https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=12286
Happy Halloween, Everyone!
Thirteen items of note for this week:
• 1st Grade Hire – For our new 1st grade classroom we have hired Megan Gullekson, who student taught at Holt last year with Lesli and who is currently teaching 3rd grade in Gresham. Her current school district will release her this Tuesday, which means she can start working at Holt on Wednesday. She’ll get three days to plan and prep for her class and will start with students on Monday, November 7th. We’re lucky to get someone who worked with a number of these student last year and who is already familiar with Holt, so please welcome Megan back to Holt!
And if you’re wondering about parent notification and conferences, we notified families a few weeks ago we’d be adding a fourth classroom and this Monday I will call families of the students changing classrooms. After that we’ll email all 1st grade families of the class change timeline. 1st grade teachers are also planning to do a special lunch or activity for the students changing classes to make them feel special and not feel like cast-offs. Parents will conference with their current teachers and we’re planning to have Megan join those conferences, as long as their aren’t any conflicting times.
• UPDATE: Safety Week, Oct. 31 – Nov. 4 – This week is Safety Week and the times are below and on the Staff Calendar:
- Monday: Evacuation Drill (i.e. Fire Drill) @8:40
- Tuesday: Lockdown Drill @1:30
- Wednesday: Secure Drill & Playground Emergency Whistle @8:30
- Thursday: Room Clear – Time decided by teachers
- Friday: Earthquake/Fire Drill 9:40
Teaches should pre-teach the drills to students ahead of time and can either use the Standard Response Protocol Poster, which should be posted in every classrooms (let me know if you don’t have one and I’ll get you one) or you could use the linked Safety Week Slide Show, which I plagiarized from another school. For your own edification, here is a link to the Complete SRP Guide and the SRP Folder in the Staff Google Drive.
MONDAY @8:40 – Evacuation Drill (fire drill): We’ve already done one Fire Drill this year and I will simply pull the alarm to start the drill. Linked here is the Building Evacuation Map and the Fire Drill Line Map. Teachers should explain that an Evacuation Drill can be more than a fire drill and that there are times we might need to evacuate to a specific locations, such as an announcement saying, “Evacuate! To the church across the street.” or another location.
TUESDAY @1:30 – Lockdown Drill (for a danger inside the building): I will first announce that we are doing to do a Lockdown Drill, giving a brief explanation how it will work. I will then announce, “Lockdown! Locks, Lights, Out of Sight.” Classroom doors are to be locked, curtains closed, lights turned out, and students moved out of sight. Classrooms should appear unoccupied and remain locked until a first responders unlock doors. For the drill, myself or staff will unlock classroom doors to announce all clear. In a real Lockdown, if there is an immediate threat, staff and students would self-evacuate.
WEDNESDAY @8:30– Secure Drill (for a danger outside the building): For the Secure Drill (formerly knows as a “lockout”), I will announce “Secure! Get Inside, Lock outside doors.” All exterior doors are to be locked. No one will be let in or out of building. It will then be business as usual inside the building until the all-clear signal is given, which I will do 10 minutes into the drill. This drill is done if there was something unsafe in the neighborhood.
THURSDAY @teacher choice – Room Clear (for a danger in the classroom): Room Clear Drills will happen at a time determined by classroom teachers. In normal times this drill would be done in cooperation with another classroom where students could go in the event of an actual room clear, but for this year because of distancing rules, I’d advise teachers to use their commons areas, the library, or an empty classroom if you have one nearby. The goal of this drill is for students to know where they would 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 @9:40 – Shelter Drill (i.e. Earthquake Drill & Fire Drill): For the Shelter/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 when you hear the fire alarm go off.
Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
• Apple Learning Specialist Available, WEDNESDAY – Sally Eberhart, an Apple Professional Learning Specialist who is 4J’s Apple Rep, will be here all day this Wednesday for drop-ins. She can provide 1:1 coaching, solve problems, discuss lessons, help set up Apple Classroom, or show folks something new. I’ll have her stationed in the Staff Room for folks to drop by, but here is an Apple Learning Specialist Sign-Up Sheet if there is a certain time you’d like her to come to your room.
• UO Hockey Visit @3/4/5 Lunch, Wednesday – The UO hockey team is coming to visit 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders during their lunch period. They’re promoting a Holt Night Hockey Game this Saturday, which will have a free t-shirt giveaway and on student will win a jersey. I’ve also asked them to reinforce our three school rules all day long, especially at lunch and recess.
• Friday PD: Staff Choice – Principals haven’t gotten any details for this Friday’s “Staff Choice” PD time, but I’m guessing plan on doing whatever it is you signed up for on the Elementary Staff Choice PD Sign-up Form last time. I’ll let you know if anything changes.
• Fall Conferences Info – 1 update and 5 reminders for conferences:
• UPDATE: Meals for Conferences – PAHS is planning to cover ALL meals during conferences, dinner Wednesday, and lunch & dinner Thursday. It’ll be pot luck, but they are also possibly doing a theme, so stay tuned!
• REPEAT: Title 1 Compacts & Conferences – Title 1 Compacts (English and Spanish) should be reviewed with all families at conferences. For the signatures, the teacher and student should sign the form and for parents review the permission section at conferences. If a parent is on Zoom, just date the form in the parent signature line that the parents agreed to do their part. Title 1 staff will put class sets in teacher mailboxes.
• REPEAT: Language Link Phone Translations – 4J is not providing live translators, so teachers will need to use Language Link. See the 4J Language Link Phone Interpreting Service webpage for step-by-step directions how to do translations for in-person meetings, phone meetings, or Zoom meetings. The directions are pretty straightforward, but when they ask for the “cost center number,” that number is 270. Plan ahead if you are new to using this service, but let me know if you need any help.
• REPEAT: Staff Not in Conferences – Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are regular work days for all staff who are not part of conferences and should work your regular hours at school. However, if you have pre-arranged trade time with me in order to not work any of these dates, email me your plan ahead of time.
• REPEAT: Allan Available to Attend Conferences – Teachers can let me know if you have any tricky conferences you’d like me to attend. Send me a date & time (and a Zoom link if it’s on Zoom) and I’ll be there!
• REPEAT: Resources for Families – Should any families request assistance with food, clothing, housing/rental assistance, hygiene product, SNAP (food stamps) Benefits, Insurance, counseling, and such, please have them fill out the linked Helping Hand Online Form, the form below, or contact Holt Family Resource Coordinator, Felicia LaCuesta, at lacuesta_f@4j.lane.edu or call me (541)790-6174.
• REPEAT: Student Tech Contract (K-2 and 3-5) – Related to conferences, linked here and on the Holt Staff Dashboard is the K-2 Holt Student Technology Contract and the 3-5 Holt Student Technology Contract. Teachers should review this document with students, using it as a teaching tool, and then have students and parent/guardians (possibly at conference) sign the agreement.
• Missed Uninterrupted Hour of Prep – EEA and downtown admin have come to an agreement on how missed Friday prep time will be addressed this year and in the future. For the two Fridays missed in November due to holidays, schools not scheduling meetings during these weeks, Nov. 7 and 21. Two more dates are missed due to grading days. The missed hour of preparation on 2/3/2023 and 6/9/23 will be made up by providing 2 hours of uninterrupted prep during the preceding Friday.
• Library Open Times – Robbie is offing to open the library for students needing a space to work or finish a project any time there is not a classroom already in the library or during this lunch and breaks. If you send students, make sure they have a hall pass and that you mark LIBRARY on it. I’m going to update the Library Schedule on the 22-23 Master Schedule later this week to show the available times.
• NOT at School Reminders – Three NO related reminders:
• NO Student Phone or Smart Watches – During the school day, all student phones and smart watches would be turned off and put away. Before school and after school are allowed as long as students are using them appropriately, but students are not allowed to take videos or photos of other students, which is a districtwide rule. A first offense can be a reminder. A second offense should be written up as a minor and the phone or watch held onto and returned at the end of the day. A third offense should be written up as a major and the phone stays in the office until a parent picks it up.
• NO Gum at School – We do allow gum as a special treat during state testing, but outside of that students are not allowed to have gum at school. Now that Halloween is approaching, we’re meeting more and more of it at school, so be sure to make kids spit it out if you spot anyone chewing gum.
• NO Food at Recess (Snack on Sidewalk & No Food at Lunch Recess) – For grade levels who do snack at recess, remind your students they may ONLY eat on the sidewalk. When they are done eating, anything left needs to be thrown away. One other reminder is that students are not allowed to have any food with them during lunch recess. If students are caught eating anywhere besides the sidewalk, I’d advise making them throw away their food in the nearest garbage can.
• Holiday Shopping – This is on the Staff Meeting Agenda for Tuesday, but I wanted to let folks know that we are planning to resume Holt pre-COVID tradition of the Holiday Shopping program for students. For folks new to Holt (including me since I haven’t seen this program in action either), I’m told one or two students in need from each classroom are chosen to go shopping for holiday gifts for their family as well as clothes or other basic needs for themselves. Interested staff members volunteer take the students on their shopping trip and then everyone meets back at school for gift wrapping, hot chocolate, and treats.
• REMINDER: Wit & Wisdom Lamination Limited – A reminder that Wit & Wisdom name tags, posters, and other materials have a film on them that melst and ruins them if you try to laminate them, so know that not everything can be laminated. The Vocabulary Cards can be laminated though.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:
October 31 (M)
Library Week #1 Classes
1st Grade Staff Room Duty
8:40, Fire Drill
8:50, Allan to Class Magic Show
2:45-3:30, Allan to IEP MeetingNovember 1 (T)
Sunshine Committee Baked Goods Sharing!
Ewok Appreciation Day
8:30, Lockdown Drill
2:45-3:30, Staff Meeting (Library)November 2 (W)
Monthly Walk+Roll to School Day
7:30-3:30, Sally Eberhart, Apple Specialist Drop-In (Staff Room)
8:30, Secure Drill
11:00-1:00, Playground Emergency Whistle Drill (Lunch Recess)
1:15, Attendance Team Meeting (Office)
1:45-2:15, 3rd Grade Delgani Strings Assembly (Cafeteria)
2:45, 5th Grade Outdoor School Meeting (Zoom)
7:00-9:00, School Board Meeting (Zoom)November 3 (H)
Safety Week – Room Clear Drill (time decided by teachers)
7:45, Allan Meeting w/Parent (Office)
9:00, Safety Committee Meeting (Office)November 4 (F)
9:00, Allan Meeting w/New Elem Curriculum Admin (Office)
9:40, Shelter (Earthquake) & Fire Drill
9:00-12:00, Health [K-5] & Vision Screening [K-2] (Gym)
1:25-2:25, Friday PD – Staff Choice
1:25-2:25, Classified Staff Meeting (Library)November 7 (M)
Library Week #2 Classes
School Psychologist Week (PE/Music)
2nd Grade Staff Room Duty
3:45-5:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)November 8 (T)
3:30-7:30, Conferences
5:30-6:10, Staff DinnerNovember 9 (W)
8:00-8:00, Conferences, No School
11:30-12:10, Staff Lunch
5:30-6:10, Staff DinnerNovember 10 (H)
Teacher Comp Day, No School
Regular Work Day for Classified StaffNovember 11 (F)
Veterans Day – No School
I couldn’t decide on which school related Halloween meme I liked best, so enjoy a plethora of of school/Halloween humor!
Allan
