October 1, 2012

By Allan  

Hello Roadrunner Staff,

I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable weekend.

One thing I wanted to reassure staff about is that I do intend to be in the building as much as possible, and that the avalanche of required meetings to kick-off the various initiatives which Howard is a part of (Caring for Kids, teacher eval pilot, Jon Saphier trainings, Learning About Learning Networks, etc…), on top of the regular start of the year meetings, should all soon be coming to an end, except for a required TAG training on Monday resulting from an ODE complaint against 4J. After that I’ll be down to just the much more infrequent regularly scheduled meetings, so you should start to see me in the building a lot more than you have the past few weeks. I hate being out of the building as much as I’ve been!

Nine items of note for this week:

• October 5th Professional DevelopmentAttached is the agenda for Friday’s professional development. We’ll plan to meet in the library 8:00-12:30 starting with some planning around the Caring Schools Buddy Teaching Pairs, moving into a follow-up iPad training with Misty Forseman, then writing work sample norming & scoring with Kathy Luiten, and lastly a preview of the PE/Music schedule. Teachers, be sure to bring your iPad and writing binder to the meeting. Classified staff, you are welcome to attend but not required. If you are not attending the meeting, connect with your primary cooperating teacher about what you can be helping with during this time. Please let me know if you have any questions.

• Leadership Plans – You may or may not have read Tad and Shelley’s email about changes to school Leadership Plans, but I wanted to let teachers know that I do not think we will need to change our plan. I believe the plan developed last spring can be defended as supporting student achievement and would therefore be acceptable. I am planning to submit the current plan and will push on JCAC to approve it as written.

• Caring School Community Parent Letter – If you haven’t done so already, be sure to send home the “Parent Letter Introducing CSC” very soon. There is a sample English and Spanish letter on page 34 of the red “Caring School Community Overview” booklet, or you can cut and paste this electronic version of the English letter into your class newsletter.

• Free Tutoring on Saturdays for K-12 Students – Here’s a resource you can refer families to that you may or may not be aware of. The Back to School/Success in School program is a free tutoring/mentoring service that provides academic support for all students K-12 in all the core content areas. Tutoring sessions are held at the LCC Downtown Campus, 1059 Willamette Street, from 10-12 most Saturdays. There are no fees and registration is open throughout the year. For more information, families can contact Yvonne at 541.968.8551 or 541.285.1916 or their website. The flyer went out to families in the October newsletter, but I wanted to highlight this for staff as a potential resource for students.

• Free UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History Classroom Programs – Aimee Valencia, the Museum Educator at the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History, just let principals know about a new classroom visit program the museum is offering for 1st through 5th grade students. She is available to teach a selection of programs about Oregon history, biology, geography, culture, and scientific method in your classrooms for free. All programs are rooted in National and Oregon State Standards. For more information, see her letter or the registration form. If you have any questions about the free classroom program, contact Aimee at 541-346-5019.

• Oregon State Treasurer’s Office – Reading is an Investment Program – Reading is an Investment is a statewide literacy and financial educational program for elementary school-age children designed to highlight the importance of reading and teaching children about the world of money and basic financial concepts. Students can participate in two ways: (1) as a class project with their teacher, or (2) individually, outside of the classrooms. After completing the program, each child will receive a prize packet, Certificate of Achievement and information about he Oregon College Savings Plan. Children who complete the program will be entered into a drawing to receive one of ten $500 Oregon College Savings Plan Accounts. Visit the Oregon State Treasurer’s website for further information.

• Building 4J’S Future: Community Forum on Monday – There was a pretty small turnout for the first community forum last week and the district is hoping to have more for the North Region forum this Monday. It’s Oct. 1st from 7:00-8:30 PM at the NEHS cafeteria if you can make it.

• Highlights of the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll on Public Schools – In this Kappan article, William Bushaw (of PDK International) and Shane Lopez (of Gallup) present the results of the 44th annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll of American attitudes and beliefs about the public schools. See this attachment for some of the excerpts. It’s a mixed bag with some positive and some negative, but it’s certainly enlightening to know the public perception of schools.

• Typing lessons are transformed in middle schools – Here’s an interesting article about a new way of thinking when it comes to teaching keyboarding. I share this article as an example and a reminder about how we often take for granted how we teach students because that’s how we were taught. A Wisconsin school district has adopted a new instructional method, called the Herzog method, to teach sixth-grade students how to type. Rather than focusing on the “home keys” and drills, students will learn where all letters are on the keyboard and then practice by completing actual class assignments. Because most students already are familiar with the keyboard by middle school, the focus now is on teaching them to type faster.

Have a fab week, everyone!

Allan