https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=5666
Hello Roadrunenrs,
I’d like to again thank everyone for continuing to patiently teach and review all of the new systems in our new building and making adjustments along the way as needed. Although it may be tiring repetitively reminding students where the restrooms are located or how to safely use the stairs, continued positive reminders about school expectations will pay off for us down the road.
Thirty items of note for this week:
• Fire Dill Thursday at 9:00 – Our first fire drill of the year will be this Thursday at 9:00. See the linked revised fire evacuation map of where all classes will go. We’ll go over this more at Tuesday’s Staff Meeting, but please take a look at the map before then so you know where you’ll be lining up.
• Student Care Team Referrals – Our first Student Care Team meeting is Wednesday next week, so I did want to extend the offer to staff if you have any student situations you would like brought to the team. This can be a chance for us to discuss with DHS staff on a variety of situations including but not limited to:
• Death of a parent
• Incarcerated parent - concerns about recent incarceration or pending release
• Homeless or impending homelessness
• Unknown if open child welfare case but has concerns that were called in
• Domestic Violence
• Extreme behavior issues – additional supports needed outside of school
• Specific resource needed but unknown where to refer
• Medical concerns about the child or other family memberDHS staff have been great about connecting families in difficult situations with various community resources, so please let me know if you have any students/families you’d like referred to the team.
• Updated Master Schedule – Staff directly effetely by changes already know about these, but linked here is an updated master schedule (PDF and XLS). It’s mainly the PE/Music schedule that had some changes and also a few typo fixes in other parts. Keep this handy and start setting your phone alert reminder as we start workshop groups on Monday.
• PTO Meeting Tuesday at 6:00 – The first PTO meeting of the year will be this Tuesday, 6:00-7:00 PM in the cafeteria, if any staff are able to attend. It’s a nice show of support for the PTO’s work if staff are able to volunteer your time to come to a meeting. With our enrollment jumping by more than 60 kids this year, we’re really hoping for a nice turnout of families. Hope to see you there!
• Ribbon Cutting and Open House – This Tuesday in the gym from 10:00-11:00 is the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the new school. A few teachers asked about having their classes attend. You’re welcome to come, but I think this is more of a photo op and PR type of event. My prediction is it would be long, with lots of talking, and not so interesting for kids, outside Siera leading a student group in a couple of songs (thank you, Siera!).
Wednesday night from 5:30-7:30 is the Community Open House. All classrooms will be locked, with the exception of two rooms where where teachers are being given extended contract to open up and keep an eye on their stuff. Downtown pulled back on how much extended contract they’re offering besides these two teachers, but thank you to everyone who offered to help. It’ll be a pretty simple event, with PiVOT setting up a some information in the two classrooms and in the east courtyard. Community members will do self guided tours around the building, though PiVOT architects will offer guided tours every 20 minutes or so. I will be up front smiling and greeting people as they enter.
• Cookie Dough Fundraiser Kick-Off Assembly 9/21 – This Wednesday is our Cookie Dough Fundraiser Kick-Off Assembly. The grade 3-5 assembly will be 8:10-8:35 in the gym and the K-3 assembly will be 8:45-9:10. See the linked assembly map & directions for details and please note that classes are not going to be called to the gym and should instead time your arrival so classes are seated at the assembly start time. 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.
• Staffing Updates – As announced earlier, Jill Torres, our new 5th grade teacher, will be starting this Monday, so please welcome her as she joins the awesome Howard Team! Vacancies yet to be filled by SSD and Facilities include a Life Skills 1:1 EA, a 1:1 for a medically fragile KG student, a CLC 1:1 EA, and an 8-hours night custodian. If you know of anyone good for these position, let me know and I’ll let the downtown folks know they should hire them!
• The Five Bs – Time for my annual (and sometimes biannual) reminder about The Five Bs, which refers to the only five reasons students should be sent to the nurse’s office; Bleeding, Barfing, Badly Bruised, Broken, or Burning Up with fever. Please note that tummy aches, coughs, and “not feeling good” are not on this list. I was teaching a 2/3 blend when The Five Bs first came to Howard and I remember it was an effective way to lessen kids unnecessarily asking to go to the nurse’s office. Also, when you do send kids to the office, make sure they have office passes so we know they have permission and are not trying to be free range children.
• Office Help – In the vein of the previous item, here are a few ways staff can help the front office recoup some of their lost work time this year due to our increased traffic through the office caused by our increased enrollment, housing more district programs, and also no one knowing where things are in the new building.
1. PE/Music Enter/Exit Out Gym Doors – Some classes have been cutting through the office after Music class, but classes should re-enter the main building by way of the gym doors near the Community Room, not the through the office.
2. Move Meetings to Other Spaces – This is one I have to work on too, but if you are conversing with families or even just socializing in the front office area, it can be hard for office staff to focus and get their work done, so it would be helpful if meetings can be moved to other location like the Conference Room, Community Room, the hallway or other spaces. If you do use the Conference Room for meetings, please have kids stay with their parents in the Conference Room and not leave them unattended in the office area.
3. Do you need to ask that? – Though you may just be asking a quick question, realize that 80+ staff members just asking a quick question really does add up. Make sure you really did check everywhere in the workroom before asking where something is located, or tried to fix the paper jam in the copier yourself first, or checked the building calendar before asking office staff about a date, or whatever the question might be. However, DO certainly ask for help if there is something you really cannot figure out on your own, but just consider first if you could solve a situation on your own.
• Please, No Pencil Shavings – A request from our night custodial staff, for some reason pencil shavings are a real pain to vacuum up off our new rugs, so if teachers can monitor when students are sharpening their pencils that they are not dumping shavings on the rug, it would be a great help to Mike and our sub night custodian.
• First Aid Class Update – I had a great response from staff interested in doing a Howard Staff First Aid training, so Robin is actually pulling in another nurse to help with our staff training. Our current plan is to hold the training on our Oct. 7th Howard PD day. We’ll first do some building PD (one will be a do-over of the tech training we had at the start of the year) and then stopping around 10:15 to offer the First Aid class. We’re thinking we’ll start off with a Part 1 before lunch, which will cover any staff who are just renewing their First Aid Cards. After a lunch break we will come back for Part 2 to finish up for people needing the entire course. I haven’t gotten official approval on SSD covering fees, but I did get a very positive initial response when we presented the idea. If you didn’t already, please let me know if you’d be interested in attending this free training. Space is limited and there are only a few spots left.
• BEST Updates – Though subject to change, linked here is the BEST Calendar for the school year.
• Curriculum Night Translations Due 9/27 @9:00 – Bianca already sent this out, but a reminder that Curriculum Night is in two weeks, so if you have anything that needs translated into Spanish before then, the deadline to get information to Bianca is Tuesday, September 27th at 9:00.
• Breakfast Reminder – Teachers, please remind your students to go to the cafeteria first to get breakfast if they did not eat at home. Some kids are heading straight out to the playground and skipping breakfast.
• New Building Updates – Here are the items of note regarding our new building:
• Keep the Punch List Items Coming! – If you notice something in the building that doesn’t seem right, that needs fixed, or really anything, let me know. Don’t assume that someone else has told me and don’t think that a new building issues is too small to bother me with. I want to know everything because this is the time that we’re going to be able to get it fixed and not have to pay for it out of building or district funds. It’s easiest for me if you email or text me a picture of what’s wrong and then I can send it to Dexter, our project manager, in my daily email of all the things that need addressed. And if you’re thinking our building has an inordinate amount of things needing fixed, the things that are being reported aren’t all that uncommon for new buildings. And if you think our building seems behind schedule, be thankful you don’t work at Gilham right now. Matt’s wife teaches over there and here’s a picture he snapped last Wednesday:
• Updated Class Assignments Map – Linked here is an updated map of classroom assignments, telling who is where in the building.
• White Board Interactivity – The Technology Department believes they have figured out what’s wrong with the Epson projector interactivity. It was that there was older driver installed and they worked fine once the newer one was installed. The Tech Department is still checking a few things, but they are now updating projector drivers, so all classrooms should have interactive capabilities very soon. On a related note, the Tech Department is ordering (or has already ordered) more of the white cords that go from your laptop to the presenter ports to make the board interactive, so anyone missing that cord should have one soon.
• Overflow Parking Lot – I’m skeptical that I’m going to win this battle, but I’m currently making the case that we have inadequate parking and that the planned soccer/softball field should become an overflow parking lot. When you add in staff from Looking Glass, EEP, ECT, Preschool Promise, and McKinney-Vento, we have 90+ staff members who might be in the building all at once for a parking lot with 94 parking spaces. 15 or so of these people are itinerant, but that still doesn’t leave what I consider enough spaces. I counted available parking spaces at 10:00 AM one day last week and there were only 13 spaces. The main barrier to getting another parking area is the cost, which would be big. The next barrier is that 94 spots was the maximum number the city allowed. I’m not holding my breath on this one, but I’m going to continue making the case for it because I believe it’s a safety issue and it’s only going to get worse if Corridor and YG were ever to close or move to another region when a new North Eugene High School is built and our enrollment were to take another jump.
• Badge Readers for Courtyard Gates Not Working – As of Friday, staff badges still did not seem to be working on the courtyard gates. This was the west courtyard, but I’ve had people tell me the readers on the other gates are not working either. I’m told this is a custom installation requiring some fine tuning for everything to work in tune, but it is continuing to be worked on.
• AMX Panel Microphone and Classroom Speakers – Several teachers commented that morning announcements only came out one speaker in classrooms, but apparently this was done on purpose not to interfere with the voice amplification system. I’ve had the AMX people turn up the volume on that one classroom speaker, so let me know if it’s still too quiet. On a related note, we’ve determined that the microphone installed by the AMX panel in the office is not working properly and is far too quiet. Paging from office phones works much better, but they are working on the microphone at the panel.
• Exterior Bells Too Quiet – I’ve been continuing to complain about our exterior bells being too quiet to be heard over kids playing on the playground. The AMX system is turned up as high as it will go , but more speakers are being installed, so that may fix the problem. If that doesn’t fix it and we still can’t hear the bells over students, Facilities will get bigger speakers. And related to this, the cafeteria and gym speakers have been turned up all the way, so hopefully announcements will be able to be heard in those spaces.
• Temperature Control Hack – You didn’t hear it from me, but if you are not satisfied with the two degree temperature adjustment we’re allowed in our rooms and classrooms, take a look at this:
• Walk Bikes/Skateboard/Scooters on Sidewalk, Not Through Parking Lot – Teachers, please remind students riding bikes, skateboards or scooters to walk them on the sidewalks in front of the building (not riding them) until they get to the sidewalk along Howard Ave. This wasn’t as much of an issue at the old building where we were pretty much right on the street. Also, please remind students to walk their bikes on the sidewalks and not to walk them through our busy parking lot, which is a safety concern.
• Benches for Playground – Facilities has agreed to add some benches to the playground area since we’ve realized there is nowhere for students to sit who have twisted and ankle or need a break, other than to sit on the ground. Benches would also be nice for the community when they use the playground, so parents and others could have a place to sit while kids play. Speaking of playgrounds, here’s a funny article I found titled When Playgrounds Were Deadly that features some very fun and dangerous looking playground equipment.
• Lead Testing of New Building – Lead testing of the water in our new building was completed and there are no elevated levels of lead in our water, which you should expect since none of our pipes have lead. See the Water Quality: Fixture List webpage for details for Howard and other schools across the district.
• ENZO Keyboards in Cabinets – The ENZO Keyboards have now been delivered to all classrooms if any of you want to play with them. We’ll go over this at our Oct. 7th Howard PD day, but linked here is the manual on how to access the ENZO system to connect wirelessly to your projector and also how to utilize MirrorOp, which is good for laptops, but pretty limited in it’s use with iPads. Linked here are the classroom IP address of each classroom ENZO unit and a short 2-minute video on how to connect to the ENZO system.
• Come on into my Office! – With my new bigger office, staff don’t always know if I’m meeting with someone or not, so I’m seeing a lot people of peeking through my window or peeking around my door to check, but if you see my door open, you’re welcome to boldly walk right in and take some candy (which is why most people come into my office). If I’m in a meeting that shouldn’t be interrupted, I’ll close my door.
• Preschool Begins Monday – The Preschool Promise class had a nice open house a couple weeks ago and is going to have it’s first day of school on Monday. Their start time is 9:15 and they will dismiss at 2:05 five days a week. There are 16 students in the classroom and all but three of them live in the Howard attendance area, so almost all of these students will become Howard kindergartners. The preschoolers will eat breakfast and lunch in their classroom. For their recesses, there were really no open times on the master schedule, so our plan is to use some cones and rope off the little kid play area during the 4th and 5th grade recesses since older students generally do not use the little kid play area. If you’re interested, linked here is the initial preschool schedule.
• U.S TaeKwonDo Demo Team Assembly? – Are any classrooms interested in having an assembly by a the a local TaeKwonDo Demo Team? Founded in 1987, their traditional martial arts demonstration team showcases some of the best talent at their school. Their performances strive to inspire and motivate their audiences, bringing positive thinking, positive talking, and positive action school assemblies. See their website for videos and more info. Teachers, let me know if you’d be interested in this assembly and I can arrange for it to happen later this year.
• Free After-School Reading and Math Intervention Program – This was offered last year and a few Howard students got hooked up with it. The CTL Reading Clinic at the University of Oregon has an opportunity for K-2 students to receive free after school reading and/or math intervention services at the UO. Students who are performing below benchmark are encouraged to apply. Their reading services focus on alphabetic principle/phonics and fluency instruction, so the program will be most beneficial for students performing below benchmark in grades K-2. See the linked email and registration packet for further details. It’s first come, first serve so share this with any families who you think would benefit from this. CTL want to have all intakes completed before October.
• Eugene Math Circle Student Opportunity – The Eugene Math Circle at the University of Oregon will continue its weekly sessions for the elementary, middle and high school students in 2016-17. Students are invited who enjoy math, like solving challenging problems and want to learn exciting topics that are normally outside the school curriculum. The Math Circle teachers are members of the UO Mathematics Department. The program will begin in the end of September and will run through the end of May. See the linked flyer and/or their website for further details.
• Howard Webpage Translation – Online translations are always kind of dicey, but I copied another school who set up their school webpage to have a Google Translation feature that will translate a website into almost 100 different languages with just two clicks. Peggy set it up on the Howard website so there is translate button right at the top of our page now. It’s certainly not perfect, but I do think it’s better than not having it.
• 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. 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).
• Eugene Ballet Educational Performance – For grades 1-5, the Eugene Ballet Company is presenting a 50-minute educational performance featuring an interactive demonstration of all the elements that go into performing a professional ballet, followed by a complete ballet performance of Pulcinella (pull-chin-ella). There is a $5 per student fee (thought scholarships are available, which with 100% of our students receiving free/reduced meals we should certainly quality for). Buses are also not provided, but if you’re feeling adventurous, I believe LTD still offers free class field trips or if you want to arrange for parent drivers. See the linked flyer and registration information if you’d like further information.
• Lowe’s Toolbox for Education Grants – Lowe’s will donate up to $5 million to K-12 public/charter schools and to parent teacher groups – at as many as 1,000 different public schools per school year. Grant awards go up to $5,000. Visit their website for details if you want to write a grant or recycle an old one. I submitted one to get new Howard shirts for all students and staff.
• BEST and YMCA After School Positions – BEST is posting soon for some EA positions, two 2-hour EA positions 2:10-4:10 that will be providing small group instruction/homework/reading during BEST. Talk to Shawn, our BEST Coordinator if you’re interested. Also, the YMCA director asked principals to pass along that they are hiring EAs interested in working at their after school programs. They have opening here at Howard and at their other sites as well.
• Expectations and Scaffolds – From the very cool blog Byrdseed, which is focused on teaching gifted learners, author Ian Byrd writes, “When I see successful lessons, I’m almost always most impressed with how the teacher has set the stage for success. When I look back on my biggest failures, it was almost always a lack scaffolding that caused the problem. Expectations and scaffolds are vital to classroom success. And when I hear teachers complain that their students’ can’t do something, it’s almost always because the teacher’s understanding of the expectations didn’t match kids’ understanding of the expectations.” Read on at this blog post for his suggestions on how to establish clear expectations and how to make it easy for students to achieve those expectations.
• Free Online PBS Resources Teach Students about Elections – A free website that provides K-12 resources for students to learn about the political process has just added new tools designed to help them explore the role of the Electoral College and other aspects of this year’s presidential election.
• Apple Launches Everyone Can Code Initiative and Apple Teacher Program – Apple is donating various apple products to approximately 4,500 teachers and more than 50,00 students as part of a promise to help students acquire coding skills though their Everyone Can Code initiative. The company is also launching a new program for teachers to learn to use the Apple products, including a few free coding app for iPads called Swift Playgrounds. See this article for more details.
• A surprising way to change the way kids think about gender and jobs – From one of my favorite blogs, BoingBoing. When asked to draw pictures of firefighters, surgeons, and fighter pilots, a group of British grade school children produced 61 pictures of men and only five pictures of women. But a visit from three female professionals helps shift their point of view.
• 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 19 (M)
International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Workshop Groups Begin
First Day of Preschool (9:15)
8:30, Allan Meeting With David Bautista (Office)
2:30-3:30, Allan to 504 Plan Meeting (Matt’s Office)September 20 (T)
9:00-4:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee Meeting (Ed Center)SKIPPING
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Howard Community Room)
10:00-11:00, Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting (Stage in Gym)
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting (Library)
4:15-5:15, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (Madison)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Cafeteria)September 21 (W)
8:00-4:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee Meeting (Ed Center)SKIPPING
8:10-8:35, 3-5 Cookie Dough Kick-Off Assembly (Gym)
8:45-9:10, K-2 Cookie Dough Kick-Off Assembly (Gym)
9:30-10:00, Allan Touring Junction City Administrators
1:30-2:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, A101)
2:30-3:30, Allan to 504 Plan Meeting (Matt’s Office)
5:30-7:30, Grand Opening Community Open HouseSeptember 22 (H)
9:00, Fire Drill (more info coming at Staff Meeting)
5:30-6:00, Allan giving tour to Lane Council of Governments
6:00-7:00, LCOG Community Meeting (Staff Room)September 23 (F)
Regular DaySeptember 26 (M)
2:30-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Administrators Meeting (Ed Center)September 27 (T)
Happy Birthday to Me!
9:00, Deadline for Curriculum Night Spanish Translations
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, B203)September 28 (W)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team (Conference Room)September 39 (H)
Regular DaySeptember 30 (F)
Birthday Lunches With the Principal, August & September (Community Room)October 2 (SU)
National Custodial Worker Day
Make it a great week, everyone!
Allan
