April 17, 2017

By Allan  

 

Howdy Howard Staff,

Congratulations to Jill and Marguerite on their ACE Award nominations! Your work has impressed folks in our community enough to garner a nomination and we’re all quite happy of you. Plus, multiple nominations for Howard staff makes us look good!

Eleven items of note for this week:

• Job Expo Updates – Howard was once again a the most popular school in the district at the Job Expo, with more applicants than any other school in 4J, most applying for our 3rd grade job, and for that 3rd grade position we’ve hired Becky Robinson, who some of you may already know as Matt’s wife. She’s been teaching 4th grade at Gilham this past year and prior to that taught 4th grade in New Jersey. Becky will also add to Howard’s tradition of same-named-staff-members, giving us a trifecta of Rebeccas (Hanson, Robinson, and Schmidt).

I haven’t heard from HR yet regarding our temp kindergarten and part-time facilitating positions. How the Job Expo works is that after the “speed dating” style of interviews, candidates rank their job choices, principals also rank their top three candidates for each position, and then HR staff makes the decision who is offered which position, which entails placing all displaced teachers first.

• Tech Trot Updates & All-School Selfie – The Tech Trot is in two weeks on Wednesday, April 26th. Information will be going home this with students week. I’ve worked out times with the PTO for when classes will go out to the track, which will be:

• 8:30-9:15 – 2nd & 3rd Grade
• 9:30-10:15 – Kinder & 1st Grade
• 10:30-11:15 – 4th & 5th Grade

The same as in the past, kids will run the track for 30 minutes and will collect colorful bands as they run/jog/walk around the track to take count of their laps. Drinks and snacks will also be provided for students, along with free Howard Tech Trot t-shirts for students and staff who turned in their order forms.

Shirts should be passed out the day of the Tech Trot. I’m also thinking this would be a fun opportunity to take a new all school photo in our matching Howard shirts (with the Howard logo in the front this time). Last time we did it was four years ago and at that time we were a school of 314 students and about 30 fewer staff members, so I think we’re due. Unless anyone objects, I think we can all meet at 12:45 the day of the Tech Trot in the courtyard outside the cafeteria and take a picture from the green wing balcony. See the linked map and directions for where to stand, although we may need to adjust positions once we get out there. Let me know if you have any questions.

SERIOUS

SILLY

 

• PTO Meeting Tuesday at 6:00 – The April PTO meeting is this Tuesday at 6:00 in the community room, so if any staff are available to make attend the meeting, that’s always a nice way for us to show support and appreciation for our parent group’s hard work fundraising for us. They’ve really done an amazing job this year!

On a related PTO note, the PTO clarified with me that their asking teachers for help with carnival games is purely voluntary. Elizabeth Bond is actually going to take a couple minutes at Tuesday’s staff meeting to talk about it.

• Voicemail Set-Up – We’ve realized a number of staff have not set up their voicemail accounts and/or have a previous teacher’s voicemail message on their phone line, which often confuses parents. Linked here is a Voicemail Quickstart Guide on how to check your voicemail message and how to set it up.

• LatinX Alliance of Lane County Family Preparedness Train the Trainers – If any staff are would like to be part of a training to assist undocumented families creating family preparedness plans, there is a training on May 4th. If you’re interested, please let me know and I can provide further details.

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

• Music Room Carpet – Over the summer the music room will be getting carpet. This is to help with the acoustics and also to help with some of the noise between the gym and music room. It won’t impact the movable wall if we ever want to move it.

• Playground Summer Work – Over the summer Facilities will be adding rubber matting underneath the swings and slides. They’ll also be adding a fence along with street side of the playground, with a large swing gate that could be opened if vehicles need to get through. This is also when they will install the wheelchair swing, and, I assume, when they will install the drums to replace the short-lived rainbow piece of equipment that had to be taken out. And best of all, we’ve finally won our battle to get benches added to the playground.

• No Back-Up Power for Curtains – Facilities has figured out that the back-up generators we have don’t have enough power to add the building curtains, which mean unfortunately blinds will be stuck in place if we have another power outage. Grrrrrrrrr!

• Water Faucet Replacement Complete – All classroom faucets now have the replacement style aerator installed, so folks should not see any more of the white water.

• Repeats from Last Week – Several reminders from last week’s announcements:

• 2017-2018 EEF Grant Applications Due April 24th – EEF grant applications are due to me by next Monday. Dream big! We can submit up to five grants in any amount up to $5,000! Grants focused on Arts, Literacy, and STEM receive a higher priority. Linked here is the application form and linked here is the EEF Grant Guidelines.

• Care Team Referrals Due Friday – Referrals for the April Student Care Team meeting are due the Friday. Try to get a parent/guardian signature on the release form (editable PDF and non-editable PDF), but know you can also refer “hypothetical” situations. Let me know if you have any referrals or questions.

• PRIDE Awards Assemblies Next Week – This Friday our third PRIDE Awards assembly. Grades K-2 at 12:30-12:55 and Grades 3-5 at 1:05-1:30 . See the linked assembly map and directions for details. Classroom teachers should pick 2-3 students who demonstrate the characteristic of Integrity (“Be Honest”).

• Eugene 4J North Region Staff Survey – I want to encourage staff to take the time to fill out your Eugene 4J North Region Staff Survey, which you should have already received an email. This information is important for the North Region, and district really wants to hear from you. Your voice and opinion matter as we move our region forward together.

• Physics Professional Development Opportunity, April 26 – Allison sent an email to cert_all earlier, but it’s worth highlighting an upcoming science PD that will focus on concepts found in the Physical Science sections of FOSS. The training will take place at South Eugene High School on Wednesday, April 26th from 4-6pm. Follow this link to register.

• Upcoming changes to guest access on 4jwireless – This won’t effect staff much, but if you’re ever helping a non-staff member connect to 4jwireless, the monthly guest passwords are being phased out. David Nelson sent an email to principals, secretaries, and TSS staff that said the new 4jwireless login page will prompt guest users to create an account of their own. Linked here are directions for the new process, which you can feel free to share with anyone who needs it, although it’s pretty straightforward.

• Arts Integration Conference – The Lane Arts Council is offering a conference for educators Saturday, April 29th with an interest or skill in integrating art across the curriculum. Follow this link for details, but pretension topics will include:

• Studio habits Mind
• STEM to STEAM
• Integrating Arts into Core Curriculum
• Visual Thinking Strategies
• Visual Narrative Writing
• Experimental Model
• Playshops: Hands-on Arts Integration Practices

• Teaching a Core Social-Emotional Skill: Perspective Taking – In this Kappan article, author Hunter Gehlbach says the current attention to social-emotional learning will have a longer shelf life than other trendy topics, but cautions that implementing social-emotional learning in schools raises some important questions:

• Which “soft” skills matter most? Students being caring, morally upstanding, purpose-driven, or empathetic?
• Which proficiencies can teachers actually change? For example, is it realistic that schools can make students more caring?
• Aren’t some social-emotional skills really values that should be addressed by families?

The danger with social-emotional learning, says Gehlbach, is that we’ll “get excited about it, implement a handful of versions, find ourselves daunted by the vast array of components that need to be taught and assessed, become frustrated, and then move on to the next big thing.” But Gehlbach believes this won’t happen if we focus on “a single, teachable capacity that anchors almost all of our social interactions: social perspective-taking, or the capacity to make sense of others’ thoughts and feelings. See the above linked article for what the Gehlbach believe are the four key steps and the three precepts for teachers to keep in mind.

• 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:

April 17 (M)
8:30, Allan Meeting with Pacific University

April 18 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30, Staff Meeting (Ashley Room)
4:00, Allan Touring Eugene Fire Department (Howard)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)

April 19 (W)
Fluoride Varnish (Community Room)
9:15, Backyard Farmer to KG Classes

April 20 (H)
9:00-11:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-6:00, Allan Potentially to Elem. Job Expo (Ed Center)

April 21 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
12:30-12:55, K-2 Pride Assembly – Integrity (Gym)
1:05-1:30, 3-5 Pride Assembly – Integrity (Gym)

April 24 (M)
Volunteer Appreciation Week
ODE Title 1 School Monitoring Visit
EEF Grant Applications Due to Allan by 2:30
2:30-3:30, Site Council Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-5:30, Allan to All Admin Meeting (Ed Center)

April 25 (T)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Sarah’s Room, B203)
5:00-7:30, ACE Awards (Hult Center)

April 26 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
Administrative Professionals’ Day (Formerly Secretary’s Day)
8:00-11:30, Tech Trot

• 8:30-9:15 – 2nd & 3rd Grade
• 9:30-10:15 – Kinder & 1st Grade
• 10:30-11:15 – 4th & 5th Grade

1:30-2:30, Teacher Training for ALICE Student Training (Volunteer’s Room)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)

April 27 (H)
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day
9:00-9:30, 3-5 Native Storytelling Assembly (Gym)
9:40-10:10, K-2 Native Storytelling Assembly (Gym)
1:30, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)
4:00-6:00, Allan to Elem. Job Expo (Ed Center)
5:00-6:00, Human Growth & Development Parent Preview (5th Grade Wing)

April 28 (F)
10:30-12:30, Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room)

Have a great week, everyone!

Allan