https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=12406
Happy New Year!
Hope you all had a good break. My family Christmas celebrations were delayed due to everyone in my house except me getting sick the first week of the break. Still, it was nice to have some time off. Best new movie I watched over the break was Everything Everyone All at Once and the best book I read was Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino, which is essential reading for film nerds.
Ten items of note for this week:
• Staffing Updates – Four staffing Updates:
• Title 1 EA Job Posting – Ashton Stowell is sadly leaving us at the end of the week to pursue a teaching degree. Holt parent Keri Schneider (the one who brought the Subway Party Sub before the break) is coveringuntil we hire a replacement. The job posting for the 6.5-hour position should go up this week, so please encourage anyone good to apply!
• Counselor Interviews, Jan 3rd @1:20 – We had two applicants for our temp counselor position and interviews will be Tuesday, January 3rd from 1:20-3:00 in the library. Let me know if you’d like to join me and Kim and I will email you the interview materials.
• Temp PE Interviews, Jan. 6th @1:25 – We had three applicants for our temp part-time PE position. Alex, Ashley, and I will hold interviews on Zoom from 1:25-3:00. Interviews are on Zoom because this position is 0.2 at Holt and 0.2 at Howard, so Zoom was the easier option. Let me know if you’d like to join.
• BEST EA Job Posting Open – 2-hour to 3.5 hour BEST EA positions are now posted on the 4J Jobs website and closes Thursday.
• Jan. 3 PD/Planning Day – Emailed earlier and on the Staff Google Drive is the Meeting Agenda for Tuesday. We’ll plan to meet in the Cafeteria with the following schedule:
8:00-8:30, Breakfast Stacks & Socializing (Cafeteria)
8:30-11:00, PD and Staff Meeting Meeting (Cafeteria)
11:00-1:30, Team Collaboration & Vector Training TimeBring a device to the meeting for the “DHS Child Welfare Reporting Online Documentation” agenda item. I’ll walk folks through setting up your account.
I’ll have the usual mix of breakfast goodies available starting at 8:00 and we’ll start the meeting promptly at 8:30.
• Classified Staff Meeting – Following the Staff Meeting will be a Classified Staff Meeting to prep for the Recess Rules Round-Up later in the week (see the next agenda item) and any other business the team would like to discuss.
• PBIS Rules Round-Up Refresher, THURSDAY & FRIDAY – The PBIS Team discussed holding a Recess Rules Round-Up Refresher the first week back. Grades 3-5 will be Thursday, 1:30-2:00. Grades K-2 will be Friday, 8:20-8:50. Let me know if any classes need to adjust times. As we did in the fall, we’ll do 5-min. rotations (4 min. talk, 1 min. transition), but we’ll change some of the stations to focus more on problem solving. We can discuss any tweaks at the Staff Meeting, but the tentative plan is for the five stations to be:
1. Equipment, Lining Up
end-of-recess lines and equipment are problem areas
2. Restrooms, Snacks/Food
snacks only on the curb in AM, no food at lunch recess, trash in the garbage
3. Gaga Ball
main point – don’t be a cheater
4. What to do when you have a problem?
mini-Kelso review
5. What does it mean to be Safe, Respectful, & Responsible on the playground
hands-feet-objects-to-self and being kind to one another, discussing different scenarios appropriate for younger and older gradesLinked here is a Map of the Station Locations. Classes will rotate in the station order listed below. Teachers should plan to come out early so we can start and end on time. Let me know if there are any scheduling conflicts and we can adjust [CORRECTED: ADDED KG and MOVED 3RD, flip flopped #4 and #5 to match map]:
Thursday @1:30
5-Minute Rotations (4 min. talk, 1 min. transition)
Classes start at:1. Equipment & Lining-Up (Ball, Talley)
2. Gaga Ball (Benavides, Harshbarger, Longoria)
3. Restroom & Snack/Food (Cobb, Reich)
4. What to do when you have a problem (Lovato, Ayres)
5. How to be Safe, Respectful, Responsible (Parks, Heinrich)Friday @8:20
5-Minute Rotations (4 min. talk, 1 min. transition)
Classes start at:1. Equipment & Lining-Up (Harmon, Seno)
2. Gaga Ball (Norton, Gulewich, Vaughan)
3. Restroom & Snack/Food (Gori, Barton)
4. What to do when you have a problem (Dempsey, Rabourn)
5. How to be Safe, Respectful, Responsible (Zluticky, Gullekson)
We will decide on station assignments at the Classified Meeting on Tuesday. We’ll talk more on Tuesday, but me know if you have any questions or suggestions on any of this.
• Friday PD: Team Collaboration Time – This Friday is “Building Based” and will be a time for a Team Collaboration Time, with the same guidelines as the January 3rd collaboration time.
• Fire Drill, Friday, Jan. 13 @8:20 – Not this week, but Friday next week at 8:20 will be our January Fire Drill. Linked here are the Building Evacuation Map and the Fire Drill Line Map.
• Security Camera Ideas – Facilities is meeting with principals about installing additional security cameras. My guess is they are only going to add them to one or two locations, but my thinking is priorities should be:
1. Playground (Hard Play #1 and Soft Play #2)
2. Hallways (A-D Wings #1, Wing Intersections #2, Counselor/Calming #3, Gym/Cafeteria #4, Library/Office #5)
3. Bus Pick-Up/Drop-Off Area
4. East side of the building
5. Back of buildingI’ll add this as a Business Item for the staff meeting but wanted to get this out now since it’s a fast turnaround.
• Revoking a Transfer for Irregular Attendance – Schools used to be able to do this, but we are once again being allowed to revoke a transfer for a student due to poor attendance.The process to revoke a transfer is to communicate with the family about school choice and that the transfer can be revoked for poor attendance and/or repeated behavior infractions. Work with the family on providing some tiered interventions and have data to support the revocation. If attendance/behavior does not improve a transfer may be revoked. See attached policy and process. Attendance criteria should match the attendance criteria that we use for all students. Students that are dipping into tier 2/chronic attendance should be addressed.
• How Drawing Can Lead to Deeper Understanding – Organizational drawings—concept maps and sketchnotes, for example—help students see gaps in their learning while boosting comprehension by fourfold. See this Edutopia Video for details.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Holt Staff Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:
January 2 (M)
Winter Break – No SchoolJanuary 3 (T)
8:00-8:30, Breakfast Stacks & Socializing (Cafeteria)
8:30-11:00, Staff Meeting & PD (Cafeteria)
11:00-12:00, Classified Staff Meeting (Cafeteria)
11:00-1:30, Team Collaboration & Vector Training
1:20-3:00, Temp Counselor Interviews (Library)January 4 (W)
Students Return
Library Checkout Week (no library learning sessions)
Monthly Walk+Roll to School Day
Winter Benchmarking Window Opens
8:50-10:45, Book Nook, During AM Recesses (Cafeteria)January 5 (H)
9:00, Safety Committee Meeting (Office)
1:30-2:00, Recess Rules Round-Up – Grades 3-5 (Playground)January 6 (F)
8:20-8:50, Recess Rules Round-Up – Grades K-2 (Playground)
9:00, Allan Meeting w/Facilities RE Security Cameras
1:25-2:25, Friday PD – Building Based – Team Collaboration
1:25-3:00, Temp PE Interviews – Tentative (Library)January 9 (M)
Library Week #2 Classes
Title Staff Room Duty
3:45-5:15, Allan to Elem Principals’ Meeting (Holt Library)January 10 (T)
10:15-11:45, 4th Grade Junior Achievement
2:45-3:45, PBIS/SEL/Equity Meeting (Kelsey’s Room)January 11 (W)
8:50-10:45, Book Nook, During AM Recesses (Cafeteria)
12:00, Student Council (Reich’s Room)
2:45, Allan to IEP Meeting (Lesli’s Room)January 12 (H)
5:00-6:00 Site Council (Library)
6:00-7:00, PAHS Meeting (Library)January 13 (F)
8:20, Fire Drill
1:25-2:25, Friday PD – Staff Choice
4:00, Holt Staff Friday at Four (TBA)
See you soon!
Allan
