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

Week of October 13

Hi all,

I had a wonderful experience on Friday night at the benefit for Centro Latinoamericano.  I sat beside Ramon Ramirez, the President of PCUN (Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste).  He was the keynote speaker and delivered a powerful message about migrant workers rights, sustainability, and education. He shared his experience of marching with many people from Selma to Montgomery Alabama fifty years after the original march. It was encouraging to hear him say that education is one of the greatest ways to make a difference in children’s lives whether they are from a migrant family or not.  His speech was powerful and inspiring.  I encourage you to read more about the work of PCUN. They have been fighting for migrant farm worker’s rights in Oregon since 1977.

Here is a similar message from President Ramirez 2 years ago.

• Here is The Schedule of Events for the Week:

October 13 (M)
8:00-4:00, Stella Dadson will be guest administrator in office- Joel doing goals meetings and informal observations all day.

9:00-9:30, Joel in meeting with Hayden Spence, UO Pre-education major and my former Madison science class 6th grade student.

7:00- 9:00, Joel to Common Core State Standards Information Night at North Eugene, All teachers are welcome to attend.

 

October 14 (T)

9:00-10:00, Meeting with new SST Leader- Kathy Krieder and Kathy Larson

1:45-2:30- Youth Orchestra- Strings Project- Recruitment  –4/5th Grade Assembly in Cafeteria (SORRY for the late Notice)

2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting, Please arrive on time unless on duty.

6:00-8:00, Parent Group Meeting- Kindergarten Presenting

 

October 15 (W)
8:00-11:00, Joel to TAG Coordinator Training (Leaving early)

10:00-10:00, Joel returns to meet with ODE Shanda Brown

2:45-3:45, PBIS Meeting- 1 hour paid to all classified who attend.- 3 positions available- We need your input!

 

October 16 (H)

4:00 PM-Schedules due to submit to Rosa Molina via Dropbox folder.

3:00-4:00, Costume Swap- after school.

3:00-5:00, Design Committee in Library

 

October 17 (F)

Joel in goals meetings and informal walk-through observations.- Another guest administrator will be in the building to support us to complete goals meetings.

 

October 20 (M)

8:00-4:30, Rosa Molina Visit to consult on our schedules and district wide issues.- Sarah Knudsen will send schedule out this week.

Title Meeting for Aline.

Title Coordinator and Principal Meeting

First Day of BEST
October 21 (T)

8:15-12:15, Priority School Support Team Meeting (SST) (Conference Room)

12:30-1:30- Math PD Planning meeting with Reid Sheppard and Maddie Ahearn (Conference Room)

2:45 3:45 – TLT Meeting Conference Room

6-8, Latino Family Meeting  @ NEHS
October 22 (W)

6-8,Talking with Books Kinder Literacy Event

2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting in Recker’s Room

 

October 23 (H)

6-8,Talking with Books Kinder Literacy Event

3:00-5:00, Design Committee

4:30-6:30,  Joel to the  4J Equity Committee

 

October 24 (F)

Joel in Portland with Karen, Alicia, and Sara Cramer to learn about Early Literacy.

8:25-9:10,  Asemblea Andina

November 6 and 7- Parent Conferences.

 

Here are some items of note for the week:

• Please finish your grade level weekly master schedule: Make time to complete your weekly master schedule this week. It is due by Friday at 4:00 PM to be inputted into Rosa Molina’s Drop Box.

• Goals Meetings: Make you goals appointment with me this week or next. I am available as early as 7:15 some days.

• Parent Group Meeting, Tuesday at 6:00 – The October Parent Group meeting will be this Tuesday, 6:00-8:00 PM in the library if any staff are able to attend. There was a big turnout of staff and families for the September meeting, which was a great show of support for the Parent Group’s work. Hope to see you there!

• Classified Staff Comp Time reminder.- Please ask Edna for the comp time form to keep track of your comp time on a monthly basis. This makes it easier for us to manage and keep track of.

• Classified Staff AESOP Reminder – When entering an absence into AESOP, when you get to the Time section, always select “Custom” and then enter your work hours. If you forget this step, AESOP defaults assigning the sub to an 8 hour day. Let me know if you have any questions on this.

• Conference Compensation for Large Classes – Most teachers probably already know this, but section 10.1.9 of the contract states “If an elementary school unit member has greater than twenty-eight (28) students for the all-school parent conference, he/she will be compensated for one half (1/2) day at his/her per diem rate.” How this was handled last year was that following conferences teachers with 29 students or more signed an extended contract form to receive their additional half-day pay.

• Elementary Leadership Plan Changes – While we need to wait for the School Board to ratify the new EEA contract, I wanted to let everyone know how the Elementary Leadership Plans will be more generous this year. The old plan I had was to divide our 14 days among 4 people (3.5 for for School Climate, 3.5 for for Technology and 3.5  for Differentiation and TAG Support  ), but pending board approval we will now get 18 days to divide among up to 6 teachers. This means we will need to revisit and update our plan. The 18 days could be evenly divided among our four current leaders or we could add new compensated leadership positions and decide how to divide the 4 additional leadership days. Let me know if you have ideas or preferences on how to distribute our 20 days, so we might have a starting place for discussion at our next staff meeting.

• District Admin Updates – Tryna Luton has been hired as the Staff Growth and Effectiveness Administrator, taking the place of Tasha Katsuda who became the new Federal Programs (Title 1) Coordinator. Since 2008, Tryna has been serving as the Director of Federal Systems for the Oregon Department of Education. One of her many responsibilities in this role was to collaboratively direct the teacher and principal evaluation system implementation. Before her work with ODE she worked at Oregon State University as a P-12 Outreach Coordinator/Administrator and she also worked for 10 years as a teacher in the Lebanon Community School District.

• Resources for Smarter Balanced – Marlee Litten posted several links for Smarter Balanced last week. The one link about universal tools is now expired, but Oscar had downloaded the video so it is loaded on the Teacher Resource Site under ESC > State Assessments on the Teacher Resource page. If you have found other resources to share, please send them to Marlee or myself. The video of a PLC team is still not working on YouTube so downtown is trying to get a copy sent to us of that one.

• Title 1 Newsletter – If you’d like to know what’s happening in Title 1 from the district perspective, here is the latest Title 1 Newsletter that went out to all Title 1 Coordinators and principals. This month’s issue is again mostly coordinator compliance tasks, but there is an interesting video on close reading strategies with informational texts.

• Recycle Art Challenge – The deadline for this is Wednesday, but here’s an opportunity for teachers to raise awareness about waste control and promote recycling education PLUS win cash for your classroom. The contest is open to all Lane Country children grades K-5. Winning artists will receive a pizza party for their homeroom class and $350 will also be award to the class of each winner. In addition, each winner will personally receive a $50 gift certificate to the Maude Kerns Art Center. See the flyer for details.

•Bilingual Education turns 40– Did you know that bilingual education as we know it is 40 years old this year?

Here are two articles that outline the landmark ruling that shifted English Language Learner’s Education  if you have the time to read them.

Students effected by Lau vs. Nichols from San Francisco Unified School District

How Lau v. Nichols Transformed Bilingual Education

Forty Years Since Bilingual Education Ruling, Challenges Remain

Have a rewarding and enriching week with your students!

Saludos cordiales,

Joel

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 requests

  If 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.

2014-Inservice-Bulletin

fall-flyer-2014

Supporting English Language Learners under New Standards — Open Oregon State | Oregon State Ecampus | OSU Degrees Online

• “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.

Week of September 29

Calendar of the Week’s Events

September 29 (M)

8:00-8:40, Joel in 504 meeting.
8:00-11:30, Being a Writer Training for all teachers.
12:00-3:00, Joel at Being a Writer Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:45, September Site Council (Conference Room)
3:45-4:45, Meeting with Kerry Delph about our Camino Facebook page.

September 30 (T)

Kathy Larson Visit
Life Touch Picture Day (Gym All Day)
8:00-8:45- Joel visiting morning meetings.
9:00-9:45, Joel meets with new Chief of Staff, Charis McGaughy
2:40-3:00, Joel Meeting with Risk about Hilliard Traffic

October 1st (W)

8:00-8:45- Joel visiting morning meetings
1:40-2:40,Collaborative Planning Time
2:45-3:15, Dia de Los Muertos Planning Meeting in Room 9.
6:00-8:00, Curriculum Night- Plan de Estudios de Noche

October 2 (H)
Joel in Portland at Coaches and Principal’s Meeting
3:00-5:00, 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.

This week on duty:

Inside lobby: Olivia
Front of school: Erin Reckers
Bus area #1: Marcy
Bus area #2: Erin Piper
Bus area #3: Nancy
Please remember to take your class a few minutes early if you are on duty.

Here are 16 items of note for the week:

• Design Update– On the evening of September 25th we had a turn out of about 30 people.  The majority of people attending were neighbors from the surrounding community.  We presented an East option and a West option. The discussion was heated and clearly, specific neighbors feel they will be adversely effected by the West option.  We will be debriefing again Monday by phone to land on an East or West siting option. The East option has benefits of providing more open space. Unfortunately, it will cost money to tear down classrooms to make an east option work. This will cost 750K and means less money put into the building itself. The West option is also attractive and can be built with a slightly larger budget since there will not be tear downs. The West option also will mean less disruption and no loss of capacity as we need more kinder classrooms in 2015-2016. Most likely, the team will move forward with a site decision in the next week either way. The cons of the west plan are related to the outside play options and clear separation of traffic and play. The team is working on other options this week to share more ideas about the West option to come up with ways to solve these problems. Here is the latest  presentation provided by our architect team. There are also plans in my office on poster board which I will put up in the staff lounge this week.

• PBIS Assembly on October 9th- Get a small skit prepared with your grade level team or specialist team. The skit should be fun and short. Each piece should be 10-30 seconds.

• Next Parent Group Meeting is October 14th- Consider coming to the next parent group meeting. Our new parent group president wants to help families to hear from teachers about what is happening in classrooms. Drea wants to see if teachers want to do a short sharing of a particular grade level.  It makes sense for us to start with kindergarten this month.  Maestra Bucklew and Maestra Fleming, can you come to this event?

Copy Counts and conserving copies- I know many staff have been feeling the pressure of limiting copies in the IMC.  Please understand that I am working hard to conserve our general supply funds. Last year, our school overspent these funds by over 8,000 dollars and we had to cover these costs with reserves from fleet funds. This is why Edna and I are watching the counts closely. It may be that we need to up the quota for all staff sooner than December.  Also, please use Instaprint as much as possible. A little thinking ahead can make a big difference in reducing costs. Also, there is currently no limit on Instaprint orders. In addition, we are looking into limiting the office copying by using a hybrid online/paper system to cut costs there.  At open house next week, please ask parents for their latest email address so we can make sure that system is as accurate as possible.  Edna will provide a sign up sheet for you next week. If we could deliver our newsletter to a quarter or even half of our families via email, it would drastically reduce our copy costs in the office.

• Northwest Conference on Social Justice October 18th– Jill Torres is helping to organize staff who are interested in going to the Northwest Social Justice Conference.  There will be a bus provided to 4j employees who want to go. It will be in Portland this year. It is 8-4:30 on October 18th, 2014 at Madison High School 2735 NE 82nd Ave. Portland, Oregon 97220

• Operation School Bell – Alicia wanted to inform you that tthere are Operation School Bell envelopes in your boxes. If you got some, please make sure to send them home with the student on Monday, September 29. The envelope contains time sensitive information. Please let Alicia know if you have any questions. Thank your for your assistance.

• Safety Week Continues – This week is Safety Week, where we’ll practice all of the most common safety drills. The schedule for the week is below. Of course, if it rains, we will have to adjust the schedule.  Staff did an excellent job getting students outside for last week’s fire drill.  I have included a link here if you want to read more about earthquake safety and preparedness.

• Monday, Sept. 29– No Drills.
• Tuesday, Sept. 30– Room Clear, time decided by teachers
• Wednesday, Oct. 1 – Earthquake/Fire Drill
• Thursday, Oct. 2–   Lock Down (Code Blue and Code Red)

All of these drills are listed in the “Emergency Procedures Manual” which is the rainbow tabbed notebook that should be hanging in every classroom (let me know if you don’t have one). 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, which include steps that are specific to River Road and are more detailed than the general ones in the Emergency Procedures Manual. I will probably have Karen or Edna run this drill since I will be out of town that day. Please let me know if you have any questions.

• Sub Folders to Edna – If you haven’t already, be sure to give your completed sub folders to Edna. For licensed staff, EAST, the substitute teachers union, provided a list of what information is most useful for them when they go into a classroom, which teachers may want to take a look at before completing your sub folders.

• Eugene/Springfield NAACP Resource Center – The Eugene/Springfield chapter of the NAACP just had their Resource Center Kick-Off Event and I wanted to highlight some resources staff may want to recommend to students and families. There are a couple programs aimed more at secondary students, which are the Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) and the Youth Council, but the program that would most benefit our students and families is the Back to School/Stay in School (BTS) program, which offers free tutoring, computer lab and academic/Parental assistance and counseling every Saturday (beginning Oct. 4) from 10:00-12:00 at the LCC Downtown Campus.

• Language Link Interpretation Services – For individual parent meetings and phone calls requiring translation services (including Parent/Teacher Conferences), the ELD Office is highly recommending that staff use the Language Link phone service (see attached document for details). This is a company the district contracts with who are well versed in education jargon, can translate multiple languages and are quite experienced in translating for schools. The ELD office will still try to schedule an in-district translator for conferences, but just know that this is also an option and in some ways might be better for connecting with families since you’d be able to better avoid having everyone talking to the translator instead of talking to each other. Of course, during our conferences, most classroom teachers will conference in the language of the parent since we have bilingual teachers.

• Ed Center Artwork Display – The Ed Center has two glass display cases begging for student artwork. It needs to be either 8×11 flat or three dimensional no larger than 8 inches on any side. If you are interested in participating, please let me know. This is a great way to help kids fell empowered and proud of their artistic skills.

• Papa’s Pizza Student Incentive Award – Papa’s Pizza is offering achievement awards that can be given to students for good behavior or reaching other teacher set goals as an incentive. The students receiving the awards can redeem them at Papa’s Pizza for a free mini pizza. If you you’d like some of these for your class, please let me know by end of the week how many you’d like. Papa’s said they can provide them all school year long. I already received 25 last week to begin this program.

• City of EugeneTeaching Resources – The City of Eugene offers a wide range of K-12 resources that teachers can use to add interest and local content to lesson plans. This brochure offers some examples of these great opportunities for students, including RiverPlay/Discovery Village Field Trip, Hunting for History, Snow Plow Art, the annual Public Works Day and many others.

• UO International Cultural Presentations for Classrooms – The International Cultural Services Program is once again making their student ambassadors from across the globe available for the 2014-2015 school year. Since the program’s inception almost 30 years ago, ICPS participants have brought cultural diversity to our community through group presentations, panel discussions, and demonstrations of regional dance, music, food and many other forms of cultural expressions. This program is K-12 and is offered free of charge. If you would like to invite an international student to speak to your class, you can submit a request by filling out this online request form. If at any time you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the ICSP Coordinator, Lindsay Pepper, by email icsp@uoregon.edu or phone (541) 346-7429.

• VIDEO: “Hey White People: A Kinda Awkward Note to America by Ferguson Kids” – A radio station from Ferguson, MO made a pretty smart and snappy video highlighting common detours to discussing and addressing racism in America, our local community and even in ourselves.

• Hispanic Heritage Month- Check out the UO Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration organized in part by Jessica Zapata

Ten un buen semana de escuela!

Director Joel

Week of September 15

Where will we fly to? Only our student’s imagination can say!

Calendar of the Week Plus

September 15 (M)
Tier 2 Groups begin
10:00-11:00, Joel conducting walk through observations for general dual language characteristics.

September 16 (T)
8:15-11:30, Joel to CICO Training (Lane ESD)
12:00-12:30 , Joel in meeting in office to discuss bible group program.
1:00-2:00, Joel in meeting with  Julie Heffernan on Transgender Resources in the Community
2:45-3:45 TLT Meeting to approve Technology Plan (Library)
6:00-8:00 Latino Advisory Committee at NEHS

September 17 (W)
Tier 3 Title Interventions commence.
1:40-2:40, Grade Level Collaboration –  1st through 5th grades, please meet with your team in the library and plan amongst peers. Karen and Sarah, and Aline will provide support for your planning.
Kinder and ELL will meet in Room 6 with Lavin, Fleming, Bucklew, Lauer, and Schaal.
2:45-3:45, PBIS Meeting Conference Room- need one or two classified representatives.

September 18 (H)
2:45-5:00, Design Committee Meeting

September 19 (F)
Regular Day
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)
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 Maravillas PD Consultant
12:00-4:00, Teacher Planning Time

This week on duty:

• Safety Week-ish, Sept. 26 – Oct. 2 – Safety Week changes due to Being a Writer. Craig, Edna and I are still working on new maps. We will get those to you soon along with updated procedures.

• Friday, Sept. 26– Fire Drill, 9:00

• Monday, Sept. 29– No Drills Many Staff out due to Being a Writer

• Tuesday, Sept. 30– Room Clear, time decided by teachers

• Wednesday, Oct. 1 –  9:00, Earthquake/Fire Drill

• Thursday, Oct. 2–  8:30 Lock Down (Code Blue and Code Red)

• Shiniest Stars of the Week- There are so many!

Cathy- Thanks so much for your amazing efforts to get Maravillas up and running. This was a great help to many teachers and to the office.

Aline- Thank you for working on so many schedules and documents for the start of the year. Your organization, leadership and vision for data team and IIPM support for our kids is greatly appreciated.

Karen- Your work on data team, easy CBM testing, and overall positive upbeat mindset have been so helpful in the last thee weeks.  It is truly amazing that we have finished KRA, Easy Cbm and are now moving into a new era of Spanish Summative assessment with your support.

Sara and Nancy-   Wow! ELL Powerhouse. It is so fun to watch how quickly and efficiently you both work together to help our English Language Learners. Your flexibility and innovative approach are so supportive of our whole program.

Sarah- Puzzle master and visionary.  I am so impressed with your great thinking and clear vision for SLD supports, Dual Language Fidelity and Programmatic Support. Thanks for helping to redesign so many schedules so that everything we do fits together so well.

Edna- Our school is just humming along, thanks to you.  Our families react so positively to your support.  It is such a pleasure to know that our kids and staff can rely on you to help us in so many ways. You rock!

 • All Meeting Minutes will now be on Zimbra Briefcase and on this Blog-

You will be able to access all minutes and structural documents via my blog and the the briefcase on Zimbra. Peggy can support you to access the briefcase if you need support in that area.

 • Website Updating and Media Request-

I need your help to update the website.  Please pass on ideas of content you’d like parents and students to see on there. Share photos with me that we can put on there.  Also, look for errors  that you see on there.

• EEF Grant Applications – The timeline is a bit later than in the past, but the EEF grant application process is now posted on their website. EEF aims to award $5000 to each school, but every year the amount available in their grants fund varies so they cannot guarantee award amounts. Schools can submit two $2,000 and two $500 grants, or they can combine grants to create one $5,000 grant. This year, we are submitting an entire $5000 grant  proposal towards getting high quality authentic Spanish language books. This will include fiction and non-fiction.  Grants are due to EEF by November 13th. This was approved in June.

• Technology Skills Practice for Smarter Balanced (and practice test) – Here is a nice  site that demonstrates tech skills for SBAC from Vacaville School District in California. They have created a site for teachers to support students becoming proficient in using the keyboard and mouse/trackpad/touchscreen for the tasks they will be asked of by the Smarter Balanced assessment (highlighting, clicking and dragging, etc.). It’s organized by grade level and has direct links activities for each of the skill areas.

• Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Resource – Here is a link to the official Smarter Balanced practice tests. This website also has FAQ’s, teacher information and other resources with options to download. Here is how to try out the practice tests. They are not run of the mill and I must admit that the one I tried did give me pause:

• Click on the box near the bottom of the page labeled, “Take The Practice and Training Tests”
• Once there, click on the green box labeled, “Student interface….”
• Then, click on “Sign in” leave all of the boxes blank
• Finally, select a grade level and click “yes” under “Guest School”

Now go forth and show your math and reading prowess!

Color Printing:  Remember, color printing is very expensive.  Please be mindful that if you need to do color printing to be prudent how much you need.  We can make copies in the main office in a pinch during off hours but not during the busiest portions of the day. Also, consider using Insta Print and plan ahead as this saves a significant amount of supply funds and precious time for office staff.
Food Reminder-

Bring the student’s number cards EVERY time they go to lunch.  Hand them their cards and pick them up at the end. There is no need to hang around with the students in line. Rene and the cooking staff will appreciate it.  This seems to work very well for 1st grade right now and they are trying to learn their numbers quickly.  Please do this at all grades.   Kinder will continue to use their method of pick up of grab and go lunches.

• Synergy New Student Reminder – A quick reminder that if you have had new students added to your class, teachers will need to move them over from the column on the left of the main Teacher VUE screen into where the pictures of all your students are located. There is a red alert triangle at the top of your Synergy screen that will notify you when you have new students added to your class, but be aware you need to move them onto your roster before you will be able to see them for attendance and other Synergy purposes.

• Teacher Effectiveness & Growth Update – HR has let principals know that they have almost transferred all of the necessary information over for teachers to begin using TalentEd for the 2014-2015 school year. I’ll let teachers know once it’s ready to go and will schedule goals meetings at that point, as well as sending out the building goals if you’d like to use them. Also, here’s a link to the district Teacher Effectiveness and Growth Systems website, which can likely answer any questions you may have about the system.

• Camino del Río Staff Handbook Review – Attached is the updated Staff Handbook for 2014-2015. All staff must review the handbook and sign & return the  acknowledgement form  to Edna by Friday, September 26th.

• New Teaching Tolerance Curriculum for Teachers – Three years, 300 texts and 20 anchor standards in the making, Teaching Tolerance’s K-12, literacy-based, anti-bias curriculum is finally here! Start exploring Perspectives for a Diverse America today.

• 2013–14 OAKS results: District-wide analysis & key points – You may have seen the recent article in the Register Guard, but OAKS were released last week by ODE. In terms of measuring growth, Howard held pretty steady, though our overall scores dropped, as did most of the district and state, particularly in math. Attached is a district summary of scores, some of it broken out by school, along with an email that was sent to principals with an analysis of the results.

• Curriculum Night will be October 1st – Aline, Karen, Alicia, and I have been working on a plan to create a passport style curriculum night.  More details to come.  The ad will be sent home on Monday with our first mailer.

Here are some ideas  for sharing on curriculum Night (October 1st from 6:00-8:00)

• Parents want to know what their students are expected to learn this year and how they can help them succeed. Think about creating a handout or packet that gives an overview of your year’s scope and sequence. Bonus points for including information about how parents can help with each big topic/project.

• Explain the standards. If you’re teaching the Common Core, the PTA has put out a great collection of parent guides. These guides are a great way to teach parents about the CCSS.

• Include examples of student work. If you have copies of projects that students have done in the past, show these as examples of the kind of work students will be expected to do this year. Alternatively, show a few (nameless) examples of student work from the beginning of the year. Talk about the work students have been doing and where you will go from there.

• Take a few minutes to preview areas where kids might struggle and how parents can help. For example, your students might use a different strategy to solve math problems than their parents and that might make homework challenging. Or, talk about how the rhythms of a classroom have highs and lows — say, how you’ve noticed that every December your students start to get antsy for the holidays and are easily distracted.

Explaining the Common Core in Spanish to families. Need help explaining the CCSS to families?  Here is a nice video.

Have a good week, everyone!

Joel

Week of September 8

Weekly Schedule

September 8 (M)
Fall Benchmark Testing  and KRA Continues

8:30, 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 KRA

9:00-9:30, 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”