Allan's Announcements

By Allan 　https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=5930

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all were able to rest up over the weekend before our short but busy week of conferences.

Thirteen items of note for this week:

• LEL Visit Share Out – Thank you, teachers, for opening up your classrooms for the LEL visit last week. I told my wife the evening before our visit that the LEL was coming to Howard and her response was, “Oh, I hated those!”. So thank you for welcoming adults holding clipboards into your classroom to observe science. There were four LEL visits to different schools last week (we are part of the the large-school-LEL). With he focus on science, the facilitator had all of the LELs focus on the types of questions and answers happening during the science lessons using Costa’s Levels of Questioning (Level 1 – Gathering, Level 2 – Processing, and Level 3 – Applying), which is similar to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Similar to our discussions on the SAMR Model (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition), it’s fine to be at any of Costa’s levels of questioning if it’s planned and with purpose, but it’s not so good to always remain at the lower levels.

The LEL visits this month were meant to help focus the science professional development in January and here were some of the observations based on the Howard visit:

• With the level of content already increased, there is a need to change the role of the student and PD may focus on how teachers can help make that shift.
• Teachers were asking a good balance of Level 1, 2, & 3 questions, but PD may want to focus on how teacher can raise up the level of student answers; connecting lessons to the scientific process and more focus on science vocabulary.
• It also came up in the discussion that a lot of teachers are frustrated with the amount of prep required by the new kit, and to maybe not offer PD as of right now or at least have part of the PD time set aside to prep for science lessons.

If anyone would like to see the charts with the many observations (no names or individual classrooms are identified) made by the LEL group, I’ll have them hung up in my office for folks to peruse..

• PTO Updates – Thank you to all staff members who came to last week’s PTO meeting! It was almost half parent and half staff (though we do have some staff who are both parent & staff member). Linked here is a PDF version of their November PTO Meeting PowerPoint, but some highlights from the meeting are that the Spaghetti Feed/BINGO Night made just over $1,100, that the Holiday Market was coming up (which was actually Saturday and I saw quite a few staff at as well), some upcoming dates that included a Family Movie Night Jan. 20th and a McTeacher Night in February to purchase more books for the library, and also a new Volunteer Coordinator and Parliamentarian were voted onto the board, which makes the current board members:

• President: Brande Trumbull
• Vice President: Elizabeth Bond
• Secretary: Allison Kreider
• Treasurer: Jessica Bott
• Parliamentarian: Christy Garland
• Fundraising Coordinator: Katryna Coelho
• Volunteer Coordinator: Shelbie Poore

And staff at the meeting thanked the parents for feeding us during conferences (Taco Bar Monday and Soup & Salads Tuesday)!

• Computer Science Education Week / Hour of Code Dec. 5-9 – The week of December 5th – 9th is Computer Science Education Week, where all students are encourage to participate in The Hour of Code, which started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify “code”, to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. Why computer science, you might ask? Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path. See more stats here.

Please let me know soon if any of you are planning coding activities, because I’d love to try to get some media coverage for our school.

And if you’d like some very easy tutorials and activities that can be done independently by students or led by teachers, please visit Code.org, Khan Academy, and also CSEdweek.org.

• Microsoft, Code.org release Minecraft Hour of Code Designer – This one deserves it’s own bullet point. Students as young as age 6 can learn about coding through the free tutorial, Minecraft Hour of Code Designer, released by Microsoft and Code.org. The tutorial even includes offline capabilities for those who may not have access to the internet.

• Bianca’s Hours – Half an hour of Bianca’s staffing comes from SSD to help a student with diabetes, but that student is moving this week, which means starting next week, Bianca will be leaving 30 minutes earlier at the end of the day. Bianca will still be able to flex her hours if you need translation help at a meeting, but give her plenty of notice so we can plan her schedule accordingly.

• New Building Updates – Here are the items of note regarding our new building:

• Is Your Interactive Working? Tell Allan by Monday – If your interactivity is not working and has not yet been fixed, let me know no later than Monday at 3:30, which is when I will send Kim Finch a final list of who needs their interactivity fixed. Also let me know if you haven’t tested your interactivity yet (which I can’t blame anyone for since it’s been so buggy) so the Tech Department staff can check to make sure it’s working.

• 3-Month Rule Furniture Order Extension – I’m going to wait until all of the stool have been delivered to classrooms before submitting our furniture requests. I want to make sure we have enough stools and chairs and that we don’t short ourselves. Linked here is the updated Furniture Wish List, but be sure to let me know if you need something that’s not on the list.

• Optional EPSON Projector Training, Nov. 29 @2:30 – Misty and an EPSON rep will be at Howard Tuesday, November 29th at 2:30 to offer a short optional training on all of the features on the EPSON projectors. This is your chance to ask and expert any questions you may have about your interactive projector and to learn all the bells and whistle you may not have known about.

• Resources for Undocumented Families – Principals were asked to share the following with staff who work with our families who may have members who are undocumented.

• Concrete Suggestions in Preparation for January
• Northwest Immigrant Rights Project – Community Advisory – 11/10/16 Advisory Regarding DACA Program After Presidential Election
• Tarea Time Fall 2016 (homework help)
• UO IME Becas Scolarship Application 2016-2017 (DOC file)
• UO LATINX Faculty, Staff and Allies

Also, Educators for Fair Consideration (E4FC) is an organization dedicated to supporting undocumented students. Many of us are connected to undocumented students and people with mixed status families. Many people are seeking information right now in anticipation of federal changes, and important recommendations are provided below. Please share the information below with those who may benefit and keep checking this webpage for updates.

And here’s one more from Brianna Stiller that was sent out to principals and PBIS Coordinators from Chris Borgmeier at Portland State University on Addressing Harassment and Bullying in Schools.

• Statement from Oregon State Board of Education – Principals were also asked to share the linked Post-election Statement from the chair on behalf of the Oregon State Board of Education.

• NearPod and Aurasma – Linked here is the website Nearpod that Angela and Erin shared at Tuesday’s staff meeting. Nearpod allows teachers access to thousands of interactive presentations that teachers search by subject and grade level, and also allows teachers to create and customize their own interactive presentations. Aurasma is the other website that got mentioned, which is an augmented reality platform (technology that superimposes a computer-generated images/informaiton on a user’s view of the real world) enabling teachers to connect digital content such as video to images in books and classroom walls.

• ISTE Formally Unveils New Standards for Students – More than 2,700 people, including approximately 300 students, from 52 countries helped to create the new standards. Linked here are the 2016 ISTE Technology Standards for Students that we’ll use to update the Howard Technology Scope and Sequence. These standards are not by grade level, but give a broader picture of what it means to be technologically literate, focusing on Empowering Learners, Digital Citizenship, being Knowledge Constructors, Innovative Design, Computational Thinking, being Creative Communicators, and being Global Collaborators. Click the image below for the ISTE standards for teachers, administrator, coaches, and computer science teachers. 

• Digital Citizenship Lessons – You’ll notice that Digital Citizenship is one of the ISTE technology standard areas, so if you’re looking for lessons in this area, Common Sense Media offers a series of K-2 and grade 3-5 lessons on this topic. There is an upcoming state requirement for schools to cover digital citizenship with students and this is one resource that is being evaluated to meet that requirement.

• Studies: Students benefit from digital materials – Last tech post. If anyone ever asks you why we integrate technology throughout the curriculum, see this article from eCampus News about some recent studies. College students that use digital-learning materials tend to do better on exams, improve their academic performance and are less likely to drop out, according to multiple studies. A report from McGraw-Hill Education found that 81% of students said digital-learning tools helped them improve both their grades and their efficiency.

• 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 21 (M)
No BEST
4:00-8:00, Conferences
6:00, Allan to Conference

November 22 (T)
8:00-8:00, Conferences
8:20, Allan to Conference
3:00-4:00, Allan to Full-Day Kindergarten Meeting (Ed Center)
6:20, Allan to Conference

November 23 (W)
No Students – Conference Comp Day for Licensed Staff
Regular Work Day for Classified Staff (unless you have comp time)

November 24 (H)
No School – Thanksgiving Holiday

November 25 (F)
No School – Thanksgiving Holiday

November 28 (M)
8:20-1:45, Kreider/Shadwich Salmon Field Trip
2:30-3:30, Site Council Meeting
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

November 29 (T)
2:30, EPSON Projector Specialist Training (Angela’s Room)

November 30 (W)
Picture Retakes
1:30-3:30, Grade Level Meeting Time

December 1 (H)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30, Allan to Eval Planning Meeting (Conference Room)

December 2 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
10:30-12:30, November Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Conference Room)

And if you missed it, Howard was on the cover of the Register Guard this past week with Free-range science: Howard hens help kindergartners sharpen observation skills. There was also a pretty nice letter to the editor that was written about our chickens a couple days later. There’s always something interesting going on at Howard, even if it doesn’t always make the news!

Allan