https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=7021
Howdy Everyone,
Sorry, I thought these would get shorter, but…
Thirty items of note for this week:
• Math Updates – Jaimee Massie sent a lengthy email with updates to Math Teacher Leaders and principals, but the abridged version is:
• Parent Communication: Linked here is a Parent Math Info flyer explaining the new adoption, which we’ll send with the October newsletter and also run off copies to distribute in classrooms at Open House/Curriculum Night. I’ve asked downtown if this will be translated into Spanish and if it’s not, we’ll do it ourselves. 4J has also launched a Family and Community Math Resource webpage that will be updated over the year.
• Manipulatives: Let me know if you DO NOT want to store your math manipulatives plastic tub in your classroom. Also, rekenreks are coming in class sets of 50 for each K-2 teacher, and are to be considered part of the manipulative kits for primary. Why 50? Kits will have extras to replace lost or broken items over the years.
• Printing: Unit 2 will be in buildings early this week, but is already available in PDF on the Math Full Lesson Plans section of the 4J LearnZillion website, as are the student workbooks. The goal is to get teacher’s guides out for the first half of the year to assist planning by early October and have 2-3 units of student materials delivered a month. Exit Tickets (one pager/two per page) can be found on each Unit page under the Unit Planner, next to the Games. These are a building/teacher print budget responsibility IF teacher’s choose to use them. Printable Summative Assessments are currently housed on the Grade-Level Page but will slowly be incorporated into Unit Pages, as they are currently only one large file for all units per grade.
• Planning & Prep: Some teachers have wondered about prepping games or tasks when blacklines are located in the student workbook. Alternatives to cutting out pages/resources out of student workbooks? Consider using a set of Investigations Cards when possible, make a cardstock partner/class set before the lesson, assign part of the work to a set of students rather than all students assembling individually, or set up as morning work. Downtown will take feedback on where resources are best located for next year. They wanted to ensure teachers and students had any resources they needed this year. Also, emphasize preparing for a KEY CONCEPT rather than a lesson. Consider previewing slides and videos for all 2-4 lessons of the key concept to know the target. And as we move into Unit 1, consider leveraging routines from Unit 0 and exploring the Curriculum Guide. Some questions to ask when planning; What hands-on tools do my kids need from the kit? What questions from the Curriculum Guide should I be ready to ask? How will students share their thinking?
• Student Accounts: All students are uploaded (and updated) nightly. Passwords for LearnZillion are student lunch numbers. If teachers wish to make rosters, directions can be found in the PD Library under Tips and Tools.
• Restraint & Seclusion Policy – SSD sent the following linked email to principals, which is a reminder about district policy and state laws regarding restraint and seclusion of students. Restraint is defined as the restriction of a student’s movement by one or more persons holding the student or applying physical pressure upon the student (which can mean as little as holding a student by the hand or arm when they do not want held). Seclusion is defined as the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room from which the student is physically prevented from leaving (which could mean blocking a student from leaving the Quiet Room or another enclosed space). Restraint and seclusion are not forbidden, but can only be done if there is an imminent threat to safety and can only be done for a very short duration of time.
If a student has an incident of physical restraint or seclusion, either by trained or untrained staff, the following steps must be followed:
1. Contact the parent as soon as possible; schools must provide verbal or electronic notification of incident by end of school day
2. Complete required documentation and provide written documentation to the family
3. Within 48 hours, hold a debriefing meeting with administrator, staff members involved in the intervention, and invite the parent/guardian. Written notes must be taken and a copy of the written notes must be provided to a parent or guardian of the student, whether or not they are able to attend.
4. If there have been 5 or more incidents of restraint and seclusion a team must convene to revise the FBA/ BSP
5. Make sure that you are in communication with your SSD administrator and behavior consultant if interventions are not effective
6. If your school needs more training and assistance with conducting FBAs and BSPs, please register for the trainings offered this fall and/or reach out to your behavior consultant for coaching.Please see the linked Guidelines for Restrain and Seclusion for more information.
• Mandatory Bus Safety Training 2017-2018 – As required by OAR 581-53-002, all students must receive instruction on bus safety before winter break. Principals were sent the linked email and Lori forwarded it to staff, but the intent of the rule is to reach the occasional riders who find themselves on a bus because of a field trip or other activity. Linked here are bus safety information sheets (English and Spanish) classroom teachers can teach from, but to meet the training requirement, the easiest method is by showing the the quaint 1997 bus safety video The Safest Way Out. Once classroom teachers have completed your chosen method of meeting the requirement, please email Lori the date and the training method you used (video or teacher created lesson).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xPFw8PyaAo
• Fire Drill, Wednesday at 8:45 – Linked here is the updated Fire Drill Evacuation Map, which shows the paths different wings should exit by and where classes should line up. . The drill will be at 8:45 on Wednesday.
• Teachers – Have a red and green card to flash Lori or myself to indicate if all your students are all accounted for (green) or not (red). Let Lori or I know who your missing students are and we will try to locate them. If you have students at Title, ELD, SPED, or another pull-out, those students stay with that group and classroom teacher hold up greet if all of the students you’re in charge of at that time are accounted for. If your class is at Music or PE, meet your class at the PE and Music locations to make sure all students are accounted for. I have a few extra red and green cards that I will leave on the downstairs workroom table (though a thumbs-up or thumbs-down works in a pinch).
• Specialists (minus PE & Music) – Have a student lists of who is in each of your groups to determine if anyone is missing.
Let me know if you have any questions.• Emergency Procedures Manual – Related to the above, if you do not have or have been unable to locate your Emergency Procedures Manual (the tabbed, rainbow colored, spiral bound, document), please let me know and I’ll get you one. These should be clearly posted in your classroom near your door or by your phone.
• Larry Soberman Subbing on Thursday – I’m out of the building this Thursday at an all-day training, but retired Twin Oaks principal Larry Soberman will be covering for me. I’ll be over at the Lane ESD, so if anything out of the ordinary comes up, I can zip on back pretty quick.
• Howard Roadrunner Pledge – It’s come to my attention that the Spanish translation of the Howard Roadrunner Pledge is a rather awkward translation. We now have a more accurate translation that we’ll begin using once we get updated signs and/or translations to stick on top of our current signs. I’ll keep you all posted once we figure out the best way to update our classroom pledge signs.
Soy un correcaminos de la escuela Howard.
Yo soy prudente, amable y responsable.Soy un individuo único,
y soy parte de la familia de la escuela Howard.Tomo buenas decisiones
y me emociona aprender.Somos los correcaminos de la escuela Howard,
¡y el día de hoy será un éxito!• LearnZillion, Number Talks PD, and let me know if you need a book – In support of the LearnZillion implementation, all elementary teachers are participating in four hours of PD related to Number Talks before winter break. We are holding our trainings at a mix of Staff Meetings and monthly Teacher Team Time Meetings. The first session will be Wednesday, October 4th, 2:30-3:30, following teacher’s one hour of uninterrupted prep. The following meetings will be Tuesday, October 17th, Wednesday, November 8th, and Wednesday, December 13th. Howard did some PD around Number Talks several years ago, so some teachers already have books, but if you DO NOT have a copy of Number Talks: Whole Number Computation by Sherry Parrish, let me know by the end of this week and I’ll make sure you have a copy for the October training.
• Building SMART Goals – Linked here are Shared Building Staff Goals that teachers are welcome to cut-and-paste into TalentEd as your own goals if you would like. The math goal likely requires a bit of an explanation, but it’s aligned with the Number Talks PD mentioned above and is something classroom teachers will already be doing. I’ll give some additional explanation at the Oct. 4th. meeting. Teachers are also welcome to develop your own goals, but all goals are to be entered by October 15th.
• Open House/Curriculum Night Plan – At last week’s Staff Meeting we decided to change the format of our Curriculum Night and are rebranding it Open House in hopes of improving our family turnout. Below is an article going out in the October Newsletter describing the event. I’m working on updating the flyer so we can send that home soon.
Open House, formerly known as Curriculum Night, is scheduled for Wednesday, October 11th. We’re changing the format of this event to be less of a formal presentation by teachers to being a more casual chance for families (both kids and adults) to visit classrooms and to get a chance to connect with teachers. After families visit classrooms, you’ll be given a class passport your family can redeem for a pizza dinner in the cafeteria. Classrooms will be open from 5:45-6:45 and pizza will be served in the cafeteria 6:00-7:00. Howard hosts a school-wide Title I Program. As such, this evening will also provide families with an opportunity to learn more about the academic services provided through Title I. A presentation will be offered at 6:00 in the library and families are encouraged to attend. Hope to see you there!
Click image for Pinterest Open House scavenger hunt ideas
• Natives Program Information – Brenda Brainard, the Natives Program Director, shared this information at our last Staff Meeting, but linked is a scan of the Title VII Student Eligibility Certification form, the NATIVES Program brochure, flyer, and the latest newsletter . I’ll leave a pile of certification forms and flyers under staff mailboxes. Not posted here, but attached in the email is the list of our current students who are identified as Native American. And lastly, here’s a link to the 4J NATIVES Program website, which lists the different services available to students, classrooms and schools, along with contact information for how to access these services.
• Oct 12th Howard PD Day – The first Howard PD Day will be Thursday, October 12th. I’ll send out a more detailed agenda after confirming times with the Technology Department, but we will meet starting at 8:00 in the cafeteria for a joint training with Kelly Middle School staff on using Google Classroom.
• Tech Department Troubleshooter Available 9/25 – Misty Jackson from the Technology Department will be at Howard all day again on Monday, September 25th to help troubleshoot, train, or assist staff on any technology related topic. Continue to send any tech issues you have to our TSS, Peggy, at 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu, but if you’d like to work with Misty on Monday, email her directly at jackson_misty@4j.lane.edu
• Classroom Audio Tech Tip – When you switch between Enzo and HDMI or VGA video inputs, Enzo automatically changes your laptop audio preferences to soundflower. If you plug the computer back into the wall (HDMI or VGA), you’ll have to go into your System Preferences and switch the sound output to headphones.
• Seesaw – Angela shared the excellent home/school communication app, Seesaw, at last week’s Staff Meeting. Here’s a link to step-by-step instructions on Setting Up Your Classroom and another for Adding Students to Your Class.
• Tech Subscription Survey Results – The results of the Tech Subscription Survey are in and the winning subscriptions in order are Tumblebooks, Spelling City, News-o-matic, and in last place Bookflix. Survey results are posted in the TLT folder on the Howard Google Team Drive. We will purchase a site license for Tumbebooks and also Spelling City for teachers who want it. With the remaining money, I’ll see how many teachers want News-o-matic and see what we can afford. I’ll come around this week to check in with teachers, but also feel free to email me if you want Spelling City and/or News-o-matic.
• PTO Cookie Dough Orders Due Wednesday – Classroom teachers, please remind your students that cookie dough orders are due this Wednesday. As envelopes get turned in, please place them in the box on the counter under staff mailboxes. Orders will be delivered and available for pick-up Thursday, October 19th.
• Teacher Classroom Funds – The PTO cut us a check for teacher funds and they gave us significantly more this year, so even though we have far more students and staff than we did last year, and thanks to the generosity and fundraising efforts of the PTO, we are able to increase the per pupil allocation for classroom funds from $17 per student to $20.50 per student. We’ll continue doing a per pupil allocation to differentiate between larger and smaller classes, which isn’t a perfect system since class sizes fluctuate over the course of the year, but I believe it’s the fairest way to divide the funds and to account for differences in class sizes. Specialists will again receive $125. See the linked PTO Funds List for the amount breakdown. There is some left over in this amount that goes into a principal slush type fund, that we typically use for things like buying shoes, backpacks, and such to help student/family in needs.
• Birthday Lunches with the Principal – For staff new to Howard, each month I do “Birthday Lunches with the Principal” for all the students who have birthdays that month. This Friday I’ll have lunches with students in the Community Room who have August and September birthday. Not linked here, but attached in my email is a list of all the students who have August and September birthdays sorted by grade level and teacher.
• Optional Leadership Plan Meeting – Monday at 2:30 will be an optional meeting to create draft Leadership Plans, which we’ll vote on at the October Staff Meeting. Linked here is last year’s plan. The one suggestion I’ve heard so far is to allocate more days for our Math Teacher Leaders to compensate for all of their duties related to the LearnZillion implementation.
• Instructional Technology Visit – Kim Finch, 4J Instructional Technology Administrator, is visiting all elementary school to co-observe a 20-30 minute lesson in a classroom with a teacher that is comfortable and willing to have us see how students are using the technology. For this co-observation, the teacher does not need to do anything special, or do anything that requires additional planning. Please let me know if any of teachers are willing to volunteer, specialists included.
• DHS Reporting Form – Sadly, we’ve already had to make a few child welfare calls to DHS this year, but I wanted to remind staff that when you make calls to be sure to notify me and to also complete an Abuse Reporting Form (Word and PDF) so I can track dates, concerns, and how many calls we’ve made for individual student. Forms are also available in the filing cabinet by Bianca’s desk. All school employees are mandatory reporters, so if you need to call, the phone number is (541) 349-4444. Feel free to talk with me if you’re ever unsure about how to handle a particular situation.
• District & Howard Staff Orientation Check-Lists Due Friday – The checklist acknowledgment forms (District and Howard) to indicate that you have read and understood the District Back-to-School Memo (PDF) and the Howard Staff Handbook are due to me this Friday. I’ll plan to start bugging individual staff members Wednesday who haven’t turned in their acknowledgement forms. This is a requirement of all classified and licensed staff.
• Classified & Licensed Self Assessment Due Friday – All staff, both classified and licensed, need to complete a self assessment by this Friday. 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.
• District Items – Downtown asked principals to share several items of note with staff:
• Facilities Improvement Request (FIP) – Please do not begin any facilities changes or additions to school property without getting approval from the Facilities Department. There is now a form you need to complete first to submit a request. If you begin a process without getting approval, you will be asked to remove the facility change.
• Verify Government Agencies before Providing Student or Staff Information – The proper protocol to follow if an outside agency (FBI, CIA, another police department from another city or state, Homeland Security, etc.) calls and asks you for information about one of our students and/or staff members, is to take their name, number and agency name and call the Eugene Police Department at (541) 682-8189 to ask them to verify the caller.
• 4J FAQ for Supporting Undocumented Students – Please review and familiarize yourself with the linked 4J FAQ for Supporting Undocumented Students 2017.
• Trauma Informed Care Resources – There are some excellent resources (articles, infographics and other) at the ECHO Parenting website, which included many downloadable resource materials for both parents and educators.
• DACA Renewal Clinic – Please share this flyer with families as you see fit. ClinicLatinx Alliance of Lane County (of which Eugene 4J is a participating member) is hosting this clinic. The time with lawyers is free but the US government charges $495 dollars for each renewal form. There will be some partial and full scholarships available for the government fees. Call Centro Latino Americano at (541) 687-2667 to make an appointment.
• Grant Opportunities – Here are a few grant opportunities folks can feel free to apply to, but let me know if you are applying for anything over $5,000 as we have to submit an approval form to downtown. Quite a few staff members have written grants before so you might save yourself some time by asking/emailing colleagues if they have written a grant for _______ that you might copy. I have quite a few myself if anyone is thinking of applying for anything.
• SELCO SPARK Grants – SELCO SPARK Grants will fund most any school based projects with the exception of paying for food, prizes, field trips, or salaries. No deadline for application is listed.
• Lowe’s Small Toolbox for Education – Lowe’s Small Toolbox for Education grant program funds grants from $2,000-$5,000 for facility renovations and safety improvements, technology upgrades and tools for STEM programs. They do not pay for stipends, salaries, artists in residence, field trips, or third party funding. Applications are due September 29th.
• Northwest Community Credit Union’s Mini Grants – Northwest Community Credit Union funded one Howard grant last year for art supplies. They provide grants for $100-$1,500 for specific items/resources needed to engage students and facilitate learning, but not for professional development, incentives or rewards, or facilities/grounds improvements. Applications are due October 15th.
• Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund – The Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund will provide grants of an unlimited amount with a $1,000 minimum. They list their focus areas as Affordable Housing and Shelter, Education and Youth Development, Environmental Stewardship Human Services, and Civic and Cultural Growth. Applications are due October 30th.
• Three Rivers Foundation – The Three Rivers Foundation grants open December 1st. They do not list a minimum or maximum amount and simply list “Education” as their top program priority, so you can probably ask for most anything from them.
• Franz Bakery Foundation – The Franz Bakery Foundation focuses on Families and Youth Development and Hunger Reduction. They offer both product and cash donations and do not seem to have a minimum or maximum. No deadline was listed, so it must be ongoing.
• District Admin Updates – HR Administrator Randi Bowers-Payne is moving up and on. She is taking on a leadership position as the City of Eugene’s Director of Risk Services. Bernadette Adeniran will fill her role on an interim basis, until the position is posted and filled.
• Tips for student-centered learning – Student-centered learning should consist of giving students “voice and choice,” asserts Katherine Goyette, educational technology and integrated studies consultant for the Tulare County Office of Education in California. In this article, she offers several tips for student-centered learning.
• Use these apps to enhance math lessons – There are many apps available that math teachers can integrate into their lessons to enhance student learning and give them real-world math experiences, writes educator Fang Wang. In this EdWeek blog post, Wang outlines five apps that provide interactive math lessons.
• 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 25 (M)
Banned Books Week
Misty Jackson from Tech Department Available for Troubleshooting
8:30, Allan Meeting with Kim Finch (Office)
2:30-3:00, Optional Leadership Plan Development Meeting (Conference Room)September 26 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, Room 23)
4:00-8:00, District First Aid/CPR Class (Library)September 27 (W)
Cookie Dough Fundraiser Envelopes Due
8:45, Fire Drill
10:00-5:00, Allan to Oregon Ed Tech PD (Lane ESD)September 28 (H)
Larry Soberman Subbing for Allan
8:00-3:00, Allan to Oregon Ed Tech PD (ESD)
11:00, Preschool Office of Child Care Inspection
12:00-3:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)September 29 (F)
First PTO Popcorn Friday!
9:00, Open House Translations Due to Bianca
11:00-12:50, Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Community Room)
8:00, Janet Jackson Concert (Moda Center)October 2 (M)
PBIS Monthly Theme – Bully-Proofing
National Custodial Workers Recognition Day
easyCBM Testing ClosesOctober 3 (T)
Vision Screening
9:00-11:30, Allan Meeting with SRO Supervisor (Office)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)October 4 (W)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
2:30-3:30, Teacher Team Time – Number Talks Session 1 (Volunteer’s Classroom)
2:30-4:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Meeting (Ed Center)SKIPPING
4:00-5:00, Allan to North Region Principals’ Meeting (NEHS)October 5 (H)
Regular DayOctober 6 (F)
Regular Day
To reinforce my quote at the top of this post, I would have posted pictures from last week’s Friday at 4:00, but that may not be appropriate for a 4J blog. :) Have a good week, everyone!
Allan
