Week of April 13

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 February 23

Did you know that last Saturday was International Mother Language Day? This is an event sponsored by UNESCO each year.

What is ahead?

February 23 (M)
School Choice Visitation Week #2
10:30-11:00, Joel in the Design Debrief with Go to Meeting (Joel’s office)
12:00-2:45, Joel to Research for Better Teaching Training (Ed Center)
2:45-3:45, Site Council Meeting at River Road

February 24 (T)

7:40,3rd Grade Student Support Meeting (Jennifer’s Office)
1:00-2:00, School Tour
2:45-4:45, Staff Meeting- 2 hours

February 25 (W)

1:45-2:45, Grade Level Collaboration (Library) & Classified Supervision Meeting (conference room.)
2:45-3:45, IPBS Meeting
5:30-6:30, Evening School Choice Event

February 26 (H)
8:30-9:30, School Tour
3:00-5:00, Design Committee
4:30-6:30, Equity Committee

February 27 (F)
School Choice Application Deadline

4:00-Happy Hour at Tio Pepe’s

March 2 (M)

Dr. Seuss Week Begins
Pajama Day
1:30-3:00, Immersion Principals Meeting

March 3 (T)

Crazy Hair Day
2:45-3:45, PLT Meeting

March 4 (W)

Hat Day
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
4:00-6:00, Equity Committee

March 6 (F)

Favorite Book Character Day
3:30-5:30, Superintendent Interviews for Equity Committee

Looking way ahead: There are 16 school weeks left in the year. Here are some of the biggest events at our school for the rest of the year.

March 12 CLLAS Latino Conference at UO
March 13 Joint PD Training on HMH Senderos Curriculum with BV
March 23-27, Spring Break Week
March 30-April 3, STAMP Assessment Given (3 and 5)
April 6,7,8,9- Caring For Kids Trainings- A variety all week.
April 16, Kinder Orientation Night
April 29, La Fiesta del Niño
May 1 District Professional Development Day-Possible Equity Training or Oral Proficiency Assessment Training
May 1 Fiesta Event at Camino del Rio
May 6 Math Night
May 14 and 15, 5th Grade goes to Outdoor School
May 11- May 21, New OAKS Assessments in 3,4,5
May 22, Final Camino del Rio PD Day- Curriculum Mapping and Possible Math Training
May 25, Memorial Day, No School
June 4, Talent Show
June 5, Grading Day
June 10,  5th Grade Promotion
June 11, Field Day
June 12, Grading Day and End of Contract Year
June 12,13- OABE Conference in North Clackamas School District (Portland Area)
June 15 & 16, Priority School Funded Curriculum Mapping Days (Outside of the contract year)
June 23,24,25,26,27, CFEE Summer Workshop
June 29, 30,31, ATDLE Conference in Palm Springs

What should you know about?

Here are some items of note for the week:

• School Choice Visitation Week – Just a reminder that this week is the second School Choice Visitation Week. We do not have many  families signed up for tours, but don’t be surprised if you see me walking visitors around the building and into classrooms this week.

• 2015-2016 Staffing Timeline – Principals will receive next year’s staffing Monday, March 9th and building staffing plans will likely be due the day before spring break. Once I get our staffing allocations, I’ll share the numbers with everyone that same day. I’ll hold a Staff Meeting on Thursday, March 10th at 2:45 in the library for staff to give input on the different staffing scenarios, which I’ll email out ahead of time. After staff have had a chance to reflect on the different plans, we’ll hold an additional PLT Staff Meeting on Tuesday, March 17th at 2:45 in the library which all can attend.  I will then submit a final plan to all staff for final recommendations via email.

The preliminary enrollment projections have us projected for more students than we were staffed for this year, which should mean we’ll see an increase in staffing next year as long as the staffing ratio stays the same.

• Spring Break Activity/Lunch Program – Nutrition Services setting up a spring break lunch program for area students, ages 2 – 18, Monday through Friday over the break. The meals will be served from 12:00-1:00 and would be served out of the Howard cafeteria to Camino del Rio and Howard kids. The one catch for the state grant is that an “activity” needs to be planned each day, though that activity can be as simple as coloring books, showing a video, singing songs, open gym or free choice on the playground. Nutrition Services also asked if there are any staff willing to donate an hour of their time to supervise and/or lead one of the activities. They are casting a pretty wide net for volunteers, so please don’t feel any obligation to volunteer unless you truly want to. I’m pretty sure Nutrition Services will be able to find folks to get this covered.

• Technology Skills Practice for Smarter Balanced (and practice test) – This is a repeat from earlier in the year, but mentioned at the 3/4/5 Smarter Balanced Assessment training, the Vacaville School District in California has created a site for teachers to support students becoming proficient in using the keyboard and mouse/track-pad/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. Also remember that the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessment (which are closer to the real thing than are the practice tests and which in theory provide results that can be used to guide instruction) are available through the OAKS Secure Browser. And here’s the new link to the OAKS Portal.

• New Title 1 EA, Welcome Maria (Pilar) Zentz!, As many of you know, we have had an open position in the Title 1 classroom. Last week and before we interviewed several bilingual candidates for Jame’s old position.  I am very excited to announce that we found an excellent candidate.  Maria (Pilar) Zentz will begin as our new EA next week.  Maria has worked for interpretation and translation services for the last three years. She has become one of the most highly sought after interpreters in the district.  Maria is very excited to join our staff and begin to teach and supervise students in our classroom.

• New Associate Director of Technology – Kim Ketterer has accepted the position of Associate Director of the Technology Department. As you know, Kim has been serving our district and students since 1987, most recently as the Interim Director of  Technology. Another downtown staffing change of note, Simone Sangster, the Director of Financial Services has accepted a job in Bellingham, WA and will be moving on at the end of April. Andrea Belz will be interim head of Financial Services and retired Financial Services Director Hillary Kittleson will be coming back to help provide support.

• Youth talking about micro aggressions – “Oh, you’re so pretty for a black girl.” “Do you speak good English?” Though they might be unintentional, these offensive phrases – called micro-aggressions – are heard all too often in everyday conversation. And while they’re frequently said in a joking way, the meaning of those words can have lasting negative effects. In a video created by SheKnows, a group of teen girls explain how micro-aggressions can be hurtful to their self-esteem. “Because they’re micro, because they’re very subtle — they’re small — you feel like you don’t have a reason to be upset,” says one girl. “We try to just use jokes to make this less awkward, ease social experiences,” adds another. “But… you need to aware of what you’re saying and who you’re speaking to.”

Site Council Agenda for Monday, February 23

Family Handbook Feedback

CAP Update

Technology Update

Curriculum Update

Staffing Update

Staff Meeting Agenda on Tuesday, February 24

Technology Agreements- Decide

PBIS Booster and Focus For Spring- Inform

HM Journeys, Senderos, Maravillas Discussion- Inform

Family Handbook Updates and Homework Conversation- Decide

STAMP and Formative Oral Language Assessment- Discuss and Inform

Staffing Update and Survey to be done in Meeting

That’s it for this week.  Have an excellent week!

Best wishes, Joel

Week of January 12

Queridos maestros e empleados,

Last week was a good week. It was good to see how quickly teachers helped students get back into routines.  So many of our students need the structure of school and you provide it! We are quickly approaching school choice season.  If you want to help out in any way with the showcase event on Saturday let me know. It is so important to our program that people know how amazing our program is.

On a bittersweet note, I wanted to briefly share how much I will miss having Sarah Lauer on our team. She is an amazing educator and so dedicated to the work we do with all our students. Sarah’s work with kids for the past 13 years and her work within the equity committee will not be forgotten. I hope she comes back to visit us in the future from Minneapolis. She is an example of how we as educators make a huge difference in the lives of children and their families. Thank you for your service Sarah. Best of luck in your new life in the Midwest.

What is coming up?

• January 12 (M)

Wear green and gold!

Reading and Math Winter Benchmark Testing Week, EDL Continues

7:30-9:45, Joel at Latino Community Breakfast (Ed Center)

10:00-10:45, Joel and Monica Olvera discuss Ballet Folklórico practices in the building. Potential access for students after school.

11:30-12:00, Design Debrief in Joel’s office.
3:30-5:30, Joel at the TIU Planning meeting.

• January 13 (T)

Joel and Jennifer out. Kathy Larson will support and call me if discipline needs to be addressed.

8:00-3:30- Taking it Up Training Day 1 (8 staff attend at Auditorium)

2:45-4:45, Staff Meeting- Professional Development with Edward Olivos and Audrey Lucero, Zone of Proximal Development and tying assessment in to the  instructional cycle.
6:00-7:00, Grupo de Padres/ Parent Group Meeting (Library)

• January 14 (W)

Joel and Jennifer out. Karen Ramirez Gutierrez will support and call me if discipline needs to be addressed.

8:00-3:30- Taking it Up Training Day 2 (8 staff attend in Auditorium)

1:45-2:45-  PLC teams in the library. (Focus is still formative math assessments.) Please fill out the form each week, thanks.

2:45-3:45, PBIS Meeting (Erin Piper’s Room)

• January 15 (H)

1:30-2:15, Hat Speeches in conference room 1:30-2:15, Note the change in day. PBIS team attends if possible.

3:00-5:00, Joel, Karen, Marcy, Alexis to Design Committee (Classroom Focus group session.) Please come if you want to give input.

• January 16 (F)

8:30-9:00, Joel meets with Roscoe Caron

12:00-1:00, Joel in Formal Observation

1:30-3:30, Joel to Super Boundary Meeting (Ed Center)

4:00-?, Mystery event.

• January 19 (M)
  No School – Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Joel to MLK March at John Serbu Campus. Come join me if you like. There is no official Camino del Rio participation but I’d love to march with any colleagues that want to walk in solidarity.

Parking is available at Serbu Youth Center (2727 MLK Blvd) then we are gathering in front of PK Park. We will start gathering at 9am and then we will start the March at 10am. We will head down MLK Blvd. to the Shedd Institute where there will be a short program of speakers.

• January 20 (T)

8:30-9:45, Joel in Formal Observation

2:45-3:45, PLT Meeting (Conference Room)

• January 21 (W)

8:30-3:30, Joel at Principal’s Network Priority Schools Meeting (Lane ESD)

1:45-2:45-  PLC teams in the library. (Focus is still formative math assessments.) Please fill out the form each week, thanks.

2:45-3:45, IPBS in Erin Recker’s Room

• January 22 (H)

8:00-9:00, Joel to Super Boundary Meeting (Ed Center)

3:00-5:00, Design Committee (Library)

4:30-6:30, 4J Equity Committee (Parr Room)

• January 23 (F)

9:00, Lockdown Drill

10:00-11:30, Joel in Pre conference and formal observation

• January 24 (S)

9:00-12:00, Elementary School Showcase (Ed Center)

 Some items of note for the week:

• The Reinvention of Bilingual Education in America’s Schools Here is the my article pick of the week. It describes the trends well in dual language programs today.

A New Mexico student at the state Spanish Spelling Bee in April 2011.

• HM Journeys CCSS Updated Materials – The updated Houghton Mifflin reading materials will be delivered sometime this week. For those not on PLT, the district got a highly discounted offer from HM to upgrade our old HM reading materials to their current CCSS aligned version. This also came with a 6 year subscription to the online version of the curriculum, which can be accessed from laptops or iPads and includes the leveled readers.  We purchased the English version only to support and better align materials to Common Core. The materials are going to be stored in the Craig’s shed next week and will stay there until the district organizes their the teacher trainings, though teachers can get them earlier if you’d like.

• Schools Showcase Volunteers, Sat. Jan. 24th, 10:00-12:00 – The School Showcase will be held again this year on Saturday Jan. 24th at the Ed Center, 9:00-12:00. It is also an elementary only event this year.  Last year there was an informational presentation about the school choice process from 9-10 and then the showcase from 10-12. This event is for interested families to learn about all 4J schools in one place at the same time. Last year they provided breakfast, including a vegetarian option, for staff helping at the event. Let me know if any of you are willing to help me promote Camino del Rio and tell families why they should come to our school. You are the best marketing tool for our school.

• Superintendent Search Updates – We should know who our new superintendent will be by spring break. The school board had a work session last Wednesday to review all of the staff, students, families and public input. They plan to do a first round screening of candidates soon and will then do site visitations. In March, they will have different stakeholder groups conduct interviews with the finalists. That input will then go back to the board who will announce the new superintendent by spring break.

• Process for Requesting District Behavior Support – Camino del Rio staff are already good about going through the building IPBS process for challenging students before calling in ESS behavior consultants for, but ESS has now created a Tiered Intervention Flow Chart of steps that are to be followed before calling in one of the behavior consultants. “The Mod Squad” IPBS Team already follows these steps, but feel free to look at the chart if you’d like.

• Call for Student Presenters on Digital Learning Day! (Feb. 4th, 2015) – Ketterer send something out to cert_all, but Kellyclare Gardner sent a Digital Learning Day flyer to principals specifically calling for student presenters for Digital Learning Day that I thought I would forward. If you have any trouble accessing the link to our online sign up form through the PDF, here you can follow this link if you want to represent Camino del Rio at this event.

• Jan. 30 Educational Assistant (Professional Learning) Extravaganza – Back by popular demand, downtown will be hosting a variety of instructional workshops for all educational assistants who wish to participate. This all day event (8:00-3:30 at the Ed Center) allows for classified staff to choose presentations within your scheduled work day while teachers are working on report cards. They will be presenting multiple workshops at at time, in order to give you choice and flexibility to fit within your daily schedule. A schedule of the workshops and more details will be sent out soon.

• DonorsChoose.org Opportunity – Most of you are probably familiar with DonorsChoose.org, but it’s an on-line charity that connects the public to easily fund grants for public schools. For the College Football National Championship game, all attendees at the game will receive a $25 DonorsChoose.org gift card to use on a classroom project that inspires them. While there’s no way to predict how many recipients will use the funds, there will likely be a bunch of folks from our community looking to support a classroom, so it this may be a good time to put up a low cost grant (headphones, curriculum materials, class supplies, etc.) on their website. Here’s a link to the teacher section of DonorsChoose.org to submit a grant if you’ve never put one up before.

• Title 1 Newsletter – Here is the latest district level Title 1 Newsletter that went out to all Title 1 Coordinators and principals. This month’s issue is again mostly coordinator specific information and tasks, but there is some information about summer school for staff who work there and are wondering when it will be this year.

Have a great 5 day week.

Saludos cordiales,

Joel

Week of October 27

 Schedule of Events of The Week

October 27 (M)

2:45-3:45, Site Council Meeting for October

October 28 (T)

8:30-9:30, Three Guys and A Ball Assembly on Bullying and Harrassment (Gym)

1:00-3:30, Superintendent Berman to observe classrooms and chat with staff at Staff Meeting. Classified Staff, please come and accumulate comp time to be part of the conversation.

3:45-5:30, PLT Meeting for CAP Revisions (Extra Duty Contract for PLT Members)

October 29 (W)

1:45-2:45, Wednesday Collaboration Time

2:45-3:45, PBIS Meeting for November

October 30 (Th)

3:00-5:00, Design Committee

October 31 (F)

Halloween- Costumes to be worn in classroom parties only.

November 3 (M)

IIPM Data Consult Meeting to be rescheduled due to conflict.
1:30-2:30, Aline and Joel to Title 1 Coordinator and Principal’s Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principal’s Meeting (Ed Center)

November 4 (T)
8:00-12:00, Picture Retakes (Library)

November 5 (W)

8:00-3:30, Joel to Learning About Learning Network Meeting (BV)

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

November 6 (H)

1:00, Fire Drill and Lock Down Practice immediately afterwards.

4:00-8:00 PM, Conferences

November 7 (F)

8:00 AM -8:00 PM Conferences

Hi everyone,

Here are several items of note for the week. Last week felt like a marathon and I think it was!  I am looking forward to a more routine week though we all know any day in our building is filled with richness of discussion and learning.  I am also really looking forward to our Día de Los Muertos Event as it’s my first time to go. I am planning on bringing my kids to the event to celebrate, decorate and learn.

Site Council Agenda October 27th

A Conversation about Parent Involvement, Decision Making, and Language of Power.

Staff Meeting Agenda October 28th- begins at 2:45 and ends at 3:45.

1. Greeting and United Way Presentation by Nancy Schaal McHarry -5 minutes

2. A Conversation with Superintendent Dr. Sheldon Berman -40 minutes

3. A Short iPad Training- 10 minutes

The Growth Mindset and Malcolm Mitchell:

Many of you have heard of Carol Dweck and the Growth Mindset. This video explores a great example of how the growth mindset actually manifests itself in everyday life.  I loved this story.  I encourage you to share it with your classes and have a discussion about reading and working hard at it.

New Building Design Update

We have moved quickly into the stage known as schematic design in design committee. This last week, our team was able to see some rough models of initial layouts. As most of you should know by now, the building will be sited on the west side of our building.  In addition, our team is also exploring the idea of removing our old gym early in order to design a building with less constrictions on space.

On Friday, I also had a chance to see Trillium Creek Elementary in West Linn.  This was inspirational and clearly a building designed with kids in mind.  This gave me motivation to always keep the child in the forefront of my mind when working on our design.  Here is a short clip of me coming down the slide in the Trillium Creek Library.

Earl Boyles Visit

Our visit to Earl Boyle Elementary was truly inspirational.  I was amazed to see a school designed to support families from age 0 to 11.  There were so many features of their program which we would like to emulate.  I will share more about this in a future staff meeting.  The greatest learning for me was their parent group structure.  It is called Parents United.  The group conducts all parent meetings in Spanish. They set an educational agenda for them selves and their bi-cultural parent coordinator helps them find the resources to learn what they need to further their parenting skills. Fundamentally, all parents are seen as asset holders in the children’s learning, and they are assets!

Tasha Katsuda will be forming an early learning task force which I will be joining.  This group will be looking to find partnerships in the community to help us to find a way to include a preschool program in our building in the future.  I will also begin to work with the design team to discuss possibilities of making space in our building for a preschool program.

Some November 6 and 7 Conference Details

Dinner on November 6 and 7- I am still working out the details of this. I will be checking in with Parent Group to see if they have a way to support us with a meal one night. The school will have a meal on a second night. I will share this with you next week.  Email me if you have suggestions for dinner.

Free/Reduced Meals Forms at Conferences- Be sure to have free/reduced meal forms on hand during conferences and please highlight this program for families. We’ll have extra copies available in the office.

November 10 Classified Staff Expectations- Monday, November 10 is a regular work day for Classified Staff, but is not a work day for licensed staff who worked extended hours for conferences. Since this is a non-student day, I would encourage classified staff who have comp time coming to use it this day. Please submit your comp form to me to ensure you have these hours accumulated. If you are planning to work on Monday, please connect with your primary cooperating teacher on how best to help out this day.

Linda Darling Hammond on Equity and Literacy in the 21st Century

This is an excellent article on equity in schools.  Linda Darling Hammond from Stanford is one of the giants of multicultural education.  When I read this article, I realized that we as a staff are battling many factors that are out of our control and some that we can control.  Fortunately, we have resources, very qualified staff, and expertize to help our students and support them in high levels of literacy. Some of the questions asked of Linda in this interview article directly relate to our building. It was affirming to hear that there are a lot of things we are doing right!

Math PD Planning

Last week Karen and I met with SDS Reid Sheppard and Math Director  Maddy Ahearn.  They shared many ideas about how to support our staff with more math professional development.  In addition, we discovered with their research many things that could help us this year.  One,  there are math Investigations Teacher Editions in Spanish.  We are exploring how to acquire these for our staff.  Two Smarter Balanced or New OAKS  Math Assessment will be offered in Spanish! Our students can study math in Spanish and take the test in Spanish!  This is huge!  Reid and Maddy will be planning more PD with a focus on math practices this year.  Our major focus will be on using the 8 math practices at appropriate times to improve students math thinking skills. Here is a document that Kathy Larson shared that unpacks ways to consider using the CCSS  in Math. It is North Carolina’s Math Common Instructional Framework

PBIS Cafeteria Plan Reminder

Our PBIS focus on improving cafeteria behavior continues. This week, the tables will begin getting points for their class behavior in their seats.  Teachers, please remind students about this system and give them positive feedback for points earned for appropriate cafeteria behavior next week.

Common Core ELA in kid friendly Language

Here is a link to a poster/ word wall anchor standard poster of the new ELA CCSS Standards in very kid friendly terms. They are in Engish.

ELD Project with UO

Abby lane and I have been working with Julie Heffernan on a new practicum program for students who are in the UO Teach Out Program.  There will be many students learning from our ELL’s by interviewing them. They will use the data to share plans on how to support ELL’s in the classroom.  More details to come, but this will begin in Winter term.

iOS Apps of Note – Here are a smattering of interesting apps I’ve come across from various sources:

• Free app teaches lessons about digital citizenship – A new app aims to help students become responsible digital citizens. DigitalCitizen, by Learning.com, teaches students about online safety, the proper use of digital tools and how to handle cyberbullying through the use of games, videos and quizzes. The app is available at no charge from the Google Play and Apple store.
• Classroom Management Apps – In the School Library Journal article, “Classroom Management Tricks” by Richard Byrne, he recommends three apps that help with classroom management:

• Random student name selector
• Countdown timer
• Noise regulator

• Flocabulary App – Flocabulary is a collection of content-based songs and videos using hip-hop themes and catchy phrases and mnemonic devices to help students remember basic content.

 

That’s all for this week.  Have a spooky week!

 

Joel

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

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”