November 17, 2014

By Allan 　

Be-the-Reason-Someone-Smiles

 

Howdy Everyone,

Twelve items of note this week:

• Thanksgiving Classroom Reminder – I was reminded last week when my daughter came home from school with a rather inappropriate 25 year old library book on The First Thanksgiving that I wanted to send out my annual reminder regarding how Thanksgiving is taught in classrooms. Keep in mind that student conceptions of Native Americans often come from classroom activities around the First Thanksgiving. The conception of Native Americans gained from such early exposure is often both inaccurate and potentially damaging. When planning activities, be aware that what most of us learned in school about the “Pilgrims” and “Squanto” and the “First Thanksgiving” is a mixture of both history and myth. Thanksgiving activities should avoid reinforcing historical myths and should avoid stereotypes (ie. NO warbonnets). It’s best to shift the focus away from the “First Thanksgiving” and instead focus on items children can be thankful for in their own lives and on their families’ celebrations of Thanksgiving. Some resources on what to avoid and what to teach can be found at Teaching Tolerance and Education World. Here is a good article with a Native American perspective on Thanksgiving. Also, the 4J Natives Program is a resource that is available for classroom presentations and can offer an accurate picture of Native American culture.

• 3-5 Being A Writer Teacher Leader Rep – Last call for a 3-5 Being a Writer rep. The Developmental Studies Center staff will be here in December to meet with Being a Writer (BAW) Teacher Leaders by region. This is chance to see Being A Writer taught by a master teacher and ask all the questions you might have. The North Region meeting will be Thursday, December 11th, 8:00-3:00. See the attached document for details and let me know if anyone is willing to be the 3-5 BAW Teacher Rep.

• Fire Drill, Monday at 1:30 – Weather dependent, we’ll plan to hold our November Fire Drill on Monday, November 17th at 1:30. If we’re rained out, we’ll try Tuesday morning at 9:10.

• Bi-Lingual/Bi-Cultural Office Assistant Posting – With Alicia no longer in our building, this has left quite a void for our Spanish speaking families and for staff in communicating with families, so I’ve scraped together what’s left our “Targeted” building funds to post for a Bi-Lingual/Bi-Cultural Office Assistant to be here 3.5 hours two days a week. The posting should go up this week and I have a lead on a few people who would be strong candidates, but if you know of anyone who you think would be good, be sure to encourage them to apply or let me know and I can certainly give them a call.

• Native American Storyteller Assembly, Dec. 3 – It’s not for a few more weeks, but Shelly has arranged for a Native American Storyteller Assembly on Wednesday, December 3rd. The storyteller has requested a separate primary and intermediate assemblies, so the K-2 assembly will be 8:30-9:00 and the 3-5 assembly will be 9:20-10:05. See the attached map and directions for details.

• Friday Glass Tiles Make-Up Day for Students & Staff – This Friday is the make-up day for any students and staff who have not had the opportunity to make a glass tile to be permanently installed in the new building. Students may go a morning or afternoon make-up session in Room 11. Session 1 will be from 9:00-11:00 and Session 2 will be from 12:00-2:00. Staff may also drop in during these times to make a tile, but there will be a staff only make-up time from 2:00-4:30. I’m not sure if folks have had a chance to see some of the finished products, but they’re turning our great!

• PTO Meeting, Tuesday at 6:00 – The November PTO meeting will be this Tuesday, 6:00-7:00 PM in the library if any staff are able to attend. We had a big turnout at the last meeting, which was a great show of support for the PTO’s work. Hope to see you there!

• Laptop Replacement Question – A couple people asked last week why we have to give up functioning older laptops in order to get the new ones, and the answer is it has to do with state law in how bond funds are used. This school bond was the first time that school districts had been able to use bond funds to purchase technology, but state law only allows for “replacement” which means we don’t get to keep the old ones. Although this is kind of frustrating, I’ll certainly take new laptops over dying old laptops anytime.

• December 1st PD Day – It’s three weeks out, but I wanted to let folks know the topics of the day. We’ll do a bit of business at first and then move into an equity related exercise involving actual incidents that have happened in 4J schools, followed by a technology integration discussion, sharing some information from the Apple event I attended two weeks ago, primarily looking at the SAMR model for examining technology integration developed by Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura.

• Request From Guest Teachers – HR meets once a month the the substitute teacher union, EAST, and EAST leadership asked HR to communicate the following to licensed staff regarding the best way to communicate sub plans to guest teachers:

Dear Building Administrators:

Every month I have the opportunity to meet with the leadership team from E.A.S.T., our licensed guest teacher union. At our recent meeting, they requested that we communicate with licensed staff about the best ways to electronically communicate lesson plans and sub notes so that our guest teachers are well prepared and most effective.

Could you please share with your staff that if they want to send plans electronically, the best way to do so would be to attach it to the absence request in AESOP? This will ensure that the teacher accepting the assignment has access to the plans. The other sure fire strategy would be to email them to someone in the school office, and share so that they can be printed and given to the Guest Teacher.

Some teachers are being very cleaver and emailing them to the Guest Teacher directly. Sometimes the timeline is so tight that the Guest Teacher doesn’t have the chance to check their district email and print the plans before arriving for the position.

I so appreciate any conversation or communication you can have about this request from E.A.S.T.

Let me know if you have any questions.

~ Karen

• Comprehension Formative Assessment – UO Study – Attached is a description of an opportunity to support the development of a formative assessment for comprehension through a partnership with UO College of Ed. In a nutshell, it is a study to develop solid measures that will support targeting comprehension instruction and likely be free to us once developed. It would involve about 40 students from 4j (or more if available), representative of the diversity of the school (gen ed classes), in two pull out 45 min assessments (one think aloud and one in a computer lab prior to Smarter Balanced). Compensation for the teachers involved is included. Let me know by the end of the week if you are interested in participating.

• 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 17 (M)
12:15-1:00, BEST EA Interviews (Office)
1:30-1:40, Fire Drill
2:30-5:00, Allan to Elementary Principal’s Meeting (Ed Center)

November 18 (T)
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting (Library)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Library)

November 19 (W)
12:00-4:00, Allan and RBT Cohort 1 & 2 Teachers to Research for Better Teaching Training (Ed Center)

November 20 (H)
2:00-4:00, Staff Room Unavailable – Robin Wellwood Using for Training
2:30-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Room 21)

November 21 (F)
Picture Retakes
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
9:00-11:00, Glass Tiles Student Make-Up Session 1 (Room 11)
12:00-2:00, Glass Tiles Student Make-Up Session 2 (Room 11)
10:55-12:30, November Birthday Lunches with the Principal (TBA)
2:00-4:00, Glass Tiles Session for Staff (Room 11)

November 24 (M)
Reading and Math Progress Monitoring 5
2:30-3:30, Site Council Meeting (Staff Room)
7:00-8:30, Allan to CCSS Information Night for Spanish-Speaking 4J Parents (Ed Center)

November 25 (T)
Regular Day

November 26 (W)
10:55-12:30, PRIDE Awards at Lunch (Cafeteria)
12:00-1:05, Classroom/Grade-Level Referral Free Parties

November 27 (H)
Thanksgiving Holiday – No School

November 28 (F)
Thanksgiving Holiday – No School

 

Winter looks like it’s come early. Stay warm this week!

Allan

This entry was written by Allan, posted on November 15, 2014 at 10:42 pm, filed under Announcements, Articles, Equity, Literacy, P.D., Technology. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.