https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=10031
Hi Everyone,
If you can make it, I’m looking forward to seeing folks this Tuesday 11:00-1:00 for the 5th Grade Drive Thru Promotion/Clap-Out Event! Bring your signs and looking at the weather report, maybe bring an umbrella.
Eighteen items of note for this week as well as notes from last Wednesday’s Staff Meeting:
• 2020-2021 Staffing Update – Our TSS, Jyillina, who currently serves Howard, River Road, and Kelly, is next year going to serve River Road, Kelly and YG (since YG is moving to Kelly). Howard TSS for next year will be YG’s current TSS, Tom Maddox, who I’ve heard good thing about from James Grubic, so please welcome Tom to the Howard Team!
• Report Cards – Details on this year’s abridged report card are on the Spring 2020 Reporting webpage. The videos are very thorough, but four additional items:
• “Engaged in Learning” vs. “No Basis” – According to the Spring 2020 Reporting Guidance document, you should only mark “No Basis” if “While contact was made with the family, the student did not participate in distance learning in any capacity,” so if a student did just one activity since distance learning started, they count as engaged.
If they responded to one Seesaw assignment, did one Zoom, did one PE, Music, BEST or other supplemental activity, they should be marked as having participated. Even if their only engagement was to submit a video of flatulent noises (yes, that did happen), they should be marked engaged. It may not be appropriate engagement, but they were engaged.
• Spanish Translations, DUE MONDAY – If you need report card comments translated into Spanish, those need to get to Elizabeth by Monday.
• REPEAT: RC Send Home Date, THURSDAY – To keep things consistent for families and to avoid parents comparing teachers, everyone should sent report cards home (email, Seesaw, or Synergy) on Grading Day, Thursday, June 11th. If you need to use snail mail for families without email or who are not connected through Seesaw, let me and Lori know and we can mail a copy home. If A family is homeless and without email or a mailing address, let me and Jennifer Volem know so we can figure out a plan.
• REPEAT: Email Lori Report Card Copies – The office needs a copy of report cards to upload to Synergy and another copy for cumulative files, so email Lori copies of all your final report cards. These can be sent ahead of Grading Day (if you’re an overachiever).
• Staff Input on Class Lists – Linked here is a view only version of the 2020-2021 Class Lists, if support staff and prior year teachers want to take a look at next year’s class lists to check for any questionable combinations or other adjustments you think might improve the lists.
• Summer Meals Update – Howard served more meals than any other site in 4J, so Nutrition Services is planning to continue serving meals MTWH through Labor Day. Starting next week, June 15th, Nutrition Services is taking over the front of the building meal service that Howard staff have done up until now. Also, the district Care Team is taking over meal deliveries.
• Summer School Updates – It’s now official. ESY and DHH will not use Howard this summer and will use a distance learning model instead, but Title 1 Summer School is happening in a modified form, which will be at River Road.
• Room Assignments – It was brought up at the staff meeting a desire to keep grade levels in the same wings and how we have drifted from that. Now that Corridor has closed, our enrollment will likely take a jump and I’m just about positive we’ll be adding a classroom or two, so our current classroom assignments will almost certainly change. Nurse Robin also had a good point that keeping grade levels in the same wing greatly helps contact tracing and quarantines. Minimizing movement during the school day may be important if we are in a phase where there is an increase of COVID-19 cases. However, we are going to have to wait until closer to the fall when we have more solid student numbers so we know which grade levels will have added classrooms.
• TpT Shopping Spree – I know some of you have been waiting for this! This Monday teachers can feel free to go to the TpT School Access website and download however many resources as you like. We started with 160 and you can see how many are left by going to the TpT School Activity webpage. Our subscription ends June 30th.
• REPEAT: 5th Grade Drive Thru Promotion & Clap-Out – See last week’s announcements for details, but please come join us in the bus loop on Tuesday 11:00-1:00 for the Drive Thru 5th Grade Promotion & Clap-Out!
11:00-11:30, Carpenter
11:30-12:00, Rock
12:00-12:30, Cortez
12:30-1:00, CallihanAnd check out the excellent shirts we had made for our quarantined group of 5th grade graduates!
• REPEAT: End-of-Yea Technology & Library Book Return – See last week’s announcements for details, but we can still use volunteers to help with iPad & Library book returns Wednesday and Thursday. Please sign up on the linked End-of-Year Materials Return Sign-Up.
• Optional Staff Meeting, Wednesday @12:30 – Due to the added furlough days, I’m moving our required June Staff Meeting to this Wednesday at 12:30 instead of Thursday. I’ll also move next week’s Optional Staff Meeting to Wednesday as well. On my email and on a forthcoming Zimbra calendar invite, but not on my blog, are the Zoom Meeting Invite links.
• REPEAT: 2020-2021 Leadership/Building Rep. Positions – Don’t be bashful. Sign-up to be a leader or a team member on the 2020-2021 Leadership/Building Rep. Positions Google Sheet!
• Learn 360 Reminder – Misty Jackson sent principals an email reminding us Learn 360 is still free through June 30th. No username or password needed if you click the above link. I’ll add to Misty’s email that tif you want to download any of the videos, the Chrome extension Stream Video Downloader will download the embedded Learn 360 videos and will do the same with most any other website with embedded videos if there are some you want to snag before free access disappears.
• Retain Your Contact Log – Please remember to retain your family contact log through the end of next school year, should any parents come back to claim no one ever tried to reach out to them.
• Book support during this difficult time – Julie received an email from our library association on Books on Social Justice for June of 2020, which includes a list of books that may help support the Black Live Matter subject. We have some the title mentioned in our library.
• Registration/Enrollment Reboot – If parents ask you about enrolling for next year, you can direct them to the 4J 2020 Student Enrollment webpage. There will soon be a district registrar who will take care of registrations, with paperwork dropped off at the Ed Center, but in the meantime families can email Lori electronic copies from the above website or they can drop them off during the meal distribution times, Monday through Thursday.
• 4J Library Lowdown – 4J Librarian Amy Page shared the final issue of 4J The Library Lowdown of the year, which has some DEI resources, PD audiobooks, and summer reading resources, book lists, and activities for students. Let Amy know if you have trouble accessing any of the resources. You will need to login to your Sora account to access the DEI resources.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:
June 8 (M)
Furlough Day (192 & 196-Day Classified Staff)
8:00, Work Share Claim Form Extended Deadling (8AM @Ed Center)
10:30-12:00, Allan to Elem. Principal Meeting
11:00-12:00, Free Meals & Meal Deliver for M-V FamiliesJune 9 (T)
11:00-12:00, Free Meals
11:00-1:00, 5th Grade Drive Thru Promotion/Clap-Out and Device & Book Return
11:00-11:30, Carpenter
11:30-12:00, Rock
12:00-12:30, Cortez
12:30-1:00, CallihanJune 10 (W)
Last Day for Students
8:00-4:00, End-of-Year Technology & Library Book Return (Gym)
11:00-12:00, Free Meals & Meal Deliver for M-V Families
12:30-1:00, Optional Howard Check-In Meeting
12:30-4:00, Classroom teachers take attendance
2:45-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee MeetingJune 11 (H)
Grading Day/Last Day for Teachers & Classified Staff
11:00-12:00, Free Meals
8:00-4:00, End-of-Year Technology & Library Book Return (Gym)June 12 (F)
No School – Furlough Day (Licensed, Admin, Classified 10, 11, & 12-month)July 28 (T)
Elementary Principals Report BackAugust 10 (M)
Elementary Secretaries Report BackSeptember 1 (T)
Licensed Staff Report BackSeptember 2 (W)
Classified Employees Report
If I don’t see you this week, have a fabulous summer and hopefully we’ll all get to see each other in person again in the fall.
And now enjoy the staff summer reading picks below (it was a bit thin this year since I wasn’t able to bug people in person this year).
Take care, everyone!
Allan
STAFF BOOK PICKS
CORIANNE
I’m almost finished with Becoming by Michelle Obama. Most Excellent!
Reading books 2 & 3 in the Dragonwatch series, and eagerly awaiting books 4 & 5! It’s a continuation of Fabelhaven, which is one of the best fantasy books for kids. Right up there with Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams which I didn’t read last summer as planned, but now own it, so I will!
Next Year in Havana is sbout a woman who goes to Cuba to scatter her grandmother’s ashes, and discovers much about her own family’s past and why they fled Cuba during the revolution. It came highly recommended by Molly Hansbrough. She was 4j’s last elementary Librarian until she retired…
The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber, who lives in Portland. This is a memoir about her and her family, being raised by a Jordanian father who never felt quite “right” in the west, and was obsessed with the foods they made to remind him of home. Her book “Crescent” is one of my all-time favorites!
Hoping to get to two others of hers: Life Without a Recipe, another memoir, and Arabian Jazz, a novel which deals with the merging of cultures and all that it can bring. This is a theme that plays out in most of her novels and memoirs, being Jordanian, but also American. And food often plays a central role in her books. She attributes some of that to her time spent in Eugene as a grad student, where she and her friends would ride their bikes to the Saturday Market, and then go off to someone’s house to prepare a large meal together.
JULIE
New Kid by Jerry Craft Fellow librarian recommendation
Winner of the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature! Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real, from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft. This middle grade graphic novel is an excellent choice for tween readers in grades 5 to 6, especially during homeschooling. It’s a fun way to keep your child entertained and engaged while not in the classroom. Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Hunger Games Series Prequel) Fellow Librarian recommendation. A slow start, but a page turner for sure.
The Persuasion Catch up on my Eve Duncan series. I’m so excited!
Labyrinth (FBI Series #23) by Catherine Coulter More from my FBI thriller series, yes!
The Complete Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Beginners: A No-Stress Meal Plan with Easy Recipes to Heal the Immune System by Dorothy Calimeris New cookbook :)
OBOB 2020-21 titles I’m excited to get started on next year’s books!
JUSTINE
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Slow at start, but empowering and good
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Loved It!!!
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Amazing
LUPE
Things Too Huge to Fix by Saying Sorry by Susan Vaught
Integrates historical fiction, race, Alzheimer’s,…
Jason Reynolds’s Track Series Collection
Different students and their abilities to come together to understand each others needs
Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
Case in California that helped end segregation
Voices from the Fields : Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories by S. Beth Atkin
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child by Francisco Jiménez
ROBIN
The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes. Was recommended by a friend and I’m looking forward to some down time to enjoy it.
SUZY
The Choice: Embrace the Impossible by Dr. Edith Eger All I can say about this book is WOW!! This is a memoir about Edie who was was only 16 when she and her family were sent to Auschwitz. She ends up surviving and moving to the US where she becomes a world renowned psychologist helping others through their own trauma. She tells her story not only through her own, but also through patients that she has worked with over the years. The overall theme of this book is compassion, forgiveness (of ourselves and others), and of course choices. We cannot choose what happens to us, but we can always choose our response to what happens to us. This is a book everyone should read.
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish The story is set in London during the 1660’s as well as the early 2000’s. It is told from two different women’s point of view. One is a scribe for a Portuguese Rabbi in 1660’s, and the other is a historian of Jewish history in the 2000’s. Their stories come together when a bunch of documents are found hidden in a London home that were written by the female scribe in the 1660’s. They search to find out who this female scribe was (who goes by the name of “Aleph”) since she breaking with gender lines in the 17th century. Great historical fiction!
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara Okay, I’ve had this book for probably the last year and a half and every time I go to pick it up, I put it back down because I wasn’t ready to delve into real-life crime that would scare me as fell asleep each night. I didn’t want to think that every sound a heard was someone trying to break into my house. A few weeks ago, I finally picked it up and couldn’t put it back down. For the first 100 pages, I kept telling my husband, “I probably should stop reading this book,” but I just couldn’t stop. The author gets you hooked as much as she was to find out who the Golden State Killer is. Unfortunately she didn’t live long enough to see him arrested in 2018.
Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera Set in South Carolina in the 1920’s. It is told from three female perspectives who come from very different backgrounds, but they all have one thing in common—they are all mothers who stand up for injustices happening around them, and to them. Three women helping each other and helping their families. Another great read!
ALLAN
The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus,. George A. Romero, the man who invented the “rules” for zombies with Night of the Living Dead (dead eat the living, must destroy the brain, zombies are slow, etc.) started this novel before his death in 2017, but it was finished by Daniel Kraus, who wrote Oscar Best Picture winner The Shape of Water.
Mean Business on North Ganson Street by S. Craig Zahler. I haven’t read any of his books, but he’s now a filmmaker of some shockingly original films (though not for all tastes), including Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete. I’m hoping his books are equally mean and nasty!
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. I loved his prior book, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, which was a mix of 80s nostalgia, The Exorcist, and Mean Girls. This new book is described as Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in the 90s, so how can I NOT read this book!
Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue. Jeff got me started on this. I love old school samurai movies and this Japanese manga/graphic novel about a masterless samurai is magic! I’ve read volume 1 and 2, but I’m ready to dive into the subsequent volumes 3 – 12. The artwork alone is enough to read this graphic novel.
Have a good summer, everyone!
