Arts

September 2, 2019

By Allan  |  2019/08/31 23:20 Posted in Announcements, Arts, Assessment, Grants, P.D.  |  Comments Off on September 2, 2019

Howdy Roadrunners,

It was great seeing everyone last week and exciting to welcome all of the new folks to our amazing team!

Twenty-eight items of note for this week:

• PBIS Reminders – A few PBIS items of note:

• Rules Round-Up – See Mellissa’s PBIS Email for complete details, but the short version is:

• Teacher Tasks – ALL classrooms review the Howard Playground Expectations before recess the first day of school. Also, review all the rules for the common school areas by reviewing the PBIS Back to School Refresher Slide Show or other means the first three days of school. Teaching these rules in each of the locations is best. Complete the checklist by Thursday, September 12th, return it to Mellissa or Allan’s mailbox, and your class earns a special reward of Mr. Chinn reading to your class!

• Recess Round-Up – For the first three days of school for grades 1-3 and the first two days of school for grade 4-5, teachers walk classes to the playground and and stay with their class for the first 5-minutes of recess to review a few specific playground areas each day.

• Cafeteria Round-Up & Reminder – Classroom teachers during regular lunches are to walk their classes into the cafeteria and stay with them until the cafeteria line is moving. For the PBIS Cafeteria Rules Round-Up, teachers should walk students into the cafeteria and stay with their classes the first day of school at the following times:

8:20-8:40 5th Grade
8:40-8:55 3rd Grade (only C/D)
8:55-9:10 4th Grade (only C)
9:10-9:30 3rd Grade (only A/B) and 4th Grade (only A/B)
9:30-9:50 1st Grade
9:50-10:10 2nd Grade Andress

• Golden Tail-feather Challenge! – If a class earns 19 golden tail feathers that can be earned on the playground or cafeteria the first eight days of school, they will earn Otter Pops at a lunch recess!

• Classroom Playground Line Numbers – Recess Supervisors and myself have revamped recess lines where classes should line up in the morning. To help with class spacing and line flow, classes will line up at the spots below. We think 1st grade should stay with these same numbers for all recess, but other grade are welcome to choose other spots for your class to line-up at morning and lunch recess as long as they are not under the covered area if other classes are on the playground.

1st Braud – #14
1st Corliss – #15
1st Ward – #16
2nd Kerins – #10
2nd Larsen – #11
2nd Pond – #12
3rd Charpie – #1
3rd Kreider – #2
3rd Lawson/Peterson – #3
3rd Niccum – #4
4th Chunn – #18
4th Groshong – #19
4th Zimmerman – #20
5th Callihan – Sidewalk Crack #1
5th Cortez – Sidewalk Crack #2
5th Rock – Sidewalk Crack #3

• Friday Recess Reminder – Teachers, remember that on Fridays recesses are 5-minutes shorter than MTWH recesses, so make sure you are on the playground in time to pick up your class earlier than usual on Fridays.

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is designated as a Building Goals day for the topic, so I will designate this time for teachers to complete your SafeSchools and TalentEd Goals and Self Assessment. See below for details regarding SMART Goals.

• UPDATE: Classified & Licensed Goals and Self Assessment – All staff, both classified and licensed, need to complete a self assessment before the end of September in TalentEd. Two updates, licensed staff need to also complete SMART Goals, which teachers can decide for themselves or if you’d like to participate in building wide goals, a committee will meet on Tuesday, September 10th at 2:45 in the Conference Room to decide on a building focus, which will likely align with our CIP goals. For classified staff, we’re realized that the website is not compatible with older computer operating systems and isn’t letting staff submit documents. If you do not have access to a newer computer, I’d suggest borrowing a newer student iPad while you’re at school.

• REPEAT: Meet Your Teacher 9/3 – During Meet Your Teacher on Tuesday,1:00-2:00, non-classroom staff will direct families, passing out school maps with highlighters to help guide families, and also passing out a First Day/Parking Lot Flyers. 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 & Second Day of School Plan 9/4 & 9/5 – We will continue having all-hand-on-deck to help at 7:25 on Wednesday and Thursday to help direct students and families before and after the first bell. Here is the plan:

• Students will enter in at 7:25 to eat breakfasts.

• Non-classroom staff, starting at 7:25, will be in front of the building, the front hallway, the cafeteria, and the playground to help supervise and 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. See the map below for where people are stationed.

• Kindergarten and 1st grade students will have a designated area in the cafeteria to eat breakfast. 2nd through 5th grade students will eat breakfast and go out to the playground.

• 2nd – 5th grade students at 7:50 rings will line up (T-square classrooms signs will be posted to help students know where to line up) and will be dismissed one class at a time 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, the hallway corners of the library, and one person in each wing (upstairs and downstairs). See map below.

• Kinder and 1st grade students at 7:50 will wait in the cafeteria to be met by classroom teachers and walked to class.

• We will follow this routine the first two days of school and on Friday will begin our usual routine of 1st through 5th grade students on the playground and will not have as many staff members posted around the school, although extra hands are always appreciated.

Staff helping direct students and families should hold onto their class lists and maps from Meet Your Teacher for the first and second day of school. Linked here is the First & Second Day Directions and an UPDATED First & Second Day Map of where staff 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.

• 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 Monday, September 30th. 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. No changes this year other than the date. Let me know if you have any questions.

• District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – Linked here is this year’s District Back-to-School Memo, which covers a variety of district rules, policies and guidelines. Section 1 is the portion that staff are required to review. I covered key points at the BTS staff meeting, but as I said at the there, all staff must review the memo and sign & return the Check List Acknowledgment Form to signify that you have read and understand the memo. Forms should be returned to me no later than Monday, September 30th. I’ll place hard copies of the acknowledgement form in staff mailboxes this week. Looking over this year’s memo and let me know if you have questions on any of this.

• 2019-2020 Field Trip Process – I reviewed some of the changes to the district field trip policy at last week’s Back-to-School Staff Meeting, but principals have since then received a more detailed Field Trip Policy Email from HR. Complete information can be found on the HR Travel and Field Trips webpage. The Field Trip Reference Guide has the link to the Field Trip Request Form. I’ve added both links to my blog under State & District Links. High points regarding the new policy are:

• Field Trip Request Form – After approval from the building principal, all field trips are required to be vetted through the online field trip process. The only exceptions are Walking Field Trips (within 10 blocks of the school). The Field Trip Request Form must be submitted 30 days prior to the field trip. Linked here is a Preview of the Field Trip Form, which includes need to have your ducks in a row for volunteers, transportation, money, student health plans, SPED accommodations, etc. HR said they are not at all wanting to discourage field trips, but are needing to ensure student safety.

• District Field Trip Permission Slip – The District Field Trip Permission Form is now required for all trips, including Walking Field Trips, outside 10 blocks of the school, for a parent/guardian signature, and must be kept on file for one year. No custom or site specific trip forms will be accepted.

• UPDATE: 2019-2020 Master Schedule – Linked here and on the Howard Google Shared Drive is a slightly Updated 2019-2020 Master Schedule. Anyone affected by any changes already knows.

• Classroom Schedules & Classroom Buddy Info to Lori – Speaking of schedules, as teachers solidify your daily schedules, remember to give a copy to Lori. Also be sure to let her know who is your Buddy classroom. This helps the office find classrooms.

• Classified Overtime, Comp Time, and Trade Time – HR send an email to principals about a new process for classified overtime, comp time, and trade time. The main difference is that classified staff now have to complete a 4J Comp Time Approval Form or a 4J Trade Time Approval Form. The trade time form is what Howard staff would most often use, unless you’re working over 40 hours in a week. See the above linked email and forms for details and let me know if you have any questions.

• Library Notes – Library announcements from our fabulous librarian, Julie!

Welcome Back! I hope everyone was able to rest over the weekend :)

Just a quick note… Library classes will begin the first full week of school. Our first week: I will do a read-a-loud in the story cove (k-3rd) go over routines :) and a few more guidelines and expectations. (4th-5th) We will begin with guidelines, routines and expectations and then a Scavenger Hunt to get them antiquated with the library…. Check out will begin the following week. I will email more details to each grade level :)

When we are going over hallway guidelines would you mind reminding kids when entering and leaving school they are to walk around the library on the concrete pathways :). Thank you so much….

• Library Book Sale – The Friends of the Eugene Public Library are holding a sale meant just for teachers and their pupils. There will be hundreds of books, CDs, and DVDs, along with a large collection of teacher resource materials. Most items are $1. The sale is in the downtown library on September 9th from noon to 6 PM.

• easyCBM Testing Begins 9/9 – Fall Benchmark easyCBM testing will start the week of September 9th. This way kids can get acclimated to school before testing. Also, Title 1 staff are helping in Kindergarten this week and will be able to assist classes with testing next week.

• 2010-2020 Leadership Plans – HR emailed principals this year’s Elementary Leadership Plan Process, which are due to HR by November 8th. The process is a similar to how it’s worked in the past. The current contract gives us 22 teacher release days not to exceed 7 teachers. Linked here is last year’s plan, which compensated teachers for School Climate, Technology, Math, ELA, and Equity leadership roles. I’ll hold an optional Leadership Plan Development Meeting on Thursday, September 12th, 2:45-3:15, so please attend that meeting or email if you’d like to share your thoughts on this year’s plan. I’ll plan to share Leadership Plan proposals at the September Staff Meeting and then vote on a plan at the October Staff Meeting.

• Second Step Materials & Pacing Guide – I’d intended to sort the Second Step materials this past Friday, but was kept busy with other things, so I’ll deliver materials to teachers on Tuesday. Linked here on the Howard Google Team Drive is the Second Step Year-Long Pacing Guide.

• Staffing Updates – I’ve requested to re-post our 3-hour Learning Center EA position. It should hopefully go up next week, so please encourage any good people you know to apply. 3-hour positions aren’t too attractive, so maybe if you know a Howard parent who might be interested, feel free to recruit them because that might be a good way to find someone good who’d want to work here for even a short part of their day. We’re also waiting to hear from SSD regarding an additional 6.5 hour Life Skills EA position.

• Technology Department Updates – Three items of note from the 4J Technology Department:

• 3/4/5 iPad Counts – The Technology Department is assuring me they are watching enrollment counts in Synergy and are planning to shift devices between schools based on enrollment. They told me on Friday we would have enough devices by the first day of school.

• Instructional Technology Website – Check the new Instructional Technology Website where there are lots of resources on Apps and the App Request form, Digital Citizenship, Assistive Technology resources, a plethora of resources including lesson ideas, how-to’s video tutorials, and on and on. It is a work in progress, but still a good collection of resources.

• Tech Orders & Reimbursements – All technology related purchases now have to first go through Technology Department and be approved. Schools can no longer reimburse staff for technology purchases that were made without first going through the Technology Department.

• Howard Staff Gear – Five shopping days left if you want some Howard Staff gear! You get a sweatshirt, t-shirt, pullover, pull under, hat, or tie to Jenny by Friday, attaching your name and $7.00 and she will take them to be embroidered and returned to you!

• 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 them 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, September 13th.

• Morning Announcements Start Monday, 9/9 – 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 9th with a couple 5th graders who were trained up at the end of last school year.

• BEST and YMCA Job Opportunities – BEST and YMCA asked principals to let folks know they are actively recruiting applicants for after school jobs. Linked here is the BEST EA Job Posting and the YMCA Jobs Webpage.

• UPDATED: Class Name Plate Template – Last week I shared the linked generic Classroom Name Plate Template for staff to post something outside your classroom door, but linked here is a Fancier Name Plate Templates (including their associated fonts) that Erin Gaston made and passed along to me to share.

• 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 Reward 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.

• Northwest Community Credit Union Mini Grants – The goal of the NWCU Mini Grant Program 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 10, 2019 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 the above link to submit your grant.

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

September 2 (M)
Labor Day – No School

September 3 (T)
8:00-10:00, Potential Staff Meeting (Cafeteria)
10:00, Q&A Session for New Staff – Optional (Allan’s Office)
1:00-2:00, Meet Your Teacher

September 4 (W)
Classes Begin
PBIS Monthly Theme – Safety
PBIS Rules Round-Up

September 5 (H)
Regular Day

September 4 (F)
1:30, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30, Early Release PD – SafeSchools/TalentEd
4:00, KG Class Lists Posted

September 9 (M)
Fall Benchmark easyCBM Testing Begins

September 10 (T)
8:00, Allan to All Administrator Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:15, Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting (Conference Room)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Cafeteria)

September 11 (W)
KRA Testing May Begin

September 12 (H)

2:45-3:15, Optional Leadership Plan Development Meeting (Conference Room)

September 13 (F)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Behavior Framework PD (Library)

Let’s rock this first week with kiddos!

Allan

May 6, 2019

By Allan  |  2019/05/04 15:13 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Assessment, P.D.  |  Comments Off on May 6, 2019

 

Happy Staff Appreciation Week,

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week, which is a week to give explicit thanks to teachers and I’d like to take the opportunity to recognize ALL of our awesome staff and what you do for students each and every day. It’s not just teaching kids to learn to read and write, but it’s all the other things you do for kids that aren’t in the standards or in the adopted curriculum or on the state assessment. It’s teaching kids how to be good little humans, it’s giving them a safe place when they need it, it’s making them laugh with a corny joke, it’s making them feel happy to come to school. With so many staff who value and take the time to do all these things is what makes Howard such a special place. You all are the best and I’m so happy and proud to be part of our amazing team!

The PTO is working to recognize ALL Howard staff, classified and licensed, this week, so look for goodies in the Staff Room this week!

Thirteen items of note for this week:

• 2019-2020 Staffing Updates – With Katie becoming full-time CLC next year, SSD has placed Emmanuel Gemorra into our half-time Learning Center position. Emmanuel is currently teaching in the K-2 behavior classroom at Fox Hollow, and next year will be 0.5 with Howard and 0.5 at Buena Vista. Emmanuel will be at Howard in the morning and BV in the afternoons since Howard is on the early start and BV is on the later start time. Also, our TSS, Peggy, will be leaving us next year to spend more time supporting schools and staff with WordPress and our TSS for next year will be Jyllian Martini, who is currently at Kelly, Twin Oaks, Family School, and ECCO, but next year will be at Kelly, Howard, and River Road. Jyllian was heavily involved with Kelly’s iPad rollout this year so she’s very familiar with schools with 1:1 iPads. Please welcome Emmanuel and Jyllian to the excellent Howard Team!

On a related note, SSD is not placing anyone into our 3-hour Learning Center EA position, so that job should get posted soon, possibly as early as this week. If you know anyone good who’d be good or interested, be sure to tell them to apply. I’ve asked HR to post it through May 28th.

• Classified Staff May 8th Plan – See Charis’ email for details on the plan for classified staff on May 8th, but the short version is this is a regular work day for classified staff. All classified staff are to report to the school first and then to ATA by 10:30 for professional development (unless you have made alternate plans with me). See the linked May 8th PD Schedule and also the Registration Directions for how to sign-up for sessions at http://4jpd.net Let me know if you have any questions.

• 2019-2020 Consumables Order: Please Complete by May 17 – Teachers were sent and email regarding consumable order for next year for Being a Writer, Journeys, LearnZillion, and FOSS Science. All order must be completed by the end of next week. Here’s a direct link to the Google Spreadsheet.

• Grade Book Training & Report Card Marks – Brooke emailed principals and asked us to share the following information:

Dear Teachers,

For those interested, the district will be having some additional Elementary GradeBook training for the second semester grading period, please be on the look out for an email from Tammy Christensen with specifics about dates and times.

In addition, we have some clarification of the report card marks, we want to make sure staff are clear about the percentages and marks 1-4. The 1-4 marks are not rubric scores.

This image shows the percent ranges the Elementary Report Card Sub-Committee assigned to each mark. Note the percent range necessary to earn each mark on the report card.

For a more detailed explanation of the report card marks, watch this video (You must be on a school network or VPN to view this page). The percentages in this video have been rounded. The percentages listed above are more accurate.

After watching the video, please direct your questions to sis@4j.lane.edu.

Thanks

Brooke

• 2019-2020 Master Schedule Survey Results – The results of the Master Schedule Survey are in and a majority of responses favored doing a 15 minutes morning recess with a 35 minute lunch/recess (15 minutes lunch and 20 minutes recess) and a 10 minute movement break and/or recess supervised by teachers (which would not be required on Fridays). 70% wanted the above plan, 25% wanted the current schedule, and 5% wanted a 15/30/15 minute split. For Math Booster, with Title 1 no longer being able to support math with our current budget, a majority of staff favored eliminating this from the schedule, with 65% in favor of eliminating, 30% in favor of keeping (including one vote to keep it if there are any grades Title 1 can serve), and 5% who could go either way. We’ll share a draft master schedule soon for feedback and adjustments, but as always, the schedule will never be prefect or all things to all people.

• Wacky Wednesday – Tie Dye Day, May 15 – Not this week, but next week is a Wacky Wednesday and it’s Tie Dye Day, so get your students excited to wear their tie dye clothes and/or multicolored clothes this day!

• Student Care Team News – Two items related to the Student Care Team:

• Expanding Looking Glass at Howard – At our last meeting, it came up how we have many students needing ongoing counseling, but a limited number of spots. Since that meeting I’ve been working with Lynn Booth (our former LG counselor who is now in charge of LG counselors in schools). Lynn told me last week that she’s gotten support from her supervisor for a second full-time counselor at Howard next year, who could potentially serve both Howard and Kelly students. It’s not a completely done deal, but it’s quite likely our current LG counselor, Audra Steinberg, will have a colleague working here next year. Stay tuned!

• Courage Kids Summer Camp Sign Up – Courageous Kids offers a free 4 day/3 night camp for youth grades 1st-12th who have experienced the death of a loved one. Space is limited so register quickly. See the linked flyer for details about this year’s camp and please share with any students or families who you think would benefit.

• REPEAT: May Artist in Residence Schedule – Noah Philpot (and Fooble the Dragon) is starting his Puppetry and Storytelling artist in residency this Monday. Linked here is the Artist in Residency Schedule, which is unchanged from last week. Noah will keep his materials on a cart in the Staff Room and his plan for this four days with each class will be:

Day 1: Intro to puppetry with “Fooble the Dragon” and drawing designs for puppets
Day 2: Coloring the socks and cutting out parts from craft foam (we will need class scissors)
Day 3: Assembly and gluing, completing the puppets
Day 4: Puppet Show! Fooble the dragon will return and interview each of the students puppets. Feel free to film for classroom use, and invite parents to observe.

• REPEAT: Friday Early Release PD: CANCELLED next two weeks – This Friday is a make-up day for the missed hour of prep on May 3rd, so there will be no Friday Early Release meeting this week.

• REPEAT: Don’t Touch the OAKS Testing Snacks – Remember that the snacks in the Staff Room (Bananas, GoGurt, String Cheese, Granola Bars) are for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders during state testing. They are NOT up for grabs.

• New study suggests that greeting students with a positive message yields benefits – The study suggests that teachers should greet students individually by name, as well as use a non-verbal greeting, and make positive and pre-corrective statements encouraging good behavior or suggesting how the student should begin the day. See this Education Dive article for details.

• 17 Things You Can Do While Actively Monitoring a Standardized Test – Testing season is here! And that means active monitoring. Okay, this is not a serious article, but WeAreTeachers have some ideas that will keep your mind and body occupied without breaking any testing rules.

• 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 6 (M)
Staff/Teacher Appreciation Week
Artist in Residence – Puppetry and Storytelling Begins
Children’s Book Week
OSAS (formerly OAKS) Testing Continues
Spring Benchmark Testing – easyCBM Begins
Walk & Roll to School Challenge Begins (2 weeks)
8:45-5:45, 5th Grade to Outdoor School
12:00-2:00, Allan to Title 1 Coordinators’ Work Session (Ed Center)
3:30, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)

May 7 (T)
8:45-5:45, 5th Grade to Outdoor School
9:00-12:00, Corliss to Nearby Nature Field Trip
10:15, Allan leading Head Start KG Transition Tour
11:10, Allan to Formal Observation
4:30-5:30, 4J PERS Presentation (Ed Center)

May 8 (W)
Day of Action – No Students
Non-Workday for Licensed Staff
Regular Workday for Classified and Admin Staff
10:00, Allan Meeting with School Garden Project (Office)
11:00, Allan Meeting with Smarty Ants Rep (Office)

May 9 (H)
7:20-5:15, 2nd Grade to Oregon Zoo
12:00-12:30, Allan Covering Classroom

May 10 (F)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
1:25-2:00, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:00, Allan Meeting w/Parent (Office)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – CANCELLED Make-Up for 5/3

May 11 (SA)
10:30-1:00, MEDIA EVENT: EWEB Live Test of the Emergency Well (Small Soccer Field/Parking Lot)

May 12 (SU)
Mother’s Day

May 13 (M)
Last Week for Library Checkout
Artist in Residence – Puppetry and Storytelling Continues
OSAS (formerly OAKS) Testing Continues
Spring Benchmark Testing – easyCBM Continues
Walk & Roll to School Challenge Continues

May 14 (T)
8:30-12:00, Allan to All Admin & Elem Princpals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
8:30-12:30, LCC Dental Clinic
9:00-12:30, Fluoride Varnish (Community Room)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
3:00-5:00, BEST Spring Showcase (Cafeteria)
4:00-8:00, First Aid Class (Library)

May 15 (W)
Wacky Wednesday – Tie Dye Day
Last Day to Order Using Purchase Orders
11:00-1:00, United Way Visiting Preschool
2:45-4:45, ESSA Meeting (Conference Room)

May 16 (H)
7:00-8:00, BEST String Concert (tentative)

May 17 (F)
Last Day for OAKS Testing
Licensed Interventionists (Title & SPED) PLC – Virtual Meeting
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Math PLC (Library)

Be sure to get out in the sun this week!

Allan

April 29, 2019

By Allan  |  2019/04/27 18:16 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Caring for Kids, Equity, P.D., SEL  |  Comments Off on April 29, 2019

 

Howdy Roadrunners,

Remember to mark your calendar for this Thursday at 5:30-7:00 for the Annual ACE Awards at North Eugene High School to cheer on Howard’s three nominees; Julie, Zach, Linda, and Katrina!

Sixteen items of note for this week:

• 19/20 Staffing Updates – Nicole and Charissa will swap their originally planned positions for next year, with Nicole now staying at 1st grade and Charissa moving up to 3rd grade next year. Also, our ELL teacher for next year will be Cynthia Wenks, who is currently at Buena Vista and who in the past worked with Corianne at ATA. Please welcome Cynthia to the Awesome Howard Team!

• REPEAT: May 3rd Transition Day – For this Friday’s Elementary Transition Day, the day is not intended for organized PD or meetings led by principals, but is for teaching staff to get together to plan or do transition work for next school year. Possible activities may include but are not limited to:

• Class list preparation for 2019-2020
• Pre-K transition meetings
• 5th to 6th grade transition for fall of 2019
• Kinderzone prep Sept. 2019
• Grade Level planning
• Planning for last six weeks of school
• Parent Communication
• Begin filling in report cards
• Assessing student work

The Instruction Department can provide resources if requested by individual teachers, grade levels or buildings.

• Classified Staff May 3rd Offerings – See the linked Transition Day Email classified staff were sent regarding details for workshop offerings happening this day. If staff are interested in attending, see the linked Workshop Registration Directions for how to sign up for workshops at 4jpd.net

• Class Lists – If teachers would like to begin working on 2019-2020 Class Lists, I’ve set class lists up on Google Sheets the same as last year. The above link gives view access to everyone and I’ll send classroom teachers an email before Monday giving you edit access. To help create balanced classes, check off the appropriate columns for IEP, ELD, Title, TAG, 504, Behavior, Teacher Level of Support, Current Teacher, Other Notes, and the Boy/Girl Count at the bottom. If receiving teachers have student placement requests for siblings or other incoming students, please connect with sending grade levels. Also, for grade levels who might potentially see a classroom added, I added a second tab if any sending grade levels want to be overachievers and fill out class lists should staffing scenarios change. Let me know if you have any questions on this.

• Friday Early Release PD: CANCELLED next two weeks – This Friday is the elementary Transition Day, so there is no Friday Early Release PD this week. There will be no PD Friday next week either because it will be a make-up day for the missed hour of prep on May 3rd.

• End-of-Year Office Dates – With only 34 student days left, here are some key dates regarding finances and supply lists:

• School supply lists due to Lori – May 31st.
• Last day to use school credit cards – May 31st.
• Last day to order using purchase orders – May 15th.
• Last day to turn in receipts for reimbursement from student body account – June 14

• ESSA Updates – Howard’s ESSA Team and Site Council meet for an expended meeting last week to begin developing our Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP), which is the new version of a School Improvement Plan and replaces what we did last time using Indistar. On the Google Team Drive in the Site Council Minutes folder are materials and information discussed at the meeting, which includes a CIP template that we will be completing over the course of two additional meetings, a sample completed CIP, as well as other items.

In terms of goals and strategies discuss, my goal were to focus on areas within our control as well as to align our plan to district plans and focus areas. Our last improvement plan had some great strategies, but we needed up not being able to do some of them due to demands from district priorities and initiatives. The three main goal areas we discussed were one, a reading and math goal (with potential strategy areas being equity/ELL, math learning targets, formative assessment [district focus], grade level common agreements, data teams/SPED referral process [district focus], instructional framework [district focus]), goal two, a study skills/growth mindset goal (with the main strategy being to become an AVID school), and goal three, a school climate/PBIS goal (with potential strategy areas being student attendance strategies, equity/ELL, SEL/PBIS [district focus], tiered behavior response [district focus]). We’ll continue to refine goals and strategies at our next meeting and will discuss these at a future staff meeting before we finalize the CIP at the May Site Council Meeting, bu please feel free to share ideas, thoughts, or questions on any potential goals and/or strategies with myself or your Site Council reps.

• UPDATE: May Artist in Residence Schedule – I moved one 5th and 2nd grade class on the schedule (both teachers already know) but linked here is the Updated Puppet Artist in Residence Schedule for Noah McLain, the Puppetry & Storytelling artist starting next week. Let me know if you see anything else that need fixed or updated before the end of the week.

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

• Monthly Walk & Roll to School Day – We’ve tried the monthly Walk & Roll to School Days this year, but this month is one of the big months where we’ll have prizes and incentives for students, which Michelle will give out to students who walk, carpool, or roll to school.

• REPEAT: Don’t Touch the OAKS Testing Snacks – Remember that for the next few weeks, there are snacks on top of and inside the Staff Room refrigerator for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders during state testing. They are NOT up for grabs.

• Care Team Resources – A couple items of note from last week’s Student Care Team Meeting:

• Direction Services – Direction Services provides assistance through three major programs: Youth & Family Services (wraparound facilitation, assistance to healthcare and insurance services, support for families involved with DHS Child Welfare, stabilization for children in foster care, coordination of services for families experiencing domestic violence and homelessness), a Counseling Center (specializes in mood and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and childhood impulse and behavioral disorders), and the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education – CADRE (mediation assistance for resolving disagreements between parents and schools about SPED services).

• Oregon Family Support Network – OFSN offerd a variety of supports for parents, ranging from support for families of children with behavioral, emotional, or metal health challenges for success at home, school, and in life. Respite care, System navigation, Family fun activities, Support groups, Wraparound family partners, Mental health first aid training, Collaborative Parenting Series.

• Oregon Child Abuse Hotline – Wait times have been a concern when making reports to the new centralized Oregon Child Abuse Hotline, but they are in the process of hiring additional screeners, so this will be a short term problem. for now, calling earlier in the day is better and feedback on the new system is welcome at OregonChildAbuseHotline@dhsoha.state.or.us And if you don’t have it already, the new phone number is 1-855-503-SAFE (7233) and can be found on the above linked hotline card.

And remember, when you make child welfare calls, be sure to let me know and also complete an Abuse Reporting Form (Word or PDF) so I can track dates, concerns, and how many calls we’ve made for individual student.

• Separate & Still Unequal: Race in America’s Schools – There is a “deep history of harm between children of color and the institution of schooling,” says sociologist Robin DiAngelo. Despite the passage of Brown v. Board of Education 65 years ago, schools remain deeply segregated and have “reproduced profound racial inequality” for children of color. Educational Leadership’s April Issue takes a deep dive into the persistence of racial inequities and racism in education, with experts Pedro A. Noguera, Beverly Daniel Tatum, H. Richard Milner, and others unpacking the ways in which educators can start to change a broken system’s entrenched harmful practices and begin a new vision of teaching and learning.

• Why students need real-world relevancy – Students need to understand that the things they’re learning in class can be applied to the real world, writes Erin Sweeney, executive director of Schools That Can Newark. Young people who learn the career and cultural relevancy of math, science and other subjects can become the empowered decision-makers of tomorrow, she writes in this Chalkbeat Article.

• Managing Stress at Work – Rachel Farkas shared this article with me. Although it’s written more for an office type of environment, many of the stressors are the same as well as what to do to mitigate them, such as knowing the difference between good stress and bad stress, telling someone you are struggling with stress, trying to find humor in the situation (something Howard staff are quite good at), and many others.

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

April 29 (M)
OSAS (formerly OAKS) Continues – See Google Calendar for Times
11:45, Allan to Formal Observation
2:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-4:30, Allan to Admin Stand-Up Meeting (Ed Center)

April 30 (T)
Regular Day

May 1 (W)
Monthly Walk & Roll to School Day
PBIS Monthly Theme – Positive Attitude
Better Hearing & Speech Month
9:00-12:00, Kerins to Nearby Nature Field Trip
2:30-4:30, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

May 2 (H)
10:30-12:40, April Bday Lunches w/the Principal (Conference Room)
1:00-1:25, KG/3/PK PBIS Candyland Kindness Event (East Courtyard)
1:30-1:55, 1/4 PBIS Candyland Kindness Event (East Courtyard)
2:00-2:25, 2/5 PBIS Candyland Kindness Event (East Courtyard)
5:30-7:00, ACE Awards (NEHS)

May 3 (F)
No School – Transition Day
8:00-4:30, Allan to MANDT Training (Ed Center)
4:00, Howard Staff Social – Friday @4:00, (Lane 25 – Adult Bowling)

May 4 (SA)
May the Fourth Be With You

May 6 (M)
Staff/Teacher Appreciation Week
Artist in Residence, Noah McLain, Puppetry and Storytelling Begins
Children’s Book Week
OSAS (formerly OAKS) Continues – See Google Calendar for Times
7:45-2:15, 5th Grade to Outdoor School (waiting to confirm times)
12:00-2:00, Allan to Title 1 Coordinators’ Work Session (Ed Center)

May 7 (T)
7:45-2:15, 5th Grade to Outdoor School (waiting to confirm times)
9:00-12:00, Corliss to Nearby Nature Field Trip
10:15, Allan leading Head Start KG Transition Tour
4:30-5:30, 4J PERS Presentation (Ed Center)

May 8 (W)
Day of Action – No Students
Non-Workday for Licensed Staff
Regular Workday for Classified and Admin Staff

May 9 (H)
7:20-5:15, 2nd Grade to Oregon Zoo
12:00-12:30, Allan Covering Classroom

May 10 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
1:25-2:00, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – CANCELLED

May 11 (SA)
10:30-1:00, MEDIA EVENT: EWEB Live Test of the Emergency Well

May 12 (SU)
Mother’s Day

Enjoy the short week!

Allan

April 22, 2019

By Allan  |  2019/04/20 20:07 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Equity, Grants, P.D.  |  Comments Off on April 22, 2019

 

Howdy Everyone,

This Wednesday is Administrative Professionals’ Day, formerly known as Secretaries’ Day, so I’d like to recognize the hard work of Howard’s excellent office staff, Lori and Elizabeth, who manage far more each day than most staff (including myself) are often aware of. Thank you for delivering messages, wiping bloody noses, talking down frantic parents, helping new students get to class, checking for head lice, and that’s all before 8:30am! Thank you for all you do!

Also, if you missed it on Facebook, congratulations to Katie, who won the Excellence in Education Award from NW Community Credit Union and New Country 93.3! Barrett, Fox and Berry presented the award to Katie last week along with a $100 check. You make us look good Katie and you certainly deserve the recognition!

Fourteen items of note for this week:

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release Math PD is a Math PLC session for grade level teams to work together, so plan to bring your “math stuff” to the library and designate your recorder for the Progress Form in your team’s folder on the Howard PLC Team Drive. And remember, if you haven’t already, you can log your PLC hours for collecting PDUs by registered for Howard Staff Meetings and Friday Early Release PDs by going to 4jpd.net

Don’t Touch the OSAS/OAKS Testing Snacks – If you notice snacks in the Staff Room refrigerator and on the table along the wall, these are for 3rd and 4th graders during state testing this week, so know that they are NOT up for grabs. 3/4 teachers, there are five different snacks for each day, so help yourself to a class set of each when you are ready for them.

• May 3rd offerings for EAs – Classified Staff were sent an email about various workshop they are to attend on Friday, May 3rd. See the linked Transition Day Email for details as well as the Workshop Registration Directions that were included in the original email and will direct you to 4jpd.net

• Library Happenings – Some announcements from Julie in the Howard Library!

Thank you for the ACE Award nomination, I feel incredibly privileged to work with such amazing people. It’s truly an honor. I do my very best to try and provide a warm and friendly library with books both students and staff enjoy….

New books added to the library this week (picture books):
• The Good Egg by Jory John
• Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
• All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold & Suzanne Kaufman
• Remarkably You by Pat Miller
• Because by Mo Willems

Fiction:
• Harbor Me by Jaqueline Woodson

May:
6th – 10th Children’s Book Week
13th – 16th Last week of library check out
20-th -22nd Book return week (all student library books are due 5-22)
23rd Book fair set up
24th Student Preview
28th – 30th BOGO book fair T-Th 8:00am -6:00pm
31st Book fair tear down

June:
3rd All staff library books due
3rd & 4th close out book fair and inventory prep
5th Start inventory
13th Inventory should be finished
14th, 17th & 18th records clean up
18th pack up library and close up for summer school

Hope everyone had a much deserved restful weekend.

Julie Hopkins, Library Assist/Howard Elementary

• May Artist in Residence Schedule – Hard to believe that May is fast approaching, which mean our second Artist in Residence, Puppetry with Noah McLain Philpot, is starting soon. Linked here is the May Artist in Residence Schedule I shared back in November, but I know many events have been added to the calendar since then. One change I made was moving the May 8th classes to Friday, May 10th, but I also had to move Charpie’s fourth session to the following Friday due to the early release. , Please take a look at the schedule and let me know if anything needs adjusting.

• PTO Meeting Notes – Besides sharing updates on the various fundraisers they are coordinating for classrooms and our school (Readathong, McTeacher Night, Penny War, BottleDrop, Duer’s ATA, and the Annual School Carnival) the following items of note were covered:

• Safe Routes Learn to Ride Event – Safe Routes to Schools is Planning a community event to teach kids and adults how to ride a bike. The event will take place at River Road, but the entire North Region community is invited. Details will be coming soon.

• Staff Appreciation Week – Also, our hard working PTO is making plans for the upcoming Staff/Teacher Appreciation Week May 6-10.

• School Carnival Info & Blurb – Brande sent an email with Carnival info and asked teachers to include info in your newsletters. To make it easy, I put all the info into a short blurb you can feel free to cut-and-paste.

Howard Annual Carnival is Coming!

The Howard Carnival will be here before we know it! Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 1st, 11:00am – 3:00pm for this fun annual event! You may not know it, but money raised at the carnival helps fund additional class materials, enrichment activities, and field trips, so we want this year’s carnival to be a huge success! There will be Stage Entertainment, a Bouncy House, the Rock Wall, Food, over 30 carnival Games, Face Painting, a Balloon artist, a Photo Booth, the Cake Walk, and Raffles & the Silent Auction! It’s also a Saturday this year and is an hour longer than normal! If you’re able to help with this event, please visit the SignUpGenius linked here:

Middle/High School Student Volunteers:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0C45A9AB22A2FE3-howard3

Adult Volunteers:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0C45A9AB22A2FE3-howard4

Please visit the Facebook event for updated and details:
https://www.facebook.com/events/432184457527374/

• REPEAT: OPTIONAL NEHS Jazz Band Assembly, FRIDAY – Linked here is the Assembly Map and Directions for an optional assembly for classrooms to attend when the NEHS Jazz Band will be here on Friday, April 26th from 8:45-9:15.

• REPEAT: 2019-2020 Master Schedule Survey – DUE FRIDAY – Linked here is the 2019-2020 Master Schedule Survey. I wanted feedback on two items. One is whether we want to continue scheduling a 30-minute Math Booster and the other is how we want to break up the required 60 minutes of lunch and recess for students.

• REPEAT: EEF Grants Due MONDAY – If you have any grant ideas, get them to me by this Monday! Site Council will rank order all grant proposals at that time. See prior announcements for details, but you don’t need to write the entire grant at this point. Just tell me your title and general idea.

• District Admin Updates – Kat Lange ha been hired as the new Director Student Services Department (SSD), starting in July, taking the place of Cheryl Linder who is retiring. Kat has been serving as one of our SSD administrators since January 2018 at the high school level. Before coming to 4J, Kat worked in Colorado, where she was a special education director and college adjunct professor in a smaller school district. She previously served as a principal, assistant principal, and special education teacher.

• Tackling the Stress of Testing Season – For many of our students, academic preparation isn’t enough to ensure a smooth testing season. In this edition of Teaching Tolerance’s The Moment, they offer tips for dealing with this stressful time of year—including resources for understanding and countering stereotype threat and affirming all our students.

• 18 Creative Ways to Get Kids to Read More – Are those student reading logs starting to look a little sparse? Time to switch things up and encourage students to pick up a book! To help, WeAreTeachers pulled together several ideas to get—and keep—students motivated. I particularly like the reading raffle, the growing bookshelf, and the student crowns.

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

April 22 (M)
OSAS (formerly OAKS) Testing Begins – See Google Calendar for Times
Earth Day
2:45-4:45, Site Council / ESSA Planning (Conference Room)

April 23 (T)
May School Newsletter Articles Due
8:15-12:00, Allan Elem. Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
9:00-12:00, Charpie to Nearby Nature Field Trip
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)

April 24 (W)
Administrative Professionals’ Day (formerly known as Secretaries’ Day)
2:40-3:30, Student Care Team (Conference Room)
3:00-3:30, Ukulele Performances at Terpening Terrace Retirement Home

April 25 (H)
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day
8:00, Allan & Deborah Daily Meeting w/Parent (Office)
2:45-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)

April 26 (F)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
8:45-9:15, NEHS Jazz Ensemble Concert Assembly (Gym)
10:30-12:40, April Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Conference Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Math PLC (Library)
4:00, Howard Staff Social – Friday @4:00, Lane 25 (Adult Bowling)

April 29 (M)
OSAS (formerly OAKS) Testing Continues – See Google Calendar for Times

April 30 (T)
Regular Day

May 1 (W)
Monthly Walk & Roll to School Day
PBIS Monthly Theme – Positive Attitude
Better Hearing & Speech Month 2018
9:00-12:00, Kerins to Nearby Nature Field Trip
2:30-4:30, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

May 2 (H)
PBIS Candyland Kindness Challenge Culminating Event (East Courtyard)
5:30-7:00, ACE Awards (NEHS)

May 3 (F)
No School – Transition Day
8:00-4:30, Allan to MANDT Training (Ed Center)

And a big thank you to everyone who came out to support the PTO McTeacher Night fundraiser! It was a lot of fun seeing seeing staff, families, and students all getting together for a good time to support our awesome school!

Have a great week, everyone, and hope to see you this Friday at Lane25 for the Staff Social!

Allan

January 7, 2019

By Allan  |  2019/01/03 21:04 Posted in Announcements, Arts, Caring for Kids, P.D., Technology, Video  |  Comments Off on January 7, 2019

 

Happy New Year!

It’s 2019 and according to Blade Runner we’re now supposed to have flying cars, robot servants, and dress in futuristic trench coats (Schwarzenegger’s The Running Man and the anime classic Akira are also set in 2019, but we’re not as apocalyptic as those films).

Hope you all had time to unplug, reenergize, and have some fun over the break. I know I enjoyed my two weeks off. Lots of family actives (gatherings, meals, and one trip to the coast), reading (best new book was The Geek Dad Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists), music (new favorite song was Love, You Can Never Give Up by Beangrowers, although The Essex Green’s Sloane Ranger was a close second), movies (best movie watched was Brian De Palma’s Scarface), and TV shows (best new show was Bodyguard on Netflix, but The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was a solid runner-up). So it was a good break where I did manage to lose track of what day of the week it was at one point.

Seventeen items of note for this week:

• UPDATE: January 7th PD/Planning Day (Classified & Licnesed) – Since my last staff announcements there’s been several new emails about the January 7th PD Day. Linked here is the Classified Staff Email and Licensed Staff Email on how to set up a TalentEd account to register for a workshop on Monday. Linked here is the TalentEd Registration Directions. Full-time staff attend two trainings. Part-Time staff attend one. Note that on the Jan. 7 Professional Learning Opportunities Document that some classified and licensed staff members (i.e. 5th grade teachers, kindergarten staff, counselors, staff who’ve not received ALICE training, etc.). have some required trainings, which are marked in green.

Also note that the TalentEd Registration System is something new, so there is very likely going to be bugs this first time out, so do your best to register, but if it doesn’t work for you for any reason, go ahead and crash the sessions you’re hoping to attend. Let me know if you have any questions on this.

• Staffing Update, 4th Grade Job-Share – Some folks already know, but so everyone is in the loop, Justine is taking a part-time leave, teaching in the mornings and working with a job-share partner between now and spring break. You’ll likely recognize her job-share partner, Jasmine Ward, who this past term was student teaching in Carla’s 4th grade class, so please welcome Jasmine as the newest member of the AMAZING Team Howard!

• Julie Helping Cover for Matt – Julie has offered to do morning check-ins for Matt while he’s out on parental leave this week. Julie also offered herself and the libary as a place for kids needing a break or someone to talk to. Thank you, Julie!

• Artist in Residence Request – Nicole Hummel will be starting this Tuesday and asked if teachers can provide a student or adult volunteer to help her transition between classes. And a repeat, linked here is the January Artist Schedule and the May Artist Schedule.

• PLC Meetings Next Week – Not this week, but Monday and Tuesday next week are Grade Level PLC Meetings with roving subs. Dates and Times for grade level teams are:

Monday, Jan. 14

1st – 8:30-9:30
2nd – 10:00-11:00
5th – 11:15-12:15

Tuesday, Jan 15
KG – 11:10-12:10
3rd – 12:15-1:15
4th – 1:25-2:25

• 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 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 14-18, so be prepared for families to drop by classrooms over the course of the week. The second visitation week will be Jan. 28-31. Two, I’m holding two school choice evening presentations/tours. The first will be Thursday, January 17th 6:00-7:00 and the second will be Tuesday, January 29th 6:00-7:00, if any staff are interested/willing in helping me talk about our awesome school. And three, the window for school choice applications is again shorter this year, closing at the end of the month, so if families ask, they have until January 31st to lottery into Howard. Students who live outside of 4J may apply March 1–31, to be included in the lottery. Post-lottery transfer requests will be accepted beginning in May 2019. One change this year for out-of-district transfers is that the state law allowing inter-district transfers sunset at the end of last year, meaning that school districts are reverting back to the prior practice of one-to-one student exchanges (i.e. 4J will maintain a list of students from Bethel wanting to come to 4J and will take one from the first on the list when a 4J student wants to enroll in Bethel). More details on all of this can be found on the 4J School Choice webpages.

• Wacky Wednesday: Silly Sock Day – Not this week, but Wednesday next week is Silly Sock Day, so start getting kids excited to show off their wacky and/or mismatched socks next week (as well as planning for your own silliness).

• Post Winter Break Rules Review – With kids out of school for the past two weeks, this may be a good time to review basic classroom and school expectations. Linked here is the PBIS Back-to-School Refresher if teachers want an easy way to cover a lot of material at once or break it up into smaller chunks. This as well as the PBIS Playground Rules slide show can be found on the Howard Team Drive > Meetings/Teams > 2018-2019.

• 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.

An a related note, here’s a nice short film about playground inclusion Ashley shared with me, which might be a nice video to show and discuss with students. It’s a bit heavy on metaphor, so it’s probably more appropriate for older students. Here’s a link to some related educational resources from their Official Film Website.

• BEST Strings Teacher Update – Our prior ESYO string teacher has moved on and we will have a new teacher, Emily Pfeifer, starting this week. Emily is currently teaching string at Willagilespie and will now take on both Howard and WillaG. Please welcome Emily as our new 4/5 ESYO Strings Teacher!

• Email Reply-All Reminder – Downtown asked principals to remind teachers to refrain from using email reply-all unless it’s necessary and if you do reply-all, make sure you’re aware of who all is on the email thread. Besides some of the reply-alls to the Jan. 7th emails, there was recently a district-wide specialist email that began professionally and included the outside group who there were concerns with, but subsequent reply-all emails became less professional and created a bit of a mess, so be careful out there.

• 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 right now. As in the past, Howard serves more homeless students than any other elementary, middle, or high school in 4J; 49 students total, which is more than 1 of every 10 students at Howard.

• Google Permission Forms – It came up at the last Technology Leadership Team (TLT) meeting that classroom teachers may not know which student do or do not have permission to use Google Classroom and other Google Apps, so attached in my email is a list of student who DO NOT have permission. Most students are cleared because the permission form is was included in enrollment packets the past couple years, but for any students who enrolled before that, they may not have a signed form.

• Monthly Walk & Roll to School Day, Wednesday – The first Wednesday of each month is a Walk + Roll to School Day, so remind your students that if they’re able, they should bike, walk, skate, or scooter to school this day.

• DSH Child Care Assistance for Working Parents – The Employment-Related Day Care program (ERDC) helps eligible low-income families pay for child care while they are working. ERDC is a subsidy program, meaning eligible families still pay part of the child care cost. Feel free to share this resource and follow the above link for information as to who can qualify and how to apply.

• Fun Background Removing Tool – I learned about Remove.bg from my favorite nerd blog, BoingBoing. With one click, it removes the background of any photo using AI. Just upload photo or take a picture of a person, animal, or thing, and it will erase everything in the background, replacing them with transparent pixels you can paste on top of another image (like this or this). If you want to do it with kids, I tried it out on my iPad and it works pretty easy using Safari and Pages.

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

January 7 (M)
No School – District PD/Planning Day
Matt out all week on Parental Leave
8:00-10:00, Allan to TalentEd Rubric Committee Meeting (Cal Young)
8:00-10:30, Staff PD Session #1 (full-time staff attend 2 of 3)
11:00-1:00, Staff PD Session #2 (Full-time staff attend 2 of 3)
1:20-4:00, Staff PD Session #3 (Full-time staff attend 2 of 3)

January 8 (T)
Artist in Residence – Nicole Hummel – Functional Pottery Begins
Winter Benchmark Testing – easyCBM
8:30-12:00, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center) CANCELLED

January 9 (W)
Monthly Walk & Roll to School Day
11:15-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

January 10 (H)
Regular Day

January 11 (F)
10:00, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Math PLC (Library)

January 12 (SA)
10:00-12:00, Allan to School Showcase (Ed Center)

January 14 (M)
School Choice Visitation Week #1
8:30-12:15, Howard PLC – Half-Day (5/2/1)
1st – 8:30-9:30
2nd – 10:00-11:00
5th – 11:15-12:15
2:30-3:30, Allan to Title 1 Cooridinators’ Meeting (Ed Center)

January 15 (T)
11:10-2:25, Howard PLC – Half-Day (K/3/4)
KG – 11:10-12:10
3rd – 12:15-1:15
4th – 1:25-2:25
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Cafeteria)

January 16 (W)
Wacky Wednesday – Silly Socks
11:15-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)

January 17 (H)
2:45-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)
6:00-7:00, School Choice Presentation & Tour (Library)
6:30-7:30, KG Sugar- Read In Your Jammies (Katrina’s Room, RM2)

January 18 (F)
1:30-2:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – SBAC Training (Volunteer’s Classroom)

January 21 (M)
No School – Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Factoid of the day, as of this Tuesday, Howard gets bragging rights that we have over 500 students (including our 19 preschoolers). We’ll see how many more student enroll starting this week.

See you all soon!

Allan

December 17, 2018

By Allan  |  2018/12/15 14:04 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, P.D.  |  Comments Off on December 17, 2018

 

Greetings Roadrunners,

It’s been an adventure having four weeks of school between Thanksgiving and winter break this year compared to the usual three. This time of year is always filled with fun, excitement, and a lot of stress, so be ready for “interesting” behaviors from kids and families (and maybe even each other) this week. Welcome everyone with a smile and make this week a fun and enjoyable one before we send everyone off into the break. You got this, everyone!

Fourteen items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates: New ESC Hire – Becca Lambeth-Anderson, a regular Howard sub you may recognize, was hired as our new 0.6 FTE Title 1/ESC and will start Monday morning. Becca has previously worked as a bilingual staff specialist, a Spanish teacher, and a 2nd grade classroom teacher. Becca is also joining the Howard-Same-Name Club [Becca, Becca, & Rebecca, Carolyn & Carol, Debbie, Debby, and Deborah, Jenefer & Jenny, Jessi & Jessy, Robin & Robin, Rhonda & Rhonda, Shelley & Shelly, Suzanna & Suzy.Please welcome Becca to the AMAZING Howard Team!

• Tracking Room Clears on Level IIIs – Downtown is wanting to track the number of Room Clears happening at school and these are now to be noted on Level IIIs. There’s not currently a Room Clear checkbox on the Violation Category section, so until that is updated, just check “Other” and write Room Clear.

• Room Clear Guidelines – Downtown is also working on guidelines for when a Room Clear is appropriate and should be used, but the current guideline in 4J’s rainbow tabbed Emergency Procedure Manual says a Room Clear should be used “when the teacher must remain in in the dangerous situation but can send students to a designate safe area.” For example, if a student is being non-compliant and has crawled under a desk and/or making disruptive noises, that would not constitute a room clear. However, if a student was being non-compliant and was posing a direct threat to others and will not leave the room, that would constitute a room clear. There will be more to come on this, but in the meantime let me know if you have any questions.

• January 7th PD/Planning Day – Licensed staff, watch for more details on times, locations, and various required trainings for specific staff (i.e. 5th grade required Outdoor School meeting, KG required meeting, counselor required meeting, etc.). For classified staff there are no required trainings this day, so please connect with your cooperating teachers as to how you can be helpful this day.

• EA Supervisors’ Meeting Notes – Nurse Robin went over some diabetes information she’ll be sharing with licensed staff at a later date, but some additional items of note include:

• Physical Aggression Documentation Clarification – To clarify a prior announcement about being sure to document all incidents of physical aggression. Always document when a student:

• Level 2 Procedures – If a student receives a level two, the person writing it should handle the situation with reteaching and consequences as necessary. One copy of the form goes home (or a phone can can be made instead), one copy goes to the teacher, and one copy goes in Rae’s mailbox to be entered into SWIS. If a staff member is unable to follow-up with a student about a Level 2 referral, they should connect with either me or the classroom teacher to follow-up with the student and contacting parents.

• intentionally tries to hurt someone else, even if they don’t actually hurt them.
• hurts another student through rough play
• is continuing to play rough after prior warnings, even if they haven’t actually hurt anyone.

• Keeps Gates Closed – For teachers who take your classes to walk the track, be sure to keep the gate closed. There are a number of students who will run off the playground if they see an opening and keeping the gate closed helps to deter this.

• Staff Room/Quiet Room – It’s recently come to light that kids in the Quiet Room can hear pretty much anything being said in the Staff Room, so be sure to check your volume if you’re sharing something students shouldn’t here.

• Admin Subs for Elem Principal Meetings – Downtown is seeking to help large elementary schools when principals are out of the building for elementary principal meetings (not all-admin meetings), so for the remainder of the school year, they have assigned middle and high school assistant principals cover buildings on these dates. Erin was already set to sub for me this Tuesday, but the remaining elementary principal meetings this school year will be covered by Kelly MS assistant principal John Wayland and NEHS assistant principal Trinity Welch-Radabaugh (1/22 Trinity, 2/26 John, 3/19 Trinity, 4/23 John, 5/28 Trinity).

• Elementary Future Chefs Event – Flyers will be coming soon to go home with students, but feel free to let 1st through 5th grade student know about the event. Linked here is a Future Chefs Teacher Letter and Flyer.

• AESOP REMINDER w/Visual – I had some questions on this last week, so I added a visual to show the two spots where teachers list your absence time and the “Substitute Report Hours.” These default to being the same, but if your absence times are less than 4 or 8 hours, click the small icon between the two sections to update the Substitute Report Hours field so that it has either a 4 or 8-hour time frame for the sub work hours.

• No Popcorn This Friday – There will be no popcorn this Friday due to our “Popcorn Moms” being unavailable as well as their regular subs, but a make-up popcorn day will be held on January 11th, so students who paid for year long popcorn won’t get cheated. I’ll include this in morning announcements, but teachers can also remind students.

• Artist in Residence Schedule – Several changes were made to the draft schedules. Effected teachers were already notified, but linked for everyone else is the Updated January Artist Schedule and the Updated May Artist Schedule

• Hoax Bomb Threats – If you missed it in the Register Guard, there’s been a rash of hoax bomb threat emails demanding Bitcoins across the US and it’s come to Eugene. One 4J employee received an email (here the email sent to principals), and EPD is advising if anyone receives one of these emails you notify the office immediately so we can check the building and notify the appropriate people. Bomb Threat procedures are also listed in 4J’s rainbow tabbed Emergency Procedure Manual, which should be prominently hung in each classroom. Let me know if anyone needs a copy of that or if you have any questions.

• 13 Ways to Boost Your Immune System When the Whole School Is Sick – Prevention is possible! See this WeAreTeacher Article for how to keep yourself healthy.

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

December 17 (M)
3:45, Allan to Elem Report Card Committee Meeting (Ed Center)

December 18 (T)
8:15-12:00, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting – Erin Subbing (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, Staff Meeting (Justine’s Room, RM29)
4:00-7:00, Allan to 4J Assessment Adoption Workgroup (Ed Center)

December 19 (W)
11:15-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)

December 20 (H)
2:45-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)

December 21 (F)
Winter Solstice
8:00, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)
10:30-12:40, Birthday Lunches w/the Principal (Community Room)
1:30-2:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – CANCELLED to comp for Thanksgiving missed hour of prep

January 7 (M)
No School – District PD/Planning Day
8:00-10:00, Allan to TalentEd Rubric Committee (Cal Young)
8:00-10:30, Licensed Staff PD Session #1 (must attend 2 of 3)
11:00-1:00, Licensed Staff PD Session #2 (must attend 2 of 3)
1:20-4:00, Licensed Staff PD Session #3 (must attend 2 of 3)

January 8 (T)
Artist in Residence – Nicole Hummel – Functional Pottery Begins
Winter Benchmark Testing – easyCBM Begins
8:30-12:00, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

January 9 (W)
Monthly Walk & Roll to School Day
11:15-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

January 10 (H)
Regular Day

January 11 (F)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Math PLC (Library)

January 12 (SA)
10:00-12:00, Allan and Lori to School Showcase (Ed Center)

Factoid of the day, as of this Monday, Howard gets bragging rights that we have 500 students (including our 19 preschoolers). I wonder where we’ll be after winter break?

And not that anyone is counting, but five days until winter break! You can do it! Go, Team Howard!

Allan

 

December 3, 2018

By Allan  |  2018/12/01 08:46 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Caring for Kids, Equity, P.D.  |  Comments Off on December 3, 2018

Howdy Roadrunners,

Twelve items of note for this week:

• Student Reports of Physical Aggression – This is nothing new and Howard staff are very good about this, but as a reminder, it’s very important that staff ALWAYS report and take seriously student reports of any physical aggression. Given all of the recent amount media attention, parents are rightfully on high alert about this and we need to make sure we’re addressing every situation that gets reported to us.

• Balancing the Holidays in Your Classroom – While teachers are guaranteed a certain level of academic freedom in what they teach, we want to balance that with being inclusive of all students and families, so please be mindful in your class activities and displays as we enter the holiday season. This Teaching Tolerance article serves as a nice reminder, where the author writes that each year at this time, teachers are faced with a dilemma: How to balance the holidays to create the most inclusive environment? As Hanukkah and Christmas approach, many teachers will decorate with candy canes and construction-papered dreidels, but there are more holidays being celebrated this month. Muharram begins this month, the liturgical new year of the Islamic calendar. Meanwhile, Buddhists celebrate Bodhi Day this month. December also marks Kwanzaa, the Hindu family holiday Pancha Ganapati, and Yule for pagans. Many secular people either have winter solstice parties or observe no holidays at all. “By opening our hearts and minds to all religious traditions, we are serving the greater good and our connections with others grow deeper.” See the above link for more related articles and this link for additional resources. Winter themed activities, such as these WeAreTeachers Winter Craft Ideas, are always an option as well.

• Fire Drill Friday at 8:45 – We’ll hold our December Fire Drill this Friday at 8:45, which shouldn’t step on any PE/Music or recess times.

• ESC Interviews Friday: EA Meeting & Friday PD Rescheduled – A Recess Supervisor’s Meeting was schedule for this Friday, which I’m rescheduling for next week. Also, this Friday’s early release PD was set to be a Behavior Framework training, but I’m postponing it until January, where we will combine two modules. Instead, I’m conducting interviews this Friday from 1:30-3:30 for our ESC Position, so if there are any classified or licensed staff who would like to volunteer their time to help with interviews, please let me know.

• Monthly Walk & Roll to School Day, Wednesday – The first Wednesday of each month this year is a Walk + Roll to School Day, so remind your students that if they’re able, they should bike, walk, skate, or scooter to school this day. Again, this is a low-key version of the event with no “Walking School Bus” or prizes and such, but is a periodic reminder to kids and families about encouraging physical activity and alternatives to driving cars. 

• December PBIS Focus: Generosity – The December PBIS monthly focus is Generosity. The PBIS team created a PBIS/Caring School Community 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.

• Wacky Wednesday – Pajama Day – Not this week, but next week is the December Wacky Wednesday and this time it’s Pajama Day, so remind your students to wear their PJs on Wednesday, Dec. 12th!

• STEAM Room Unavailable Tuesday – Please note that the STEAM Room will not be available this Tuesday due to kindergarten hearing screening.

• Natives Program Assembly Dec. 14 – A Native American Storytelling Assembly will be Friday, Dec. 14th in the gym, with the K-2 assembly 8:45-9:10 and the 3-5 assembly 9:20-9:45. See the linked Assembly Map & Directions for details.

• Artist in Residence Schedule – Several changes were made to the draft schedules. Anyone who’s times changed already know, but for everyone else, linked here is the Updated January Schedule and the Updated May Schedule. For the January schedule, let me know by the end of the week if see anything else that needs changing, so I can finalize the schedule with the artist.

• Howard Pinterest Page – During the design phase of our building, I’d created a Howard Pinterest account for staff to share their ideas for the new building. Later I added add some curricular Pinterest boards (ELA, Math, Science, Arts, Specialists) where staff could share internet finds if you are a Pinterest user. To pin to these boards, just follow the Howard boards and then I will “invite” you to be a “collaborator” on the boards. Let me know if you’d like access and I’ll get you added!

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

December 3 (M)
Computer Science Education Week / Hour of Code

December 4 (T)
8:00-12:00, KG Hearing Screening (STEAM Room)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
4:00-7:00, Allan to 4J Assessment Adoption Workgroup (Ed Center)

December 5 (W)
Monthly Walk & Roll to School Day
11:15-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

December 6 (H)
8:30-10:00, Allan to ESSA Meeting (Ed Center)
10:00-11:30, Allan to El Camino Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-7:00, Alan to 4J Assessment Adoption Workgroup (Ed Center)

December 7 (F)
8:45, Fire Drill
1:30-3:30, ESC Interviews (Conference Room)

December 10 (M)
9:30, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)

December 11 (T)
8:30-12:00, Allan to Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-7:00, Allan to 4J Assessment Adoption Workshop Group (Ed Center)

December 12 (W)
Wacky Wednesday – Pajama Day
11:15-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)

December 13 (H)
National Cocoa Day
4:30-6:00, 4J Science Teacher Leader Meeting (STEAM Room)

December 14 (F)
Bus Safety Due to Lori
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
8:45-9:10, K-2 Natives Program Assembly (Gym)
9:20-9:45, 3-5 Natives Program Assembly (Gym)
1:25, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Math PLC (Library)
Licensed Interventionists (Title & SPED) PLC – Virtual Meeting

Have a good week, y’all!

Allan

November 26, 2018

By Allan  |  2018/11/22 08:42 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Equity, Grants, Video  |  Comments Off on November 26, 2018

 

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a relaxing and rejuvenating extended weekend and are ready for our next four weeks leading up to winter break!

Twelve items of note for this week:

• Picture Retakes Wednesday – This Wednesday, Lifetouch will start photographing students who need retakes at 8:30 in the library. Lori will call students down by grade.

• Don’t Take Key Workroom Supplies – Staplers, staple pullers, tape dispensers, and other workroom essentials have regularly been disappearing from the workroom. Please do not borrow these items as it makes it difficult for staff trying to prep in the workroom. If you are missing these items in your classroom, let me know and we’ll make sure you get them.

• Hour of Code Next Week! – Let me know if any of you are doing something cool for the Hour of Code coming up next week. I’d love to see if we can get some media coverage for some of our activities during Computer Science Education Week. See the above links for some fun and easy online actives for all grade levels. Khan Academy also has quite a few quality activities.

• 8 Easy & Fun Coding Projects from BrainPOP – BrainPOP has teamed up with Scratch and Vidcode, and now offers a Creative Coding curriculum to encourage students and teachers to use coding as a way to show what they know? It’s chock-full of engaging projects that make it easy to integrate coding into your curriculum, including reading, math, social studies, science, music, and art. The best part? Even if you’ve never taught or tried coding before, you’ll be able to incorporate it into your lessons. See this We Are Teachers article for a sneak peek at some of their favorites.

• PTO Meeting Updates – The November PTO Meeting minutes and slide show can be found on the Howard website PTO Webpage, and there’s also a live steam video of the entire meeting posted on the PTO Facebook Page. Topics of note included:

• Duer’s ATA Martial Arts Fundraiser – Flyers will go home this week in Friday Folders letting families know that for $49, if they register for a month of classes at Duer’s ATA, the entire $49 registration goes straight to the PTO (and they get a free uniform). Skills taught at Duer’s ATA build children’s confidence, help them to do better in school, and helps children respect themselves and others. Could be a great holiday gift!

• Bottle Drop Fundraiser – The PTO is trying the BottleDrop Give Program. A Signup Genius will be sent out for people to request bags to collect recyclable cans. Extra bags will also be available at school if more are needed. Now through December 9th bottle drop donations are being matched from 10% to 40%. Additionally, families will be able to bring cans and bottle to the Holiday Bazaar/Vendor Fair on December 1st.

• Holiday Bazaar/Vendor Fair 12/1– The event will be Saturday, December 1st in the gym and cafeteria from 9:00-3:00. The PTO still needs volunteers for concessions and for set up & break down. There are a few tables left for vendors, but it’s now almost at capacity. Please come by to help support this event if you’re able!

• EXPLODING PUMPKIN VIDEO! – Maybe I’m more excited about this since I was there, but the PTO shared a video at the meeting of the pumpkin Allison and I exploded by wrapping 396 rubber bands around it.

• Artist in Residence Schedule – Linked here is the a Draft Schedule for the First Artist in Residence (ceramics) starting right after winter break and linked here is a Draft Schedule for the Second Artiest in Residence (puppetry) starting in early May. The only things I held sacred on the schedule were recesses, lunches, and specialists times, but let me know if you have suggestions how to make the schedules work better or if you noticed any mistakes. The only constraints are the artists need at least 15 minutes between sessions and are limited to no more than five classes per day, but I think the schedules worked out fairly well in that every class is four days in a row and none of them are broken up over a weekends.

• Library Happenings! (from Julie) – I’m back! Please bring your class to library this week, I have missed you all so much!

• REPEAT: ESC Job Posting – Our 0.6 FTE Title 1/ESC job posting closes on Tuesday, so if you know any candidates, please encourage them to apply.

• REPEAT: PLC Meetings This Week – Monday and Tuesday are Grade Level PLC Meetings with roving subs. Dates and times are the same as last month, which are:

Monday, Nov. 26
1st – 8:30-9:30
2nd – 10:00-11:00
5th – 11:15-12:15

Tuesday, Nov. 27
KG – 11:10-12:10
3rd – 12:15-1:15
4th – 1:25-2:25

• CenturyLink Grant – CenturyLink is awarding grants of up to $5,000 for teachers to spend on technology. They’re taking applications until January 12 and awards will be made after April 1. Grants are available to full-time teachers. Applicants must provide a summary of the project, a budget, and a detail on the impact you think this project/purchase will have in the classroom. To apply, follow this link to the CenturyLink Teachers and Technology Grant. Any questions, please email jane.nishita@centurylink.com.

• Indigenous Writers: A Children’s Reading List – Former Howard teacher Jill Torres shared a timely article with me which notes that only 1% of the children’s books published in the U.S. in 2016 featured Indigenous characters, and even fewer (1/4 of the 1% = 8 books total) were written by Indigenous authors. However, see this List of 14 Recommended Children’s Books by Indigenous Writers and Illustrators for some great looking titles, which was curated by The Conscious Kid Library and American Indians in Children’s Literature, in partnership with Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

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

November 26 (M)
Lori Out
7:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
8:30-12:15, Howard PLC – Half-Day (5/2/1)
1st – 8:30-9:30
 2nd – 10:00-11:00
 5th – 11:15-12:15
2:45-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)

November 27 (T)
Erin Subbing for Allan
8:15-12:00, Allan to Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
11:10-2:25, Howard PLC – Half-Day (K/3/4)
KG – 11:10-12:10 3rd – 12:15-1:15 4th – 1:25-2:25
1:30, Allan Testifyign at DHS Hearing (Lane Co. Courthouse)
2:45-3:30, Staff Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
4:00-7:00, Allan to 4J Assessment Adoption Workgroup (Ed Center)

November 28 (W)
School Picture Retakes
11:15-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)
2:45-3:30, Student Care Team CANCELLED
3:45-5:15, Allan to Elem Grade Book Sub Committee (Ed Center)
4:30-5:30, Allan to TalentEd Rubric Committee (Ed Center)

November 29 (H)
Regular Day

November 30 (F)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
10:30-12:40, November Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Data Team Meeting (Library)

December 1 (SA)
9:00-3:00, PTO Holiday Bazaar (Gym & Cafeteria)

December 3 (M)
Computer Science Education Week / Hour of Code

December 4 (T)
8:00-12:00, KG Hearing Screening (STEAM Room)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
4:00-7:00, 4J Assessment Adoption Workgroup (Ed Center)

December 5 (W)
Monthly Walk & Roll to School Day
11:15-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee (Ed Center)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

December 6 (H)
8:30-10:00, Allan to ESSA Meeting (Ed Center)
10:00-11:30, Allan to El Camino Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-7:00, 4J Assessment Adoption Workgroup (Ed Center)

December 7 (F)
1:25, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Behavior Framework (Library)

Four weeks until winter break. You’ve got this!

Allan

November 19, 2018

By Allan  |  2018/11/17 16:35 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Video  |  Comments Off on November 19, 2018

 

Hello Fellow Roadrunners,

I’m hoping someone got a video of it, but the PTO Family Science Night had a great turnout and the Pumpkin Rubber Band Challenge was excellent! Allison and I wrapped 396 rubber bands around a pumpkin when it spectacularly exploded! Do a YouTube search if you want to get a visual from others who’ve done this, but kids and families were quite impressed when the pumpkin blew. PTO folks told me the next Family Activity Night will be a Harry Potter Wizarding School theme, but our new PTO Board really knocked it out of the park with their first big family event of the year!

And for this short week, I have my shortest announcements of the year.

Twelve items of note for this week:

• NEW Classified Trade and Comp Time Forms – HR is standardizing the process for approval and tracking of Trade Time and Comp Time. From this point forward, the process will be:

1. Get Approval Before Working Over Regular Work Hours – Get approval from me by email or in person before working over your normal work hours. If it’s an unforeseen event that made you to work over (i.e. late bus, late parent pick-up, etc.) notify me by the next day and document it on the new forms below.

2. Complete Trade or Comp Time Form – Complete the linked Classified Trade Time Form (hardcopies also in the office) and a separate Comp Time Form (which should soon be posted on the HR Forms website). In most cases, classified staff will use the Trade Time form (comp time is only used if you’ve been approved to work over 40 hours within the same week, which earns you time and a half). Use the above linked form to track trade time hours within the same workweek.

3. Submit Form to Allan Within One Week – Forms must be submitted to me within one week of using the pre-approved trade time hours. Trade time is equal time that is intended to be exchanged within the same workweek, although OSEA and HR are working on clarifying this that timeline because there is conflicting language in the contract that would allow staff and admin though mutual agreement for classified staff to use trade time at a later date outside of the same workweek.

More information can be found on page two of the form, but let me know if you have any questions.

• PLC Meetings Next Week – Not this week, but Monday and Tuesday next week are Grade Level PLC Meetings with roving subs. Dates and Times, the same as last month, which are:

Monday, Nov. 26
1st – 8:30-9:30
2nd – 10:00-11:00
5th – 11:15-12:15

Tuesday, Nov. 27
KG – 11:10-12:10
3rd – 12:15-1:15
4th – 1:25-2:25

• Hour of Code Dance Party! – Lupe forwarded a cool email to me about an Hour of Code Dance Party. Students can choose from 30 hits like Katy Perry’s “Firework,” Sia’s “Cheap Thrills”, Ariana Grande’s “No Tears Left to Cry,” Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way,” Justin Bieber’s “Sorry”, or international hits such as J Balvin’s “Mi Gente”. The tutorial helps students code interactive dance moves and special effects as they learn basic CS concepts. See the above links for details!

• Artist in Residence Finalized – LaneArts finally got back to me on our preferred artists and dates. We will have:

• Jan 8 – Feb 8 – Functional Pottery with Nicole Hummell. She will do four 45-minute session with each class.

• May 6 – June 7 – Puppetry and Storytelling with Noah Mclain. He will do four 60 minute sessions with each class.

• Allan Out 11/27, Erin Subbing – I’m going to be out all day Tuesday, November 27th, first at an Elementary Principals’ meeting and then I have to testify at the courthouse at a DHS case. However, Erin will be covering for me this day, so she’ll be availalbe to help folks out if anything comes up.

• Care Team Holiday Resources – Linked here is the 2018 Winter Holiday Resources Guide, in English and Spanish, which has information regarding holiday food boxes, meal sites, and gift programs. We’ll share this in the December school newsletter, on the school website, and on social media, but staff can feel free to pass this along to individual families as well.

• REPEAT: Student Care Team Referrals DUE WEDNESDAY – The Student Care Team meets next week so referrals are due this Wednesday. Try to get a signature on the 4J Release Form (English or Spanish) but you can also refer hypothetical situations. Linked here is a Student Care Team Flyer, now in English and Spanish, which you can share with families. Let me know if you have any questions.

• REPEAT: PTO Meeting TUESDAY – This Tuesday is the November PTO meeting, so if you’re able to volunteer your time to come, I know parents appreciating seeing staff attend. Hope to see you there!

• REPEAT: ESC Job Posting – Our job posting for a Howard 0.6 FTE Title 1/ESC is now up on the 4J Jobs website, so if you know any candidates, please encourage them to apply.

• 15 Ways to Bring More Positive Language into Your School – In the middle of a chaotic classroom or other stressful situations, it can be hard to find the kind of mindfulness and positive language we hope to model. I know I’ve caught myself using some of this language (saying “You need to … “ instead of “Together let’s … “ or saying “Look at what you’ve done.” instead of “How can we fix this?”). See this We Are Teachers article for a few ways we can do this with some small adjustments to our words.

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

November 19 (M)
8:00, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
9:25, Natives Presentation – Stone/Cortez (STEAM Room)
10:55, Natives Presentation – Rock/Callihan (STEAM Room)

November 20 (T)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Cafeteria)

November 21 (W)
December Newsletter Articles Due
Fluoride Varnish (Community Room)

November 22 (H)
Thanksgiving Break – No School

November 23 (F)
Thanksgiving Break – No School

November 26 (M)
Lori Out
7:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
8:30-12:15, Howard PLC – Half-Day (5/2/1)

1st – 8:30-9:30
2nd – 10:00-11:00
5th – 11:15-12:15

2:45-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)

November 27 (T)
Erin Subbing for Allan
8:15-12:00, Allan to Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
11:10-2:25, Howard PLC – Half-Day (K/3/4)

KG – 11:10-12:10
3rd – 12:15-1:15
4th – 1:25-2:25

1:30, Allan Testifyign at DHS Hearing (Lane Co. Courthouse)
2:45-3:30, Staff Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
4:00-7:00, Allan to 4J Assessment Adoption Workshop Group (Ed Center)

November 28 (W)
School Picture Retakes
11:15-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)
2:45-3:30, Student Care Team (Conference Room)
3:45-5:15, Allan to Elementary Grade Book Sub Committee (Ed Center)

November 29 (H)
Regular Day

November 30 (F)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
10:30-12:40, November Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Data Team Meeting (Library)

December 1 (SA)
9:00-3:00, PTO Holiday Bazaar (Gym & Cafeteria)

And I keep forgetting to post this, but below is our all-school photo from last month’s Tech Trot.

Excelsior!

Allan

November 12, 2018

By Allan  |  2018/11/09 10:06 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Assessment, Equity, P.D.  |  Comments Off on November 12, 2018

Howdy All,

Hope you all had a relaxing and refreshing Veterans Day weekend!

Sixteen items of note for this week:

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s meeting is scheduled for Math PLC work. However, principals have not been given direction on what to present/discuss at this meeting. There’s an elementary principals’ meeting on Tuesday, so I may get direction then. I will plan to email teachers following that meeting regarding the status of Friday’s meeting.

• ESC Job Posting – I’m going to post for a 0.6 FTE Title 1/ESC position, which should show up on the 4J Jobs website soon, so if you know any fabulous potential candidate who’d be good for running Data Team Meetings, OAKS, benchmark testing, and teaching some Title groups (no reading endorsement required), please encourage them to apply. Our plan is for this person to start in December.

• MORE Artist in Residence Updates – The ceramics artist ended up not being available in November, but a different ceramics artist, Nicole Hummell, may be available in January (our 2nd choice for dates). For the puppet artist, Noah McLain in May, I’m still waiting for confirmation from Lane Arts.

• easyCBM Assessment Feedback– I’m part of a district assessment workgroup that’s meeting Tuesday to discuss what is and is not working with easyCBM. I have my opinions, but I’d also like to share other staff member opinion if you want to let me know before Tuesday afternoon.

• Hour of Code is Coming! – Dec. 3-7 – As a Technology Immersion School, coding activities are a great activity for students to do all year long, but particularly during the first week of December during Computer Science Education Week. The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science during Computer Science Education Week, intended to demystify “code”, to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science. How do you participate in the Hour of Code? Start planning here by reviewing their how-to guide. Code.org has many great resources as well and if you’re in grades 3-5, the new iPads will run Apple’s completely self guided (and excellent) coding program, Swift Playground.

• Student Care Team Referrals – The Student Care Team will meet in two weeks, but we have two short weeks in a row, which means referrals to the team are due the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Referrals can include situations of homelessness, assistance with bills, incarcerated parents, counseling resources, medical needs, and many others. Try to get a signature on the 4J Release Form (English or Spanish). Linked here is a Student Care Team Flyer you can share with families you might refer (we’re working on a Spanish version). You can also refer “hypothetical” student or family situations if you can’t get a signature. Let me know if you have any questions about potential referrals.

• PTO Family Science Night Wednesday – The first PTO Family Night will be this Wednesday, and the PTO is promising an evening of fun and freaky Science Experiments.

• PTO Meeting Tuesday, Nov. 20 – Not this week, but next week on Tuesday, November 20th will be the November PTO meeting, so if you’re able to volunteer your time to come to the meeting, I know they appreciating having staff attend.

• Don’t Let in Kidsports! – You may think you’re being helpful, but DO NOT let in any Kidsports kids, parents, or coaches. They need to be let in by night custodial staff after they have made sure the rest of the building is secure (i.e. keeping people out of the Music Room, PE Office, Cafeteria, Front Office, Library, Classrooms, etc.).

• REPEAT: Wacky Wednesday: Sports Day! – This Wednesday is the November Wacky Wednesday and it is Sports Day! Get your students excited to wear their sports gear or favorite team gear. And if you were curious as to the answer to my movie nerd question last week, my fake sports team outfit will be the Baseball Furies from writer/director Walter Hill’s 1979 cult classic The Warriors (which all y’all should watch).

• REPEAT: 2018-2019 Mandatory Bus Safety Training – Thank you to teachers who have already done this, but remember that between now and winter break all classrooms must show one of two bus safety videos, a Newer Bus Safety Video or the quaint 1990s Bus Safety Video (both are about 12 minutes), and let Lori know that date you showed it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xPFw8PyaAo

• REPEAT: United Way Campaign DUE FRIDAY – If you’d like to donate, United Way Campaign forms are due in my mailbox by this Friday.

• Teacher Appreciation with the Ducks – The UO is holding two teacher appreciation games on 12/15 (Vs. Boise State) and 2/10 (Vs. Stanford). Tickets are at a discounted rate starting at $11 a seat. To redeem your discount, click here and enter promo code “2019TEACH”. At these games they’ll also be offering an on-court photo post game to the first 50 education staff that sign up!

• Dos and Don’ts of Classroom Decorations – What you put on your classroom walls can affect your students’ ability to learn. Classroom walls should feel warm and lively but not overcrowded. This Edutopia article cites research suggesting teachers keep 20 to 50 percent of the wall space clear and fill the rest by:

• Displaying student work.
• Featuring inspiring role models.
• Avoiding clutter.
• Visual aids—like anchor charts, maps, and diagrams—are OK.
• Avoiding displays of student scores or grades.
• Leting in natural light.
• Balancing wall colors.

• Checking Yourself for Bias in the Classroom – To create equitable classrooms, educators must acknowledge their own biases and take steps to confront them. Unconscious bias can shape the responses of even the most well-intentioned educators. In this Teaching Tolerance article, one teacher shares how you can check yourself for bias in the classroom.

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

November 12 (M)
Veterans Day – No School

November 13 (T)
School Psychology Awareness Week
8:30-12:00, Allan to Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
4:00-7:00, Allan to 4J Assessment Adoption Workgroup (Ed Center)
4:30-8:00, 4J First Aid Class (Library)
4:30-6:00, 4J Science Teacher Leader Meeting (STEAM Room)

November 14 (W)
Wacky Wednesday – Sports Day
6:00-8:00, PTO Family Night (Cafeteria/Gym)

November 15 (H)
2:45-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)

November 16 (F)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
United Way Pledge Forms Due
Tech Trot PJ Day & FREE Popcorn Reward Day!
1:30-2:30, PBIS Meeting Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Math PLC (Volunteer’s Classroom)
2:30-3:30, Licensed Interventionists (Title & SPED) PLC – Virtual Meeting

November 19 (M)
9:25, Natives Presentation – Stone/Cortez (STEAM Room)
10:55, Natives Presentation – Rock/Callihan (STEAM Room)

November 20 (T)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Cafeteria)

November 21 (W)
Regular Day

November 22 (H)
Thanksgiving Break – No School

November 23 (F)
Thanksgiving Break – No School

Have a good 4-day week, everyone!

Allan