Week of February 2
What’s Ahead?
Langston Hughes, African American Poet (Born February 1, 1902)
February 2 (M)
Second Semester Begins
National School Counseling Week
7:30-8:00, Pre conference with teacher
8:30-9:45, Joel in Formal Observation
2:45-3:45- Joel and Jaime work on 504/TAG Writing with Synergy
February 3 (T)
8:30, Joel at HR Training in hiring.
10:00-12:00, Joel at UO as guest in Roscoe Caron’s Class on Poverty in Schools
12:30- Joel back to our building.
1:00, Earthquake and Evacuation Drill (Please review with students beforehand.)
2:00, Parent Advisory Board Meeting
2:45-4:45, PLT Meeting- Agenda Topics: Smarter Balanced, HM Materials, Decision Making Model, Parent Handbook Tasks, Math PD Proposal
February 4 (W)
Kevin Boling does admin support 8-12.
8:15-10:00, Joel doing pre-conference and formal observation of teacher.
1:45-2:45, PLC time with all teachers of grade level in the library. Remember to fill out your PLC form to document work on math. PLC Recording Form-Please complete this week.
2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting
4:00-6:00, Digital Learning Day (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Joel to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)
February 5 (H)
8:00- Early Learning Committee (Room 9)
2:50- Joel in pre-conference with teacher
February 6 (F)
8:00, Joel meeting with budget committee member, Evangelina Sundgrenz (Joel’s Office)
11:00, Joel to meeting with Kyle Ennis and Sara Green about the Stamp test.
4:00-6:30, Eugene Wine Cellars Party for River Road Staff! Please bring a snack, cheese, or something yummy! I’ll me bringing some of my favorite salami pre-sliced.
255 Madison Street, Eugene, OR 97402 (541) 342-2600
February 7 (S)
8:00-3:00, Joel, Jennifer, and Karen to the OALA Conference (University of Oregon)
February 9 (M)
Report Cards Sent Home
8:45-10:00, Joel in a Formal Observation
10:30, Design Debrief Meeting
1:30-2:30, Joel to Title Coordinator & Principal Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
7:00-8:30, Joel to North Region 4J Parent Information Night: Smarter Balanced Assessment (NEHS)
February 10 (T)
Regular Day
8:00-9:00, Joel at the dentist.
2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting
6:00-7:00, Parent Group Meeting
February 11 (W)
1:45-2:45, PLC Time
3:45-4:45, TLT Meeting
February 12 (H)
8:00-2:30, Data Team Meeting
2:00-3:30, Joel at Talent Ed/ Teacher Evaluation update.
3:00-5:00, Design Meeting
February 13 (F)
Camino del Rio PD/Planning Day – No School
8:00-12:00, Training with Edward Olivos in the morning on Assessment, All instructional staff are encouraged to attend. This PD is for licensed and classified instructional staff.
12:00-4:00, Planning Time
Hi All,
I have so much gratitude to share this week. Firstly, this week is National School Counseling Week. I think we all know how amazing Ms. Jennifer is! Jennifer does amazing work with children, their families, and our staff. Her skills in creating and providing intensive behavior supports are exemplary. In addition, I see her as a very strong leader for social justice in our school and district. Her participation on the District Equity Action Team is so invaluable to students in our school.
Secondly, we have two staff members leaving us this week. Mr. 80 and Ms. Kelly will be greatly missed. The first semester was a truly wonderful experience for all of our students. Your teamwork across disciplines has been wonderful to watch. Thank you Terry and David for your hard work and passion for teaching.
My favorite immersion video of the week:
Notice the level of student engagement and the excellent sheltering techniques these teachers use. It’s inspirational!
• BLACK History Month- Four Black History Month Must-Haves – With Black History Month upon us, here is a Teaching Tolerance post that lists four things that will not only highlight black history but will strengthen those critical analysis skills that the Common Core State Standards highlight.
1. Begin with student voice and experience.
2. Educate students about the socio-political context.
3. Highlight the role other communities of color play in black history.
4. Introduce complex descriptions of key figures in history.
Here are two other sites worth going to for resources:
Smithsonian African American History Resources
NEA Black History Month Lesson Plans
• EAST Request: Half Day Assignments – At HR’s monthly meeting with E.A.S.T. (the substitute teacher union) they was asked about whether the district supports Guest Teachers taking two-half day assignments. HR responded with a clear and resounding “yes”. There are fewer unfilled licensed absences but unfortunately it still happens and this is something that would reduce how often this happens. HR has encouraged guest teachers to take two-half day assignments if they can be coordinated well together and asked schools to support guest teachers in their willingness to accept two assignments in one day. I did clarify with HR that a few minutes late between jobs is okay, but subs are not to take an 8:00-12:00 job at one school and an 11:30-3:30 job at another.
• Effectiveness & Growth Cycle Contract Year 3 – The district added the task of formal observation to contract year three TalentEd task lists. It turns out the state the state changed what they are requiring of 4J and that this was supposed to have been there since the start of the school year. So for those of you on Contract Year 3, this year of the cycle is pretty much the same as Year 1, with one formal observation and 3 informal observations.
• HM Journeys Updates & Training, March 13th – Most of the new HM Journeys materials will be delivered before Spring Break. The staff still needs to discuss how to use these materials. Every school in the district received them. In December, PLT discussed the opportunity to get these materials and we decided to jump on it. Now that HM schools have most all of their materials, there will be a PD session for teachers with the Houghton Mifflin trainers on the reinstated March 13th Professional Development/Planning day. Training for grades K-2 will be from 8:00-11:00 and the training for grades 3-5 will be from 12:00-3:00. They will be going over all the hard copy materials as well as getting everyone online access to the digital materials.
In addition, this is a conflict for us right now.I do not know if we will be able to attend this HM session.
This is because Maddie Ahearn and Reid Sheppard will be continuing Math Common Core training with us on March 13th. We will probably have to participate in the HM training at a later date. The Math training is something I have been trying to fit in for months and it directly relates to our CAP.
• Smarter Balanced Update– Last week, Karen and I went to be trained on Smarter Balanced. Soon, we will have access to interim assessments for this new tool. It will help us to help our students understand how the system works and to give them a chance to see the level of complexity of the tasks. In order to use these interim assessments, we will need all all 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers are trained as test administrators. There are many similarities to the OAKS interface that many of you used last year. There are also many new regulations and changes to how accommodations re applied. We will let you know more details on this very soon and it will also be discussed in PLT this week.
• Design Committee now moving to every other week.– The design committee meetings are slowing down a little. They will begin to meet every two weeks throughout the Spring. This will be a welcome relief as I try to catch up on mid term goals meetings and observation pre- and post conferences.
• Camino del Rio joining the Attendance Support Pilot – Kevin Boling met with us last Friday to help explain the attendance support system. Starting this week, the office will begin a systematic attendance system to improve our students overall attendance. We will be among 4 other schools who began this pilot in October. My hope is that with an improvement in attendance and a reduction of chronic attendance problems we will be able to increase our students overall literacy skills in both languages.
• Synergy Attendance Reminder from CIS (Repeat from last week) –We received an email from CIS asking us to remind teachers to mark student attendance every day for both AM and PM sessions. If you are using the “Take Attendance by List” option in Synergy instead of the seating chart option, you are most likely correctly marking both the AM and PM absences. Please see the above directions if you are not using the list view option to begin using this attendance screen. Edna or Yasmin will adjust attendance for those students who arrive late after 8:00 and for students who leave early. For students who arrive tardy before 8:00, teachers should only mark the tardy for AM and not PM. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like any help with this.
• OALA Conference February 7th– Next weekend Karen, Jenifer and myself will be at the OALA Conference. There are some truly dynamic speakers that will be there. We are looking forward to it and will share back with staff some nuggets of experiences at the next staff meeting on February 10th.
• Spanish Spelling Bee Competition in April –(I got no takers two weeks ago. Could the Fourth or Fifth grade team check in with me about this opportunity?) Here is an opportunity I do not want to pass up! This Spring there will be a Spelling Bee up in Forest Grove. Perla Rodríguez, principal extraordinaire, is the organizer. This is a great opportunity for us to show Eugene and Oregon how well our students know Spanish and to excite our students that the Spanish language is a special talent and skill. A professor friend of mine named David Wacks also shares the enthusiasm for Spanish language. He teaches medieval Spanish and Sephardic literature at University of Oregon. David has helped us enlist a university student who would like to help us coach some 4th and 5th graders to go to the Spanish Spelling Bee! Hannah Golden is the student’s name. She will be able to meet with the students after school once a week to practice for the competition. I am happy to cover the registration costs. Now all we need are the participants! 4th and 5th grade teachers, can I count on you to enlist your students in this competition?
• SEHS Principal Opening– The South Eugene Principalship is open now. The deadline to apply was extended to Friday February 6th. Do you know an administrator who you think should be in that position? If you do, encourage them to apply. I am hoping to have a strong advocate for equity and excellence and a new voice for social justice in the district and for the South Region.
• Start getting rid of stuff!– Are you the kind of teacher who keeps hold of things for many many years? Not that that is a bad thing, but this will be incompatible with a move into our new building. The new building will have limited space for storage of materials. And given that we are less than 16 months away from moving to our new home, I encourage you to to take a good hard look at the materials in your classrooms. Now is the time to weed your unused materials so you are not overwhelmed. As a general rule when I was a teacher, if I had not used it for 5 years, it was passed on to another teacher or recycled. I encourage you to begin this process now so you will not be completely overwhelmed on moving day.
2nd Semester Kinder Breakfast– Beginning this week, we will be moving the kinders to have breakfast in the cafeteria Instead of classrooms. This aligns with more with the EEA CBA for teachers to allow for adequate prep time. I am hopeful that with Craig and the morning supervisors support, we will be able to make a strong start for these students becoming more accustomed to breakfast with the big group. Thank you Bucklew, Tracy, Craig and Cathy for helping brainstorm ideas to make this work.
Have a great week, everyone!
Joel
African American History, Attendance, Common Core Taining, Equity, Office Procedures, Parent Involvement, SBAC or "New Oaks", Staff Meeting Agenda, Teacher Evaluation/ Observations, Technology Integration, Two Way Immersion, Uncategorized | Comment (0)