Allan's Announcements

Hello Roadrunners,

I’m sending my announcements earlier than normal so everyone knows the plans for next week sooner than later.

Principals have had multiple virtual meetings this week (the last one Friday afternoon) and the state is still not providing a lot of guidance on expectations for remote learning, so 4J is in the meantime is setting up some structures that will be able to accommodate whatever comes down from ODE. Linked here is the latest State Bulletin, which says they will define “Supplemental Education and Learning Supports” (SEALS) sometime this weekend. Linked here is an email sent to all staff from Kerry Delf, an email sent to teachers from Charis McGaughy, an email sent to SPED teacher from Kat Lange, and an email sent to principals from Karen Hardin.

Below is my distillation of all that info along with some additional information from principal meetings this week:

• Zoom Staff Meeting Monday at 10:00 – Principals are being asked to hold a Zoom Staff Meeting Monday. Howard will have ours at 10:00. My plan is to provide as much info here instead to waiting for the virtual meeting.

To join the Zoom Meeting on computer, tablet, or smartphone, click the link in the email.

Zoom is pretty user friendly and linked here is a Zoom How To Guide, but let me know if need any help. If you want to practice or check Zoom out ahead of time, it’s fine to click or call the above links now.

Both classified and licensed staff are invited to participate in the meeting. The second part of the meeting will primarily be for licensed staff, but classified are welcome to stay. A tentative agenda for the meeting will be:

1.) Welcome
2.) Working From Home
3.) Building Access
4.) Classified Staff Expectations
5.) Licensed Staff – Remote Learning (preview of the PD Slideshow)
6.) Others

BONUS TIP! In the Zoom App, go to the PREFERENCES > VIRTUAL BACKGROUND and you can choose a virtual background and you can even upload your own picture or video to be your background. Add some fun to the meeting!

• Working from Home – Staff should try to work from home and beginning Monday staff are on “stand-by” status (UPDATE – I spoke with Imelda and we’re seeking clarification if “stand-by” applies to both Licensed and Classified or just Classified. There’s been conflicting information.). Stand-by means an employee is available for any work related communication and available to physically report, telework, or any combination. For myself, I’m planning to only be at school during the Free Lunch times on the days staff volunteers are here delivering meals to M-V families, Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays, 11:00-12:00. A HUGE thank you to everyone who has been able to help with this!

• Can I work in the building? – Staff should work from home and avoid coming to school (unless you are volunteering to assist with meal distribution). If you need to come to school, with the exception of the free meal volunteers, the new district procedure for working at school is:

1.) Contact me so I can meet you at school.
2.) Only enter through the main office entrance.
3.) Sign-in at the front office on the School Closure Sign-In Sheet.
4.) Go directly to your classroom or work area.
5.) If you go anywhere else in the building, note it on the sign-in sheet so custodians can disinfect.
6.) Do not use any restrooms besides the office adult restrooms and note on the sign-in sheet if you do so.
5.) Sign-out in the front office when you leave.

If possible, please come during my usual hours in the building Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays 11:00-12:00. If you’re interested in the nitty gritty for custodial work at this time, see Trevor Whites’ Emails to custodians.

• Classified Staff Notes – All classified staff will continue to receive pay and may be called upon to assist with various tasks, either remotely, on-site at Howard, or potentially at another building. HR is giving principals an alphabetical list of staff and we are to go down in order if Howard or the district has jobs needing done. Outside of helping with daily meals and possibly helping call families, I do not foresee asking staff for anything here at Howard. However, classified staff may be called in to help other programs happening around the district outside of your regular job duties. If staff cannot work for any reason, there are leaves available which HR will assist staff with.

• Remote Learning Updates – ODE announced they will provide guidance this weekend on “Supplemental Education and Learning Supports” (SEALS). In the meantime, 4J is putting some structures and plans in place to implement whatever it is we’re expected to deliver to students.

• Planning & Prep Timeline – This first week back, March 30 – April 3, there are two goals for teachers:

1.) Become familiar with Seesaw if you are not already.

2.) Use this time to create three three weeks worth supplemental education, starting April 6 and ending April 28. Some will complete all three weeks worth of student activities this week and others my choose to plans throughout April.

If you only follow only one link on this long email/blog post, review the linked Home Learning with Seesaw Eugene 4J Teacher Planning Guide. This document has pretty much everything you need and resources to get ready to provide remote learning. If you’re interested, linked here is the Principal Remote Learning PD Planning Doc, which is almost the same document, but has some additional information.

We will have a Zoom Staff Meeting at 10:00 on Monday and the rest of the time will be for teachers to plan, prep, and connect with colleagues to get ready for remote learning to begin the following week. The general schedule for people this first week back will be:

March 30 (M)
Staff working from home
Teachers Review the Home Learning with Seesaw Eugene 4J Teacher Planning Guide
10:00-11:00, Zoom Staff Meeting

March 31 (T) – April 3 (F)
Set Up Remote Learning Logins
Design a Home Learning Strategy and Routines
Make Contact with Families
If needed, attend one of the Seesaw webinars hosted by 4J Seesaw Ambassadors (link and Tues/Wed only) or one of the daily Webinars Hosted by Seesaw.

Seesaw also has a helpful Remote Learning for Teachers webpage that is very thorough.

• Google Classroom – Teachers can use Google Classroom if you’ve already been using it with your students. For communicating with families and communicating with students, Seesaw is a better tool, so teachers can continue to Google Classroom to push out work, but for communicating with parents & guardians, you’ll have to use Seesaw.

• Remote Learning Content – Details are being finalized once we hear from the state, but the general expectation is that teachers will provide 3-hours worth of daily activities for students. This could be:

30 minutes community building/morning meeting
30 minutes reading activities
30 minutes writing activities
30 minutes math activities
–build in
30 minutes of PE or Music

No NEW content should be taught, but this should be a time for review or going back to those units you wished you had more time on.

For specialists, PE and Music teachers are expected to provide activities for students and Kat Lange’s above email gave direction for SPED Staff, but other specialists (Title, ELL, Counselor, Instructional Coach, etc.) there has not been clear direction how you are to support classroom teachers and students, so I would suggest connecting with your same job colleagues around the district to brainstorm what you might share with classrooms teachers to send out to students or how you can help.

o Engagement before rigor
o Find out what activities keep students coming back.
o Establish a baseline of learning activities; do not over-assign
o Create structure to build stamina for learning: daily schedule

Think of routines that you already have and figure out how to bring that back in, such as read alouds, problem of the day, build in routines you already use.

If kids feel successful, they are going to come back. You might start with simple things the first few days. Like logging on to Seesaw. Go slow and you can pick up the pace a bit later.

Think about lessons that might take a whole week. You don’t have to do something new every day. One teacher is working on kindness and students will write a letter each day of the week to someone they don’t get to see right now.

See the previously linked Home Learning with Seesaw Eugene 4J Teacher Planning Guide for more info.

• Remote Learning, Asynchronous & Synchronous – I learned a couple new words this week. The district expectation is that the first week of remote learning, April 6-10, teachers DO NOT have to do any live Zoom Meetings with your class (asynchronous instruction). The second week of remote learning, April 13-17, teachers DO need to begin some live Zoom Meetings with your class (synchronous instruction). Zoom Meetings should be with your entire class and not with individual students.

If I were still teaching and in this situation, I think a Morning Meeting is where I’d most want to do a live Zoom Meeting, so I could give students a chance to reconnect. I think there’s a deep need to reconnect and we need to remember to put people first before simply jumping into content. China had to jump into online learning before the US and learned they first had to catch up with the students, make them feel cared for, and then they were ready to learn. It’s like the first day of school again. Teachers might need a morning message each day to remind students about “community.”

• Calling & Connecting Families to Seesaw & Devices – Downtown is requiring teachers to contact families this first week back and for principals to be able to track family responses, keeping a record of who DOES and DOES NOT want online learning and another needs (such as requesting a work packet instead of online work), so I created a Remote Learning – Family Contact Log. Note the date you called, if you left a voicemail or talked to someone in person, and note if families do or do not want to participate in remote learning. And feel free to add any other relevant information. The sheet is located on the Howard Shared Google Drive. Downtown will give us our parent technology survey results for which families do or do not need devices for remote learning, but classroom teachers are still to call ALL families to first make sure #1 they have devices and internet (both will be provided if they do not) and #2 make sure kids and parents are connected to Seesaw. For students, they log in with their username@4j.lane.edu and their Lunch PIN. Those can both be found in Synergy and shared with families.

• Calling from Personal Devices – If you don’t want families to have your personal cell numbers, remember you can set up Google Voice (iOS and Android) for free and get a dummy number to call and/or text families. There’s also a setting on iPhones to turn off your caller ID (Setting > Phone > Show My Caller ID > Toggle Off). Another option is to give families your classroom phone number and check your 4J Voicemail remotely, calling (541) 790-4400. For that option you can also set up Voicemail to Email, where when someone leaves a voicemail on your extension, the system will send you an email. If you are on the VPN you can listen to your voicemails on your computer. If you want to sign up for Voicemail to Email, send an email request to phones@4j.lane.edu and put “Voicemail to Email” in the subject line. In the body of the email indicate what your extension number and email address is.

Here is what the Interface looks like if you are on the VPN:

• Device Deployment to Students – A district level team is working on this, but it is sounding like students will come to Howard to pick up their devices and chargers if needed. I’m guessing I’ll be the one handing out devices and chargers. Downtown has also said they will provide families with assistance with internet, even if it means providing a hotspot. The Tech Department is also creating iPad Care & Handling Sheet that will go home with devices. I’ll let staff know more details once I have them.

• Together, we can do hard things (Resources) – Coronavirus is posing unprecedented challenges to schools and to help you keep the learning going, a coalition of education organizations, led by ISTE and EdSurge, have curated strategies, tips and best practices for teaching online at their Learning Keeps Going website. Also, here’s a nice post from a private school with some succinct tips for teacher.

• Final Thoughts on Remote Learning – Please know that I understand some of you may feel uncomfortable with this sudden shift to online learning. We all have the ability to give, learn, and grow during this time. Right now, we have an opportunity to grow our skills in technology instruction and student-centered learning. In a time of crisis, our strength lies in working together and collaborating to support our students and one another. We are all very lucky to be working with such great group of people through all of this. I’m getting a little weepy typing this. Go, Roadrunners!

 

 

• Non-Remote Learning/Working-at-Home Items – Six items of note:

• State Testing Cancelled – ODE has suspended ESSA Assessment and Accountability requirements for the 2019-20 school year, which means no state ELA, Math, or Science tests.

• Event Reschedules – We have lots of missed assemblies, field trips, and other activities, including the first two days of the artist in residence, impacted by the statewide school closure. Once we get closer to the April 29th student return date, I’ll work to adjust the calendar if that return date looks solid.

• April PBIS Focus: Encouragement – The April PBIS monthly focus is Encouragement. The PBIS team created a PBIS/CFK Cheat Sheet that matches our PBIS monthly themes with corresponding Caring for Kids (CFK) class meeting lessons. I’m not sure how this works into remote learning, but I figured I’d remind teachers if teams have any clever ideas.

• UPDATE: EEF Grant Timeline Changed – Principals were sent an EEF Email that the deadline for grants has been extended to September, so we’ll wait until next fall to rank order grant applications. Still, if you’d like to submit a grant idea for consideration to Site Council now, linked here is the EEF Email Sent to Principals, the 2020-2021 Grant Application Website, and the 2020-2021 EEF Grant Application. We can submit up to five grants in any amount up to $5,000 per application.

• District McKinney-Vento Student Data – Linked here is the district-wide McKinney-Vento Student Report. These totals represent students for the entire school year, not necessarily who’s in buildings now. As in the past, Howard serves more homeless students and families than any other elementary, middle, or high school in 4J. That’s over 10% of Howard students qualifying as McKinney-Vento, meaning more than 1 out of every 10 students is homeless.

• District Admin Updates – North Eugene High School principal Iton Udosenata has been named assistant superintendent of Salem-Keizer Public Schools. Iton will finish the school year and 4J will open a nationwide search for the NEHS principal position soon. Dr. Karen Pérez-Da Silva, who has served as 4J’s equity, instruction & partnerships administrator since 2017, has accepted a position with Hillsboro School District as their new director of equity and bilingual programs, starting July 1st.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

March 30 (M)
Staff Working from Home
Teachers Review the Home Learning with Seesaw Eugene 4J Teacher Planning Guide
10:00-11:00, Zoom Staff Meeting

March 31 (T)
Set Up Remote Learning Logins
Design a Home Learning Strategy and Routines
Make Contact with Families
If needed, attend one of the Seesaw webinars hosted by 4J Seesaw Ambassadors (link) or one of the Daily Webinars Hosted by Seesaw.

April 1 (W)
Set Up Remote Learning Logins
Design a Home Learning Strategy and Routines
Make Contact with Families
If needed, attend one of the Seesaw webinars hosted by 4J Seesaw Ambassadors (link) or one of the Daily Webinars Hosted by Seesaw.

April 2 (H)
Set Up Remote Learning Logins
Design a Home Learning Strategy and Routines
Make Contact with Families
If needed, attend one of the Daily Webinars Hosted by Seesaw.

April 3 (F)
Set Up Remote Learning Logins
Design a Home Learning Strategy and Routines
Make Contact with Families
If needed, attend one of the Daily Webinars Hosted by Seesaw.

April 6 (M)
Begin Daily Remote Learning (Asynchronous)

April 7 (T)
Continue Daily Remote Learning (Asynchronous)

April 18 (W)
Continue Daily Remote Learning (Asynchronous)

April 19 (H)
Continue Daily Remote Learning (Asynchronous)

April 20 (F)
Continue Daily Remote Learning (Asynchronous or maybe Synchronous)

As alway, please feel free to call, text, email, or Zoom me if you need anything.

This is a once in a lifetime moment we’re living in right now. I think this is a time when people’s true colors can show and I think we have a pretty wonderful group of caring individuals here at Howard. Take care of your people, do what’s in your control to put good out into the world, and remember to find balance in everything you do.

You got this, people!

Allan