Math

October 9, 2017

By Allan  |  2017/10/07 11:07 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Equity, Math, P.D., Technology, Video  |  Comments Off on October 9, 2017

 

Hello Roadrunners!

It’s a short week with kids coming Monday through Wednesdays, with a Howard PD Day Thursday and State In-Service Day Friday.

Twenty-one items of note for this week:

• AESOP Job Note for Classified Subs – Classified staff, please enter your job title into the “Notes to Substitute” section of AESOP when you put in for a sub. AESOP is not good at giving subs a clear idea of what jobs they are picking up and this helps clarify.

• Licensed Staff Sub Folders – Most all classified staff have tuned in their sub folders to the office, but we’re still waiting on a number of licensed staff member sub folders. If you haven’t completed and turned yours in to Lori, please do so by the end of this week. Linked here is HR’s recommended list of Guest Teacher Folder Content.

• Classified Comp Time – Overtime and Compensatory “Comp” Time must have prior, written approval from a supervisor, which is most easily done by emailing me before to the date(s) you’re planning to accumulate comp time. Some additional notes regarding comp time:

• Overtime or Compensatory (comp) time (time and a half) for any time worked in excess of 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week.
• Comp time requests must be submitted in writing (or email) prior to being accumulated.
• Only for occasional and irregular overtime work.
• Maximum of 240 hours may be accumulated.
• Must be used or paid within 26 months of earning.

Let me know if you have any questions.

• Number Talks Tips/Reminders – I wanted to highlight the Number Talks Cheat Sheet on page 1 of the Number Talks Packet (the green spiral) teachers were given at last week’s training. These are the golden rules for number talks, which everyone should try between now and our next Number Talks training on Tuesday, October 17th:

What does Number Talks look like?

o Students are near each other so they can communicate with each other (central meeting place)
o Students are mentally solving problems
o Students are given thinking time
o Thumbs up show when they are ready
o Teacher is recording students’ thinking

Communication

o Having to talk out loud about a problem helps students clarify their own thinking .
o Allow students to listen to other’s strategies and value other’s thinking
o Gives the teacher the opportunity to hear student’s thinking

Mental Math

o When you are solving a problem mentally you must rely on what you know and understand about the numbers
instead of memorized procedures
o You must be efficient when computing mentally because you can hold a lot of quantities in your head

Thumbs Up

o This is just a signal to let you know that you have given your students enough timq to think about the problem
o If will give you a picture of who is able to compute mentally and who is struggling
o It isn’t as distracting as a waving hand

Teacher as Recorder

o Allows you to record students’ thinking in the correct notation
o Provides a visual to look at and refer back to
o Allows you to keep a record of the problems posed and which students offered specific strategies

Purposeful Problems

o Start with small numbers so the students can learn to focus on the strategies instead of getting lost in the
numbers
o Use a number string [a string of problems that are related to and scaffold each other)

Starting Number Talks in your Classroom

o Start with specific problems in mind
o Be prepared to offer a strategy from a previous student
o It is ok to put a student’s strategy on the backburner
o Limit your number talks to about 15 minutes
o Ask a question, don’t tell!

The teacher asks questions:

o Who would like to share their thinking?
o Who did it another way?
o How many people solved it the same way as Billy?
o Does anyone have any questions for Billy?
o Billy, can you tell us where you got that 5?
o How did you figure that out?
o What was the first thing your eyes saw, or your brain did?
o What are Number Talks and Why are they

Additionally, linked here is an electronic version of the complete Number Talks Packet given to folks at the Number Talks training last Wednesday. And linked here is a Number Talks Lesson Planning Template, which is certainly not required to be used, but may be useful. All of the above documents are also on the Howard Google Team Drive under Curriculum/Instruction > Math > Number Talks.

• Math Updates – Linked here is an email update sent to Math Teacher Leaders, but the short version for math teachers is:

• Rekenreks – For K-2 teachers, you DO NOT have to use these but may. If you won’t be using them, please put them in your plastic tub.

• Printing Assessments – Assessments are on the grade-level pages of the 4J LearnZillion website and Jaimee will add them to the LZ Assessment Page as well.

• Optional TalentEd Goals Assistance Meeting Tuesday at 2:30 – Mentioned at last week’s Number Talks Training and in Gretta’s email, Gretta and I will be available on Tuesday at 2:30 to assist teachers with your TalentEd goals. Linked here are Shared Building Staff Goals that teachers are welcome to cut-and-paste into TalentEd. The math goal pre and post assessment are the main part teachers may want to come by for clarification/assistance with, but linked here are some K-2 examples and 3-5 examples of the types of questions grade level teams might want to use for your pre and post tests. Teachers are also welcome to develop your own goals, but all goals are to be entered by the end of this week, October 15th.

• Wacky Wednesday, Rainbow Day – This Wednesdays the first school spirit day of the year, know around Howard as a Wacky Wednesday. This time it’s Rainbow Day, so remind kids Monday & Tuesday to wear their most fabulous rainbow colors or rainbow duds on Wednesday. Personally, I ordered an excellent Rainbow Dash t-shirt I plan to wear. Future Wacky Wednesdays are:

• Nov. 8th — Favorite Sports Day
• Dec. 13th — Mismatch Clothes Day
• Jan. 10th School Color Day
• Feb. 7th — Favorite Character Day
• March 14th — Funky Sock Day
• April 11th — Favorite Animal Day
• May 9th — Extreme Hair Day
• June 6th — Day at the Beach

 

 
• PRIDE Awards, Perseverance, Oct 25th– The popular choice on the PRIDE Awards Survey is for awards to happen at lunchtime with family members invited to join their child for lunch. Dates for the awards will be:

Perseverance “Never Quit” – Wednesday, Oct. 25
Respect “Honor Yourself and Others” – Wednesday, Nov. 29
Integrity “Be Honest” – Wednesday, Jan. 17
Discipline “Work Hard at Everything” – Wednesday, Mar. 21
Excellence – “Do Your Personal Best” Wednesday, May 23

December, February, April, and June will be our big tail feather reward events. For new staff, linked here are copies of the PRIDE Award Certificates (Thank-you, Erin!). We’ll have hard copies run off ahead of time and available in the office before each assembly, but teachers should start talking to their class about PRIDE and thinking about 2-4 students who have been been demonstrating Perseverance and a “Never Quit” attitude and behavior.

• New Level 3 Form – Linked here is the new 4J Major Behavior Referral Form (i.e. Level 3) we’ll begin using once they are delivered sometime this week. The content of the form is pretty much the same as what’s on our current Level 3 form, but the format is fairly different.

These will be printed in triplicate, white on top (parent), pink in the middle (homeroom teacher) and yellow on bottom (office). As you can see on the form, there is a section of information that gets filled out on the second page, which does not go to the parent on the first page. Downtown is in the process of having the form translated into Spanish.

• Stop, Walk, Talk Review – I shared this last year, but below is a good video teachers can use for a class review of Stop, Walk, Talk at a Caring School Curriculum class meeting. Also, linked here is a Stop, Walk, Talk step-by-step Stop, Walk, Talk Lesson on teaching this strategy, which I believe was created by Brianna Stiller.
 

 
• Equity, Instruction and Partnerships Website – The 4J Office of Equity, Instruction and Partnership has a new website! The purpose of the website is to provide teachers, staff and administrators with community and district events, family resources, free/low cost professional growth opportunities in our area, and links to interpretation services and an application form (to a very small pot of money from the Equity, Instruction and Partnerships’) for student enrichment opportunities in our area (for bus, materials…). Dr. Karen Pérez-Da Silva said to let her know if there are articles, video, film, event, etc. that you recommend for the website, so feel free to email me anything you think should be posted to the website and I will forward it on. The website will be updated bi-monthly so please bookmark it for future reference.

• Commingled Recycling – In light of recent local news stories (one and two) about recycling, here’s a quick reminder of what can an cannot be placed in the blue commingled recycling containers. See the image below and click to enlarge for a printable poster. YES to paper, cardboard, foil, cans, tin cans, plastic bottles, tubs & jars, but NO to napkins, waxed cardboard, plastic pouches, styrofoam, plastic lids/caps, or plastic wrap. If you’d like to review this with your class, SaniPac has a Recycling Slide Show of what can be recycled, which is who 4J contracts with.
 

 
• Track Work Postponed – The rubber installation I mentioned last week has been deferred to later due to disagreement on the price for installation. There’s timeline for when it will be done at this point.

• UO The International Cultural Service Program Presentations – The International Cultural Service Program (ICSP) is now open for 2017-18. ICSP provides free presentations and classroom visits by specially trained international UO students. They can give cultural presentations, participate in panel discussions, and introduce activities from cooking, song, dance, and crafts, to martial arts, yoga, traditional sports, and storytelling. An updated ICSP Brochure is coming soon, but for an up to date list of available ICSP students, please visit the International Cultural Service Program website (or this link to request visits) or watch is video to see them in action.

• REPEAT: Open House (formerly Curriculum Night) Wednesday, Oct. 11th– Linked here is a English/Spanish flyer for the 2017 Howard Open House. Classrooms and specialist areas will be open 5:45-6:45, pizza will be served in the cafeteria 6:00-7:00, and a Title 1 Presentation in the library at 6:00. Classroom teachers will get Pizza Tickets (Thank you, Angela!) in your mailboxes this week.

• UPDATED: Howard PD Day, Thursday, Oct 12th – Linked here is the agenda for Thursday’s Google Classroom PD. We’ll have our usual breakfast goodies and drinks, and will start at 8:00 in the cafeteria and will go until 11:30. Charge up your devices the night before and bring them to the meeting along with a charger. Classified staff are invited, but not required to attend.

• REPEAT: State In-Service Day, Friday, Oct 13th – Friday, October 13th is State In-Service day. This is a regular work day for administrators and 192 & 196-day classified staff. This is a non-contract day for licensed staff. For classified staff, you are requited to attend the ALICE training below if you have not already been trained. If you are ever wondering about work year dates, most all of your questions can be answered on the 4J Employee Work Year Calendars webpage.

• REPEAT: District ALICE Training for New Staff, Oct. 13 – 4J is holding an ALICE training October 13th, 8:30- 11:30 at Churchill High School for staff new to the district who have not previously received ALICE training. This is a required training for any untrained classified staff, but this is a non-contract day for licensed staff, so it is an optional training for licensed staff members. Registration is required, so to do so, just click this ALICE Training Registration link.

• Classroomscreen.com – A teacher from the Netherlands made a simple tool with all their favorite digiboard widgets. They couldn’t find such a thing, so they made it it themselves. classroomscreen.com Just project the website on your board full-screen and you can:

• choose a background
• type your instructions in the textbox
• choose a work symbol
• set a timer or show the clock
• use the traffic light
• pick a random name
• do some simple math
• draw in-screen or full-screen
• generate a qr-code
• drag and drop the icons in the right place

It’s a pretty cool simple tool for interactive white boards!
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O70WXwHZKg

 
• How positive language improves student learning – Positive language can help empower students and boost academic success, asserts teacher Alyssa Nucaro. In this Edutopia blog post, she outlines her strategy, which includes eliminating the word “don’t,” being honest and direct, choosing your words wisely, practicing positive vocabulary, and conveying faith in student abilities.

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

October 9 (M)
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
7:50-11:45, Data Team Meetings (Title 1 Room, Room 30)
9:25-11:05, 5th Grade Natives Presentations (STEAM Room)

October 10 (T)
Bianca Out Until Oct. 18
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30 IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, Room 23)
2:30-3:30, Optional Teacher Goal Assistance Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-8:00, District First Aid/CPR Class (Library)

October 11 (W)
Wacky Wednesday -Rainbow Day
2:30-3:30 PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, Room 1)
4:00-5:00. Allan to North Region Principals Meeting SKIPPING
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 12 (H)
No School – Howard PD Day
8:00-11:30, Howard PD w/Kelly MS Staff (Cafeteria)
12:00-3:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)

October 13 (F)
No School — State In-Service Day
Regular Workday for Classified Staff
Non-Contract Day for Licensed Staff
8:30-11:30, ALICE Training for New Staff (Churchill HS)

October 16 (M)
First Day of BEST
9:00-1:00, Swift (2nd grade) to Mt. Pisgah
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)
5:00-8:00, PTO Wayback Burger Night Fundraiser

October 17 (T)
2:30-3:30 Staff Meeting (Ashley’s Room, Room 25)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)

October 18 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
School Pictures
8:30-11:30, Charis McGaughy, Assistant Superintendent, Visiting Howard

October 19 (H)
Cookie Dough Fundraiser Order Pick-Up
9:00-1:00, Larsen/Pond (2nd grade) to Mt. Pisgah
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, Room 24

October 20 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
10:00-12:15, KG/Life Skills Field Trip to Deterings

October 22 (SU)
2:00, Howard Staff Social – A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984 (Cinemark 17)

October 28 (SA)
9:30, Howard Staff Social – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 1974 (Cinemark 17)

Have a good short week, everyone!

Allan

September 25, 2017

By Allan  |  2017/09/23 20:15 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Grants, Math, P.D., Technology, Video  |  Comments Off on September 25, 2017

 

Howdy Everyone,

Sorry, I thought these would get shorter, but…

Thirty items of note for this week:

• Math Updates – Jaimee Massie sent a lengthy email with updates to Math Teacher Leaders and principals, but the abridged version is:

• Parent Communication: Linked here is a Parent Math Info flyer explaining the new adoption, which we’ll send with the October newsletter and also run off copies to distribute in classrooms at Open House/Curriculum Night. I’ve asked downtown if this will be translated into Spanish and if it’s not, we’ll do it ourselves. 4J has also launched a Family and Community Math Resource webpage that will be updated over the year.

• Manipulatives: Let me know if you DO NOT want to store your math manipulatives plastic tub in your classroom. Also, rekenreks are coming in class sets of 50 for each K-2 teacher, and are to be considered part of the manipulative kits for primary. Why 50? Kits will have extras to replace lost or broken items over the years.

• Printing: Unit 2 will be in buildings early this week, but is already available in PDF on the Math Full Lesson Plans section of the 4J LearnZillion website, as are the student workbooks. The goal is to get teacher’s guides out for the first half of the year to assist planning by early October and have 2-3 units of student materials delivered a month. Exit Tickets (one pager/two per page) can be found on each Unit page under the Unit Planner, next to the Games. These are a building/teacher print budget responsibility IF teacher’s choose to use them. Printable Summative Assessments are currently housed on the Grade-Level Page but will slowly be incorporated into Unit Pages, as they are currently only one large file for all units per grade.

• Planning & Prep: Some teachers have wondered about prepping games or tasks when blacklines are located in the student workbook. Alternatives to cutting out pages/resources out of student workbooks? Consider using a set of Investigations Cards when possible, make a cardstock partner/class set before the lesson, assign part of the work to a set of students rather than all students assembling individually, or set up as morning work. Downtown will take feedback on where resources are best located for next year. They wanted to ensure teachers and students had any resources they needed this year. Also, emphasize preparing for a KEY CONCEPT rather than a lesson. Consider previewing slides and videos for all 2-4 lessons of the key concept to know the target. And as we move into Unit 1, consider leveraging routines from Unit 0 and exploring the Curriculum Guide. Some questions to ask when planning; What hands-on tools do my kids need from the kit? What questions from the Curriculum Guide should I be ready to ask? How will students share their thinking?

• Student Accounts: All students are uploaded (and updated) nightly. Passwords for LearnZillion are student lunch numbers. If teachers wish to make rosters, directions can be found in the PD Library under Tips and Tools.

• Restraint & Seclusion Policy – SSD sent the following linked email to principals, which is a reminder about district policy and state laws regarding restraint and seclusion of students. Restraint is defined as the restriction of a student’s movement by one or more persons holding the student or applying physical pressure upon the student (which can mean as little as holding a student by the hand or arm when they do not want held). Seclusion is defined as the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room from which the student is physically prevented from leaving (which could mean blocking a student from leaving the Quiet Room or another enclosed space). Restraint and seclusion are not forbidden, but can only be done if there is an imminent threat to safety and can only be done for a very short duration of time.

If a student has an incident of physical restraint or seclusion, either by trained or untrained staff, the following steps must be followed:

1. Contact the parent as soon as possible; schools must provide verbal or electronic notification of incident by end of school day
2. Complete required documentation and provide written documentation to the family
3. Within 48 hours, hold a debriefing meeting with administrator, staff members involved in the intervention, and invite the parent/guardian. Written notes must be taken and a copy of the written notes must be provided to a parent or guardian of the student, whether or not they are able to attend.
4. If there have been 5 or more incidents of restraint and seclusion a team must convene to revise the FBA/ BSP
5. Make sure that you are in communication with your SSD administrator and behavior consultant if interventions are not effective
6. If your school needs more training and assistance with conducting FBAs and BSPs, please register for the trainings offered this fall and/or reach out to your behavior consultant for coaching.

Please see the linked Guidelines for Restrain and Seclusion for more information.

• Mandatory Bus Safety Training 2017-2018 – As required by OAR 581-53-002, all students must receive instruction on bus safety before winter break. Principals were sent the linked email and Lori forwarded it to staff, but the intent of the rule is to reach the occasional riders who find themselves on a bus because of a field trip or other activity. Linked here are bus safety information sheets (English and Spanish) classroom teachers can teach from, but to meet the training requirement, the easiest method is by showing the the quaint 1997 bus safety video The Safest Way Out. Once classroom teachers have completed your chosen method of meeting the requirement, please email Lori the date and the training method you used (video or teacher created lesson).

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

• Fire Drill, Wednesday at 8:45 – Linked here is the updated Fire Drill Evacuation Map, which shows the paths different wings should exit by and where classes should line up. . The drill will be at 8:45 on Wednesday.

• Teachers – Have a red and green card to flash Lori or myself to indicate if all your students are all accounted for (green) or not (red). Let Lori or I know who your missing students are and we will try to locate them. If you have students at Title, ELD, SPED, or another pull-out, those students stay with that group and classroom teacher hold up greet if all of the students you’re in charge of at that time are accounted for. If your class is at Music or PE, meet your class at the PE and Music locations to make sure all students are accounted for. I have a few extra red and green cards that I will leave on the downstairs workroom table (though a thumbs-up or thumbs-down works in a pinch).

• Specialists (minus PE & Music) – Have a student lists of who is in each of your groups to determine if anyone is missing.
Let me know if you have any questions.

• Emergency Procedures Manual – Related to the above, if you do not have or have been unable to locate your Emergency Procedures Manual (the tabbed, rainbow colored, spiral bound, document), please let me know and I’ll get you one. These should be clearly posted in your classroom near your door or by your phone.

• Larry Soberman Subbing on Thursday – I’m out of the building this Thursday at an all-day training, but retired Twin Oaks principal Larry Soberman will be covering for me. I’ll be over at the Lane ESD, so if anything out of the ordinary comes up, I can zip on back pretty quick.

• Howard Roadrunner Pledge – It’s come to my attention that the Spanish translation of the Howard Roadrunner Pledge is a rather awkward translation. We now have a more accurate translation that we’ll begin using once we get updated signs and/or translations to stick on top of our current signs. I’ll keep you all posted once we figure out the best way to update our classroom pledge signs.

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

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

Tomo buenas decisiones
y me emociona aprender.

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

• LearnZillion, Number Talks PD, and let me know if you need a book – In support of the LearnZillion implementation, all elementary teachers are participating in four hours of PD related to Number Talks before winter break. We are holding our trainings at a mix of Staff Meetings and monthly Teacher Team Time Meetings. The first session will be Wednesday, October 4th, 2:30-3:30, following teacher’s one hour of uninterrupted prep. The following meetings will be Tuesday, October 17th, Wednesday, November 8th, and Wednesday, December 13th. Howard did some PD around Number Talks several years ago, so some teachers already have books, but if you DO NOT have a copy of Number Talks: Whole Number Computation by Sherry Parrish, let me know by the end of this week and I’ll make sure you have a copy for the October training.

• Building SMART Goals – Linked here are Shared Building Staff Goals that teachers are welcome to cut-and-paste into TalentEd as your own goals if you would like. The math goal likely requires a bit of an explanation, but it’s aligned with the Number Talks PD mentioned above and is something classroom teachers will already be doing. I’ll give some additional explanation at the Oct. 4th. meeting. Teachers are also welcome to develop your own goals, but all goals are to be entered by October 15th.

• Open House/Curriculum Night Plan – At last week’s Staff Meeting we decided to change the format of our Curriculum Night and are rebranding it Open House in hopes of improving our family turnout. Below is an article going out in the October Newsletter describing the event. I’m working on updating the flyer so we can send that home soon.

Open House, formerly known as Curriculum Night, is scheduled for Wednesday, October 11th. We’re changing the format of this event to be less of a formal presentation by teachers to being a more casual chance for families (both kids and adults) to visit classrooms and to get a chance to connect with teachers. After families visit classrooms, you’ll be given a class passport your family can redeem for a pizza dinner in the cafeteria. Classrooms will be open from 5:45-6:45 and pizza will be served in the cafeteria 6:00-7:00. Howard hosts a school-wide Title I Program. As such, this evening will also provide families with an opportunity to learn more about the academic services provided through Title I. A presentation will be offered at 6:00 in the library and families are encouraged to attend. Hope to see you there!

Click image for Pinterest Open House scavenger hunt ideas

• Natives Program Information – Brenda Brainard, the Natives Program Director, shared this information at our last Staff Meeting, but linked is a scan of the Title VII Student Eligibility Certification form, the NATIVES Program brochure, flyer, and the latest newsletter . I’ll leave a pile of certification forms and flyers under staff mailboxes. Not posted here, but attached in the email is the list of our current students who are identified as Native American. And lastly, here’s a link to the 4J NATIVES Program website, which lists the different services available to students, classrooms and schools, along with contact information for how to access these services.

• Oct 12th Howard PD Day – The first Howard PD Day will be Thursday, October 12th. I’ll send out a more detailed agenda after confirming times with the Technology Department, but we will meet starting at 8:00 in the cafeteria for a joint training with Kelly Middle School staff on using Google Classroom.

• Tech Department Troubleshooter Available 9/25 – Misty Jackson from the Technology Department will be at Howard all day again on Monday, September 25th to help troubleshoot, train, or assist staff on any technology related topic. Continue to send any tech issues you have to our TSS, Peggy, at 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu, but if you’d like to work with Misty on Monday, email her directly at jackson_misty@4j.lane.edu

• Classroom Audio Tech Tip – When you switch between Enzo and HDMI or VGA video inputs, Enzo automatically changes your laptop audio preferences to soundflower. If you plug the computer back into the wall (HDMI or VGA), you’ll have to go into your System Preferences and switch the sound output to headphones.

• Seesaw – Angela shared the excellent home/school communication app, Seesaw, at last week’s Staff Meeting. Here’s a link to step-by-step instructions on Setting Up Your Classroom and another for Adding Students to Your Class.

• Tech Subscription Survey Results – The results of the Tech Subscription Survey are in and the winning subscriptions in order are Tumblebooks, Spelling City, News-o-matic, and in last place Bookflix. Survey results are posted in the TLT folder on the Howard Google Team Drive. We will purchase a site license for Tumbebooks and also Spelling City for teachers who want it. With the remaining money, I’ll see how many teachers want News-o-matic and see what we can afford. I’ll come around this week to check in with teachers, but also feel free to email me if you want Spelling City and/or News-o-matic.

• PTO Cookie Dough Orders Due Wednesday – Classroom teachers, please remind your students that cookie dough orders are due this Wednesday. As envelopes get turned in, please place them in the box on the counter under staff mailboxes. Orders will be delivered and available for pick-up Thursday, October 19th.

• Teacher Classroom Funds – The PTO cut us a check for teacher funds and they gave us significantly more this year, so even though we have far more students and staff than we did last year, and thanks to the generosity and fundraising efforts of the PTO, we are able to increase the per pupil allocation for classroom funds from $17 per student to $20.50 per student. We’ll continue doing a per pupil allocation to differentiate between larger and smaller classes, which isn’t a perfect system since class sizes fluctuate over the course of the year, but I believe it’s the fairest way to divide the funds and to account for differences in class sizes. Specialists will again receive $125. See the linked PTO Funds List for the amount breakdown. There is some left over in this amount that goes into a principal slush type fund, that we typically use for things like buying shoes, backpacks, and such to help student/family in needs.

• Birthday Lunches with the Principal – For staff new to Howard, each month I do “Birthday Lunches with the Principal” for all the students who have birthdays that month. This Friday I’ll have lunches with students in the Community Room who have August and September birthday. Not linked here, but attached in my email is a list of all the students who have August and September birthdays sorted by grade level and teacher.

• Optional Leadership Plan Meeting – Monday at 2:30 will be an optional meeting to create draft Leadership Plans, which we’ll vote on at the October Staff Meeting. Linked here is last year’s plan. The one suggestion I’ve heard so far is to allocate more days for our Math Teacher Leaders to compensate for all of their duties related to the LearnZillion implementation.

• Instructional Technology Visit – Kim Finch, 4J Instructional Technology Administrator, is visiting all elementary school to co-observe a 20-30 minute lesson in a classroom with a teacher that is comfortable and willing to have us see how students are using the technology. For this co-observation, the teacher does not need to do anything special, or do anything that requires additional planning. Please let me know if any of teachers are willing to volunteer, specialists included.

• DHS Reporting Form – Sadly, we’ve already had to make a few child welfare calls to DHS this year, but I wanted to remind staff that when you make calls to be sure to notify me and to also complete an Abuse Reporting Form (Word and PDF) so I can track dates, concerns, and how many calls we’ve made for individual student. Forms are also available in the filing cabinet by Bianca’s desk. All school employees are mandatory reporters, so if you need to call, the phone number is (541) 349-4444. Feel free to talk with me if you’re ever unsure about how to handle a particular situation.

• District & Howard Staff Orientation Check-Lists Due Friday – The checklist acknowledgment forms (District and Howard) to indicate that you have read and understood the District Back-to-School Memo (PDF) and the Howard Staff Handbook are due to me this Friday. I’ll plan to start bugging individual staff members Wednesday who haven’t turned in their acknowledgement forms. This is a requirement of all classified and licensed staff.

• Classified & Licensed Self Assessment Due Friday – All staff, both classified and licensed, need to complete a self assessment by this Friday. Licensed staff need to complete their self assessment in TalentEd. Classified staff need to complete the Classified Employee Self Assessment form, unless you completed one at the end of last year.

• District Items – Downtown asked principals to share several items of note with staff:

• Facilities Improvement Request (FIP) – Please do not begin any facilities changes or additions to school property without getting approval from the Facilities Department. There is now a form you need to complete first to submit a request. If you begin a process without getting approval, you will be asked to remove the facility change.

• Verify Government Agencies before Providing Student or Staff Information – The proper protocol to follow if an outside agency (FBI, CIA, another police department from another city or state, Homeland Security, etc.) calls and asks you for information about one of our students and/or staff members, is to take their name, number and agency name and call the Eugene Police Department at (541) 682-8189 to ask them to verify the caller.

• 4J FAQ for Supporting Undocumented Students – Please review and familiarize yourself with the linked 4J FAQ for Supporting Undocumented Students 2017.

• Trauma Informed Care Resources – There are some excellent resources (articles, infographics and other) at the ECHO Parenting website, which included many downloadable resource materials for both parents and educators.

• DACA Renewal Clinic – Please share this flyer with families as you see fit. ClinicLatinx Alliance of Lane County (of which Eugene 4J is a participating member) is hosting this clinic. The time with lawyers is free but the US government charges $495 dollars for each renewal form. There will be some partial and full scholarships available for the government fees. Call Centro Latino Americano at (541) 687-2667 to make an appointment.

• Grant Opportunities – Here are a few grant opportunities folks can feel free to apply to, but let me know if you are applying for anything over $5,000 as we have to submit an approval form to downtown. Quite a few staff members have written grants before so you might save yourself some time by asking/emailing colleagues if they have written a grant for _______ that you might copy. I have quite a few myself if anyone is thinking of applying for anything.

• SELCO SPARK Grants – SELCO SPARK Grants will fund most any school based projects with the exception of paying for food, prizes, field trips, or salaries. No deadline for application is listed.

• Lowe’s Small Toolbox for Education – Lowe’s Small Toolbox for Education grant program funds grants from $2,000-$5,000 for facility renovations and safety improvements, technology upgrades and tools for STEM programs. They do not pay for stipends, salaries, artists in residence, field trips, or third party funding. Applications are due September 29th.

• Northwest Community Credit Union’s Mini Grants – Northwest Community Credit Union funded one Howard grant last year for art supplies. They provide grants for $100-$1,500 for specific items/resources needed to engage students and facilitate learning, but not for professional development, incentives or rewards, or facilities/grounds improvements. Applications are due October 15th.

• Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund – The Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund will provide grants of an unlimited amount with a $1,000 minimum. They list their focus areas as Affordable Housing and Shelter, Education and Youth Development, Environmental Stewardship Human Services, and Civic and Cultural Growth. Applications are due October 30th.

• Three Rivers Foundation – The Three Rivers Foundation grants open December 1st. They do not list a minimum or maximum amount and simply list “Education” as their top program priority, so you can probably ask for most anything from them.

• Franz Bakery Foundation – The Franz Bakery Foundation focuses on Families and Youth Development and Hunger Reduction. They offer both product and cash donations and do not seem to have a minimum or maximum. No deadline was listed, so it must be ongoing.

• District Admin Updates – HR Administrator Randi Bowers-Payne is moving up and on. She is taking on a leadership position as the City of Eugene’s Director of Risk Services. Bernadette Adeniran will fill her role on an interim basis, until the position is posted and filled.

• Tips for student-centered learning – Student-centered learning should consist of giving students “voice and choice,” asserts Katherine Goyette, educational technology and integrated studies consultant for the Tulare County Office of Education in California. In this article, she offers several tips for student-centered learning.

• Use these apps to enhance math lessons – There are many apps available that math teachers can integrate into their lessons to enhance student learning and give them real-world math experiences, writes educator Fang Wang. In this EdWeek blog post, Wang outlines five apps that provide interactive math lessons.

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

September 25 (M)
Banned Books Week
Misty Jackson from Tech Department Available for Troubleshooting
8:30, Allan Meeting with Kim Finch (Office)
2:30-3:00, Optional Leadership Plan Development Meeting (Conference Room)

September 26 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, Room 23)
4:00-8:00, District First Aid/CPR Class (Library)

September 27 (W)
Cookie Dough Fundraiser Envelopes Due
8:45, Fire Drill
10:00-5:00, Allan to Oregon Ed Tech PD (Lane ESD)

September 28 (H)
Larry Soberman Subbing for Allan
8:00-3:00, Allan to Oregon Ed Tech PD (ESD)
11:00, Preschool Office of Child Care Inspection
12:00-3:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)

September 29 (F)
First PTO Popcorn Friday!
9:00, Open House Translations Due to Bianca
11:00-12:50, Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Community Room)
8:00, Janet Jackson Concert (Moda Center)

October 2 (M)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Bully-Proofing
National Custodial Workers Recognition Day
easyCBM Testing Closes

October 3 (T)
Vision Screening
9:00-11:30, Allan Meeting with SRO Supervisor (Office)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)

October 4 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
2:30-3:30, Teacher Team Time – Number Talks Session 1 (Volunteer’s Classroom)
2:30-4:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center) SKIPPING
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

October 5 (H)
Regular Day

October 6 (F)
Regular Day

To reinforce my quote at the top of this post, I would have posted pictures from last week’s Friday at 4:00, but that may not be appropriate for a 4J blog. :) Have a good week, everyone!

Allan

 

September 18, 2017

By Allan  |  2017/09/16 10:26 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Math, Technology  |  Comments Off on September 18, 2017

 

Hello Rockin’ Roadrunners,

Nice job, everyone, making it through our first full week of school, smoke filled indoor recesses and all.

Twenty items of note for this week:

• Staffing Update – Nutrition Services has added Maryann Eggert to our amazing team in the Howard Kitchen, with Joan, Laura, and Diane. Maryann is here all day in a position that last year was split between one person in the morning and another who was here in the afternoon. Please welcome Maryann to the Howard Family!

• LearnZillion Video Troubleshooting – Howard gets credit for solving this problem for the district before the Technology and Instruction Department. Several teachers had problems getting the videos to play last week and we figured out certain necessary websites were being blocked by web browser security preferences that did not “trust” those websites. Network Services is “whitelisting” these websites, so the problem should be fixed for most computers, but some newer computers are going to have to set their web browsers to trust these sites for the videos to work. To find out if your browser is compatible with the LearnZillion site:

1. Go to https://learnzillion.com/troubleshooter
2. It takes about 20 seconds:

If your browser is compatible, you’ll get a message saying, “Everything looks good!”

If you browser is not compatible, you’ll get a message saying, “Your browser isn’t able to reach LearnZillion’s video hosts… Your browser needs to be able to reach these URLs”

https://fast.wistia.net/bandwidth_check.png
https://embed-ssl.wistia.com/deliveries/f37fc8935b17ed1114210ef9f13d2531f769bd83.jpg?image_resize=100
https://embedwistia-a.akamaihd.net/bandwidth_check.png

Cut and paste these individual URLs into your web browser and then tell your browser to “Trust” these websites. Depending upon which browser you’re using, this process can differ, but Chrome is the recommended browser for LearnZillion, in which case you click “Advanced” to see options that will allow your laptop to always trust these sites.

• Misty’s Tech Tips – Misty Jackson had some important tech info to share after helping folks last week.

• Put Away Your Projector Remotes – The most important one is DO NOT use the projector remotes for anything other than Freeze and AV Mute. Do not source search or turn the projector on and off with the remotes – it will get the 8-button panel and the projector out of sync (including sound).

• Classroom Sound Fix – If teachers are have issues with their sound as a result of using the remote to source search or power the projector on and off, if you cycle through with the wall panel input button several times it will usually clear up the issue and get everything back in sync.

• AMX Panel Input Tip (patience) – One “issues” in a few rooms turned out to be related to people not being patient when using the buttons on the keypad. Do not push Input on the keypad until the blue light is solid on the Display on/off button on the keypad.

• Restart Laptops Weekly – Restart your computer at least once a week. Not restarting the computer will eventually slow down programs but will also start to cause issues with interactivity.

• Interactive Pens – There were quite a few of the interactive pens with dead batteries. The pens work much better for interactivity than a finger. Misty recommends teachers keep those batteries charged and utilize the pens.

• Keep Submitting Tech Help Tickets – If teachers are having any type of technical issue – sound, interactivity, 8-button touch, cables – submit a ticket to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu Several people reported problems to Misty but there was no ticket in the system.

If you’d like help and/or training on any of this or any other technology topic, Misty will be back again at Howard all day on Monday, September 25th. Just send her an email at jackson_misty@4j.lane.edu with what you’d like to meet about and if there’s a particular time you’d like to meet. You can also always email Peggy at 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu

• Student Pick-Up/Bus Reminder – If a student is a bus rider, they need to ride the bus every day unless they have a note saying they are getting home by other means. DO NOT take the student’s word for it. We had quite a few kids last week tell teachers that “so and so” is picking them up when they were in fact supposed to ride the bus home.

• Cookie Dough Fundraiser Prizes & Info – If you want to get your students excited about the PTO Cookie Dough Fundraiser, let them know:

• The top selling class will receive a bowling field trip with pizza lunch
• The 2nd place class will get a lego themed classroom party
• The 3rd place class will get an ice cream bar during lunch recess
• And if we raise $10,000 dollars total, every student will receive a roadrunner goody bag with a pencil, water bottle, button, sticker, and a toy all with the Howard roadrunner logo.

All orders are due Wednesday, September 27th.

• Informal Observations – I’m determined to get observations done earlier this year, so this week I’m going to conduct informal observations for teachers who are Contract – Year 1 or Probationary/Temporary. I’m hoping to come during math instruction and am going to try to get into classes of Contract – Year 2 folks as well.

• Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting Thursday at 2:30 – This Thursday at 2:30 in the Conference Room will be an optional meeting to discuss potential building wide SMART Goals. My current thinking is to continue to use reading and math easyCBM as the two academic goals with adjustments to how we measure growth, and also to change the professional goal to focus on either something around the math adoption or possibly a technology goal around teachers specializing/getting certified in a particular piece of educational software . Teachers are, of course, welcome to create their own goals, but it’s nice to have everyone with the same goals and I know it also saves teachers time of drafting their own. Linked here are last year’s Building SMART Goals.

• Student Care Team Info – Our first Student Care Team meeting is not until the first week of October and we already have on family situation referred to the team, but I did want to extend the offer to staff 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:

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

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 below are the release form that families sign for their situation to be openly discussed by the team. One release form is editable with Adobe and the other is a standard PDF (editable and non-editable).

• 4/5 Strings Recruitment Assembly, Friday at 1:30 – This Friday at 1:30 in the gym is the annual strings recruitment assembly for the BEST/Eugene Springfield Youth Orchestra Program. See the linked Assembly Map & Directions for details.

• Tech Subscription Survey – We were awarded an EEF grant to support our Dreambox subscription this year. This leaves us with some found money to purchase additional online subscriptions. I went ahead and renewed BrainPop, BrainPop Jr., and BrainPop Español, which was far and away the next highest priority from our Tech Subscription Survey last spring. This leaves us with about $2,600 for additional subscriptions. In terms of cost, News-o-matic is $10 per student (or about $2,500 for three grade levels), Spelling City is $2.25 per student (or about $560 for three grade levels), Bookflix is $1,299 for a site license, and TumbleBooks, depending how many books you want access to, Premium is $799 and Deluxe is $599. Please complete the linked Technology Subscription Survey by Thursday if you want to have some say in what subscriptions are purchased. NOTE that you’ll need to log onto your 4J Google Account to complete the survey.

• Tardies Definition – To make sure everyone is on the same page for when to mark a student as tardy, here’s the agreement staff made a couple years ago. Any student not inside the classroom before the 7:55 bell rings is considered tardy. Lori begins 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.

• Positive Referrals – Remember that we have Positive Office Referrals for students who have a “major” positive behavior you’d like to recognize. Just complete the form and leave it on my desk or in my mailbox!

• Level 2 Forms Coming The new Minor Behavior Referral Forms (Level II) should be delivered by InstaPrint later this week. No update on when the new Major Behavior Referral Forms (Level III) will be finalized and sent out to schools.

• Air Quality Guidelines – I’ve mentioned this to quite a few people, but so everyone knows, the guidelines schools are following in regards to air quality in and whether to allow or not allow outside activities is done by monitoring the Air Quality Index (AQI). If the AQI is above 100, schools are to hold indoor recess and limit any outdoor activities. There is to be NO outside exertion between 100-150. Kids should not be running around or breathing hard until the AQI drops below 100. If you want to monitor the AQI, you can go to the Lane Air Protection Agency website.

• REPEAT: PTO Meeting Tuesday at 6:00 – This Tuesday from 6:00-7:00 will be the September PTO Meeting. It’s typically the best attended meeting of the year by families, so it’s great if any staff can volunteer their evenings to come show support. See you there!

• REPEAT: Howard Handbook & District Policy Review – If you haven’t done so already, please review the updated Howard Staff Handbook and the District Back-to-School Memo (link or PDF). Signed acknowledgement forms (Howard and District) are to my mailbox next week by Friday, September 29th. Copies of the form were put in mailboxes earlier and extras are located on the counter under staff mailboxes.

• Managing Concussion in the Classroom – Principals were asked to share that the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team for 4J wants to get the word out about a free 3-hour presentation on Tuesday, October 3rd, titled, Community of Care for Managing Concussion In and Out of the Classroom, featuring nationally recognized presenter, Gerry Gioia. The sponsor of this free training for educators is the Center on Brain Injury Research and Training.

• A Classroom Full of Risk Takers – See this Edutopia article for state teachers of the year explaining how they make students feel safe enough to take risks—and then push them to do so. Some of their suggestions include celebrating perseverance, sharing your mistakes, allowing retakes, discovering “the power of yet,” and Failure Fridays.

• Helping Children After a Natural Disaster – Children watching the news about natural disasters can feel anxious and afraid. As an educator, there are a number of ways to support both the students and families immediately impacted, as well as those watching from afar. Linked here are resources offering guidance to families and schools for offering support following a natural disaster.

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

September 18 (M)
Lori’s Birthday!
9:00, Allan Meeting w/Global Delights Rep (Office)
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

September 19 (T)
International Talk Like a Pirate Day
9:00-11:30, Allan to Zaretta Hammond PD (LaneESD)
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting (Amber/Carla’s Room)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Gym)

September 20 (W)
1:30-2:30, Allan to 504 Plan Meeting (Conference Room)
2:30-3:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

September 21 (H)
2:30, Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting (Conference Room)

September 22 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
1:30, 4/5 Strings Recruitment Assembly (Gym)
4:00, Howard Friday at 4:00 (Blairally Vintage Arcade)

September 25 (M)
Misty Jackson from Tech Department Available for Troubleshooting

September 26 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, Room 23)
3:00-7:00, District First Aid/CPR Class (Library)

September 27 (W)
Cookie Dough Fundraiser Envelopes Due
8:45, Fire Drill
10:00-5:00, Allan to Oregon Ed Tech PD (ESD)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

September 28 (H)
Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)
8:00-3:00, Allan to Oregon Ed Tech PD (ESD)
11:00, Preschool Office of Child Care Inspection
12:00-3:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)

September 29 (F)
First PTO Popcorn Friday!
11:00-12:50, Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Community Room)
8:00, Janet Jackson Concert (Moda Center)

Fingers crossed for a smoke free week!

Allan

September 11, 2017

By Allan  |  2017/09/09 17:19 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Equity, Math, Technology  |  Comments Off on September 11, 2017

 

Howdy Roadrunners,

Thank you, everyone, for making our first week back such a good one for students and families, and also for going with the flow on the unexpected inside recesses the first couple days due to hazardous air quality.

Twenty-nine items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – Bridgette Blakesley is sadly leaving us at the end of this week, which means SSD will be filling her CLC 1:1 EA position ASAP. I’ll keep staff posted once we know who fill be taking Bridgette’s spot or if it’s going to be posted. SSD also filled a 1:1 EA position for a 1st grade student last week with Kittie Stratton, who has been a CLC-B 1:1 EA at Awbrey Park, but her student moved out of district. Please wish Bridgette well on her new adventures and please welcome Kittie to the Howard Family!

• Updated 2017-2018 Master Schedule – Linked here is an updated 2017-2018 Master Schedule (XLS and PDF). There was a mistake on the 5th grade lunch schedule and this also has the updated library schedule.

• 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 29th. I’ll place hard copies of the acknowledgement form in mailbox on Monday. For Howard veterans, I haven’t made any changes outside of updating PBIS to match our current practices, the lockdown section to match ALICE practices, and a few other minor tweaks. Let me know if you have any questions.

• REPEAT: District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – If you haven’t already reviewed the District Back-to-School Memo (link or PDF) and returned the acknowledgment form to me, make sure you turn it in to my mailbox no later than Friday, September 29th. See the 9/4 announcements for a summary of policy changes.

• LearnZillion Unit 1 Begins This Week – To stay on track with the LearnZillion Pacing Guide, all classes should begin with Unit 1 this Thursday. It’s important teachers keep up with the pacing guide so that all material is covered by the end of the year, and that grade level teams stay in the same place so Title 1 and SPED can better support core. Pacing guides can be found on the 4J LearnZillion website. I’ve also linked them here; KG, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade.

• LearnZillion Student Workbook Distribution Plan – After some confusion last week over whether we’d received our Unit 1 Student Workbooks and since we will continue to receive individual units over the course of the year, I wanted to have a clear plan for when they arrive. Each time we receive a delivery, we will email howard_cert that the boxes will be delivered to the commons area and placed against the exterior wall of the middle classroom for grade level team to distribute.

• Dreambox Info – In addition to Erin’s Dreambox Email Tips for leveling your student up to their current grade level and changing their passwords to pictures clues (and thank-you, Erin, for making the class names something more recognizable for kids), I wanted to make sure everyone had the school login code, which is q22w/nu8g. Also, to save teachers time finding it, linked here are the Dreambox Invitation Letters to Parents (English and Spanish), explaining how families can access Dreambox at home.

• 2017-2018 Leadership Plans – HR just sent an email to principals that Elementary Leadership Plans will be due November 8th and will follow the same process as in the past, so I was wrong to say we should hold off to see if something new gets bargained. The current contract gives us 22 teacher release days not to exceed 7 teachers. Linked here is last year’s plan, which compensated teachers for School Climate, Technology, Math, ELA, and Science leadership roles. If you have thoughts on this year’s plan, please let me know. I’d like to share Leadership Plan proposals at the September Staff Meeting in a couple weeks and then vote on a plan at the October Staff Meeting.

• Fire Drill Info – Our September Fire Drill will be later this month on Wednesday, September 27th (my birthday) at 8:45, but just in case we need it earlier, linked here is an updated Building Evacuation Map. The evacuation routes from the different wings 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. Let me know if you have any questions on this.

• Playground Recess Lines – We were thankfully able to have recess last Friday and I placed the T-squares with teacher names along the playground number line to show kids where to line up. I’ll plan to put these out again on Monday and Tuesday, but would like teachers to remind students where they are supposed to line up at recess. These spots are important for the before school recess when we have students 1st through 5th grade all out on the playground at once. Teachers are welcome to choose other spots for recesses during the school day, but for the before school recess classes should line up as follows:

1. Chunn
3. Corliss
5. Kerins
7. Lawson
9. Pond
11. Swift
13. Larsen
15. Robinson
17. Niccum
19. Peterson/Kreider
21. Gaston
23. Groshong
25. Frank/Zimmerman
27. Callihan
29. Rock
31. Torres

The Building & Grounds Maintenance Supervisor said extending our playground number line was supposed to have gotten done on Thursday and would try to get it finished soon, so hopefully we’ll have actually numbers on the ground past 20 for 4th and 5th grade classrooms.

• Howard Google Team Drive – I over estimated the amount of time I would have last week, but you should all now have received an invitation to the Howard Google Team Drive. Everyone has access to add to the drive, so feel free to add resources. I kept the organization fairly simple, so let me know if you’re not sure where to add or find something. “Curriculum/Instruction” has a resources organized by subject area or topic (including Math, ELA, Science, trauma informed practices information, kid friendly CCSS posters, and more). “Teams/Meetings” has a folder for each of our building teams to add minutes and other information (most are empty now, but IPBS has CICO info and referrals forms, Site Council has our CAP, and Student Care Team has an enormous folder of community resources that I’ve shared over the past few years). The “Technology” folder has a mix of instructional technology resources (such as ISTE Technology Standards, SAMR information, and the Howard Student Technology Agreement) as well as more technical of items (like how to set up your voicemail or quick sheets on how to run reports in Synergy). Last, there is a “MISC” folder that’s a grab bag of handbooks, schedules, safety drills, and other procedural items. Feel free to explore and let me know if you run into any issues or have any suggestions or questions.

• Trauma Informed Practices Materials/Resources – Linked here are the Slides from the Trauma Informed Practices Training during in-service week. And linked here is a partial List of Trauma Resources, which includes books, video clips, and online resources/websites, etc.

• Tech Department Troubleshooter Available 9/13 & 9/25 – Misty Jackson from the Technology Department will be at Howard all day on Wednesday, September 13th and on Monday, September 25th to help troubleshoot, train, or assist staff one-on-one for any technology related topic. Continue to send any tech issues you have to our TSS, Peggy, at 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu, but if you’d like to work with Misty on 9/13 and/or 9/25, email her directly at jackson_misty@4j.lane.edu

On a related note, James Grubic let me know Peggy’s hours this year. She will be at Howard 10:00-1:30 MWF and 7:30-10:30 TH.

• Team Sign-Ups – Don’t forget to sign-up for Building Teams in the Staff Room. We have our first IPBS meeting this week, with a TLT meeting soon after, and need to make sure we have grade level reps. Sign-up today!

• PTO Meeting Next Week – Not this week, but next week on Tuesday, September 19th 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 evenings to come show support for parents who made time to come be involved in their child’s school. Mark your calendars and hope to see you there!

• New Slider Door Badge Reader – You may have missed it, but there is a new card reader between the two slider doors if you want to bypass walking through the office to go down the hall. On a related note, a card readers is in the process of being installed on the elevator and will be finished soon. We will have elevator passes for upstairs classrooms to give students carrying lunch baskets, library book wagons, or other large items. 

• Class Name Plate Template – Teachers, feel free to use the linked Classroom Name Plate Template I made last year if you want something to go outside your classroom door with minimal effort.

• TAG Identified Students – Teachers, if you have any TAG identified students in your class this year, you’ll have already received an email naming the kiddos and what you need to do. If you didn’t see an email, you’re off the hook.

• Sub Folders to Office – For both classified and licensed staff, if you haven’t already, be sure to give your completed sub folders to Lori. If it helps in completing your folder, linked here is a list of suggested sub folder information/items HR said staff should consider when making lesson plans. Lori has extra folders if you don’t have one.

• SSD Health Services Info – SSD sent principals an email with several pieces of information related to school nurses and health services, but I wanted to highlight a couple points. One is that nurses need adequate notice for field trips (10-14 days) so that they can train persons to cover the field trips, have medications ready, etc. Often they are asked to go on field trips with no notice and this puts other students and schools at risk. And two, for teachers to require that permission slips be received back to the school 3 days in advance of a field trip so that the nurse and teacher has adequate time to review the list of students participating for critical medical concerns. Nurses serve multiple buildings and need adequate lead in these matters.

• AESOP Absence Data – HR sent principals an email about AESOP Absence Data that was interesting. The one thing I wanted to highlight for staff, particularly for teachers, is that if an absence related to PD was entered within 4 days of the PD, the chance a sub would pick up the job starts is much higher. If it is entered within 2 days the chance of a sub taking the assignment drastically drops. So if you have any planned absences, please don’t wait to put in for a sub and prearranging with one of our regular subs, both classified and licensed, is always the best way to go.

• REPEAT: 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 10-15 minutes block of time I can come and visit. Thank you!

• REPEAT: 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, unless you completed one at the end of last year.

• Enrollment Updates – As usual, we had a number of student no-shows and also some last minute move-ins, which in the end only brought our enrollment down by 7 students from last week’s 495 to 488 ( we’re still 10 over our projection). The breakdown by grade level is PK (16), KG (72), 1st (84), 2nd (83), 3rd (80), 4th (85), 5th (84), so including preschoolers we can still say we’re a school of over 500 students (and a school with more staff than any other elementary or middle school in 4J).

• DACA Info Night – Monday, Sept 11 @ River Road Elementary – Quick notice on this if you know of families to share this with. The 4J Office of Equity, Instruction and Partnership is coordinating a DACA information night Monday, September 11th from 6-7pm at River Road Elementary. This night is open to all families and students who are interested from 4J and neighboring districts. The organization CAUSA will be providing Information followed by a question and answer time facilitated by a local lawyer. This is the first of several information nights for our immigrant and undocumented families that 4J will be hosting this year around the district. Linked here is a bilingual flyer for staff and others in the community to distribute as they feel is most respectful to our families and students.

• eScrip, SmileAmazon, Fred Meyer Rewards – We’ve shared this with families in the newsletter in the past, but to also share it with staff, an easy way you all can support Howard is by signing up for eScrip and Smile Amazon. 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.

• A Phone Call Home Makes All the Difference – You don’t have to reserve phone calls to parents or guardians for bad news. Try the tips in this article to deepen communication with families, which include introduce yourself by your first name, begin the conversation with a positive, describe only actions— avoid labeling, ask questions seeking support, calling with good news, and tips on sending texts and emails.

• The Impact of Students Reading Culturally Relevant Texts – In this Teachers College Record article, Kathleen Clark reports on her study of the impact of African-American elementary school students reading books featuring culturally familiar characters and settings. The study compared a study group and a control group (reading books without African-American characters and settings) over a semester of instruction. What were the results? Students who used culturally relevant texts significantly outperformed students in the control group. See the above link for more details. 

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

September 11 (M)
Library Begins
Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program Begins
Morning Announcements Begin
9:00, Allan to SSD Meeting (Conference Room)
9:00, Allan to Preschool Fire Inspection
2:30, Allan to BEST Meeting (BEST Room)

September 12 (T)
8:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting CANCELLED
2:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, Room 23)
2:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

September 13 (W)
Cookie Dough Fundraiser Begins
Misty Jackson from Tech Department Available for Troubleshooting
2:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, Room 1)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

September 14 (H)
12:00-3:30, Allan to ILT (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, Room 24)
2:30-3:30, Allan to KG Transition Meeting (Conference Room)

September 15 (F)
9:00-1:00, OSEA Site Visit w/Members (Staff Room)

September 18 (M)
Lori’s Birthday!
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

September 19 (T)
International Talk Like a Pirate Day
9:00-11:30, Allan to Zaretta Hammond PD (LaneESD)
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting (Volunteer’s Classroom)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Gym)

September 20 (W)
1:30, Allan to 504 Plan Meeting

September 21 (H)
2:30, Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting (Conference Room)

September 22 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
1:30, 4/5 Strings Recruitment Assembly (Gym)

Have a great first full week back and let’s make our kids’ hopes for the year come true!

Allan

 

September 4, 2017

By Allan  |  2017/09/02 22:52 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Literacy, Math, Science, Technology, Video  |  Comments Off on September 4, 2017

Hi Everyone,

It was great getting to see everyone last week on our first week back to work. It’s going to be a busy week, but thankfully nowhere as crazy as last year opening a new building. Read on for this week’s news-you-can-use!

Thirty-three items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – Introduced at our BTS Staff Meeting, Lisa Dover has been hired as our newest Title 1 EA, filling the vacancy left by Debbie Miller when she retired. Lisa has been working the last seven year in Springfield as an Educational Assistant in Gen Ed and SPED. Over at the YMCA after-school program, Emma Knox is taking over at Site Coordinator and will be partnering with BEST this year. If you ever need to get ahold of her, her email is emma@eugeneymca.org Lastly, we now have a new BEST Coordinator, Joshua Wrolstad, who has experience working as a Truancy Prevention Case Manager, a Youth Care Counselor, as well as at After School Programs. Please welcome these fine new folks to Howard!

• Updated 2017-2018 Master Schedule – Linked here is an updated 2017-2018 Master Schedule (XLS and PDF). Folks effected by any changes already know. And one tech-tip. Some staff told me they couldn’t see the tabs along the bottom of the Excel file to switch between the Master, EA, Music/PE, and Library schedule. If you don’t see them, go up to WINDOW and down to ZOOM WINDOW. You should then see the tabs along the bottom.

• PE & Music Start Date – Siera and Ronny 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.

• Library Start Date – Classes will begin visiting the library at their scheduled times the week of September 11th.

• Meet Your Teacher – During Meet Your Teacher on Tuesday 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 parking lot procedures. We’ll also arm people with a complete set of class lists to be used this day and also on the first day of school.

• First Day of School – The morning of the first two days of school I would still like to have all-hand-on-deck. At 7:25, when the doors first open, all available staff should help guide students to the cafeteria, help supervise on the playground, and then when the first bell rings at 7:50, help students find their classrooms. Staff helping should again hold onto their class lists and maps from the day before to help guide families. Linked here is a map of where everyone 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. See that attached First & Second Day of School Map for where people will be stationed.

• 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 much of this at the BTS staff meeting, but as I shared there, all staff must review the memo and sign & return the check list acknowledgment form signifying that you have read and understand the memo. Forms should be returned to me no later than Friday, September 29th. I’ll place hard copies of the acknowledgement form in staff mailboxes this week. Looking over the memo, take note of updates to the Notice Requirements for Leave section, which is regarding sick days, personal days, various leaves, etc. An addition was also made to the district’s non-discrimination policy, clarify how the policy applies to supporting undocumented students, adding the policy, the PowerPoint, and a FAQ.

• PBIS First Week Teaching Plan – See Rae and Jill’s email for the PBIS teaching plan, which is very similar to last year. All classrooms should use the Recess Rules Slide Show (PDF and PowerPoint) before the first recess. Linked here is the PBIS Teacher Checklist, the PBIS Back-to-School Rules, and the PBIS Rules Matrix. This recess rules slide show linked above is different from the one emailed earlier and is the more specific of one we made in November after we’d lived with the new playground equipment for a couple month. Linked here is the earlier recess review emailed one which is also good for reviewing more general of playground behaviors, but make sure to teach the first more complete one first.

• New Level 2s and 3s – I shared last year that all schools across 4J will be using the same minor (Level II) and major (Level III) behavior referral forms. The new minor forms are finished and being sent to schools this week. The formatting is different from our form, but the content of what it’s asking for is pretty much the same. We’ll continue to use our own Level 1s referrals (Uh-Ohs) this year and the the major referral forms are almost ready to be sent to schools. Linked here is a preview of the new Minor Behavior Referral form (English and Spanish).

• School Bus PBIS – Just as last year, school bus drivers are handing out Transportation Dept. PBIS positive slips and schools are asked to treat them the same as our positive Beep, Beep slips. The same also goes for the bus Incident Reports, with teachers talking to student if they receive a Minor Referral and the principal talking to students if they receive a Major Referral.

• Student Bus Routes – Not linked here, but attached to my email is a Student Bus Route report. This report includes the bus routes for all students who the Transportation Dept. has a bus route for. I’ll run an updated report Tuesday and will email that to teachers in the afternoon, but I thought teachers may want this earlier.

• LearnZillion – Here are a few notes from Friday’s LearnZilion PD:

• Website – If you haven’t already, bookmark the 4J LearnZillion website. On this website is the 2017-2018 Pacing Guide for each grade level, individual lessons and units, the videos, additional supports, and other resources. Additional math resources can be found on the 4J Curriculum Server.

• Unit Zero – Unit Zero is a suggested (not required) lesson. If teachers have a different back-to-school refresher/team-building type of math lesson for the start of the school year, it’s fine to continue using that, although Learn Zillion Lesson Zero does introduce students to some of the LearnZillion routines.

• Pacing Guide Start Date, 9/14 – The pacing guide for Unit 1 starts on September 14th, so everyone should start the new math curriculum on this date.

• ThinkCentral – If anyone has tried to log onto Journeys’ web portal ThinkCentral, you likely noticed it did not work because students and teachers are being uploaded this weekend. It should be up and running by Tuesday.

• Science Notebook Orders – If you didn’t already click the link in Erin’s email, please enter how many science journals you need to order this year (zero or otherwise) on the Howard Science Notebook Order Spreadsheet.

• 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!

• 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!

• 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.

• Seesaw App – Speaking of parent communication, the 4J Technology Department told me Howard has more teachers using Seesaw than any other school in the district. 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.

• Howard Google Team Drive – Wikis are kind of going out of fashion and Google Apps are increasing in usage across 4J, so I’m switching us over to a Google Team Drive for sharing meeting minutes, handbooks, resources, and other information. Later this week you’ll receive an email giving you access to the Howard Team Drive, which is essentially a shared folder that will show up in your Google Drive. To log onto your Google Drive, just follow this link to 4J Google Apples (also linked on my blog and under Links for Staff on the Howard webpage) and log in using your 4J email username and password.

• 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.

• White Paper Copier Refill Reminder – With lots and lots of copies being made at the start of the year, please remember to keep the white paper tray filled so it doesn’t dip into the colored paper tray, causing copy sets not to match and have to be run over again. It’s also a good idea to keep the color paper tray empty so we can avoid unnecessarily running up our building copy count.

• Howard Staff Apparel to Jenny! – If you’d like an embroidered Howard Staff logo put on a shirt, jacket, pullover, hoodie, or whatever, give the clothing to Jenny and for (I believe) $7 her friend will put on the Howard Staff logo. Personally, I like going to Costco and getting something inexpensive and Howardizing it.

• Door Locks and Bells – I’m pretty sure I’ve got all the bells and door lock timers correctly set for this year’s schedule, but let me know if you notice any doors that are locked or unlocked when they shouldn’t or if there are bells that ring or do not ring when they should. On a related note, if anyone wants to change our bell sounds, it’s just an MP3 file that I can easily swap out, so feel free to scour the internet for a new 5-10 second bell tone.

• Howard/Kelly Track Use Schedule – We’re sticking with the same plan as last year for sharing the Kelly Track at recesses, cutting the track and field in half, where Howard uses the east end (the half closer to our building) and Kelly will use the west end (the half closer to their building) each day. The one exception is if Kelly PE classes are using the track and field, in which case Howard students should stay off the field.

• Morning Announcements Start Monday, 9/11 – 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 11th with a couple 5th graders who were trained up at the end of last school year. On a related note, I’m considering doing a YouTube livestream of morning announcements that teachers could project in their classrooms each morning instead of the intercom.

• Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program – The Fresh Fruits and Vegetable program will be continuing this year and is set to start on Monday, September 11th.

• KITS at Howard – As an FYI, the 4J KITS (Kids in Transition to School) Program is going to use our building on Saturdays 9:00-11:00 this month (Sept. 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th) as they finish up their summer program. They’ll be using the Preschool Classroom (Nollie, one of our preschool EAs, is teaching the class), the Family Resource Center (Room 5), and the Community Room. Howard was originally going to host KITS over the summer, but they had to move to Corridor due to the construction happening at our building over the summer.

• Enrollment Updates – If you’re curious what our enrollment looks like, we’re once again over our enrollment projection, but nowhere as much as last year. Our K-5 projection was for 478 students. As of Friday we have 496 students fully enrolled (along with a few packets still out), so including our preschoolers we can say Howard now has over 500 students. Grade level totals are PK (16), KG (73), 1st (85), 2nd (85), 3rd (81), 4th (83), and 5th (89). Holt and Gilham are still larger than us by quite a bit, but we’re creeping up on Willagilespie as the third largest school in 4J and would be even closer if we accepted all of the students on our waiting list (which I’m not planning to do). Everyone wants to come to Howard!

• 4J Vision 20/20 – I mentioned this at our Back-to-School Staff Meeting as being a major focus area of the school district this year. Linked here is the school district website 4J Vision 20/20 website as well as the 4J Vision 20/20 Strategic Plan Framework, which details the 3-5 year guiding plan. If you attended the District Back-to-School Event at SEHS, this was a major focus of Superintendent Balderas’ speech to staff. During his speech he actually used the What Do You Hope? video I shared at our meeting, but he ended his speech with a video I hadn’t seen before that I liked quite a lot, which was a nice reminder of why we all work in education.

• Learning About Learning Network – For several years, 4J has had Learning About Learning (LEL) Networks. Each school has the principal and two teachers participate, where a team of school meets at one school to onduct classroom observations, which this year will focus on math instruction. Teachers commit to the LEL for two years. Carla is rotating off this year and Ashley is continuing for her second year, so I am looking for a volunteer for this school year.

The purpose of a Learning About Learning network is to orient members to the Instructional Rounds process and to begin the process of building teams of leaders who are able to learn from one another around the craft of leading instruction. The goal of instructional rounds isn’t to provide feedback to the teachers being observed, but for LEL members to compare their own instructional practices with those of the teachers they observe. The chief benefit of this approach resides in the discussion that takes place among LEL members at the end of the observations as well as in subsequent self-reflection. This short post from Edutopia has a nice overview of what the process looks like. Feel free to ask Carla, Ashley, or myself if you have any questions. Let me know if any of your are interested.

• REPEAT: 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, unless you completed one at the end of last year.

• Setting Routines for the First Days of School – I shared this last year, but it’s a good one. In the latest issue of ASCD Express, UC Berkeley philosophy professor Alva Noë state “An environment, natural or human-made, reflects a compromise between design and habit.” When setting routines, teachers look for easily integrated procedures that relate to students’ needs but also help the class achieve some greater learning objective—whether that be setting expectations for independent practice, technology participation, or a respectful classroom culture. As Noë alludes, classroom habits will be shaped by the user experience. Use the first days of the new school year to draw a clear and flexible path to success for those who will travel it. This issue includes articles such as “Setting the Tone for Technology Use,” “Focus on Feelings, First,” and “Six Strategies to Support a Safe, Inclusive, and Respectful Classroom.”

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

September 4 (M)
Labor Day – No School

September 5 (T)
8:00-10:00, Potential Staff Meeting CANCELLED
10:00, Q&A Session for New Staff – Optional (Conference Room)
10:00-12:00, Preschool Open House
1:00-2:00, Meet Your Teacher
2:00-3:00, Allan to Student Meeting (Conference Room)
3:15-3:45, PBIS for New Staff (Rae’s Room, Room 1)

September 6 (W)
Classes Begin
PBIS Monthly Theme – Safety
easyCBM Testing Window Opens
7:15-8:00, Cup of Joe with the PTO (Front of School)

September 7 (H)
Regular Day

September 8 (F)
10:10, Allan Reading to Class

September 11 (M)
Library Begins

September 12 (T)
8:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting CANCELLED
2:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, Room 23)

September 13 (W)
Cookie Dough Fundraiser Begins
2:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, Room 1)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

September 14 (H)
12:00-3:30, Allan to ILT (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, Room 24)

September 15 (F)
9:00-1:00, OSEA Site Visit w/Members (Staff Room)

Let’s make the first week with kids a great one!

Allan

 

May 22, 2017

By Allan  |  2017/05/20 21:27 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Assessment, Equity, Math, Technology  |  Comments Off on May 22, 2017

 

Hello Awesome Staff,

A big thank you to teachers for going with the flow on the visit from Roseburg SD staff last week. They were quite impressed with what they saw and it’s a nice reminder of all the good instruction going on in our building that I think we often take for granted. They were impressed with how classrooms they used small group instruction for Tier II and Tier III reading and also for math booster , not to mention all of the technology integration (Robin told me one person even asked to take a picture of the directions she’d quickly typed and projected on her screen). Nice work, everyone!

Twelve items of note for this week:

• Staffing Update – HR has filled our vacant 5.75 hour Title 1 EA position for next school year. HR said we’re getting someone good, and it’s Chelsea Norris from Family School, who’s been a Kindergarten EA over there the past two years. Please welcome Chelsea to the Howard Team!

• District Math Updates – Maddie Ahearn shared several math updates at last week’s elementary principal meeting:

• Primary/Intermediate Math Teacher Leaders Needed – Maddie is opening up the math teacher leader positions for next year and those leaders do do not have to be our traditional teacher leader. They are also asking to have two reps this coming year, preferably a primary and intermediate rep. Linked here is a job description and a list of responsibilities (meetings, trainings, and trainings you would lead). Follow this link to the 2017-2018 Rep and Leadership Positions Google Sheet if you’d like to be a math teacher leader and/or any of the other positions.

• Math Manipulatives Coming in August – Math manipulatives have been ordered for the LearnZillion rollout next fall and are set to arrive in August. They have been ordered for both gen ed and SPED teachers.

• Revised April 3rd Math PDU – One last math update, the previous PDU certificate given to teachers incorrectly shorted you on PDU hours and a revised form will be put into mailboxes this week.

• PTO Meeting Updates – Thank you to the staff members who came to last Tuesday’s PTO Meeting. Parents definitely appreciate it. Here are three updates from that meeting:

• Fundraising District Policy Changes – Andrea Belz from Financial Services shared a draft fundraising policy that is most likely going into effect next year. The main changes are that if a fundraising event is held during the school day and students are pulled (such as the Tech Trot), the money has to go through the school accounts and not PTO accounts. Cookie Dough, Popcorn, or other fundraisers that don’t have an event type of activity stay the same.

The other change is progressive prizes, will no longer be allowed, such as if you bring in $100 for a fundraiser you get a limo ride, and if you bring in $200 you get a helicopter ride, etc. This wouldn’t apply to events like the Cookie Dough fundraiser since there isn’t a jog-a-thon or River Walk type of event happening during the school day, but it would apply to our Tech Trot. However, for rewards we can still do raffles for participation, classroom competitions, or overall school progressive prizes like if we bring in $1,000 the principal will shave his head, or $2,000 the principal will camp on the roof, etc.

• Popcorn Day Moving Next Year – There was a vote at the PTO meeting and popcorn day are going to be moved to Fridays next year. This day is much easier for our volunteers and has fewer conflicts.

• Sponge in the Face? – The School Carnival planners were wondering if there any staff members are willing to get a wet sponge in the face at a carnival booth they are considering doing. I did this at a prior school and it was a big hit. Let me know if any of you are game to get wet for a 30 minute block the night of the carnival!

 

• EEF Grant Timeline – The EEF Board meets on June 14th to review the grants and will notify grant winners soon thereafter.

• No More Spinners – If you missed my announcement on Friday or my post on the Howard Facebook Page, I’ve now banned the very trendy, very annoying spinners, which are really just toys masquerading as fidgets. Here’s what I posted on Facebook and will send out in the June newsletter, along with a link to the article Whirring, Purring Fidget Spinners Provide Entertainment, Not ADHD Help. So from they point forward, treat spinners as you would any other toy at school (a warning the first time and then taking it away if it appears again).

Fidgets and Toys

A reminder to families that students should not bring toys to school. This would include spinners, trading cards, action figures, etc. These items quickly become distractions in the classroom and create problems when they go missing or are traded at school. Please remind your child to not bring these items to school.

For those who benefit from having a fidget-type device at school, that can be part of a plan that is developed between the teacher and the family. We have an ample supply of less distracting fidgets at Howard.

• June Newsletter – Speaking of newsletters, we don’t usually have a June Newsletter, but I’m sending one and wanted to highlight a couple resources I’ll be sharing in the newsletter:

• Free Summer Lunches for Kids Ages 2-18 – Food for Lane County operates one of the largest summer food programs in the state. They provide free meals to youth ages 2 to 18. Most sites open June 26. To see a list of lunch sites, please visit the FOOD For Lane County website, or email info@foodforlanecounty.org, or call (541) 343-2822. The closest location is right next-door to us at River Road Park (AKA Emerald Park), which will serve lunch 12:00-1:00 pm June 26th-August 25th.

• Direction Services Summer Directory – Each year Direction Service publishes The Direction Summer Directory with resource for recreation, respite, support, and service opportunities that families of children with disabilities can access during the summer months. Attached and you can also access it via the Direction Service webpage.

• Friday Beep, Beep Drawing Prize Cards – Remind your kiddos to use their Friday Beep, Beep Drawing prize cards and/or return used one to the office after cashing them in. Our selection of prize cards in the office is getting rather thin.

• Change in the Oregon Accountability System – A major change is coming in the Oregon School and District Accountability System (i.e. state report cards) that was included in the Oregon ESSA Implementation Plan submitted by ODE to the US Education Department. If that plan is approved by USED then starting next year, the proficiency rates to be reported by ODE in the report cards would count each non-participant student, those opting out to state testing, as not being proficient. In other words, proficiency rates will be defined as the number of students reaching levels 3 or 4 divided by total enrollment. This change does not affect the student growth scores also included in the report cards. If our district OAKS non-participation rate continues to be about 10% in ELA and 12% in Math this change in calculation method will lead to a 10% – 12% reduction in the proficiency rates to be reported in our school and district report cards. This change will also affect all information about schools that includes proficiency rates in state tests, so any students who opted out of testing this year are really going to hurt us on our next state report card.

• Google Expeditions – For anyone teaching Social Studies lessons, you should check out Google Expeditions. This is a really cool tool for students to “explore” places through a set of goggles and a virtual experience (I believe it also works with a tablet and no VR goggles). See the above link for details.

• Teaching Tolerance Guide: Serving ELL Students and Families – Teaching Tolerance recently posted a new guide, Best Practices for Serving English Language Learners and Their Families. With sections centered on instruction, classroom culture, policies, and family and community engagement, the guide is packed with recommendations that can be applied across buildings.

• What’s driving adoption of Google in schools? – I’m actually working with Kim Finch on getting an Apple Distinguished Teacher to present on how they use Google Classroom at our October Howard PD Day, so this is a timely article. Google estimates that 15 million primary and secondary school students use Google Classroom. This article highlights the company’s journey into classrooms and how educators in the nation’s third-largest school district use Google products.

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

May 22 (M)
Last Week for Library Checkout
9:30-10:30, Allan to Tech Alignment Meeting (Kelly MS)
2:30-3:30, Site Council Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Administrator Meeting (Ed Center)

May 23 (T)
Bianca Out
10:30, 5th Grade Class Photo (Old Howard Sign)
12:30-1:00, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Sarah’s Room, B203)

May 24 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
2:00-3:00, District EA iPad Basics Workshop (STEM Room, A101)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)

May 25 (H)
Towel Day (if you’re a nerd, you’ll know what this is)
7:30-5:00, 2nd Grade Zoo Field Trip
10:30-12:30, May Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room)
1:45, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)

May 26 (F)
No Students, Howard PD Day
8:00-12:00, Staff Meeting (Cafeteria)

May 29 (M)
No School – Memorial Day

May 30 (T)
Book Fair Set-Up
Last week of Counselor Classroom Lessons
8:00-12:00, Dental Clinic with Robin Wellwood (LCC)
9:00, Kelly students visit with Howard 5th graders
12:30, Tech Trot Limo and Ice Cream Reward
2:15, Kelly Staff Meet w/Howard Staff for Transition Meeting

May 31 (W)
BOGO Book Fair
9:00, 5th Grader Tour Kelly
10:30-12:30, Tech Trot Pizza w/the Principal

June 1 (H)
BOGO Book Fair
PBIS Monthly Theme – Celebrating Your Success
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, B204)

June 2 (F)
BOGO Book Fair

Look forward to your 3-day weekend!

Allan

May 1, 2017

By Allan  |  2017/04/29 20:59 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Assessment, Caring for Kids, Math  |  Comments Off on May 1, 2017

 

Hi Everyone,

Between starting OAKS testing, the Tech Trot, the Native American Storytelling Assembly, guest speakers, Volunteer Appreciation, ALICE training, Administrative Professionals’ Day, Birthday Lunches, ACE Awards, the all-school photo (see below), and any number of other happenings last week, I think we’re all luck to have survived! With the exception of continuing OAKS testing, this week thankfully looks to be a more typical of week.

Twenty-one items of note for this week:

• Safety Training Follow-Up – A quick reminder to staff that on Wednesday, May 10th, classroom teachers are to teach students the ALCIE classroom training using the ALICE Elementary PPT Presentation and book I’m Not Scared, I’m Prepared. We will then hold a Lockdown: Evacuation Drill the next day on Thursday, May 11th at 9:00. See my earlier email for more details. 

•Classified & Licensed End-of-Year Evaluation Tasks Due this Month – As the end of the year approaches we do need to wrap up required evaluation cycle tasks by the end of this month. I’ll be trying to finish up my observations over the next couple weeks. Licensed staff and classified staff need to complete the following:

• Licensed Staff Contract Year-1 and Probationary/Temporary: You need to complete the End-of-Cycle Goals Reflection form in TalentEd and I will need to complete your observations, which I’m unfortunately behind on this year. After those are completed, we will meet and then I will complete the Supervisor Goal Rating form and the Summative Evaluation form.

• Licensed Staff Contract Year-2: You need to complete the End-of-Cycle Goals Reflection form in TalentEd. After you’ve completed the reflection form we will meet and then I will complete the Supervisor Goal Rating form.

• Classified Staff: You need to complete the Classified Employee Self-Assessment assessment form (PDF or DOC) and give me a copy (email or hardcopy) and we need to meet briefly before the end of the month, where I will complete a Classified Employee Evaluation form.

• 2017-2018 School Leadership Positions – We will decide leadership positions for next year at the May Staff Meeting. All position will be considered vacant and anyone can sign up for one, with the exception of Math (which downtown wants reps to stay the same) and Science (which I’m guessing downtown also wants to keep consistent). The current list of leadership/rep positions are; IPBS, PBIS, Technology, Literacy, Site Council, Garden Team, Social Committee, and I added Taking it Up, which I’ve led, but am willing to turn over to another building leader if someone is interested. For Site Council I’m also looking to add one more teacher, classifeid, and parent rep since we’re now a much larger school. If you would like to sign up for a leadership or rep position, follow this link to the 2017-2018 Leadership/Building Rep. Positions Google Sheet. I made this a public document, so you don’t need to do any kind of log-on to access or edit the document. UPDATE: I fixed the document so now it is editable.

• Counselor Time – Similar to my Five-Bs reminder for only sending students to the office when they really need to go, please keep the equivalent in mind for when you’re deciding whether or not to send a student to Mr. Matt. When a student asks to talk to see the counselor, please stop to decide if this is something that needs immediate attention or if it is something that can wait to be scheduled. Some situations should absolutely go to Matt right away, but in most situations tell your students, “I’ll set up a time for you to talk with Mr. Matt.” and connect with Matt to schedule a time for the student to be pulled.

• Watch Your Copy Counts – We’re on course to go over budget on our overall school budget this year, primarily due to our copy counts being very high. Copies are running a little over $1,000 a month, so I’m asking folks to be judicious in what you are running off. Please continue to make copies for the essentials, but don’t run off a bunch of coloring sheets or extra sheets just to have on-hand. Especially don’t run off copies for next year at this point.

• Fidgets Stay in Class – We’re seeing a lot of the new spinner fidgets making their way out to the playground and cafeteria where they’re more of a toy than an ADHD accommodation. Please let your students know, and I’ll also make an announcement on Monday, that fidgets will be confiscated if they are seen outside of the classroom, if they are being used as toys, or if they are a distraction (the very opposite of their intended purpose).

• Field Trips and Nurse Notification – We have entered the season of field trips and if you have students with health concerns, please give Nurse Robin as early of notice as possible of any questions, concerns, or coverage concerns you might have. Also remember that Robin covers many schools so anytime she need to train staff on protocols, create safety plans, communicate with families, she needs ample lead-up time, or if she needs to join a trip, she must seek back up support for her other schools.

• Don’t Touch the OAKS Testing Snacks! – There is a new batch of snacks int the staff room for 3/4/5 classrooms taking OAKS this week, but please remember to leave these for students. I think we ended up some some staff or other adults getting into the snacks last week. 3/4/5 teachers, please take what you need.

• Artist in Residence Schedule – I’ve worked with Lane Arts and we’ll have Cartooning with Teri Robertson May 15th – June 2nd. Linked here is a Proposed Artist in Residence Schedule that’s pretty similar to the one we did last year. I tried to work around recesses and specialist times, but let me know if you see any conflicts. I’m sure I missed something.

• Purchase Orders Deadline, May 31 – If anyone needs to create any more purchase orders for this school year, the last day Lori can create one is Wednesday, May 31st.

• Field Day – Working with Rachel, we’ve set our Field Day date for Wednesday, June 7th, 8:30-10:00 (K-2) and 10:15-11:30 (3 – 5). We’ll plan to run Field Day the same as in the past, although Rachel has some fun new stations. Filed Day will happen out on the Kelly Track where teacher will rotate around nine different station with their class, with volunteers running each of the stations. Other available staff should also come out to help and/or join in on the fun. 

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

• Care Team Resources – We’ve learned about a few new resources you can feel free to share with families:

• NAACP Free Tutoring, Back-to-School/Success in School – BTS/SIS is a K-12 tutoring and academic support program. It involves regularly scheduled individual and group tutoring with college volunteers and local professionals. This builds positive identity reinforcement through community interactions with peers in the African American community.

• Self Sufficiency Program Resources – The Self Sufficiency Program is our primary DHS contact for the Student Care Team and linked here is a list of Self Sufficiency Resources they can offer families, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), JOBS Program and Support Services, Needy and Non-Needy Caretaker Relative Grant (NNCR), TANF Grant for parents on Social Security (SSI), Domestic Violence Assistance, Employment Related Day Care (ERDC), Family Support and Connections, Vocational Rehabilitation, Child Welfare, Senior & People with Disabilities, and the Oregon Health Plan (OHP).

• Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP) – Grandparents or relatives raising a child under 18 and are at least 55 years of age, may be eligible for support (school supplies, health supplies, paying for camps, etc.) through the Family Caregiver Respite Program. See the linked flyer for details.

• Museums for All – The Science Factory here in town has joined more than 100 museums in ensuring that every child and family has access to high-quality museum experiences by participating in the Museums for All program. Individuals and families who show an Oregon Trail Card (EBT card) and a valid ID will receive the following admission benefits:

• Exhibit Hall Admission for only $1 per person up to 6 family members total
• Stargazing Planetarium Admission for only $1 per person up to 6 family members total

• AMX Staff Onsite May 8 & 9 – The AMX people will be working at Howard and Roosevelt May 8th and 9th. They should not be interrupting anyone during the school day and will primarily be in the BEST and YMCA rooms during the day.

• North Region Visioning Survey Update – The staff survey closed and the consultant is in the process of creating an analysis of the responses for the district. A total of 220 staff members from the North Region responded, representing a very significant 51% response rate. Among licensed employees, the participation rate was 59% while among classified employees it was 39%. Next week parents of students living in or attending school in the North Region will receive invitations to participate in the parent version of the survey. The week after that schools will receive copies of and/or links to the student version of the survey, which was postponed to avoid overlap with the Oregon Healthy Teens survey being administered at all secondary schools. Finally, after all the targeted versions of the survey are completed, the consultant will open the community version of the survey to all 4J community members.

• OEBB Mandatory Open Enrollment, Aug. 15-Sept. 15, 2017 – OEBB members who wish to have medical, vision, and dental coverage for the October 1, 2017–September 30, 2018, plan year will be required to log into the MyOEBB system during open enrollment in order to register for that coverage. The mandatory OEBB open enrollment period will be August 15 – September 15, 2017. OEBB will send information about plan designs and offerings, but rate information and other details specific to 4J employees will come from 4J. Watch for updates in the 4J Benefits and Wellness Newsletters, on the 4J website, in your e-mail inbox, and via US Mail over the summer.

• IEP Meeting Compensation From Due June 9th – A quick reminder that the EEA contract allows for licensed staff to be compensated for up to four hours of additional pay for attending IEP meetings. Track your IEP meeting times on the Non-ESS Licensed IEP Time Log, which needs to be turned in to HR by June 9th. The form can also be found on the HR Forms section of the 4J website.

• Movie Licensing – Not that teachers are showing movies all that often, but I did mention to a few people that downtown was recently checking whether the district was in compliance with movie licensing when films are shown in classrooms or at movie nights. Downtown has purchased a district-wide license so school staff and parent groups can show films as long as we don’t charge admission, advertise to the general public, change or alter the films when shown, or show it off campus.

• District Admin Update – Downtown has hired Dr. Karen Pérez-Da Silva as the new Equity, Instruction & Partnerships Manager, a reworked position most recently held by Carmen Urbina. Dr. Pérez-Da Silva will coordinate the district’s equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives. A major change to this position is that it will be more instrunctionally focused, with the primary goals being to support the use of effective and culturally responsive instructional practices that ensure all students are successful, and to cultivate partnerships and resources that address the achievement and opportunity gaps facing historically underserved students.

Dr. Pérez-Da Silva spent more than 16 years teaching in diverse classrooms, conducting action research, and working with teams of general education and special education teachers, students and their families to analyze problems of practice at the classroom and school levels to bring about change. She obtained her doctorate in educational leadership from Lewis and Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling. She has taught culturally responsive teaching courses, led courageous conversations groups at the district office for teachers on special assignment, and mentored dual language teachers. She has also spent the past year as a community networker in the Human Resources Department and a mentor/coach in the Multilingual Department in the Beaverton School District.

• How to Get the Most Out of Small-Group Math Conversations – Here’s a timely article given our new math curriculum adoption and next year’s focus on Number Talks. The authors address the challenge of getting elementary students to have good math discussions when they’re working in small groups, which includes details on how to model good collaboration, providing opportunities for guided mathematical talk, and providing resources that support mathematical talk.

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

May 1 (M)
Children’s Book WeekPBIS Monthly Theme – Positive Attitude
1:30-4:00, Allan to Testify at DHS Hearing (Lane County Youth Services)

May 2 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
3:00, Allan to Taking It Up Training (Ed Center)

May 3 (W)
1:30, Allan to Parent Meeting (Office)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-4:00, Allan to Pre-referral SPED Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (River Road)

May 4 (H)
No BEST
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, Allan to IEP Eligibility Meeting (Conference Room)

May 5 (F)
No BEST

May 8 (M)
Teacher Appreciation Week
Human Growth and Development, 5th Grade
AMX Staff Working in Building
7:00, Allan, Natalie, & Allison to River Road Community Meeting

May 9 (T)
Human Growth and Development, 5th Grade
AMX Staff Working in Building
7:50-11:45, Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)
9:00-1:30, 1st Grade Science Factory Field Trip
11:50:12:20, Allan Covering Classroom
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Sarah’s Room, B203)

May 10 (W)
All Classrooms Teach Safety Training Lesson
Human Growth and Development, 5th Grade
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
Wacky Wednesday – Crazy Sock Day
9:00-12:30, KG Grade Science Factory Field Trip
2:00-3:00, Allan to Coding RoboKind Meeting (Sup. Office)
2:30-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, A101)

May 11 (H)
9:00, Lockdown: Evacuation Drill Practice

May 12 (F)
7:45-5:30, 5th Grade OMSI Field Trip
12:30, Fire Drill

May 14 (SU)
Mother’s Day

And see below for our all-school photo from last week! I scrutinized the picture and didn’t find any stray middle fingers, although I did catch a couple faces and dabs (such an annoying dance move, but maybe I’m just a cranky old man for blurring them out). Below are also a few picture from the Tech Trot.

Enjoy!

Allan

 

April 3, 2017

By Allan  |  2017/03/26 20:09 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Caring for Kids, Literacy, Math, P.D., Science, Video  |  Comments Off on April 3, 2017

 

Welcome Back, Roadrunners!

I hope you all took time for yourselves over the break and had time to recharge for the last part of the school year! Always remember to take good care of yourself so you’ll be in a good place to take care of others. “You can’t pour from an empty cup” (yes, I read that on a meme).

Twenty items of note for this week:

• SSD Staffing Update – I’ve already let SPED staff know, but we received our SPED staffing from SSD for licensed and for most classified staff. Bryan, Katie, Linda, and Rae will all be returning to their same positions and hours next year. For classified staff, we received allocations and job assignments for everyone except for one-on-one EAs, but all non-one-on-one SPED EAs will also be returning next year to their same positions and hours.

• Night Custodian Update – The Friday before the break we officially hired our new 10-month night custodian, Nigel Cottrell, who will start this week, but will be in and out with some required Facilities trainings. Nigel has been working as a custodial substitute and is also going to school right now to become a speech-language pathologist. Please welcome Nigel to the Howard Team!

• Job Expo Updates – Howard will have three positions going to the Job Expo next week, so please tell me if you know of awesome teachers who want to come to Howard. One position is a Carla’s 3rd grade job, now that she’ll be moving into ESC and job-sharing with Amber. We also have a half-time facilitating teacher position that we’re adding for next year. It will likely be to support 4th or 1st grade, but that could change. Lastly, and sadly, Kealy is taking a leave next year, so we’ll also have a vacancy at kindergarten and will be looking for someone to join Robin and Shelly. Please feel free to talk to any teacher friends and colleagues of yours and tell them that Howard is an awesome place to work!

• Erin’s Law Child Abuse Prevention Teaching Requirement – 4J is continuing to get into compliance with state and federal laws and one is the child abuse prevention law, Erin’s Law. Linked here is an Erin’s Law Info Sheet that we’ll be sending home soon to families. This requires that all classroom teachers annually teach students child abuse prevention strategies, including this school year. In the future, we should plan to add this to our annual Safety Week. The goals at the elementary level are to teach students:

• How to judge between safe and unsafe touch
• How to protect themselves
• Who to go to for help

To meet this teaching requirement, all classrooms teachers should should teach their grade level’s Michigan Model Health lesson on this topic. If you don’t have the Michigan Model curriculum, which is very likely between our recent move and our recent growth the past few years, linked here are the lessons for Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, and 5th Grade. These lessons do require a video from the curriculum, so if no one at your grade level has the DVD to share, let me know and I can get one for you from downtown. Let me know if you have any questions on this.

• PTO Updates – Here’s the latest from the March PTO Meeting:

• Penny War Results – You probably already heard that Jessy’s class won for the most point and Kreider/Shadwick’s class won for the most pennies. The fundraiser as a whole brought in about $1,449! If you’re interested, linked here are the classroom totals.

• Artist in Residence – Thanks for grants secured through LaneArts and $1,000 from PTO, we’re again able to provide local professional artists to work with Howard students. I’m working the the Blues in the Schools folks now on dates and a schedule.

• DreamBox Funding – The PTO said they can fund the $1,200 needed to license DreamBox for the rest of the school year once our two-month free demo is up. However, the funds would come out of next year’s PTO Teacher Funds, meaning instead of $17 per student, it would likely be around $14-15 per student for classrooms and specialists. We’ll plan to discuss this at a future staff meeting, although there is a possibility PTO will raise more funds than they are projecting, which is what’s happened for all of our fundraisers so far this year.

• 17/18 Staffing Shared – As an FYI, I shared the licensed staffing plan at the PTO meeting, so it’s officially public knowledge who will be teaching what next year. I’ll plan to put this in the school newsletter once vacancies get filled at the Job Expo.

• Tech Trot April 26th – Our Tech Trot fundraiser to support building technology (subscriptions, hardware, software, etc.) is April 26th. The collection envelopes and instructions will go home two weeks before the event. Free shirts will be available to all students, and if you’d like to have some say in what color of shirt is selected, classes can vote between LIME, RED, ORANGE SHERBET, ASH, or LIGHT PINK. Staff can also cast your vote on the PTO Facebook Poll. Go red!

• Ems Emazing Readers Incentive Kick-Off Assembly, 4/13 – Not this week, but Thursday next week is the kickoff for the Eugene Emeralds’ Reading Incentive program. The program will run the same as last year, which is classroom teachers set a reading goal for students and if students meet that goal they get two free tickets to attend an Ems baseball game this summer. For the assembly, the 3-5 assembly will be 9:00-9:25 and the K-2 assembly will be 10:00-10:25, where Sluggo will motivate kids to meet their reading goals (or at least get them wound up). See the linked assembly map and directions for details.

• Playground Rules: No Balls/Toys From Home – We’ve stated to see balls, hacky sacks, and other items from home make their way out to recesses. Please remind students that balls, games, and toys need to stay home and are definitely not be taken out onto the playground, which too often leads to problems when they get lost, stolen, damaged, or end up on the roof.

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

• White Water Fix Coming – An update on the classroom faucets causing “white water.” Replacement faucet parts are coming that are standard aerator style flow restrictors. Later this summer when Facilities Department staff replace these in the classrooms, the water will show air in the stream, but will clear immediately in a glass. The existing stream was clear flow, but had very fine air entrained bubbles when in a glass. There are no water quality issues, but this will fix the visual issue. I think we we got Facilities to fix this in part because the manufacturer offered to chip in on the cost.

• Monday, April 3rd PD Info – A quick repeat of previously shared information. All licensed staff who teach math (gen ed, Title, SPED) are required to attend the LearnZillion math training. All classified staff who teacher and/or support math instruction should also attend. K-2 will meet at Holt and 3-5 will meet at Howard from 8:00-12:00. See the linked Math PD Flyer for details.

• Instructional Minutes & Start/End Times Update – I mentioned in prior announcements that as a result of downtown discovering that elementary schools were not meeting required instructional minutes, there was talk of aligning recess, lunch, and start & end times across the district. Discussion on this is not over, but there will be no changes to Howard or other schools’ start and end times for this coming school year. This means we can plan on classes the same start and end times here at Howard for next year.

• School Choice Changes Next Year – The application window for school choice will change next year to just the month of January. This means we’ll have only one month of school choice tours instead of two, so fewer interruptions, and also more solid of school choice numbers before staffing allocations given out. Out-of-district applications would still be the same because those dates are part of the state laws governing inter-district transfers.

• District Admin Updates – Longtime Kennedy Middle School principal Charlie Smith is retiring at the end of this school year, as is Kennedy assistant principal Mark Bennett. Stepping into the Kennedy principal role will be Morgan Christensen. Morgan taught at Roosevelt Middle School and is currently assistant principal at Churchill High School. Casandra Kamens, current North Eugene High School principal, will move to Churchill to fill Morgan’s position. This leaves vacancies for a principal at North and assistant principal positions at Kennedy and ATA.

• First Friday Communities of Color Networking Event – Jill reminded me about the First Friday CCN Event that happens the first Friday of each month. The next one is April 7th, 5:30-7:00 at the Lane ESD. CCN is a safe space to relax, network, catch up, and meet new people of color and allies. All are welcome! See the linked flyer for details.

• Levi Strauss Community Day – Levi’s Strauss reached out to us about their 17th Annual Community Day on Thursday, May 4th. Their employees are looking for volunteer opportunities in the community this day, so if you could use a volunteer or volunteers this day, let me know before Tuesday.

• Eugene 4J 6K AVID Strides for Education Run/Walk – The 1st Annual Eugene 4J 6K Strides for Education run/walk to celebrate AVID and fundraise for the program will be on April 9th. This will be a professionally managed 6 kilometer run/walk on the bike path along the banks of the Willamette River. The proceeds will support having college tutors at our school, sending students on college visit field trips, and more. Online registration ($20 for adults; $10 for 4J students) is now available at the above link.

Many 4J middle and high schools are AVID sites (it’s being piloted at the elementary level this year at Awbrey Park and Spring Creek), a college and career readiness system that stands for “Advancement Via Individual Determination.” Hundreds of 4J teachers have been trained to utilize AVID strategies to improve instructional practice. You can learn more about AVID at avid.org

• 15 Resources on Sparking Student Creativity – Albert Einstein once said, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” Here is a curated list of resources just released on ASCD myTeachSource that offer different ways to promote student creativity using practical applications and classroom assessments.

• Integrating Literacy into STEAM Lessons – Although written by a middle school teacher, much of this article still applies at the elementary level. Both Common Core and NGSS emphasize the importance of speaking, listening and communicating about mathematical and scientific concepts. Integrating literacy tools into STEAM subjects does more than help students and teachers fulfill objectives. Better literacy helps students identify and more thoroughly understand key concepts.

• Growth Mindset Is Not Enough – The author of this Edutopia article asserts that to help students face life’s challenges, teachers should seek to help them develop a broad set of skills.

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

April 3 (M)
No School — Professional Development/Planning Day
PBIS Monthly Theme – Encouragement
8:00-12:00, District Math PD (K-2 Holt, 3-5 Howard)

April 4 (T)
Students Return
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

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

April 6 (H)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
12:00, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)

April 7 (F)
9:00, March Book Winners (Conference Rooms)

April 8 (SA)
10:00-2:00, PTO LulaRoe Multi-Consultant Pop Up

April 10 (M)
Regular Day

April 11 (T)
Lori Possibly Out for Jury Duty
8:00-1:00, LCC Dental Clinic with Robin Wellwood
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, B203)

April 12 (W)
Wacky Wednesday – Mismatch Day
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
ODE Family Survey’s Due
1:30, Allan to Review Diastat Training
2:30-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, A101)
6:00-7:00, Howard Kindergarten Round-Up (Library)

April 13 (H)
9:00-9:30, 3-5 Ems Emazing Reading Assembly (Gym)
10:00-10:30, K-2 Ems Emazing Reading Assembly (Gym)
4:00-6:00, Allan to Elem. Job Expo (Ed Center)

April 14 (F)
2:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

And to get you all in the mood to return to work, below are some pictures from the PBIS Tail Feather Reward Assembly that show Howard staff know how to have fun!

See you soon!

Allan

 

And we almost got to see a RipStik Riding Roadrunner at the assembly, but we’ll have to figure out this giant mascot costume head first.

February 13, 2017

By Allan  |  2017/02/11 21:16 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Equity, Math, P.D., Video  |  Comments Off on February 13, 2017

Hi Everyone,

Twenty-three items of note for this week:

• UPDATE: Fire Drill Tuesday at 1:10 Tues. Feb. 21 @1:10– It’s supposed to be dry this Tuesday and no one has PE, Music, Lunch or Recess at this time, so we’ll hold Our February fire drill on Tuesday at 1:10 Tuesday, February 21st at 1:30 as long as the weather cooperates.

• New Care Team Release Form & Feb. Referrals – Linked here is an updated Care Team Release of Information Form (this one you can electronically edit if you open the file with Adobe Acrobat Reader) for the Student Care Team. Please remember to have the parent/guardian initial Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol if they wish for that information to be disclosed. There is also now a button at the top of the second page to add additional providers we may be inviting to the table just once for a specific family. This reduces the need for multiple releases.

Our February Care Team Meeting will be in two weeks on Wednesday, February 22nd, so referrals to the team are be due to me by Friday, February 17th. Referrals can be for families seeking or needing help in most any area, but who do not know where to get that help. The broad goal of the Care Team is to prevent student and family situations from slipping through the social service cracks. Food assistance, incarcerated parents, counseling/mental health needs, parenting resources, transportation assistance, clothing needs, financial assistance, and any other situation where a family is looking for help. Try to get a parent/guardian signature on the release form, but know that you can also refer “hypothetical” situations.

• Updated PE/Music Schedule – There were a few changes made to the PE and Music Schedule (those effected already know), but linked here is the updated schedule (PDF and XLS). Let me know if anything on here looks incorrect.

• Dental Hygiene Kits Coming – Nurse Robin asked me to let teachers know United Way is providing nice dental hygiene kits to children K-6 in Lane County. Zippered Pouches contain toothbrush, full tube of toothpaste, some floss and a plastic hourglass type “timer.” Robin wanted folks to know that these are coming soon so perhaps this can coincide with a dental prevention message in the classroom and a plan for distributing the dental kits. Robin is also happy to assist low income families without insurance to access dental care. The White Bird Smile Day is happening Feb 20. Linked here is the Free Dental Clinic flier, and English and Spanish applications. A healthy smile is so important, and it is easier to learn if your teeth don’t hurt!

• 2017-2018 Staffing Survey, Due Wednesday – If you haven’t already, all staff should complete a short survey, either on this linked Google Form (my preference) or on the linked Word file. All answers will be kept confidential.

• Artist in Residence – Thanks to support from our PTO and a from the Lane Arts Council, we’ll have artist in residence again this year. We need to decide on an artist at our February Staff Meeting, so let me know between now and then if you have any early favorites from the 2016-2017 Artist Residencies List. We can always have some of our favorites come back and do a new project too.

• Positive Referrals – I think I set a record for Level III’s last Friday (it was a full moon), but if anyone would like to send a student to the office for a good reason, linked here is a positive office referral you can feel free to use. I’ll plan to run a batch of these on Monday and put them in the office filing cabinet with all of the other referrals.

• AESOP Sub Report Time – When entering a report time for subs, please put 7:30 instead of 7:00. The office is not open at 7:00, so subs end up waiting outside or knocking on windows when we’re trying to get ourselves in the office organized before letting students and families into the building.

• OBOB Final Battle & Awards Assembly – Linked here is the Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) Assembly Map & Directions for the final OBOB battle this Wednesday at 9:10. I mapped spots for grades 3-5, but if younger grades would like to attend, let me know by Friday and I’ll add your class to an updated assembly map.

• Free Corridor Musical Field Trip, “A Spoonful of Sugar” – If any teachers are interested in taking your class to Corridor’s annual musical performance at the Hult Center the morning of March 22nd or March 23rd, send an email Joanne Jones (jones_j@4j.lane.edu) to be entered into the lottery for a buses and free admission to the performance. See the linked email for details, but include in your email:

1. School:
2. Teacher name & email:
3. Grade:
4. Number of total seats needed:
5. Wheelchair seats needed: YES/NO
6. Enter lottery for Wednesday, March 22, 2017 only: YES/NO
7. Enter lottery for Thursday, March 23, 2017 only: YES/NO
8. Enter lottery for both days: YES/NO

• Check School Website Staff Directory – An update to WordPress killed our Staff Directory page last week. Peggy rebuilt the page from scratch, but please check the page and let me know if we’re missing anything (missing staff members, old links for webpages, wrong emails, etc.) or anything else that needs updating.

• New Building Updates – Here are the items of note regarding our new building:

• Unlock Your AMX Cabinet Tuesday – Classroom staff, on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, please leave your back cabinet doors unlocked that contain the AMX equipment. The AMX people will be working in the building again after school these days and will need access to these cabinets (which don’t have a universal key and are individual to each classroom). Thank you!

• New Ticket System for AMX Issues – If you have any issues with the AMX systems (wall keypad, projector, sound, etc.) send an email to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu and that email is going to get rerouted to the team in charge of fixing any and all AMX related issues. If you’re having problems, DO send in an email, especially while all of our equipment is still under warranty.

• Report Card Absence Count Error – Lupe discovered a discrepancy on the number of absences printing on the report card than what students actually had. The Tech Department figured out is that the report cards were not counting “Planned Absences” in the absence totals. I wanted to let teachers know about this in case you already printed your report cards and you have any students who you wanted to re-print report cards for to make sure all of their absences were shown.

• Instructional Minutes Info – Oregon K-8 students are required to have 900 hours of instruction each school year and it’s come to light after all of our snow days when downtown began counting instructional hours at all schools that all 4J elementary schools are short on hours (Howard is 6 hours short, so we’re very close). To address this, one thing being looked at by downtown for next year is aligning the start and end times and amount of time for recess and lunch so all students receive the same instructional hours.

• January McKinney-Vento Student Data – Linked here is the district-wide January McKinney-Vento Student Report. These totals represent students for the entire school year, not necessarily who’s in buildings now. As was last year, Howard serves more homeless students than any elementary school in 4J.

• Eugene Math Festival – See the linked Flier (English and Spanish) for an event on February 18, Crater Lakes Room, EMU, where students ages 5-14, who like math and share a passion for games, problem solving, and hands-on math activities, to come to the first annual math festival. This year they are offering free admission without prior registration. Parents are required to accompany the youngest participants (grades 1 – 3).

• Free Audubon Materials for Classrooms – See the linked letter from the Lane County Audubon Society Adventures Coordinator, Rachael Friese, who is offering amazing classroom kits for free to 3rd-5th grade classrooms.

• Emergency Radios Training Video – I shared this once before, but principals were asked to share again if you are someone who uses a school radio and you haven’t watched this video yet, please take 5 min of your time to view the linked 4J radio training video. Be sure to sign in to your 4J Google account to access the video.

• Argumentation in Mathematics Course, Grades K-2 Teacher Opportunity – For grades K-2 teachers, there is a $250 stipend for completing an online course from the University of Washington about Argumentation in Mathematics. The course will begin mid-March and will include one “break week” in the spring. Coursework is likely to take 1-3 hours to complete each week. This can be completed at any point in the week that works for you. Teachers should email Susan Wilson <susan.wilson@state.or.us> if you’re interested.

• Risk Management Field Trip Info – Teachers, please review the following Risk Management Field Trip webpage. Take special note of the Field Trip forms link and the 4J Code of Conduct for Trip Chaperones document, which you could share with field trip chaperones as you see necessary. On a related note, starting next year 4J is planning to have all volunteers who fill out the online criminal background check complete a short online training for volunteer expectations.

• Black History Month Do’s and Don’ts – DO incorporate black history year-round and connect it to current issues; DON’T focus on superficial cultural traits based on stereotypes or stop your “regular” curriculum. Find more advice where these came from in Teaching Tolerance’s popular Do’s and Don’ts of Teaching Black History.

• 4 ways games inform teaching, learning – Students are drawn to playing games, so it makes sense that teachers should adopt some basic principles of game play in the classroom, instructional coach Andrew Miller writes. In this blog post, Miller shares four takeaways from video and board games and the gamer brain.

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

February 13 (M)
9:30, Allan Meeting with Facilities Staff
1:00-2:00, OBOB Games (Library)

February 14 (T)
Valentine’s Day
1:10, Fire Drill MOVED TO NEXT TUESDAY
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room)

February 15 (W)
Exclusion Day
9:10-9:40, OBOB Final Battle & Awards Assembly (Gym)
2:30-3:30, Grade Level Meeting Time (Jenny’s Room)

February 16 (H)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
5:00-7:00, PTO McTeacher Night Fundraiser (River Ave.)
6:00-9:00, Howard Elementary Nights with the Ducks (UO vs Utah)
7:00-8:00, School Choice Informational Meeting (Ed Center)

February 17 (F)
Report Cards Sent Home
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
2:30-4:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

February 20 (M)
President’s Day – No School

February 21 (T)
School Choice Visitation Week #2
8:00-1:30, LCC Dental Clinic
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
11:00-12:00, Allan to All-Admin 17-18 Staffing Meeting (Ed Center)
1:10, Fire Drill
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting (Volunteer’s Classroom)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)

February 22 (W)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)

February 23 (H)
Book Fair Arrives/Set-Up
9:00, School Choice Tour
2:30-3:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

February 24 (F)
8:40-9:05,, K-2 Pride Assembly (Gym)
9:10-9:35, 3-5 PRIDE Assembly (Gym)
10:30-12:30, Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Community Room)

And it was fun seeing everyone after school on Friday who was able to come out for beverages and laser tag and/or bowling. We’ll see what the Social Committee has planned for us next. Get Air? Level Up? Shooters? Suggestions welcome!

Allan

January 23, 2017

By Allan  |  2017/01/21 22:11 Posted in Announcements, Arts, Equity, Math, P.D.  |  Comments Off on January 23, 2017

Hello Roadrunners,

Twelve items of note for this week:

• School Choice Visitation Week – We have a handful of tours scheduled for this week, so don’t be surprised if I bring families around and into classrooms this week. And it’s certainly not a have-to-do, but hanging up student work, art projects, and such always looks great to incoming families.

• PE/Music Semester End and Start Dates – Downtown shared the expectations for PE and Music specialists when they transition schools over the semester. Specialists will get Thursday, Feb. 2nd and Friday, Feb. 3rd off to pack and set up and will begin teaching on Monday, Feb. 6th. I’m checking into the possibility of getting a music sub for Thursday the 2nd so classroom teachers still get their prep. I’ll keep you posted.

• United Way Campaign – You should have received your pledge sheet in your mailboxes. The campaign this year runs through Friday, February 3rd. Completed pledge sheets can be put in my mailbox. Please consider donating a small amount this year. You can even donate directly to your own school, grade level, or classroom through EEF on the form, which is a good thing to do since the “Educator Expenses Tax Deduction” was eliminated a few years ago and donations through the United Way and EEF are still tax deductible. For more information on how United Way of Lane County is assisting in Eugene, please visit United Way website.

• PTO Updates – Linked here are the January PTO Meeting Minutes from last Tuesday’s meeting. Two highlights are:

• McTeacher Night, Feb. 16 – This year’s McTeacher Night will be February 16th if any staff are available to volunteer to serve, cook, and greet families for this greasy fundraiser. All proceeds will go towards more books for the library. If you haven’t seen it on the PTO Facebook Page, here’s a link to the official Howard Library Amazon Wish List. Feel free to share!

• Penny War, March 13-17 – The Penny War fundraiser will be March 13-17th. Proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards our artist in residence in the spring. Linked here are the Lane Arts 2016-2017 Arts Education Teaching Artist Roster.

• Copier Repair Updates – The office color copier is back up and working again, though I’m really just wishing it would finally give in and downtown would buy us a new one. In the meantime, remember there is also an upstairs copier if you’d like to avoid the lines in the main workroom.

• Report Card Grading Day, Classified & Licensed – 4J is again putting on the Elementary EA Extravaganza on the elementary report card grading day next week on Friday, February 3rd. SPED and Title 1 EAs were sent the linked email, but I wanted to make sure all EA who provide instruction got this information. Let me know if you have any questions about this.

For licensed staff, report card grading day is a regular work day. I haven’t heard of any policy changes around expectations for this day, so going with past practice, teachers are allowed to work from home if you notify your administrator (me) in advance, but be sure to make plans ahead of time if you need to collaborate with colleagues for grading. Also, be sure to use this time for grading and not use it to run errands around town. Teachers are highly visible members of the community, so keep in mind public perception. HR has said in the past if working off-site on grading days is abused, we will not be allowed to continue the practice.

Report Cards will go home Friday, February 17th. The deadline to give Bianca report cards to be translated is Friday, February 10th.

• Learning Targets Math Resources – Follow this link if you’d like a clean electronic version of the Achieve the Core Math Focus by Grade Level. If you want a direct link to your grade level, here they are broken out by grade: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, and 5th Grade. Also remember there are quite a few resources broken out by grade level on the 4J Teacher Resources website (you’ll need to use VPN if you’re accessing it from home.

• School/District Report Cards & Info Sent Home – Information about state testing and our school & district report cards were sent to families recently. This is a state-mandated parent notification. Parents received the following: (1) Howard’s 2015–16 state report card (2) The district’s 2015–16 state report card (3) The state’s 2016–17 state testing notice and opt-out form. Linked here is the email. I just wanted staff to be in the know should any parents ask you about these.

• Help Diversify 4J’s Teaching Staff – HR sent an email earlier about the Pathways in Education Scholarship Opportunity, but there are scholarship funds available for adults interested in perusing a teaching career and are from under represented groups in our workforce. Follow the link to the Teacher Pathways webpage for details.

• Grant Writing/Approval Process – I know we have several regular grant writers on staff, so I wanted to remind folks of the district grant approval process for grants $5,000 or more located on the district Grants & Opportunities webpage. If you are applying for a grant of this size, please, look closely at this process before beginning any grant writing process.

• No-School Days Make Up: Stand By – Cydney Vandercar shared that Eugene School District 4J already has had an unprecedented number of no-school days due to an unusual amount of severe winter weather—6 full days plus one 2-hour delay so far—and winter is not over yet. We do expect to restore at least 3 school days in June. However, the district is looking at possible alternatives for recovering lost instruction time. All options for meeting state instructional time requirements will be considered in collaboration with the employee associations, including possibilities such as adjusting daily schedules or making up school days before the end of the year. When these decisions are made and an adjusted calendar is approved by the school board, you will be notified and the plan will be widely communicated to parents and the public.

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

January 23 (M)
School Choice Visitation Week
2:30-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)
7:00-8:00, School Choice Informational Meeting (Ed Center)

January 24 (T)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, B203)
3:30-5:00, Allan or KG Rep to Kindergarten Task Force Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-6:00, EEA Google Classroom Seminar (Ashley’s Room, B205)
6:00-7:00, Howard School Choice Evening Presentation & Tour (Library)

January 25 (W)
8:30-12:30, Lions Club Health Vision & Dental Screening (Gym and Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)

January 26 (H)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
10:30-12:30, January Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, B204)
2:30-3:30, Allan to IEP Eligibility Meeting (Conference Room)
4;30-5:30, PERS Education Session (Ed Center)

January 27 (F)
8:00-4:00, Allan to LEL (Gilham)

January 30 (M)
7:50-11:45, Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)
2:30-3:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

January 31 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
7:00-8:00, School Choice Informational Meeting (Ed Center)

February 1 (W)
No Title 1 Wednesday
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

February 2 (H)
Science Kits Due Back
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)

February 3 (F)
No School — Semester Grading Day
8:00-3:30, Elementary EA Extravaganza (Ed Center)

Sorry if there are more typos and errors in my announcements than normal, but I’m suffering from a bit of a man-cold this weekend. You can check with my wife if I was a baby about it or not.

Allan