https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=4009
Hi Everyone,
First off, I do have to say that spring break is at least one week too short, but I do hope you all had a rejuvenating break that will carry you though the last two month of the year (49 days according to my wife). My break was filled with canceled vacation plans, pinkeye, fevers and Alfred Hitchcock. My kids conveniently both got sick the Friday before the break (Josie with pinkeye and Grace with a fever), which cancelled Kim and my plans to to go Seattle. However, the kids did get better by Tuesday and we were able to go to the coast for a day and Kim and I were able to have one evening out without children, where I was able to drag Kim to a big screen showing of “Rear Window.” And if you’ll let me channel my inner video store clerk for a second, Hitchcock films are an incredibly different experience if you ever get a chance to see them on the big screen. Watching Rear Window in the theater is like staring directly into an adjoining apartment building and it’s such a different experience compared to watching it on TV. But I digress. Follow my film reviews on Facebook and RottenTomatoes to really see me geek out over movies.
Eighteen items of note this week:
• Wacky Wednesday! – Mis-Matched Clothes Day – Just a reminder that this Wednesday is a Wacky Wednesday and this month’s theme is Mis-Matched Clothes Day, so find your wildest ensemble and remind your students to join in on the fun.
• Formal Teacher Observations – Larry Soberman, the retired Twin Oaks principal, will be covering for me this Friday so I can conduct some formal observations. I’ll be contacting some teachers to set up times for this Friday, but teachers can also let me know if there’s a time you’d like me to come in. Larry will also cover for me on April 14th and 16th so I can do the same thing.
• Staffing Updates – For ELD, Carolyn will be staffed at 0.6 FTE, the same as this year. With the ELD schedule, we are looking at flip flopping her time between us and YG, having her start here and end her day there. This will actually net us more student contact time because we have an earlier start time than YG. I also received SPED staffing updates over the break, minus Life Skills EA times. I’ll email this information out to everyone later after I’m able to connect with individual SPED staff members first. SPED staff can call or email me if you’d like to know any sooner than Monday. So the allocations we’re still waiting for are Life Skills EA times, BEST allocations and TSS hours.
• Prep Time Update for 2015-2016 – Details on this will be worked on over the coming months, but downtown let principals know that the current plan for meeting the 90 minute weekly prep requirement for next year is most likely going to be done through additional PE and Music classes, which will equate to a third prep section for each teacher. This is different from what was shared with principals earlier, but the reason for this is 4Js attempt to make headway with the upcoming PE requirement for 2017, which is for 150 minutes of PE a week. More to come on this one since we’ll need to know 4Js plan in order to finalize a building master schedule.
• Leadership Plan Development Meeting & Writing Benchmarking Planning Meeting Dates – A reminder that I’ll be holding an optional meeting this Wednesday at 2:30 in the library to discuss the process for how we want to develop our leadership plan for 2015-2016. Schools with 250-449 students will be allocated 20 days to be divide among up to 7 teachers. The meeting to discuss how we do our writing benchmarking will be Wednesday, April 8th at 2:30 in the library. This date is different from what I said at the last Staff Meeting due to a conflict with a Design Team meeting that has since been scheduled. If you can’t make the meeting, feel free to email me or let me know your thoughts.
• Design Team Furniture Selection Updates and Input – The Design Team meet the Thursday before the break with Kay Mehas, who is taking over for Sara Green as the 4J administrator in charge of our project from this point forward, and we also met with Liza Lewellen, the PiVOT Interior Design person, to discuss furniture for the new school. Before getting to the questions we’d like feedback on, a few informational items:
• Uniformity of Classroom Furniture – We can select two styles of classroom student furniture, meaning older grades can select one style and younger grades can select another, though we would want to select a uniform color for all the furniture.
• Sample Furniture Coming – Sample student desks, chairs and small group tables should be delivered this week for staff to try out and give input on. Jenny’s class will also pilot the Steelcase Node desk/chair combo that older grades may select.
• Classroom Cabinetry – We’ll be getting real maple cabinetry installed in classrooms and not maple laminate, which will look much nicer.
• Classroom Video Monitor – And one thing that had never been mentioned earlier is that there is a video monitor installed in each classroom which can display information (i.e. Johnny is to ride the bus today.) or can be used to make video announcements.We discussed several topics regarding classroom and commons space furniture, but we did want to solicit feedback from staff on a few topics, so let me or your Design Team Reps know your thoughts on the following:
• Desk Type – For student desks, do we want double or single desks or something completely different (though we heard Holt hates their trapezoidal desks)?
• Desk Student Storage – Do we want student desks with storage (the cubby for binders and folders under most traditional desks) or just flat desks?
• Desk Size – What sizes do you want for student desks? This may be easier to answer once you see some samples, but, for example, if staff want single or double desks, we will have quite a few options when it comes to the width and depth of the tables.
• Furniture Color – What should the uniform color be for the student furniture?
• Small Group Table Type – For the classroom small group tables, what shape would you prefer? U-shaped? Kidney shaped? Another shape? It was noted that if older grades selected the Node desk/chair combos, those classrooms wouldn’t necessarily need a small group table, leaving more classroom space.
• Small Group Table Seating – For student seating at the small group tables, do we want regular student chairs or smaller stools that could be stacked or pushed under the table? We’ll have samples to look at of these as well. One idea was to have two types of stools. One style for the classrooms and maybe a “wiggle seat” style stool for the knuckle small group spaces at the end of each classroom pod area. This way teachers could swap out a more traditional stool for a wiggle seat style one on an as needed basis for certain students and situations.
• Teacher Desk and/or Teaching Station – Do teachers want both a teacher desk and a teaching stations (for your doc cam and laptop)? The sentiment of the Design Team reps was less furniture is better and to stick with just the teacher desk and use it as the teaching station.
• Teacher Desk Type – For the teacher desks, we asked that they all be sit/stand desks, so staff can easily raise or lower their desks to be a sitting or standing desk. The question would be if we want a similar set up to the Holt/Chavez teacher desks, which we’ve heard most all teachers there like? They are a two piece desk, where one piece is a rectangular shape and the other is kind of a tongue shaped piece. The two can be made into an L-shape or straight or the second piece can be not used altogether. Does that style of sit/stand desk sound good or are there other ideas folks have?
• Commons Area Furniture – What types of furniture do we want in the commons area? The Design Team reps did not foresee staff leading small groups in this area, but thought teachers would use this space how most teachers currently use the hallways; for students collaborating in small groups or individually on projects. The Design Team was thinking we’d want to have furniture to facilitate those types of activities and avoid the U shaped or kidney shaped tables which are more for suited for adult directed activities. Does that sound like the right direction? Seating for this area would also be a question. Chairs? Stools? Others?
• Mobile Classroom Storage – The last question is what types of mobile storage do we want in the classrooms? How much should be for books and how much should be for other materials? And how deep of storage should the storage be? Deep enough for large student textbooks, plastic crates, or large enough for something larger? Related to this, and which would help mitigate our concerns with the floor to ceiling glass, is Kay gave us the option to selecting a piece of furniture (bookshelf, cabinet, etc.) which could uniformly be stored in front of the glass by the door to each classroom. We really wished we’d have had Kay as part of the team earlier, because she really did share our concerns with the amount of glass and she said she would support us in uniformly putting a designated piece of furniture in front of the glass.To help people answer some of these questions, attached is a map of a typical classroom with desks and chair placeholder graphics included to give people an idea of who much space we have in classrooms for additional furniture. In terms of square footage, the new classrooms are roughly the same size as our current classrooms, slightly larger than some and slightly smaller than others. Also in the attachment is a detail of the commons area between classrooms, which we’d asked to be much smaller than the ones at Chavez and Holt, so you can get the idea that the space can’t really hold too much furniture.
And for staff who do not work in general education classrooms (Title 1, SPED, ELD, Kitchen, Office, etc.), separate meetings will be held for those areas since your furniture needs will be different.
• Construction Updates – Attached are the minutes from the last two Construction Progress Meetings (March 18 and March 25) and here are the highlights:
• Playground Updates – Nothing will be changing with our current playground. I mentioned last week that Todd Construction wanted to take over part of our playground to store more dirt, but the amount of space and playground equipment they would have needed would have been too much to us to lose and they would not be able to move any of our existing equipment to the grassy tag area. I gave an adamant “NO” to their plans. However, the trade off is they’ll need to use the area in from of the new school where staff were potentially going to be able to park once we move in next spring.
• Mock Up – Polished Color – There is a new color option to accent the polished concrete on the mock-up in the old east parking lot. However, it’s nearly black and really does not look that good, which means none of the color choices we’ve seen look all that good. Others can feel free to weigh in, but right now I’m leaning toward using none of the color accents and stick with grey, though I do worry that would look boring and too institutional. Still, maybe the floor should remain neutral and the colors can be on the walls.
• Cell Phone Reception – The last round of “new” schools (they’re actually all 10 years or older now) all have terrible cell phone reception because of the metal roofs. There’s apparently new technology that can mitigate this, which our project manager, Ryan Spain, is looking into. I told him this should be a very high priority and that it’s something I think we need for safety and work efficiency reasons, and not just convince. This may be a huge expense and was not in the original plan, but I’m pushing for this to be included in the new school.
• Deliveries to the New Building – One issue that has been worked out is how deliveries will be made to the new building after the spring break move next year, particularly kitchen deliveries along the west side of the building. The solution suggested is for them to use the fire lane around the back of the building, which should work.
• Construction Site Tours & Media Opportunities – A number of classes have gotten a chance to tour the construction, but I’m working now with Kerry Delf to get some media coverage of our new school going up and we’d like to time it with a class tour of the construction site. To tour the site just let me know a day or two ahead of time so I can clear it with David Haggard, the site superintendent, but if you can let me know several days or a week in advance, then we might be able to get some news coverage for your class tour!
• April PBIS Focus: Encouragement – The April PBIS monthly focus is Encouragement. The PBIS team created a PBIS/CFK Cheat Sheet that matches our monthly themes with corresponding Caring for Kids class meeting lessons. This is an easy way to tie the two activities together.
• Title 1 Newsletter – Here is the latest district level 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 there is a nice infographic titled “7 Things to Remember About Feedback” and an excellent 4 minute video from Jay Smooth titled “Moving the Race Conversation Forward.”
• PDUs from Journeys Training – Linked here is a PDU Certificate for teachers who attended the Journeys trainings on March 13th. And FYI, you don’t actually need to have a paper copy of this form. You just need to keep track of your training name and it’s PDU hours on your Log of Professional Development Activities form, which can be found on the 4J HR Forms webpage.
• Job EXPO Information – FAQs – Since Howard is luckily in a place where we’re growing and adding licensed teaching positions next year (full-time 1st grade classroom and Title 1/ESC and part-time 5th grade facilitating and Kindergarten facilitating), I thought people might be interested to know the details on this year’s Job EXPO which will most likely fill these vacancies.
• Job EXPO Openings & Process – Vacancies included on building staffing plans will generate openings for Round 1 of the EXPO. HR will post all increments of FTE at the EXPO (per agreement with EEA). Any new vacancies created by hires from the Round 1 of the EXPO will go to a 2nd and then 3rd Round. EXPO dates will be Thursday, April 9, Tuesday, April 14 and Tuesday, April 21, all from 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
• Temp Employees – Recently EEA and HR met to discuss allowing Temporary Employees access to the first round of the EXPO. The two groups agreed that Temporary Employees could participate in all three rounds with the understanding that Contract employees are guaranteed an interview (temps are not guaranteed an interview) and Contract employees have priority over temporaries in most situations (i.e. displaced teachers with job rights).And feel free to let your colleagues around 4J know about our openings if you think they’d be interested and a good match for our school!
• NAACP Family and Youth Conference! April 11th – Please take note that the 8th annual NAACP Family and Youth Conference will be held Saturday, April 11th at the Downtown LCC meeting and learning center from 10-to 4pm. This free event is meant to assist parents and youth navigate the education and community resources available for student success. There will be two parent workshops and two youth workshops, free lunch and a guided tour of local African American historic sites, including the first African American Church in Eugene.
• District Admin Update – HR announced that Dr. J. Andrew Dey, Ed. D. has accepted the position of Principal at South Eugene High School beginning July 1, 2015. For the past five years Andy has served as Director of K-12 Curriculum and Professional Development at the The International School Nido de Aguilas in Santiago, Chile, but has roots here in Eugene. He taught science at Roosevelt Middle School (3 years) before becoming an assistant principal at Thurston High School (3 years). Andy then served as principal at Agnes Stewart Middle School (2 years).
• How some teachers use tech to teach new standards – The Common Core State Standards call for some technology use, but many experts say educators also should integrate technology judiciously when it deepens lessons or heightens student engagement. This article explores technology’s compatibility with language arts and math standards and highlights its use in some New York City fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms.
• Tips to help plan high-tech lessons – The most challenging part of technology integration is envisioning goals for the use of the technology, according to Tom Daccord, director of EdTechTeacher, a professional learning organization. In this commentary, he suggests several ways that educators can plan a lesson with technology, including using the online voice recorder Vocaroo for vocabulary lessons.
• Convergences of Practices between CCSS/NGSS in support of Language Development (Venn Diagram) – Here is a a venn diagram that’s worth checking out which compares the high leverage practices that support Math/ELA/NGSS and language development.
• The Common Core: great if you’re affluent – And as a counterpoint to the above item, Carol Burris, a principal in New York state, writes in a letter in The Hechinger Report to Jayne Ellspermann, a principal in Florida, that the problems she sees with the Common Core go beyond mechanical issues of implementation to the standards themselves. If every child in America grew up in a financially secure home with access to enriching activities and an excellent pre-school, the standards would be great. Since this is not the case, early childhood researchers are likely correct, that the long-term, negative effects of the Common Core for many children will be enormous.
• 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:
March 30 (M)
9:00-11030, Allan to Custody Hearing (Lane County Courthouse)
2:30-3:30, Allan to Evaluation & Planning Meeting (Room 9)
2:30-5:00, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)March 31 (T)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Staff Room)April 1 (W)
April Fool’s Day
Wacky Wednesday! – Mis-matched Clothes Day
9:00-11:00, Allan to Construction Progress Meeting (Construction Trailer)
2:30-3:30, Leadership Planning Development Meeting (Library)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)April 2 (H)
2:30-4:00, Design Team Meeting (Library)
3:30-5:00, Allan to North Region Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)April 3 (F)
Allan Conducting Formal Observations – Larry Soberman CoveringApril 6 (M)
2:00-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)April 7 (T)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Room 7)
4:00-5:00, Allan to Full-Day Kindergarten Meeting (Ed Center)April 8 (W)
9:30-11:00, Allan to Construction Progress Meeting (Construction Trailer)
2:30-3:30, Writing Benchmark Scoring Meeting (Library)April 9 (H)
10:00-11:00, Kindergarten Orientation Meeting (Library)
2:30-4:00, Design Team Meeting (Library)
4:00-7:00, Allan to Job EXPO (Ed Center)April 10 (F)
Regular Day
Have a great week back, everyone!
Allan
And if you missed it on the Howard Facebook Page, here’s a clip via Mellissa of the staff Human Hungry Hungry Hippos from our Tail Feather Reward Assembly right before the break.