Caring for Kids

October 29, 2018

By Allan | 2018/10/27 09:10 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Caring for Kids, SEL | Comments Off

Howdy All,

We survived last week’s full moon, so now it’s on to surviving Halloween!

Fourteen items of note for this week:

• Charis McGaughy, 4J Assistant Superintendent, Visiting Howard Wednesday – Charis, 4J’s Assistant Superintendent, is visiting Howard on Wednesday from 9:00-11:30 (yes, on Halloween). She’s planning to meet with me for a bit and will then wander the school and visit classrooms. And I did warn her that since this is Halloween things are going to be nuttier than usual.

• PBIS and SEL Reminders – Four PBIS and Social Emotional Learning reminders:

• Roadrunner Tail Feather Reminder – Write those tail feathers! Remember that we are in the midst of a tail feather challenge, culminating in a school wide pumpkin hunt on Wednesday, November 7th. Classes need to earn at least 12 tail feathers before then. All staff should challenge yourself to write at least 2 tail feathers this week. See Rae’s earlier email for Pumpkin Hunt details.

• Second Step: Nov. is Bully Prevention Month – I do realize Second Step is one more thing, but I’m a believer in explicitly teaching kids about social emotional topics in order to make them kinder humans, so teachers should know that you have my full permission for skip even core subject areas to make time for Second Step lessons (I think being a good human is more important than fractions). If you’ve been able to keep up with the Second Step Pacing Guide, classes should be moving into the Bully Prevention Units this month. If you haven’t gotten though all the prior units, I’d encourage teachers to skip ahead and teach these important lessons.

• November PBIS Focus: Appreciations – The November PBIS monthly focus is Appreciations. The PBIS team created a PBIS/CSC Cheat Sheet that matches our monthly PBIS themes with corresponding Caring School Community class meeting lessons, which is a nice way to tie the two activities together.

• “Star Student” Bus Slips = Beep, Beeps – Teachers, remember that the “Star Student” bus slips can be used by students just the same as Beep Beeps. “Star Student” bus slips are one of the few tools bus drivers have for encouraging positive behavior. On a related note, the 5th grade Safety Patrol positive slips also count the same as Beep, Beeps.

• Planting Seeds of Empathy in Classrooms – If teachers need some reasons to make the time to teach Second Step: “Empathy is at the core of everything that makes a school caring, a teacher responsive, and a society civilized,” says educational psychologist and speaker Michele Borba in this Educational Leadership article. “When empathy wanes, narcissism, distrust, aggression, bullying, and hate rise – and schools suffer.” Borba cites research indicating that American teenagers are 40 percent less empathetic than they were three decades ago. Kids today may seem smart and self-assured, but they’re also more self-centered, competitive, individualistic, sad, and stressed than any previous generation. Hence the focus in many schools on social-emotional skills, including empathy – the ability to understand the feelings and needs of others. A high level of empathy has been linked to better behavior, classroom engagement, communication skills, and academic achievement. Borba believes that empathy consists of nine teachable competencies, which you canreadin the above linked article.

• Names for October Book Winners – For newbies to Howard, we do a monthly book winner from each classroom, where the teacher picks one student who met their monthly reading goal and those students get to come to the office to pick a free book. October Book Winners will be Wednesday, November 7th at 9:00 in the Conference Room. We’ll make an announcement at 9:00 for teachers to send students down. Teachers should write your winners down on the sheet by staff mailboxes, so we can have their certificates ready.

• Parent/Teacher Conference Updates – Several items of note for conferences:

• Specialists & Classified Staff – The district expectation for licensed specialists (Title, SPED, ELD, Music, PE, etc.) during conferences is they need to be working during conferences in some capacity and are to be available to families if they would like to meet. For classifieds staff, Nov. 8th and 9th are regular work days unless you have trade time saved up. Let me know if you have any questions on this.

• Allan Available for Conferences – If teachers have any tricky conferences and would like me to attend, just let me know and I’ll put it on my calendar.

• Title 1 Compacts – Teachers will get class sets of Title 1 compacts before conferences. Please remember the following:

• PLEASE DO NOT SEND COMPACTS HOME TO GET THEM SIGNED
• If we can only get you and the student to sign, then make a photocopy for Title 1, and THEN the original will be sent home to be signed. If it comes back, great! If it doesn’t, no biggie. We’ll have the copy showing we tried.
• PLEASE have families sign these at conferences.
• Once you have signed compacts, please return them to Corianne

• Parent Report Update – Instruction Department data folks let me know we will have parent reports in time for conferences on Monday, November 5th. They said the reports may be missing SBAC scores, but should include the other information from last year. I’ll put these in teacher mailboxes as soon as I get them.

• PTO Provided Dinners – Our awesome PTO is again providing dinner for staff working late during parent teacher conferences. I believe the plan is for a pot-luck the first night and P.F Changs the second night.

• REPEAT: FREE Massages! Sign-Up by Friday – LCC Massage Therapy students will be on hand Wednesday (two students 4:00-7:00) and Thursday (one student 9:00-12:00) to give teachers doing conferences FREE massages. I forgot to put up the sign-up sheet on the Staff Room whiteboard, but will do it on Monday. Put your name down by Friday, Nov 2nd if you’d like one (or two).

• Student Care Team Resources – Below and also on the Google Team Drive are several resources that came out of last week’s Student Care Team meeting:

• Resources for Veterans – Linked here are Resources for Veterans and their families, inclining assistance with housing, employment, counseling, health care, education, and other services.

• Aging and Disability Resource Connection of Oregon (ADRC) – They will help anyone, regardless of age or income, if you are looking for information about services to address aging or disability needs, connecting people with local public and privately paid options. Contact ADRC of Oregon by calling toll-free 1-855-ORE-ADRC or 1-855-673-2372, or by contacting a local ADRC office or by visiting the ADRC Website.

• Ready to Rent – Ready to Rent (flyer and website) is for those finding it difficult to locate housing due to barriers such as eviction or credit. It’s is a renter’s education course open to low income members of the Lane County. Participants attend 6 session housing readiness education classes, where they work closely with housing specialists and peers to identify and address common barriers to obtaining rental housing, create a workable budget and prioritize housing needs, develop a housing search plan, understand the housing application and rental process, as well a learning their rights as a tenant and how to ommunicate effectively with your landlord, avoiding common behaviors that lead to evictions or lease terminations.

• Rental Assistance: Moving Forward with a Past – Those with a section 8 voucher who are having difficulty due to poor rental history, credit, criminal background can work with Travis Baker, Landlord Liaison, at Homes for Good. His phone number is 541-682-2602. The linked document Moving Forward with a Past has extensive tips for people in this situation.

• State Report Cards Released – ODE unexpectedly released the new state report cards (now rebranded “at-a-glance school profiles”) last Wednesday. They were originally delayed until November until ODE had plans in place for selecting comprehensive and targeted schools for improvement and how they wanted districts to address improvement. Generally speaking, our scores are about the same as similar 4J schools. See the district Oregon Publishes 2017–18 School Reports webpage to view report cards for all 4J schools.

• Library Update – The latest update on the library from Julie:

Library News! – Update on my return date. Sadly, downtown has decided that there is potential for injury with my weight limitations. They have pushed my return date out to November 24th. I am working on coverage for the library for the majority of November. Cheri will be covering a good portion of my days including library classes :) I know she will take good care of my library and she know everyone! Thank you Cheri! An update list of who is covering for library I am hoping to have out to you by Monday or Tuesday of this week. Thank you for being patient with me and my healing process. Miss you all!

Monday Ailson & Cheri
Tuesday Cheri
Wednesday Cheri
Thursday Brande :)
Friday waiting for replies

If your kids have over due library books, please – please remind to return their books. I will send out over due notices via email in the next couple of days. With new students coming in I would appreciate it if they would keep their books at school for now. If you have students who are moving possibly, let’s have them keep their books at school also. I have lost a couple already this year. :)

OBOB – Oh, boy do I feel out of touch with the kids. Please encourage them to keep reading even though I’m not there. Sadly, the OBOB lunches will not resume until November 28th. Students should think of making up teams. If some students have teams formed shoot me an email, this will give me an opportunity to see who may not have a team. As I am working on OBOB at home. We made up folders for the kids. Maybe, Cheri will have time to finish them up and can put them in your mail boxes. Priscilla and I are working on study questions.

I do check my emails frequently during the day if you need anything. I am running things from home. :) while resting.

Have a great week! Happy Halloween!

• Blinds Updates: Nearly Fixed – 4J Facilities staff have narrowed down the issues and have a temporary fix. There are two motherboards that control the blinds and one of them went bad. See this email if you want the detailed explanation, but all blind controls should be working, although the response time will be slow until we get the second motherboard replaced. Facilities also changed the timer on the blinds so that only the blinds in front of the school will go down at night and custodial staff will manually close the other blinds, which should lessen the issue of furniture obstructing blinds when they come down and causing them to jam. Interior blinds will stay up all the time, although we can still drop them with the panic button in the office.

• Class Dojo and Code.org on Clever – A highlight from last week’s Technology Leadership Team (TLT) meeting is that we learned both Class Dojo and Code.org will automatically roster your students through Clever. If you need help setting this up, email Peggy at 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu

• Monthly Walk + Roll to School Day – Safe Routes to Schools is trying to promote more walking and rolling to school, and are trying out a Monthly Walk + Roll to School Day. We’ll send home information in the newsletter about the event, although it won’t be as big of a production with prizes or the walking school bus, but it will be a way to encourage students to find safe alternative ways to school that do not involve driving.

• REPEAT: Halloween Costume Parade, Wednesday @8:10 – Linked here is the Costume Parade Route & Directions, but note that we are NOT GOING INTO CLASSROOMS. Upstairs Buddy Classrooms will join their downstairs Buddy Classrooms at 8:05. At 8:10 Suzy’s class will lead the Parade Train. Families may watch from the courtyards or commons areas (or join the parade). Classroom parties may be held at teacher discretion. And staff, remember to keep your costumes on after school for our staff picture in the Library Story Cove!

• REPEAT: Texas Roadhouse Lunch, Nov. 2nd! – The Texas Roadhouse is providing us with a Staff Appreciation Luncheon this Friday, so mark your calendars for 10:30 this date and bring your appetite!

• 21 Things Teachers Do Every Single Day But Don’t Get Recognized For – Everyone is aware of the usual teacher responsibilities, such as grading papers, writing lesson plans, and attending staff meetings. But anyone who has been in the classroom knows there’s a whole lot more to the job. Not everybody knows about the numerous day-to-day duties that sometimes overwhelm teachers and interfere with actual teaching. Take a gander at this List by WeAreTeachers. I need total a nap just reading it.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the rest of the year:

October 29 (M)
Lori Out
2:40-3:30, Site Council Meeting (Conference Room)

October 30 (T)
2:40-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)

October 31 (W)
8:10-8:40, Halloween Costume Parade
2:40, Staff Costume Photo! (Library Story Cove)

November 1 (H)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Appreciations

November 2 (F)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
10:30-1:00, Texas Roadhouse Catered Lunch (Staff Room)
1:25, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Behavior Framework Module 5 (Erin’s Room, RM22)

November 4 (SU)
Daylight Saving Time Ends “Fall Back”

November 5 (M)
Regular Day

November 6 (T)
Regular Day

November 7 (W)
PBIS Tail Feather – Pumpkin Hunt
Monthly Walk & Roll to School Day
9:00, Monthly Book Winners (Conference Room)
2:30, Howard Ukulele Ensemble Begins (Music Room)
2:30-4:30, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS) SKIPPING
4:00-8:00, Parent/Teacher Conferences

November 8 (H)
8:00-8:00, No School – Parent/Teacher Conferences
2:00-2:40, Allan to his kids’ conferences

November 9 (F)
Regular Work Day for Classified Staff
No School Licensed Staff – Conferences Comp Day

November 12 (M)
Veterans Day – No School

Have a spooky week, everyone!

Allan

October 1, 2018

By Allan | 2018/09/29 21:17 Posted in Announcements, Arts, Caring for Kids, Equity, P.D. | Comments Off

Hi Everyone,

Tuesday is National Custodial Workers Recognition Day, so I’d like to take a moment to recognize the work of Crystal and our regular substituted night custodians for keeping our building running smoothly. You do so mich more than just keep our building clean and your work is truly appreciated. You rock!

Nineteen items of note for this week:

• LICENSED: District PD Day, Thursday, Oct 11th – This is a district-wide elementary PD day, but the PD will all be building based. The agenda for this day will be 8:00-12:00, which will be three topic areas. Both classroom teachers and licensed interventionist (SPED and Title 1) should attend this meeting, but interventionists are excused from the from the Math PLC and Math Design Time to instead attend a separate “Interventionists PLC” 2:00-4:00 at Chavez.

• 8:00-10:00, Fall Benchmarking (2-hours) – This discussion will replace our first Data Team meeting of the year, and will be focused primarily around looking at reading and math benchmark data in grade level and interventionist teams.

• 10:00-11:00, Math PLC Mission/Vision Work (1-hour) – This will be a follow-up to the tweaking of our school mission statement. Allison and I did some wordsmithing and our next step is to move on from the mission (the WHY. Why do we exist?) into our Vision (the WHAT. What type of school do we want to create?), and then into Collective Commitments (the HOW. What must the adults do to create our ideal school?)

• 11:00-12:00, LearnZillion/Math Design Time (1-hour) – Based on feedback from the August math PD, teachers liked having choice and hearing from peers, so grade level teams will get time to meet to collaborate (not individual planning) in an area the team chooses and then report back on your work at the next Staff Meeting. Topics might include:

• Task-based learning that “shifts the lift” to students
• Number Talks
• Planing for Major Work
• Language Routines
• Collaborative Structures
• Use of Games Resources
• Workshop
• Formative Assessment
• Explore New Web Resources

• CLASSIFIED: District PD Day, Thursday, Oct 11th – All classified staff will meet in the library from 12:00-1:00 for Module 4 of the PBIS Behavior Framework, which focus on active supervision (moving, scanning, and interacting), and educator interaction with students (i.e. positives-to-negatives, clearly and positively stating expectations, responding to negative behaviors, etc.).

• State In-Service Day, Friday, Oct 12th – October 12th is State In-Service day. This is a regular work day for administrators and classified staff. For classified staff, this would be a good day to use any accumulated trade time (which officially is not supposed to be accumulated without first getting admin approval). If you’d like to get some easy trade time, we do need help serving pizza during Open House on Wednesday, October 10th (see below), so please let me know if any of you are able to help this evening . For licensed staff, October 12th is a non-contract day, meaning you have the day off. If you’re ever wondering about work year dates, most all of your questions can be answered on the 4J Employee Work Year Calendars.

• Revised Friday PD Calendar – Due to contractual language, EEA and downtown have come to an agreement on revisions to the Friday Early Release PD calendar. To make up for the lost 1-hour of uninterrupted prep on several of the non-school Fridays, an equal number of early release PD days will have the PD cancelled. Linked here is what principals were given, and we were given flexibility on two of the make-up days which meeting to cancel, so I chose the dates that spaced out our meetings, so we’re not holding Friday meetings back-to-back. So for the following missed Fridays, this will be the plan:

Oct. 12 – State In-Service Day (Oct. 26 PD Cancelled)
Nov 9 – Conferences (Nov. 19-21, no after school meetings will be held [every attempt to not schedule IEP’s will be made])
Nov. 23 – Thanksgiving Break – (Dec. 21 PD Cancelled)
Feb. 1 – Grading Day (Feb. 15 PD Cancelled)
Mar. 15 – District PD Day (Mar. 22 Cancelled)
May 3 – Transition Day (May 10 PD Cancelled)

• Friday Early Release Meeting Cancelled – This Friday was originally scheduled to be Part 5 of the Behavior Framework, but in the above rearranging of dates was changed into a Building Goals meeting. I think teachers are already plenty busy with all the new initiatives and rollouts (PLCs, Second Step, LearnZillion year-two, the Behavior Framework, the new iPad rollout, the new common schedule, the new SPED referral process, the new Data Team format, etc.), so we’ll cancel this meeting and give teachers some additional prep time.

• Safety Week, Oct. 15 – Oct. 19 – In two weeks will be our annual Safety Week, which is a good way to bring awareness to staff, students, and families about the various safety procedures right at the start of the year. Usually I like to do this when two months overlap within the same week, so we can take care of two monthly required fire drills all in one week, bu the calendar didn’t work out for that this year, so the dates Site Council came up with last year are as follows:

• Monday – Room Clear – Time decided by teachers
• Tuesday – ALICE Classroom Lesson – Time decided by teachers
• Wednesday – ALICE Lockdown: Evacuation Drill – 8:20
• Thursday – Directed Evacuation (i.e. Fire Drill) – 8:10
• Friday – Earthquake/Fire Drill – 8:45

All of these drills are listed in the “Emergency Procedures Manual” the rainbow tabbed spiral notebook that should be hanging in every classroom. The manual has not been updated to explicitly mention ALICE, but ALICE tenants are present in the Lockdown and Evacuation procedures. I won’t be making any announcement before the drills outside or morning announcements, but it’s okay for staff to prep your students before they take place.

MONDAY – Room Clear: Room Clear Drills will happen at a time determined by classroom teachers and in cooperation with another classroom where students would go in the event of real room clear. Students should know the designated classroom they would room clear to in the event of an actual emergency since in many cases the teacher would need to remain in the classroom while the rest of the students leave on their own.

TUESDAY – Classroom lesson on ALICE: Linked here is the Student ALICE PowerPoint presentation (and a PDF version with notes) that classroom teachers will use to teach the safety drills this day. After going through the PowerPoint, teacher will read the book I’m Not Scared, I’m Prepared (let me know if you do not have a copy of the book) with the Sticky Note Guiding Questions that go with the book. The above links can also all be found on the Team Drive > MISC > Safety Drills Info.

WEDNESDAY – ALICE Lockdown Evacuation Drill: For this drill I will press the office lockdown button (dropping curtains, locking exterior doors, and closing [not locking] hallway doors to each wing) and will announce the following:

Attention students, staff and visitors: This is a LOCKDOWN: EVACUATE DRILL, this is a LOCKDOWN: EVACUATE DRILL. Repeat, this is a NOT A REAL EMERGENCY. THIS IS A DRILL. We are pretending there is a dangerous person (or intruder) in the building on the other side of the building from your classroom. We are pretending there is a dangerous person (or intruder) in the building on the other side of the building from your classroom. WE ARE IN A LOCKDOWN: EVACUATE DRILL.

Teachers will then direct students to evacuate the building to the nearest location along the perimeter of the school grounds. In a real emergency classes would run, but for the drill classes should walk. Classes will stop at the edge of the property and wait for my all-clear announcement. In a real emergency, students and staff would evacuate well past the edge of the property, and keep going until you can’t see the school.

THURSDAY – Directed Evacuation (Fire Drill): Same as last month, which went smoothly.

FRIDAY – Fire/Earthquake Drill: For the Earthquake Drill, teach students to “Drop, Cover, Hold” meaning drop to the ground (so you don’t fall over), cover yourself by going under a desk (to protect yourself from falling objects), and hold onto the desk legs (so you stay under cover and don’t get bounced out). There are many resource on The Great Oregon Shake Out website, for you to teach students about Drop, Cover, Hold and earthquake preparedness. See the linked Evacuation Map & Lines for where classes should line up for the Fire Drill following the Earthquake Drill.

Please let me know if you do not have a manual or if you have any questions.

• Staff ALICE Refresher Tuesday, Oct. 9 – I’ll hold an optional refresher training for staff on Tuesday, October 9th at 2:30 in the Conference Room for anyone who wants to review how to teach the ALICE Student Lesson and to also answer any questions staff may have regarding the drill or safety procedures.

• Open House (formerly Curriculum Night) Wednesday, Oct. 10th – Linked here is a flyer for the 2018 Howard Open House, formerly known as Curriculum Night. Office staff will put class sets, back-to-back in English and Spanish, in teacher mailboxes to go home in Friday Folders this week. Classroom and specialist areas will open 5:45-6:45, where families will collect their Pizza Tickets to redeem in the cafeteria for pizza, which will be open 6:00-7:00. There will be a Title 1 Presentation in the library 6:00-6:20. Let me know if you have any questions.

• Walk + Roll to School Day, Oct 10th – Remind your students that Wednesday next week is Walk + Roll to School Day, where students are encouraged to walk, skateboard, bike, scooter, or use another non-motorized mode of transportation to get to school. There will be small prizes for all students who participate (stickers, tattoos, and a raffle drawing last year)!

• Walk + Roll to School Day “Walking School Bus” – For the Oct 10th Walk + Roll to School Day, the Safe Routes to School Program Manager is organized a “Walking School Bus” where regular ed buses will park at Trinity United Methodist Church. Volunteers will be stationed along Maxwell to Grove to Howard during the walk. A flyer went home in the October School Newsletter, including a link to a Walking School Bus Volunteer Sign-Up. Staff are welcome to help as well. Buses typically arrive between 7:20 and 7:40.

• REPEAT: Tech Trot Info – This Wednesday is the annual PTO Tech Trot. Three items of note:

• Tech Trot Running Details – Kids will run the track for 30 minutes and will collect colorful bands around their wrist as they run/jog/walk/roll around the track to keep count of their laps. Drinks and snacks will be provided for students at the end of the run. Grade levels should line up on the track behind the balloon arch so we can start at the times below:

• 8:15-9:00, Grades K/1
• 9:15-10:00, Grades 2/3
• 10:15-11:00, Grades 4/5

• T-Shirt Distribution – Howard t-shirts will be delivered to classrooms the day before the Tech Trot, but DO NOT give shirts to students until the day of the event.

• All-School Photo @2:00 in Gym – See the linked K-5 All-School Photo Map for where classes should go for our annual all-school photo. All staff and students should be in their spots by 2:00 PM. Students and staff should wear their NEW purple Howard t-shirts. Naughty students will be PHOTOSHOPPED!

• Library Happenings – Several items of note from Julie on library activities:

• OBOB has officially started! – OBOB permission slips due 10-5-2018 (we may add students after the 5th, I just need the bulk of students so I am able to plan Wednesday OBOB lunch activities) and put folders together. Students may come and check out and exchange book at anytime there is not a class in the library :) OBOB calendar coming soon!

• Library Classes – Thank your for bringing library books baskets down in the morning, it so helpful. Students may put books return slot which now has a sign! This way their library basket may be returned to class if you prefer not to leave it in the library. I have created new larger renew slips – hopefully they will be more visible :) I will leave them in your mail boxes.

If your student has finished their library book please encourage them to come to the library and return it and check out a new book to read. Or, if they were absent on library day/in a pull out situation. They need not wait for their next library day, if it’s ok with you. The more reading the better. They are welcome during any of my open library times. (please see Newest Library Schedule, we added one more class)

If you happen to have a student with a lost book fine and are unable to pay the fine please have them talk to me. We can try to work something out as long as the fine is not to large. Student may work off the fine by doing community service in the library :) Please note if the fine is generated from another school that library will need to make the final decision.

• Supply request – Baby wipes, would anyone have any they could share with the library? I have Clorox wipes, but sadly I am allergic to them.

• Wanting to stay connected – Please, please add me to your classroom weekly/monthly newsletter email list. My wish is to be more connected with what is happening in our classrooms. It would be wonderful for the library to support and encourage extended learning for our students. In the smaller building I could walk down to classrooms, visit and see what everyone was doing. I’m not really able to leave the library now which is a great thing! My library friend suggested being added to the emailed classroom weekly/monthly newsletters. She said it made a huge difference in building a tie between the school library and the classrooms. The benefits were to numerous to count. This got me super excited!

Thank you so much for all your support.
I mentioned this quote to a student today :)

• October PBIS Focus: Positive Bully-Proofing – The October PBIS monthly focus is Bully-Proofing. The PBIS team created the PBIS/CSC Cheat Sheet that matches our PBIS monthly themes with Caring School Community class meeting lessons, which is an easy way to tie the two activities together.

• Wacky Wednesday, Oct 10 – School Pride Day – Not this week, but next week will be the first school spirit day of the year, know around Howard as a Wacky Wednesday. This time it’s School Spirit Day, so remind kids to wear their Howard gear or Howard’s school colors, blue and white. The Wacky Wednesday calendar, which is also on the parent and staff Google Calendars, for the year is:

• Oct. 10 – School Pride Day
• Nov. 14 – Sports Day
• Dec. 12 – Pajama Day
• Jan. 16 – Silly Socks
• Feb. 13 – Superhero Day
• Mar. 13 – Rainbow Day
• Apr. 10 – Silly Hat/Hair Day
• May 8 – Tie Dye Day
• June 12 – Tropical Day

• Artist in Residence Updates – First off, nothing is final just yet, but LaneArts is confirming date availability with the Ceramics artist for November (possibly overlapping a bit into December) and for the Puppet artist (not popsicle sticks) for April/May. ArtSpark unfortunately does not cover our #2 choice of artist, the fiddle artist-in-residence, but at least we should get our first and third choice of artists. I’ll let folks know once dates and artists are confirmed.

• Student Care Team Resources – A few resources of note came out of last week’s Student Care Team Meeting:

• New Online SNAP Application – Families can now apply for SNAP (food stamps) online at http://apps.state.or.us/connect Feel free to share the attached SNAP Business Card.

• Looking Glass Homeless & Runaway Youth Services – Looking Glass has created a Looking Glass Business Card schools can keep on hand to share with youth who are homeless or who have runaway, providing meals, showers, clothers, internet, mailing address, job search & housing assistance, credit recovery, GED prep, mental health, drug & alcohol counseling and support groups, crisis shelter, and family relocation. The 24-hour crisis line is 1-888-689-3111

• Love INC Info Card – Love INC has a Love IMC Info Card. Their primary focus is to offer practical, hands-on assistance in a variety of areas. The type of help they can offer is ever changing as new volunteers step forward, desiring to help others with the talents, hobbies or skills they possess. They’re regularly updating their data base of volunteer teams of people willing to help in these general areas: prayer, meals, rides to appointments, yard work, packing, painting, firewood, and stocking pantry shelves as folks transition from being without homes. They can be contacted through their website or at Living Hope Church 2801 West 18th Avenue, Eugene, OR 97402, 541.653.8537 or email loveincclc@gmail.com to register. http://loveinclanecounty.com/index.html

• International Cultural Service Program (ICSP) Presentations – The UO International Cultural Service Program (ICSP) is now open for the Academic Year 2018-19 and are accepting requests for their students to do presentations at schools. ICSP provides free presentations and classroom visits by specially trained international UO students. This year, we have 29 students from 25 different countries. They give educational and cultural presentations, participate in panel discussions, or introduce a wide array of activities such as music, dancing, storytelling, cooking, religious ceremonies, and martial arts. You can request ICSP presentations at this Registration Link and for more information visit the ICSP Website.

• BRING School Visits and Field Trips – BRING is scheduling classroom visits and field trip tours for the 2018-2019 school year. See the linked BRING Flyer, and learn more at their BRING In the Classroom website. Low-income schools may qualify for transportation reimbursement.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the rest of the year:

October 1 (M)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Bully-Proofing
2:30-5:00, CLC 1:1 EA Interview Screeing (Conference Room)
3:00-4:00, Allan to Tech Cohort Meeting (Ed Center)

October 2 (T)
National Custodial Workers Recognition Day
2:45-3:15, Optional Leadership Plan Development Meeting (Conference Room)

October 3 (W)
8:15-9:00, Grades K/1 Tech Trot (Kelly Track)
9:15-10:00, Grades 2/3 Tech Trot (Kelly Track)
10:15-11:00, Grades 4/5 Tech Trot (Kelly Track)
2:00-2:15, All-School Selfie (Gym)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

October 4 (H)
Regular Day

October 5 (F)
PTO Popcorn Fridays Start
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
1:25-2:30, Recess Supervisor’s Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – CANCELLED

October 8 (M)
Indigenous Peoples’ Day/Columbus Day
9:25-10:25, Natives Presentation, Stone/Cortez (STEAM Room)
10:55-11:55, Natives Presentation, Rock/Callihan (STEAM Room)

October 9 (T)
4:30-8:30, 4J First Aid Class (Library)

October 10 (W)
Walk+Roll to School Day
Wacky Wednesday – School Pride Day
7:15-7:45, Walking School Bus (Trinity United Methodist Church)
5:45-7:00, Open House

5:45 Classrooms Open
6:00 Title 1 Presentation (Library)
6:00 Pizza Served in Cafeteria
6:45 Classrooms Close
7:00 Pizza Dinner in Cafeteria Closes

October 11 (H)
No School — Professional Development/Planning Day
8:00-12:00, Data Team/PLC/Math (Library)
2:30-3:30, Robinson Family Baby Shower (Library) CORRECTION
2:00-4:00, Licensed Interventionists (Title & SPED) PLC (Chavez)

October 12 (F)
No School — State In-Service Day Regular Workday for Classified Staff Non-Contract Day for Licensed Staff

I can’t believe we’re already one month into the school year!

Allan

September 3, 2018

By Allan | 2018/09/01 21:38 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Assessment, Caring for Kids, Grants, Literacy, Math, P.D., Technology, Video | Comments Off

Hi Everyone,

This weekend I put up our #whyiteach speech bubbles, and not to get too sappy, I felt so proud of our staff as I read each reason why each of us are here working with kids. Howard has an incredibly caring, thoughtful, and inspiring staff and I couldn’t be more happy to have everyone here on our team. I actually stopped in the middle of putting them up to type this. You all are AMAZING human beings!

Thirty-three items of note for this week:

• Updated 2017-2018 Master Schedule – A few more tweaks to the schedule and anyone effected already knows, but linked here (XLS and PDF) and also on the Howard Google Team Drive is the updated master schedule.

• Recess Schedule, 5-minutes shorter Fridays – Speaking of schedules, remember that with the new district Common School Schedule, we elected to do a 5-minute shorter recess on Fridays, so teachers need to remember to pick-up your class five minutes earlier at the end of both morning and lunch recess on Fridays.

• PE & Music Start Date – Siera and Michelle have said they are ready to start seeing classes the first day of school, but they also understand if teachers want to wait a few days before starting. Please let them know if you WILL NOT be going to specialist times this week.

• Missed Specialist Time Note – The Joint Contract Administration Committee (JCAC) will be addressing this in late September, but in the short term we will make-up PE/Music classes interrupted by events like assemblies/drills that are planned, using some of our open spots built into the schedule.

• Friday Early Release PD Meeting – Principals were recently told that on the early release Fridays (1:10 dismissal) schools have flexibility to decide if we want to do the protected one-hour of uninterrupted prep first (1:30-2:30) followed by the early release PD (2:30-3:30) or we can flip-flop the two. I’ve made a quick two-question Early Release Google Survey for teachers to state their preference. Our first meeting is this Friday and principals have not been give direction on what to present at this meeting, so at this point it will be a quick one-item agenda to decide if we want to meet each Friday at 1:30 or 2:30.

• Second Step Items – To editorialize for a moment, I’m hoping the adoption of Second Step, along with this year’s focus on the Behavior Framework and the prior rollout of the Caring School Community curriculum, signals a pendulum swing back towards valuing taking the time to build positive students relationships. Know that it’s always okay take time out of the “regular” curriculum to address the social emotional needs of students. But two items of note:

• Need More Posters? – Classroom teachers, let me know by the end of the week if you’d like me to order you any additional Second Step posters. One poster was sent with each kit and downtown sent principals an email that they are doing a one-time purchase of these posters, so let me know if you want one.

• Scans of Story Cards and Lessons – The Second Step website has the story card photos, videos, and songs that go with each lesson, but do not have the lessons themselves. The 5th grade team added scans of each lesson to the Google Team Drive to better facilitate sharing of the curriculum. If your grade level would like the same, give me your story cards and notebook and I’ll add them as well. To see 5th grades lesson, go to Howard Drive > Curriculum/Instruction > Social Emotional Learning (SEL) > Second Step > 5th Grade Scans

• Howard Staff Handbook Review – Linked here is the updated Howard Staff Handbook. All staff must review the handbook and sign & return the acknowledgement form to the office by Friday, September 28th. Both of these can also be found on the Howard Team Drive > MISC > Handbooks I’ll place hard copies of the acknowledgement form in mailbox on Tuesday. For Howard veterans, I made a few PBIS updates to match our current practices and a few other minor tweaks, but it’s mostly the same as in the past. Let me know if you have any questions.

On a related note, the District Back-to-School Policy Memo is still being finalized, so watch for that coming soon.

• easyCBM Benchmarking & Title 1 Updates – Four updates for teachers.

1.) Testing starts Monday, September 10th and goes through Friday, September 14th. Please get as much done as possible that week so Title staff can get the diagnostic testing completed the following week to form groups. I’ll be working with EAs on Friday, Sept. 21st to create the initial groups.
2.) Your easyCBM papers with labels will be in your mailbox early this week.
3. Try to finish math testing first so we can target BEST invitations to go our Friday, Sept. 14th.
3.) For KG and 1st only, keep track of whether or not kinders and 1st graders know their initial sounds, which we do using the phoneme segmenting assessment.
4.) If everything goes as planned, Title groups will start September 24.

• PBIS Rules Review – The PBIS team met and came up with a start of the year teaching plan, so PBIS Team Members can let me know if I’m not capturing any of this correctly.

Before the first recess on Wednesday, teachers should use the Playground Rules 18-19 Google Slide Show to review rules. In the days following, teachers should use the attached Quick Minute – Recess Rules Round-Up, where you’ll talk more in-depth about one piece of playground equipment each day, September 6th through 18th. The slideshow can be found at Howard Drive > Meetings/Teams > PBIS > 2018-2019 > Playground Rules 18-19

AdditionallyTeachers should also review our PBIS Rules for common school areas (i.e. restrooms, cafeteria, hallways, arrival/dismissal, etc.) sometime this first week, working off of the Howard PBIS Matrix, the PBIS Start of Year Lessons (taken from the staff handbook), or the Google Slides PBIS Back to School Refresher.

And a Google reminder, you’ll need to log into Google using your full 4J email username (i.e. chinn@4j.lane.edu) and 4J email password to connect to the Howard Team Drive.

• No More Clip-Up/Clip-Down Charts – Speaking of PBIS, downtown has officially forbade Clip-Up/Clip-Down Charts. I don’t remember seeing many of these in our school anymore, but let me know if you have any questions on this.

• Principal Visits to Classrooms – I’d like to again visit every classroom sometime during the first few weeks of school to greet students. I’ll read a favorite story to your class and chat with the kids a bit. Teachers, please let me know a good 10 minutes block of time I can come and visit. Thank you!

• School Bus PBIS & Positive Slips – Bus drivers have their own version of a PBIS positive slip, which teachers should honor just the same as our PBIS positive Beep, Beeps for weekly class drawing, which will start the first full week of class. FYI, linked here is an email describing the procedures of the Transportation PBIS Program.

• Tech Subscriptions – As a reminder to staff, Howard has paid subscriptions to the following online resources. Students can link to these by going to the Howard Website and clicking their grade-level’s “Links for Learners.” If there are any links your grade level would like added or removed, just let me know and I’ll get it updated.

• BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., and BrainPOP Espanol – Animated Educational Site for Kids; Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology.USER: howardschool PASS: roadrunners

• Dreambox – 4J purchased a K-5 subscription to the adaptive math program Dreambox, which has a unique link on the Links for Learners. Log-in with your 4J email and username to set up your classroom.

• SpellingCity – We have paid subscription for grades 3-5. Let me or your TLT reps know if you need assistance setting this up.

• RAZ-Kids – An online guided reading program with interactive ebooks, downloadable books, and reading quizzes.

• TumbleBooks – The link on our Links for Learners take you to our subscription website.

• World Book Online – World Book Online Reference Center includes World Book Encyclopedia in English and Spanish and is available to 4J staff and students and their families. A district-supplied username and password are required for home access. Building TSS’ should be able to provide these for you. UPDATE: 4J cancelled their subscription

• FastMath & FractionNation – Adaptive math software program for students in Grades 4-8.

• Class Buddies – Teachers, if you haven’t already, let me know who you Buddy Classroom will be for this school year.

• Staff Parking Areas (not the front row) – Starting this week, I’d like staff to go back to using designated staff parking areas, which is anywhere in the parking lot except for the front row of parking spaces, which I’d like to reserve for families. With 93 adults working in our building this year and 94 parking spots it’s a pretty tight fit.

• No Scents, Fragrances, Perfumes – Please do not wear any scents, body sprays, perfumes, or such at school. We have a number of students and staff with allegories who can have serious potentially life-threatening allergic reactions.

• Classroom Newsletters – I’d love to have copies (email is best) of classroom newsletters when teachers send/email them home to families. This helps me get school events on the building calendar, keeps me up to date on what’s happening or going to happen in classes when families ask, and it also lets me know details of any class activities that I might be able to get the local media to come out and cover. I love promoting our school!

• Google Permission Forms – If you have students who do not have permission to use Google apps such as Google Classroom, linked here is the 4J Google Permission Form (English and Spanish). The forms can also be found online at the 4J Instructional Technology Resources & Links webpage.

• Voicemail Set-Up – Teachers, if you changed rooms this year or are new to Howard, please take time to set-up your voicemail by using the linked Quick Start Voice Mail User Guide. If you have questions, please contact Peggy at 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu or call (541) 790-7777.

• Custodial Storage – Crystal has made some space in the custodial storage area is people have supplied needing storing, but two notes before you drop anything off. One, store things only on an open shelf, not on the workbench or other areas. And two, do not leave boxes or anything on the floor, so we can maintain clear walkways.

• Morning Announcements Start Monday, 9/10 – I won’t do morning announcements the first three days of school, but we will start regular morning announcements the first full week of school on Monday, September 10th with a couple 5th graders who were trained up at the end of last school year.

• Enrollment Updates – If you’re curious what our enrollment looks like, we’re below our projection by about 30something students, but district-wide elementary schools are about 580 students below projection and no elementary schools are above projection, so it’s a rather anomalous year for low enrollment. Our K-5 projection was originally for 474 students, but I convinced downtown to up our projection closer to our end-of-year enrollment of 500 students and to add another teacher. As of Friday we have 465 students fully enrolled (along with a few packets still out). Grade level totals currently are KG (53), 1st (70), 2nd (89), 3rd (73), 4th (86), and 5th (89).

• REPEAT: Meet Your Teacher – During Meet Your Teacher on Tuesday, September 4th at 1:00, I’d like to repeat what we did last year, having all non-classroom staff available to direct families, passing out school maps with highlighters to help guide families, and also passing out a flyer about the first day of school and parking lot procedures. We’ll also give staff a complete set of class lists to be used this day and also on the first day of school.

• REPEAT: First Days of School – Our first and second day of school routine has worked well the past two years, so we’ll once again want all-hand-on-deck to help at 7:25 on Wednesday, September 5th and Thursday, September 6th. Here’s the plan for the first and second morning with students:

First Day 
• Students will come in at 7:25 and get grab-and-go breakfasts. The wall separating the cafeteria and gym will be open. • Classroom teachers, also at 7:25 when the doors open, will be in the cafeteria, gym, and courtyard to meet students. Each teacher will have tall t-square signs with teacher name and room number (except for kindergarten, who’s doing something different this year). 1st – 4th grade will meet in the Gym. KG and 5th will meet in the cafeteria &courtyard. • Non-classroom staff, also starting at 7:25, will be at the front entrance, the gym, and the cafeteria to help guide students and families. All staff will be given class lists to help guide students as well as a handful of building maps to pass out. • After the first bell at 7:50 rings, Allan will make a brief announcement from the stage and then dismiss classes to go to their classrooms. Non-classroom staff will have assigned areas to help with student flow and for students arriving late. Staff will be stationed at the front entrance, cafeteria & gym, the hallway corners of the library, and one person in each wing (upstairs and downstairs).

Second Day
• Starting this day, students will follow our normal routine, but non-classroom staff should still to be available one more day 7:25-7:50 to help students with that routine of breakfast, 1st – 5th to the playground, and lining up right before the 7:50 bell (I’ll put out the T-square classrooms signs to help students know where to line up). After the 7:50 bell rings, non-classroom staff should again take their same places as the day before to help guide any lost students or families.

Staff helping should hold onto their class lists and maps from Meet Your Teacher and the first day to help guide families on the second day. Linked here is the First & Second Day Map & Directions for where people will be stationed. Anyone who can’t flex their hours to come in earlier these two days, please let me know so I can adjust where people are stationed.

• REPEAT: Technology CTL Reps K/1 and 4/5 – To support teachers with the transition to all iPads, the Technology Department has developed a 2-year PD plan. The first step in the plan is enlisting CTL reps similar to reading, math, and science. Schools will select three Technology Teacher Leaders (K/1, 2/3, and 4/5) who will attend district meetings/trainings to bring information and PD back to their schools. I had one volunteer for the 2/3 position, but let me know if you’re interested in being the K/1 or 4/5 rep. See the linked

• REPEAT: K-3 Smarty Ants Pilot Opportunity – Here’s a very cool opportunity! Susan Penrod asked if any Howard K-2 (and possibly 3rd grade) teachers are interested in piloting an online foundational reading program to accelerate students towards mastery (similar to DreamBox) called Smarty Ants. Although intended for K-2, they said it may also be useful for below grade level 3rd graders. Susan would provide a training on how to use the program later in September or October, but this sounds like a great independent reading activity for students during Reading Tier II or Tier III times. Let me know by the end of the week if you’re interested/willing to be part of the pilot.

• REPEAT: Artist in Residence Survey – Howard is again getting two artists in residence this year, thanks to The Eugene Rotary, EEF, and ArtSpark. This year they are requiring one artist to be first semester and one second semester. Classroom teachers, please complete the linked Artist in Residence Google Form and that way I can bring a proposal ahead of time to the September Staff Meeting for a decision. Please look at the Lane Arts Artist in Residence webpages for details on each artist and let me know if you have any questions. Survey responses due the Friday, Sept. 14th.

• Support Howard with eScrip, SmileAmazon, Fred Meyer Rewards! – An easy way you all can support Howard is by signing up for eScrip, Smile Amazon, and Fred Meyer Rewards. With eScrip, you link you debit and/or credit cards and when you make purchases around town at places like Market of Choice, Sizzle Pie, El Tapatio, or Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, it supports Howard. eScrip also supports purchases through a number on online retailers including Best Busy, Target, and Amazon if you first go through escrip.com. And speaking of Amazon, if you link your Amazon account to the “Howard Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization” through Smile Amazon, a small percentage of you Amazon purchases support Howard. Fred Meyer also has their own rewards program that Howard is a part of. Sign up for the Fred Meyer Community Rewards program by linking your Fred Meyer Rewards Card to Howard Elementary School. You can search for us by our name or by our non-profit number #88934.

• Insurance Stuff – Two insurance relating items:

• OEBB Mandatory Open Enrollment – You’ve likely gotten multiple cards and emails, but OEBB will end all current medical, vision, and dental plans effective September 30, 2018 unless you enroll before the deadline on September 15th. See the 4J Employee Benefits webpage to enroll. With the Sept. 15th deadline, it might be wise to do it now before you get caught up in the start of the school year craziness.

• Almost Free Sunglasses! – Here’s something fun I just learned about. Most of the vision insurance plans provide a glasses frame allowance each year, covering up to $70 once every 12 months that can be applied towards non-prescription sunglasses if you go through VSP. I wasn’t quite clear if there was a $20 deductible.

• Lane 4-H Offers New Educational Resource (chicken egg incubators!) – Lane County 4-H are opening the Embryology program that brings a chicken egg incubator and fertile chicken eggs into the classroom to be hatched! It provides a hands on learning opportunity, and has been adapted for all age ranges (K – 12). See the flyer for details and if you’re interested. I will cover the $45 fee. Just let me know if you want to sign up.

• Free Clay & Ceramics Courses at Georgie’s – Georgie’s Ceramics and Clay is offering free classes Sept. 22, Oct. 27, and Nov. 17 from 10am-4pm, with a free lunch provided. We have our own kiln here at Howard that staff can use if you’re trained, so if you’re interested in getting trained, see the linked flyer. They offer both basic and advanced classes.

• Northwest Community Credit Union Mini Grants – The goal of Project Community is to help educators create learning experiences for kids that might not otherwise be funded by school budgets. Educators submit their funding needs/wishes (up to $1,500) to NWCU through a competitive, submission process. Submissions are being accepted now through October 8, 2018 with winners awarded in December. Grants can be for supplies (e.g.,calculators, dissection specimens, art materials, basic school supplies, etc.), books & materials ((e.g., books for classroom libraries or to support curriculum, funding for field trips, etc.), technology (e.g., iPads, Chromebooks, Boogie Board e-writers, headphones for listening centers, etc.), and more. Follow this link to submit your grant to the NWCU Mini Grant Program.

• Math Workshop Resource – At last Friday’s PD, I attended a session on Math Workstations that shared a video from Dr. Nicki Newton, an education consultant who works with schools and districts around the country on elementary math curriculum, where she had some great advice on how to set-up math stations at the start of the school year.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the rest of the year:

September 3 (M)
Labor Day – No School
Possible EWEB Work – Limited Power to Building

September 4 (T)
9:00-10:00, Homework Committee Meeting (Conference Room)
10:00, Q&A Session for New Staff – Optional (Conference Room)
1:00-2:00, Meet Your Teacher & PTO Welcome Back Event

September 5 (W)
Classes Begin
PBIS Monthly Theme – Safety
7:30-8:00, Cup of Joe with the PTO (Front of School)

September 6 (H)
Regular Day

September 7 (F)
Bianca’s Last Day
10:15, Allan Reading to Lupe’s Class
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD (Volunteer’s Classroom)
4:00, KG Class Lists Posted

September 10 (M)
easyCBM Benchmark Testing Beings
Operation School Bell Forms Available

September 11 (T)
8:30-12:00, Allan to All-Admin and Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:40-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)

September 12 (W)
2:40-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae Room, RM1)

September 13 (H)
4:00-5:00, Parenting Now Presentation (Library)

September 14 (F)
easyCBM Benchmark Testing Ends
2:00-3:00, Medication Training by Nurse Robin
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD (Volunteer’s Classroom)

Have a great first week back and enjoy the Photo Safari pictures from last week below!

Allan

Photo Safari!

Team Charissa

Team Davina

Team Imelda

Team Jenefer

Team Racheal

Team Tyler

August 27, 2018

By Allan | 2018/08/25 23:05 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Caring for Kids, Grants, Literacy, Math, P.D., Technology | Comments Off

Greetings Roadrunners,

My giant candy dish will be full on Monday and I’m excited to see everyone this week!

Here’s the first regular edition of my weekly staff announcements, which I generally send out Sunday mornings and hope staff read by Tuesday night each week. I know my announcements can get long, but my intention is to only send one all-staff email each week, instead of firing off lots of emails throughout the week. They also get long because I try to cover of a lot of business items in an attempt to avoid the classic meeting-that-should-have-been-an-email scenario. And to help staff get though all of this efficiently, I try to make the heading for each item fairly descriptive so you can decide if that item is relevant to you or not. Here we go!

A record breaking 32 items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – For our Title 1 EA vacancy, we’ve hired Martha Murdock, who has previously worked as a BEST EA at Spring Creek and was with the KITS program here at Howard this summer. We also now have a new School Psychologist, Cassidy Toth who is new to 4J, but who we are very glad to have on-board. Please welcome Martha and Cassidy to the STELLAR Howard Team! For your reference, linked here is an updated 2018-2019 Staff List and linked here is an updated 2018-2019 Howard Map with names and room numbers.

• Updated 2017-2018 Master Schedule – Linked here and on the Howard Google Team Drive is a slightly updated 2018-2019 Master Schedule (PDF and XLS). Folk affected already know, but just so everyone else is in the loop.

• Classroom Schedules & Classroom Buddy Info to Lori – Speaking of schedules, as teachers solidify your daily schedules, remember to give Lori a copy. Also be sure to let her know who your Buddy classroom is. The master schedule has most of this information, but it doesn’t always reflect Classroom Buddy times, Library times, or other regularly scheduled activities outside of the classroom, which helps the office know where classes are when we need to locate students or staff.

• Howard Library News! – Below are library updates from our fabulous librarian, Julie Hopkins:

Hope everyone had a fun and relaxing summer, I was busy being a Mom and wife with a couple of small vacay’s and reading OBOB books :)

I will have my schedule available for library sign up at the circulation desk in the library starting on Monday August 27th. Please stop by or feel free to send me an email. I will finalized the library class schedule times, once all of our amazing teachers have submitted their requests. It would be wonderful if I could hear from everyone by Friday, August 31st at the latest.

Library classes will begin the first full week of school

• Sept 10th – 14th – 1st week of library. library/story cove expectations as well as surrounding areas.
• 17th – 21st – check out procedures and shelf expectations grades 3-5 will check out starting this week
• 24th – 28th – expectations, additional check out information 1 -2 grade will check out starting this week

I would like to please ask, that students continue to walk around the library and not use it a short cut, unless they are with an adult or have special permission. This includes mornings and after school, also. This helps in so many ways, thank you.

Looking forward to a great school year!

Julie Hopkins

• K-3 Smarty Ants Pilot Opportunity – Here’s a very cool opportunity! Susan Penrod asked if any Howard K-2 (and possibly 3rd grade) teachers are interested in piloting Smarty Ants, an online foundational reading program to accelerate students towards mastery (similar to DreamBox). Although intended for K-2, they said it may also be useful for below grade level 3rd graders. Susan would provide a training on how to use the program later in September or October, but this sounds like a great independent reading activity for students during Reading Tier II or Tier III times. Let me know by the end of the week if you’re interested and/or willing to be part of this pilot.

• Meet Your Teacher – During Meet Your Teacher on Tuesday, September 4th at 1:00, I’d like to repeat what we did last year, having all non-classroom staff available to direct families, passing out school maps with highlighters to help guide families, and also passing out a flyer about the first day of school and parking lot procedures. We’ll also give staff a complete set of class lists to be used this day and also on the first day of school.

• First Days of School Plan – Our first and second day of school routine has worked well the past two years, so we’ll once again want all-hand-on-deck to help at 7:25 on Wednesday, September 5th and Thursday, September 6th. Here’s the plan for the first and second morning with students:

First Day
• Students will come in at 7:25 and get grab-and-go breakfasts. The wall separating the cafeteria and gym will be open.
• Classroom teachers, also at 7:25 when the doors open, will be in the cafeteria, gym, and courtyard to meet students. Each teacher will have tall t-square signs with teacher name and room number (except for kindergarten, who’s doing something different this year). 1st – 4th grade will meet in the Gym. KG and 5th will meet in the cafeteria &courtyard.
• Non-classroom staff, also starting at 7:25, will be at the front entrance, the gym, and the cafeteria to help guide students and families. All staff will be given class lists to help guide students as well as a handful of building maps to pass out.
• After the first bell at 7:50 rings, Allan will make a brief announcement from the stage and then dismiss classes to go to their classrooms. Non-classroom staff will have assigned areas to help with student flow and for students arriving late. Staff will be stationed at the front entrance, cafeteria & gym, the hallway corners of the library, and one person in each wing (upstairs and downstairs).

Second Day
• Starting this day, students will follow our normal routine, but non-classroom staff should still to be available one more day 7:25-7:50 to help students with that routine of breakfast, 1st – 5th to the playground, and lining up right before the 7:50 bell (I’ll put out the T-square classrooms signs to help students know where to line up). After the 7:50 bell rings, non-classroom staff should again take their same places as the day before to help guide any lost students or families.

Staff helping should hold onto their class lists and maps from Meet Your Teacher and the first day to help guide families on the second day. Linked here is the First & Second Day Map & Directions for where people will be stationed. Anyone who can’t flex their hours to come in earlier these two days, please let me know so I can adjust where people are stationed.

• Kinderzone! – 4J is aligning kindergarten start-of-the-year procedures across the district. For the first three days of school, all schools will have kindergarten students see all teachers and on Friday kinder teams will create class lists after having had time to get to know all students, which will then be posted outside the office on Friday, Sept. 7. Linked here is the letter that will be sent out to kindergarten families (English and Spanish)

• Power Outage Labor Day Weekend – EWEB needs to de-energize the main electrical service to the Howard building to complete their connections for their micro-grid install. This has been scheduled for Saturday, September 1st through Monday, September 3rd. Their plan is to complete work at their earliest opportunity this weekend, potentially complete by Sunday evening. However, they want Monday as a floater day just in case something comes up. The building back-up generator will be running during this time so there will be minimal lighting and only the red emergency outlets (mostly located in the office) will work. If you’re working over the weekend you should be able to make copies, but know that the internet will be down, so you won’t be able to print files from your laptop (unless you’re use a UBS drive with the copier). Also be aware if you have a mini-fridge in your classroom not to leave food in there that will spoil. And believe it or not, they were originally going to cut the power Friday morning, but I convinced them that was a bad idea (“Teachers wouldn’t mind a day off, right?” I believe is what was originally proposed to me.)

• Classified & Licensed Goals and Self Assessment – All staff, both classified and licensed, need to complete a self assessment before the end of September. Licensed staff need to complete their self assessment in TalentEd. Classified staff need to complete the Classified Employee Self Assessment form (PDF or DOC), but if you completed an end-of-year self assessment last school year, you do not need to do another one this fall, so really only new classified staff members need to complete the form and return it to me (or let me know if you completed the form at a prior school and I will contact that administrator).

• Monthly PBIS Focus: Safety – The September PBIS monthly focus is Safety, which all classroom teachers should take time review with students. Remember that you can use the PBIS/CSC Cheat Sheet, which matches our PBIS monthly themes with Caring School Community class meeting lessons. This is a nice way to tie the PBIS and CSC together!

• Artist in Residence Survey – Howard is again getting two artists in residence this year, thanks to The Eugene Rotary, EEF, and ArtSpark. This year they are requiring one artist to be first semester and one second semester. Classroom teachers, please complete the linked Artist in Residence Google Form and that way I can bring a proposal ahead of time to the September Staff Meeting for a decision. Please look at the Lane Arts Artist in Residence webpages for details on each artist and let me know if you have any questions. Survey responses due the Friday, Sept. 14th.

• PBIS Rules Review – The PBIS Team will be meeting later this week to decide how we want to do our rules review with students. The past two years all classrooms used the Recess Rules Slide Show (PDF and Google Slides) before the first recess. For your reference, inked here are last year’s PBIS Teacher Checklist, the PBIS Back-to-School Rules, and the PBIS Rules Matrix. Stay tuned for this year’s plan.

• Optional Tech Trainings Head-Count (AMX @2:00, iPads @3:00) – Let me know if you think you will be attending either of these trainings, so Peggy and Misty can get an idea of how many people will be coming. At 2:00 in the STEAM Room, Peggy Vega, our Technology Support Specialist, will review how to use the classroom AMX System (cord set-up, connecting laptops for video/sound, whiteboard interactivity, voice amplification, ENZO, etc.). At 3:00 in the STEAM Room, Misty Jackson from the Tech Department will review how to use the new full-size iPads with keyboard cases we are getting for 3rd-5th grade, although much of this information will also apply to the iPad Minis at grade K-2.

• UPDATED: In-Service Week Schedule – Most of this is the same, but we now have more details from downtown about Friday’s PD activities, which are included below.

August 28 (T) – Teachers report back and this is a protected planning day. I’ll have some breakfast goodies, coffee, and drinks in the Staff Room at 8:30 to welcome folks back and meet new staff members.

August 29 (W) – Classified staff report back this day and we’ll start the day with everyone in the cafeteria. Breakfast burritos will be available 7:30-8:00 for folks who placed orders and the all-staff Back-to-School Staff Meeting will begin at 8:00. We’ll go over some standard business items and will then move into our three main topics of the day. The first is an overview of the 4J Behavior Framework, which will apply to all staff and will be a year-long topic for licensed staff on Fridays. The next two topics are more teacher focused and will be around the Professional Learning Community (PLC) and the newly adopted social emotional curriculum, Second Step, which classified staff are welcome to, but not required to, stay for.

Later in the day at 2:00, Peggy (our Tech Support Specialist) will offer an optional training on how to use the classroom AMX System (cord set-up, connecting laptops for video/sound, whiteboard interactivity, voice amplification, ENZO, etc.). Any staff unfamiliar with these systems should attend and anyone else who’d like a refresher are welcome to join.

Following that tech training at 3:00, will be an optional iPad training on how to use the new full-size iPads with keyboard cases we are getting for 3rd-5th grade (see item below for more detail on that), which will be led by Misty Jackson.

August 30 (H) – The district Back-to-School Event at South Eugene High School is this morning, 8:30-10:30. Attendance is encouraged, but optional. Following that, there will be multiple required trainings for some licensed and classified staff (primarily specialists, such as PE, Music, Library, Counselors, Kindergarten, etc.), so look for emails from the folks running those sessions for details. I’ll share more information once I receive it.

UPDATED: August 31 (F) – All licensed classroom, Title 1, and SPED staff will attend a district Math/LearnZillion training from 8:00-11:45. See the linked August 31 Math PD Flyer for details, but here’s the short version. Doors open at 7:30 for sign-in and socializing, with a hard-start at 8:00 (so come early and carpooling is encouraged). Lunch and travel time will be 11:30-12:45. The second half of the day, 12:45-4:00, will be back here at Howard, in the cafeteria, for BOTH classified and licensed staff and is a continuation of the Behavior Framework, focusing on PBIS Tier 1 universal practices to support and improve student behavior. The first three modules are “Classroom Management 1 – Arrange Orderly Physical Environment,” “Classroom Management 2 – Define, Teach, Acknowledge Rules and Expectations,” and “Classroom Management 3 – Define, Teach Classroom Routines.” Part-time classified staff should adjust their hours this day in order to attend the PBIS training in the afternoon.

Some Math PD FAQs…

• What do I need to bring with me? Lots of resources will be shared digitally so please bring your computer fully charged!
• What time do we need to be there? Where do I go? We’ll start promptly at 8:00 so make sure you leave time to park and walk in. Breakfast snacks and coffee are available so grab that before you settle in. But remember we start at 8:00! The schedule is right here… (refer to schedule)
• I can’t log into LearnZillion still. Email 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu or write your name, school, and grade on a sticky then put it on the parking lot at the training. Jaimee will check on it!
• I have a ton to do in my room. Why are we here? The sessions were designed based on teacher feedback from last year. Some options that have a more planning focus are “From Unit 0 to Unit 1” and Workshop 101. We get very few opportunities to share ideas and resources with peers.
• Any other questions… Wow – that’s a great question. Please make sure you get it down on a parking lot or into the follow-up feedback survey. Jaimee & the MTLs are great at responding!

September 3 (M) – Labor Day, No School

September 4 (T) – I have a placeholder Staff Meeting from 8:00-10:00 scheduled this day if anything comes up that can’t wait until our first regular staff meeting. At 10:00, I’ve scheduled a Q&A Session for new staff members to meet with me in the office to answer any questions you might have. I can get busy durning in-service week and may not always be easy to find, so I’ve set this time aside to be available for new folks. Also, “Meet Your Teacher” will be from 1:00-2:00, when families can come see their classrooms, drop off supplies, and meet staff.

September 5 (W) – The big show begins! See the above items regarding first day procedures.

• REPEAT: Breakfast Burrito Orders Due 8/27 – Wednesday, August 29th, from 7:30-8:00 will be our All-Staff Breakfast Burrito Gathering in the cafeteria before the Staff Meeting at 8:00. If you’d like a burrito, please complete linked Breakfast Burrito Order Google Form by Monday, August 27th at 9:00. You’ll need to log onto your 4J Google Account to complete the form. At the meeting I’ll also bring some donuts and bagels and other breakfast goodies if burritos aren’t your thing.

• New Staff Items of Note – I’m still waiting for the district back-to-school policy memo before I send out the updated Howard Staff Handbook, but below are eight items of note for new staff, which also may also be good reminders for returning staff:

• Seesaw App – Howard has more teachers using Seesaw than any other school in 4J and we own a site license, so it is available to all teachers. If you’re not currently using it, I’d encourage you to give it a try. Teachers sign-up for free on the Seesaw website. Parents download the free app and get access to your class from a secure code you share. From there, students can upload videos, audio, photos (approved first by the teacher), and and families then get a personalized window into their child’s school day! Teachers also have a fast easy communication tool to your families, where you can quickly push out a message to all families, where it shows up on their phone like a text instead of an email, getting their attention right away.

• Friday Folders/School-Home Communication – We have a building-wide an agreement that all classrooms will send home information the same day (Fridays) in the cleverly named Friday Folders. This makes communication easier for families and for people needing to send home school wide information.

• How to Hang Things on Walls – If you want to hang anything on the walls or other surfaces, be sure to use either tape (but not duct tape, which leaves sticky residue), sticky tack, command hooks, or most anything that doesn’t poke a hole in the wall or will leave behind imperfections when they’re removed. If you have something heavy you want to hang, like a picture frame, let our lead custodian, Crystal, know and she’ll install a district approved wall-hanger.

• Building Google Calendar – At the bottom of my weekly announcements is a two week calendar and also a link to the Howard Building Google Calendar for the entire school year. If you use Google Calendars yourself, you can add the Howard Building Calendar to your own list of Google Calendars by clicking the calendar link in my blog and then clicking the +Google Calendar icon located at the bottom right of the calendar webpage. This will add the building calendar to your list of Google Calendars if you’re logged onto your Google account (whether that’s your personal account or your 4J Google account). You can also add this calendar to most any calendar app you might use. Let me or our TSS, Peggy, know if you would like any help with this.

• Student Username/Passwords and Other TeacherVUE Reports – If teachers need a reminder how to find your students’ usernames and passwords, linked here is a quicksheet on Printing Reports in TeacherVUE. There are several reports teachers can generate from TeacherVUE. For example: To see which students have permission restrictions. A list of student user names and passwords for testing. To print a class list, student/parent directory, health conditions, emergency contacts etc. To print labels to send mail home.

• Can it be Recycled? – As people are setting up their spaces and clearing things out, remember keep in mind changes to what can be recycled.

The following items will continue to be accepted in commingled recycling bins:

• Newspaper, ads and inserts, direct mail, magazines, and catalogues
• Flattened cardboard boxes
• Cereal, cracker, and shoe boxes (not refrigerated or frozen boxes!)
• Office paper
• Paperboard/cardboard egg-cartons
• Steel and aluminum cans (no lids)
• Certain plastic bottles and jugs will still be accepted: soda bottles, water bottles, milk jugs, and juice bottles (no lids)

Items that will no longer be accepted:

• Plastic tubs
• Any plastic item that isn’t a bottle or jug
• Aseptic containers (such as for milk cartons, or shelf stable soy milk)
• Shredded paper
• Plastic bags, take-out food containers, plant pots, and lids of any kind should never be placed in commingled recycling bins

Any items that are not clearly recyclable should be put in the trash—when in doubt, throw it out! See the Sanipac Waste Wizard to know exactly what is accepted and what it not.

• Putting in Tickets for Technology Help – As a reminder to staff, if you ever need assistance with anything technology related, you should send an email to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu or call x7777, but do not email Peggy directly. The reasons staff staff are asked to put in tickets are numerous, including but are not limited to:

• To get an accurate accounting of the workload for your schools
• To obtain statistics on the overall workload for all TSS
• To justify the existence of site-based TSS
• To get statistics on the type of requests coming in, so they can target training and other resources.
• To see historical data for devices and problems
• Because TSS assignments can change at any time
• To better allocate TSS staffing.

This is important because a low number of tickets could indicate that a school doesn’t need as much tech support time as it is currently getting. In looking at current data, they believe this is because the staff at some schools may be emailing or talking directly to the TSS instead of putting in a ticket.

• Class Name Plate Template – Teachers, feel free to use the linked generic Classroom Name Plate Template if you want something to go outside your classroom door with minimal effort, but also feel free to design your own Pinterest-like sign.

• BEST Updates – ODE approved 4Js BEST Grant application, so BEST will once again return to Howard (Spring Creek’s program was moved to McCornack) and is funded for the next three years. We’re still hiring for a coordinator, but Bryan will return as the Academic Coordinator, which should give us some program continuity since he coordinatored the program for a majority of last year. BEST is scheduled to start on Wednesday, September 26th and if you’re interested, linked here the the BEST Calendar for the school year.

• easyCBM Release Days (K-1 Only) – Downtown is limiting which grade levels can access sub days to conduct easyCBM benchmark testing to only kindergarten and 1st grade. The logic of this is that these are the grade levels that have multiple tests that require 1:1 testing.

• Homework Policy Update – At the end of last school year the homework committee meet and we came up with the following guiding beliefs for our building-wide homework policy for this school year:

• All classes will send a weekly reading and/or math log of some sort. Teacher are welcome to come up with their own method of collecting this information, but we’ll make available some half-sheet templates teachers can use.
• Teachers may send games or other activities home for students to optionally do with their families.
• Classes may send worksheets home with all students, but may not have an expectation that students return the work.

The main thing we DO NOT want is for students in one class to be getting something significantly different from another class or grade level. I have a letter regarding homework that I will send home with the September School Newsletter so families know this is a building-wide practice. I’ll send the letter first to the committee members to make sure it accurately captures what we decided.

• Howard Google Team Drive View-Only – I’ve changed staff access on the Howard Google Team Drive to “View Only,” which still allows you to view and to also download files to your desktop or Google Drive. I’ve learned this past year from being on a number of district admin Google Team Drives that it’s pretty easy for people to accidentally delete or change files without realizing it, so learning from those mistake, I’ve modified everyone’s access to view only. If you need edit/upload access, let me know and I’ll give it to you, or if you just want to add a file, send it to me and I can add it. Also, let me know if you are having trouble accessing the Team Drive.

• Second Step Pacing Guide – I’ll have additional information about Second Step, the new social emotional learning (SEL) and bully-proofing curriculum to supplement the Caring School Community program (formerly Caring for Kids), but linked here and also on the Howard Google Team Drive is the Second Step Year-Long Pacing Guide.

• NCU Practicum Student Placements – HR sent principals information on practicum students needs needing fall placements. There are students from NCU and Western. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll forward your name to HR.

• New SPED Referral Process – SSD is going to be implementing a new referral system for both School Psychologist and SLP’s this fall. Due to the shortage of psychologist and consultants and a need to tighten up process for us all, they are implementing a new process that can be run by data teams to ensure efficient and proper referral of students for evaluation. They would like to encourage the use of equitable practices and data based decision making when we are moving towards evaluation, and this new process will help SSD staff in being able to deliver just that. It is imperative that all schools are following these new procedures and using the new form so the psychs and the SLP’s are able to lead and direct our team when it is time to move forward with an evaluation. Linked here is the new 4J Special Education Referral Process. SSD will be going over this at a principals’ meeting next month, so I will have more information regarding the new process then.

• GoFundMe Not Allowed for Class Fundraising – Secretaries were told that staff are not allowed to use GoFundMe to fundraise for school activities since the money goes directly to the staff member and there is not the accountability piece compared with DonorsChoose.org where items are sent directly to the school. However, EEF has started a new Fundraising Partnership Program for parent groups and schools, one part of which is hosting online fundraisers on Network for Good (NFG). If you’re interested, see the above link.

• New Math Website TumbleMath – Misty Jackson shared with principals a new resource that is available for free until November 30th. The company that produces TumbleBooks now has TumbleMath. It includes lesson plans and quizzes that are aligned to common core standards. The linked email provides details for accessing the free trial.

• Teacher Appreciation with the Ducks! – The UO is holding two teacher appreciation football games on 9/8 and 9/15. Tickets will be discounted to $36 per seat for all school staff (both classified and licensed) as well as anyone you want to bring. Just visit the UO Ticket Order website and type in the promo code “2018TEACH’ to redeem your discount. See the flyer for details.

▪ Dry Marker Recycling – A former Howard teacher, Carol Pitetti, let me know about a free program I hadn’t heard of, ColorCycle by Crayola, who will recycle all brands of markers (including dry erase markers & highlighter) that have dried out, so I’ve signed-up our school and will put a box in the downstairs workroom for people to fill with any dead markers. Once it’s full I’ll slap on a label and send it off to Crayola at no cost to us!

• District Admin Updates – Joyce Smith-Johnson will be leaving Holt to join the SSD team as an administrator at the Fox Hollow campus. Dan Sterling (who I went to principal school with) will be the new principal at Holt, returning to our 4J staff after working as an administrator at Portland Public Schools, Lake Oswego School District, and most recently at Centennial Elementary in Springfield. Denisa Taylor is the new principal at Twin Oaks, coming from Chávez, where she has been principal for the past eleven years. Deirdre Pearson is the new Chávez principal, having worked as an administrator in Ashland and most recently in Bandon, where she served as both middle school principal and special education director.

• Setting the Tone for September – The latest issue of ASCD Express has some nice article on starting the year right. Students should love being in school. Students should feel safe and valued. Students should know we expect the best from them. These may be some of your hopes for students’ first impressions of you and your classroom. How do you establish these individual or schoolwide values in the first weeks of school? What helps you set the tone—from relationships to routines to policies—and sustain these values all year long?Articles include “What to Do in Week One,” “Four Core Organization Tips for Any Elementary Educator,” and “Stories Are All We Are.”

• Relationships Matter More Than Rules – I shared this last year, but I really liked the thesis of this Edutopia article on the importance of building positive relationships and creating positive community within the classroom at the start of the school year. Meaningful relationships matter for learning. The rules and policies you enforce are important for keeping a well-managed class, but rather than emphasizing control over your students, developing community and connection is a surefire ingredient for a good school year for all. Try the strategies in the above linked article to begin forging strong relationships.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the rest of the year:

August 28 (M)
8:00, Allan to New Employee Welcome to 4J Breakfast (Ed Center)
9:00, Breakfast Burrito Orders Due!
3:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Ed Center)

August 28 (T)
Licensed Staff Report Back
8:30, Welcome Back Breakfast Gathering (Staff Room)

August 29 (W)
Classified Staff Report Back
7:30-8:00, Welcome Back Breakfast Burrito Gathering (Cafeteria)
8:00-12:30, Back-to-School Staff Meeting (Cafeteria)
1:00, PBIS Team Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)
2:00, Optional Classroom Tech/AMX Review w/Peggy (STEAM Room, RM16)
3:00, Optional iPad Training w/Misty (STEAM Room, RM16)

August 30 (H)
7:30-8:30, District Staff Back-to-School Breakfast & Social (SEHS Lawn)
8:30-10:30, District Staff Back-to-School Event & Speeches (SEHS Auditorium)
10:30, Specialist Staff Inservices (Various Locations)
12:30-1:30, Recess Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)

August 31 (F)
8:00-11:30, K-2 Math/LearnZillion PD (Holt)
8:00-11:30, 3-5, Title, SPED Math/LearnZillion PD (Chavez)
12:00, 1st-5th Class Lists Posted
12:45-4:00, Classified & Licensed PBIS Behavior Modules Training (Cafeteria)
2:00-3:30, Preschool Promise Parent Orientation (Preschool, RM12)

September 1 (SA)
EWEB Work – Limited Power to Building

September 2 (SU)
EWEB Work – Limited Power to Building

September 3 (M)
Labor Day – No School
Possible EWEB Work – Limited Power to Building

September 4 (T)
8:00-10:00, Potential Staff Meeting (Cafeteria)
10:00, Q&A Session for New Staff – Optional (Conference Room)
1:00-2:00, Meet Your Teacher & PTO Welcome Back Event

September 5 (W)
Classes Begin
PBIS Monthly Theme – Safety
7:30-8:00, Cup of Joe with the PTO (Front of School)

September 6 (H)
Regular Day

September 7 (F)
Bianca’s Last Day
1:25, Recess Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD (Volunteer’s Classroom)
4:00, KG Class Lists Posted

See you soon!

Allan

May 28, 2018

By Allan | 2018/05/26 16:49 Posted in Announcements, Arts, Caring for Kids, Equity, Literacy, Technology, Video | Comments Off

Greetings Everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed your three-day weekend (or are still enjoying it if your’e reading this over the weekend).

Sixteen items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – With the classified bumping process completed, I’d like to welcome three new staff members for next school year; Davina Brown (Life Skills 1:1 EA), Rachael Bryant (Life Skills EA), and Tyler Conner (CLC 1:1 EA) to the Howard SPED Team. Davina comes to us from Holt where she worked as a CLC 1:1 EA and will work here as Life Skills 1:1 EA with a 4th grade student. Racheal comes to us from Monroe Middle School where she worked as an LC EA and will work here as Life Skills EA. Tyler comes to us from Willagillespie where he worked as a CLC EA and will work here as CLC 1:1 EA for a 4th grade student.

• 2018-2019 Leadership/Building Rep. Positions – Each year all leadership positions are considered vacant and anyone can sign up for one, with the exception of CTL positions, which downtown generally likes to keep consistent. The current list of leadership/rep positions are; Garden, IPBS, PBIS, Site Council (though there’s only one open position), Social Committee, Taking it Up, and TLT. If you would like to sign up for a leadership or rep position, follow this link to the 2018-2019 Leadership/Building Rep. Positions Google Sheet. You’ll need to be logged onto your 4J Google account to view or add your name. If we have multiple candidates, we’ll do an email vote for those positions. I also added rows at the bottom if anyone wants to lead a new position.

• 2018-2019 Team Sign-Ups – Related to the above, thank you to everyone who signed up to be team member on next year’s various building teams. Some teams could still use members, so please look at the sign-up sheet in the staff room and consider adding your name.

• Master Schedule Committee Meeting, Thursday at 2:30 – Workshop staff have drafted a preliminary master schedule template for next school year. This Thursday at 2:30 in the Conference Room will be an optional meeting for any interested staff members who’d like to have input and/or work on next year’s schedule. Right now it’s just the workshop schedule, but we will build the rest of the schedule out from here. However, we may be getting ahead of ourselves, because we still haven’t heard how the four PE and Music classes per will will work, but it’s getting so late in the year I hate to hold off on this any longer.

• Homework Committee Meeting, June 4th at 2:30 – With teachers in agreement at our meeting last week on reducing and aligning how we do homework next year, I’ve scheduled an optional meeting on Monday, June 4th at 2:30 in the Conference Room for interested teachers to help draft a letter and/or other means by which we’ll communicate our new reduced (and I would argue more equitable) approach to homework.

• REPEAT: Wildlife Safari Assembly, Wednesday – This Wednesday in the gym is an assembly put on by Wildlife Safari. Kindergarten and 1st grade pooled their PTO field trip/enrichment money and thought they’d invite other grade levels to attend. The 3-5 assembly is 8:45-9:45 and K-2 assembly is 10:00-11:00. See the linked Assembly Map & Directions for details.

• 4th Grade Play, Wednesday 6/6 – The annual 4th Grade Play is next week on Wednesday, June 6th at 8:15 in the gym. See the linked Assembly Map & Directions for details!

• End of Year Checklists – Linked here is the End-of-Year Checklist for staff who are in charge of a classroom or other area. This form needs to completed and signed off by me before you start your summer. Outside of some date changes, this is the same form as last year. A sign-up sheet for checkout dates and times will be in the Staff Room and copies of the checklist will be under the staff mailboxes. If you need any boxes, just let Crystal know. For checking out technology over the summer, the link is not up yet, but I’ll share that once the Tech Department sends it out. UPDATE: Here the Summer Technology Checkout Link.

• Return Testing Headphones to Peggy – If you checked out any headphones for testing from Peggy, please return them to her office. If Peggy isn’t here when you return them, you can also drop them off with me.

• Report Card Grading Day, Classified & Licensed – Friday, June 8th is a regular work day for both classified and licensed staff. For licensed staff, HR allows teachers to work from home if you notify your administrator (me) in advance, but be sure to plan ahead if you need to collaborate with any colleagues on grading. Also, be sure to use this time for grading and not use it to run errands around town. Teachers are highly visible members of the community, so keep in mind public perception. HR has said that if working off-site on grading days is abused, we will not be allowed to continue the practice.

• Class Lists Due Friday, June 8th – Last week I shared links to the Google Sheets for next school year’s class lists, which I locked down a bit more this year (sending classroom teachers had editing access and other staff have view-only access). Classroom Teachers should have lists finished by Grading Day, Friday, June 8th, so specialists and support staff have time to review final lists before the end of the school year. Before then, non-classroom staff are welcome to connect with classroom teachers about specific student placements.

• PBIS Focus: Celebrating Your Success – The June PBIS monthly focus is Celebrating Your Success, so remember the PBIS/CFK Cheat Sheet, which matches our monthly themes with Caring School Community class meeting lessons. It’s an easy way to tie the two activities together.

• Summer School Classroom Use – I’ve been told the following classrooms will be used this summer by the three programs housed in our building during the break. KITS will run from July 2 – Aug 23, 9am-11am, and will use Room 5 (Family Resource Center), Room 12 (Preschool), and the Community Room. EEP will run from July 9 – Aug 17, 8:30am – 4:30pm, and will use Rooms 23, 24, and 25 (2nd grade classrooms). ESY will run from July 10- Aug 2, 8:30am to 11:30am and will use all other downstairs classrooms. There’s a possibility ESY will end up using some additional upstairs classrooms.

Taking advice from other principals who’ve hosted summer programs in their building, staff should lock everything up you don’t want touched, but if anything does get broken or disappears, these programs will replace or reimburse. I was also told at the end of the summer, when people are packing up, it’s hard to tell what’s theirs and what’s ours, so cover all your stuff with butcher paper and lock your stuff up so nothing accidentally gets packed up by KITS, EEP, or ESY.

• Summer Reading Staff Picks! – Since summer is almost here, it’s time for me to put together my annual end-of-the-school-year Summer Reading Staff Picks! Email me or let me know in person what your summer reading list looks like and I’ll post everyone’s picks in my final weekly announcements of the year. I love hearing what other are planning to read and have found some good books this way. My picks so far include a Red Dawn type of story The Tropic of Kansas and then probably something by horror novelist Brian Keene, but I’m still deciding. Send me your picks! And here’s Bill Gates summer reading picks:

• Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program – Sure it’s a marketing ploy, but kids can earn a free book by picking any book to read, completing the linked reading journal (English or Spanish), listing the book title and their favorite part, and after eight books, redeem their journal for a free book at Barns & Noble. See the linked flyer for more details.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the rest of the year:

May 28 (M)
Memorial Day, No School

May 29 (T)
3/4/5 Artist in Residence Begins – Merideth Ferrell, Silk Painting (STEAM Room)
5th Grade Middle School Math Placement Tests
BOGO (Buy One, Get One Free) Book Fair Student Preview
10:30-1:00, KG Field Trip to LCC
2:30-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)

May 30 (W)
BOGO Book Fair Opens
8:45-9:45, 3-5 Wildlife Safari Assembly (Gym)
10:00-11:00, K-2 Wildlife Safari Assembly (Gym)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team (Conference Room)
4:00-5:30, Allan to Report Card Revision Team Meeting (Ed Center)

May 31 (H)
9:00-10:30, Allan to Dyslexia Webinar (Office)
11:00-12:45, May Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Community Room)
12:00-3:30, Allan to ILT (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, Master Schedule Committee Meeting (Conference Room)

June 1 (F)
9:00-1:00, 4th Grade Field Trip to UO
8:00-4:00, Allan and LEL Team to Chavez
10:15, KG Ocean Art Open House (Sugar)
4:00, Howard Staff Social (Angela’s House)

June 4 (M)
3/4/5 Artist in Residence Continues (STEAM Room)
Library Closed for Inventory & Close Out
2:30, Homework Committee Meeting (Conference Room)

June 5 (T)
All student library books due back to the library
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, IPBS End-of-Year Meeting (Hop Valley)

June 6 (W)
Report Card Translations Due
8:15-9:00, 4th Grade Play (Gym)
11:15, NEHS Senior Stroll (tentative)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

June 7 (H)
Last Day for BEST
Last Day for Title 1 Groups
11:00-12:45, Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room)

June 8 (F)
Grading Day – No School
Class Lists Due (for review by support staff)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
5:00-8:00, Howard PTO School Carnival (Gym, Cafeteria, Playground)

June 11 (M)
easyCBM Testing Closes
3/4/5 Artist in Residence Continues (STEAM Room)
3:00-6:00, Bike Rodeo – Bike Safety Activities (Cafeteria & Gym)

June 12 (T)
All staff library books due back to the library
Silver & Vaughan to Emerald Park
9:15-1:00, SPLASH Field Trip for Grades 3/4/5
10:00, Fire Drill
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting – If Needed (Volunteer’s Classroom)

June 13 (W)
Wacky Wednesday – Day at the Beach
Preschool’s Last for Students
8:30-10:00, K-2 Field Day (Track)
9:55-10:10, 5th Recess w/3rd Grade
10:15-11:45, 3-5 Field Day

June 14 (H)
PE Classes Outside
10:30, KG Family Picnic (Front Grass)
12:00-12:15, 5th Grade Lunch
12:15-12:35, 5th Grade Recess
12:45-1:45, 5th Grade Graduation (Gym)
1:50, Clap Out for 5th Grade

June 15 (F)
Last Day for Students, Early Release
Last Day for 192 & 196 Day Classified Employees
Sugar field to Emerald Park
10:00, Grab-n-Go Sack Lunches (Cafeteria)
11:05, K-5 Dismissal
11:30, Staff Last Day of School Root Beer Float & Ice Cream Sundae Party and Staff Farewell Celebration (Cafeteria)

June 18 (M)
Last Day for Licensed Staff

June 28 (H)
Allan’s Last Day

July 26 (H)
Allan Reports Back to Work

And enjoy our crazy all-school photo. Click on the images below for the full-size version. Thank you, everyone, for making that happen!

Allan

April 2, 2018

By Allan | 2018/03/30 15:11 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Caring for Kids, Math, P.D., Science, Video | Comments Off

Howdy Howard Staff,

I hope you all took time to relax and get ready for the final two and a half months of school. I relaxed with a short family trip to the coast and by binge watching the Hannibal TV series (which is an AMAZING horror series everyone should watch) and finishing Lovecraft Country (which is being made into an HBO series from the creator of the Oscar winning horror film Get Out). I can’t wait to hear about everyone’s spring break adventures!

Twenty-one items of note for this week:

• April 2nd PD Day Plan Update – Jaimee Massie already emailed the linked April 2nd PD Communication to licensed staff and I forwarded it to classified staff, but please see the attached document for details regarding the April 3rd professional development day. The short version is:

8:00-12:00, Classified Staff: Math Foundations PD (River Road)
8:00-12:00, Licensed Staff: Grade-Level Math (K-2 Holt/3-5 Chavez)
12:00-12:40, Lunch/Travel Time
12:40-2:00, Licensed Staff: Building Math Design Time (Howard Library)

For the licensed staff Math Design Time Collaboration time back at our building 12:40-2:00 we will start in the library. I went through a few different iterations of how to structure this time, but landed on having this time be more directed by grade level team needs/interests. We’ll start in the library, but most of the time will be for grade level and workshop teams to collaborate and share around math instructions (creating anchor charts for upcoming lessons, sentence frames around academic language, talk moves for the upcoming unit, analyzing unit assessments, sharing what’s worked, what’s been a challenge, etc.), and then returning to the library for a share-out of what you accomplished. Let me know if you have any questions.

• 2018-2019 Schedule/Calendar Updates – I CC’d staff on a district email that went out families regarding the draft schedule for next school year, which had some additional information about the proposed schedule. Below are a few FAQs I’ve gotten about the schedule:

What are other schools’ start/end times?
Linked here is the Draft Schedule of School Start/End Times for all 4J schools. The times by level are:

ELEM: MTWH, 7:55-2:35 or 8:30-3:10, FRIDAY, 7:55-12:10 or 8:30-12:45
MIDDLE: MTWH, 9:05-3:55, FRIDAY – 9:05-2:45
HIGH: MTWH, 9:05-4:10, FRIDAY – 9:05-2:55

What will be work hours be for an 8-hour employee?
Currently most full-time employees work 7:30-3:30 with our 7:55 start time. With an 8:30 start time, equivalent work hours would be 8:05-4:05.

Can we schedule a third recess?
To keep within mandated state requirements for student seat hours, buildings can schedule up to 60 minutes of lunches and recesses MTWH and 45 minutes on Fridays. These times can be divided any way schools choose, either 2 longer recesses or 3 shorter recesses.

What time will be the protected hour of prep?
The hour right after Friday early release will be the protected hour of prep. I haven’t seen it in writing, but was told at a principals’ meeting that it will start right at dismissal and that teachers on Fridays would not have any supervision duties, making Howard’s protected hour of prep 12:45-1:45.

Why Friday early release instead of Wednesday?
Friday was chosen to work better for more families, align with key early learning programs that operate Monday through Thursday, and minimize impacts on student learning—Wednesday is our highest-attendance day, so having the shorter day on Wednesdays means more students lose that learning time.

If you have any questions or concerns you’d like me to pass along to Brooke, let me know by this Friday. Also, if you missed it in the email to families, the school board is voting on the 2018-2019 School Calendar at the April 4th meeting if you want to take a peek at that.

• Staffing Updates – A few staffing updates for next year school year. One, Jill already announced that she is taking a professional leave next year to pursue a counseling degree, so we’ll have a 5th grade opening at the April 12th Job Expo. Two, over in the preschool, Megan is leaving her Preschool EA position at the end of the school year to pursue a teaching degree. Please wish Megan and Jill the best on their new adventures and also feel free to start recruiting excellent folks who’d make fine additions to the Howard Team! And one repeat from last week, please welcome Navneeta Medart, our newest CLC 1:1 EA staring Tuesday, to the Howard Team!

• Spring Artist in Residence Schedule – Linked here is Spring Artist in Residence Schedules. Grades K-2 and Life Skills will have Maiya Becker for ReUse Art, meeting for four 45-minute sessions from May 7 – May 18. Grades 3-5 will have Merideth Ferrell for Silk Painting in the STEAM Room for four 60-minute sessions from May 28 – June 8. I tried to avoid workshop times, specialists, and field trips as best I could, but let me know if you spot any conflicts with your schedule.

• 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. Besides being an easy way to tie the two activities together, this month’s theme also nicely dovetails onto our school-wide kindness campaign.

• Wacky Wednesday – Favorite Animal Day, 4/11 – Not this Wednesday, but Wednesday next week is Favorite Animal Day, so start getting kids pumped up for this day and starting planning your wacky animal shirt, hat, costume, or other animal themed regalia. Be sure to remind students that our Halloween no-mask rule also applies to this day.

• Fire Drill Wednesday, 4/11 at 8:30 – Not this week, but next week on Wednesday at 8:30 will be our April Fire Drill. If we get rained out, I’ll reschedule for next week. Only two more of these for this school year!

• EEF Grants Due to Allan by April 23 – A quick reminder that EEF Grant Applications are now open and grants need to be given to me by April 23 for Site Council to rank order our grant submissions. I haven’t seen an official email from EEF this year, but last year we could submit up to five grants in any amount up to $5,000. EEF puts a higher priority on grants related to Arts, Literacy, and STEM. One additional request from EEF was that if you’ve submitted the same grant for multiple years in a row, that you add in why that particular program is important and should continue. Linked here is the EEF Grant Application website, which contain all the details and can answer most any question you might have.

• PTO Meeting Updates – I’ve mentioned before that this year’s excellent PTO Board are all ending their terms this year and we are need of new board members. Please feel free to recruit any parents you think might be able to take this on. Classroom teachers can also feel free to include the short article below in any classroom newsletters:

_{2018-2019 PTO Board Members Needed!}

_{Howard’s PTO Board is in need of a new President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer for next school year. We are encouraging any interested parents to come to the April PTO meeting, Tuesday, April 17th at 6:00 in the Howard Community Room. Nominations will take place at that meeting. At the May 15th PTO meeting, a vote to finalize the new the board will take place. If you’re unable to attend the April meeting, please email howardelementarypto@gmail.com or contact principal Allan Chinn. We would love to keep our amazing PTO up and running to provide support for Howard students, families, and staff. Without these positions filled, the PTO’s charter will sadly dissolve. Please consider applying for one of these positions!}

• Volunteer Appreciation Week, April 16-20 – Volunteer Appreciation will is coming up in a couple weeks, so please take time to recognize any volunteers you work with this week. Last year Allison put on a fabulous doughnut themed appreciation, which we might make an annual tradition, but let me know if any of you have another idea we might try this year.

• Informal Observations – I’m close to finishing up all of my formal teacher observations for the school year, so heads-up I’m moving on to the final round of informal observations. I’m hoping to finish most of them up this week or next.

• Library News – Here are some dates of note from Ms. Hopkins, which are also on the Howard Google Calendar:

April
• School Library month (Normal check out for the kids all month)
• 4/6 – Find out if I have jury duty :)
• 4/8 – National school library week
• 4/30 – Children’s book Day!

May
• 5/14-18 – Last week of check out 1 book per student
• 5/21-24 – Book return week last week of classes (kids will receive a fun book mark for returning their books) working on a classroom reward for 1st class with all books returned :) I will reschedule Friday classes for earlier in the week since we have a PD day the 25th.
• 5/25 – Hopefully setting up BOGO fair
• 5/29 – Hopefully student preview (waiting to confirm dates with Scholastic)
• 5/30-6/1 – BOGO fair in the library

June
• 6/4-15 – Inventory and library close out for the year!
• 6/5 – All student library books due back to the library (this should catch up the stragglers from May)
• 6/12 – All staff library books are due back to the library

• Student Care Team Resources – Linked here are a few resources that came out the last Student Care Team, as well as a couple oldies-but-goodies that were shared with a family before the break:

• Little Children Big Challenges: Incarceration DVD packet – We’ve shared before about the Sesame Street Resource Packet for families with an incarcerated family member, but they also offer a DVD packet that is available for free, along with the mobile apps and printable activities for student service providers.
http://www.facebook.com/sesamestreetincommunities
http://www.sesamestreet.org/incarceration
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/press-room/incarceration/

• Love Inc. – Their primary focus is to offer practical, hands-on assistance in a variety of areas. The type of help they can offer is ever changing as new volunteers step forward, desiring to help others with the talents, hobbies or skills they possess. They’re regularly updating their data base of volunteer teams of people willing to help in these general areas: prayer, meals, rides to appointments, yard work, packing, painting, firewood, and stocking pantry shelves as folks transition from being without homes. They can be contacted through their website or at Living Hope Church 2801 West 18th Avenue, Eugene, OR 97402, 541.653.8537 or email loveincclc@gmail.com to register. http://loveinclanecounty.com/index.html

• Bags Of Love – The sole purpose of Bags of Love is to provide necessities and comfort items to children who are in crisis due to neglect, abuse, poverty or homelessness. Through their unique distribution model, they address the immediate needs of these children and help support the community agencies caring for them. Bags include the bag, quilt or blanket, toiletry kit, toys, and clothing. The can be contacted at 710 Commercial Street, Eugene, OR 97402-5348, at (541) 357-4957, at info@bagsofloveinc.org, or http://bagsofloveinc.org/

• Food For Lane County – A county-wide distribution of emergency food that offers food boxes, no-cost meal sites, gardens, nutri- tion education, children’s and senior programs. They are located at 770 Bailey Hill Rd., Eugene and can be reached by email at info@foodforlanecounty.org or on the web at https://foodforlanecounty.org/get-help/

• Produce Plus – The Produce Plus program is in all of the DHS offices on Mondays. The program is for anyone living at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. There is no program enrollment; all who come can be served, as long as they sign the self-declaration statement that they meet the income requirement. https://foodforlanecounty.org/get-help/more-food-programs/supplemental-food-programs/

• Food For Lane County Map of Food Pantry Sites – Here’s a link to a complete list of Lane County Food Pantry sites. https://foodforlanecounty.org/get-help/foodboxes-meals/find-a-food-pantry/

• Walk & Roll to School Day “Walking School Bus” Opportunity? – For the May 9th Walk & Roll to School Day, the Safe Routes to School Program Manager emailed me offering to help organize a “Walking School Bus” where buses will park a short distance away from school and kids walk the rest of the way. To do this, we’d need staff stationed along the walking route, so I was wanting to know if there are staff members interested/willing to volunteer their time to do this? I was thinking buses could drop kids off at Kelly and they could then walk along the sidewalk to Howard. I’m thinking we’d need at least four volunteers. Let me know by the end of the week if you’d be willing to supervise 7:20-7:45 to greet bus riders as they “walk” to school.

• 4J Outdoor School Minutes & Info – Based on recommendations from the Outdoor School District Planning Team, which included one representative from every elementary and middle school, downtown has decided to meet the voter passed outdoor school requirement by having all 5th grade students attend outdoor school instead of all 6th grade students. This will start next year and many details are still being worked out, but if you’re interested, see the linked minutes for current details. The plan is to create a menu of options for schools. The minimum requirements is a 3-day camp (although not necessarily overnight). Next year downtown and EEA will go through a process to establish a memorandum of understanding regarding outdoor school. The plan will also includes designing something to go out to vendors, so teachers will not be required to create the curriculum or run the programs.

• Escalation Cycle Tips & Reminders – This is a long item, but please take a few moments to review the key points below from our training last month with Kim Reinhardt and Shasta Quigley regarding the Escalation Cycle and how we as educators can choose to respond. Below are the Cliff Notes version from the meeting and linked here is a copy of the Escalation Cycle PowerPoint as well as the Meeting Minutes.

Educator Mindset and Philosophy
• In order to change student behavior, we have to first look at our own behavior.

• All behavior has a purpose: get attention, avoid attention, get a desired object or activity, escape an activity, situation, or environment

• “Kids do well if they can.” This is contrast to the alternative of “kids do well if they want to.” It’s our job to figure why kids aren’t doing well and helping them move toward a place where they can do well.

-Find stressors and try to reduce them
-Find unmet needs and try to meet them
-Find skills deficits and try to teach them

• Our relationship with students is the single greatest influence in helping students to change their behavior. Kids who believe their teachers like them, do better across the board.

Escalation Cycle: Baseline, Trigger, Escalation, Crisis, De-escalation, Post Crisis Drain, Stabilization
1. Most people will stay at Baseline 80% of the time.

• If you start your day with big stressors, you’re not as well able to make decisions, do your job, etc. and are more likely to escalate quickly
• We teach at baseline as kids will accept feedback

2. When kids get Triggered, try removing or modifying to prevent further escalation. Reinforce what’s been taught (ex: take a break)

3. As kids get more Agitated (get more off task, fidgety, withdraw), make environmental modifications (break, take a walk), provide reasonable options and choices. Don’t remind of potential negative outcomes. Offer two things that are reasonable (ex: you can do this or miss recess vs would you like to cross off 2 problems or have me help you get started)

4. Acceleration happens as behavior intensifies. Intervention is focused on safety of students. Use safety plan if one is written.

5. Peak is when students are at their most of our control. Don’t talk a lot. Use short, practiced phrases.

• Check your own reaction. Try and relax your body position. Remind yourself this isn’t personal to you. Take a deep breath and try to slow your own heart rate. Regulate yourself so you can help regulate the student.
• When a student is escalated, stop talking.
• Give a couple seconds of quiet and then give clear directions or visual prompts.
• When in doubt, give space and call for help.
• If someone asks you to step away or offers to swap with you, please do, especially if the student’s behaviors are directed towards you.
• You can tap out if you are frustrated. Ask someone else to take over. The kids know when you are feeling negatively toward them.

6. De-escalation happens after the peak and students are confused but their behavior is decreasing.

• Don’t blame or tell what they did wrong
• This isn’t the time to teach.

7. Recovery – student is willing to return to activities.

• This may not happen until the next day.
• Kids may need to sleep or withdraw until their back to baseline.
• Follow through with natural or logical consequences and focused on re-teaching.
• Positively reinforce any displays of appropriate behavior.
• Focus is to reteach a positive behavior, not to “stick it to them.”

• Future Howard Road Safety Projects – I’d recently contacted Safe Routes to School Program Manager about setting up a radar speed sign to slow down drivers in front of our school and Kelly and learned about a number of safety improvements in the works. First, we will be getting a temporary radar speed sign. The Safe Route Manager is also looking to potentially add speed cushions or some other kind of traffic calming, or perhaps even a sidewalk on the south side of the street where there are now very few large trees left. There is a neighborhood planning process happening over the next year, and that will guide bigger projects like the sidewalks. There’s support for a shorter sidewalk on North Park alongside Kelly. There’s also a sidewalk planned to go along Grove Street, though it’s not quite official.

• District Admin Updates – Two district admin updates. Sebastian Bolden will be the new Spring Creek principal next year. He is coming from Bethel, where he has been assistant principal of Meadow View (K-8) for five years and a middle school teacher before that. Andy Dey has been selected as 4J’s Director of Secondary Education beginning July 1, replacing BJ Blake when she retires. Andy has been principal of South Eugene High School since 2015 and has experience as a middle and high school teacher and administrator, K–12 curriculum director, track coach, and earlier as a non-profit conservation organization director.

• Extinct Versions of Animals – Just for fun, here’s a cool comparison of current animals and their extinct ancestors from the NPR Science Tumblr account, which kids might enjoy seeing. The “largest known rodent” is probably my favorite.

• Howard Staff Social: Alvvays Concert Sunday! – Last chance to get your tickets for the Alvvays concert this Sunday at 9 PM at the Hi-Fi Music Hall here in downtown Eugene. Come hang out with your colleagues while listening to some excellent indie pop! Hope to see you there!

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

April 2 (M)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Encouragement
No School – Professional Development/Planning Day
8:00-12:00, Classified Staff PD: Elementary Math Foundations PD (River Road)
8:00-12:00, Licensed Staff PD: Grade-level Collaborative Math PD (K-2 at Holt & 3-5 at Chavez)
12:00-12:40, Lunch/Travel Time
12:45-2:00, Licensed Staff: Building Math Design Time (Howard Library)

April 3 (T)
Classes Resume
Artist in Residence #1 (last day)
3:00, Allan Meeting with Carl Stubbs (Office)
4:00-5:15, Allan to Report Card Committee Meeting (Ed Center)

April 4 (W)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

April 5 (H)
12:35, Matt & Allan at 5th Grade Safety Patrol Meeting (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

April 6 (F)
Regular Day

April 7 (SA)
10:00-2:00, PTO Spring Bazaar (Gym/Cafeteria)

April 8 (SU)
9:00PM, Howard Staff Social – Alvvays Concert (Hi-Fi Music Hall)

April 9 (M)
National Library Week
2:30, Allan to FBA Meeting

April 10 (T)
Library Worker’s Day
Wacky Wednesday – Favorite Animal Day
8:15-11:30, Allan to Elem. Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Mariah’s Room, RM23)

April 11 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
8:30, Fire Drill
1:15-2:00, Classified EA Supervisors Meeting (Room 26)
2:30-3:30, PBIS Team Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)

April 12 (H)
7:30-11:30, Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)
12:00-3:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)
4:00-7:00, Allan to Elem. Jobs Expo (Ed Center)

April 13 (F)
Fluoride Varnish – Community Room

Now on with the sunny springtime weather!

Allan

February 26, 2018

By Allan | 2018/02/24 11:10 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Caring for Kids, Literacy | Comments Off

Hello Amazing Howard Staff,

Here’s a good real-life number talks math problem teachers can use with your students that will greatly help school secretaries in the future. “If school normally starts at 7:55am and there is a 2-hour delay, what time will school start?” We lost count of how many calls we had Thursday morning answering this question. One even made it to the top of the 4J Twitter post.

Thirteen items of note for this week:

• Staffing Information Update – I shared information last Tuesday in an email and at Tuesday’s Staff Meeting, but for a quick update we are still waiting to get our staffing for classified SPED, ESC, PE, Music, TSS, and BEST allocations. ESC is the main one holding me up sending out some staffing scenarios, but I’ll at least send out some licensed classroom scenarios Monday if I haven’t heard anything before then. Based on feedback so far on classroom configurations, we’ll likely have three classrooms at each grade level and the remaining 1.0 FTE would be for a fourth 2nd or 5th grade classroom or would be divided between the two with two 0.5 FTE facilitating teachers.

There will be an optional staff meeting Wednesday this week at 1:30 in the STEAM Room to discuss potential scenarios.

Next week I’ll meet with teams for input on scenarios, which are on the building calendar (KG 3/5 @2:30, 1st 3/5 @3:00, 2nd 3/6 @2:30, 3rd 3/6 @3:00, Classified 3/7 1:15, 3/8 4th @2:30, 5th 3/8 @3:00, Licensed Specialists 3/9 @2:30). Teams should let me know if these dates or times do not work. The following week I’ll notify staff of the final staffing plan that I’ll submit to HR, which his due March 15th.

• Earthquake/Fire Drill Monday at 1:30 – Since last week’s Earthquake/Fire Drill got snowed out, we’ll instead hold the drill this Monday at 1:30. I’ll announce the drill ahead of time for students. Remember there are many resources for teaching Drop, Cover, Hold at The Great Oregon Shakeout. Linked here is a copy of the Evacuation Map & Lines.

• March PBIS Focus: Safe Bodies – The March PBIS monthly focus is Safe Bodies. The PBIS team created a PBIS/CSC Cheat Sheet that matches our PBIS monthly themes with corresponding Caring School Community (CSC) class meeting lessons. This is an easy way to tie the two activities together.

• Library News – Two items of note form the library:

• Book Fair News! – Teachers please be sure to stop by on Monday to fill out your wish lists if you haven’t. Have a quiet time to look at the book fair. We received some amazing titles this year. Thank you for bringing your students to the book fair, everyone did a wonderful job. The kids are so excited! Teachers could you please remind students that our Literacy Night Free books are in the classroom not the book fair, there was some confusion today with some students.

• Library Book Returns – Please do not have students bring library books back this week and instead have them keep books in the classroom. We don’t really have the space to check books in this week.

• Adding Students to Fast Math/Fraction Nation – For upper grade teachers, while trying to add new students to Fast Math and Fraction Nation last week, Erin figured out that Fast Math is a site license, so there’s no limit to how many students we can add, but Fraction Nation has a limited number of license, so students are only added by request. Howard’s license count may have reached it’s limit already, but there’s currently enough extra licenses in a district pool and I also suspect there may be some students listed who have moved.

If you have new students move in, Fast Math updates new students at the start of each week. If you get a new student who can’t access Fast Math, send a request to add them to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu, and add “Fast Math” to the subject line and include the student’s name that you need added. If you want to request a student be added to Fraction Nation, also submit a request through 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu with “Fraction Nation” in the subject line with the name of any students you want added.

• The One and Only Ivan Picture Book – I just ordered a copy of the picture book version of The One and Only Ivan story, called Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla. if anyone would like to borrow that from me ahead of Literacy Night.

• REPEAT: Literacy Night, Thursday, March 1– Great job getting those Literacy Night projects ready to show off! We’ll have sign-in sheets for each classroom and each family that signs in will get a book delivered to their classroom the following week. We decided for the dinner that pizza and cookies will be much easier and are ordering over 800 slices this time, so we should be safe from running out this time. The schedule will be:

5:30-6:00: Free Dinner (cafeteria)
6:00-6:45: Visit Classrooms
6:30-8:00: Scholastic Book Fair

Talk Literacy Night up to your students and let them know that the Roadrunner Mascot will be there!

• REPEAT: Literacy Night Staff Dinner – We’ll have a variety of pizzas and salads from Mezza Luna for staff this Thursday at 5:00 in the Staff Room. I’ll also be picking up a variety of drinks, so let me know if you have any special requests.

• REPEAT: Classified Staff Help at Literacy Night – We could use about 6-8 classified staff members to help set-up, serve, and clean-up in the cafeteria for Literacy Night. If you’re able to help, we can offer trade time or extended contract. Just let me or Corianne know if you’re able to help.

• REPEAT: Artist in Residence Schedule – I emailed updated info on Friday that the new artist is starting Monday, along with the updated Artist in Residence Schedule. I’m working to shift a few of the dates/times around to not conflict with Tier III Reading times, so I’ll let individual teachers know if there are any changes to the above linked schedule, but nothing will be changing for this week’s schedule.

• Dr. Seuss Recommendations – Ever wonder what Mr. Chinn’s 2nd and 3rd grade class used to do for Read Across America? I used to read to my class a lesser known story by Dr. Seuss that terrified me as a child, but also fascinated me, called What Was I Scared Of? about a disembodied pair of green pants that chase the main character through a dark forest the entire book. I also showed my class part of a little known movie called The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T which was the only live-action film Dr. Seuss ever worked on. It’s a musical about an evil piano teacher who dreams of chaining 500 students to a massive piano he wants to force them to play.

• What’s the Right Amount of Homework? – Decades of research show that homework has some benefits, especially for students in middle and high school—but there are risks to assigning too much. For elementary age students, the focus should be on cultivating a love of learning, and assigning too much homework can undermine that goal. Howard actually did away with Homework one year, but we have since drifted away from that. Read this Edutopia article as to what’s the right amount of homework.

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

February 26 (M)
Artist in Residence #1 Begins
Book Fair Opens
12:30, Allan to Formal Observation
2:30-3:30, Site Council Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

February 27 (T)
11:30, Allan to Formal Observation
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Mariah’s Room, RM23)
6:00-7:00, Howard Kindergarten Orientation (Library)
7:00-8:30, Building 4J’s Future: Bond Community Forum (Kelly MS)

February 28 (W)
1:30, Optional Staff Meeting to Discuss 17-18 Staffing Scenarios (STEAM Room, RM16)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)

March 1 (H)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Safe Bodies
9:30-3:30, Allan to TAG Workshop (Lane ESD)
2:30, Allan to Pre-Referral Meeting (Conference Room)
5:00-5:30, Staff Literacy Night Dinner (Staff Room)
5:30-8:00, Literacy Night

5:30-6:00: Free Dinner (Cafeteria)
6:00-6:45: Visit Classrooms
6:30-7:30: Scholastic Book Fair

March 2 (F)
No School – Howard Academy/PD Day
8:00-12:00, Staff Meeting (Cafeteria)
12:00-4:00, Planning Time

March 5 (M)
Classified Employees Appreciation Week
1:15, Allan to Formal Observation
2:30, Allan Meeting w/KG Team, Staffing Input (Room 2)
3:00, Allan Meeting w/1st Grade Team, Staffing Input (Room 11)

March 6 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
10:50-12:05, 5th Grade Human Growth & Development
2:30, Allan Meeting w/2nd Grade Team, Staffing Input (Room 23)
3:00, Allan Meeting w/3rd Grade Team, Staffing Input (Room 18)

March 7 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
10:50-12:05, 5th Grade Human Growth & Development
1:30-2:00, EA Supervisors Meeting/Staffing Input Meeting (Room 26)
2:00-3:30, 4J Elementary EA Behavior Workshop (Ed Center)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Admin Meeting (NEHS)
5:00-8:00, University of Oregon Science Class at Howard (Rooms 16 & 20)

March 8 (H)
10:50-12:05, 5th Grade Human Growth & Development
2:30, Allan Meeting w/4th Grade Team, Staffing Input (Room 27)
3:00, Allan Meeting w/5th Grade Team, Staffing Input (Room 9)
7:00-8:30, School Bond Spanish Family Forum (Library)

March 9 (F)
2:30, Allan Meeting w/Workshop Team (SPED, ELD, Title), Staffing Input (Room 10)

March 10 (SA)
9:00, OBOB Lane County Regional Tournament (Thurston HS)

March 11 (SU)
Daylight Saving Time – Spring Forward!

It’s hard to believe we’re already be into March and that summer is only 3.5 months away!

Allan

January 29, 2018

By Allan | 2018/01/27 07:13 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Caring for Kids, Math, P.D., Science, Video | Comments Off

Greetings Howard Staff,

Want to hear my theory why kids are kind of nuts right now? It’s because we’re nearing a total lunar eclipse, colloquially know as a Blood Moon, this Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. If you want to be a science geek, it’ll be visible from 4:51am to 6:07am, and see the last item below for more lunar eclipse info!

Fifteen items of note for this week:

• Report Card Grading Day, Classified EAs – An email was sent to Title 1 and SPED EAs, but this also includes other EAs as well. 4J is putting on an Elementary EA Extravaganza on the report card grading day this Friday, February 2nd. There will be sessions happening from 8:00-4:30 at the Ed Center (you only need to attend the length of your regular work hours). The specific offerings are still being finalized and will be shared soon. Life Skills and CLC EAs, watch for an email from Seth or Leila regarding a MANDT training this day. Let me know if you have any questions.

• REPEAT: Report Card Grading Day, Licensed – For licensed staff, report card grading day is a regular work day. If you are working from home, remember to notify me in advance, but be sure to make plans ahead of time if you need to collaborate with any colleagues on grading.

• LZ Report Card Alignment & Parent Support Sheets – I had a couple teachers ask about Jamie Massee’s LZ Report Card Alignment email. This is not something teachers have to do in addition to the regular report card, but is a document to help teachers know which standards on the report card were taught to mastery, are in progress, or not yet taught if you’re keeping up with the pacing guide. Jamie shared them in a Google Drive Folder and I also put them on the Howard Google Team Drive under Curriculum/Instruction > Math > LZ Report Card Alignment. The link also includes grade level specific Report Card Family Support sheets that I’ll run off for classroom teachers and put class sets in your mailboxes on grading day.

• Want parent reports printed for you? – A few teachers mentioned it was nice to have the parent reports printed for them in the past, but that was done for teachers because only ESCs and principals had access to the Quickbase Parent Reports. However, let me know by Friday if you’d like me to run the new easyCBM Parent Reports for you. I’ll run them on grading day and will put them in your mailboxes. If you’d like to run them yourself, go to the easyCBM website > REPORTS > INDIVIDUALS > DOWNLOAD in the Parent Report column for each of your students. Never mind! Downtown just said they are printing them for schools and will be delivered on Wednesday.

• Updated LZ Parent Math Resources – I’ve shared this link before, but the 4J Elementary Family and Community Math Resources webpage has new information posted, including some good short videos by grade level on “What does success in math look like at the end of the year for my child?” I’m planning to share one or two of these videos at the next PTO meeting.

• New Spanish Howard Pledge – Our new and improved Howard Roadrunner Pledge signs with a more accurate Spanish translation have arrived. I’ll deliver the new signs to classrooms on Monday if teachers can have students begin practicing the new Spanish version, which we’ll do over the intercom starting Wednesday. Thank you, Jill and Bianca, for the updated translation!

Soy un correcaminos de la escuela Howard.
Yo soy prudente, amable y responsable.

Soy un individuo único,
y soy parte de la familia de la escuela Howard.

Tomo buenas decisiones
y me emociona aprender.

Somos los correcaminos de la escuela Howard,
¡y el día de hoy será un éxito!

• No Hoods Up Inside the Building – Please do not allow students to wear hoods inside the building. We’ve seen more and more students doing this, so we need to be consistent in enforcing this rule across the building in all settings. If some staff allow hoods up while other do not, it sets students up for unnecessary negative interactions with staff and sets up your colleagues for unnecessary negative interactions with students.

• February PBIS Focus: Cooperation – The February PBIS monthly focus is “Cooperation.” The PBIS team created a PBIS/CSC Cheat Sheet that matches our monthly PBIS themes with corresponding Caring School Community class meeting lessons, which is a nice way to tie the two activities together.

• Setting School Culture With Social And Emotional Learning Routines – Speaking of Caring School Community, this Mind/Shift article highlights the importance of starting each day with a class morning meeting. Building students’ social and emotional skills with daily routines and regular class meetings is an important part of setting classroom and school culture.

• Student Care Team Resources – Thought I’d share a few resources shared at last Wednesday’s Student Care Team Meeting. Some have been shared before, but to highlight a few that you can feel free to share with families if situations arise:

• Therapist for Youth Offenders – Kelly Crane is the therapist who founded Sage House. She works with juvenile sex offenders and their family.

• Womenspace Survivors Support Groups – The Survivors Support Groups are a series of seven weekly sessions and is an open, on-going group, repeating every seven weeks. This process group offers survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) on-going support and education in a safe non-judgmental setting. An evolving curriculum provides clients with an understanding of the dynamics of IPV, safety planning, relationship red flags, healthy relationships, PTSD, self-care, and self-empowerment. Available in English and Spanish.

• First Place Family Center – First Place gives crucial assistance and support to families with children who are in transition due to homelessness, job loss, health issues, or other critical problems.

• Overnight Parking Program – The Overnight Parking Program (OPP) provides legal camping, free garbage disposal, and portable restrooms to homeless families and individuals living in their vehicles or campers. Parking for families is administered by First Place Family Center. Parking for adults is administered at the Eugene Service Station.

• Interfaith Night Shelter – Night Shelter is a consortium of approximately 32 faith communities offering night shelter, food, recreational activities, and comfort to 10 families per night, from the start to the end of each school year.

• Family Court Assistance Office – The purpose of the Family Court Assistance Office is to help the increasing number of self- represented litigants in domestic relations cases (divorce, custody, or parenting time proceedings). Office staff can inform self-represented litigants of court procedures and available court forms, review documents, and provide information about legal services and other resources available in the community.

• Wacky Wednesday: Favorite Character Day (next week) – Please remind your students that the February Wacky Wednesday is coming, not this week but next week, on Wednesday, February 7th and that the theme is Favorite Character Day! Kids and staff can dress up as a favorite character from books, TV shows, movies, or video games. The office staff plan is for me to dress as a male version of Cruella de Vil, with Lori and Bianca dresses as Dalmatians, so feel free join in and dress-up as one of the dalmations I’m trying to make into a fur coat.

• BEST Coordinator Update – Esther Flynn-Purvis has been offered and accepted the Howard BEST Coordinator position, which Bryan has been filling in as for most of the school year. Esther has been the #2 person at the Spring Creek BEST program and is familiar with the BEST/YMCA hybrid program we started this year. Esther is going to begin transitioning into the coordinator role here at Howard, but won’t officially start here until her replacement at Spring Creek is hired. In the meantime, Bryan will continue to coordinate the Howard BEST Program. Please welcome Esther to the Howard Team!

• Updated Incident/Accident Report – 4J has a new Incident Report Form that should be used to document employee or volunteer on-the-job-injuries and/or staff concerns related to extreme student behavior. The information provided will enable both the school and district to learn about what contributed to the incident and discover potential system failures so they can be corrected. If possible, the form should be completed and submitted to your supervisor (me) within 24 hours of injury or encounter. The first page must be completed by the injured/concerned employee or volunteer. The second page must be completed by supervisor.

• Total Lunar Eclipse Tues. Night/Wed. Morning – Wednesday morning is a Total Lunar Eclipse from 4:51am to 6:07am. A Total Lunar Eclipse is when the full moon travels through the Earth’s shadow and turns a deep red color for a couple hours. The next one isn’t visible in Oregon until 2019 and then not until 2021. The Eugene Astronomical Society is holding a local event. If you want to share about this with students, kid friendly information can be found at the NASA Kids website and the YouTube video below.

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

January 29 (M)
10:00-11:45, Christine Nesbit Visting Howard
12:00-1:30, Oregon State Senator Manning Visiting Jill’s Class
3:30-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

January 30 (T)
Regular Day

January 31 (W)
In District School Choice Applications Due
1:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

February 1 (H)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Cooperation

February 2 (F)
Grading Day – No School
8:00-4:30, EA Extravaganza (Ed Center)

February 5 (M)
National School Counseling Week
Allan Out at ODE Tech Cadre Meeting (ESD)
Second Semester Begins
easyCBM Testing Closes

February 6 (T)
Regular Day

February 7 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
Wacky Wednesday – Favorite Character Day
1:30-3:00, OPTIONAL: 4J Elementary EA Behavior Workshop (Ed Center)
1:15-2:15, Classified EA Meeting (Room 26)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Admin Meeting (NEHS)

February 8 (H)
7:50-10:40, Data Team Meetings 5/1/1
12:00-3:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)

February 9 (F)
Deadline for Report Card Translations
Allan, Angela, Ashley to LEL Meeting (Holt)
1:30-3:00, OPTIONAL: 4J Elementary EA Behavior Workshop (Ed Center)
6:00-7:30, PTO Valentine Family Craft Night (Cafeteria)

Have a good 4-day week, everyone!

Allan

January 8, 2018

By Allan | 2018/01/05 22:07 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Caring for Kids, Grants, Science, Video | Comments Off

Howdy Everyone,

It was great seeing folks at the Staff New Year’s Party Friday night. Thank you, Angela, for hosting the shindig. We have a pretty fun crew of people working here at Howard!

Eleven items of note for this week:

• Science Kit Info – I wanted to highlight a few items were shared at the principal science training last week:

• Life Science is Optional – In an effort to be responsive to hearing how overwhelmed elementary teachers are feeling with new curriculums and materials, downtown is making the FOSS Life Science kit optional and simply a pilot this year for teacher who choose to teach it.

• When to teach science? – Principals discusses many of the barriers for teaching the kits. Schedule is often mentioned as a barrier, so I wanted to reiterate that it is okay to teach science during core reading time because science does include a good amount of literacy. Writing times would also be appropriate. For next year’s master schedule, I think we may want to look at creating an hour-long Writing/Science block to make this less of a barrier, but we should wait to get direction from downtown on the common start and end times that will be in place for schools next year before we wade into those weeds.

• Kit Priorities and Key Concepts – This has been shared before, but there is a wealth of information on the 4J Science Blog (vocabulary cards, word walls, learning targets, etc), but in particular is the Priority Matrix for each of the science kits. The matrix rates each lesson as a high, medium, or low priority, which if you’re not able to get to all the lessons can help you decide which ones are the most important.

• PTO Spaghetti Feed/Bingo Night – Be sure to pump kids up for the PTO Spaghetti Feed/Bingo Night this Friday, 5:30-7:30 in the cafeteria. Dinners are $5.50 a plate for the first 3 plates and $3.50 a plate after that ($1 for three meatballs and $1 for drinks). BINGO cards are $0.25 each and there will also be a 50/50 raffle. We had a great turnout last year and hopefully it’ll be the same this year!

• Care Team Referrals Due 1/19 – The January Student Care Team meeting is in two weeks and any new referrals to the team are due the Friday, January 19th. Linked here are the 4J Release Forms (editable PDF and non-editable PDF) to get signed if any situations where the Care Team might be able to provide assistance. Common referrals, though not limited to, are:

• Homeless or impending homelessness
• Medical concerns about the child or other family
• Counseling or mental health needs
• Death of a parent
• Incarcerated parent
• Unknown if open child welfare case
• Domestic Violence
• Extreme behavior issues
• Specific resource needed but unknown where to refer

Try to get a signature on the 4J Release Form, but if you can’t, you can also refer “hypothetical” student or family situations. Let me know if you have any questions.

• Wacky Wednesday – School Color Day – Blue and White are our official school colors, so remind student to show their school pride this Wednesday by wearing our school colors or by wearing their other Howard gear.

• Jan. 2nd SSD PD Materials – SSD staff were already sent this, but if others are interested, here is a Google link to all of the presentations from the SSD “Addressing Challenging Behaviors” training from last week. You’ll need to be logged into your 4J Google account (use your 4j email) in order to access the folder, but if you have trouble here’s a link to a zip file of all the materials and I also put a copy of the folder on the Howard Google Drive under Meetings > IPBS > Jan. 2 SSD PD

• PRIDE Awards, January 17th – Not this week, but next week on Wednesday, January 17th during lunchtime in the cafeteria will be our PRIDE Awards for Integrity. Teachers should remind students about PRIDE and the meaning of Integrity (Being Honest), and then pick 2-4 students who have demonstrated Integrity. Be sure to get the Integrity Certificate to me before the 6th so I can sign them and get them organized and also send home the PRIDE Award Invitations to parents before the event.

• December McKinney-Vento Student Data – Linked here is the district-wide December McKinney-Vento Student Report. These totals represent students for the entire school year, not necessarily who’s in buildings now. As was last year, Howard serves more homeless students than any other elementary or middle school in 4J (and only exceeded by two high school programs).

• REPEAT: School Choice Visitation Week – A reminder, School Choice Visitation Week is this week, so be prepared for families to drop by classrooms over the course of the week.

• REPEAT TaeKwonDo Demonstration Team Assembly Friday – This Friday the U.S. TaeKwonDo College Demonstration Team will hold their motivational assembly we discussed at last month’s Staff Meeting. The K-2 assembly is 8:10-8:35 and the 3-5 assembly is 8:45-9:10. See the linked assembly map and directions for details.

• The Big List of Educational Grants and Resources – Get a roundup of educational grants, contests, awards, free toolkits, and classroom guides aimed at helping students, classrooms, schools, and communities. Check this Edutopia page weekly to get the latest updates.

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

January 8 (M)
School Choice Week #1

January 9 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Mariah’s Room)
5:30-7:45, SSD Early Childhood Open House (English)
6:00-8:15, SSD Early Childhood Open House (Spanish)

January 10 (W)
Wacky Wednesday – School Color Day
9:30, Allan leading school choice tour
2:30-3:30, PIBS Meeting (Rae’s Room)

January 11 (H)
7:30-11:30, 4th – Number Talks Peer Observations
9:00-11:00, Vaughan & Silver to Firs Bowl
11:30-2:30, 3rd – Number Talks Peer Observations
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room)

January 12 (F)
8:10-8:35, K – 2 Taekwondo Assembly (Gym)
8:45-9:10, 3 – 5 Taekwondo Assembly (Gym)
10:00, Allan to DHS Hearing (Lane Circuit Court)
5:30-7:30, PTO Spaghetti Feed/BINGO Night (Cafeteria)

January 15 (M)
Martin Luther King Jr. Day – No School

January 16 (T)
Fluoride Varnish
Howard Winter easyCBM Benchmarking Begins
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting (Volunteer’s Classroom)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)

January 17 (W)
11:00-12:45, PRIDE Awards at Lunch (Cafeteria)

January 18 (H)
9:15-9:45, 5th Grade Music Performance (Gym)
10:00-3:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
12:00-12:30, KG Music Performance (Gym)
1:00-1:30, 4th Grade Music Performance (Gym)

January 19 (F)
7:30-11:30, 5th – Number Talks Peer Observations
~~7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting~~ SKIPPING
10:15-10:45, 1st Grade Music Performance (Gym)
12:30-1:00, 3rd Grade Music Performance (Gym)
1:30-2:00, 2nd Grade Music Performance (Gym)

We survived our first week back and are onto our first 5-day week of the new year. Thankfully we have a 3-day weekend to help us readjust to a regular work week!

Allan

The School Secretary Grinch

January 1, 2018

By Allan | 2017/12/30 09:57 Posted in Announcements, Arts, Caring for Kids, Math, P.D., Science, Video | Comments Off

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope you all had a fabulous winter break. My break got off to an unusual start, with the Chinn Family moving in with my in-laws for a week. Our house had some water damage to our hardwood floors in November due to a leak behind our dishwasher, so we had to move out of our house while the floors got refinished. Hopefully your break was not as atypical.

Seventeen items of note for this week:

• January 2nd PD/Planning Day Info – There was a rather confusing flurry of last minute emails from downtown regarding PD plans for January 2nd, but to recap, here is the latest:

• Classroom Teachers – See Sue Wilson’s email for info about the Jan. 2nd FOSS Science Training. It will be at River Road 8:00-11:30 for people teaching Earth Science starting in January and 12:00-3:30 for people teaching Physical Science starting in January. If you’ve forgotten which kit was sent to you, see the email I forwarded earlier.

• SSD Staff (licensed and classified) – See Marlee Litten’s email for info about SSD’s Jan. 2nd “Addressing Challenging Behaviors” training. All SSD staff will meet at the Churchill High School STEM Center from 8:00-11:25. Lunch will be on your own. Licensed SSD staff will have an additional meeting 12:05-1:15 for a job-alike meeting.

• Title 1 Staff (licensed and classified) – Corianne has organized an alternate Howard specific IPBS and Academic Language training for Jan. 2nd that was approved by downtown, so Title 1 staff do not need to attend the above behavior training as you were originally directed by downtown and should instead report to Howard for the training at 10:00.

• All Other Staff – For all other staff, this is a regular work day at Howard unless you’ve made prior arrangements.

• Staffing Updates – With Frank’s retirement, SSD has hired Tamera Berge to fill the vacancy. Her first day of work will be January 2nd, so please welcome Tamera to the Howard Team! I’ve also received notice from HR that Life Skills EA Susan Schueller, who was here part of September, is extending her leave and we will continue with a substitute filling her position.

• Winter Break Facilities Updates – Here are some updates on the work done over the break:

• Extra Rolling Book Shelves & Furniture – We have several of the low rolling book shelves that quite a few people had asked for last year (see picture below), so if you would like one, they are in the hallway along the library. Feel free to take one or tag it with where you’d like it delivered.

• Elevator Badge Reader – The elevator badge reader is finally working, so to use the elevator you will need to present a badge to the pad, wait for the beep, and then push the call button. Upstairs classrooms will now need to give students an elevator badge when they are going up or down with lunch baskets, library books, or other large items we don’t want carried up or down the stairs. I have elevator specific badges I’ll put in upstairs teacher mailboxes on Tuesday. Staff badges are all coded to use the elevator, but let me know if for some reason your badge was missed.

• Window Tint Update – Window tinting will be added for all south facing classrooms, both first and second floor, so hopefully that will help with the natural lighting issues. However, there is no definite timeline for when this will happen. In the meantime, let us know if you’d like help putting up butcher paper to block the sunlight.

• Classroom Audio Issues – Technology Department Staff and AMX contractors came out over the break to try to fix the classroom audio issues. I haven’t gotten an update on their progress, but do let me know if the problems are continuing.

• January PBIS Focus: Be Your Best – The January PBIS monthly focus is “Be Your Best.” The PBIS team created a PBIS/CSC Cheat Sheet that matches our monthly PBIS themes with corresponding Caring School Community class meeting lessons, which is a nice way to tie the two activities together.

• School Choice Visitation Week & Info – School Choice season has begun and the School Showcase will be held this Saturday at the Ed Center, 10:00-12:00 if any staff members are interested/willing to help me brag about our school. This event is for families to learn about all 4J schools in one place at the same time. Last year they provided breakfast for staff helping at the event. Let me know if any of you are interested/willing to help promote Howard and tell families why they should come to our amazing school!

Three related items: One, the first School Choice Visitation Week is next week, January 8-12, so be prepared for families to drop by classrooms over the course of the week. Two, all North Region elementary schools are doing one school choice evening event and Howard’s evening event will be Tuesday, January 23rd if anyone is interested/willing in helping me talk about our school. And three, the window for school choice applications has been shortened this year, so if families ask, they have until the end of the January to lottery into Howard. The out-of-district lottery will be March 1 – April 1, but those families are invited to attend tours at Howard this month.

• TaeKwonDo Demonstration Team Assembly, 1/12 – Not this week, but Friday next week, the U.S. TaeKwonDo College Demonstration Team will hold their motivational assembly we discussed at last month’s Staff Meeting. The K-2 assembly is 8:10-8:35 and the 3-5 assembly is 8:45-9:10. See the linked assembly map and directions for details.

• Howard Holiday/New Year Party, Friday! – See Angela’s email for details, but this Friday 6:00-8:00ish at Angela’s house is the Howard Holiday/New Year Party. Watch for the pot-luck sign up and we’ll see you there for the fun!

• Number Talks Info – Two items from our final Number Talks trainings.

• Developing Math Fluency with Number Talks Pacing Guide – Number Talks supports the development of students’ procedural fluency from conceptual understanding. Located on the 4J Learn Zillion website is a Number Talks Pacing Guide for each grade level (Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5), which lists the concepts that should be focused on in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. The pacing guides are on the 2nd or 3rd to last page of the above linked documents, which can be found on the 4J Learn Zillion website by going to Math full lesson plans (K-5) > your grade level > LearnZillion Pacing Guidance & Additional Supports.

• Number Talks Peer Observations – Subs are already taken care of for the peer observations. Information about the observer-as-learner protocol used for the observations can be found in the green Number Talks Resource Spiral. The dates for the half-day peer observations are scheduled for:

• Kindergarten: Jan. 25, 7:30-11:30
• 1st Grade: Jan. 26, 7:30-11:30
• 2nd Grade: Jan. 24, 7:30-11:30
• 3rd Grade: Jan. 11, 11:30-2:30
• 4th Grade: Jan. 11, 7:30-11:30
• 5th Grade: Jan. 19, 7:30-11:30

Let me know by the end of the week if these dates/times present any potential conflicts for you so we can reschedule.

• Artist in Residence Survey Results (so far) – Teachers, if you haven’t already completed the Artist in Residence Survey for your preferred dates and artists, please do so this week. Survey results so far are:

• First Artist Dates: February was the #1 pick and March the #2 pick
• Second Artist Dates: April was the #1 pick and June the #2 pick
• #1 Artist Choice: Ceramics — Andrea DiPalma Yansane
• #2 Artist Choice: Silk Painting — Merideth Ferrell
• #3 Artist Choice: Drawing for Everyone: Zentangle– Rosie Hill

• Front Entry Wall – I’ve taken down our Veterans Day display in the front entryway (I saved the stars if any students are wanting them back) and now it looks pretty empty. If any classroom would like to crate a display, just let me know and the space is all yours!

• Google Apps Student Access Tip – If a student is unable to log into Google Apps AFTER the permission form has been given to Lori and recorded in Synergy, email 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu. Permissions should become activate during the evening Synergy update process, so email 4jdekstop if it’s to working for a student the following day.

• Volunteer of the Month Nominations – The Register Guard would like to have more Volunteer of the Month nominations from 4J schools. There are a good amount of parents and other volunteers at Howard doing great things! This is an excellent way to highlight some of our amazing school volunteers and a nice way to encourage more volunteerism. Linked here is the Volunteer Nomination form. Feel free to submit the form yourself, but I’d be happy to submit it for you if you email me a volunteer’s name and what they do for you.

• School Board Behavior Presentation – This isn’t anything staff aren’t already aware of, since we live it day-to-day, but if you are interested, linked here is a presentation district staff shared at a community forum in December regarding rising student behaviors in schools. What I found most interesting was the data regarding the rise of challenging student behaviors both in our community and across the nation.

• Young Writers Fiction Contest – Here’s a fun contest to motivate students to do some creative writing. There is a K-2 and 3-5 category. See the Wordcrafters in Eugene website and linked flyer for details.

• School Garden Project Workshop Series for Elementary Teachers – The School Garden Project is presenting a free workshop series titled Deepening Connections in January, February, and March, to help 2nd – 5th grade teachers learn strategies to successfully take your classroom outside, and share simple lessons that help students connect with their school garden while learning math, art, writing, and science standards. See the above linked flyer for details.

• Howard Staff Social: Queens of the Stone Age Concert! – Hard rock fans, time to assemble! The Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal are playing the Hult Center on Saturday, January 27th. Matt, Becky, and I are in and we’ll be ordering tickets this Friday after school in Matt’s office. Meet us there and we’ll buy out a block of seats for all of the Howard Metalheads!

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

January 1 (M)
Winter Break – No School

January 2 (T)
No School — Professional Development/Planning Day
8:00-11:30, K-5 FOSS Earth Science Training (River Road)
8:00-11:25, SSD Staff (Licensed & Classified) “Addressing Challenging Behaviors” Training (Churchill STEM Center)
10:00, Title 1 Staff Training (Room 26)
12:00-3:30, K-5 FOSS Physical Science Training (River Road)
12:05-1:15, SSD Licensed Staff Job Alike Meetings (Churchill STEM Center)
1:00-3:00, Allan to Admin Science Training (Chavez)
3:00, Allan to Principal Goals Meeting (Ed Center)

January 3 (W)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Be Your Best
Classes Resume
easyCBM Winter Benchmark Testing Opens
In-District School Choice Opens (Closes Jan. 31)
~~2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)~~ CANCELLED
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

January 4 (H)
12:00-3:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45, Allan to Early Childhood Open House Planning Meeting (Room 21)

January 5 (F)
2:15, Queens of the Stone Age Ticket Buy (Matt’s Office)
6:00-8:00, Howard Holiday/New Year Party (Angela’s House)

January 6 (SA)
10:00-12:00, Elementary School Showcase (Ed Center)

January 8 (M)
School Choice Week #1

January 9 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Mariah’s Room)

January 10 (W)
Wacky Wednesday – School Color Day
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
2:30-3:30, PIBS Meeting (Rae’s Room)
5:30-7:45, SSD Early Childhood Open House (English)
6:00-8:15, SSD Early Childhood Open House (Spanish)

January 11 (H)
7:30-11:30, 4th – Number Talks Peer Observations
11:30-2:30, 3rd – Number Talks Peer Observations
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room)

January 12 (F)
10:00, Allan to testify at DHS Hearing (Lane Circuit Court)
5:00, PTO Spaghetti Feed/BINGO Night (Cafeteria)

January 15 (M)
Martin Luther King Jr. Day – No School

Not to end my first announcements of the year all sappy, but I’ve missed seeing my work friends over the break and was thinking of what I said at the end of the year last year; that years from now I want Howard to be know as “that geezer staff who’ve all been together over there forever.” See you, all, soon!

Allan

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