Week of April 20


April 19th, 2015
http://i2.wp.com/www.kate.net/holidays/adminprofessionalsday/images/katenetadminprof2010a_1280.jpg

Administrative Professional Day is Wednesday, April 22 2015.

What is coming up?

April 20 (M)
8:30-9:20,Joel observes bilingual teacher candidates at (Buena Vista Elementary)
10:15-11:15, Sara Green Meeting about Super-boundary

April 21 (T)
Smarter Balanced Testing Begins
9:00-10:00, CAP Budget Planning (Conference Room)
10:30, Joel in Formal Observation of Teacher
12:00-1:00, River Road Math Follow Up with Maddy, Reid, Kathy L. (Conference Room)
3:00-4:00, PLT Meeting- Main topic End of the year calendar and planning 15-16 calendar.
4:15, Informal Interview of Bilingual Teacher (Kelly Middle School)

April 22 (W)
Earth Day
Administrative Professional’s Day (formerly Secretary’s Day)
8:30-11:15, Joel in formal observations at 8:30 and 10:15 AM
1:45-2:45, Math PLC Time (Library)

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

2:45-3:45, Mod Squad Meeting (IPBS)
3:00-5:00, Camino del Rio Design Committee

6:00-7:00, New Kinder Orientation

April 24 (F)
Hop Valley Friday at 4:00

April 27 (M)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, Site Council Meeting (Conference Room)
7:00-8:30, Joel to River Road Community Organization Meeting

April 28 (T)
8:00-11:30, SST Meeting with ODE (Library)
2:45-3:45, Staff Meeting
5:00-6:00, ACE Awards Reception (Hult Center Lobby)
6:00-7:00, ACE Awards Ceremony – Ticketed Event (Hult Center, Silva Concert Hall)

April 29 (W)
12:45-1:30, Fiesta del Niño Assembly
1:45-2:45, Math PLC Time (Library)
3:45-5:15, Joel and KG Teachers to Full-Day KG Implementation Meeting (Ed Center)

April 30 (H)
Joel and Kathy Larson at the ODE/ Ed Northwest Principal -Coach Meeting All Day (Eugene Hilton)
2:30-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Room 21)
Fiesta Setup after 3:00 PM- 8:00 PM

May 1 (F)
No School – PD Planning Day
8:00-10:00, Professional Development (Library
10:00-12:00- Planning Time
12:30-3:00, Senderos Training
3:00-4:00, Planning Time
Fiesta begins- 5:00 PM

What is happening?

 

• 15/16 Specialists and Teacher Prep Time – The EEA contract requires that elementary teachers receive additional prep time next year. The plan that was shared with principals last week is that schools will continue to get one semester of PE and one semester of Music, each providing two 30 minute sessions per week during their semester. What is being added is that during the Music semester, which is first semester for Camino del Río, there will be a third 30 minute prep which will be provided by a once a week PE class. So first semester there will be two sessions of Music and one session of PE per week. Camino del Río was spoiled this year getting a full year of PE, but I did want to let everyone know that I plan to apply for this grant again next year. I will see if we can get a more quality prep time for all teachers to provide the best level of PE our building can provide.

• News from the Emerald Empire Reading Council – Here’s the April Newsletter from the Emerald Empire Reading Council. This month’s newsletter includes professional development opportunities, grant opportunities and other items, like their Annual Whine and Wine event. If you’d like more information, visit their (un-ironic 1990s style) website.

• McKinney-Vento Identified Student Count – I thought staff might find this report interesting. Deborah Dailey, the 4J McKinney-Vento (homeless) Coordinator shared a report with principals that had the total number of students identified in the district by region and by school. Camino del Rio has less than 20 students who are McKinney-Vento. Howard has very high levels of McKinney-Vento students in their school. I am concerned that the super-boundary unevenly effects our schools due to parents deciding to go to a non-language immersion program. This puts a lot of pressure on Howard and creates a barrier for these students when they have no Spanish speaking skills and are older than 7. This will be discussed in the superboundary meeting with Sara Green and Allan Chinn in early May.

• Helping Young Students Feel Positively About the Color of Their Skin – Here’s an article with some ideas about how to open the topic of skin color with young students. The activities are some that I have seen in variation, but the activities expand to include poetry writing which I believe will touch on the creative side of students’ thinking. Allowing space for this type of learning is necessary and can develop conversations and results for learners of all ages.

• May 1st PD- I am very excited that Dr. Robyn Duran will be joining us for a conversation about race and our dual language school. She will be Skyping with us from 8:00-10:00 AM on the morning of May 1st.  Carmen and Jennifer will also be helping us facilitate this ongoing conversation.

• The First Construction Pains-  I was informed that prep of the school site will begin as soon as school is out.  This means that the earth works will start right around June 15.  Unfortunately, the school garden will be razed at this time.  We will need to begin a transplanting plan for the garden as soon as possible. Also,  there will be a construction fence put up near the 5th grade wing as soon as school is out.  There will not be access to this part of the school until the new gym is completed. The new gym is expected to be complete in Fall 2016. We might have a small lapse in PE in a gym for a short period of time in 2016.  We may need to place the PE classes on portions of the playground in September and October 2016.

Spanish and the indigenous language of the region are incorporated in the curriculum (teleSUR)

Spanish and the indigenous language of the region are incorporated in the curriculum (teleSUR)

 

•  Bilingual Education in Ecuador – Bilingual Schools Strengthening Ecuador’s Plurinational State Article. Bilingual schools support the indigenous communities of Ecuador in many ways. This article explains how the nation has prioritized both Kichwa and Spanish as important in order to truly grow an intercultural community.

 

I hope you all have a great week.

 

Joel

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 30


March 29th, 2015

This Venn Diagram reminds me of our staff!

 

What is happening this week and next?

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

2:45-3:45, Site Council Meeting (Conference Room)

March 31 (T)

STAMP Testing practice 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 2 items:

1st hour: Senderos discussion and decision.

2nd hour: Math Practices Review and planning PD for Spring and next year.

Also: Updates on curriculum analysis from a culturally relevant lens and staffing.

April 1 (W)
April Fool’s Day

9:00-9:35- 3rd, 4th, 5th Grade Assembly for Spelling Bee in the Gym
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)
IIPM Data Meeting- Artist in Residence to provide activities for students during your hour. Subs wil escort them to the learning spaces.

April 6 (M)

Regular Day

April 7 (T)

2:45-3:45, PLT Meeting

3:45-5:15, Full day Kinder Meeting for all  K teachers and principals

April 8 (W)

1:45-2:45, Collaborative Planning Time- Math Focus- Please complete the PLC form.

No other meetings.

April 9 (H)

2:45-3:30- TLT Meeting

4:00-7:00, Joel to Job EXPO (Ed Center)

April 10 (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

 

Some items for the week:

• Formal Teacher Observations – I’ll be back at it with the formal observations and informal observations this week.  Some teachers still need a second formal observation.  I will contact you if that is necessary.

• Staffing Updates

SPED- We received 0.5 FTE for Sped teacher staffing for next year. We received 4.5 hours of Sped EA hours.

Grade Level placements changes:

I have placed Marcy Hellman in Kindergarten for next year.

I have placed Jaime Jones in 2nd grade for next year.

I have placed Sarah Knudsen  in 5th grade at 0.5 for next year.

We will have vacancies at the EXPO for 1st grade 1.0 and 0.5 FTE in 5th grade.

• Wednesday Meetings such as PBIS switched to Thursday for the rest of the year. 

To reduce the amount of time teachers are spending in meetings on Wednesdays, I have moved all of the scheduled PBIS, TLT, and IPBS meetings to Thursdays.  This also makes it easier for Jennifer to make it to all our meetings. This will guarantee a full hour of preparation time for all teachers regardless of their responsibilities on other teams. 2:45-3:45 should be free for all teachers to work together or on their own. PLC Math Collaboration will continue from 1:45-2:45.

• Prep Time Update for 2015-2016 – Details on this will be worked on over the coming months, but downtown let principals know that the current plan for meeting the 90 minute weekly prep requirement for next year is most likely going to be done through additional PE and Music classes, which will equate to a third prep section for each teacher. This is different from what was shared with principals earlier, but the reason for this is 4Js attempt to make headway with the upcoming PE requirement for 2017, which is for 150 minutes of PE a week. More to come on this one since we’ll need to know 4Js plan in order to finalize a building master schedule.

• 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 a nice infographic titled “7 Things to Remember About Feedback” and an excellent 4 minute video from Jay Smooth titled “Moving the Race Conversation Forward.”

• PDUs from Journeys Training – Linked here is a PDU Certificate for teachers who attended the Journeys trainings on March 13th. And FYI, you don’t actually need to have a paper copy of this form. You just need to keep track of your training name and it’s PDU hours on your Log of Professional Development Activities form, which can be found on the 4J HR Forms webpage.

• Job EXPO Information – FAQs – Since Camino del Río is growing and adding licensed teaching positions next year , I thought people might be interested to know the details on this year’s Job EXPO which may fill these vacancies.

• Job EXPO Openings & Process – Vacancies included on building staffing plans will generate openings for Round 1 of the EXPO. HR will post all increments of FTE at the EXPO (per agreement with EEA). Any new vacancies created by hires from the Round 1 of the EXPO will go to a 2nd and then 3rd Round. EXPO dates will be Thursday, April 9, Tuesday, April 14 and Tuesday, April 21, all from 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
• Temp Employees – Recently EEA and HR met to discuss allowing Temporary Employees access to the first round of the EXPO. The two groups agreed that Temporary Employees could participate in all three rounds with the understanding that Contract employees are guaranteed an interview (temps are not guaranteed an interview) and Contract employees have priority over temporaries in most situations (i.e. displaced teachers with job rights).

And feel free to let your colleagues around 4J know about our openings if you think they’d be interested and a good match for our school!

• NAACP Family and Youth Conference! April 11th – Please take note that the 8th annual NAACP Family and Youth Conference will be held Saturday, April 11th at the Downtown LCC meeting and learning center from 10-to 4pm. This free event is meant to assist parents and youth navigate the education and community resources available for student success. There will be two parent workshops and two youth workshops, free lunch and a guided tour of local African American historic sites, including the first African American Church in Eugene.

• District Admin Update – HR announced that Dr. J. Andrew Dey, Ed. D. has accepted the position of Principal at South Eugene High School beginning July 1, 2015. For the past five years Andy has served as Director of K-12 Curriculum and Professional Development at the The International School Nido de Aguilas in Santiago, Chile, but has roots here in Eugene. He taught science at Roosevelt Middle School (3 years) before becoming an assistant principal at Thurston High School (3 years). Andy then served as principal at Agnes Stewart Middle School (2 years).

• Convergences of Practices between CCSS/NGSS in support of Language Development (Venn Diagram) – Here is a a venn diagram that’s worth checking out which compares the high leverage practices that support Math/ELA/NGSS and language development.

•Are you going to share anything about Cesar Chavez Birthday this week? Here is a little to help you out.

A Resource to Teach Students About Cesar Chavez Day

 

That is it for the week!

All the best,  Joel

Week of March 16


March 15th, 2015

IMG_5315

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 2


March 1st, 2015

tumblr_nkg2ehLJlk1sm3558o1_500

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

Week of February 23


February 22nd, 2015
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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 February 2


February 1st, 2015

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What’s Ahead?

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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 January 26


January 26th, 2015

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Dear Staff,

This last week was another impressive week for me at El Camino del Rio.  I really enjoyed teaching in the Engineering Night.  Our team once again did an amazing job.  It was so encouraging to see parents and students working together to do science and engineering.  Aline and Alicia did a tremendous job teaming up to organize this event. Thank you both for your hard work. Also thank you to all the teachers who took time out of their evening to support this important work. We continue to build a strong bi-cultural community and that’s exciting! Lastly, as we enter school choice season Edna and Nikita have gone the extra mile to help us look strong out there in the expo and with our new flier.  We will be posting our new information in the lobby for incoming parents to read. Come by and check it out so you have a good feel for what we are sharing with the public.

 What’s coming up?

January 26 (M)
8:20-9:45, Joel in formal observation
9:00-10:00, Early Learning Meeting
10:30-11:00- Design Debrief Meeting
1:00-2:00, School Choice Tour
2:30-4:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:45, Site Council Meeting (Conference Room) (Joel cannot attend- Olivia facilitates.)

January 27 (T)
8:00-3:00, Joel and Karen at Charlemagne for Learning about Learning Network
9:00-10:00, School Tours- Alicia/ Edna conduct the tour.
2:00-2:35, Final Music Assembly (Gym)
Staff Meeting cancelled due to grading week.
7:00- 9:00, Forum with Rob Saxton Asst. Superintendent from ODE, North Eugene HS- This is guaranteed to be an informative (and lively) event.

January 28 (W)
8:30-9:30, Joel in formal observation
10:15-11:30, Joel in formal observation
1:45-2:45, PLC Time- Main focus Mathematics Report Card Reporting, use time for peer support and communication.  Report using the PLC Form.

January 29 (H)
12:00-3:30, Joel and Karen to Smarter Balanced Test Administration Training (Ed Center)
3:00-5:00, Design Meeting

January 30 (F)
Grading Day – No School
9:00-11:00, Edna, Yasmin, Joel meet with Kevin Boling to pilot the new  4J attendance system.
1:00-2:00, IEP Meeting Joel attends.
2:30-3:30, Joel attends second IEP Meeting
6:30-7:30, Ballet Folklórico Introductory Session in the cafeteria. All students invited.

February 2 (M)
Second Semester Begins
National School Counseling (We love Jennifer! 😀 ) Week

February 3 (T)
8:00-12:00, Joel out in the AM for HR Training and speaking event at UO.
12:30, Earthquake and Evacuation (Fire Drill)
2:45-3:45, PLT Meeting

February 4 (W)
8:20-9:30 Joel in Formal Observation
1:45-2:45, PLC Time – Please get back to using math formative assessments and document this using the PLC Form.
4:00-6:00, Digital Learning Day (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Joel to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

February 5 (H)

Last day to submit grades so we can print and send in Monday folders on February 8th.
8:00-2:30, IIPM Consult Data Team Meeting
2:45-3:05, Joel in pre conference meeting
3:00-5:00, Design Committee

February 6 (F)
8:40-10:00, Joel in Formal Observation
4:00-6:30,Winter Social at Eugene Wine Cellars

This week’s announcements

• School Choice Visitation Week – Just a reminder that this week is School Choice Visitation Week #1. We have a few families already signed up for tours (mostly at the younger grades), so don’t be surprised if you see me walking visitors around the building and into classrooms this week. The Showcase was excellent. We had a great turnout from families as well as staff to assist.  I want to give a big thank you to Edna, Nikita, Karen, Jill, Nancy, Jessica and many others who either showed up to help or put in many hours to create our fabulous new posters.  It really showed Estrella Pride!

• January 30 Grading Day Staff Expectations – Taking classified staff first, this is a regular work day for most classified folks, so remember there are many workshops available this same day at the EA Extravaganza, but if you have any comp time coming, this would also be a good day to pay back extra time that’s owed to you. For licensed staff, HR has gone back to being more flexible about grading day expectations. The following rules were sent out to principals, which now allow teachers to request to work from home on grading days:

Unlike a planning or PD day, where the District has a firm expectation that all teachers report and be physically present throughout the work day, we have exercised greater flexibility for grading days in recognition of teachers’ professional status. On grading/ report days, principals have discretion to require that all teachers report and work on their grades at the building, or alternatively, to allow teachers to request permission to work from home, and report to the building when grades are completed. In exercising this discretion, please consider the following:

(1) Would allowing a teacher to work from home on this day interfere with work that needs to be done? For example, do you have teachers who need to collaborate with each other in order to prepare reports? — if so, it does not make sense to allow them to work in isolation;

(2) Grading day is a work day. It costs the district about $480,000, and it is not intended to be a vacation day.

(3) Teachers are highly visible members of the community, and part of our expectation of them as professionals is to be good stewards of public resources. If you do allow teachers to work off site this day, please remind them public perception issues and work to protect them. This means that if we grant flexibility to work off-site, it is critical that they work during work time. We grant flexibility to principals to allow teachers to work off-site on grading day, but if it is abused, we will not be able to continue to do so.

(4) The flexibility to work off-site is a privilege, and not an entitlement. Whether you allow any teacher to work off-site is within your discretion. I believe the best practice is to communicate to teachers is that you expect them to work in the building on this day, unless they have requested and received your advance permission to work from home.

So in short, if teachers would like to work from home this day, let me me know, but be sure to make plans ahead of time if you need to collaborate with colleagues for grading. Also, be sure to use this time for grading and not use it to run errands around town.

• Winter Social at Eugene Wine Cellars on February 6th– Come have a glass of wine and bring a little cheese to this social event on the Friday after grading as we mark 1/2 way through the school year.  We will be there from 4:00-6:30.

• Synergy Attendance Reminder from CIS –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.

• Mid Year Check-In Meetings & Observations – This is the time of year principals are supposed to begin conducting our mid-year check meetings with licensed staff regarding educator goals. I am continuing to try to see all staff in a formal observation.  I will do my best to contact each of you to make these appointments.  The mid-year check in process will begin in early February.  Please bear with me as I try to see each of you teach and provide feedback.  It is a priority for me to make sure I observe everyone. If you want to combine your mid goal meeting with the pre-conference or post conference, let me know. That will make things easier for all of us. Make sure you have your SLGO smart goals ready to analyze at the mid term meeting.

• Feb. 13 Camino del Rio PD/Planning Day – We will be continuing the work with Edward and Audrey on February 13th.  This session will more specifically address how assessment fits in to the instructional cycle.  Audrey and Edward will continue to weave in components of the Skillful Teacher work so we can address each of these issues.

• Denver Public Schools Series on Dual Language Videos – It is always good to see examples of what other schools are doing. Take a look at this video series if you have time.

 

 

• PLC time this week – All teams are expected to continue to meet in the library each Wednesday. Also,  continue to use the PLC form each time that we meet. It is important that we document how our PLC time is going for the state and so I can monitor progress in this area. This information is submitted to the priority schools SST team and the Office of school improvement.  Please complete it for each grade level.  This week, I encourage you to use your PLC time for familiarizing your self with math report cards, especially if you are new.  You could even collaborate and help each other record progress of students on the report cards together during this time. This falls closely in line with our math assessment focus of PLCs.

• Concussion Policy – Attached is the final district concussion policy. This document represents the collaboration of 4J Athletic Trainers, Nurses, and the Regional Traumatic Brain Injury Liaison. It has also been reviewed and approved by our Insurer. School nurses have offered to present the document at staff meetings, which we will likely do at a future staff meeting, but I thought I’d share the policy now if staff wanted to get a preview.

• Full-Day Kindergarten Updates – Attached is an informational flyer about full-day kindergarten that was shared with families at the School Showcase by district staff. Also, Sara Green shared with principals this week in her newsletter, though nothing is definite at this point, that she’s proposing a 23:1 ratio for full-day Kinder. Keep in mind that it is a proposal and where we end up may be somewhat different, but this would be significantly better than the current district elementary average of 28:1. Sara’s been advocating for less than 23, but there are a number of competing interests and it’s challenging to put all the budget eggs in one basket.

• Key multimedia skills all educators should have – Educators provided input about multimedia skills that help in the classroom as part of a recent national survey conducted by T.H.E. Journal. The following are the top five skills that teachers should master, according to the results: troubleshooting technology, embracing curiosity, incorporating video, using multiple display devices and using technology to create presentations.

• How Integrating Arts Into Other Subjects Makes Learning Come Alive – Here’s a good article from Mind/Shift on the value of including the arts in core instruction and not viewing it as an elective or add-on. The main crux of the article is viewing art not as an extra, but as integral to learning.

Thanks and have a good week!

 

Joel

Inspiring children to learn another language is a great investment

 

 

Week of January 12


January 11th, 2015

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.

WEB-MLK-POSTER-BLACK-AND-WHITE2015Parking 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.

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 January 5, 2015


January 4th, 2015

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget he is someone today. Quotes to Start the New Year: Clever Classroom blog

Welcome back to school! I had a very relaxing break and really had fun with my kids. I have built numerous robots, Lego homes and shopping centers, cross country skied, and gone swimming multiple times. It was a dad’s paradise! 😉 I also read Enrique’s Journey (Thanks Nancy). I highly recommend reading this book if you have an interest in understanding more about immigration from Central America.

This is going to be a very exciting year, 2015. I am really looking forward to the month of January. I find that this month is one of the most productive of the school year because the holidays are over and most of our routines and patterns are figured out. Plus, the focus is on learning.  I will be contacting many of you this month individually if you need a formal observation. Please be flexible in times to meet with me for pre and post conferences, and for observations.

The Next 2 Weeks

January 5 (M)

8:15- Joel in meeting with parent. (my office)

10:00- Joel in meeting with parent. (my office)

11:30-12:00- Debrief meeting on design committee. (Joel in office)

January 6 (T)

8:30-9:30- Joel meets with Carmen Urbina (my office)

12:30- Fire Drill (Outside) (No lock down this month.)

2:45-3:45- PLT Meeting in the Conference Room

January 7 (W)

1:45-2:45- ALL PLC teams in the library. (Focus is still formative math assessments.)

2:45-3:45- IPBS Meeting 2:45-3:45 (Erin Recker’s Room)

4:00-5:00- Joel at North Eugene Regional Meeting -(NEHS)

 January 8 (H)

Design Committee 3:00-5:00

January 9 (F)

Regular day. No meetings.

January 12 (M)
Reading and Math Winter Benchmark Testing Week

7:30-9:45, Joel at Latino Community Breakfast (Ed Center)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

January 13 (T)

8:00-3:30- Taking it Up Training Day 1 (7 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.
4:00-7:00, Joel to Kindergarten Expo (Ed Center)
6:00-7:00, Grupo de Padres/ Parent Group Meeting (Library)

January 14 (W)

8:00-3:30- Taking it Up Training Day 2 (7 staff attend in Auditorium)

1:45-2:45-  PLC teams in the library. (Focus is still formative math assessments.)
2:30-3:30, Joel to Taking It Up Training (Ed Center)

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

January 15 (H)
1:30-4:30, Joel to HR Training (Ed Center)

3:00-5:00, Design Committee

January 16 (F)

Regular Day

Here are some items of note for the week:

• Camino del Rio Facebook and nice new website (http://riverroad.4j.lane.edu/) – Our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/elcaminodelrioelementary) is up and we received 115 likes before the new year began. I encourage you to “like” the page as well if you are on Facebook and share the page with friends that are fans of the school. We are planning on sharing many positive stories about our program in the coming months as part of the school choice season and beyond.  In addition, the website is updated and we will begin to post our newsletter on both the website and Facebook. If you have projects or activities you are especially proud of, take a shot with your phone and pass it on to Edna, Peggy or myself. We will get it up on the website or FB page. We give a big thanks to Peggy Vega for helping us get these pages looking so good.

• Technology progress in 4th grade and 5th grade – We will be sending some of our teachers to see what has been happening at Awbrey Park with iPad integration in the classroom. (January 9th in the PM) The  4th grade students at Camino del Rio will begin to have one to one access very soon. Soon after that, our 5th grade team will make the transition. This will mean significant technology access increases for other classes as well. The Mac Book Airs will have primary access for 3rd, 2nd, 1st, and kinder.

• Forest Grove TWI article – Learning in 2 languages: Forest Grove aims to offer immersion education from preschool to high school  A colleague of mine from Forest Grove, Perla Rodriguez, and her staff had a great article written about their school, Echo Shaw Elementary. This staff has worked tremendously hard to design the most up to date innovative TWI program in the state. Perla and her team have researched and implemented exciting changes to create strong two way methodology and instruction. Please read about it as they have similar goals as we do.

• ELA CCSS 6 Shifts registration for January – Teachers should remember to sign up for the K-2 or 3-5 ELA CCSS Workshops this January (SPED should attend the 3-5 workshop). The sub code is “Title One” and please bring your computer, your planning book/instructional calendar and for 3-5 & SPED Teachers bring your Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide. Follow link above to register for your session and see Gretta’s email for more specifics.

• School Choice 2015: Important Changes, Key Dates, & Promotion – School Choice season is here and one change is that the Schools Showcase (Jan. 24th) is now elementary only. The rest of the rules and plans are pretty much the same. School Visitation Weeks will be Jan. 26–29 and Feb. 23–27. If you’d like further details, you can read Kerry Delf’s email. Edna, Alicia and I have set several dates to give tours which are on the El Camino del Rio Web Calendar. Also, Edna and I are working hard on the new brochures to share during school choice. Nikita has offered to help with the Expo Poster design. Do you want to help out too? Let me know.

• New OAKS (SBA) Blueprints – Math – Here’s the link to files that give a very thorough view of about half of what will be on the “New OAKS” in math at each grade level. Different from the Smarter Balanced Practice Test that I shared last Fall, the documents here have sample questions that are grade level specific, which would be good for students to see before they take the New OAKS/Smarter Balanced Assessment.

• ODE Smarter Balanced Communication Website Update – ODE recently reorganized their Smarter Balanced Assessment webpages to improve access and ease of use. Now, the Smarter Balanced landing page connects more easily to the following:

• Internal pages for Smarter Balanced Test Administration, Technology Requirements, Technical Documents, and Communication Resources
• Related Websites like the OAKS Portal, SBAC, and CCSS
• Internal pages for CCSS

ODE wants this to be the one-stop shop for direct access to resources as well as connection to two additional locations that house Smarter Balanced information—their OAKS Portal and the SBAC website. Teachers are encouraged to explore the site and resources. If you are new to the site in general and need assistance locating anything, feel free to contact Jessie McGraw at ODE by phone (503) 947-5970 or email at jessica.mcgraw@ode.state.or.us

• Winter PBIS Newsletter – Attached is the Winter Edition of the district PBIS Newsletter from the 4j Behavior Consultants. Kim Reinhardt and Melissa Barbour have taken over the lead on this one. Enjoy!

• Tips on Raising Caring Children – What does it take to raise a compassionate, moral child? asks Adam Grant in this New York Times article (here’s a condensed version). Researchers have found that worldwide, this is parents’ number one priority – instilling caring is more important to them than their children’s achievement. But how much difference do parents make in this area? Are some children born good-natured and others mean-spirited? Studies of twins suggest that between one-quarter and one-half of people’s propensity to be kind is inherited – which means that parents and the environment account for up to three quarters. Drawing on the psychological research, Grant has these suggestions for adults working with children:

• Praise is more effective than rewards.
• With children around 8 years old, praise character, not actions.
• Nouns work better than verbs (i.e. “be a helper” vs “help us”)
• With bad behavior, evoke guilt, not shame.
• With bad behavior, say you’re disappointed.
• Model caring and generous behavior.

Thursday, January 8 Meeting on Building Design- In the last design meeting of December the design team came to agreement on many of the spaces. The administration office, the library, the gym, site plan, and more were agreed upon. The first meeting in January will review budget constraints and possibly include a discussion of classroom. I will know more after the Monday debrief meeting what the focus will be. It is extremely important that teachers give strong input on the classroom spaces. It is my hope that many of you will be working in these rooms for several years to come. I want the rooms to maximize instructional functionality for students and ultimately for you. I will send out an email if we do talk about classroom this Thursday.