Allan's Announcements

By Allan 　https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=3593

Hello Howard Staff,

I hope you all enjoyed your extra hour of sleep Sunday morning.

Eleven items of note this week:

• Construction Updates – Last Tuesday the district received bids within the budget for the project. That means the items listed as alternates should all be in the project and that we might also get a slide from the second floor down to the reading nook area (barring anything getting out of control). In track related news, a gate is going to be put in by the bark path leading to track. This is supposed to happen sometime this week. The fencing will remain in place for now, but later in the spring, after rainy and muddy weather is over, we’ll take down the fence parallel to the track, west of the bark path.

• Safe Routes to School Classroom Surveys – Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is hoping teachers will be able to complete classroom surveys of how students get to school. The survey tallies are to be done in the classroom on a Tues/Wed/Thur sometime before Nov. 21st. Teachers should write their names onto the tally sheet because you will be entered into a district-wide drawing for prizes (an iPod nano, coffee cards, movie gift cards, and more). There will also be a student survey that will be in teacher mailboxes, which should be sent home this week. As an incentive for students, there is a school raffle prize of a new bike helmet for students who return the survey. If teachers can keep track of who returned surveys on a class list, that would be helpful. All completed survey materials should be returned in to the office by Nov. 24th.

• Tardies & Attendance – This came up at conferences last week when one parent asked why one of their children had been marked down as tardy frequently and the other had not, saying they are both dropped off each morning during morning announcements (which means they are both tardy). Please remember that Lori will not give out any tardy slips or begin recording tardies in Synergy until after 8:00, so for any student arriving in the building before then, teachers will need to mark them down as tardy. And as a reminder about our staff agreement for tardies, students are considered tardy if they are not inside the classroom before the 7:55 bell rings.

• Kangaroo Math Competition – The math department of the University of Oregon is hosting an international math competition for elementary and middle school students. It will be at 5:00PM on March 19th on the UO campus. The registration deadline is December 15. See the flyer for details. This competition takes place in many different countries. And all participants receive t-shirts, gifts, etc. Feel free to pass this information along to any kids who might be interested.

• Common Core ELA in kid friendly Language – Here is a link to an ELA standards poster of the new ELA CCSS Standards in very kid friendly terms.

• Silverware vs Plastic Sporks–And the Winner Is? – Children have a challenging time using the current disposable plastic sporks. The reusable plastic spoons and forks used in some of the schools get often times thrown away, since they get confused with disposable plastic flatware. Plastic is not environmentally friendly and breaks easier, thus adding to replacement costs and more plastic waste landfills. 4J Nutrition Services has been sourcing good quality, cost effective stainless steel flatware (forks and spoons), which is going to replace their plastic counterparts school-by-school over the course of the 2014-15 school year. If you’re interested, here a link to the October Nutrition Services Newsletter which has this and other food service related news.

• Title 1 Newsletter – If you’d like to know what’s happening in Title 1 from the district level, here is the latest Title 1 Newsletter that went out to all Title 1 Coordinators and principals. This month’s issue is again mostly coordinator specific information and tasks, but it does include a good video of how one teacher uses pre-reading strategies to “hook” her students.

• Linda Darling Hammond on Equity and Literacy in the 21st Century – This is an excellent article on equity in schools. Linda Darling Hammond from Stanford is one of the giants of multicultural education. She raises some very important points about factors that are out of our control (high concentrations of poverty) and some factors that we can control (Title funds used effectively and meaningful integration of technology).

 

 

• From Google to gaming: What ed-tech advocates are talking about – The rise of Google and the staying power of the iPad are just two of the biggest education-technology conversations occurring today, according to observations from the Fall CUE 2014 Conference. This article also asserts that educators are focused on gaming, reaching students outside of the classroom and how technology can benefit students.

• “Forgiveness, the Triumph of the Human Spirit”, a lecture by Auschwitz survivor Eva Kor – PeaceJam Northwest and the Division of Student Life at the University of Oregon, is hosting Eva Kor for a lecture where she will discuss her journey from Auschwitz and Joseph Mengle to forgiveness on November 8th at 6:30 at Columbia Hall. See the flyer and website for details.

• Free Half-Hour Massage – I got an email last week from a local Massage Therapist working for Dr. Jerry Evan. They are looking to expand their reach in the community want to recognize that education can be both rewarding and challenging, especially on the body, so they are offering staff a free Chiropractic Consultation with Dr. Evan’s, as well as a Free Half Hour Massage with one of their massage therapists. I’m sure they’re hoping to generate some more business for themselves out of this, but I thought since there’s a free massage involved, staff might be interested. If you are interested, there is a sign-up sheet in the mailroom which I will fax it back to them at the end of the week and they will contact you to set up an appointment.

• 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:

November 3 (M)
1:30-2:30, Robin and Allan to Title 1 Coordinator and Principal’s Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Elementary Principal’s Meeting (Ed Center)

November 4 (T)
Allison and Allan to Learning About Learning Network Meeting (Edison)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Room 7)

November 5 (W)
Wacky Wednesday-Sports/Team Day
Allan to Apple Event in Salem (Charlie Jett to substitute – Tell Charlie or Lori if your class deserves the Golden Beep, Beep!)

November 6 (H)
Allan to Apple Event in Salem (Charlie Jett to substitute)

November 7 (F)
9:00, October Book Winners
Regular Day

November 10 (M)
Reading and Math Progress Monitoring 4

November 11 (T)
Veterans Day – No School

November 12 (W)
2:30-4:30, Allan to Facilities Meeting (Facilities)

November 13 (H)
SPEEDSTACKS Stack-Up Days at PE

November 14 (F)
SPEEDSTACKS Stack-Up Days at PE

Have a great week!

Allan