September 4, 2017

By Allan  

Hi Everyone,

It was great getting to see everyone last week on our first week back to work. It’s going to be a busy week, but thankfully nowhere as crazy as last year opening a new building. Read on for this week’s news-you-can-use!

Thirty-three items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – Introduced at our BTS Staff Meeting, Lisa Dover has been hired as our newest Title 1 EA, filling the vacancy left by Debbie Miller when she retired. Lisa has been working the last seven year in Springfield as an Educational Assistant in Gen Ed and SPED. Over at the YMCA after-school program, Emma Knox is taking over at Site Coordinator and will be partnering with BEST this year. If you ever need to get ahold of her, her email is emma@eugeneymca.org Lastly, we now have a new BEST Coordinator, Joshua Wrolstad, who has experience working as a Truancy Prevention Case Manager, a Youth Care Counselor, as well as at After School Programs. Please welcome these fine new folks to Howard!

• Updated 2017-2018 Master Schedule – Linked here is an updated 2017-2018 Master Schedule (XLS and PDF). Folks effected by any changes already know. And one tech-tip. Some staff told me they couldn’t see the tabs along the bottom of the Excel file to switch between the Master, EA, Music/PE, and Library schedule. If you don’t see them, go up to WINDOW and down to ZOOM WINDOW. You should then see the tabs along the bottom.

• PE & Music Start Date – Siera and Ronny have said they are ready to start seeing classes the first day of school, but they also understand if teachers want to wait a few days before starting. Please let them know if you WILL NOT be going to specialist times this week.

• Library Start Date – Classes will begin visiting the library at their scheduled times the week of September 11th.

• Meet Your Teacher – During Meet Your Teacher on Tuesday at 1:00, I’d like to repeat what we did last year, having all non-classroom staff available to direct families, passing out school maps with highlighters to help guide families, and also passing out a flyer about parking lot procedures. We’ll also arm people with a complete set of class lists to be used this day and also on the first day of school.

• First Day of School – The morning of the first two days of school I would still like to have all-hand-on-deck. At 7:25, when the doors first open, all available staff should help guide students to the cafeteria, help supervise on the playground, and then when the first bell rings at 7:50, help students find their classrooms. Staff helping should again hold onto their class lists and maps from the day before to help guide families. Linked here is a map of where everyone will be stationed. Anyone who can’t flex their hours to come in earlier these two days, please let me know so I can adjust where people are stationed. See that attached First & Second Day of School Map for where people will be stationed.

• District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – Linked here is this year’s District Back-to-School Memo (PDF), which covers a variety of district rules, policies and guidelines. Section 1 is the portion that staff are required to review. I covered much of this at the BTS staff meeting, but as I shared there, all staff must review the memo and sign & return the check list acknowledgment form signifying that you have read and understand the memo. Forms should be returned to me no later than Friday, September 29th. I’ll place hard copies of the acknowledgement form in staff mailboxes this week. Looking over the memo, take note of updates to the Notice Requirements for Leave section, which is regarding sick days, personal days, various leaves, etc. An addition was also made to the district’s non-discrimination policy, clarify how the policy applies to supporting undocumented students, adding the policy, the PowerPoint, and a FAQ.

• PBIS First Week Teaching Plan – See Rae and Jill’s email for the PBIS teaching plan, which is very similar to last year. All classrooms should use the Recess Rules Slide Show (PDF and PowerPoint) before the first recess. Linked here is the PBIS Teacher Checklist, the PBIS Back-to-School Rules, and the PBIS Rules Matrix. This recess rules slide show linked above is different from the one emailed earlier and is the more specific of one we made in November after we’d lived with the new playground equipment for a couple month. Linked here is the earlier recess review emailed one which is also good for reviewing more general of playground behaviors, but make sure to teach the first more complete one first.

• New Level 2s and 3s – I shared last year that all schools across 4J will be using the same minor (Level II) and major (Level III) behavior referral forms. The new minor forms are finished and being sent to schools this week. The formatting is different from our form, but the content of what it’s asking for is pretty much the same. We’ll continue to use our own Level 1s referrals (Uh-Ohs) this year and the the major referral forms are almost ready to be sent to schools. Linked here is a preview of the new Minor Behavior Referral form (English and Spanish).

• School Bus PBIS – Just as last year, school bus drivers are handing out Transportation Dept. PBIS positive slips and schools are asked to treat them the same as our positive Beep, Beep slips. The same also goes for the bus Incident Reports, with teachers talking to student if they receive a Minor Referral and the principal talking to students if they receive a Major Referral.

• Student Bus Routes – Not linked here, but attached to my email is a Student Bus Route report. This report includes the bus routes for all students who the Transportation Dept. has a bus route for. I’ll run an updated report Tuesday and will email that to teachers in the afternoon, but I thought teachers may want this earlier.

• LearnZillion – Here are a few notes from Friday’s LearnZilion PD:

• Website – If you haven’t already, bookmark the 4J LearnZillion website. On this website is the 2017-2018 Pacing Guide for each grade level, individual lessons and units, the videos, additional supports, and other resources. Additional math resources can be found on the 4J Curriculum Server.

• Unit Zero – Unit Zero is a suggested (not required) lesson. If teachers have a different back-to-school refresher/team-building type of math lesson for the start of the school year, it’s fine to continue using that, although Learn Zillion Lesson Zero does introduce students to some of the LearnZillion routines.

• Pacing Guide Start Date, 9/14 – The pacing guide for Unit 1 starts on September 14th, so everyone should start the new math curriculum on this date.

• ThinkCentral – If anyone has tried to log onto Journeys’ web portal ThinkCentral, you likely noticed it did not work because students and teachers are being uploaded this weekend. It should be up and running by Tuesday.

• Science Notebook Orders – If you didn’t already click the link in Erin’s email, please enter how many science journals you need to order this year (zero or otherwise) on the Howard Science Notebook Order Spreadsheet.

• Principal Visits to Classrooms – I’d like to again visit every classroom sometime during the first few weeks of school to greet students. I’ll read a favorite story to your class and chat with the kids a bit. Teachers, please let me know a good 10 minutes block of time I can come and visit. Thank you!

• Classroom Newsletters – I’d love to have copies (email is best) of classroom newsletters when teachers send/email them home to families. This helps me get school events on the building calendar, keeps me up to date on what’s happening or going to happen in classes when families ask, and it also lets me know details of any class activities that I might be able to get the local media to come out and cover. I love promoting our school!

• Student Username/Passwords and Other TeacherVUE Reports – If teachers need a reminder how to find your students’ usernames and passwords, linked here is a quicksheet on Printing Reports in TeacherVUE. There are several reports teachers can generate from TeacherVUE. For example: To see which students have permission restrictions. A list of student user names and passwords for testing. To print a class list, student/parent directory, health conditions, emergency contacts etc. To print labels to send mail home.

• Seesaw App – Speaking of parent communication, the 4J Technology Department told me Howard has more teachers using Seesaw than any other school in the district. If you’re not currently using it, I’d encourage you to give it a try. Teachers sign-up for free on the Seesaw website. Parents download the free app and get access to your class from a secure code you share. From there, students can upload videos, audio, photos (approved first by the teacher), and and families then get a personalized window into their child’s school day! Teachers also have a fast easy communication tool to your families, where you can quickly push out a message to all families, where it shows up on their phone like a text instead of an email, getting their attention right away.

• Howard Google Team Drive – Wikis are kind of going out of fashion and Google Apps are increasing in usage across 4J, so I’m switching us over to a Google Team Drive for sharing meeting minutes, handbooks, resources, and other information. Later this week you’ll receive an email giving you access to the Howard Team Drive, which is essentially a shared folder that will show up in your Google Drive. To log onto your Google Drive, just follow this link to 4J Google Apples (also linked on my blog and under Links for Staff on the Howard webpage) and log in using your 4J email username and password.

• Staff Parking Areas (not the front row) – Starting this week, I’d like staff to go back to using designated staff parking areas, which is anywhere in the parking lot except for the front row of parking spaces, which I’d like to reserve for families. With 93 adults working in our building this year and 94 parking spots it’s a pretty tight fit.

• White Paper Copier Refill Reminder – With lots and lots of copies being made at the start of the year, please remember to keep the white paper tray filled so it doesn’t dip into the colored paper tray, causing copy sets not to match and have to be run over again. It’s also a good idea to keep the color paper tray empty so we can avoid unnecessarily running up our building copy count.

• Howard Staff Apparel to Jenny! – If you’d like an embroidered Howard Staff logo put on a shirt, jacket, pullover, hoodie, or whatever, give the clothing to Jenny and for (I believe) $7 her friend will put on the Howard Staff logo. Personally, I like going to Costco and getting something inexpensive and Howardizing it.

• Door Locks and Bells – I’m pretty sure I’ve got all the bells and door lock timers correctly set for this year’s schedule, but let me know if you notice any doors that are locked or unlocked when they shouldn’t or if there are bells that ring or do not ring when they should. On a related note, if anyone wants to change our bell sounds, it’s just an MP3 file that I can easily swap out, so feel free to scour the internet for a new 5-10 second bell tone.

• Howard/Kelly Track Use Schedule – We’re sticking with the same plan as last year for sharing the Kelly Track at recesses, cutting the track and field in half, where Howard uses the east end (the half closer to our building) and Kelly will use the west end (the half closer to their building) each day. The one exception is if Kelly PE classes are using the track and field, in which case Howard students should stay off the field.

• Morning Announcements Start Monday, 9/11 – I won’t do morning announcements the first three days of school, but we will start regular morning announcements the first full week of school on Monday, September 11th with a couple 5th graders who were trained up at the end of last school year. On a related note, I’m considering doing a YouTube livestream of morning announcements that teachers could project in their classrooms each morning instead of the intercom.

• Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program – The Fresh Fruits and Vegetable program will be continuing this year and is set to start on Monday, September 11th.

• KITS at Howard – As an FYI, the 4J KITS (Kids in Transition to School) Program is going to use our building on Saturdays 9:00-11:00 this month (Sept. 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th) as they finish up their summer program. They’ll be using the Preschool Classroom (Nollie, one of our preschool EAs, is teaching the class), the Family Resource Center (Room 5), and the Community Room. Howard was originally going to host KITS over the summer, but they had to move to Corridor due to the construction happening at our building over the summer.

• Enrollment Updates – If you’re curious what our enrollment looks like, we’re once again over our enrollment projection, but nowhere as much as last year. Our K-5 projection was for 478 students. As of Friday we have 496 students fully enrolled (along with a few packets still out), so including our preschoolers we can say Howard now has over 500 students. Grade level totals are PK (16), KG (73), 1st (85), 2nd (85), 3rd (81), 4th (83), and 5th (89). Holt and Gilham are still larger than us by quite a bit, but we’re creeping up on Willagilespie as the third largest school in 4J and would be even closer if we accepted all of the students on our waiting list (which I’m not planning to do). Everyone wants to come to Howard!

• 4J Vision 20/20 – I mentioned this at our Back-to-School Staff Meeting as being a major focus area of the school district this year. Linked here is the school district website 4J Vision 20/20 website as well as the 4J Vision 20/20 Strategic Plan Framework, which details the 3-5 year guiding plan. If you attended the District Back-to-School Event at SEHS, this was a major focus of Superintendent Balderas’ speech to staff. During his speech he actually used the What Do You Hope? video I shared at our meeting, but he ended his speech with a video I hadn’t seen before that I liked quite a lot, which was a nice reminder of why we all work in education.

• Learning About Learning Network – For several years, 4J has had Learning About Learning (LEL) Networks. Each school has the principal and two teachers participate, where a team of school meets at one school to onduct classroom observations, which this year will focus on math instruction. Teachers commit to the LEL for two years. Carla is rotating off this year and Ashley is continuing for her second year, so I am looking for a volunteer for this school year.

The purpose of a Learning About Learning network is to orient members to the Instructional Rounds process and to begin the process of building teams of leaders who are able to learn from one another around the craft of leading instruction. The goal of instructional rounds isn’t to provide feedback to the teachers being observed, but for LEL members to compare their own instructional practices with those of the teachers they observe. The chief benefit of this approach resides in the discussion that takes place among LEL members at the end of the observations as well as in subsequent self-reflection. This short post from Edutopia has a nice overview of what the process looks like. Feel free to ask Carla, Ashley, or myself if you have any questions. Let me know if any of your are interested.

• REPEAT: Classified & Licensed Goals and Self Assessment – All staff, both classified and licensed, need to complete a self assessment before the end of September. Licensed staff need to complete their self assessment in TalentEd. Classified staff need to complete the Classified Employee Self Assessment form, unless you completed one at the end of last year.

• Setting Routines for the First Days of School – I shared this last year, but it’s a good one. In the latest issue of ASCD Express, UC Berkeley philosophy professor Alva Noë state “An environment, natural or human-made, reflects a compromise between design and habit.” When setting routines, teachers look for easily integrated procedures that relate to students’ needs but also help the class achieve some greater learning objective—whether that be setting expectations for independent practice, technology participation, or a respectful classroom culture. As Noë alludes, classroom habits will be shaped by the user experience. Use the first days of the new school year to draw a clear and flexible path to success for those who will travel it. This issue includes articles such as “Setting the Tone for Technology Use,” “Focus on Feelings, First,” and “Six Strategies to Support a Safe, Inclusive, and Respectful Classroom.”

• 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 4 (M)
Labor Day – No School

September 5 (T)
8:00-10:00, Potential Staff Meeting CANCELLED
10:00, Q&A Session for New Staff – Optional (Conference Room)
10:00-12:00, Preschool Open House
1:00-2:00, Meet Your Teacher
2:00-3:00, Allan to Student Meeting (Conference Room)
3:15-3:45, PBIS for New Staff (Rae’s Room, Room 1)

September 6 (W)
Classes Begin
PBIS Monthly Theme – Safety
easyCBM Testing Window Opens
7:15-8:00, Cup of Joe with the PTO (Front of School)

September 7 (H)
Regular Day

September 8 (F)
10:10, Allan Reading to Class

September 11 (M)
Library Begins

September 12 (T)
8:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting CANCELLED
2:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, Room 23)

September 13 (W)
Cookie Dough Fundraiser Begins
2:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, Room 1)
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)

September 14 (H)
12:00-3:30, Allan to ILT (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, Room 24)

September 15 (F)
9:00-1:00, OSEA Site Visit w/Members (Staff Room)

Let’s make the first week with kids a great one!

Allan