Diario Camino del Río

Week of December 17th, 2018- Last blog entry for 2018

Hi El Camino del Río Staff,

We have 5 more teaching days to go.  I know we can do it.  This week will be filled with lots of ups and downs for our students.  As you know, many students like the time off, while for others, it means some adverse conditions for them and less stability.  Make sure you are patient with students.  Provide fun times for them to celebrate their Fall accomplishments.  They have learned a lot with you and there is much to be proud of.  

I will be doing a few formal observations this week but have gotten through the great majority of my formals. I will be doing a few informal observations this week but will also be making myself more available to be in classrooms for support.  

Here are a some important items to pay attention to:

• DLI El Camino strand observations and OABE conference- The dual language observations of North and Kelly will be rescheduled for January.  Lynette is working on that.  Also, OABE Registration is handled by Lynette Williams this month. She is working on lodging and transportation as well.

• Great questions to use in your classroom to manage behavior:

Here are some suggested questions to use in the moment inappropriate behavior.

1. Why do you think that is ok? 

2. Where did you learn this (behavior)?

3. How can you help fix this? Make this right?

4. What can we/you do differently now?

5. How can we prevent this from happening again?

• Tracking Room Clears on Level IIIs– Downtown is wanting to track the number of Room Clears happening at school and these are now to be noted on Level IIIs. Check Room clear in the consequences box on the current Level Three form each time they occur.  If you have documents that show previous room clears happened and can match them up to older level threes, please let me know and Yasmin and I will update this in January. 

• Room Clear Guidelines– Downtown is also working on guidelines for when a Room Clear is appropriate and should be used, but the current guideline in 4J’s rainbow tabbed Emergency Procedure Manual says a Room Clear should be used “when the teacher must remain in in the dangerous situation but can send students to a designate safe area.” For example, if a student is being non-compliant and has crawled under a desk and/or making disruptive noises, that would not constitute a room clear. However, if a student was being non-compliant and was posing a direct threat to others and will not leave the room, that would constitute a room clear. 

• Elementary Future Chefs Event– Flyers will be coming soon to go home with students, but feel free to let 1st through 5th grade student know about the event. Linked here is a Future Chefs Teacher Letter and Flyer.

• Admin Subs for Elem Principal Meetings– Downtown is seeking to help large elementary schools when principals are out of the building for elementary principal meetings (not all-admin meetings), so for the remainder of the school year, they have assigned middle and high school assistant principals cover buildings on these dates. The elementary principal meetings this school year will mostly be covered by Kelly MS Assistant Principal, John Wayland.  John will be here this upcoming Tuesday so say “Hi!” and get to know him a little better.  

• Updated recess and lunch schedule plus changes to the EA schedules – I have finalized the EA schedule and there are changes. EA’sCome by this week and I will provide you with your new schedule for January.  Starting January 8th we will have a different lunch schedule and it will mean changes in who and when on the schedule. There will be color copies of the new schedule on Monday for everyone.  Also, there will be a new EA schedule provided for all who need one.  I will also be working on adding more time to some EA’s that have been provided by the district for behavior support.  I will be working on this change this week with staff to see where it is needed most.

• Hoax Bomb Threats– If you missed it in the Register Guard, there’s been a rash of hoax bomb threat emails demanding Bitcoins across the US and it’s come to Eugene. One 4J employee received an email (here the emailsent to principals), and EPD is advising if anyone receives one of these emails you notify the office immediately so we can check the building and notify the appropriate people. Bomb Threat procedures are also listed in 4J’s rainbow tabbed Emergency Procedure Manual, which should be prominently hung in each classroom. Let me know if anyone needs a copy of that or if you have any questions.

• 13 Ways to Boost Your Immune System When the Whole School Is Sick– Prevention is possible! See this WeAreTeacher Articlefor how to keep yourself healthy.

•Organization and Self Regulation Skills are not innate-

Humans are not born knowing how to organize and self-regulate. These strategies help students of all ages develop executive functioning skills. https://edut.to/2RrzPSi 

Here is the calendar of major school events and my calendar through January:

December 17 (M)

7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office 

December 18 (Tu)

8:00-12:00, Elementary Admin Meeting

3:15-4:00, PBIS- Whole Staff Meeting

December 19 (W)

3:15-4:00, PLT

December 20 (Th)

Regular Day

December 21 (F)

8:30-9:00, Junta de Escuela

2:00-4:00, Double Prep Day – not that this is switched in with the 14th.  A nice time to have a double prep. 😉

After dismissal go to the staff lounge for some sweet treats and the final reveal of our secret snow-people.

4:00, Winter break begins!

January 7 (M)

Professional Development Day 8:00-1:30, 5.5 hours of PD Details to be announced. It will be choose your own adventure style. 2.5 hours of planning time.

January 8 (Tu)

School resumes

3:15-4:00, Equity Meeting- Noche Cultural Planning (Parent Group Attends for first part.)

January 9 (W)

Regular Day

3:15-3:45,PLT Meeting

January 10 (Th)

Regular Day

January 11 (F)

Regular Day

2:00-3:00, Math PLC and a special session on the Oregon Report Card

3:00-4:00, Prep time

Earthquake and Evacuation Drill- Time 10:15

January 14 (M)

7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office 

10:00- Joel in a formal observation

3:15-4:00, Noche Cultural Planning meeting

January 15 (Tu)

1:30-2:30, School Choice Tour

3:15-4:00, PBIS Meeting

4:45-5:45, Site Council- Oregon Report Card

6:00-7:15,  Parent Group Meeting, Report on the Oregon Report Card + more

January 16 (W)

8:30-9:30, School Choice Tour

3:15-3:45- PLT Meeting

January 17 (Th)

3:15-4:00, GOTG Meeting

January 18 (F)

2:00-3:00, Behavior Framework Module 6 Part 2- Understanding the Level System for referrals and flow chart.

3:00-4:00, Prep time

January 21 (M)

No School

March with El Camino del Rio- Starting at Autzen Stadium w/ NAACP 9:00 AM-11:30 at the Shedd.

January 22 (Tu)

PLC Day 1

7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting-Office 

January 23 (W)

PLC Day 2

3:15-3:45- PLT Meeting

January 24 (Th)

3:15-4:00, Equity Meeting (A200)

5:00-6:00 PM, School Choice Tour

6:00-7:15, STEM Night

January 25 (F)

2:00-3:00, SBAC Training- Jaime Jones & informing about the testing schedule for ECDR.

3:00-4:00, Prep time

January 28 (M)

Regular Day

January 29 (Tu)

8:00-2:30, El Camino Custom Full Day Data Team for reviewing Tier 3 supports and potential SP evaluations

3 subs acquired for classroom support- 1 hour sessions per grade

January 30 (W)

3:15-3:45- PLT Meeting

January 31 (Th)

Regular Day

February 1 (F)

Grading Day- No School

Have a great week everyone. See you Friday after dismissal in the Staff Lounge to share treats and have a good time before we have our much needed break.  We will start at 2:00 PM.

Saudis cordiales,

Joel

Week of December 10, 2018

Good morning El Camino del Río Staff, 

We are two weeks from Winter Break.  I know we can do it!  Amazing learning is happening everyday.  I see it in classrooms!  Fooble the dragon has been super fun to watch.  I  heard there are some bilingual puppets from Fooble so I am going to pop in and see some of the performances this week.  It will be so much be fun to watch.

Also, I wanted to take a moment to recognize how brave all of you are as teachers and educators. It takes:

• Deep commitment
• Long hours
• Flexibility
• Strong people skills
• Knowledge of many contents
• Patience
• Use of small amount of funds
• Strength to overcome adversity
• A servant heart
• Only some can teach. And those of you who do are amazing!

Here are the important announcements and resources of the week:

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is scheduled for a much needed PD, understanding culturally and linguistically diverse learners. The focus will be Special Education Referrals and CLD Students.  Karen Apgar (Coordinator of School Psych Services) and Michelynah Anderegg (bicultural/bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist) will share information about special education, the new referral process, and considers for referring English Learners.  Bring your questions!

• AESOP REMINDER: Licensed Subs 4-hour or 8-hour Jobs– Teachers, when you put in for subs, remember the EAST contract ensures subs get either a 4-hour or 8-hour work shift. Even if your own absence hours are less, make sure you enter either a 4 or 8-hour time frame for the “Substitute Report Time” in AESOP. Lastly, make sure you enter your own absences in Aesop. MariCarmen is not responsible for entering your absences.

• Brooke Wagner Visits El Camino del Río Wednesday– Brooke Wagner, the Director of Elementary Education, will visit El Camino del Río around 10:00 AM. She and I will be  wandering around entering classrooms and connecting with staff between 10 and 12. Also, she might ask you a few questions about how the school year is going.

• Teacher to parents: About THAT kid (the one who hits, disrupts and influences YOUR kid)– This is and old article, but one that I was recently reminded about and thought I’d share. Written by educator Amy Murray, it’s a powerful open letter directed to parents about THAT kid, the one other kids go home and talk about, the one who is violent, curses and gets angry in class, the one who parents worry will hurt, disrupt and perhaps influence their own children.

• Winter Break Is Hard for So Many of Our Students– While most of us are excited and counting down the days to winter break, this WeAreTeachers article is a good reminder to be aware of how we talk about winter break with students and families, as this time of year can be very hard for many of our families.

•  Most Important announcement of the week – Choice Time!:

Here is the calendar of events for the month: 

December 10 (M)

7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office 

8:00-8:30- Joel in online meeting

8:30-9:15, Joel in 3rd Grade for an RJ meeting about substitutes

10:00-10:40- Joel in Formal Observation

Regular Day

December 11 (Tu)

8:30-12:00, Joel at the All Admin Meeting

4:45-5:45, Site Council

6:00-7:15, Parent Group- with conversation/ presentation about disrupted learning

December 12 (W)

10:00-12:15, Brooke Wagner in the building visiting and learning about El Camino del Río.

3:15-4:00, PLT

December 13 (Th)

Regular Day

December 14 (F)

8:30-9:00, Junta de Escuela

2:00-3:00, Spanish Language Development Discussion Time- CLD Learners/ SPED with Karen Apgar

3:00-4:00, prep time

4:30-6:00, 4J Science Teacher Leader Meeting ( Howard STEAM Room)

December 17 (M)

Joel and Teachers at Dual Language Observation at North including Lily Chaves, Marcy Hellman, Aline Baissac, Nancy Schaal McHarry

7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office 

December 18 (Tu)

8:00-12:00, Elementary Admin Meeting

3:15-4:00, PBIS- Whole Staff Meeting

December 19 (W)

3:15-4:00, PLT

December 20 (Th)

Regular Day

December 21 (F)

8:30-9:00, Junta de Escuela

2:00-4:00, Double Prep Day – not that this is switched in with the 14th.  A nice time to have a double prep. 😉

4:00, Winter break begins!

January 7 (M)

Professional Development Day 8:00-1:30, 5.5 hours of PD Details to be announced. It will be choose your own adventure style. 2.5 hours of planning time.

January 8 (Tu)

School resumes

3:15-4:00, Equity Meeting- Noche Cultural Planning (Parent Group Attends for first part.)

January 9 (W)

Regular Day

3:15-3:45,PLT Meeting

January 10 (Th)

Regular Day

January 11 (F)

Regular Day

2:00-3:00, Math PLC

3:00-4:00, Prep time

Earthquake and Evacuation Drill- Time 10:15

January 14 (M)

7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office 

10:00- Joel in a formal observation

3:15-4:00, Noche Cultural Planning meeting

January 15 (Tu)

1:30-2:30, School Choice Tour

3:15-4:00, PBIS Meeting

4:45-5:45, Site Council- Oregon Report Card

6:00-7:15,  Report on the Oregon Report Card and more

January 16 (W)

8:30-9:30, School Choice Tour

3:15-3:45- PLT Meeting

January 17 (Th)

3:15-4:00, GOTG Meeting

January 18 (F)

2:00-3:00, Behavior Framework Module 6 Part 2- Understanding the Level System for referrals and flow chart.

3:00-4:00, Prep time

January 21 (M)

No School

March with El Camino del Rio- Starting at Autzen Stadium w/ NAACP 9:00 AM-11:30 at the Shedd.

January 22 (Tu)

PLC Day 1

7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting-Office 

January 23 (W)

PLC Day 2

3:15-3:45- PLT Meeting

January 24 (Th)

3:15-4:00, Equity Meeting (A200)

5:00-6:00 PM, School Choice Tour

6:00-7:15, STEM Night

January 25 (F)

2:00-3:00, SBAC Training- Jaime Jones & Informing about the testing schedule for ECDR.

3:00-4:00, Prep time

Here is a random video for your enjoyment meant to bring you a sense of musical wonder.  I highly recommend watching it for inspiration. Have a great week everyone! 

https://youtu.be/YiLK8-2Zv6c

Saludos cordiales, Joel

Week of December 3, 2018

Hi everyone,

I hope you had a nice weekend. I had some fun times with my family around the house.  We also volunteered at the Chanukah fair to help younger kids enjoy the holiday. I hope you had a chance to do something meaningful with family or friends this weekend. 

Here are a few opportunities and reminders for the week ahead:

• Balancing the Holidays in Your Classroom– While teachers are guaranteed a certain level of academic freedom in what they teach, we want to balance that with being inclusive of all students and families, so please be mindful in your class activities and displays as we enter the holiday season. Religious pluralism is a value we should strive for. This Teaching Tolerance article serves as a nice reminder, where the author writes that each year at this time, teachers are faced with a dilemma: How to balance the holidays to create the most inclusive environment? As Hanukkah (December 2-10) and Christmas (December 24-25) approach, many teachers will decorate with candy canes and construction-papered dreidels, but there are more holidays being celebrated this month. Muharram begins this month, the liturgical new year of the Islamic calendar. Meanwhile, Buddhists celebrate Bodhi Day this month. December also marks Kwanzaa, the Hindu family holiday Pancha Ganapati, and Yule for pagans. Many secular people either have winter solstice parties or observe no holidays at all. “By opening our hearts and minds to all religious traditions, we are serving the greater good and our connections with others grow deeper.” See the above link for more related articles and this link for additional resources. Winter themed activities, such as these WeAreTeachers Winter Craft Ideas, are always an option as well.

•  STEM Opportunity– At Lane ESD we are offering a free 1-day NGSS science workshop specifically designed for K-5 teachers! Here is some additional information:

• Dec. 5th, 8:30-3:30 at Lane ESD
• Sub Reimbursement
• PDU’s 
• Information and access to Lane ESD’s STEM Kits checkout system (well-designed, fun, free STEM kits for checkout!)
• Opportunity to collaborate with other Lane County Elementary Teachers!

Sign up here: www.lesd.k12.or.us/workshops. If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please email Heidi at hrebar@lesd.k12.or.us. 

Master Schedule Changes Ahead: Starting Wednesday, December 5 we will be switching the lunches around to create safer environments for our youngest students.  1st and 2nd will now be having recess first.  Kindergarten will have recess alone. Then, 3rd grade will have a solo recess and 4/5 will have no changes to their recess. During the 1/2 recess Dr. Dene and Mr. Adee will take in a class at a time into the gym to run a recess.  This will support the supervisors outside to have less students to watch on the playground.  The 1/2 recess will have about 90-100 students outside (and 28 -30 in the gym) at once instead of the 175 students currently in the k/1 recess. The idea is to reduce the ratio of adults watching students and to help students play in a safer environment.  This decision was made in PLT last Wednesday and is final.  Though, there will probably be some adjustments made to make it smooth. More detail on exact times will be share in the staff meeting on Tuesday.

Staff Meeting Agenda for Tuesday, December 4

(Classified are encouraged to attend. I will pay you to stay.)

Master Schedule Changes and details.

Understanding Trade Time forms for Classified Staff

Planning Noche Cultural as a Staff, Choice Time Projects

2nd Artist in Residence Preferences- Larry Meyers or Esteban Camacho (APRIL 2019) 

Planning a meeting with families on prevention of disrupted learning.

Keep using that Second Steps curriculum. It matters!

Here are the upcoming events to be aware of:

December 3 (M)

7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office 

December 4 (Tu)

3:15-4:00, Staff Meeting

December 5 (W)

3:15-4:00, PLT

4:00-5:00, Joel to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

December 6 (Th)

10:00- 11:00, Joel at ESSA Conversation

11:00-12:00, Joel at El Camino del Rio Access Conversation

December 7 (F)

Fire Drill Day

8:30-9:00, Junta de Escuela

2:00-3:00, Behavior Framework PD for all staff #6,  A210

3:00-4:00, Teacher Prep Time

6:30-8:30, Family Movie Night

December 10 (M)

7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office 

Regular Day

December 11 (Tu)

8:30-12:00, Joel at the All Admin Meeting

4:45-5:45, Site Council

6:00-7:15, Parent Group- with conversation/ presentation about disrupted learning

December 12 (W)

3:15-4:00, PLT

December 13 (Th)

Regular Day

December 14 (F)

8:30-9:00, Junta de Escuela

2:00-3:00, Spanish Language Development Discussion Time- CLD Learners/ SPED with Karen Apgar

3:00-4:00, prep time

4:30-6:00, 4J Science Teacher Leader Meeting ( Howard STEAM Room)

December 17 (M)

Joel and Teachers at Dual Language Observation at North including Lily Chaves, Marcy Hellman, Aline Baissac, Nancy Schaal McHarry

7:30-7:50, Weekly Office Meeting- Office 

December 18 (Tu)

8:00-12:00, Elementary Admin Meeting

3:15-4:00, PBIS- Whole Staff Meeting

December 19 (W)

3:15-4:00, PLT

December 21 (Th)

Regular Day

December 22 (F)

8:30-9:00, Junta de Escuela

2:00-4:00, Double Prep Day – not that this is switched in with the 14th.  A nice time to have a double prep. 😉

4:00, Winter break begins!

January 7 (M)

Professional Development Day 8:00-1:30, 5.5 hours of PD Details to be announced. It will be choose your own adventure style. 2.5 hours of planning time.

January 8 (Tu)

School resumes

3:15-4:00, Equity Meeting- Noche Cultural Planning (Parent Group Attends for first part.)

January 9 (W)

Regular Day

3:15-3:45,PLT Meeting

January 10 (Th)

Regular Day

January 11 (F)

Regular Day

2:00-3:00, PLT Meeting

3:00-4:00, Prep time

Fire Drill- Time TBA

Three weeks until winter break. They are going to be awesome!

Joel