October 29, 2012

By Allan  

Hello All,

I hope everyone got a chance to rest up this weekend for the busy week of conferences and Halloween that’s ahead. On a different note, I’d like to recognize and thank staff for the amazing job you all do working together to support some of our most challenging students. It’s wonderful to see staff pulling together to help support our tip-of-the-triangle students in a way that helps not just those particular student but to improve the overall learning environment for everyone involved. In my view, Howard staff work together in this area, supporting students and each other, better than any other school I’ve worked at. Well done, everyone!

Thirteen items of note for this week:

• TSS Staffing Change – As you have already seen from David’s email, our rock star TSS has been offered and accepted a grant position downtown for the remainder of the school year. Scott Ehret was unsure when David will begin his new position, but told me a posting for David’s replacement will be posted this week. I’ll keep staff updated on the interview and hiring process once I get more information. David will certainly leave some VERY big shoes to fill.

• Parent/Teacher Conferences – Three reminders for Parent/Teacher Conferences this week:

• Free & Reduced Meals Applications – I wanted to reiterated what Carolyn sent out in an email last week regarding reminding families about renewing and resubmitting the free & reduced meals applications if they have not done so already. Due to NCLB laws, we cannot know which students are and are not currently enrolled in the program, so it would be very helpful if teachers can remind all families about renewing and/or signing up, which will help our school and district receive more Title 1 funds in the future. Applications are available outside the office if you want to have some on hand during conferences.

• Parent/Student/Teacher Compacts – To reiterate Melissa’s email, if you have not done so already, be sure to complete your Parent/Student/Teacher Compacts for all students. These are available in the office. Each student must have a completed compact kept on file in the Title room.

• TAG Plans – For teachers with TAG identified students, conferences are the best time to review TAG plans with families and have them sign off of on this year’s plan. Please see Lee or myself if you have any questions regarding TAG plans.

• Collaborative Practice Time Begins Soon – In case you missed it in the Site Council minutes, our collaborative practice time will be staying the same as originally set, Nov. 8 – Jan. 30. As discussed at our last staff meeting, please remember the following:

1.) Each grade level team should develop a topic, project or focus area that is instructionally focused. For example, 1st grade is looking at helping students show growth in literacy skills by creating literacy stations based on CCSS, along with creating electronic portfolios that they will attached to TalentEd. See the district provided collaborative practice overview sheet for other potential ideas on how to use this time.

2.) Teams are required to collaborate 4 of the 9 weeks, meeting at minimum of two days per week during the four weeks of collaboration. Teams are welcome to meet more often than the minimum and teams will also have flexibility in scheduling their required eight collaborative dates throughout the nine week period.

3.) Prior to beginning your collaborative time, be sure to let me know what your team’s focus and also let me know the dates and times of your meetings. I will likely not be at all of your meetings, but would like to attend some.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

• Music Specialist Change – Though our schedule will stay the same, one change will be that we will have a new music specialist, two actually. Marty van Wormer and Jeanette Engel will be job sharing the position. At their last school they had a MWF and TH schedule. I will be meeting with them soon to work out how their job share will look at Howard, but our planned specialist schedule will stay the same regardless.

• PE/Music Schedule – Attached is the PE/Music schedule staff created for our nine weeks of PE and music. A/B days are now indicated on the the Howard Google calendar. If you’d prefer to have the days listed all on one document, that can be found here.

• Report Card Send Home Date, 2/8 – Some of your colleagues have already been talking about report cards and which date we should send them home. With only three weeks of class in January before the grading day on 1/25 and a short four day week that follows, I propose we send report cards home two weeks after the grading day on Friday, February 8th. I’ve spoken with a few teachers who felt this was a better date than sending them home earlier on 1/31, so I’ll put Feb. 8th on the calendar as the official report card send-home date unless I hear from teachers who feel otherwise.

• “Taking it Up” Opportunity – There will be an opportunity coming soon for any staff members interested in attending “Taking it Up” who have not already attended. The two-day seminar will be offered twice this year; November 29th & 30th and February 21st & 22nd. Downtown is paying all of the registration fees and I will be paying for substitutes if any of you would like to attend this excellent two-day experience. Two graduate credits will also be available. For those not familiar with “Taking it Up”, it is a provocative seminar focused on helping educators, school board leaders, and community members deepen their understanding of the institutionalized racist barriers that hinder elimination of Oregon’s racial achievement gap. This focus on working from the inside out will challenge participants to step out of their comfort zone and create new entry points for becoming aware of, understanding, and interrupting inequitable policies and practices in our schools. Please let me know by Nov, 9th if you would like to attend this high quality and challenging workshop.

• Visiting Administrator from China & Halloween Parade – You may have noticed on the calendar there will be a visiting school administrator from China here on Wednesday. Mr. Wang Juncai will be visiting several schools on Wednesday and the superintendent’s officee thought it might be fun for him to see our Halloween Parade. He’ll arrive at Howard at 11:45, so I wanted to let staff know that I will likely be taking him around the building prior to the parade.

• Eugene Symphony Opportunity – The Orchestra Sings – As part of Link Up, a national program of the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, the Eugene Symphony will be offering a K-5 elementary youth concert (Tuesday, November 13th: 10:15 am and 12:30 pm; Wednesday, November 14th: 10:15 am) that guides students through an interactive exploration of melody in music, singing along with the Eugene Symphony on tunes such as “Ode to Joy” and “Simple Gifts”. Registered classroom teachers will receive curriculum materials created by Carnegie Hall to assist in preparing students for the concert. There is a per student fee to attend, but when I spoke with the event rep, they said classes at Howard should qualify for a scholarship and we should also qualify for free transportation. If you are interested in attending, register by calling (541) 687-9487 ext. 116.

• Youth Human Rights Award Nomination – One way to be a social justice leader is to make sure social justice work is recognized as a big deal! See the attached flyer and nomination form regarding the Eugene Equity and Human Rights Commission selection of the 2012 International Human Right Award for Youth If you know of any students who have engaged in human rights work in the classroom and/or outside in the community, please take a look at the attached flyer and nomination form. Nominations are due by 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, November 13.

• Report: Low-Income, High-Ability Students Need More Support – We often focus our time and effort on lower performing students, so this report is a good reminder of the importance to nurture talented students who come from low-income and minority populations.

• 9 Creative Storytelling Tools That Will Make You Wish You Were A Student Again – This article lists nine available apps intended to enhance storytelling by giving students digital tools they need to become writers, artists and moviemakers. Among them are My StoryMaker, which allows students to develop characters and determine how they interact, and ZooBurst, in which students create virtual 3D pop-up books by writing scripts, recording videos and voice-overs that they combine with their own artwork or free images from the site. They can then watch their work, animated, on screen or even projected into the room using an augmented reality QR code.

• Schedule of Events for the Week – Here are the events of note for the week:

Oct. 29 (M)
10:15-11-15, 2nd Grade Firefighter Visits
11:00-12:30, Birthday Lunch with Mr. Chinn, Room 2

Oct. 30 (T)
11:55-12:55, Formal Observation Pre-Conference
3:00-3:30, Parent Laptop Training
3:30-8:00, Parent/Teacher Conferences (PTO Provided Dinner)

Oct. 31 (W)
10:15-10:45, Kindergarten Halloween Parade
11:45-1:00 Chinese Administrator, Mr. Wang Juncai, Visit
1:30-2:30 Teacher Performance Standards Overview Meeting
3:00-5:00, Allan to Superintendent’s Cabinet Meeting

Nov. 1 (H)
8:00-8:00, Parent/Teacher Conferences (PTO Provided Dinner)
1:30-2:30, Allan to Principal Mentor Meeting
2:45-3:45, Teacher Performance Standards Overview Meeting
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting with Greg Darnieder, Sr. Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

Nov. 2 (F)
No School – Teacher Comp Day

Happy Halloween!

Allan