Week of October 6
Hello Camino Staff,
Last week was a very busy week. This weekend was a great cool down for me I and I feel recuperated. I hope staff found the Maravillas training helpful. There was a lot of information in the training and it will take some time to digest it all. I am so happy to settle in and see more classrooms and learning this week. I will continue to visit your morning meetings to get a feel to how classes have adjusted to that routine and structure. Teachers, it is time to focus on your goals. Please contact me to set up a time to meet and discuss them.
October 6 (M)
Joel visits morning meetings.
4:00-8:00, Joel at Equity Committee Retreat
October 7 (T)
Joel visits morning meetings.
2:45-3:45, PLT Meeting
October 8 (W)
Joel visits morning meetings.
1:40-2:40, Grade Level Collaboration Time
2:45- 3:45, IPBS Meeting
October 9 (TH)
Joel visits morning meetings.
1:45, School PBIS Assembly
2:45-3:45, Design Committee
October 10 (F)
No School, Statewide In-service Day- non-contract day for teachers and EA’s
October 13(M)
Joel available all day to do goals meetings.
October 14 (T)
2:45, Staff Meeting
October 15 (W)
1:40, Collaboration Time- Please meet in library.
2:45- 3:45, PBIS Meeting, Classified encouraged to come in exchange for an hour of comp time.
October 16 (TH)
3:00, Design Meeting
October 17 (F)
Joel available all day to do goals meetings.
- Rosa Molina visit October 20th All Day– Rosa Molina is confirmed to visit on October 20th. By October 16th, I will need every teacher to complete their weekly schedule that was given to you by Sarah Knudsen. If you can get it to me next week, I can give you advice or tips on how to improve it before the visit occurs. You will be meeting with Rosa and your grade level team for 40 minutes to consult about the fidelity of the program you are delivering. Please, be prepared for this tremendous opportunity! We will also be spending time with Rosa on December 1st to do Curriculum Mapping as a staff. This will help us prepare to do the mapping on December 1st.
- Being A Writer Materials – If you are short any Being A Writer materials, let me know by Wednesday. Downtown is providing additional materials for classrooms or SPED teachers who are short or missing any items. SPED teachers should have materials for grades 2, 3 and 4 only. Let me know if you have any questions on this.
- TalentEd Update – TalentEd has now been updated for the 2014-2015 school year. This page provides a link to the TalentEd for login and Quick Start Guide. This link can be found on our 4J web site under Human Resources Teacher Effectiveness and Growth Systems. I’ll set October 31st as the due date for the self-assessment and goals. Goals Meetings- Octboer 13th and October 17th are set aside for me to work on goals for you. Please have an idea of how you would like to set your SLGOs for these meetings or write some up. In PLT this week, we will be discussing school wide SMART Goals for your convenience and to align with many of our CAP goals.
- Office Hours: The office will now be open from 7:45- 3:45. Being that our classes start at 8:20, 7:45 feels like ample time to get students to school and class. Yasmin or Edna will be there every day at 7:45. Yasmin will supervise from the office. Craig will begin opening the doors a little later each day as well.
- New Library Resource for Teachers from Eugene Public Library Youth Services – The Eugene Public Library website has a new Teacher Resources K-6 website, which includes:
• Library’s online resources, targeted by subject
• Links to books in the collection on teaching those subjects
• Links and search tips for finding books and media in the collection to check out for the classroom
• Lists of curated websites by subject
• How to contact the library for assignment support and tour requestsIf staff have any questions, they should feel free to contact Michele Green, the Eugene Public Library Youth Librarian, by email (michele.e.green@ci.eugene.or.us) or by phone at 541-682-8480 (Sun – Thurs).
- Book Room Materials Organizing and Clean Up– We need to clear out many of the materials in the book room or at least begin to store some of them. This is to make space for Maravillas resource materials. If you have materials that you want to use, please come by and pick out what you need. Piper, Megan and I are going to remove materials that are considered out of date or unnecessary by October 31.
- PBIS Assembly 1:45 Thursday– Do not forget to work with your grade level or specialist team to make up a short 10-30 second skit for the PBIS assembly. We will be presenting ourselves to the school in a fun-hearted fashion on October 9th.
- El Día de los Muertos Planning Meetings– Are you wondering how the El Dia de Los Muertos Night is going? Last week, many staff members planned out some fun stations for the event and I heard that we will be having some serious fun! Please check in with Alicia about this event that happens on October 29th from 8-6.
- BEST begins soon: Jessica Zapata has been working hard to hire candidates for the EA positions in BEST and has been working to set up a great program for the year. With Aline and Bryan’s help, this will be an amazing support for best. Attached are the details that Jessica wanted to share with you about our program this year.
BEST-Information for Principal’s blog 10_14
- No School Friday October 10 for State In-service Day– Here are some opportunities across the state.
- “Talking and Books” presentation on October 22 and 23 for Kinders- Mr. Lavin and Ms. Ramirez will read to your children while they demonstrate simple and effective ways to enjoy books with your children and get them talking!
Book talk They will talk about popular and age-appropriate books that a child may read independently and high-interest books that parents can read aloud to their children.
Time to Read Parents and their children will have time to read together.
All Families will take home a beautiful new picture book. All are invited to wear their jammies! Children may want to bring their favorite stuffed animals. Childcare will be provided for all preschool children.
- SBAC Preparation: Marlee Litten posted several links for Smarter Balanced last week. Here is one on the tools: It is under ESC>State Assessments on the Teacher Resource page) The video of a PLC team is still not working on YouTube so I am trying to get a copy sent to us. http://www.curriculum.4j.lane.edu/esc/elementary-state-assessments/
- Lock Down Review, Karen Ramirez had some great tips from last weeks lock-down drill.
Lockdown Drill was a success! Here are a some reminders for all of us.
- United Way Drive: This year Nancy Schaal is our United Way Representative. United Way is a great program that directly benefits our students in many ways. Please consider donating a small amount this year. It makes a huge difference in their lives. United way is the largest community support network in our community. As staff members, you ca make a big difference in our students lives with the small funds you donate. Ask Nancy how you can help. She will be contacting you soon to help you make a donation.
- Race Conversations: Last week, an announcement was made by North Eugene about a teacher of color who was targeted by disgusting flyers. I shared this with many staff at the end of the training last Friday. This was shared with the North Principals, and I felt, we as a staff need to be aware of it and how it may effect our students who have big brothers and sisters there. As teachers and staff members, I hope that you can incorporate conversations about difference including race in your class meetings and morning meetings. One of the great take-aways from the student actions against this flyer and treatment of adults and students is to enrich our conversations across the schools in 4j. We must directly address microagressions when we see them happening. The video below shows how some students have reacted to the microagressions they feel daily on campus at Harvard University. Our children in our classrooms are no different.
Week of September 22
Calendar of the Week Plus
“An artist is above all a human being, profoundly human to the core. If the artist can’t feel everything that humanity feels, if the artist isn’t capable of loving until he forgets himself and sacrifices himself if necessary, if he won’t put down his magic brush and head the fight against the oppressor, then he isn’t a great artist.” Diego Rivera
September 22 (M)
8:00-11:00, Joel to Skillful Teacher Co-Observation (Ed Center)
1:30-2:30, Title Coordinator & Principal Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
September 23 (T)
Kathy Larson visit. (All day)
9:00-10:00, Data Meeting Analysis of General Trends before Data Consult Day
2:45- 4:45, Staff Meeting with PD on Effective PLC Practices
4:30-6:30, Joel to 4J Equity Committee
September 24 (W)
1:40-2:40, Grade Level Collaborative Planning Time (Library with support from Sarah, Aline, Karen and Joel)
September 25 (H)
12:30-2:30, Joel to Skillful Principal Being A Writer Training (Ed Center)
4:30-5:30 Design Committee (Library)
5:30-7:30, New School Design Public Meeting- Camino del Rio (Library)
September 26 (F)
Regular Day
September 29 (M)
8:00-11:30, Being a Writer Training for all teachers.
12:00-3:00, Principal Being a Writer Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:45, September Site Council (Conference Room)
September 30 (T)
Kathy Larson Visit
Life Touch Picture Day (Gym All Day)
October 1st (W)
1:40-2:40,Collaborative Planning Time
6:00-8:00, Curriculum Night- Plan de Estudios de Noche
October 2 (H)
Joel in Portland at Coaches and Principal’s Meeting
2:45-4:45, Design Committee
October 3 (F)
Academy Day- No School
8:00-12:00, Maravillas Training with a McGraw Hill PD Consultant
12:00-4:00, Teacher Planning Time in relation to Maravillas.
October 6 (M)
2:45- 3:45, PBIS Meeting, Classified encouraged to come in exchange for an hour of comp time.
October 7 (T)
2:45-3:45, PLT Meeting
October 8 (W)
1:40-2:40, Grade Level Collaboration Time
2:45- 3:45, IPBS Meeting
October 9 (Th.)
2:45-3:45, Design Committee
October 10 (F)
No School, Statewide In-service Day- non-contract day for teachers and EA’s
This week on duty:
Inside lobby: Alexis
• Fire Drill Practice and Details: Later this week, you will find a daily instruction packet in your box about Safety Week. Craig and I spent some time redoing the classroom order outside. The numbers will be repainted on Monday. This year, due to classroom changes, there will be new order along the track lines. Please rehearse and practice lining up on the fire drill lines once or twice this week so you are familiar with the location of your line. Inserted here is the updated fire drill map including the classroom line placements.
• Design Committee Update: This week, there will be an evening event on Thursday, September 25th from 5:30- 7:30. You are invited to attend to see the proposals that will be posted for viewing. We will be presenting 2 main concepts. One on the East of the Site and one on the West of the site. In general, what we are discovering is that overall costs before construction will be less if we build on the west. There are some proposals that have been put up for us to discern that describe demolition of classroom wings or the gym before building. Our design team has discouraged these because of the costs that could be incurred. Avoiding demolition saves funding to be put into the final building and saves disruption to our classrooms and learning. After this week’s open meeting, the team will process the public’s feedback and we will make a final decision on the site of the new building. Here is the presentation from last Thursday’s session.
October 3rd PD on Maravillas: I have spoken to the McGraw Hill Representatives to plan our October 3rd PD. They are bringing in a professional development expert to help us get a good overview of the Maravillas Program. The professional development will run from 8:00-12:00 on October 3rd. The main topics planned will be:
- How to use these materials in a Dual Language Program.
- How to integrate English Language Materials into the ELA block that relate to the themes, concepts and objectives in the Maravillas materials.
- How to structure Tier 2 instruction using Maravillas Materials.
- The use of the online features of Maravillas.
Your afternoon will be planning time. The Maravillas team will provide you with some tasks to become more familiar with the materials that afternoon that you can work on with your grade level team. I expect that the EA staff, SPED Staff, and ELL staff to attend the AM session as it will directly benefit our students if you understand this program.
• Change in the date for Rosa: October 20th is the new date that Rosa Molina will be coming to Oregon. She had other engagements on the 13th of October so we have pushed it back a week. I will update you on the topics and use of that day after further conversation with her next week.
• Good Behavior Game Free Training – Trillium Community Health Plan & Lane County Public Health is offering free trainings for the “PAX Good Behavior Game.” You can read more about The PAX Good Behavior Game here and here. Subs will be provided and and trainings will be held at the Lane ESD Oct. 8th for teachers new to the program and Oct 9th for a booster training for teachers who have been previously trained.
• SELCO Educator Mini-Grants – SELCO Community Credit Union accepts Mini-Grant requests each fall from K-12 educators in the 26 counties they serve. Mini-Grants of up to $500 are awarded to educators to implement creative education projects and to help fill in the gaps left by school budget shortfalls. The SELCO Mini-Grant application process is simple – please carefully read the funding criteria to be sure your project is eligible for a SELCO Mini-Grant and use the online application form to tell us about your classroom project. The deadline for applications is October 3rd and recipients are announced November 19th.
• Facilities Use: Use of 4J Schools – Annual Reminder – Facilities sent their annual reminder that as public employees, no person may use district property for personal financial gain or offer it free to the community, or for use that is inconsistent with districts public purpose, or in a manner that will discredit the district. It occasionally comes to their attention that 4J employees are using the school buildings for, music lessons, sports, exercise and many other types of classes/meeting. Please see the attached 4J School Board Policy on the use of district property.
All 4J schools are public property and are subject to public scrutiny. The District has established Board Policies to address staff and outside groups wanting to use 4J facilities. In order to establish fairness to all groups, including 4J staff, Administrative Rules have been written to address these issues.
If employees wish to use 4J Facilities and/or equipment for private instruction or for non-school community group meetings, or any other reason, they will need to (1) get approval from the Superintendent or his designee (i.e. Facility Scheduler: Natalie Medina) and (2) they will need to complete the online Facilities Request Form and Online Scheduler
• TalentEd Update – TalentEd has now been updated for the 2014-2015 school year. This link provides the “home” page for you to click on TalentEd for login and Quick Start Guide. This link can be found on our 4J web site under Human Resources Teacher Effectiveness and Growth Systems. We will discuss school-wide goals and expectations at the staff meeting this week.
• Latino Heritage Month: Yes, it is Latino Heritage Month! I do not have a bunch of materials to share with you at this point, but I will point you towards one of my favorite bloggers, Larry Ferlazzo. Larry makes lots of great resource links to support ELLs and they are good for all learners! This set of links is focused on one of my favorite Mexican artists, Diego Rivera.
• Math Teaching Methods- Great example of a strong math discourse:
Reasoning in Multiplication and Division Take a look at this excellent video of a teacher using number talks and math discourse.
Have an excellent week!
Joel
Being a Writer, Equity, Evacuation Drills, Maravillas- McGraw Hill, Math Discourse, Morning Meeting, Parent Involvement, Staff Meeting Agenda, Title 1 | Comment (0)
Week of September 8
Weekly Schedule
September 8 (M)
Fall Benchmark Testing and KRA Continues8:30, Reading to Piper’s Class
9:15, Reading to Nikita’s Class
10:30, Reading to all of first grade.
1:30-1:45, Website Design meeting with Peggy (Principal’s Office)
1:45-2:30, Joel to BEST Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting (Conference Room)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
September 9 (T)
Fall Math Benchmark Testing and KRA9:00-9:30, Family Night Planning Meeting (FRC Rm. 9)
10:15, Joel reads to Recker’s Class
12:00-1:00, Meeting with Federal Programs Director, Tasha Katsuda (Principal Office)
2:30-3:30, PLT (Conference Room)
4:00- 5:00, Joel meets with Kerry Delph to set up Facebook Page.
6:00-8:00, Parent Group Meeting (Library)
September 10 (W)
8:30-9:00, Family Resource Center Meeting (FRC Rm. 9)
1:40-2:40, Grade Level Collaboration Meeting (Objective and Unit Planning in classrooms together)
4:30, Joel to United Way Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-4:45, First Design Committee Meeting with Staff (Library)
September 11 (H)
Joel begins walk through observations in classrooms.- Personal notes taken on iPad. No notes will be added to the Teacher Effectiveness and Growth System.
2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting (Library)
September 12 (F)
Joel begins walk through observations in classrooms.- Personal notes taken on iPad. No notes will be added to the Teacher Effectiveness and Growth System.
September 16 (T)
8:15-11:30, Joel and IPBS Team to CICO Training (Lane ESD)September 30 (T) Life Touch Photo Day
Hi Everyone,
We did so well our first week back and the school year seems to be off on a great start thanks to everyone’s hard work!
Some items of note this week:
• Skillful Teacher (Cohort 3) Camino Rep – 4J is starting a third Skillful Teacher cohort and is reserving a spot for each school to send a rep. Speak with Karen and Megan can let you know their experience with it, but the first session for Cohort 3 will be Friday, September 26th. Attached is a calendar of Skillful Teacher Trainings for the year. There is a possibility of multiple teachers from our school being able to attend if other schools do not fill their spots. If you are interested in being part of Cohort 3, let me know by the end of the week.
• Safety Week, Sept. 29 – Oct. 2 – I’d like to again hold a Safety Week this year and schedule it for the end of this month so we can practice all of the most common safety drills (and also take care of the September and October fire drill requirements all in the same week). Craig and I will be reviewing the previous year’s drills and will update manuals in the next week or so. We are also working with Matt Cornwall from downtown in order to ensure that our evacuation routes are clear. This is a good way to bring awareness to staff, students and families about the various safety procedures right at the start of the year. The schedule for Safety Week will be:
• Monday, Sept. 29– Fire Drill, 9:00
• Tuesday, Sept. 30– Room Clear, time decided by teachers
• Wednesday, Oct. 1 – Lock Down (Code Blue and Code Red), 9:00
• Thursday, Oct. 2– Earthquake/Fire Drill, 8:30
It’s not for another three weeks, but I wanted to let staff know now to help with planning. All of these drills are listed in the “Emergency Procedures Manual” which is the rainbow tabbed notebook that should be hanging in every classroom. I won’t be making any announcement before the drills, so it’s okay for staff to prep your students before these drills take place. For the Lock Down drill, please review the Code Blue and Code Red procedures. These steps are more detailed about our lockdown procedure than the more general ones in the Emergency Procedures Manual. Please let me know if you do not have a manual or if you have any questions.
• Principal Visits to Classrooms – If you haven’t already set up a time for me to come read to your class, let me know a good 15-20 minute block for me to come in this week or next. I’ll read a favorite story to your class and chat with the kids a bit. Thank you!
• Being a Writer Training for Teachers – On September 29th, representatives from the Developmental Studies Center will be conducting a Being A Writer Training for principals from 8:00-11:30 here at the Ed Center in the Auditorium.
• News Crew Starts This Week – Megan will be training some 4th graders in News Crew this week, which means we’ll be starting morning announcements this week! We will make the bilingual announcements short and they will begin at 8:30 so we do not disrupt morning meeting.
• Copier Codes – The copy code for teachers is the last 4 digits of the teacher employee number in case you need that.
• Please take attendance early. –It is very important that you input attendance IN SYNERGY before 9:00 AM. This is a safety issue and parent communication issue. All classroom teachers should have Synergy up and ready to input attendance before class begins. Please make this part of your regular routine.
• Confidentiality of Free and Reduced Lunch Information.– The district expects that the Food Service Coordinator will not share any private information with staff. The only person who is authorized by the Superintendent’s office to use this information would be the administrator. Please do not request this information of Rene as it puts her in a difficult situation.
• District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – Attached and linked here is the District Back-to-School Memo, which ALL staff must review and sign & return the acknowledgement form to Edna no later than Friday, September 26th.
• Title 1 Newsletter – If you’d like to know what’s happening in Title 1 from the district perspective, here is the September Title 1 Newsletter that went out to all Title 1 Coordinators and principals. This month’s issue is mostly a lot of coordinator business, but here it is if you’re curious.
• Supporting ELL Students Under New Standards (Free Online Course) – This eight-week online course is designed to help teachers support English Language Learners in meeting new, rigorous standards. Specifically, the course will focus on a key practice within both the Common Core State Standards and new English Language Proficiency Standards: constructing claims supported by evidence. Endorsed by the Oregon Department of Education for Oregon K-12 teachers, the content is also open to teachers outside of Oregon. I signed up. Won’t you join me?
• Oct 10 Statewide In service & Professional Learning Opportunities – This is a non-paid day, so staff are under no obligation to work or attend any of these trainings, but if you are interested in knowing what is being offered this day, attached is the 2014 Oregon Inservice Bulletin and also a flyer from Educational Explorations, which had paid classes offering credit through PSU.
• Visitors and Volunteers – We have many families who have been wandering the halls during pick up. We need to be very careful about this.
Please follow this procedure:
a.If a parent or adult is helping volunteer in the classroom, they should go through the volunteer criminal background check process before helping in class.
b. If you have a visitor in your class, they need to sign in daily. If they are visiting, they need to state their purpose, to observe, to share a skill, or to communicate with a teacher. Please ask your visitor if they have signed in each day and make sure they have a visitor sticker.
c. If you have a regular volunteer in your class please communicate with staff what their regular schedule is. Sometimes, there are custody conflicts which you may or may not be aware of. We can help you work through these if both parents want to volunteer in the same classroom.
Some resources for Morning Meeting – Below are some great resources on Morning Meeting if you are looking for ideas on how to integrate language skills in the meetings. I was really impressed with Ms. Noonan’s class. Using sentence frames and a word wall can be great strategies to support our students in morning meeting.
Developmental Studies Center You Tube Channel for your Caring For Kids Ideas
http://youtu.be/PH3vTEKiSTs?list=UUibvNgcTZQ02PucorqcTvLg
Article on Engagement – This article explores the several factors to help teachers know they are actually increasing engagement amongst students in the their classroom. I really liked it because it does not sugar coat engagement. Many times, having fun or seeing students working are described as engagement. This article dispels much of that perspective.
Effective Engagement in the Classroom- “the 7X Effect”
Announcements, Being a Writer, Engagement, Equity, Evacuation Drills, Morning Meeting, Office Procedures, Skillful Teacher, Title 1 | Comment (0)