September 8, 2014

By Allan 　

 

Hi Everyone,

We survived our first week back and the school year seems to be off on a great start thanks to everyone’s hard work!

Fifteen items of note this week:

• Skillful Teacher (Cohort 3) Howard Rep – 4J is starting a third Skillful Teacher cohort and is reserving a spot for each school to send a rep. Allison, Erin and Lupe have been in the previous cohorts and can let you know their experience with it, but the first session for Cohort 3 will be Friday, September 26th. Attached is a calendar of Skillful Teacher Trainings for the year. There is a possibility of multiple teachers from our school being able to attend if other schools do not fill their spots. If you are interested in being part of Cohort 3, let me know by the end of the week.

• Title 1 EA Hire – Robin and I conducted interviews last Friday and have hired Gina Carter for our 3.5 hour Title 1 EA position. Gina has been a frequent sub in the building and will be a terrific addition to our staff. HR worked quickly for us on her hire, so Gina will be able to start this Monday! Please welcome Gina to our tribe!

• School Design Updates – Not too much to update except that the architectural plans are close to being ready to go out to bid and I found out about some of the playground equipment we’ll have for the new playground, which look pretty good. The new trend in playground equipment has moved away from raised structures, like what we have and what’s at Holt and Chavez, but we’ll have two different structures for kids to climb, balance and slide on, one for the older kids and one for the younger kids. Follow the links above if you’d like to check them out. The playground is also set to have two sets of swings, a stand alone slide besides the ones on the structures, two different seating areas for kids to hang out (one by the hardplay area and one by the younger students play area) and a covered half-court basketball area.

• Safety Week, Sept. 29 – Oct. 2 – I’d like to again hold a Safety Week again this year and schedule it for the end of this month so we can practice all of the most common safety drills (and also take care of the September and October fire drill requirements all in the same week). This is a good way to bring awareness to staff, students and families about the various safety procedures right at the start of the year. The schedule for Safety Week will be:

• Monday, Sept. 29– Fire Drill, 9:30
• Tuesday, Sept. 30– Room Clear, time decided by teachers
• Wednesday, Oct. 1 – Lock Down (Code Blue and Code Red), 9:00
• Thursday, Oct. 2– Earthquake/Fire Drill, 8:15

It’s not for another three weeks, but I wanted to let staff know now to help with planning. All of these drills are listed in the “Emergency Procedures Manual” which is the rainbow tabbed notebook that should be hanging in every classroom. I won’t be making any announcement before the drills, so it’s okay for staff to prep your students before these drills take place. For the Lock Down drill, please review the Code Blue and Code Red procedures. These steps are more detailed about our lockdown procedure than the more general ones in the Emergency Procedures Manual. Please let me know if you do not have a manual or if you have any questions.

• Principal Visits to Classrooms – If you haven’t already set up a time for me to come read to your class, let me know a good 15-20 minute block for me to come in this week or next. I’ll read a favorite story to your class and chat with the kids a bit. Thank you!

• Student Howard Roadrunner Shirts – Now that new students registrations have settled some, we can now start distributing Howard Roadrunner shirts to new kiddos. I’ll put copies of an updated t-shirt flyer in the mailroom once I get a translated version back from Alicia, so look for this in the mailroom soon. Go, Roadrunners!

• News Crew Starts Monday – I had a couple 4th graders trained up at the end of last year so we could start News Crew right off the bat this year, which means we’ll be starting morning announcements this Monday!

• District Policy and Howard Handbook Acknowledgement Due 9/26 – Attached is the District Back-to-School Memo (website) and the Howard Staff Handbook, which all staff must review and then sign & return the acknowledgement forms (District form and Howard form) to Lori by Friday, September 26th.

• Fresh Fruit & Veggies Start Date – I haven’t gotten the final word, but the unofficial word is that the Fresh Fruit and Veggies Program will likely start next week on Monday. Stay tuned!

• Title 1 Newsletter – If you’d like to know what’s happening in Title 1 from the district perspective, here is the September Title 1 Newsletter that went out to all Title 1 Coordinators and principals. This month’s issue is mostly a lot of coordinator business, but here it is if you’re curious.

• Supporting ELL Students Under New Standards (Free Online Course) – This eight-week online course is designed to help teachers support English Language Learners in meeting new, rigorous standards. Specifically, the course will focus on a key practice within both the Common Core State Standards and new English Language Proficiency Standards: constructing claims supported by evidence. Endorsed by the Oregon Department of Education for Oregon K-12 teachers, the content is also open to teachers outside of Oregon.

• Oct 10 Statewide Inservice & Professional Learning Opportunities – This is a non-paid day, so staff are under no obligation to work or attend any of these trainings, but if you are interested in knowing what is being offered this day, attached is the 2014 Oregon Inservice Bulletin and also a flyer from Educational Explorations, which had paid classes offering credit through PSU.

• Free Environmental Education Opportunities – The Walama Restoration Project (WRP), a local non-profit organization dedicated to community-based environmental education and habitat restoration would like to offer environmental education opportunities to classrooms. Since 2002 WRP has engaged over 10,000 students in the Southern Willamette Valley in experiential education programs. Over the past ten years, WRP has been developing and refining an education program titled From Seed to Habitat (FSH) to engage youth in the reclamation of highly imperiled plant communities. FSH is a step-by-step native plant propagation program that guides youth through the process of the cleaning of native seeds to the planting, monitoring, and maintenance of a functional prairie ecosystem. Lessons inserted throughout FSH cover state educational standards in math, geography, history, and especially life science. WRP is currently seeking to expand the FSH program and seeks to engage youth from Howard Elementary into the program. Teachers interested in getting involved or knowing more can contact Yotokko Kilpatric at WRP by phone at (541) 914-6521 or by email at yotokko@walamarestoration.org for more information.

• Distinguished Educators Committee Seeks New Applicants – I’m not sure you teachers got this email too, but the Oregon Chalkboard Project is seeking outstanding teachers to join their Distinguished Educators Council (DEC). The DEC is currently comprised of seven teachers from a variety of regions, grade levels, and content areas. The mission of the council is to help Oregon become a great place to teach by providing an independent platform for educator voices on reform efforts and implementation. If you’re interested, see the job application and the full job announcement. The deadline for the application is Tuesday, September 16, 2014.

• Schedule of Events for the Week – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:

September 8 (M)
Writing Samples Window Opens
Fall Math Benchmark Testing
Fall Benchmark Testing Continues
12:50, Allan Reading to Class
1:45-2:30, Allan to BEST Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

September 9 (T)
Fall Math Benchmark Testing
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting (Library)

September 10 (W)
8:40, Allan Reading to Class
9:00, Allan Meeting with Kim Ketterer
2:30, Optional SMART Goals Committee Meeting (Library)
4:30, Allan to United Way Meeting (Ed Center)

September 11 (H)
Data Team Meetings (See Robin’s Email to times)
8:40-9:35, Allan Teaching First Grade for Data Meeting

September 12 (F)
1:55, Beep, Beep Drawing (Send your buckets down!)

September 15 (M)
Workshop Groups Begin

September 16 (T)
8:15-11:30, Allan to CICO Training (Lane ESD)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Room 1)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Library)

September 17 (W)
Cookie Dough Fundraiser Begins

September 18 (H)
Regular Day

September 19 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting (Ed Center)
1:55, Beep, Beep Drawing (Send your buckets down!)

 

Get ready for our first full week of the year! Make it a good one!

Allan

This entry was written by Allan, posted on September 6, 2014 at 9:49 pm, filed under Announcements, Equity, P.D.. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.