Grants

March 30, 2020

By Allan  |  2020/03/28 01:55 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Caring for Kids, Grants, Technology, Video  |  Comments Off on March 30, 2020

 

Hello Roadrunners,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

You got this, people!

Allan

 

March 9, 2020

By Allan  |  2020/03/07 22:31 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Equity, Grants, Literacy, Technology, Video  |  Comments Off on March 9, 2020

 

Howdy Roadrunners,

You may have lost an hour this weekend, but this will cheer you up. There’s only two weeks until spring break!

Thirteen items of note for this week:

• 2020-2021 Staffing Updates – We have tentatively received an additional 1.5 licensed FTE from SIA (Student Investment Act, formerly SSA) funds. This is tentative pending final board approval and then approval by the state, but downtown is comfortable sharing these draft allocations. Principals will submit two staffing plans. One with SIA staffing and one without. I shared last week this FTE can be used for:

• Facilitating teacher for a “walk to read” model for grades 1 & 2

• Class size reduction for a single grade (grades 1 or 2)

• Class size reduction with blended grades(1/2 blend)

• Limited use for reading intervention

I shared with EA Supervisors and Licensed Specialists on Friday the two plans that incorporate this 1.5 FTE, adding a class at 1st grade and adding 0.5 FTE to 2nd grade for walk to read. The difference between the two plans is 3rd or 5th grade getting the fourth classroom.

SIA PLAN 1: Four classes at 1st, 4th, 5th
K – 25, 25, 25
1 – 19, 20, 20, 20 (SIA 1.0 FTE)
2 – 21, 22, 22, 0.5 facilitating (0.5 SIA FTE)
3 – 26, 26, 27
4 – 21, 21, 21, 22
5 – 20, 20, 20, 21

SIA PLAN 2: Four classes at 1st, 3rd, 4th
K – 25, 25, 25
1 – 19, 20, 20, 20 (SIA 1.0 FTE)
2 – 21, 22, 22, 0.5 facilitating (0.5 SIA FTE)
3 – 19, 20, 20, 20
4 – 21, 21, 21, 22
5 – 27, 27, 27

This brings our total classroom count to what we have this school year, with 21 full-time gen ed classrooms. I’ll continue meeting with grade levels this week for input on these plans, but also feel free to email or talk in person with me if you’d like to share you thoughts on these or other potential scenarios for next school year.

Outside of classroom staff, we’re still waiting on ESSA, ESC, and the Student Behavior Support Coordinator allocations, which leaves our classified and non-classroom licensed positions a bit up in the air. I will update staff on this as soon as I get more information.

• 4J Coronavirus FAQs and NASP Talking to Kids about COVID-19 – Principals and secretaries were sent the linked Coronavirus COVID-19 Talking Points for when we encounter questions from families and I thought all staff might find this useful if you have anyone ask you about this. Should students want to discuss Coronavirus, linked here is a document from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) on Talking to Children About COVID-19, though the short version is to:

• Remain calm and reassuring
• Make yourself available
• Avoid excessive blaming
• Maintain a normal routine to the extent possible
• Be honest and accurate
• Know the symptoms of COVID-19
• Review and model basic hygiene
• Discuss new rules or practices at school

 

 

• REPEAT: March PTO Meeting, TUESDAY – This Tuesday at 6:00 in the Community Room is the March PTO meeting if any staff are able to attend.

• REPEAT: Literacy Night, Thursday – See last week’s announcements for details on Literacy Night. The schedule wasn’t on the flyer, so teachers should let students know the schedule for the evening:

5:30-6:00: FREE Pizza & Cookies (Cafeteria)
6:00-6:45: Visit Classrooms
6:30-8:00: Book Fair Open

Talk Literacy Night up to your students and get them pumped to attend!

• REPEAT: Literacy Night Staff Dinner – We’ll have a variety of pizzas and salads from Mezza Luna and also drinks for any staff working this evening.

• REPEAT: Classified Staff Help at Literacy Night – We could still use some more help on Literacy Night, 5:00-6:30ish. We can use help with setting up drinks, serving pizza, and then with clean-up. Trade time is available, which could be used the next day on Friday’s PD Day. Let me or Corianne know if any of you are available to help!

• CORRECTION: FRIDAY PD Day Info – Oops! I had the locations flipped for K-2/Music/PE and 3-5/SPED/Title, but the correct locations are on the schedule below. See the March 13 PD Email for details, but the short version is:

8:00-10:30: Licensed Tech PD
Grades K-2/Music/PE(Holt)
Grades 3-5/SPED/Title(Gilham)
8:00-10:30: Classified PD (Chavez & ATA)
10:30-1:30: Travel time, lunch, prep time
1:30-4:00: Behavior Framework (Howard Cafeteria)

Linked here is a complete list of the K-12 PD Sessions for March 13, 2020. Classified need to register for trainings on TalentEd Develop (TED). Linked here are the TED Registration Directions.

My preference for part-time staff, both licensed and classified, would be for you to come to the afternoon training here at Howard if you can adjust your hours, but part-time staff can decide.

• Fun Friday! – Book Character Day, 3/20 – Not this week, but the last day before spring break is the March Fun Friday and it’s Book Character Day! Who will you dress as? Hermione Granger, Waldo, Katniss, Arthur, that mouse with the cookie, Khaleesi, Ignatius J. Reilly, Hester Prynne, or maybe just stick a Dr. Seuss Wocket in your pocket and call it good. Sooooo many fun choices! There’s a lot of great ideas here and here. I’ll dress like McMurphy if anyone wants to dress like Nurse Ratched! That or maybe we can get a group to go as Alex and his Droogs. I’m sure the kids would love it. ;)

• Roadrunner Awards Assembly, 3/20 – Not this week, but next week is the March Roadrunner Awards Assembly. The planned mid-show entertainment will be a Siegfried & Roy-like magic performance by Matt and myself if we can pull it off. See the linked Roadrunner Awards Assembly Map for details and teachers should get your awards to me to sign by the end of the week.

• 2020 ACE Award Nominations – It’sACE Awards& season! Howard has exceptional staff and volunteers who make a difference for students every day and are worthy of recognition. Now is the time to recognize them! Nominations can be made in five categories: teachers and licensed specialists, administrators and supervisors, classified staff, volunteers, and a special lifetime achievement award. Nominations are due by March 31st. Going by past experience, winners are usually selected when a staff gets together to nominate an individual with a flood of nominations, so let me know if staff want to coordinate anything. Linked here is the ACE Awards Email and the ACE Awards Nomination Google Form. One thought for the volunteer category would be to nominate Bruce “The Gardner” Campbell. Feel free to join me in nominating Bruce, but we can start a campaign to nominate others Howard folks as well!

• EEF Grant Proposals Due to Allan, April 27 – EEF Grant Applications are now open and grants need to be given to me by April 27th for Site Council to rank order our grant submissions. I don’t need the grant completely written out, but if you can give me a title and general idea of the grant, that’s enough for us to rank order them. The date to submit the completed grants is May 8th. Linked here is the EEF Email Sent to Principals, the 2020-2021 Grant Application Website, and here is the 2020-2021 EEF Grant Application. We can submit up to five grants in any amount up to $5,000 per application. EEF has modified their EEF guiding principles for grant funding to:

– EEF supports educational enrichment programs throughout 4J.
– EEF aligns its resources to help schools achieve their goals.
– EEF supports district-wide strategic initiatives.
– EEF values equity in educational programming and opportunities.
– EEF rewards exceptional and innovative ideas.

Additionally, EEF prioritizes requests that support educational enrichment, equity and/or access programs, and that impact the largest number of students possible. They are focused on the areas of:

• Literacy
• Arts
• STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology, & Math)
• Career/Technical Education (CTE)

Let me know if you have any questions, want to bounce ideas off of someone, or would like help writing a grant.

• May/June Artist in Residence Schedule – Linked here is the Spring Artist in Residence Schedule, May 4 – June 5, for Bugs, Bones, & Botany: Exploring the Natural World Through Arts with artist Jess Graff. Mellissa cleaned up my previous draft schedule so it doesn’t interfere with OSAS testing, assemblies, and known field trips, but let us know if you spot any potential conflicts.

• Brevity is key to writing an effective email – Keeping your message brief and to the point is proper etiquette when writing an email. See this Forge Article for some other pointers for writing an email that others will want to read. (FYI – The irony of me sharing this in my long weekly announcements is not lost upon me, but hopefully the bolded headings make this a faster read for people when deciding which items apply to you.)

• Love Them First: Lessons From Lucy Laney Elementary – I haven’t watched the entire video yet, but what I saw was pretty great if you didn’t catch this in the latest 4J Office of Equity Update. You will be hooked in after the first few seconds – … leading with your heart, building relationships, holding students to high expectations but starting with “loving them first.”

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

March 9 (M)
PTO Read-A-Thon Continues
8:00-6:00, Book Fair Open (Library)
9:10-10:25, Human Growth & Development, Rock & Calliahan (STEAM Room)
11:00-12:15, Human Growth & Development, Cortez & Carpenter (STEAM Room)
11:55-12:15, Allan & 4th Team – Staffing Input (Upstairs Green Wing)
2:45-3:05, Allan & 2nd Team – Staffing Input (Ashley’s Room, RM25)
3:30-3:30, Allan & 3rd Team – Staffing Input (Allison’s Room, RM20)

March 10 (T)
8:00-6:00, Book Fair Open (Library)
9:00-10:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)
9:10-10:25, Human Growth & Development, Rock & Calliahan (STEAM Room)
11:00-12:15, Human Growth & Development, Cortez & Carpenter (STEAM Room)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM26)
2:45-3:45, Allan to IEP Meeting (Allison’s Room, RM20)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)

March 11 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
8:00-6:00, Book Fair Open (Library)
9:10-10:25, Human Growth & Development, Rock & Calliahan (STEAM Room)
10:00-10:30, Allan Covering a Classroom
11:00-12:15, Human Growth & Development, Cortez & Carpenter (STEAM Room)
2:45-3:05, Allan & KG Team – Staffing Input (Robin’s Room, RM3)
3:30-3:30, Allan & 1st Team – Staffing Input (Jasmine’s Room, RM11)

March 12 (H)
Newsletter Articles Due
8:00-5:00, Book Fair Open (Library)
8:10-8:55, BSU Meeting (STEAM Room)
9:00, February Monthly Book Winners (Conference Room)
3:30-3:30, Allan & 5th Team – Staffing Input (Suzy’s Room, RM9)
5:00-5:30, Staff Literacy Night Dinner (Staff Room)
5:30-8:00, Literacy Night

5:30-6:00: Free Pizza & Cookies (Cafeteria)
6:00-6:45: Visit Classrooms
6:30-8:00: Book Fair Reopen

7:00-8:00, Community Forums: Student Success Act Proposed Plan (River Road)

March 13 (F)
No School – Professional Development/Planning Day
8:00-10:30, Licensed Tech PD
Grades K-2/Music/PE(Holt)
Grades 3-5/SPED/Title(Gilham)
8:00-10:30, Classified PD (Chavez & ATA)
10:30-1:30, Travel time, lunch, prep time
1:30-4:00, Behavior Framework (Howard Cafeteria)

March 14 (SA)
9:00-12:00, OBOB Regional Battles (North Eugene High School)

March 16 (M)
PTO Read-A-Thon Continues
8:15, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Conference Room)
9:00-11:15, Lawson to Museum of Natural and Cultural History

March 17 (T)
St Patrick’s Day
9:00-11:15, Niccum to Museum of Natural and Cultural History
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (R&R Room, RM21)

March 18 (W)
9:00-11:15, Charpie to Museum of Natural and Cultural History
2:30-3:25, Ukulele Ensemble Performance (Lone Oak Assisted Living)

March 19 (H)
8:50-2:10, Kreider to Museum of Natural and Cultural History
2:45-3:30, TLT Meeting/Tech Training (Angela’s Room, RM24)

March 20 (F)
Fun Friday! – Book Character Day
Popcorn Friday!
8:15-8:45, K-5 Roadrunner Assembly & Tail Feather Reward (Gym)
10:30-12:45, Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – PLC (Library)

March 21 – 29
Spring Break

March 30 (M)
Classes Resume
EEF Grants Due to Allan
Cafeteria Waste System Training (Composting) Begins

We can do this! Spring break is almost here!

Allan

 

February 24, 2020

By Allan  |  2020/02/22 15:29 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Caring for Kids, Grants, P.D., SEL  |  Comments Off on February 24, 2020

 

Hello Roadrunners,

Need a little cheer going into this week? I just realized there’s really only THREE months of school left! I say only three because this month is almost over and June doesn’t count, right?

Eighteen items of note for this week:

• March 13th PD Day Info – Principals were sent a March 13 PD Email to share with staff. See the link for details, but the short version is:

8:00-10:30: Licensed Tech PD
Grades K-2/Music/PE (Gilham)
Grades 3-5/SPED/Title (Holt)
8:00-10:30: Classified PD (Chavez & ATA)
10:30-1:30: Travel time, lunch, prep time
1:30-4:00: Behavior Framework (Howard Cafeteria)

Linked here is a complete list of the K-12 PD Sessions for March 13, 2020. Classified staff will need to register for trainings on TalentEd Develop (TED). Linked here are the TED Registration Directions. Licensed staff do not need to register, but will sign in at your PD site.

• UPDATE: Classified Self Evaluations Due FRIDAY – Classified Staff Self Evaluations are due this Friday. I’ve realized many staff , you’re good and don’t have to do it again. Self evaluations need to be completed online using TalentEd. Your login is your full email (username@4j.lane.edu) and your password is your regular email password. Let me know if you need any help or have any questions.

• REPEAT: February Fire Drill, TUESDAY – We’ll plan on holding our February fire drill Tuesday at 1:15. If it’s raining, we’ll try again the next day at the same time, but right now the weather looks good.

• UPDATE: PLC Meetings This Week – This week is our PLC meetings with roving subs. Rebecca has unexpectedly had to travel to help her mother, so I will facilitate the meeting and retired 4J principal Tom Maloney will cover for me during the PLC meetings. Please come to the meetings with your math “stuff” and ready to work with your team on what’s useful to you.

WEDNESDAY
Kinder 11:10-12:10
3rd Grade 12:20-1:20
5th Grade 1:30-2:30

THURSDAY
2nd 8:10-9:10
1st 9:30-10:30
4th 10:55-11:55

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is designated for Building Based PD. My plan is for licensed staff to have time to review and discuss potential staffing scenarios for next school year. We should be able to discuss classroom configurations and I’m hoping to get more information from downtown what additional staffing from SSA funds might look like. I’ll plan to send some potential classroom configurations to all staff later this week and welcome feedback.

• REPEAT: Storytelling Assembly, FRIDAY – This Friday is the Lane Arts Storytelling Assemblies with Noah McLain Philpot, who was one of our Artists in Residence last year. The first assembly for K-2 is 8:10-8:45 and the grade 3-5 assembly is 8:55-9:30. Linked here is the Assembly Map & Directions.

• Statistics in Schools Program for 2020 Census – Not this week, but next week, March 2-6 is Statistics in School Week, which is intended to create awareness about the upcoming census, which can greatly impact future federal, state, and local funding, political boundaries, and much more. This is completely optional for teachers, but the Census Bureau has a free educational program called Statistics in Schools (SIS) that teaches children in a fun and informative way why the census is important.

• BJ Blake Covering for Allan, Tuesday – Retired 4J administrator BJ Blake will cover for me while I catch up on some formal observation write ups. I’ll still be in the building, but will be hiding in the STEAM Room or the Looking Glass office while BJ does the kid wrangling for the day. OOPS! MEANT FOR NEXT WEEK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS. 

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

• Kona Ice Fundraiser, March 5th – The Kona Ice of North Eugene (i.e. shave ice) truck owners contacted me about an easy fundraiser. They’ll park out front after school on Thursday, March 5th and Howard will get 20% of all sales. Linked here is the Fundraiser Flyer we’ll send home Friday. I’ll also plan to make an announcement 15-20 minutes early for any bus riders who bring money and want a shave ice, so they have time to order and eat before getting on the bus. ALSO, Kona Ice said all staff can get a FREE shave ice. I didn’t tell them we have over 80 staff members. ;)

• Library Happenings – Items of note from Ms. Hopkins!

Sadly I am seeing a trend happening in classes. Kids are borrowing other kids library books, and sadly they are getting lost. Please, Please have a visit with your students and ask them not to borrow other peoples books. Thank you :)

With the short weeks we have had lately it has shown in the amount of over due books we have. I have sent out email notices to parents lets hope that helps. Monday we had 131 over due book, yikes…. the good news is our kids are reading! That makes my heart happy.

Book fair is just a couple weeks away.

5th – 17th the Library will be closed March .
March 6th Book Fair preview for students and staff
March 9th – 12th M-W 8am – 6pm Th 8am -5:30pm Literacy Night 6:30pm – 8:00pm

There will be a sign up sheet in the office for classroom previews. I will start showing the book fair video Thursday.

Have a great week!

Julie

• REPEAT: Staff Needed for Outdoor School – Thank you to those who have already stepped forward, but please let me know if any other classified and licensed staff are interested/willing to help at this year’s 5th grade Outdoor School happening April 22, 23, & 24 at Sky Camp. Extended contract is available for both classified and licensed staff. For classified staff, if you stay overnight, you even get paid while sleeping! Subs will be provided to cover for staff here at school while you’re at camp. Some of us are planning to stay at Sky Camp all three days and we’d love to have more staff join us for all three days, but we will also take any help for people who can help during the day or who can help be there the two nights.

Linked here is the ODS Parent Packet that went home, which describes what will happen at camp. Coyote Camp staff pretty much run all of the activities and school staff simply assist, with the exception of classroom teachers running at Class Meeting at 4:45 on the second day.

Let me know if you’re willing to join us all three days, help during the day, or can spend the night (6:00 until morning). See me if you have questions, but I think spending three days out at Fall Creek with a bunch of kids getting to doing fun activities sounds like a pretty good time.

• Emerald Park Construction & Gate Access – Starting Monday, EWEB is replacing a water main behind by the back Emerald Park gate, running from Lake Drive to Hatton Ave. between the fence and skatepark. This will prevent access to that gate, but I’ve worked with EWEB so they won’t start until 8:00 and they will shutdown during dismissal. Construction is supposed to only last two weeks.

• Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program (FFVP) Reminders – We haven’t had a USDA inspection for several years, but I thought it may be good to remind people the expectations around our fresh daily snacks:

• Should be served daily
• Should not be served during breakfast or lunch period
• Leftovers should be given to the students or returned to the cafeteria
• There should not be carry-over of Fruits or vegetables from one day to the next
• Containers used for FFVP should be returned to the cafeteria the same day the FFVP was delivered
• Adults and/or students passing out snacks should wash hands first or use gloves

• Free Preparedness Skills Presentation – The Red Cross is offering free lessons for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms. The program teaches about safety rules for home and how to be prepared in an emergency. It is about 40 minutes including a Q&A. If your grade level is interested in a presentation, contact Alberta Cook, alberta.cook@redcross.org

• Kindness Mini Grants – The Everyone Belongs School Kindness Project is offering mini grants, which are due March 19th. See the linked flyer and application for details!

• Promoting Prosocial Behaviors in the Classroom – According to research, nurturing prosocial behaviors may improve academic outcomes—both classroom grades and test scores. See this Edutopia Article for ideas on practicing gratitude in the classroom, ecouraging random acts of kindness, and building empathy. On a related note, remember that you have my full permission to do Second Step and/or Caring School Community Lessons in place of core academic times. In my opinion, social emotional learning is equally if not more important and traditional academics.

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

February 24 (M)
9:15, Allan to IFSP Meeting (Conference Room)

February 25 (T)
12:00, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Conference Room)
1:15, Fire Drill
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM26)

February 26 (W)
Ash Wednesday (avoid scheduling schoolwide events)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
11:10-2:30, PLC Meetings (Conference Room)

Kinder 11:10-12:10
3rd Grade 12:20-1:20
5th Grade 1:30-2:30

4:00-8:00, District First Aid Class (Library)

February 27 (H)
8:10-8:55, BSU Meeting (STEAM Room)
8:10-11:55, PLC Meetings (Conference Room)

2nd grade 8:10-9:10
1st grade 9:30-10:30
4th grade 10:55-11:55

2:45-3:45, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)

February 28 (F)
PTO Read-A-Thon Begins
8:10-8:45, Storytelling Assembly, K-2 (Gym)
8:55-9:30, Storytelling Assembly, 3-5 (Gym)
10:30-12:30, February Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room & Library)
12:00-1:00, Human Growth & Development Parent Preview (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – 2020-2021 Staffing (Library)

February 29 (SA)
10:00-1:00, UO Eugene Math Festival (MacArthur Court)

March 2 (M)
Classified Employees Appreciation Week
Statistics in Schools Program for 2020 Census – SIS Week
PTO Read-A-Thon Continues
PBIS Monthly Theme – Safe Bodies

March 3 (T)
Book Fair Delivery
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (R&R Room, RM21)
6:00-7:00, Howard Kindergarten Round-Up (Library)

March 4 (W)
Walk+Roll to School Day
BJ Blake Covering for Allan
11:00-10:00, PTO Papa’s Pizza Fundraiser (W11th Location)
2:45-3:45, Equity Team Meeting (Imelda’s Room, RM7)

March 5 (H)
Book Fair Set-Up
8:45-11:30, Niccum to Corridor Play (NEHS)
2:00-3:00, Kona Ice Fundraiser (Front of School)
2:45-3:05, Allan Meeting w/KG Team – Staffing Input (Robin’s Room, RM3)
3:30-3:30, Allan Meeting w/1st Grade Team – Staffing Input (Jasmine’s Room, RM11)

March 6 (F)
Popcorn Friday!
Book Fair Student and Staff Preview
8:00-12:00, Allan to HR Early Pool Hire Committee (Ed Center)
1:30-2:00, EA Supervisors Meeting – Staffing Input (Title Room, RM26)
2:05-2:25, Allan Meeting w/Licensed Specialists – Staffing Input (Title Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – PLC (Teams Decide)
2:30-3:30, Allan Title 1 Budget Meeting (Ed Center)

March 8 (SU)
Daylight Saving Time

Have a good week, y’all!

Allan

February 3, 2020

By Allan  |  2020/02/01 13:50 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Caring for Kids, Equity, Grants, P.D.  |  Comments Off on February 3, 2020

 

Salutations!

This week is National School Counseling Week, so be sure to give a thank you, pat on the back, or fist bump to our fabulous school counselor, Mr. Matt.

And give yourselves a pat on the back for some nice feedback I had on a school choice tour last week. One parent, who’s also a teacher here in 4J with a potential incoming kindergartner, told me Howard was the first school he’s toured where he saw actual instruction happening, as well as Howard being the calmest most orderly environment, and was the school he and his wife were most comfortable with. He also like how many kids came up to give me hugs and high fives during the tour. So good job, everyone. Folks do see that Howard really does stand out as a great school. Y’all are a bunch of rock stars!

Eighteen items of note for this week:

• New Report Cards Items – Report Cards go home this Friday and here are two new RC related items:

• Withdrawn Students – If you have had a student withdraw in the last two weeks and are willing to create a report card, you have the ability to do so by selecting “inactive students” under options in the report card section.

• Notify Lori When Finished – Please let Lori know once your report cards are complete so she can load them to the student records section of Synergy.

• Library News! – News from Ms. Hopkins!

OBOB games start this week! They will be running from 12:40 to approx 1:40 give or take :). The kids are excited, nervous and anxious to show what they know about the books. Please encourage good sportsman ship and behavior Mrs. Connor and Mrs. Ing will be running our games for us. The students are to come to the library quietly a few minutes before their battle. I will send them back to class as soon as we finished up their games. Thank you for supporting our OBOB kids! There will be OBOB lunches on Tuesday in the community room.

Game #1, 12:45 – story cove
The Watermelons #2 vs. The Purrfect Fursona’s #5

Game #2, 1:05– story cove
The Purrmaid Detectives #4 vs. The Tentacle Kitties & Sloth #8

Game #3, 1:30 – story cove
The Rad Readers #1 vs. The Time Travelers # 7

Game #4, 1:50 – story cove
The Galaxy Pandas #6 vs. The Double Duos #3

Other fun library news, our circulation this year so far is 9,950 books! Last year was 7,240. Thank you everyone for support our school library!

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is designated as a PLC work session, but licensed staff will instead use this time for our final vote on our revised Leadership Plan. See the linked Leadership Plan Proposals and come prepared to discuss and vote on a plan.

• OBOB Final Battle & Awards Assembly, 2/14 – Linked here is the OBOB Final Battle & Awards Assembly Map & Directions for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes, which will be next week on Wednesday, February 14th, 8:40-9:10 in the gym.

• Journeys Print Orders – Downtown has given us additional funds for copying Journeys materials, so if teachers are sending print orders to Instaprint, please note “Journeys” on the order form so that Lori can charge it to the correct account.

• Perfect Attendance Awards – If any teachers would like me to recognize your students with perfect attendance for first semester (no tardies or absences) or near-perfect attendance, let me know and I can give a 30-second award presentation to perfect attenders in your classroom. Just give me a date and time to come in and I can make a big deal about regular attendance. Attached in my email is a list of all the students with perfect attendance first semester. Also, if you know of any kids with “near perfect” attendance who you’d like to recognize, let me know and I can award them as well. I’ll plan to do the same at the end of the school year for perfect second semester attendance and for students with perfect attendance all year.

• Security Cameras Coming – 4J received a grant so that all elementary schools will get security cameras in their gym, cafeteria, front entry, and student drop off areas. Howard is slated to get our cameras sometime in the next couple weeks and our plan is to have the monitors in the office records room.

• No Umbrellas at Recess – Students are not allowed to bring umbrellas to recess. I’ve had a number of students ask, so please let them know if it’s raining hard we’ll do indoor recess and if we do go out in drizzle but they want to stay out of the rain, they can do under the covered play area.

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

• Howard Ave. Improvements – Sarah Mazze, the Safe Routes to School Program Manager, emailed me the county has chosen Howard Ave. for their traffic calming program pilot. Their plan is to install traffic calming similar to what’s on North Park along Howard Ave. the summer of 2021, so it’s a ways off and I’m asking if we can get speed bumps that go across the entire road and are not like those on North Park, since I see people not slowing down and swerving around those. See the above link for details.

• REPEAT: 2020-2021 Staff Survey, Due Feb. 14th – Principals will receive staffing allocation February 19th, so to help me in planning potential staffing scenarios for next year, I’d like staff to complete the linked 2020-2021 Staffing Survey (preferred) or the linked file (PDF or DOC). Please complete the survey by Friday, February 14th. All answers will be kept confidential and let me know if you have any questions.

• 4J Office of Equity – Calendar of Events – Folks may not be aware, but there is a 4J Office of Equity Calendar of Events on the 4J website I thought I would highlight. There’s also the 4J Office of Equity Smore that’s regularly emailed to all staff.

• UO’s Women in Flight Festival – Feel free to share this with your students. The goal of Women in Flight is to raise awareness and financial support across all UO’s Women Sports Programs. They are hosting a FREE festival for National Girls & Women in Sports Day on Saturday, February 8th and they would love for kids to join!

Program Details:

WHO: Girls & Boys under the ages of 13!
WHAT: Women In Flight’s National Girls & Women in Sports Day Festival
WHEN: Saturday, February 8th from 3:00-6:00pm
WHERE: University of Oregon’s Moshofsky Center (Next to Autzen Football Stadium)
PRICE: FREE Community Event!
REGISTRATION: Click Here!

• Statistics in Schools Program for 2020 Census – The Census Bureau has a free educational program called Statistics in Schools (SIS) that teaches children in a fun and informative way why the census is important. During SIS week (March 2-6, 2020), we’ll send home a take-home letter and teachers are encouraged to do one of the many activities you can access on the above link. See that link or the linked flyer for more details.

• Dollar General Youth Literacy Grants – Dollar General will soon offer teacher literacy mini-grants for:

• Implementing new or expanding existing literacy programs
• Purchasing new technology or equipment to support literacy initiatives
• Purchasing books, materials or software for literacy programs

They are currently offering grants for School Libraries, Family Literacy Grants, and Summer Reading programs. See the above link for details.

• Creating Compassionate Kids Workshop – Childcare workers, teachers, and parents: join author and educator Shauna Tominey at the Eugene Public Library this Saturday, 1:00-3:00 to learn tools and strategies to help children practice emotional intelligence at home, school, and in the community. See the above link for details.

• Teaching Presidents’ Day In a Socially Conscious Way – When Presidents’ Day rolls around, it’s easy to reach for a standby lesson plan on Abe Lincoln’s log cabin. But the holiday also presents an opportunity to go deeper and examine the traditional narratives surrounding past presidents. We know that presidents were not infallible historical characters, so see this WeAreTeachers Article for some ways to keep it more honest for our students.

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

February 3 (M)
National School Counseling Week
Second Semester Begins
8:30, Allan Meeting w/Rob Hess (Office)
12:40-2:25, OBOB Battles #1 (Library)
3:45-5:15, Allan to Elementary Principal Meeting (Ed Center)

February 4 (T)
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM25)

February 5 (W)
Walk+Roll to School Day
8:30, Allan Meeting w/Meet w/Emerald Park Superintendent (Office)
2:30, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Conference Room)

February 6 (H)
9:00, January Book Winners (Conference Room)

February 7 (F)
Popcorn Friday!
Report Cards Sent Home
9:30-1:00, KG Hearing Screenings (STEAM Room)
1:30-2:00, EA Supervisors’ Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – PLC & Leadership Plan Vote (Library)

February 10 (M)
12:40-2:25, OBOB Battles #2 (Library)

February 11 (T)
BJ Blake Covering for Allan
9:00-10:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM26)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)

February 12 (W)
8:40, OBOB Battles – Semi Finals (Library)
11:10-2:30, Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)

Kinder 11:10-12:10
3rd Grade 12:20-1:20
5th Grade 1:30-2:30

2:45-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)

February 13 (H)
8:10-8:55, BSU Meeting (STEAM Room)
8:10-11:55, Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)

2nd Grade 8:10-9:10
1st Grade 9:30-10:30
4th Grade 10:55-11:55

2:30-3:30, 5th Grade ODS Teacher Planning Meeting
5:00-6:00, Outdoor School Parent Meeting (Library)

February 14 (F)
Valentine’s Day
Oregon’s Birthday
8:40-9:10, OBOB Finals – Grade 3-5 Assembly (Gym)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Behavior Framework (Library)

February 17 (M)
No School – Presidents Day

And if you missed it, some Howard kiddos at the YMCA were featured in the Register Guard last week.

Have a good week, everyone!

Allan

 

January 6, 2020

By Allan  |  2020/01/04 21:39 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Caring for Kids, Equity, Grants, P.D.  |  Comments Off on January 6, 2020

 

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a pleasant breaks and were able to connect with friends and family. My break started with everyone in my house except me getting sick, though everyone was fine by Christmas. We spent the new year in Yachats, I also grew a ridiculous horseshoe mustache, and finished season 1 of The Wire, which I highly recommend.

Twenty items of note for this week:

• REPEAT: January 6th PD Day – For details, see David Jacobsen’s Jan. 6 PD Email, the List of PD Sessions & Schedule and TalentEd Develop (TED) Registration Directions. Here’s the short version:

Classified: 8:00-10:30, register online at TalentEd Develop (TED) for a menu to training opportunities being offered at Chavez, ATA, and the Ed Center. 10:30-1:30 is travel, lunch, and prep time. 1:30-4:00 Behavior Framework focused on disproportionality and bias in discipline practices, as well as other building PD topics (hoods-in-school rule included).

Since this schedule is 8-hours, classified staff can choose to attend the half of the day that you feel would be more valuable to you or you could also work extra hours this day as Trade Time to be used on Friday, January 31st for Grading Day.

• Licensed: 8:00-10:30, register online at TalnetEd Develop (TED) for a menu to technology training opportunities at Churchill High School. If you get into a session that’s not what you wanted, vote with your feed and go to a different one. 10:30-1:30, is travel & lunch (1-hour) and protected prep time (2-hours). 1:30-4:00 Behavior Framework focused on disproportionality and bias in discipline practices, as well as other building PD topics (hoods-in-school rule included).

• Hoods in School Decision – One building item for Monday’s afternoon meeting will be a decision around whether we want to keep or change our current school rule about hoods only being worn outside. We’ll discuss at the meeting, but the reasons I’m hearing for keeping or changing the rule are primarily around issues of EQUITY (here are two articles that made me think and reconsider some: Hoodies, Hats, and Cultural Nuance and ‘Take Your Hood Off’ and Other Teacher Microaggressions), SAFETY (District policy does allow clothing restrictions if it affects participation in the educational program or threatens the safety of others), and RELATIONSHIPS (Is enforcing this rule worth the potential loss of relationship capital with a student?).

One compromise I’ve heard from a number of folks on both side of the issue is to allow hoods in class with teacher permission, but not in common areas inside the building, which does address the safety concerns, since if a teacher can’t differentiate the identities of students they’ve had in class for months, there’s a bigger problem than “hoodies” going on. Hidden headphones may still happen, but that seems to be fairly rare.

• PBIS January Rules Review Tues. & Wed. – A reminder there will be a PBIS Rules Review at morning recesses Tuesday and Wednesday. This is also a good time for classroom teachers to review the PBIS Back-to-School Refresher Google slide show.

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

• CLC EA Interviews Tuesday – We will conduct interviews for a CLC 1:1 EA position this Tuesday at 2:35-3:30 if any staff are interested in joining. Just let me know and I’ll print you an interview packet.

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is designated as a PLC work session. Grade level teams will continue their work from last month’s PLC meeting.

• EA Supervisors Meeting Moved – The January EA supervisors meeting was originally scheduled for this Friday, but I had to move it to the following Friday, January 17th, due to a conflict.

• Family Science Night Friday! – This Friday is a PTO Family Science Night. Pizza and science experiment supplies will be provided by Title 1 Parent Involvement Funds, so it will be a completely free event. The PTO is planning on having six different stations for families to conduct science experiments. Be sure to get students pumped for this event!

• School Choice Visitation Week & Info – School Choice season has begun and the Annual School Showcase will be this Saturday at the Ed Center, 10:00-12:00 if any staff are interested/willing to help me brag about our school. This event is for families to learn about all 4J schools in one place at the same time. Although Howard is already packed to the gills and already closed to all transfers, it is a chance to for us to retain families considering other schools. Breakfast is provided for staff helping at the event. Let me know if any of you are interested/willing to help promote Howard and tell families why they should come to our amazing school!

Three related items:

• School Choice Visitation Week – Next week, January 13-17, is the first School Choice Visitation Week, so be prepared for families to drop by classrooms over the course of the week. The second visitation week is Jan. 27-30. 

• School Choice Evening Presentations – I’m holding two school choice evening presentations/tours. The first will be Thursday, January 16th 6:00-7:00 and the second will be Tuesday, January 28th 6:00-7:00, if any staff are interested/willing in helping me talk about our awesome school.

• School Choice Window, Jan 1-31 – The deadline for school choice applications at the end of the month, January 31st. Students who live outside of 4J may apply March 1–31. More details on all of this can be found on the 4J School Choice Webpages.

• January PTO Meeting, Tuesday, Jan. 14 – Not this week, but next week on Tuesday, January 14th at 6:00 in the Community Room is the January PTO meeting if any staff are able to attend.

• BJ’s Resturant Fundraiser, Jan. 15 – Wednesday, January 15th is the January PTO Resturant Fundraiser and it’s at BJ’s Resturant. For this fundraiser you need to bring a digital or printed copy of the Fundraiser Flyer.

• Fun Friday, Jan. 17 – Career Day, – Not this Friday, but Friday, January 17th is a Fun Friday and it’s Career Day, so start planning you dress-up ideas and get kids jazzed to come dressed up as astronauts, doctors, and ninjas!

• Kids in the Game for Sports Registration Fees – Feel free to share with families, and we’ll include this in the next school newsletter, KIDS in the GAME is a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to low income families for sports registration fees. Kids, ages 4-18 on a Free & Reduced Lunch plan qualify, which is all Howard students since we are a Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) school. See additional information on the above website or flyer.

For CEP schools, families need to upload one of the following with their Online Application:

• SNAP
• WIC
• Foster care letter
• Student ID card – with name, school year, and school connected to application
• Student report card – with name of student, date, and school connected to application

All documentation must contain the athletes name, date/s, and school.

• Reminder: Lunchtime Hand-Washing – Downtown let me know a parent posted on the district Facebook Page over the break their child was not being allowed to wash their hands before lunch. I let them know this is odd since there are two sinks right in the cafeteria, but said I would remind teachers to prompt students about hand washing before lunch if they didn’t already in the classroom.

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

• REPEAT: SSA Survey, Phase 2 Closes TUESDAY — Make sure your opinions are heard on the 4J Student Success Act Survey – Phase 2. The survey closes Tuesday.

• REPEAT: Saudi Arabian Educators – I emailed teaches earlier, but if you are willing to host an educators from Saudi Arabia taking classes at the UO winter and spring term you can get paid $300 per term. There are two cohorts looking for placements. One group is fluent in English and would work in classrooms 20 hours per week both winter and spring term. The second group would work in classrooms on Fridays winter term and then transition to 20 hours per week spring term. They are hoping to start January 13th, so let me know as soon as possible if you’re interested.

• Take it to the Court for Education School Grant – The Trail Blazers Foundation is providing $150,000 in grants to schools across Oregon. Schools may apply for up to $10,000 in support of their academic, art, athletic and community programs. Application are due Sunday, January 12th. Click here to view the application and official guidelines.

• 2019 Education Research Highlights – Does doodling boost learning? Do attendance awards work? Do boys and girls process math the same way? This Edutopia Article looks at the big questions that researchers tackled this year, which includes:

• To remember something, draw it (but be careful with doodling)
• Awards don’t boost attendance – teachers do
• Cut the arts at your own risk
• Fewer warnings for black students
• Studies on disability emphasizes early intervention

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

January 6 (M)
No School – PD/Planning Day
8:00-12:00, Allan to Title IX Training (Ed Center)

CLASSIFIED
8:00-10:30, Classified Trainings – Various Times (Chavez, ATA, Ed Center)
10:30-1:30, Travel, Lunch, and Planning
1:30-4:00, Behavior Framework & Building PD (Cafeteria)

LICENSED
8:00-10:30, Licensed Tech Training (Churchill HS)
10:30-1:30, Travel, Lunch, and Planning
1:30-4:00, Behavior Framework & Building PD (Cafeteria)

January 7 (T)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Be Your Best
PBIS Rules Reviewed – AM Recess (Playground)
9:00, Allan to Truancy Hearings (Conference Room)
2:30-3:30, CLC EA Interviews (Conference Room)
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Ashley’s Room, RM25)

January 8 (W)
PBIS Rules Reviewed – AM Recess (Playground)

January 9 (H)
Regular Day

January 10 (F)
Popcorn Friday!
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – PLC (Library)
5:30-7:30, PTO Family Science Night (Cafeteria)

January 11 (SA)
School Choice Showcase (Ed Center)

January 13 (M)
School Choice Visitation Week #1
3:45-5:15, Allan to Elementary Principal Meeting (Ed Center)

January 14 (T)
9:00-11:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Matt’s Room, RM21)

January 15 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups

KG 11:10-12:10
3rd Grade 12:20-1:20
5th Grade 1:30-2:30

11:10-2:30, PLC Meetings – KG, 5th, 3rd (Conference Room)
12:10-1:10, BRING Classroom Presentation (Kreider)
1:15-2:15, BRING Classroom Presentation (Peterson)
4:00-10:00, PTO B.J.’s Resturant Fundraiser
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)

January 16 (H)
8:10-11:55, PLC Meetings – 1st, 2nd, 4th (Conference Room)

2nd 8:10-9:10
1st 9:30-10:30
4th 10:55-11:55

10:25-11:25, BRING Classroom Presentation (Niccum)
1:15-2:15, BRING Classroom Presentation (Charpie)
6:00-7:00, School Choice Evening Presentation & Tour (Library)

January 17 (F)
Fun Friday! – Career Day
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
1:30-2:00, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Rest & Recovery Room (Library)

January 20 (M)
No School – Martin Luther King Jr. Day

And if you missed it the week before winter break, Howard was in the Register Guard again for The Hour of Code!

Allan

December 2, 2019

By Allan  |  2019/11/30 05:32 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Caring for Kids, Equity, Grants, SEL, Technology  |  Comments Off on December 2, 2019

 

Howdy Roadrunners,

Hope you all had an enjoyable four days off of school.

Fourteen items of note for this week:

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

• CLC Staffing Updates – We originally posted for one additional CLC EA position, but given the level of need in the CLC this year, SSD approved hiring two new EAs and we have hired Tyler Connor, currently a Howard CLC 1:1 EA for a 5th grade student, and also Amber Callier, who comes to us from Georgia where she was a special education EA. Amber will start on Wednesday and tith Tyler shifting positions in the CLC, I’ve submitted to post for his CLC 1:1 EA position, so keep your eyes peeled for that position and let any good candidates know they should apply.

• PBIS Team Survey – See Mellissa’s PBIS Email for details, but the PBIS team wants your feedback on our Tailfeather Challenge to help planning for the future. Follow this link to the Tailfeather Challenge Feedback Form.

• Friday Early Release PD & Feedback – Also mentioned in Mellissa above email, this Friday’s Early Release PD is designated as a Behavior Framework work session and we’re looking for teacher feedback. Downtown suggested some items in the above email, which are also below, but we want to know from teachers what would be useful to you. What are some areas of concern, topics needing discussion, or even ways we can support one another related to our Tier 1 Behavior Systems here at Howard? Let me and Mellissa know your thoughts by Wednesday so we can make this time productive for staff.

• Share and discuss your SWIS data
• Share and discuss your climate survey data from last year
• share and suits your school’s Kindness Project efforts
• Share out your school’s PBIS Action Plan (or finalize it if not done)
• Get feedback from grade level (or other) teams on this year’s action plan and/or other items (drafts of documents, discipline flow charts, etc…)
• Use data plan for reteaching and boosters following Winter Break

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

• Fire Drill, Tuesday, December 10th @1:10 – Not this week, but next week on Tuesday, December 10th at 1:10 will be the December Fire Drill.

• Oregon State Library Information System user name and password (OSLIS) – Attached in my email, but not on my blog is a handout you can use for yourself or with students. Please remember, the user name and password may NOT be posted on any web site. When connecting to OSLIS from inside the school district buildings, there is no need for a user name and password. From outside the school district, students must log in.

• SPLASH! Grants Due Friday – As in the past, the City of Eugene is providing their SPLASH! curriculum this school year along with grant funding for instruction in science. Applications are due this Friday. See the SPLASH Email sent to teachers earlier this month or the SPLASH! Website for details. To apply go to the Grant Application Site.

• App Approval Request Form – A reminder for teachers if you want an app added to student iPads, there is a new App Approval Request Form that needs to be filled out when requesting apps that are not the Approved Apps List. This is to be done before sending an email to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu. The Tech Department is trying to make sure they are compliant with Federal Laws, particularly around accessibility. If you’re following these links at home, you’ll need to use the 4J VPN.

• Hour of Code 2019 Next Week! – Next week, December 9-13 is Computer Science Education Week / Hour of Code. Let me know if any of you are doing something cool for the Hour of Code. I’d love to see if we can get some media coverage for some of our activities during Computer Science Education Week. See the above links for some fun and easy online actives for all grade levels. Khan Academy also has quite a few quality activities and Edutopia has quite a few links as well.

• UO International Cultural Service Program (ICSP) – I shared about ICSP earlier in the year, but the new ICSP Online Brochure is now available. They offer free presentations and classroom visits by specially trained international UO students. They can give educational and cultural presentations, participate in panel discussions, and introduce a wide array of activities such as music, dancing, storytelling, religious ceremonies, and martial arts. You can request ICSP students to do presentations through this the ICSP Registration Website or send an email to icsp@uoregon.edu. For more information, please visit the ICSP Website.

• REPEAT: 2019-2020 Mandatory Elementary School Bus Safety Training – Gold start to who have already done this! As required by OAR 581-53-002, all students must receive instructions on bus safety before the end of December 2019. Linked here is an updated Bus Training Info Sheet (English and Spanish) which can be used to help with bus safety instruction, but all classroom teachers need to do is show one of two 12-minute bus safety videos (the Newer Bus Evacuation Training Video or the quaint 1990s classic The Safest Way Out) and then tell Lori the date you showed it.

• What Mister Rogers taught us about communication – When Fred Rogers talked, people listened and understood because he was always truthful, precise and gave people time to process his message, writes Chet Wade, a consultant who teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University. “What made Fred so effective was when he talked about bad things, he also talked about how to deal with them,” Wade writes. This Forbes Article is about leadership, but I think it also applies to working with students. See above linked article for the complete list of 10 lessons that can be learned from Mr. Rogers, which includes Speak to individuals, not groups, Appreciate the power of the pause, and Be yourself.

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

December 2 (M)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Generosity
TAG Testing Window Opens
Artist in Residence – Glass-Fusing Fun! w/Rachell Jarvis Continues
10:30, Junior Achievement Presentation (Kreider)
1:15, Junior Achievement Presentation (Niccum)
3:45-5:15, Allan to Elementary Principal Meeting (Ed Center)

December 3 (T)
8:40, Allan to Formal Observation
11:25, Allan to Formal Observation
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Matt’s Room, RM25)

December 4 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
Monthly Walk + Roll to School Day
2:30, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee Meeting (Ed Center)

December 5 (H)
2:30, Allan to Parent Meeting (Office)

December 6 (F)
Popcorn Friday!
SPLASH! Grants Due
1:30, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title Room, RM26)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Behavior Framework (Library)

December 7 (SA)
9:00-2:00, Howard Holiday Bazaar (Gym & Cafeteria)

December 9 (M)
Computer Science Education Week / Hour of Code
Artist in Residence – Glass-Fusing Fun! w/Rachell Jarvis Continues
10:30, Junior Achievement Presentation (Kreider)
1:15, Junior Achievement Presentation (Niccum)

December 10 (T)
9:00-10:30, Allan to All admin Meeting (Ed Center)
12:15, Allan to Formal Observation
1:10, Fire Drill
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Matt’s Room, RM25)

December 11 (W)
11:10-2:30, Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)

Kinder 11:10-12:10
3rd Grade 12:20-1:20
5th Grade 1:30-2:30

December 12 (H)
8:00-2:00, Dental Screening Team, Varnish + Sealants (Community Room)
8:10-11:55, Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)

2nd Grade 8:10-9:10
1st Grade 9:30-10:30
4th Grade 10:55-11:55

December 13 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – PLC (Library)

Make it a great start to December, everyone!

Allan

 

September 23, 2019

By Allan  |  2019/09/21 19:08 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Equity, Grants, P.D., Technology, Video  |  Comments Off on September 23, 2019

 

Howdy Rockin’ Roadrunners,

Twenty-three items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – We’re back to the drawing board for hiring a Life Skills EA and are conducting interviews this Monday at 3:30-5:30 if anyone is interested volunteering their time to help with interviews. I also got our candidate list for a new Kindergarten EA and for our 3-Hour Learning Center EA jobs and will set up interviews for those likely next week.

• Friday Early Release PD & PLC Info – This Friday’s Early Release PD is designated for Building Based PD, which we will use to prep for the Safety Week, including a review the required ALICE student Training. See below for more details on Safety Week.

• Safety Week, Sept. 30 – Oct. 4 – In two weeks is our annual Safety Week, which is a good way to bring awareness to staff, students, and families about the various safety procedures right at the start of the year. I like to do this when two months overlap within the same week, so we can take care of two monthly required fire drills all in one week, and the dates Site Council came up with last year are as follows:

• Monday – Directed Evacuation (i.e. Fire Drill) – 1:15

• Tuesday – ALICE Classroom Lesson – Time decided by teachers
• Wednesday – ALICE Lockdown: Evacuation Drill – 1:15
• Thursday – Room Clear – Time decided by teachers
• Friday – Earthquake/Fire Drill – 8:45

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

MONDAY – Directed Evacuation (Fire Drill): Linked here is an updated Building Evacuation Map (a higher resolution version is on the Staff Shared Google Drive). The evacuation routes are the same as last year, but I’ve updated the spots where classes line up to include new classrooms and teachers. Evacuation procedures can be found in the Howard Staff Handbook (or ask a wily Howard veteran). Let me know if you have any questions.

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

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

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

Teachers will then direct students to evacuate the building to the nearest location along the perimeter of the school grounds. In a real emergency we would run, but for the drill everyone should walk. Classes will stop at the edge of the property and wait for my all-clear announcement. For a real emergency, students and staff would evacuate well past the edge of the property, and keep going until you can’t see the school. Regarding a rally point, schools are still waiting for downtown, though if you talk to wily Howard veterans, we have an unofficial rally point.


THURSDAY – Room Clear: Room Clear Drills will happen at a time determined by classroom teachers and in cooperation with another classroom where students would go in the event of real room clear. Students should know the classroom they should room clear to in the event of an actual emergency since in most cases the teacher would need to remain in the classroom when the rest of the students moved out of the room.

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

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

• Erin’s Law & Second Step Child Safety Unit – Related to Safety, downtown purchased one Second Step Child Protection Unit per grade level for classrooms teachers to use for meeting Erin’s Law requirements. For each grade level, there are six lessons, which are to be covered at three points in the school year, with Lessons 1-4 in the fall, lesson 5 right before spring break, and lesson 6 right before summer break. Teachers will have to share the one teacher guide, which I’ll pass out at this Friday’s Early Release PD, but there is a digital code in the front of each teacher guide to access online videos and other resources.

• Second Step Pacing Guide – Speaking of Second Step, a quick reminder to classroom teachers, Second Step Unit 1 (Skills for Learning for K-3, and Empathy & Skills for Learning for 4-5) are set to begin next week according to the Second Step Pacing Guide. Hopefully this will be easier for teachers this year since almost everyone has their own kit. I do realize Second Step is one more thing, but I’m a believer in explicitly teaching kids about social emotional topics in order to make them kinder people, so teachers should know that you have my full permission for skip even core subject areas to make time for Second Step lessons (being a good human is more important than fractions).

• 2019-2020 Mandatory Elementary School Bus Safety Training – As required by OAR 581-53-002, all students must receive instructions on bus safety before the end of December 2019. The intent of the rule is to reach the occasional riders who find themselves on a bus because of a field trip, activity trip, etc. Linked here is an updated Bus Training Info Sheet (English and Spanish) sent to principals, but all classroom teachers need to do is show one of two bus safety videos (the Newer Bus Evacuation Training Video or the quaint 1990s relic The Safest Way Out) and then tell Lori the date you showed it.

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

• Observance of Religious Holidays – This information was included in the Back to School Memo, but please avoid scheduling tests, major projects, essays, special events, etc… during religious holiday and the surrounding dates. See the linked email or the above Back to School Memo for the key Jewish Holy Days, Christian Holy Days, and Muslim Holy Days.

• ORSA Spanish Night for Juniors, October 3rd – The Office of Equity would like to get the linked flyers in the hands of our Latinx families and students. October 3rd, 5pm – 8pm, they will have seven colleges with Spanish speaking representatives as well as 1:1 supports for students with parents needing to fill out the ORSA/FAFSA for financial aide. This event is specifically for mixed status families, families needing Spanish supports and/or who would like to speak to colleges directly in a smaller setting. Dinner and childcare will be provided. There’s a large stack of fliers under staff mailboxes for teachers to send home with your Spanish speaking families.

• Copier Reminder – In the last week we have gone through 8 full cases of white paper. This is equal to 40,000 copies or 80 per student, not to mention copies made on colored paper. Also quite a few colored copies are being made that are not being picked up. I’m not a fan of locking down copies with copy codes and strict copy counts, but I do hope these are for work needed

• Tech Presenters for Oct. 10th? – Would any teachers be interested in presenting a break out session during the Technology PD Day on Oct 10th? Topic could be anything from a formative assessment techniques to a lesson idea using a specific or combination of apps. Sessions will be 1 hour 15 minutes and teachers could even co-present on related topics. This district PD Day is set to take place here at Howard, so a heads-up that classrooms and other spaces will be utilized this day for breakout sessions. Let me know by the end of the week if anyone is will to present/co-present (I’d even join someone co-presenting!).

• EPD Community Awards – The North Region SRO, Nicholas Reich, sent principals an email that this year he’s focusing on developing positive relationships with our students and one way he wants to do this is by introducing a student recognition program. Nich is kicking things off by presenting a Community Award Certificate to a deserving student at each North Region school on a bi-monthly basis. Each month I’ll solicit from staff the name of two deserving students each month, who exhibit courage, integrity, selfless acts of kindness, volunteerism or any other characteristic we want to encourage.

• Bike Rodeo, Oct. 8 – After school on Tuesday, Oct. 8th, Howard is hosting a Safe Routes to School Bike Rodeo on the playground from 2:25-4:00, where students are invited to learn about bike safety, try out a bike obstacle course, enjoy free bike smoothies, and much more. Kids can bring their own bike or use those provided. Feel free to share this with students and get them excited for the event.

• Broadway in Eugene Theater Rocks Grant Application – Linked here is an Email and Info Sheet on a grant for students to experience live Broadway musicals for FREE at the Hult Center. Transportation is not provided, so you’d need to arrange for buses or parent/guardian drivers. The shows are Bandstand November 15-16, 2019, as well as STOMP February 19-20, 2020, The SpongeBob Musical March 6-7, 2020, or Les Miserables April 15-19, 2020. Times are on the above linked info sheet, but let me know by the end of the week if you’d like to take your class to any of these and I’ll fill out the application.

• UO Women’s Basketball-Field Trip Day 12/16 – Another freebie field trip, also without transportation, the UO Women’s Basketball season is offering a “Field Trip Day”. On December 16th, 11:00-1:00, schools will be provide free admission for students as well as math activity sheets for them to work on during the game (to add an educational element to the trip). If you’re interested, see the linked email, which includes the sign-up link.

• Duck Football Educator Appreciation – The next home game at Autzen Stadium for the Oregon Ducks Football team is on October 5th and is their Education Appreciation game! This 20% discounted ticket offer is for teachers, administrators, staff members, anyone with a passion for learning, and their respective friends and families. See this link for the offer.

• REPEAT: 4J Kindness & Crazy Hair Day, FRIDAY– 4J is partnering with a citywide Kindness Challenge, holding districtwide events to highlight kindness. The first of these is this Friday, when elementary school kids all over 4J will recognize this day of kindness with kind words and CrAzY hAiR. Jordan Kent Skill Camps will award the “BEST HAIR” photo posted on social media using #crazyhairbecausewecare with a FREE admission to one of their camps.

• REPEAT: Classified & Licensed Goals and Self Assessment DUE FRIDAY – All staff, both classified and licensed, need to complete a self assessment before the end of September in TalentEd. Licensed staff also need to also complete SMART Goals (here’s a link to Optional Building SMARAT Goals). Classified staff, will need to use a newer device to submit your form (older operation systems aren’t compatible with TalentEd), so I’d suggest borrowing a newer student iPad from a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade classroom if you are having trouble with your current devices. Let me know if I can help with any of this.

• REPEAT: Howard Staff Handbook Review DUE MONDAY – Linked here is the updated Howard Staff Handbook. All staff must review the handbook and sign & return the acknowledgement form to the office by Monday, September 30th. Let me know if you have any questions.

• REPEAT: District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff DUE MONDAY – Linked here is this year’s District Back-to-School Memo, which covers a variety of district rules, policies and guidelines. All staff must review the memo and sign & return the Check List Acknowledgment Form by Monday, September 30th to signify that you have read and understand the memo. Let me know if you have questions.

• “I Thought I Understood What School Was Like for My Students of Color I wasn’t even close.” – See this WeAreTeachers article for links to a variety of equity related articles that offer perspective for white educators.

• Pop-up emoji keyboard – Here’s a tip for Mac users: Control + Command + Space reveals an emoji keyboard. Now your life just got better. 😉

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

September 23 (M)
Banned Book Week
2:45, Site Council (Conference Room)
3:30-5:30, Life Skills EA Interviews

September 24 (T)
Title 1 Groups Begin
8:15-11:30, Allan to Elementary Principal Meeting – Erin Gaston Covering (Ed Center)
2:45-3:15, Staff Meeting (Jenny’s Room, RM28)

September 25 (W)
Howard PLC – 2-hour Meetings (2nd, 5th, 1st)
2nd 8:10-10:10
5th 10:15-12:15
1st 12:20-2:20
2:45, Student Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-7:00, District First Aid Class (Library)

September 26 (H)
Howard PLC – 2-hour Meetings (KG, 4th, 3rd)
KG 8:10-10:10
4th 10:10-11:55
3rd 12:05-2:05
2:45-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)
5:30-6:30, Student Success Act Community Conversations – Phase I (North Eugene HS)

September 27 (F)
Crazy Hair Day – Kindness Challenge “Crazy Hair Because We Care!”
10:25-12:45, August/September Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Building Based PD – ALICE Training and Safety Week Prep (Library)

September 30 (M)
Safety Week
BEST Starts
1:15, Directed Evacuation (i.e. Fire Drill)
3:00-4:00, Meet the Superintendent – Community Event (Library)

October 1 (T)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Bully-Proofing
ALICE Drill Classroom Lesson (done at time decided by teachers)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM23)

October 2 (W)
Walk+Roll to School Day
National Custodial Workers Recognition Day
1:15, ALICE Evacuation Drill
2:30-4:30, Allan to Pay Grade Eval Committee (Ed Center)
3:00-7:00, Howard Only First Aid & CPR Class (Library)

October 3 (H)
Room Clear Drills (done at time decided by teachers)
8:00-4:00, Allan to Threat Assessment Training (Ed Center)

October 4 (F)
8:45, Earthquake Drill/Directed Evacuation
1:30, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM26)
2:30, Early Release PD – PLC

Happy Monday, everyone!

Allan

 

September 16, 2019

By Allan  |  2019/09/14 16:51 Posted in Announcements, Articles, Arts, Grants, P.D., Technology  |  Comments Off on September 16, 2019

 

Howdy Roadrunners,

That was fun seeing folks at last week’s Friday at 4:00 and a big thank-you to Jenny for hosting!

Twenty-six items of note for this week:

• Friday Early Release PD & PLC Info – This Friday’s Early Release PD will be our first PLC session. Principals are to receive more information at our principal meeting on Monday regarding what we’re presenting, but I’m guessing it will be something of a review & reboot from last year and an overview of this year’s plans. On a related note, we’ll have our first grade-level PLC meetings in two weeks on 9/25 (2nd, 5th, 1st) and 9/26 (KG, 4th, 3rd) with roving subs. See the building calendar or the dates below for times.

• FREE Howard-Only First Aid & CPR Class 10/2 – I’m using building funds for staff wanting wanting to renew their First Aid & CPR cards at a Howard only training on Wednesday, October 2nd, 4:00-7:00 in the library. 4J RN Kim Roellig will teach the course. There are only 12 spots, so let me know by the end of the week if you’re interested in renewing your cards. If more there are more people than slots, I’m going to prioritize staff who work more with medically fragile students.

• 4J Kindness & Crazy Hair Day, Friday 9/27 – 4J is partnering with a citywide Kindness Challenge, holding districtwide events to highlight kindness. The first of these is Friday, September 27th, when elementary school kids all over 4J will recognize this day of kindness with kind words and CrAzY hAiR. Jordan Kent Skill Camps will award the “BEST HAIR” photo posted on social media using #crazyhairbecausewecare with a FREE admission to one of their camps. We’ll put the linked flyer in teacher mailboxes to send home this Friday.

• Say “Thank you!” to Bruce the Gardner – If you haven’t noticed the gentlemen working in front of the building and in the west courtyard this week, his name is Bruce and he’s a neighbor who complained to the Facilities department about the appalling conditions of the overgrown flower beds at our new building. He then followed up his complaint by taking things into his own hands and has committed to maintaining ALL of the flower beds in and around Howard throughout the year! Be sure to say thanks and ask students to say “Thank you!” to Bruce for volunteering his time to make our school look beautiful. Allison shared with me how she used Bruce as an example to her students as someone who is doing something kind and is not expecting anything in return, so celebrate Bruce and use him as an inspirational example to our students.

• Kindergarten EA and LC EA Postings Up – Our 5.5- hour KG EA Job Posting is up and closes Tuesday, and closing Sunday is our 3-hour Leaning Center EA Job Posting. If you know of any good candidates, please encourage them to apply.

• Enrollment Updates & Input on Class Size – Students continue to enroll and I’m continuing to advocate with downtown for additional staffing. Looking at butts-in-seats, Howard should have another teacher, not even taking into account that in prior years we’ve grown by 30-50 students from the start to the end of the year or given the level of need compared to other schools. As of Friday, we are 73 students over our projection, with 508 student enrolled (not including 18 preschoolers)

KG – 28, 27, 27
1st – 25, 24, 23
2nd – 28, 28, 27
3rd – 23, 22, 21, 20
4th – 28, 28, 27
5th – 30, 29, 29

If you’d like your voice heard regarding class sizes and funding, be sure to complete the linked Student Success Act Survey and/or attend the last Staff Input Forum (9/17, 4:15 @ATA) or one of the Community Input Forums (9/25, 7–8 @ATA, 9/26, 5:30–6:30 (English) & 7–8 (Spanish) @North). The district is required to document staff and community input before submitting to the state for the Student Success Act funds and there are a narrow set of things the funds can be spent on, reducing class size being one of them, so make sure your opinion is counted!

• Library Announcements – Notes from our fabulous librarian…

Library happenings :)

Well we made it, first week under our belt…. :) We have an amazing staff thank you for all you do!! I am working hard trying to get library circulation up and running. 500 plus students – it takes a little bit. Lots of new faces and more are starting.

As testing completes and we find out where kids are, please keep in mind I have several small books sets from past OBOB years available for you :).

We are learning about our kids and all their littleness and bigness. If you are experiencing a range of stressors in your class and would like a book to help address these, please let me know. I usually can come up with a good book or two that would be fun and helpful. Last year we purchased several books dealing with common behaviors. I also have been purchasing books about kindness and friendship. Please let me know how I an help you as teachers or be of help to support your students outside of library class.

Taking library books home. My general guideline has been in the past; new students keep books at school to start until we have an idea on responsibility and home situations. If a student can be responsible to bring back their Friday folders and other items sent home they may take their library book home. :). This has worked pretty well in the past. It tends to help get our Friday folders back.

Students who would like to exchange library books outside their library time – the answer is yes! Anytime as long as there is not a class in the library :) I am out of the library from 11:00-11:45 for lunch duty.

Here’s to a great week!

• Howard PTO Updates – Thank you to all the staff who were able to attend last week’s PTO meeting. Two items of note from the meeting:

• Fundraiser Updates – Our PTO Board is scaling back on a couple fundraisers, changing weekly popcorn to monthly popcorn the first Friday of each month (unless a parent volunteer steps forward) and also forgoing the Holiday Bazaar (although Ashley has stepped up and offered to organized this fundraiser and the PTO is considering selling table space for sellers at this year’s carnival). We’ll still do our biggest fundraisers (Tech Trot 10/9, Read-a-Thon 2/30-3/16, Penny War 4/20-4/24, McTeacher Night 5/TBA, and Carnival 6/5). The PTO is adding more Restaurant Nights to earn money for the school, the first of which is at Noodles & Co. on 10/10 and others in the future including Mod Pizza and Hot Mama’s Wings (I highly recommend the deep-fried dill pickle chips). And continuing from last year are the Duer’s ATA fundraiser (pay $49 for 1 month of unlimited lessons and 100% of the proceeds go to the PTO) and the Bottle Drop fundraiser (bring cans and bottles in Howard PTO Bottle Drop bags).

• Tech Trot, Wednesday, October 9th – Last year’s Tech Trot didn’t bring in as much money as we were hoping, so to keep cost down they are doing a superhero theme and providing all students with a cape instead of a t-shirt this year.

• Student Care Team Referrals DUE FRIDAY – Our first Student Care Team meeting is in a couple weeks on Wednesday, September 25th, so if you have any student situations you would like brought to the team, please let me know.

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

Common referrals, though not limited to, are:

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

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

• Informal Observations – I’m going to start informal observations of Probationary and Contract Year-1 licensed staff and am planning to use the Behavior Framework Informal Observation Tool for classroom teachers. . I’ll most likely do these in the mornings, but teachers can let me know if you have a specific time you’d prefer I come by. Let me know if you have questions on this.

• Formal Observations – I’m trying to be more organized with formal observations and have them all finished before winter break. I’ll send an email to all Probationary and Contract Year-1 licensed staff for the week I plan to do your formal observation. I’ll propose a date and time, but let me know if that date doesn’t work for any reason.

• Ladders – DO NOT stand on desks or chairs- Use District Issued Ladders – 3 point contact – A reminder from Risk Management, staff should never stand on desks or chairs and should use the district issued ladders, making sure you are maintaining three points of contact (either 2 hands and 1 foot or 1 hand and 2 feet). Please let me or Crystal know if you do not know where your wing’s ladder is located.

• Leadership Plan Proposals – I received some input on potential 2019-2020 Leadership Plans for this school year from folks who attended last weeks optional meeting and from folks who shared ideas with me prior to the meeting. The three plans are similar with last years plan with one difference in each plan.

• Plan A:
School Climate Leaders: 3 people (3 days PBIS and 5 days x 2 IPBS Co-Leaders = 13 days)
Instructional Technology Leader: (3 days)
Literacy Leader: (2 days)
Math Leader: (2 days)
Equity Teacher Leader: (2 days)

• Plan B:
School Climate Leaders: 3 people (3 days PBIS and 5 days x 2 IPBS Co-Leaders = 13 days)
Instructional Technology Leader: (3 days)
Literacy Leader: (2 days)
Math Leader: (2 days)
Science Leader: (2 days)

• Plan C:
School Climate Leaders: 3 people (3 days PBIS and 5 days x 2 IPBS Co-Leaders = 13 days)
Instructional Technology Leader: (3 days)
Literacy Leader: (2 days)
Math Leader: (2 days)
Student Leadership/Climate: (2 days)

Details of the drafts can be found on the Shared Howard Drive under MISC > Leadership Plans/Positions > 2019-2020. Let me know if you have other proposals and we’ll discuss the options at the September 24th Staff Meeting and make a final decision at the October Staff Meeting.

• Building SMART Goals Meeting – A few folks met last week to develop and update the linked Optional Building SMART Goals (also on the Shared Howard Google Drive under MISC > Educator Effectiveness > 2019-2020) around math and our PLC work, which classroom teachers can enter into TalentEd. Goals #1 and #2 may look the same, but the “Target Population” is different. The first goal for your entire class (the state requires at least one be for all of your students) and the second goal is for a target population to a subgroup (i.e. students of color, students in special education, ELL students, etc.). The professional goal is similar to last year around our PLC work, although Rebecca Boyd told me TOSAs are developing a new suggested on teachers can also use. Licensed staff are, of course, welcome to create your own goals, but I know folks have appreciated this in the past. Non-classroom licensed staff are welcome to adapt the language of the above SMART Goals for any of your own related work, but please let me know if I can be of any assistance in crafting goals for anyone.

• Artist in Residence Survey Results – November and May were the top choices of dates for the two artists in residence. The top artist picks were Glass-Fusing Fun! (by a lot), Bugs, Bones & Botany: Exploring the Natural World through Art, and Bend it, Build it, Be Creative with Wire Sculpture. We’ll do a quick check in at the September Staff Meeting and make a final decision there.

• REPEAT: 3/4/5 ESYO (Strings) Recruitment Assembly FRIDAY @8:40 – The Eugene Springfield Youth Orchestra Program (ESYO) is opening up Strings Academy I classes up to 3rd graders this year, so 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms are invited to attend the annual ESYO Strings Recruitment Assembly this Friday at 8:40. See the linked Assembly Map & Directions for details.

• REPEAT: Classified & Licensed Goals and Self Assessment DUE 9/30 – All staff, both classified and licensed, need to complete a self assessment before the end of September in TalentEd. Licensed staff also need to also complete SMART Goals. Classified staff, will need to use a newer device to submit your form (older operation systems aren’t compatible with TalentEd), so I’d suggest borrowing a newer student iPad from a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade classroom if you are having trouble with your current devices. Let me know if I can help with any of this.

• REPEAT: Team Sign-Ups Google Sheet – Please follow the link to the 2019-2020 Howard Teams Google Sheet to add your name to a team you’d like to volunteer to be a part of; Equity, Garden, IPBS, PBIS, Safety, Site Council (one open classified spot), Social, or Tech (TLT).

• REPEAT: Howard Staff Handbook Review DUE 9/30 – Linked here is the updated Howard Staff Handbook. All staff must review the handbook and sign & return the acknowledgement form to the office by Monday, September 30th. Let me know if you have any questions.

• REPEAT: District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff DUE 9/30 – Linked here is this year’s District Back-to-School Memo, which covers a variety of district rules, policies and guidelines. All staff must review the memo and sign & return the Check List Acknowledgment Form by Monday, September 30th to signify that you have read and understand the memo. Let me know if you have questions.

• REPEAT: SELCO’s SPARK! Creative Learning Grants DUE 9/30 – Don’t forget about the SELCO Educator Mini Grants for up to $1,000 to bring creative classroom ideas to life. Applications are due September 30. Visit selco.org/SPARK for details and to apply.

• Looking Glass Community Services – Looking Glass Community Services provides counseling services, emergency shelter and housing assistance, educational and vocational assistance, and addiction treatment to young people. Linked here is a Looking Glass Brochure that summarizing their services if you every want to pass this along to families.

• Eugene Math Circle – The Eugene Math Circle will continue offering classes for math loving kids in grades 2-12. The program has been operating for six years, and all classes are taught by the University of Oregon professors or instructors. If you have students who enjoy math and want to be challenged, please share the linked Eugene Math Circle Flyer.

• Experts: Put down the phone – I’ll note this is different from using technology as a tool, but when it comes to simply filling the void of “I don’t have anything to do,” research supports the benefits of learning to be bored versus spending time looking at a screen, according to this Edutopia article. Neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists assert that this “default mode” can improve creativity and problem-solving.

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

September 16 (M)
Title 1 Individual Diagnostic Screener Assessments
BEST Invites Go Home
3:45-5:45, Allan to Elem Principal Meeting (Ed Center)

September 17 (T)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM23)
3:30, Allan to Super Boundary Meeting (Office)

September 18 (W)
Lori’s Birthday!
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)

September 19 (H)
Talk Like a Pirate Day
4:00-6:00, 4J K-2 Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Trainings (Ashley’s Room, RM25)
4:15-5:15, 4J Student Success Act – Staff Conversations – SPED (Cafeteria)

September 20 (F)
8:45-9:15, 3/4/5 ESYO (Strings) Recruitment Assembly (Gym)
2:30, Early Release PD – PLC
5:30-7:30, PTO Family Night – Secret Life of Pets 2 (Cafeteria/Gym)

September 23 (M)
Banned Book Week
2:45, Site Council (Conference Room)

September 24 (T)
8:15-11:30, Allan to Elementary Principal Meeting – Gaston Covering (Ed Center)
2:45-3:15, Staff Meeting (Volunteer’s Classroom)

September 25 (W)
Howard PLC – 2-hour Meetings (2nd, 5th, 1st)
2nd 8:10-10:10
5th 10:15-12:15 PE/MUSIC (Rock/Callihan to be rescheduled to Friday)
1st 12:20-2:20 PE/MUSIC (Corliss/Ward to be rescheduled to TBD)
2:45, Student Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-7:00, District First Aid Class (Library)

September 26 (H)
Howard PLC – 2-hour Meetings (KG, 4th, 3rd)
KG 8:10-10:10
4th 10:10-11:55
3rd 12:05-2:05
2:45-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)
5:30-6:30, Student Success Act Community Conversations – Phase I (North Eugene HS)

September 27 (F)
Happy Birthday to Me!
10:25-12:45, August/September Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Building Based PD – ALICE Training and Safety Week Prep (Library)

One full-week down. Thirty-five to go!

Allan

September 9, 2019

By Allan  |  2019/09/07 19:34 Posted in Announcements, Arts, Assessment, Equity, Grants, P.D.  |  Comments Off on September 9, 2019

Greetings Roadrunners,

Nice work welcoming kids and families back and making our first week such a good one! And again, awesome job, everyone who was on hand and able to step-up to help out during Thursday’s unexpected events! (◔_◔)

Twenty-Nine items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – A few staffing announcements.

• Added Kindergarten EA – Downtown approved adding a 5.5 hour Kindergarten EA since we’ve added a third kindergarten classroom. We’ll start with a sub on Monday until we can hire someone, but the job posting should go up hopefully this week if you know of anyone good who might be interested. We’re thinking the hours will be 8:15-2:30 MTWH and 8:15-1:15 Fridays.

• Added Looking Glass Counselor – I shared last year that Looking Glass is adding a second counselor to our building this year given the level of need and Sarai Barrera will be joining our current Looking Glass counselor, Audra Landry. Audra will be going on maternity leave soon and Sarai will take over her caseload, but once Audra returns, we will have two therapists available for Howard and Kelly students. Audra will work out of the current Looking Glass office upstairs and Sarai will take over Matt’s old counselor office.

• New Kitchen Staff – Nutrition Services hired Christine Fogle as our newest Food Service Assistant in the kitchen. Christine should start this week.

• Enrollment Update – On a related note, Howard is now over 500 students and is 70+ students over our projection, so I’m continuing to advocate with downtown for additional staffing. Numbers-wise, our current enrollment and staffing ratio should equate to us having one more full-time teacher, not even taking into account that we typically add 30-50 students over the course of the school year. My current thinking if we received another teacher to is to add a fourth 2nd grade classroom.

• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is designated as a Behavior Framework PD session. Principals are to receive more information on Monday, but I believe it’s a behavior Tier 1 booster.

• EA Supervisors Meeting Notes – Several items of note from last Friday’s EA Supervisors Meeting

• Friday Recesses 5-Minutes Shorter – A reminder to classroom teachers that BOTH recesses on Friday are 5-minutes shorter than recesses Monday – Thursday. These are the hours laid out by the Standard School Schedule, where students are to have 60-minutes of recesses/lunches/passing times MTWH and 50-minutes on early release Fridays.

• Please Pick-Up at Recess On-Time – Many recesses supervisors are scheduled for other duties immediately follow their recess duty, so it’s important that classroom teachers be one the playground when recess bell rings.

• Future PBIS Rules Round-Up Thoughts – It was great having teachers coming out for the rules round-up on the playground so students know everyone is on the same page. However, it was a grueling process to review the rules over a three day period, so a couple suggestions for future round-ups were to have teachers review the rules with students on their own out on the playground the first day of school or to do the rules round-up as we did this year, with EAs doing the teaching with teachers staying with their classes, but with quick 2-3 minute rotations to cover all of the playground areas, possibly at a time different than regular recess times.

• Team Sign-Ups Google Sheet – I decide instead of an old fashioned chart paper sign-up, we’ll move into the 21st century and do a Google Sheet sign-up instead. Please follow the link to the 2019-2020 Howard Teams Google Sheet. I actually just added a tab to our Leadership/Building Rep. Positions Google Sheet, so click the Teams tab to add your name to a team you’d like to volunteer to be a part of; Equity, Garden, IPBS, PBIS, Safety, Site Council (one open classified spot), Social, or Tech (TLT).

• You’re a LIFESAVER! – Take note of Mellissa’s email stating that you’ll find a little note with a lifesaver in your mailbox and to please take a moment at some point this week or two to drop someone a positive thank you note for being a “lifesaver” during these tough first days of school.

• Friday at Four at Jenny’s! – This Friday will be our first Howard Staff Social of the year. Jenny is hosting the event at her house, now conveniently located within walking distance of Howard at 1663 Rosy Turn. Bring your own beverages and maybe a snack to share. Hope to see you there!

• PBIS Reminders – Two reminders for PBIS activities still happening.

• PBIS Back to School Refresher – By the end of the week, all classrooms should review the rules for the common school areas by reviewing the PBIS Back to School Refresher Slide Show or other means the first three days of school. Teaching these rules in each of the locations is best. Complete the checklist by Thursday, September 12th, return it to Mellissa’s mailbox, and your class earns a special reward!

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

• Principal Visits to Classrooms –I’d like to again visit every classroom sometime during the first few weeks of school to meet 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.

• 3/4/5 ESYO (Strings) Recruitment Assembly 9/20 @8:40 – The Eugene Springfield Youth Orchestra Program (ESYO) is opening up Strings Academy I classes up to 3rd graders this year, so 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms are invited to attend the annual ESYO Strings Recruitment Assembly. See the linked Assembly Map & Directions for details.

• Library Notes – From our library leader, Julie, …

Are we ready? First full week and library classes start! Kids are excited they keep asking when they are able to come in :). We will go over expectations and routines this week.

Kinders– I will come to you and read in class for now :)
1st– story time/story cove expectations. Practice coming in and sitting down…..
2nd – Library/story cove expectations and routines – sending shelf markers back to class for them to decorate
3rd– Library/story cove expectations and routines – sending shelf markers back to class for them to decorate
4th – Main library expectations and routines – possible check out if time allows. :) 1 book
5th – Main library expectations and routines – check out 1 book this week )

Grades 1-5 Will meet me lined up on the gray wall outside the story cove :)
It’s easier to start out side the story cove for expectations on entering the story cove….

Have a great week!

Julie

• Howard PTO Happenings – Three PTO related items of note:

• PTO Meeting Tuesday – This Tuesday, 6:00-7:00 in the cafeteria will be the first PTO Meeting of the year. It’s typically the best attended meeting of the year by families, so it would be great if any staff can volunteer their evening to come show support for parents who are making time to be involved in their child’s school. Mark your calendars and hope to see you there!

• PTO Teacher Funds – Linked here are the 2019 PTO Teacher Funds this year. Specialists will again get $125 each and classroom teachers will get $10.25 per student and grade levels will get $300 each for enrichment activities. As was last year, the two criteria for accessing the enrichment funds are:

• Enrichment – The funds are to be used for an enrichment activity. This can be a field trip or it can be brining a presenter or other guest into the classroom to lead an enrichment activity.

• Grade Level Agreement – The funds are for a grade level activity and are not to be different classroom to classroom. For example, all classes at a grade level don’t all have to go on a field trip the same day, but they do all have to be going on the same field trip.

• New PTO Board Members – We have an excellent PTO Board for the year, which is a mix of new and returning board memebers. Here are the our fabulous parent volunteers:

• President – Abbie Stillie
• Vice President – Beth Moir
• Secretary – Paige Walker
• Treasurer – Tichelle Carlson
• Communications Manager – OPEN
• Volunteer Coordinator – Holli Breshears
• Fundraiser Coordinator – OPEN
• Parliamentarian – Christy Garland
• Staff Liaison – Christina Wagner

• UPDATE: 2019-2020 Master Schedule – There’s been some more minor tweaks to the 2019-2020 Master Schedule. See the linked file on the Howard Shared Drive for the most current iteration of the schedule. Anyone affected by changes already knows.

• 4J Instructional Materials Overview – This may have gotten lost amongst the many links in Sue Wilson’s email earlier this week, but I wanted to highlight the new 4J Instructional Materials Overview, which has links to many tools such as websites, scope/sequences, login information, DreamBox student login info, etc. which may come in handy. Pages 6 & 7 have a very useful table of digital resources (i.e. Dreambox, LZ, Second Step, Journeys, FOSS, Clever, etc.) and their corresponding student and staff log-ins. Page 8 has concise directions for printing student rosters usernames and passwords as well as how to print Clever badges.

• Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting, Tuesday – Teachers are, of course, welcome to create your own goals, but I know folks have appreciated having shared building goals focused around the year’s planned PD activities, so this Thursday at 2:45 in the Conference Room will be an optional meeting to discuss potential building wide SMART Goals. Linked here are Last Year’s Building SMART Goals.

• Optional Leadership Plan Development Meeting – This Thursday at 2:45 in the Conference Room will be an optional Leadership Plan Development Meeting. The current contract gives us 22 teacher release days not to exceed 7 teachers. Linked here is Last Year’s Leadership Plan, which compensated teachers for School Climate, Technology, Math, ELA, and Equity leadership roles. If you’d like to share your thoughts on a potential Leadership Plan, you may attend this meeting or email me your thoughts. I’ll plan to share Leadership Plan proposals at the September Staff Meeting and then vote on a plan at the October Staff Meeting.

• TSS Schedule – Jyllian has solidified her schedule for her three schools (Howard, Kelly, and River Road). She’ll be at Howard five days a week, 7:30-10:30 MWF and 10:30-1:30 TH. As always, please send requests to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu

• Updated SPED Referral Process – On the Howard Shared Drive and linked here is the updated Steps for 4J Special Education Referral Review Process and the updated Special Education Referral Packet. I got this from Matt, who got it from Cassidy, so I haven’t seen official information on the new forms from SSD, but at an admin meeting SSD shared that the process is pretty much the same as last year, but that the referral packet is more streamlined and clear about who fills out which part.

• Classified Trade Time Forms – A few classified staff spoke to me this week about working longer days to help with start of the year craziness or to attend meetings, which is very much appreciated, but remember that you now need to complete the 4J Trade Time Approval Form and have it pre-approved by me before you can accrue trade time hours. Don’t worry about this past week, but be sure to use this form if you want to use trade time in the future.

• Music & PE Specialists and Prep – Principals were emailed the following, that when a teacher misses a prep slot during a student day, the prep should be made up. If students missed PE or Music, it is made up with a replacement slot. If students attended PE or Music but a teacher missed a prep (for a meeting or other admin-assigned reason) then the prep should be paid for at the teacher’s per diem rate. Administrators should initiate an extended contract form. Specialists’ missed prep time should also be made up or paid at per diem. If these preps are missed because there was no school (holiday, grading day, PD day, etc.), they will not be made up.

• Medical Cell Phones – Our school nurse, Robin Wellwood, shared earlier that all school nurses were issued a district cell phone, so make sure ALL phone or text communication with Robin is done using her new phone number. This is being done to address privacy concerns. SSD’s urgency is in moving texting and picture taking of injuries and students to district phones instead of personal phones.

SSD also issued the first round of building medical cell phones, which Howard received and is being kept in Lori’s office. These phones are to be used for any and all calls of a medical nature that seem appropriate. They can even be used to text a family their student is sick and needs to be picked up. These are also how staff can text our school nurse sensitive medical information. Linked here is the email that was sent to principals regarding this, but let me know if you have any questions.

• Insurance Open Enrollment Deadline SUNDAY – If you have not participated in Open Enrollment yet please do so. We do not want you to lose your 4J health insurance benefits. The deadline is Sunday, September 15th!

• REPEAT: easyCBM Testing Begins Monday – Fall Benchmark easyCBM testing starts Monday. Same routine as usual, but see Mellissa’s email for details.

• REPEAT: Artist in Residence Survey: DUE FRIDAY – Classroom teachers, please complete the linked Artist in Residence Google Form and that way I can bring a proposal ahead of time to the September Staff Meeting for a quick decision. See the Lane Arts Artist in Residence webpages for details on each artist and let me know if you have any questions. Survey responses due this Friday.

• Behavior EA Job Duties – Downtown is kind of building the airplane while they’re flying it with the new Behavior EA positions, which at our building is Jeff, but they are solidifying some dos and do nots for the position. Some highlights include:

Roles and Responsibilities:

• This EA is a Tier 2 facilitator. Meaning they will help to run Tier 2 behavioral interventions for students identified for through your schools IPBS/Tier 2 & 3 Team.
• Any student receiving Tier 2 support from the behavior EA, must be identified through your school-wide data source, teacher referral or have been receiving Tier 2 last year.
• We will provide specific and ongoing training for Check In Check Out, Social Skills Instruction, and PASS.
• Limited recess duty. We understand that there is always the need for more staff supporting recess, and recommend that the behavior EA be used to support students who need Tier 2 intervention support or social skills instruction at recess.
• We anticipate this person attending IPBS/Tier 2 and 3 meetings.
• Since this person is a Tier 2 support, they are not expected to respond to individual student crisis, unless it is part of an individual student plan or as a brief de-escalation strategy to help a student from escalating further (i.e. 5 minute walking break)

Other Important Information:

• The Behavior EA should NOT be running in-school suspension rooms or handling discipline concerns that occur throughout the day. Those should still be processed through the school-wide system.
• They will not independently add students to an intervention without being processed through the schools IBPS/Tier 2 & 3 team.

However, since this is a new position and we have a pretty sharp IPBS Team, I bed we could probably propose some of our own ideas as well.

• Papa’s Pizza Achievement Awards – I know teachers sometimes like to use the Papa’s Pizza Achievement Awards as an incentive for students, so I contacted Papa’s Pizza last week to get some awards. The awards can be given students for any sort of academic achievement and will entitle kids to a free pizza. Awards will be located in the front office in the filing cabinet next to Elizabeth’s desk.

• 4-H School Visit Opportunity – Lane County 4-H offers free presenters, who are 4-H staff, volunteers, and teen members from their Lane Leadership Team. Presentations can be one of two types: Informational (explaining about 4H) or a more interesting hands-on educational experience that could be around animal science, leadership, healthy meal preparation, getting physically active, agriculture, natural science, gardening, art, and more. If you are interested, linked here is a 4-H Sign-Up and Info Sheet teachers to fill out and submit to their office. Once you have submitted a form, their staff will contact you to set a time for your presentation.

• FREE Architects in Schools Program, 3-5 – For over 40 years, the Architecture Foundation of Oregon’s Architects in Schools program has matched professional architects and engineers with 3rd through 5th grade teachers for a FREE 6-week classroom residency. The curriculum uses architecture and engineering concepts to teach math, science, social studies, language arts and other disciplines, includes sustainable design concepts and can incorporate the engineering and design standards. Follow this link for Additional Information or this flyer and follow this link to the Teacher Application webpage. Deadline to apply is October 4th.

• Educator Grant From Teaching Tolerance – Do you have an idea for a project to help make your school or district more welcoming? Apply for a Teaching Tolerance Educator Grant! Their grants support projects designed to bring anti-bias principles and practices to classrooms, schools and districts. Awards range from $500 to $10,000 and are selected on a rolling basis. Apply today!

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

September 9 (M)
Fall Benchmark easyCBM Testing Begins

September 10 (T)
8:30, Allan to All Administrator Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:15, Optional Building SMART Goals Meeting (Conference Room)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Cafeteria)

September 11 (W)
2:30, Allan to Eligibility Determination Meeting (Conference Room)

September 12 (H)
2:45-3:15, Optional Leadership Plan Development Meeting (Conference Room)
4:15-5:15, Student Success Act Staff Conversations – Phase I (North Eugene HS)

September 13 (F)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Behavior Framework PD (Library)
4:00, Howard Staff Social – Friday at Four at Jenny’s House (1663 Rosy Turn)

September 15 (SU)
INSURANCE OPEN ENROLLMENT DEADLINE

September 16 (M)
Title 1 Individual Diagnostic Screener Assessments
BEST Invites Go Home
3:45-5:45, Allan to Elem Principal Meeting (Ed Center)

September 17 (T)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, RM23)

September 18 (W)
Lori’s Birthday!
2:45-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)

September 19 (H)
Talk Like a Pirate Day
4:00-6:00, 4J K-2 Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Trainings (Ashley’s Room, RM25)
4:15-5:15, 4J Student Success Act – Staff Conversations – SPED (Cafeteria)

September 20 (F)
8:45-9:15, 3/4/5 ESYO (Strings) Recruitment Assembly (Gym)
2:30, Early Release PD – PLC
5:30-7:30, PTO Family Night – Secret Life of Pets 2 (Cafeteria/Gym)

Have a fabulous week, everyone!

Allan

 

September 2, 2019

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

Howdy Roadrunners,

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

Twenty-eight items of note for this week:

• PBIS Reminders – A few PBIS items of note:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• REPEAT: Meet Your Teacher 9/3 – During Meet Your Teacher on Tuesday,1:00-2:00, non-classroom staff will direct families, passing out school maps with highlighters to help guide families, and also passing out a First Day/Parking Lot Flyers. We’ll also give staff a complete set of class lists to be used this day and also on the first day of school.

• REPEAT: First & Second Day of School Plan 9/4 & 9/5 – We will continue having all-hand-on-deck to help at 7:25 on Wednesday and Thursday to help direct students and families before and after the first bell. Here is the plan:

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

• Non-classroom staff, starting at 7:25, will be in front of the building, the front hallway, the cafeteria, and the playground to help supervise and to help guide students and families. All staff will be given class lists to help guide students as well as a handful of building maps to pass out. See the map below for where people are stationed.

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

• 2nd – 5th grade students at 7:50 rings will line up (T-square classrooms signs will be posted to help students know where to line up) and will be dismissed one class at a time to go to their classrooms. Non-classroom staff will have assigned areas to help with student flow and for students arriving late. Staff will be stationed at the front entrance, cafeteria, the hallway corners of the library, and one person in each wing (upstairs and downstairs). See map below.

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

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

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

• Howard Staff Handbook Review – Linked here is the updated Howard Staff Handbook. All staff must review the handbook and sign & return the Acknowledgement Form to the office by Monday, September 30th. Both of these can also be found on the Howard Team Drive > MISC > Handbooks I’ll place hard copies of the acknowledgement form in mailbox on Tuesday. No changes this year other than the date. Let me know if you have any questions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Artist in Residence Survey – Howard is again getting two artists in residence this year, thanks to The Eugene Rotary, EEF, and ArtSpark. This year they are requiring one artist to be first semester and one second semester. Classroom teachers, please complete the linked Artist in Residence Google Form and that way I can bring a proposal ahead of time to the September Staff Meeting for a decision. Please look at them Lane Arts Artist in Residence webpages for details on each artist and let me know if you have any questions. Survey responses due the Friday, September 13th.

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

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

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

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

• Northwest Community Credit Union Mini Grants – The goal of the NWCU Mini Grant Program is to help educators create learning experiences for kids that might not otherwise be funded by school budgets. Educators submit their funding needs/wishes (up to $1,500) to NWCU through a competitive, submission process. Submissions are being accepted now through October 10, 2019 with winners awarded in December. Grants can be for supplies (e.g.,calculators, dissection specimens, art materials, basic school supplies, etc.), books & materials (e.g., books for classroom libraries or to support curriculum, funding for field trips, etc.), technology (e.g., iPads, Chromebooks, Boogie Board e-writers, headphones for listening centers, etc.), and more. Follow the above link to submit your grant.

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

September 2 (M)
Labor Day – No School

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

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

September 5 (H)
Regular Day

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

September 9 (M)
Fall Benchmark easyCBM Testing Begins

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

September 11 (W)
KRA Testing May Begin

September 12 (H)

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

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

Let’s rock this first week with kiddos!

Allan