Arts

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 WeekThe 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

November 5, 2018

Hello Super Duper Howard Staff,

If any of you have leftover Halloween candy or if the Switch Witch made a visits to your house, the giant candy dish in my office will gladly take any sugary donations!

Sixteen items of note for this week:

• Tech Trot Updates – The Tech Trot raised $7,271.78 after expenses, with $10,460.58 being raised in total. That second total earned students two of the promised rewards, which are a Popcorn & PJ Party, which we’ll do on Friday, November 16th. All classrooms will get free popcorn and teachers can choose their own time for the Popcorn & PJ Party. The second prize was a pie-in-the-face to staff volunteers. I’ll, of course, volunteer, but if there are other willing victims, let me know. We’ll likely do this at an upcoming assembly.

• Veterans Day Stars – If students bring back stars for the Veterans Day display that went homeFriday, please put them in Christina Wagner’s mailbox in the downstairs workroom. She kindly volunteered to put up this year’s display.

• Pumpkin Hunt Info – If you class earned their 12 tail feathers or are close to earning them, watch for an email from the PBIS Team soon regarding details on the great pumpkin hunt this Wednesday.

• Breakfast Reminder (no food in classrooms) – With the exception of Grab-n-Go Breakfasts and a few individual student plans, students should NOT take breakfast trays or items to classrooms. It’s messy and it’s enabling some kids to play on the playground and then sneak back into the cafeteria later after the bell rings.

• Thanksgiving Classroom Reminder – As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I wanted to send out my annual reminder regarding how Thanksgiving is taught in classrooms. Keep in mind that student perceptions of Native Americans often come from classroom activities around the “First Thanksgiving.” The conception of Native Americans gained from such early exposure is often both inaccurate and potentially damaging. When planning activities, be aware that what most of us learned in school about the “Pilgrims” and “Squanto” and the “First Thanksgiving” is a mixture of both history and myth. Thanksgiving activities should avoid reinforcing historical myths and should avoid stereotypes (ie. NO warbonnets). It’s best to shift the focus away from the “First Thanksgiving” and instead focus on items children can be thankful for in their own lives and on their families’ celebrations of Thanksgiving. Some resources on what to avoid and what to teach can be found at Teaching Tolerance and Education World. Here is a good article with a Native American perspective on Thanksgiving as well as one on The True Story of the First Thanksgiving. Also, the 4J Natives Program is available for classroom presentations year-round and can offer an accurate picture of Native American culture.

• Conference Items – Two new items, one article, and one repeat:

• Notify Lori of Any Changes by Tuesday – Teachers, tell Lori of any additions or changes to your conference schedules by Tuesday morning. We need this to distribute schedules to specialists.

• Dreambox at Home Flyer – There’s a canned letter on the Dreambox website teachers could share with families (English and Spanish) for how to access Dreambox from home. You can find it and other resources by logging onto Dreambox > Resources > Parents & Family. If you’d like me to run a class set for you, just let me know.

• REPEAT: Title Compacts – Corianne already emailed this, but to reiterate, Title Compacts are ready for conferences.

• New teachers, please read and sign these with your students, then have parents sign at conferences.
• Student names are already on them.
• DO NOT send these home! If parents don’t come to conferences, then get them back to Corianne with your signature and the student’s signature. Corianne will make a photocopy and put a note on it to send home.
• If you need an additional sheet because you get a new student between now and then, just let Corianne know.
• When they are signed, please get them back to Corianne. She will make photocopies for the parents to keep.

Let Corianne know if you have any questions.

• What Teachers Want Parents to Know – Here’s a nice reminder before conferences from an Edutopia article by a teacher who has worked in a variety of schools, reflecting on what teachers want parents to know:

• We care about your child’s well-being.
• We want your child to succeed.
• We know that learning is difficult.
• We know your child has other responsibilities.
• We care deeply about what we teach.

• Artist in Residence Updates – I’m still going back and forth with Lane Arts, but it’s looking like we’ll get our top choices of artists and will get them on our preferred dates. I’ll let teachers know when I get official confirmation, but it’s looking like we’ll have:

• Nov. 19 – Dec. 21 – Ceramics with Jess Graff. She’ll do four 45-minute session with each class (there’s no website for her ceramics work).
• May 6 – May 31 – Puppetry with Noah Mclain. Hell do four 60 minute sessions with each class.

I’ll start working on a schedule once I hear back from Lane Arts. No promises, but let me know if you have any requests for dates/times. We’re pretty constrained by how many days the artist can be here, so the only things on the schedule I hold sacred are PE/Music and lunch & recess (the contractually guaranteed stuff).

• Howard NOT Identified for Improvement – When Charis came to visit Howard last week, she let me know that Howard was not identified by the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) for targeted improvement. Originally we thought our special education subgroup scores would earn us a targeted identification, but Charis said 4J has been pushing back hard on ODE that this metric unfairly punishes schools hosting multiple regional SPED programs, such as Howard with our two CLC programs and Life Skills, so maybe the state actually listened. ODE is also changing how they support identified schools, giving districts more control and flexibility, so even though we weren’t identified we may potentially receive additional resources.

• November Walk + Roll to School Day, Wednesday & Tally Sheets – Safe Routes to School is doing monthly Walk + Roll events this year and are asking classrooms to complete tally sheets for this month’s event this Wednesday. Sheets will go into mailboxes this week. Data collected helps with their grant funding, which has helped get us some of the new sidewalks along North Park and Grove, as well as some other traffic calming measures, such as the new speed bumps. Please return completed tally sheets to my mailbox.

• Wacky Wednesday: Sports Day! – Not this week, but next week is the November Wacky Wednesday and this time it’s Sports Day! Start planning your outfit and start getting kids excited to wear their favorite team or sports gear on Wednesday, November 14th. I’m planning to wear my originally planned Halloween outfit for this day (also my nerdy EUCON outfit). Bonus movie geek points if you can name the movie and/or character I’m dressing as below.

• Staff Webpage Photos – Do you love your new school photo and prefer it over the one on the Howard Staff Directory? Let me know and I can upload your new photo.

• Robotics Opportunity – If any parents, students, or school staff are interested in robotics, check out the Mckenzie River Gathering of the Robots (MRGR) at the UO Ford Alumni Center Saturday, Nov. 10th, 10:00-5:00. It’s casual, free, includes light refreshments, and with lots of demos to get people excited about robotics!

• Brings Clay Artist into your Classroom for FREE – The Clay in Education program brings potters into classrooms for free demonstrations, workshops, and art projects. See the linked flyer for details or email them at education@clayfest.org

• REPEAT: United Way Campaign DUE Nov. 16 – If you’d like to donate, United Way Campaign Forms are due in my mailbox by Friday next week. United Way supports many Lane County community programs that assist our students and families. You can learn more about what all they do by following the above link, the 2018 Campaign Flyer, the How We Invest Flyer, or by watching their 2018 campaign video below.

• Google Street View Geography Game – I love playing this geography game, Geoguessr.com, and it might be fun to play with kids. It will place you on a random spot in the world in Google Earth/Maps, and you have to figure out where you are by walking around in Street View. Easy clues like words on signs are usually blurred out and it can be hard to even locate the right continent. You get points for how close your guess is to your actual location. It’s a fun way to hunt for telltale signs of different cultures.

• 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 5 (M)
Regular Day

November 6 (T)
7:30-8:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

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

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

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

November 12 (M)
Veterans Day – No School

November 13 (T)
8:30-12:00, Allan to Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
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

And if you missed it, check out the photos from the Register Guard coverage of our Halloween Costume Parade and also our excellent group photo down below. You all are a super fun group of people to work with! So glad I work here!

Allan

 

 

October 1, 2018

 

Hi Everyone,

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

Nineteen items of note for this week:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 4 (H)
Regular Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Allan

September 10, 2018

#whyiteach

 

Greetings Roadrunners,

We had an excellent start to school year last week, thanks to our amazing staff! Howard Rocks!

Twenty-six items of note for this week:

• District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – Linked here is this year’s District Back-to-School Memo (PDF), 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 Friday, September 28th. I’ll place hard copies of the acknowledgement form in staff mailboxes this week. Looking over this year’s memo, downtown significantly shortened the Financial & Purchasing Procedures information (the old one had a lot of information that did not apply to school staff), the 4J Nondiscrimination Notice was updated, the FAQ for Supporting Undocumented Students was updated last April, the Student Discipline Procedures Summary had some updates (particularly new rules around suspensions), and the section on Harassment, Intimidation, Bullying, Cyberbullying, Hazing, Teen Dating Violence and Domestic Violence was updated to include information on  Domestic Violence as well as the new Student Reporting Form. Let me know if you have questions on any of this.

• REPEAT: Howard Staff Handbook Review – Related to the above, linked here is the updated Howard Staff Handbook. All staff must review the handbook and sign & return the acknowledgement form to the office by Friday, September 28th.

• TalentEd Goals, Self Assessment, & Standards Overview Conference – Probationary and Contract Year-1 Licensed staff need to complete the self assessment in TalentEd before the end of September. ALL licensed staff need to meet with me for a Standards Overview Conference, which I can do by meeting with an entire grade level at once, so let me know if there’s a good time for me to meet with your grade level (5-10 minutes max). I’ll connect with non-classroom licensed staff to meet at a separate time.

Regarding SMART Goals, all licensed staff need to have goals entered into TalentEd and signed-off by me by October 15th. For classroom teachers, Rebecca Boyd, our building Staff Development Specialist (SDS), told me SDSs are developing a set of goals around this year’s PLC work, so classroom teachers can wait to input your goals if you’re interested in adopting those goals as your own. Other licensed staff will need to develop your own goals, but please connect with me if you’d like any help or guidance. Please let me if you have any questions about the process.

• Early Release Friday Meeting – This week’s Early Release Friday Meeting is designated as a “Building Goals” meeting and I don’t have any pressing topics we need to discuss, so instead use this time to complete TalentEd tasks and/or the SafeSchools online trainings if you have not done so already.

• Attendance – AM and PM Reminder – Quite a few teachers are not getting both their AM and PM attendance entered. Please be sure to mark students absent in both columns. I’ll let teachers know this week if these are not get entered properly, so people aren’t left wondering if it’s you we’re referring to, but it’s almost everyone right now. Using the TeacherVUE Synergy app on your phone or tablet (iOS or Android) can be an easier for taking attendance than on your computer. In setting it up, use the URL https://sis.4j.lane.edu/

• Tardies Definition – Related to the above, just to make sure everyone is on the same page for when to mark a student as tardy, the agreement staff made a few years ago is that any student not inside the classroom before the 7:55 bell rings is considered tardy. Lori starts giving out tardy passes and recording tardies in Synergy after 8:00. For any students in the building before then who are not yet in class, teachers need to record that as tardy in Synergy.

• PTO Meeting Next Week – Not this week, but next week on Tuesday, September 18th from 6:00-7:00 will be the first PTO Meeting of the year. It’s typically the best attended meeting of the year by families, so it would be great if any staff can volunteer their evening to come show support for parents who are making time to be involved in their child’s school. Mark your calendars and hope to see you there!

• Tech Trot (jog-a-thon) Info – I’ll have more info next week, but the PTO is holding our annual Tech Trot/Jog-a-Thon this fall on Oct. 3rd instead of in the spring and in place of the Cookie Dough fundraiser. I’ve tentatively scheduled the jog-a-thon times for:

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

I wasn’t able to work around everyone’s recess and PE/Music times, but this was the least disruptive schedule I could come up with (2nd grade will need to have morning recess with 3rd grade, Groshong’s 4th grade Music will have to move to Monday, and 5th grade will need to have morning recess with 4th grade). Let me know if you see any schedule conflicts I missed.

The PTO has again secured sponsors to provide free Howard T-Shirts (royal purple this year) for all students and staff thanks to a donation from Sentinel One. The PTO is also hoping to get ideas for incentives (pie in the face, lip-sync battle, etc.) as well as volunteers for some goofy rewards. More details to come, but let me know your ideas, thoughts, or questions.

• Student Care Team – Our first Student Care Team meeting is in a couple weeks on Wednesday, September 26th, so if you have any student situations you would like brought to the team, please let me know.

For staff new to Howard, The Student Care Team is part of DHS’s Self-Sufficiency Program. Meetings are intended for directing community resources and services to families looking for help, and avoiding families falling through the social services cracks. The goal of the team is to prevent child abuse and neglect by working together as a team to discuss concerns about children/families, problem solve solutions, collaborate, and assist in brokering resources for families. Families typically sign a disclosure form, which allows DHS to do a lot of research before we meet, looking into family history and what types of resources they would or would not qualify for. In addition to situations where families are seeking help, we’re also able to discuss hypothetical situations (not using names) with DHS representatives, which can be very helpful for how to address challenging situations where families will not sign a release. Our partnership with DHS’s Self-Sufficiency Program has been an extremely valuable resource for us and for our families.

Common referrals, though not limited to, are:

• Homeless or impending homelessness
• Medical concerns about the child or other family
• Extreme behavior issues – ­additional supports needed outside of school
• Mental health concerns (child or family member)
• Death of a parent
• Incarcerated parent -­ concerns about recent incarceration or pending release
• Unknown if open child welfare case but has concerns that were called in
• Domestic Violence
• Specific resource needed but unknown where to refer

DHS staff have been great about connecting families in difficult situations with various community resources and helping out with difficult situations, so please let me know if you have any students/families you’d like referred to the team. Linked here is the Care Team Release Form (English and Spanish) that families sign for their situation to be openly discussed by the team. 

• 4/5 Strings Recruitment Assembly, 9/21 @8:45 – Next week, on Friday, September 21st at 8:45 in the gym will be the annual strings recruitment assembly for the BEST/Eugene Springfield Youth Orchestra Program for 4th and 5th grade classrooms. See the linked Assembly Map & Directions for details.

• Fire Drill Info – Our September Fire Drill will be later this month on Thursday, September 27th (my birthday) at 8:25, but just in case we unexpectedly need it earlier, linked here is an updated Building Evacuation Map (a higher resolution version is on the Team Drive). The evacuation routes are the same as last year, but I’ve updated the spots where classes line up to include new classrooms and teachers. Evacuation procedures can be found in the Howard Staff Handbook (or ask a wily Howard veteran). Let me know if you have any questions.

• EWEB Power Outage Sept. 15 & 16 – EWEB has to turn off the power again this coming weekend starting at 1:00 on Saturday, Sept. 15th and also on Sunday, Sept. 16th. The same as last time, staff are welcome to work in the building, but there will be minimal lighting and power, although office copiers will have power and can be used.

• Updated 2017-2018 Master Schedule – There have been a few more tweaks to the master schedule, which has been updated on the Team Drive. If you see any changed not reflected on the schedule, let me know.

• No Students in Utility Courtyard – Some classes were cutting through Utility Courtyard (where the trash compacter and dumpsters are located) as a shortcut from the playground to PE and Music. For safety reasons, students are not allowed in this area, but classes are welcome to walk with their teacher around the front of the building.

• 2018-2019 Leadership Plans – HR emailed principals this year’s Elementary Leadership Plan Process, which are due to HR November 9th. 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, and ELA leadership roles. If you have thoughts on this year’s plan, please email me by the end of the week. I’d like to share Leadership Plan proposals at next week’s Staff Meeting and then vote on a plan at the October Staff Meeting.

• BEST Coordinator Update – Helene Hancock was hired as Howard’s BEST Coordinator. Helene has a BA in Family and Human Services, and has experience working at Jasper Mountain and at Willamalane as a program leader and also at a rec program at Guy Lee. Please welcome Helen to the Howard Team!

• SPED 1:1 EA Job Posting – Thanks in large part to Nurse Robin, we are getting a 1:1 CLC EA to support a medically fragile upper grade student. If you know of anyone who’d be good for this position and who’d be a good match for the Howard Team, please encourage them to apply! The Job Posting closes this Friday, September 14th.

• Substitute Folders/information (EA and Guest Teachers) – Principals received and email from HR to give our yearly reminder regarding preparations for guest teachers and classified substitutes. Early  planning for substitutes helps everyone when someone is absent. This is important prep work to do BEFORE staff are absent. Linked here is a List of Suggested Sub Information/Items that staff should consider when preparing lesson plans and substitute folders. With the goal being seamless transition and a successful day when regular staff are out, it is essential that our Guest Teachers and EA Substitutes receive the best information possible. To highlight one need, be sure to provide info for substitutes how to have access to a laptop for instruction, research, and management. This laptop SHOULD NOT be the teacher’s profile on the teacher laptop as there may be a great deal of confidential information on that machine. Instead, set up a guest account. Sub folders are located in the office.

• ThinkCentral Help – Sarah Prater already sent an email regarding log-in information for Journeys online component, ThinkCentral, but I also wanted teachers to know that I have admin access to add/change student and teacher accounts (left over from when we piloted Journeys 4 or 5 years ago) if you ever run into any problems.

• REPEAT: PBIS Rules Review – Teachers should have now reviewed the Playground Rules 18-19 Google Slide Show. As a reminder, remember to also do the daily Quick Minute – Recess Rules Round-Up, where you’ll talk more in-depth about one piece of playground equipment each day, September 6th through 18th, as well as covering the PBIS Rules for Common School Areas (i.e. restrooms, cafeteria, hallways, etc.).

• REPEAT: Principal Visits to Classrooms – If you haven’t already, let me know a good 10 minutes block of time I can come and visit with your class to introduce myself and to also read a story.

• REPEAT: Artist in Residence Survey DUE Friday – Classroom teachers, please complete the linked Artist in Residence Google Form by the end of the week so I can bring a proposal ahead of time to next week’s Staff Meeting for a decision. Please look at the Lane Arts Artist in Residence webpages for details on each artist.

• Seesaw PD in Your PJsSeesaw, an excellent app I’d encourage all classroom teachers to use, offers free online training sessions where teachers can learn more about how to can use Seesaw in your classrooms. Webinars range from beginner to advanced and are broken out by PreK-2 and 3-5. See the link to September PD in Your PJs to sign-up.

• How to Remember Students’ Names – Instead of resorting to “Hey, you,” try these techniques in an article from Edutopia for retrieving names.

• Manage Your Classroom with Strong Relationships – Relationships are the core of a cohesive classroom, and even more so when working with students living in poverty. In the latest issue of ASCD Express, find strategies for connecting with students and their families, building key relationship-sustaining skills into your classroom culture, and reflecting on your own practice in ways that reconnect with this fundamental aspect of teaching and learning.

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

September 10 (M)
easyCBM Benchmark Testing Through Friday
Operation School Bell Forms Available
10:00, Allan Reading to Class
1:30, Allan Reading to Class

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

September 12 (W)
8:30, Allan Meeting w/Staff Growth and Effectiveness Administrator, Rob Hess (Office)
12:30, Allan Reading to Class

September 13 (H)
2:00, Allan to SPED Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-5:00, Parenting Now Presentation (Library)

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

September 17 (M)
Title 1 Individual Diagnostic Testing Through Friday
4:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting

September 18 (T)
Mrs. Henry’s Birthday!
2:40-3:30, Staff Meeting (Volunteer’s Classroom)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Conference Room)

September 19 (W)
Talk Like a Pirate Day
Operation School Bell Requests Due

September 20 (H)
Regular Day

September 21 (F)
Vision Screening (tentative)
Allan Meeting w/Title Staff to Make Groups
8:45-9:15, 4/5 Strings Assembly (Gym)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Behavior Framework (Volunteer’s Classroom)

Have an excellent first full week of school!

Allan

 

September 3, 2018

 

Hi Everyone,

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

Thirty-three items of note for this week:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Insurance Stuff – Two insurance relating items:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September 6 (H)
Regular Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Allan

Photo Safari!

Team Charissa

 

Team Davina

Team Imelda

Team Jenefer

Team Racheal

Team Tyler

August 27, 2018

Greetings Roadrunners,

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

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

A record breaking 32 items of note for this week:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Library classes will begin the first full week of school

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

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

Looking forward to a great school year!

Julie Hopkins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Math PD FAQs…

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

September 3 (M) – Labor Day, No School

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Items that will no longer be accepted:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September 6 (H)
Regular Day

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

See you soon!

Allan

May 28, 2018

 

Greetings Everyone,

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

Sixteen items of note for this week:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 28 (M)
Memorial Day, No School

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 18 (M)
Last Day for Licensed Staff

June 28 (H)
Allan’s Last Day

July 26 (H)
Allan Reports Back to Work

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

Allan

 

 

May 21, 2018

 

Hello Roadrunners,

Thank you, everyone, for doing your best to manage students with our massive all-school photo last week. Next year I think we’ll try a different spot. The courtyard was too tight of a space for all 528 students and 93 staff member. Maybe next year we will try the front of the school and take the picture from the roof. Picture coming soon (once it’s been reviewed for any stray middle fingers).

Twelve items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – HR has completed the classified bumping process and none of our classified folks were bumped, so with the exception of the two SSD displacements shared earlier, Team Howard will remain intact.

• Wildlife Safari Assembly, Wednesday, May 30 – Not this week, but next week on Wednesday, May 30th in the gym is an assembly put on by Wildlife Safari. Kindergarten and 1st grade pooled their PTO field trip/enrichment money and thought they’d invite other grade levels to attend if you’d like to come. The 3-5 assembly is 8:45-9:45 and K-2 assembly is 10:00-11:00. The program is “To Eat or to Be Eaten,” asking, did you know some animals are vegetarians? What’s the difference between a food chain and a food web? Carnivores, omnivores, herbivores, decomposers, plants, and scavengers – can one live without the other? Examine how we are all linked in the delicate circle of life. See the linked Assembly Map & Directions for details.

• Care Team Referrals Due Friday – The May Student Care Team is next week (the final meeting of the school year), so any new referrals are due to me this Friday. Linked here is the 4J Release Form to get signed, but you can also refer “hypothetical” student or family situations. Let me know if you have any questions.

• Subs and Absence Planning – Last Friday we had five unfilled sub job, three of which were classrooms, but the amazing Howard team stepped up and got everything covered. That being said, 4J has been running short subs a number of different days this month and it will likely continue through end the of the year, so if you have any known dates you are going to be absent, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE prearrange a sub ahead of time and/or enter your absence as soon as possible so it will more likely get filled.

• REPEAT: PTO Book Money – Classroom teachers, don’t forget about your PTO McTeacher $75 is donating for teachers to purchase books for your classroom libraries. And remember, the deadline for Lori to create POs or do credit card purchases is May 24th and all reimbursements are due by June 15.

• Artist in STEAM Room 5/28 – 6/13 – Please note that STEAM Room will be unavailable between May 28th and June 13th for the 3/4/5 Artist in Residence, Merideth Ferrell, set up her space for silk painting.

• REPEAT: Pride Awards: Excellence, Wednesday – This Wednesday at lunchtime in the cafeteria will be our PRIDE Awards for Excellence. If you haven’t done so already, pick 2-3 students who have demonstrated Excellence and get them to me by Tuesday. Also remember to send home the PRIDE Award Invitations to parents before the event.

• REPEAT: Fire Drill, Thursday at 1:35 – Thursday is the May fire drill. We’ll making it easy on ourselves and holding the drill while two grade levels are on a field trips, so it will be Thursday, May 24th at 1:35.

• FREE NCAA Track and Field Championships – The University of Oregon and partners are providing K-8 students FREE access to Olympic Day at the NCAA Track and Field Championships on June 10th. Youth will hear inspirational stories from Olympians that emphasize achieving your goals, the importance of education, and empowering yourself through hard work. Each youth can bring one chaperone and will enjoy the Championship Meet at the NCAA’s. Feel free to share the linked Flyer in English and Spanish.

• With Student Trauma, It’s OK to Set Boundaries – Student trauma impacts teachers, too. Taking care of yourself isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. In working with students who are in pain, educators may experience emotional, physical, and relational symptoms, with many affected teachers emphasizing a kind of depression rooted in a reduced sense of personal accomplishment (i.e. you may feel like no matter what you do, you’re not doing enough for your students). See this Edutopia article for suggestions on how to reduce professional isolation, pursue opportunities for PD, and develop realistic expectations and set boundaries.

• Report: Teachers spend own money on supplies – No, this is not a headline from The Onion and is certainly not news to people who work at Howard, but I thought folks might enjoy reading this article. Ninety-four percent of teachers in the US spend their own money on classroom supplies, according to a survey by the National Center for Education Statistics. On average, teachers spend about $479 annually, with teachers in higher-poverty schools spending the most, which I thought was especially interesting.

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

May 21 (M)
Library – Book Return Week
10:00-11:00, UO SPICE Visit to Jill & Lupe
10:25, Allan Covering Classroom
3:30, 5th Grade Teachers Meet w/Kelly for MS Transitions

May 22 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elem. Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
9:15-9:45, Kelly Students Visit Howard 5th graders (Cafeteria)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Mariah’s Room, RM23)
5:00-7:00, BEST/YMCA Family Pizza & Movie Night (Cafeteria)

May 23 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
9:15-10:15, Howard Students Visit Kelly (KMS)
11:00-12:45, PRIDE Awards at Lunch (Excellence)
5:30-7:00, 4J ACE (A Champion in Education) Awards Celebration (Churchill HS)

May 24 (H)
June Newsletter Article Due
8:00-5:00, 5th Grade OMSI Field Trip
8:00-5:00, 2nd Grade Zoo Field Trip
8:30-3:30, Allan to Report Card Revision Team Meeting (Ed Center)
1:35, Fire Drill

May 25 (F)
Howard PD Day, No School
BOGO Book Fair Set-Up
Linda Kirk’s Classroom Giveaway Ends (Staff Room)
Towel Day
8:00-12:00, Staff Meeting/PD (Cafeteria)

May 28 (M)
Memorial Day, No School

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

May 30 (W)
8:15-9:15, 3-5 Wildlife Safari Assembly (Gym)
10:00-11:00, K-2 Wildlife Safari Assembly (Gym)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team (Conference Room)
4:00-5:30, Allan to Report Card Revision Team Meeting (Ed Center)

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

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

Have a great week, everyone!

Allan

May 14, 2018

Hi All,

I’d like to congratulate Howard’s ACE Award Nominees, Ashley, Becky, Katie, and Rae! Each of your are very deserving of your nominations, so thank you for all your work! We have many folks in our building worthy of ACE Awards, and it always makes us look good when multiple people working at our school receive nominations. ACE nominees will be celebrated at the awards ceremony at Churchill High School on Wednesday, May 23, 5:30–7:00PM. The event is free and open to the public. Nice work, you four!

Twenty-one items of note for this week:

• May 25th Howard PD Day – I’m still finalizing the times on the agenda for Howard’s final Academy Day (we won’t have any after this year with the new Standard School Schedule), but we’ll meet in a volunteer’s classroom from 8:00-12:00. Topics for the meeting will include Tech Sharing, Business Items (CTL Reports & Field Day Info), New Science Equipment Sharing, ECET2 Team Sharing, Homework Policy Review, and an introduction to the district-wide PLC model rolling out to all elementary schools next year. This is all pretty teacher-focused, so classified staff are welcome to attend, but not required.

• Tech Trot & All-School Selfie Wednesday – The Tech Trot is in this Wednesday and the schedule will be:

• 8:15-9:00 – 2nd & 3rd Grade
• 9:15-10:00 – 4th & 5th Grade
• 10:15-11:00 – Kinder & 1st Grade

Kids will run the track for 30 minutes and will collect bands for each lap they run/jog/walk around the track. Drinks and snacks will also be provided for students at the end.

Student t-shirts will arrive Tuesday, but DO NOT hand them out until Wednesday (additional shirts ordered by families may go home earlier). Please put all fundraiser envelopes you receive in Lori’s Office.

For the all-school photo, make sure your students are in their matching shirts. We’ll meet in the courtyard at 12:50. See the linked All-School Photo Map and Directions for where classes will stand to have their picture taken from the green wing balcony. We may need to adjust positions once we get out there, but I think we’ll all fit in frame. Let me know if you have any questions.

• Staffing Updates – Good news! Howard received additional staffing to add a fourth 5th grade classroom next year. It did come with the caveat that this will be a “district pool hire” meaning that that if in the fall we do not have the enrollment to justify an additional teacher, the district will move the teacher to another building, which is something I feel is completely fair and reasonable. Since this is a pool hire, I will not be the hiring administrator, but I will be on the interview committee, which should happen sometime this spring.

Where this classroom will be located is still to-be-determined, but the SSD Early Childhood Team (ECT) is having to move out of Howard to make room for our added classroom, and the confirmed moves are; Becky moving into Erin’s Room, Erin moving into the ECT Room, Katie moving into Jill’s Room, and Imelda moving into Katie’s Room.

• 18/19 Student Textbook Needs – Since we’re adding a fourth 5th grade classroom, I know we’ll need an additional set of teacher guides for reading, writing, math, and Caring School Community. If your grade level needs any additional students texts or teacher guides, let me know by Friday, so I have enough time to track them down between now and the end of the school year. To help teacher know what you’ll need for next year, our current student count per grade level for next year is: KG (75 projected), 1st (76), 2nd (87), 3rd (80), 4th (86), 5th (88).

• REPEAT: Journeys & Being a Writer Materials Order DUE FRIDAY – Related to the above item, orders are due this Friday by following this link for Journeys and Being a Writer Materials for next school year. See the linked Piktochart for details.

• EA Supervisor Meeting Updates – Recess supervisors met last week and clarified a few playground rules. The team will plan to review all of our playground rules before the end of the year to aww if there are any other changes we want to make before next fall.

• Twirling on Bars, NO – Students are not allowed to twirl (i.e. spinning around) on the playground bars because there are no actual twirl bars and all of our bars have attached rings.

• Flipping on Rings, YES – It is okay for students to hang by their hands and flip (as a kid, we called it “skin the cat”) as long as they are not hanging upside down for an extended amount of time. For the larger structure, only 4th and 5th grade students may flip due to the hight of the structure.

• Sitting on Spinners, YES – It’s okay for students to sit on the spinners if they are using it by themselves, though not if someone is trying to push them since the pusher would likely get kicked.

• Pencils, Papers, and Books on Playground, YES – It’s okay for students to bring pencils and papers onto the playground as long as they are not running with pencils and using them appropriately. It’s also okay for students to bring books out to the playground as long as they are not library books.

• Circular Crows Nest Sitting, YES for now – This was our controversial item, but the rule for now is that older students who can safely climb onto the “Crows Nets” may sit on the bottom ring as long as they are doing so safely. If they are not using it safely, or sitting on the top ring, they will not be allowed to use the crows nest.

• Class Lists/Student Info Formats? – It’s time to start thinking about next year’s class lists! Last year we used a Google Sheet for class lists instead of old timey placement cards. See the linked Sample Class List Sheet. If the headings look good (IEP, ELD, Behavior, Title, TAG, General Functioning/Ability) I’ll share a Google Sheet for teachers to start adding students. Let me know by Friday if there is anything you think should be changed, added, or deleted. One change I am making this year is to limit who has access to edit, because last year some changes were made that weren’t processed with everyone involved. All staff will have view access and grade level teachers will have editing access to the next grade level up.

• Updated Artist in Residence Schedule – Linked here is what is hopefully the final 3/4/5/ Artist in Residence Schedule for Merideth Ferrell (Silk Painting). There’s been a lot of negotiation on this one. Jenny and Carla/Zach are the ones who had changes from the last schedule. Hopefully none of you see a need for any further changes at this point. The schedule for the K/1/2 artist, Maiya Becker (ReUse Art) is the same.

• Master Schedule Recess/Lunch Survey Results – A majority of the response to the recess/lunch survey for next year were for a 20 minute morning recess and a 40 minute lunch/recess (with 5-minutes shaved off of each recess on early release days). There were 14 total responses, with 57.1% wanting the above option, 28.6% wanting the 15/30/15 minute option, and 14.3% wanting the 15/35/10 minute option. Broken out by licensed and classified staff responses, the 20/40 minute lunch option was the top choice for both groups, so this is the plan we will move forward with. Once the district standard schedule is finalized and once we know how PE and Music will work for next year, we’ll start the process for developing next year’s master schedule. I’ve shared earlier that that the master schedule development process will be that first, workshop staff will develop a draft schedule, and then a committee of interested staff will work on fleshing out the schedule. We’ll prioritize scheduling for grade levels with larger classes and higher needs.

• Pride Awards: Excellence, May 23rd – Not this week, but next week on Wednesday, May 23rd during lunchtime in the cafeteria will be our PRIDE Awards for Excellence. Teachers should remind students about PRIDE and the meaning of Excellence (“Do Your Personal Best”), and then pick 2-3 students who have demonstrated Excellence. Be sure to get the Excellence PRIDE Certificates to me before the 23rd so I can sign them and get them organized. And remember to send home the PRIDE Award Invitations to parents before the event.

• Fire Drill, May 24th at 1:35 – Also not this week, but next week is the May fire drill. We’ll make it easy on ourselves and hold the drill while two grade levels are on a field trips, so it will be Thursday, May 24th at 1:35.

• Howard PTO Carnival Info – The PTO emailed information about the annual Howard PTO Carnival to teachers, but didn’t include all staff, so see the above link if you’d like to read more about their Beep, Beep, Best Day Ever!

• Student Laptop Printing Disabled – I’ve had to ask Peggy to disable student printing from laptops to copiers due to unnecessary printouts continuing to get sent to copiers. Sorry for the inconvenience, but it’s unfortunately necessary. There was about five reams of “Hi” sent to a copier that was only stopped when the job got cancelled at the copier. If students do need to print something, have them share the file with their teacher.

• Preschool Promise Recruiting – If you know of any low-income families (they must be 200% below poverty level) who have preschool age children ages 3-5, please let them know about Howard’s Preschool Promise program. Information and application forms (English and Spanish) are available on the Howard website and in the office. If they have questions, encourage them to contact Gretchen by phone (541-790-4957) or email (baxter_g@4j.lane.edu)

• Students Saving Hot Lunch Items – It was asked if students can take leftover food from the cafeteria back to class to take home. The answer is that it is okay to take unopened or uneaten items, such apples or string cheese that don’t make messes, if students are going straight back to class from the cafeteria or if they place the item in their classroom lunch basket before going out to recess, but students may not take food onto the playground.

• Window Tint Trial – Facilities is testing a more solid of window tint in Erin’s Room (RM27) if you want to check it out. You’ll also notice a cardboard triangle on the interior reflecting shelf, which is a trial to see about eliminating the direct light above that space. If it works, then it would be a section of metal or Plexiglas in the final configuration. PiVOT Architecture is coming by at some point to take light readings across the white board on one sunny afternoon.

• EA & Teacher Title 1 Summer School Jobs – EA’s, if you are interested in returning and previously worked at summer school you do not need to apply. If you are interested and have not previously worked as a Summer School EA, watch the 4J Jobs website because it will be post soon. Teachers, the posting for Title 1 Summer School Teachers is already on the 4j website and closes Tuesday.

• REPEAT: PTO Meeting Tuesday at 6:00 – Tuesday at 6:00 in the Community Room is the May PTO meeting where we’ll vote in next year’s PTO Board. It would be great if any staff are able to volunteer their time to come show support for our new board of parent volunteers!

• REPEAT: 2/3 Ukulele Club Assembly Friday, May 18th – This Friday is the 3rd Grade Ukulele Club Performance for 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. See the linked Assembly Map & Directions for details.

• Guiding Students to a Healthy Math Identity – Young mathematicians need to see that the keys to success are passion and dedication, not speed and always being right. Helping children shift from the fixed mindset—one that says some people were born to be great mathematicians while others are doomed to struggle—is critical to supporting the next generation of math students. See this Edutopia article for details!

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

May 14 (M)
Library – Last Week of Checkout (1 book per student)
Artist in Residence #2 (Maiya Becker, ReUse Art, K-2 & LS) Continues
3/4/5 Math Performance Task
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

May 15 (T)
3/4/5 Math Performance Task
11:00-12:30, Allan Leading PBIS Tour for New Zealand Principal
2:00-3:00, Allan Helping at KITS Interviews (Ed Center)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)

May 16 (W)
8:15-9:00, 2/3 Tech Trot Event (Track)
9:15-10:00, 4/5 Tech Trot Event (Track)
10:15-11:00, K/1 Tech Trot Event (Track)

May 17 (H)
3/4/5 Math Performance Task Make-Ups

May 18 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
9:25-11:45, KG to Shedd Field Trip
11:00-12:50, All School BBQ (Cafeteria)
11:30, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)
1:30-1:55, Ukulele Club Assembly (Gym)
4:00-Sunday, Allan and Howard ECET2 Team to Portland
7:00-8:00, String Academy Concert (Kelly MS)

May 21 (M)
Library – Book Return Week
10:00-11:00, UO SPICE Visit to Jill & Lupe
3:30, 5th Grade Teachers Meet w/Kelly for MS Transitions

May 22 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elem. Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
9:15-9:45, Kelly Students Visit Howard 5th graders
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Mariah’s Room, RM23)
5:00-7:00, BEST/YMCA Family Pizza & Movie Night (Cafeteria)

May 23 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
9:15-10:15, Howard Students Visit Kelly (KMS)
11:00-12:45, PRIDE Awards at Lunch (Excellence)

May 24 (H)
June Newsletter Article Due
8:00-5:00, 5th Grade OMSI Field Trip
8:00-5:00, 2nd Grade Zoo Field Trip
1:35, Fire Drill

May 25 (F)
Howard PD Day, No School
BOGO Book Fair Set-Up
8:00-12:00, Staff Meeting/PD (Cafeteria)

May 28 (M)
Memorial Day, No School

FUN FACT! This week is our last full 5-day week of the school year! There’s a PD day next week, Memorial Day the following week, Grading Day the next week, and the final week of the school year has an 11:05 dismissal on the last day, so it’s practically summer!

Allan

May 7, 2018

Howdy Howard Staff,

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and I’d like to recognize the work of ALL of our amazing staff members. Howard is a special place for students and families and it’s because of you all that Howard’s reputation as a great school has continued to grow (as has our enrollment). I think what sets our staff apart from others is our esprit de corps, where we’re all in it together and take pride in what we do. And although our jobs can be challenging at times, the people here are what make things manageable. You all are my work family and I look forward to seeing you each and every day. Thank you for being such an marvelous and talented staff to work with!

Eighteen items of note for this week:

• Staffing Update – Naveeta Medart, who came to Howard after spring break as a CLC 1:1 EA with a new student from Edison, is moving on to new opportunities and her last day will be this Friday. She’s done a nice job during her short time here at Howard, so please wish her well when you see her this week.

• Master Schedule Recess/Lunch Survey Question – The Proposed Standard School Schedule requires 60 minutes daily for lunch & recesses and 50 minutes on early release days. I’d like staff feedback on how you’d like to implement this. Please complete the linked 2018-2019 Master Schedule Survey by Friday if you’d like to have your say.

• Updated Artist in Residence Schedules – Linked here is an Updated Artist in Residence Schedule for both artists. For the K-2 ReUse Art starting this week, Pond’s class was the only one that had a change. For 3-5 Silk Painting, I had to do a major overhaul of the schedule that changed just about everyone’s times due to some field trips and assemblies that have since come up. Let me know if you spot anything wrong with the schedule that needs changing.

• 2/3 Ukulele Club Assembly Friday, May 18th – Not this Friday, but Friday next week will be a Ukelele Club Performance. Siera has been meeting with a group of 3rd graders after school on Wednesdays and they’d like to perform for their 3rd grade peers and also for 2nd graders to help recruit for next year. See the linked Ukulele Club Assembly Map & Directions for details.

• HR Classified Notice of Assignment Timeline – I’ve had a few people ask, so I thought I’d let all classified staff know that the week of May 14th is when final letters of assignment will be sent to all classified employees. Prior to that, HR and OSEA will review staffing and any displacements, layoffs, recall list, etc. Please let me know if you have any questions on this.

• Last Day for POs & Reimbursements – The last day Lori can create POs or do credit card purchases from student body funds is May 24th. General funds will be about the same, but only if the merchandise will be here before June 15. All employee reimbursement requests are also be due by June 15.

• PTO Meeting Tuesday, May 15th – Not this week, but next week is the May PTO meeting where we’ll vote in next year’s PTO Board. It would be wonderful if any staff are able to come to show our support and appreciation for these new parents stepping up to help support Howard.

• Report Cards are Open – If any teachers are feeling like real go-getters, report cards are now open in Synergy.

• Nag, Nag, Nag – Actually just two pointed nags:

• Don’t take food that’s not yours! – There were six ziplock bags of cookies with “Title 1” written on them in the upstairs workroom freezer and now there’s only one and a half bags left. If you took these, please let me or Title 1 staff know so they can be replaced. We’ve similarly had food disappear recently from other areas as well, so unless it’s your food (or if it’s a freebie left on a Staff Room table), don’t take it.

• Watch Your Students’ Printing – Our copy counts are already way over and there’s still over a month of school left in the year, so please watch that your students are not sending frivolous printouts to the copiers, such as this Roblox printout (and as an aside, students should not be playing Roblox during school due to inappropriate content and chat capabilities with strangers).

• Care Team Resources – Here are a few more resources shared by our DHS contact. These and many other resources can be found on the Howard Google Team Drive under Meetings/Teams > Student Care Team > Resources

• Unlimited Summer Fun with the 1 PASS – Scholarships are available for kids to access Parks & Rec activities this summer for free or at a reduced cost when filling out the linked applications for Eugene or Springfield. They must resident within the Eugene or Springfield, which unfortunately excludes a lot of Howard students. Eugene’s applications are first-come-first-serve and Springfield applications are due May 20th. See the links above for details.

• Double Your SNAP Dollars At the Farmers Market – Double Up Food Bucks will be offered at the Lane County Farmers Market at 8th & Oak, 10am-3pm on Tuesdays. Families simply go to the information tent, swipe their EBT card, and they will receive up to an additional $10 a day for SNAP eligible foods. See the flyer for details.

• Womenspace Survivor Groups – See the linked support group flyers for details regarding a Men’s Group, Parenting in Crisis Classes, Intimate Partner Violence Education, and a Latinas Support Group.

• Mental Health Awareness Month Event – Come celebrate mental health awareness month with NAMI at their FREE Community Celebration Sunday May 20th, 1-4 pm at Alton Baker Park Eugene. All activities will be free of charge. For more information, visit their website.

• BEST Grant Application Timeline – I’ve mentioned earlier that the current 3-year ODE state grant for BEST is up this year and 4J is currently applying to renew the grant. June 1st is when we will be notified if we were awarded the grant or not.

• iPad Case Replacement – If you have a Speck iPad Case that break, email Peggy at 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu. These have a lifetime and warranty and we can get replacements for free.

• REPEAT: Walk & Roll to School Day “Walking School Bus” – Wednesday is Walk & Roll to School Day. If you’re able to sign-up to help with the “Walking School Bus,” we’re having regular ed buses park at Trinity United Methodist Church with volunteers stationed along Maxwell to Grove to Howard during the walk. See the map below and the sign-up link details.

• REPEAT: Wacky Wednesday, Extreme Hair Day – This Wednesday is Extreme Hair Day, so get your kids excited about this spirit day and start planning your own crazy hair!

• K-12 Comprehensive Human Sexuality Workgroup – Downtown is seeking teachers, counselors, EAs, admin, parents, students, and community partners for a workgroup to adopt a comprehensive K-12 human sexuality program. This is in response the a new ODE requirement. See this link for additional information. Let me know by the end of the week if any of you are interested in serving on this committee and I can forward your name.

• “13 Reasons Why” Season 2, May 18th – The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) has shared guidance regarding regarding the upcoming second season of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, which if you’re not familiar was very popular among adolescents and raised significant concerns for parents, educators, and mental health professionals because of its dramatic, often graphic portrayal of difficult issues such as sexual assault and suicide. These topics sadly touch the lives of elementary age students, including students here at Howard. See the linked NASP article for information and resources regarding these topics and the series, which some of our students will undoubtedly watch.

• Join The Movement! The Daily Mile – Some of our kindergarten and 3rd grade classes already run the track daily, and other classes might want to consider this as well. Robin Vaughan shared with me The Daily Mile, which is 15 golden minutes of childhood where school children go out into the fresh air and run, jog or walk, at their own pace, every day at school. The initiative has frequently been described as a “no-brainer” and helps children be fit for life and fit for learning!

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

May 7 (M)
Staff/Teacher Appreciation Week
3/4/5 Math OAKS
Artist in Residence #2 (Maiya Becker, ReUse Art, K-2 & LS) Begins

May 8 (T)
3/4/5 Math OAKS
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elem. Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
8:30-12:30, LCC Dental Clinic
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Mariah’s Room, RM23)

May 9 (W)
3/4/5 Math OAKS
Wacky Wednesday-Extreme Hair Day
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
Walk & Roll to School Day
7:15-7:45, Walking School Bus (Trinity United Methodist Church)
12:05, Allan Covering a Classroom
1:15, EA Supervisors Meeting (RM26)
1:30, Allan to IFSP Meeting (RM12)
2:30-3:30, PBIS Team Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)
2:30-3:30, Allan to Wrap Around Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-5:15, Allan to Report Card Committee Meeting

May 10 (H)
3/4/5 Math OAKS
2:15, Allan to Eval. Planning Meeting (RM25)
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)

May 11 (F)
3/4/5 Math OAKS
2:30-3:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

May 14 (M)
Library – Last Week of Checkout (1 book per student)
Artist in Residence #2 (Maiya Becker, ReUse Art, K-2 & LS) Continues
3/4/5 Math Performance Task
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

May 15 (T)
3/4/5 Math Performance Task
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)

May 16 (W)
8:15-9:00, 2/3 Tech Trot Event (Track)
9:15-10:00, 4/5 Tech Trot Event (Track)
10:15-11:00, K/1 Tech Trot Event (Track)

May 17 (H)
3/4/5 Math Performance Task Make-Ups

May 18 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
1:30-1:55, Ukulele Club Assembly (Gym)
4:00-Sunday, Allan and Howard ECET2 Team to Portland
7:00-8:00, String Academy Concert (Kelly MS)

Have an excellent week everyone and look for some nice appreciations from our PTO this week!

Allan