino del Rio.
November 21 (W)
3:15-3:45, PLT Meeting (Conference Room)
November 22 (Th)
No School, Thanksgiving
November 23 (F)
No School, Thanksgiving
That is all for the week.
Joel
Empathy: Are we teaching content or students? Edutopia Link
Dr. Brené Brown offers a divisive take on the difference: “Empathy fuels connections, sympathy drives disconnection.”
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