Week of April 13


April 13th, 2015

Guanajuato, Mexico

What is coming up?

April 13 (M)

1:30-2:30, Title Coordinator & Principal Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
7:00-8:30, Joel to River Road Community Organization Meeting (River Road Annex)

April 14 (T)

10:15-11:15, Joel and Sara Green meet about the super-boundary (Joel’s Office)
2:50-4:50, Staff Meeting (Library)

Agenda: A Conversation about Race in Dual Language Program

6:00-7:00, Parent Group Meeting in (Room 9)

April 15 (W)

8:45-2:45, Visitors from Guanajuato, Mexico (In classrooms)

1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time

April 16 (H)
Joel out of the building- at the COSA Workshop “All Means All” with Anthony Muhammad

2:45-3:45, PBIS Meeting

April 17 (F)

Joel out of the building -at the COSA Workshop “All Means All” with Anthony Muhammad
12:00-3:00, BAW Teacher Leaders to Being a Writer Meeting (We need someone to go to this.)

12:00-3:00, 504  Training Meeting- Jaime  Jones attends.

6:00-8:00, Peace Jam Conference  with Rigoberta Menchu Tum- Camino del Rio Marimba Band Plays!

April 20 (M)
8:00-2:30, Fluoride Varnish Clinic at River Road

April 21 (T)

3:45-5:15, Joel to Full-Day Kindergarten Meeting (Ed Center)

April 22 (W)
Admin Professional’s Day (formerly Secretary’s Day)

Earth Day

1:45-2:45, PLC Collaboration Time

April 23 (H)
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day

2:45-3:45, (IPBS) Mod Squad Meeting

April 24 (F)

4:00, Meet up at Hop Valley

What is going on?

• Spanish Spelling Bee A Success–  This last Friday was a very exciting day for the Spanish Spelling Bee team. Those students who participated went to Forest Grove and began the competition around 10:00 AM. Leslie and Aiden represented El Camino del Rio and 4j in the competition. In addition, we had 5 other students attend. Aiden’s father, George, and Megan Murphy brought the students all the way to and from Forest Grove. Leslie was able to place in the final 12 students of the 60 or so who competed. I am so proud that our students made it to this event.  This event is good for  our students, our program, and providing opportunities for students to have their language skills be seen as assets in the public eye.  A big thank you goes out to Hannah Golden, the Spelling Bee Coach, Megan Murphy, and the Birns family for their support.  Here is an article with pictures of our team included!

 Summer School Update –  It is a priority for parents to hear from you about Summer School. The office needs all teachers to communicate the need for Summer School directly from you.  When they hear from you it makes a huge impact on the importance of the program.  Please make those calls for your students so they can take advantage of this valuable resource.

• Expo Process Update–  I am proud to announce that we have made a permanent hire for our 1.0 ELL Position. Nancy Schaal McHarry will continue in her position for the next year.  Nancy has done a great job in her ELL classroom and has jumped at the chance to help us integrate technology in ELD lessons, create an inclusion model in kinder, design a FLOSOM oral language proficiency model for our building, and participate in our PLT.  Her team player attitude  and hard work fits nicely with the changes our dual language program has made.  Please congratulate her if you see her on Monday on staying with the Camino del Río team.

The 1.0 and 0.5 FTE positions in 1st and 5th grade are still open. We did not find a viable candidate on Thursday last week. If there are candidates who apply, I my attend the 2nd round of EXPO. At this time, I am actively seeking external applicants.

• Attendance Pilot is in Full Swing- This last week we sent out our second set of attendance letters.  We sent 23 letters for the month of March.  For this last week the attendance letter list dropped to 10 students. That is good.  Parents are responding to the letters and we have seen a drop in unexcused attendance in the last couple of weeks. Soon, I will be making referrals to Mark Barr, the truancy officer.  This practice will continue on a weekly basis now that the office is trained and the system is set up.  We will also use this system in the Fall as well. Thank you to Yasmin for her persistence and hard work on this project.

• Guanajuato, Mexico Visit –  Armando Morales will be guiding the Guanajuato students to visit our school this Wednesday.  There will be 19 students and 3 teachers. They are very interested in how the United States education system works, and will be especially interested in the dual language program. Several are used to visiting a high school environment so the age level will also be new to many of them. Expect to have 2-3 guests in your classroom visiting and observing. They are all very excited to visit our school. I will begin the day with a presentation to them about how our program works.

• Staff Meeting PD Session with John Lockhart – On Friday, John and I met for a couple of hours to plan and discuss the professional development we will be having at our next staff meeting. The topic ties closely to the conversations we have had in our Taking It Up Equity meetings. We will discuss the dynamic between Anglos, Latinos, and other racial groups in the context of our dual language program. A precursory question to think about is:

“In your role, how does your cultural sense of self and others both allow you to and inhibit you from helping students of color and white students develop healthy racial identities?

We will reflect, share observations, and formulate ideas together. The meeting will run from 2:50-4:50. You will be paid an extra hour for attendance.  Carmen Urbina  and Jennifer Harris will follow up with us on May 1st in the morning to help us continue the conversation.

• Lane County Family Mediation Family Check-Up – Lane County Family Mediation are offering a “Family Check-Up” program developed by the UO to provide brief, family-centered interventions that identify strengths and weaknesses in family functioning and help participants become motivated to make positive changes. The services are available to parents and their children, ages 2-17, who are members of Trillium Community Health Plan. They will conduct assessments of family interactions, encourage self-reflection, promote positive family management skills, and provide referrals to community services. Families can earn $150 (provided in gift cards) by attending three appointments, which take place over a four to five week period.

Please feel free to share this information with any interested families. I will also be sending the attached flyer to families. I did check to see if this is available for Spanish speaking families and they said it unfortunately is not at this time.

• Earth Day, April 22nd – Schools across the country will be celebrating Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22. Teach your students how to care about their world — and how they can make it better! — throughout the year with these resources from Edutopia.

• Federal lawmakers may be close to draft NCLB bill – With state testing right around the corner, I thought people might be interested to know that federal lawmakers reportedly may be getting close to a new draft bill for the rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This article offers a glimpse at some of the potential changes, including giving states more flexibility on testing requirements and expunging the language inserting “portability” of Title 1 funds (which would have been a devastating to Title 1 schools like us). The education committee is expected to mark up a bill this week.

• Downtown Admin Updates – HR Director Sarah Brown has accepted a position in Florida, her home state, as the Chief of Human Resources for Manatee County Schools. She will be leaving April 24. There has not yet been an announcement regarding who will be the interim Director of HR.

Have an good week, everyone! 39 more days!

Joel

Week of March 16


March 15th, 2015

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Hi Everyone,

Congratulations to our OBOB Team! Although they didn’t advance to the next round, they did get to the elite 8 of 52 Lane County teams participating at this year’s competition. A big thanks to this spirited team and the great coaching efforts of Megan Murphy. It has benefited all our students. Also, a big thank you to parent Sabrina Gordon for volunteering to help our students this winter.

 

March 16 (M)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

March 17 (T)

Picture Day for all grades in the Library

12:00-4:00, Kinder Teachers Meeting with Reid and Maddy.

1:00,  Joel in NERA Meeting with Retired Educator volunteers for homeless youth.

2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting- Agenda,

a. Approve staffing plan, discuss intervention needs for 2015-16.

b. Senderos discussion and listing of pros and cons

2:45-4:45, PLT Meeting- Planning and Parent Handbook Work
March 18 (W)

1:00-1:30, Eugene Emeralds Assembly (All Classes)

1:45-2:45, Grade Level Collaboration Time – Math PLC meets in Library. Please enter on your Google form.

2:45-3:45, Joel, Karen, and Nancy go to STAMP TEST Planning Meeting (Ed Center)
March 19 (H)

8:30,Virtudes Assembly

2:45-4:15, Taking it UP Meeting in the Library with Carmen and John Lockhart

4:30-6:30, Joel to the Equity Committee at the Ed Center
March 20 (F)

12:30-2:00, Movie Award Day in Classrooms

2:00, BEST Field Trip leaves for lunch and boarding the bus.

11:00-2:00, Joel and Jessica Zapata to meet with the Mexican Consulate

March 23-27
Spring Break – No School
12:00-1:00, Spring Break Fun Time – Lunch & Activity (Cafeteria at Howard)

March 30 (M)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

March 31 (T)

STAMP Testing begins in 3rd and 5th Grade.

1:00-2:30, Senderos  Consultation Meeting with Zulma Cifuentes (Conference Room)

2:45-4:45, Staff Meeting, 2 hour meeting focused on Math Practices and Maddy and Reid’s work with grade Level Teams. (Library)

April 1 (W)
April Fool’s Day
4:00-5:00, Joel to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

April 2 (H)

3:30-5:00, Joel to North Region Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

April 3 (F)
Regular Day

Coming up:

April 15 (W) Guanajuato Teacher Student Exchange Visit to El Camino del Rio- This exchange will bring Mexican students and teachers into every classroom for one day.  They want to see how our program is designed and how we teach and support students. It will be a day of learning and cultural exchange.

April 17 (F) Peace Jam Marimba Performance for Rigoberta Menchu Tum at University of Oregon

Here are some of the items of the week:

•Irma De La Guardia wins National Bilingual Teacher of the Year

• HM Journeys/ Senderos and ThinkCentral – In our staff meeting on Tuesday, we will discuss  and decide on Journeys and Senderos. After listening to different perspectives on this idea, I will say that I still strongly support a move to have both Senderos and Journeys.  I believe that in the long run, we will be able to provide adequate supplementation to these materials in order to avoid redundancy and directly translatable texts. I believe there is more than enough material to use in both languages to support our students with out having issues of redundancy. The value of having curriculum mapping done for use across languages is very important. We will make our decision about Senderos on Tuesday this week after the staffing decision.

On the practical end of things:

Since we had our HM Journeys/ Senderos training last Friday, let me know if you’d like the upgraded HM Journeys materials delivered to your grade level and I’ll put Craig to work bringing them down. Remember, regardless of a Senderos decision, we will be replacing Journeys Materials. And if you misplaced the trainer’s email, it was “Cifuentes, Zulma” <Zulma.Cifuentes@hmhco.com>. Also, all licensed staff should now have access to ThinkCentral if you’d like to check that out. If you’d like to use it with your students this year, let me know and I’ll load your students into the system as well.

And regarding old HM materials, Craig can cart away any materials you don’t want to keep. I’ll probably try to sell our old materials to Follett in Summer, but feel free to keep any leveled readers, big books or others materials from the old curriculum that you still have a use for.

• SLUGGO READING Assembly at 1:00 PM WEDNESDAY– The annual SLUGGO assembly will be on Wednesday. I rescheduled our VIRTUDES assembly forThursday to give teachers one more day to get the awards written and communicated to families.  In addition, it seemed like too much to have two assemblies in one day.   Please review assembly expectations for both asemblies with your students.

• Virtudes/ Virtues Awards THURSDAY, March. 18th @ 8:30 – This Wednesday is the March Virdudes Awards. Virtudes certificates  are located in the office in your boxes. When you turn in your Virtudes nominations, be sure that you let Edna/Yasmin know who and why each student is being recognized so she can put their name up on the board. Also, you are encouraged to communicate with families to invite them to the assembly.

• Employee reimbursement limit increase to $250.00 – The employee reimbursement limit has been increased from $100.00 to $250.00 per reimbursement, subject to the usual criteria of the spending qualifying for reimbursement and timely receipt of the request, which are:

• Should be for small purchases. The district provides contracts for most supplies, so please check first before purchasing supplies with personal funds.
• Have a limit of $250 per reimbursement.
• Must comply with district purchase guidelines including reimbursement amounts and documentation such as copies of detailed invoices.
• Completed reimbursement requests, including mileage, should be received by Financial Services within 60 days of when the expenditure was incurred.

• Smarter Balanced assessment and testing exemption (“opt out”) — process, form and information – With the Smarter Balanced assessment testing window opening last week, you may get inquiries from parents about the Smarter Balanced tests, state testing in general, and/or about opting out of state tests. This is a reminder that the district has created a process and published an exemption request form and accompanying frequently asked questions document. If a parent asks for information or tells you they want to to opt their student out of state tests, you can direct them to me or to the State testing opt out FAQ and request form, the FAQ about the Common Core State Standards and Smarter Balanced assessments or the district information webpage about the Smarter Balanced assessments.

• Concussion – What Teachers Should Know – Attached you will find a one page document called Concussion-What Teachers Should Know. This was shared with principals and we were asked to encourage teachers to post this in their classrooms, for easy reference.

• Lessons for successful maker programs – Students are natural makers, and maker programs can help take learning beyond students’ comfort zones, according to Guatemala-based educators Adrian Catalan and Ceci Castillo. The pair shared four tips to help educators launch successful maker initiatives during their SXSWEdu session, Making Makers: From Guatemala to the World.

 

Five days until our nine day Spring Break!

 

Best,

 

Joel

Week of March 9


March 9th, 2015

Hello Camino del Rio Staff,

I am apologize that my blog went out so late.  I spent much of the weekend having fun at the beach with Lila, Solomon, and Anna. It was worth it!! The beach was amazing and I feel very rejuvenated.  Therefore, I am sending it out now!

What is coming up?

March 9 (M)

10:00-11:30, Joel to 15/16 Staffing Allocation Meeting (Ed Center) 8:00-12:00, 3rd Grade Math Planning Session with Reid

March 10 (T)

8:00-12:00, 2nd Grade Math Planning Session with Reid and Maddy.
2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting, main focus will be Staffing

March 11 (W)

1:45-2:45, Grade Level Math PLC in the Library ( All K-5 grades, please fill out your PLC form)
2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting in Recker’s Room

1:45-9:45, Joel, Karen, Nancy, Alexis to Portland for a session on push-in ELL Programs in the Douglas Garden’s School District. (Marylhurst University)

March 12 (H)

8:30-9:10,PRIDE Assembly-for all students. (Don’t forget to fill out your Pride Awards!)

9:30-12:00, Joel to CLLAS Conference at UO

12:00-4:00, 1st Grade Math Planning Session with Reid

1:00,  Joel meets with North Eugene Retiree Association Meeting to support Camino del Rio (Joel’s office)

3:00-5:00, Design Committee

March 13 (F)

8:00-12:00, Senderos PD at Camino del Rio K-2 Primary
12:00-4:00, Senderos PD at Camino del Rio 3-5 Intermediate
4:00-5:30, Hey staff, let’s go bowling!  at Firs Bowl on River Road by Bimart.
5:30-10:30, Benito Juárez Birthday Celebration at Kelly

March 16 (M)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

March 17 (T)

Picture Day for all grades in the Gym.

12:00-4:00, Kinder Teachers Meeting with Reid and Maddy.

2:45-4:45, PLT Meeting- Planning and Parent Handbook Work
March 18 (W)

1:00-1:30, Eugene Emeralds Assembly (All Classes)

1:45-2:45, Grade Level Collaboration Time – Math PLC meets in Library.

2:45-3:45, Joel and Karen go to STAMP TEST Planning Meeting
March 19 (H)

2:45-4:15, Taking it UP Meeting in the Library

4:30-6:30, Joel to the Equity Committee at the Ed Center
March 20 (F)

1:00-2:40, Movie Award Day in Classrooms

11:00-2:30, Joel to meet with the Mexican Consulate

March 23-27
Spring Break – No School
12:00-1:00, Spring Break Fun Time – Lunch & Activity (Cafeteria at Howard)

Here are some items of note for the week:

 

PBIS Movie Award Day on March 20th from 1:00-2:40

Each class will earn 10-15 big green slips to attend the whole school movie party.  Each grade and ELL will show a G rated movie from 1:00-2:40 on March 20th.  Kids will sign up from the list of movies available which we will send home next week.  Any students with level 3 referrals for the month of march who do not have behavior plans will do a quiet calm activity in title or the library such as read to self or coloring.  Let me know which movie your grade wants to show and I will make a list to send home.  This should be super fun and a nice way to build school community by combining grades.  Please tell your students about this opportunity today and begin the challenge.  We will provide snacks for each kid during movie.

• Surprise Assembly on Wednesday, March 11th at 12:45 PM

There is a surprise assembly this Wednesday due to the support of Jill Switzer and her connections to the UO.  We will be hearing and watching this special concert with the whole school on Wednesday afternoon to experience the rich culture of Puerto Rico and learn more about Bomba.  The concert should last about 45 minutes. All PE will be cancelled the last hour.

Pablo Luis Rivera presents a Concert of Puerto Rican Bomba with Proyecto Unión

An interactive performance by the director of the non-governmental organization Restauración Cultural and affiliated musicians. Rivera, who holds a PhD from the Center for Advanced Studies on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, will lead an ensemble exploring the world of bomba music. Bomba is an Afro-Puerto Rican drum and vocal music that features the interaction between dancers and the drums. The event will include music-dance performance, a narrative explanation of bomba, and an open invitation at the end for students and the public to enter the arena and improvise with the lead drum. Since 1998, the Restauración Cultural has undertaken the task of preserving the music and dance traditions of Puerto Rico. Through workshops, musical performances, and cultural exchange, the ensemble has traveled throughout Puerto Rico and the world, sharing both Bomba and a message of the importance in keeping the arts in education.

• HM Journeys/Senderos Training, March 13th, Reminder –The 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. It will all occur in the library. The rest of the day will be planning time. They will be going over all the hard copy materials as well as getting everyone online access to the digital materials in ThinkCentral. They are asking that teachers bring your Journeys Teacher Edition Vol. 1, the Student Edition (text) and your laptop. I believe all of our materials have been delivered, so teachers can feel free to gather materials. Ask Craig to help you find the TE Editions. And if teachers would rather I grab your teacher guide and student text, just let me know and I’ll put them in your mailbox.

What: Senderos Training for Spanish teaching buildings (Camino del Rio y BV)
Where: Camino del Rio
When: March 13th
K-2nd 8-11:00 am
3-5th 12-3:00 pm
Bring: Your Teacher Edition volume 1, the student edition (text) to go with it, and your computer.  (I will work with Craig to pull these our for you. They are in the building.)

 

• ELA CCSS 6 Shifts Workshops: Instructional Strategies for the Common Core REMINDER – Gretta Sagolla sent an email reminder last week, but teachers should remember to sign up for Session 3 of the ELA CCSS Workshops on the 4J Workshop Page. The K-2 sessions will be offered March 10th, 12:00pm-3:00pm, March 11th, 8:00am-11:00am or March 12th, 8:00am-11:00am. The 3-5 session are offered March 9th, 12:00pm-3:00pm, March 10th, 8:00am-11:00am or March 12th, 12:00pm-3:00pm. And remember to bring a piece of text you plan on teaching in your next unit (or perhaps your next unit teachers manual) and your laptop.

Resident Storyteller at Camino del Rio: In April, Thaston Riklon will begin a storytelling series for 4th and 5th grade.  On April 8th and 15th Thaston will tell some sacred stories from his home country, the Marshall Islands. These are indigenous stories from the Marshall Islands that he has permission to tell from his tribal leader in his country.  Thaston will be coming to share with other classes too if you have interest.  Thaston will share in full Marshall Island

• Spring Break Lunch/Activity Flyer – I mentioned a couple weeks ago that Nutrition Services is holding a free lunch and activity program at Howard for area students 1-18 years old living in our area. Attached is a flyer for the event. We received hard copies of the flyer last week, which should go home with student if you didn’t send them home already. And let me know if any of you are interested in volunteering 12:00-1:00 one day over the break to lead an activity (coloring books, showing a video, singing songs, open gym, free choice on the playground, etc.) one of the days.

• Can learning through play benefit all students? – Educators in early grades — and more recently middle grades — are incorporating play in learning, writes Hilary Conklin, an associate professor at DePaul University and fellow with the OpEd Project. She notes in this article that recent research supports learning through play for all students, even high-schoolers.

Spanish-language books for kids have a new LA home– Here is an article about a couple of women who started a Spanish Language bookstore in LA. As many of you know, finding authentic Spanish language literature is difficult,. This business is working to make it easier on the West Coast. I also know of one bookstore on the East Coast called La Casa Azul Bookstore in East Harlem. You should read more about these bookstores as they promote literacy for the love of reading Spanish literature. That is a good thing.

2 weeks (9 student days) until Spring Break!

Joel

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Week of March 2


March 1st, 2015

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What is ahead?

March 2 (M)

Dr. Seuss Week Begins

Pajama Day

Maria de Pilar Zentz begins on Monday 1:30-3:00,

1:00-2:30,Immersion Principals Meeting- Joel at Fox Hollow

6:30-8:00,Spanish Smarter Balanced Info Night for Parents

March 3 (T)

Crazy Hair Day 4th Grade Math Planning Session with Reid

2:00, Parent Advisory Board with Alicia, Edna, Joel, and parents.

2:45-3:45, PLT Meeting

March 4 (W)

Hat Day-
Eat (and contribute to) at the Classified Staff Celebration at lunch beginning at 11:00 AM in the Staff Lounge.
8:00-11:00    Joel at Skillful Teacher Co-observations-(Corridor)

12:30, Fire Drill
1:45-2:45, Grade Level Collaboration Meeting (in Library)

2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting

4:00-5:00, North Region Principal Meeting

6:00-8:00, Dr. Seuss Night

March 5 (H)

Crazy Socks Day 8:00-12:00, 5th Grade Math Planning Session with Reid 5:00-6:00,  Superintendent Candidates Public Forum

March 6 (F)

Favorite Book Character Day

March 9 (M)

10:00-11:30, Joel to 15/16 Staffing Allocation Meeting (Ed Center) 8:00-12:00, 3rd Grade Math Planning Session with Reid

March 10 (T)

8:00-12:00, 2nd Grade Math Planning Session with Reid
2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting, main focus will be Staffing

March 11 (W)

1:45-2:45, Grade Level Math PLC in the Library ( All K-5 grades, please fill out your PLC form)
2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting in Recker’s Room

March 12 (H)

8:30-9:10,PRIDE Assembly-for all students.

9:30-12:00, Joel to CLLAS Conference at UO

12:00-4:00, 1st Grade Math Planning Session with Reid

March 13 (F)

8:00-12:00, Senderos PD at Camino del Rio K-2 Primary
12:00-4:00, Senderos PD at Camino del Rio 3-5 Intermediate
4:00-5:30, Hey staff, let’s go bowling! Firs Bowl
5:30-10:30, Benito Juárez Birthday Celebration at Kelly

What is going on?

Hi Everyone,

Monday, March 2nd through Friday, March 6th marks the celebration of Classified Employees Appreciation Week! Contributions by classified staff to our school, students and families are immeasurable! Not only would our school be unable to operate without our classified staff, our school is by far a better place for the classified folks we have here at Camino del Río. Your dedication and hard work, whether it’s going that extra mile for a student or taking over a classroom or taking over a group in a pinch, know that your efforts have not gone unnoticed. Camino del Río is a better place for having you all here!

Poster-classified

 

• Teacher Pathways Program – 4J is participating in the Lane County Teacher Pathways Program, which will pay tuition costs for the licensure program on a Pay-It-Forward, Pay-It-Back system. The Pathways program is working to diversify the teaching force in three ways: linguistically, culturally, and socio-economically. They are actively seeking people who speak multiple languages, are culturally-diverse, and/or are first-generation college students. Meeting one of these descriptors is a bonus but not a requirement. Please share this information with anyone who you think would be a good candidate for the program. Attached is the Lane County Teacher Pathways Program brochure and applications. The deadline to apply is March 13th, so it’s a fast timeline if there is anyone you plan to share this with.

• TalentEd Password & Login Update – HR let principals know that Netchemia, the organization that provides TalentEd Perform, made upgrades to the system last week. As a result, when you log into TalentEd for the first time since then, it will look different. The different systems available for purchase within TalentEd are Discover, Recruit & Hire, Perform, and Records. Netchemia has now made it possible for their customers who use more than one system to log in using one password, though 4J only uses Perform and not the other systems. So the next time you log onto TalentEd, follow the directions given to you when you login and remember the following:

1) You are not required to change your password, necessarily. You will be prompted to change your password, but can “change” it to the same one you were using before IF that password had a “special character” in it and meets all other requirements they set up for passwords.

2) Put at least one “special character” in your password. These are such symbols as: @ # $ % ! …etc.

3) To make your password more secure, you may want to create one that has at least eight (8) characters in it and has a combination of lower case letters, upper case letters, and numbers.

4) If your attempts to log in don’t work – PLEASE CALL HR AND THEY WILL CONFIGURE YOUR PASSWORD ON THE SPOT TO GET YOU IN. The “Forgot your password?” feature doesn’t seem to be working too well since the upgrade. Please don’t keep trying and end up frustrated.

• New Nutrition Services General Manager – 4J has a new Nutrition Services General Manager and is the Howard PTO President, Kaylynn Olney. Some of you know Kaylynn has worked in 4J as the Operations Manager since 2012 and worked for Oregon State University Catering for six years before coming here. If she comes by to check in, please say hello and congratulate her.

• Math PD Sessions with Maddy and Reid – As some of you may know, grade level teams are meeting with Reid and Maddy between now and Spring Break.  This will be a tremendous opportunity for finding the gaps in the math program and sharing common strategies. Here is the agenda.

• Complete the staffing survey by March 9th –Don’t forget to complete the staffing survey. This is for all classified and certified staff.

 The Staffing Survey– Click on this form to begin.

• Ems Emazing Readers Assembly Incentive Assembly, 3/18 at 1:00 – This is a fun assembly kickoff for the Eugene Emeralds’ Reading Incentive program. The program will run the like previous years, but Aline will distribute information to classroom teachers on how the program works, which is essentially classroom teachers set a reading goal for students and if students meet that goal they get two free tickets to attend an Em’s baseball game this summer. For the assembly, we will meet in the gym at 1:00 so Sluggo can motivate kids to meet their reading goals.

Proficient bilinguals see higher earnings, research shows– Patricia Gándara shares important research on the economic advantages of being bilingual. The work you do with children gives them an immense economic advantage in the workplace of the future.

Have a great week everyone and enjoy the festivities of the week!

Best,

Joel