September 12, 2016

By Allan  

thank-you

 

Hello Awesome Howard Staff,

Last week was the absolute busiest first week of school I have ever experienced! I know it was an exhausting week for everyone, but I have to really commend staff for pulling off what was an incredibly successful grand opening of our new building. As we expected, there were bumps and tweaks made over the week to our various systems, but we have a rockin’ staff who rolled with with the craziness and made it a great week for kids!

Twenty-one items of note for this week:

• Dismissal Notes – Thank you, everyone, for coming out at dismissal. We’ll start our Pause Parking Pick-Up Line on Monday, so before taking students out front, classroom teachers should ask students who is being picked-up in the pause parking area, who is a bus rider, and who is waiting by their teacher. This way kids will know exactly where to go when teachers take them out at dismissal. If your students don’t know if their ride is parking or using pause parking, keep them with in your designated classroom area and not the pause parking line (but keep an eye out at the row of cars pause parking)

• Staffing Updates – CLC 1:1 EA Bryon Dudley unexpectedly took a job in Japan, so SSD is posting for his position and we will have a sub until his position is filled. SSD is also still hiring for a Life Skills EA, but they have hired a Life Skills 1:1 EA, Jacquelyn Ivankovic, who should be starting Wednesday this week. Please welcome Jacquelyn to the Howard Team!

In other staffing news, there’s no official update on Howard receiving additional staffing to address our over enrollment, but we’re more than 50 students over our projection, so we’re definitely on district leadership’s radar.

• Enrollment Updates – Howard is now the fourth largest school in Eugene at 460 students, not including Life Skills or the preschool. As of Friday, our breakdown by grade level is KG (77), 1st (85), 2nd (69), 3rd (84), 4th (72), and 5th (73). Friday was also the first day we didn’t have any new registrations, so hopefully things will begin to settle down in terms of new enrollments.

• Investigations Workbook Collection Monday – I’ve heard from several grade levels that they had already taken apart their 2008 Investigations workbooks and broken them up into units. Maddy said we can keep those books and NW Textbooks does not want them back, but we can also keep the new books that were delivered last week. I’ll check in with classroom teachers on Monday about your plan for math workbooks, or teachers send me an email telling me if you want the new workbooks or not and also if you need any boxes to pack up the older workbooks.

• Howard Only First Aid Class – We have a high number of students with serious medical conditions this year and Nurse Robin approached me with the idea of holding an optional First Aid class on a Wednesday after school one day for staff who want to renew or get their First Aid card. I’m going to try to get SSD to pay for the training, so the class would be free for staff, but let me know if you are interested and if I get enough responses I’ll set up the training with Robin.

• No Media/Website Student List – Not linked here on my blog, but attached to my email is a list of students who are not allowed to be on school websites or have their picture taken by the news media. Teachers have access in TeacherVUE to look this up, but I thought I’d save you some time since we’re kind of a popular destination for the news media lately.

• Tardies Definition – To make sure everyone is on the same page for when to mark a student as tardy, here’s the agreement staff made a couple years ago. Any student not inside the classroom before the 7:55 bell rings is considered tardy. Lori will begin giving out tardy passes and recording tardies in Synergy after 8:00. For any students in the building before then who are not yet in class, teachers need to record that as tardy in Synergy.

• Cookie Dough Fundraiser Kick-Off Assembly 9/21 – Ready for the first assembly in our new building? Not this week, but next week on Wednesday, September 21st will be our Cookie Dough Fundraiser Kick-Off Assembly. To work around specialist and recess times, the grade 3-5 assembly will be 8:10-8:35 in the gym, and the K-2 will be from 8:45-9:10. See the linked assembly map for details. And remember there is a good Caring School Community Class Meeting lesson on assembly behavior you can use in conjunction with your review Howard’s PBIS assembly expectations with students.

• Updated Master Schedule – Linked here is an updated 2016-2017 Master Schedule (PDF and XLS), which has the most up-to-date EA and specialist times (the master schedule itself is unchanged). I still haven’t had a chance to reformat the master schedule tab, but Siera did break apart the PE-Music schedule, so it’s more clear which days classes have Music and PE.

• Building Leadership Plan – We’ll talk about this more at our next Staff Meeting, but since we’ve passed the 450 enrollment mark, that bumps us up into the next leadership days category of getting 22 teacher release days (sub days) not to exceed 7 teachers, compared to our previous number with 20 teacher release days not to exceed 7 teachers. So it’s the same number of people, but with a couple more days.

• New Building Updates – Here are not quite as many items of note regarding the new building:

• Phone Move/Longer Cord Requests Due Wednesday – If you want a longer cord for your phone or your phone moved to a different location, the deadline to submit your request is Wednesday morning. Write your request on the paper posted in the Staff Room. I will email that list to the phone people Wednesday morning.

• Third Copier for Upstairs Workroom – A third copier was ordered for our upstairs workroom, but we don’t have a firm date for when it will arrive. It was ordered two weeks ago and Pacific Office Automation said it generally takes two weeks for delivery, so hopefully it’ll be here later this week.

• Voice Amplification Help – I’m hoping to get Misty out here to give staff a formal training on these either at our next staff meeting or our October PD day, but in the meantime, let me know if you’d like me to come help you get your lanyard microphone and sound system up and going. If you haven’t tried it, you’re really missing out. It’s an absolute teaching game changer!

• Playground Numbers – Last week they fixed our playground numbers before I had a chance to tell the project manager to space them further apart, so my new request to him is to just continue the count up to 100, which will give us plenty more spots to better space lines apart. I was also thinking I’d have them paint the alphabet on the blacktop along the edge of the bark chip area to give us more options. Let me know if any of you think that’s a terrible idea or have another suggestion.

• Playground Sky Runner/Spinning Wheel of Death – We closed the Spinning Wheel of Death out on the playground (actually called the Sky Runner) because it was installed too high. To fix this, our project manager is having more bark chips added to raise the ground level so it’s even with the blacktop surface.

• Sidewalk to Adaptive Playground Equipment – Quite a few people noticed last week that our adaptive playground equipment was not easily accessible to students in wheelchairs, but there is a sidewalk going in this weekend that will ring around most of the playground. We’ll see on Monday if they got it finished.

• Responding to Parent Calls/Emails – This was sent to principals as an expectation of us when returning parent calls/emails, but I thought it was also a good reminder for teachers when you have parent calls and emails. Always return parent phone calls and emails within 24 hours, 48 at the very most. Why? When parents don’t hear from you, they assume the worst. They NEVER assume the best. If all you can do is to say “I received your email/phone call, and I will bet back to you tomorrow with more information” then that assures the parent they have been heard and their anxiety reduces. My own additional bit of advice is to always try to make a phone call rather than sending an email. Intent and tone is easily misconstrued in emails and phone calls almost always work better (and they can save you the hassle of getting into an endless back-and-forth chain of emails).

• Insurance Open Enrollment is Mandatory – Sept. 15th – If you don’t go through the entire enrollment process, you will lose your insurance. OEBB has made some significant changes in the plan designs they are offering for the 2016-2017 benefit year. Due to these changes, enrollment for benefits will be MANDATORY for all benefit eligible employees. This means that all employees will have to log into their myOEBB account and make benefit elections, regardless of their enrollment status or choices for previous years. Information has been sent via mail and email and can be found at http://www.4j.lane.edu/hr/benefits/open-enrollment/

• Emergency Go-Kits – Randi Bowers-Payne will be providing each active K-12 classroom with a Go-Kit sometime before winter break. Go-kits are disaster survival kits and often contain household items, which may be needed in an emergency. 4J wants the Go-Kits in classrooms well in advance of an emergency and include essentials, which could easily be transported if evacuation is required. Linked here is a detailed list of what contents would be included in a Classroom Go-Kit.

• Yom Kippur – Yom Kippur takes place October 11 (starting in the evening) through Wednesday October 12. It is critical that NO assessments, required assignments, or important school events take place October 12th, as many students will be out to observe this very important Jewish holiday. Please add this to your calendar for planning.

• Putting in Tickets for Technology Help – As a reminder to staff, if you ever need assistance with anything technology related, you should send an email to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu, which creates a ticket, or call x7777. The reasons staff staff are asked to put in tickets are numerous, including but are not limited to:

• To get an accurate accounting of the workload for your schools
• To obtain statistics on the overall workload for all TSS
• To justify the existence of site-based TSS
• To get statistics on the type of requests coming in, so they can target training and other resources.
• To see historical data for devices and problems
• Because TSS assignments can change at any time
• To better allocate TSS staffing. This is important because a low number of tickets could indicate that a school doesn’t need as much tech support time as it is currently getting. In looking at current data, they believe this is because the staff at some schools may be emailing to talking the TSS directly instead of putting in a ticket.

• 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 10-15 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 to introduce myself. Thank you!

• District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – I did get a chance this weekend to go over this year’s District Back-to-School Memo (and PDF), which covers a variety of district rules, policies and guidelines, I could not spot anything that looked different from last year. Section 1 is the portion that all staff are required to review. I could have make everyone endure me going through it on a PD day, or I could let staff review it on their own, which is what I think most staff would prefer and is the current expectation. All staff must review the memo and sign & return the check list acknowledgment form to the office no later than Friday, September 29th. Hard copies of the acknowledgement form were placed in mailboxes last week and this year principals are expected to give HR copies of all signed forms, so be sure make time to review these polices before the end of the month (or before I have to start haranguing individuals next week). On a related note, I’m planning to send out the updated Howard Staff Handbook next week. I haven’t had a chance to update the PBIS section of the handbook for the new building.

• Successfully Educating Boys: What Works – In this article in Educational Leadership, Michael Reichert ponders his international research on teachers’ work with challenging boys – those who are defiant, disruptive, reticent, shy, passive, depressed, or rally peers against the teacher’s purpose. Many schools have responded by bringing in “boy-friendly” subject matter, kinesthetic activities, technology, and more, but the results have been disappointing. Meanwhile girls are surging ahead, creating a widening gender gap. What is to be done? The answer is right under our noses, says Reichert – in the practices of our successful teachers. These teachers report that, “contrary to the stereotypes of young men as diffident, disruptive, or dangerous, most boys care deeply about being successful and simply long for instructors… capable of connecting personally with them and believing in them, even when they may not believe in themselves and struggle with behavior, effort, or attention problems… Relationship is the very medium through which successful teaching and learning is performed with boys.” Read on to see Reichert’s seven strategies that build connections with boys. His conclusion: “It appears that every boy can be reached.”

• I Wish My Teacher Knew… – In this New York Times article, Donna de la Cruz describes a get-to-know-you strategy some teachers use at the beginning of each school year; they ask students to complete the sentence, “I wish my teacher knew…” Here are some actual responses:

• I wish my teacher knew I don’t have pencils at home to do my homework.
• I wish my teacher knew I love my family.
• I wish my teacher knew that my family and I live in a shelter.
• I wish my teacher knew I am smarter than she thinks I am.
• I wish my teacher knew that sometimes my reading log is not signed because my mom isn’t around a lot.

• 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 12 (M)
First Day of Library
First Day of PE
Allan Collecting Investigations Workbooks
10:00, Allan Reading to Class
11:00, Allan to IEP Meeting
11:50, Allan Reading to Class
3:00, BEST Meeting (BEST Room)

September 13 (T)
9:00, Allan to Preschool Sanitation Inspection (Preschool Room)
2:30, Allan to Preschool Office of Child Care Inspection (Preschool Room)

September 14 (W)
Phone Requests Due
4:15-5:15, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (Awbrey Park)

September 15 (H)
7:50-11:45, Data Team Meetings (Title 1 Room)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)

September 16 (F)
Bianca Out through 9/23
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting

September 18 (SU)
Mrs. Henry’s Birthday

September 19 (M)
International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Workshop Groups Begin
9:00, Allan Meeting With David Bautista (Office)
2:30-3:30, Allan to 504 Plan Meeting (Matt’s Office)

September 20 (T)
8:00-4:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee Meeting (Ed Center)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Howard Community Room)
10:00-11:00, Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting -Time is Tentative (Stage in Gym)
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting (Library)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room or Library)

September 21 (W)
8:10-8:35, 3-5 Cookie Dough Kick-Off Assembly (Gym)
8:45-9:10, K-2 Cookie Dough Kick-Off Assembly (Gym)
5:30-7:30, Grand Opening Community Open House

September 22 (H)
9:00, Fire Drill (more info coming at Staff Meeting)
5:30, Allan giving tour to Lane Council of Governments

September 23 (F)
Regular Day

One final thought, here’s a terrific start-of-the-year reminder that comes from the Center For the Collaborative Classroom, the people behind the Caring School Communities curriculum, with three teacher actions to develop a strong and successful classroom:

1. Slow down (to be deliberate)
2. Relationships first
3. Stop talking

 

Have a great first full week of class! I’m positive we’ll all be exhausted by Friday, but make it a good one!

Allan

 

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