https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=7048
Hello Awesome Howard Staff!
Monday is National Custodial Workers Recognition Day, so I’d like to take a moment to recognize the work of Crystal, Nigel, and Auburn for keeping our building running smoothly. You’re the best!
Eighteen items of note for this week:
• Staffing Updates – Susan Schueller, a new Life Skills EA, is taking a leave, so SSD is working to fill the position. For now we’ll have subs, but I’ll let folks know once we have someone more permanent in place. Also, our new BEST Coordinator, Joshua Wrolstad, has left his position for another opportunity. The position will be posted this week if you know someone good, but do know there is a possibility the start date of BEST may be delayed.
• Monthly PBIS Focus: Bully-Proofing – The Howard October PBIS monthly focus is Bully-Proofing, so remember the PBIS/Caring School Community Cheat Sheet, which matches our PBIS monthly themes with Caring School Community class meeting lessons. This is a nice way to tie the PBIS and CSC together
• Walk + Roll to School Day, Oct 4th – Ronny sent a couple emails earlier, but remind your students that this Wednesday is Walk + Roll to School Day, where students are encouraged to walk, skateboard, bike, scooter, or use another non-motorized mode of transportation to get to school this day. There will be stickers and tattoos for all students who participate as well as a raffle for two helmets, two sets of skate-pads, and a scooter! I’ll announce the winners at the end of the day.
• Open House (formerly Curriculum Night), Wednesday, Oct. 11th– Linked here is a flyer for the 2017 Howard Open House, formerly known as Curriculum Night. Office staff will put class sets, back-to-back in English and Spanish, in teacher mailboxes to go home in Friday Folders. The start and end times will stay the same as what we’ve already advertised, with classrooms and specialist areas open 5:45-6:45, pizza being served in the cafeteria 6:00-7:00, and a Title 1 Presentation in the library at 6:00. Let me know if you have any questions.
• Howard PD Day, Thursday, Oct 12th – Our first Howard PD day of the year will focus on Google Classroom. I’m waiting on the final agenda from the Tech Department, but we’ll start at 8:00 in the cafeteria and will go until 12:00. Classified staff are invited to attend, but not required.
• State In-Service Day, Friday, Oct 13th – Friday, October 13th is State In-Service day. This is a regular work day for administrators and 192 & 196-day classified staff. For classified staff, you are required to attend an ALICE training (see item below) if you have not already been trained. If you’ve already attended a training, this would be a good day to take any accumulated comp time (which officially is not supposed to be accumulated without giving me prior notice). For licensed staff, this is a non-contract day. If you are ever wondering about work year dates, most all of your questions can be answered on the 4J Employee Work Year Calendars webpage.
• District ALICE Training for New Staff – 4J is holding an ALICE training October 13th, 8:30- 11:30 at Churchill High School for staff new to the district who have not previously received ALICE training. This is a required training for any untrained classified staff, but this is a non-contract day for licensed staff, so it is an optional training for licensed staff members. Registration is required, which you can do by clicking this ALICE Training Registration link.
For staff unfamiliar with ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate), it is a response protocol to emergency situations, such as an active shooter, which 4J and many other Oregon school districts have adopted and are now teaching students. This is a difficult and emotional matter for adults, but for students who don’t have the perspective we have as adults, this is simply another emergency dill.
• Student ALICE Training & Staff Refresher – With Safety Week coming up at the end of the month, I wanted teachers to note on the calendar that on Wednesday, November 1st, all classrooms are to teach the ALICE Drill Protocols before we conduct the drill on Thursday, November 2nd. I’ll hold an optional refresher training for staff on Thursday, October 26th at 2:30 in the Conference Room for new staff and anyone who wants to review how to teach the ALICE Protocol Student Lesson.
Linked here is the PowerPoint presentation (and a PDF version with notes) that classroom teachers will use to teach the safety drills to students on Wednesday, Nov. 1st. After going through the PowerPoint, teachers will read the book I’m Not Scared, I’m Prepared (let me know if you do not have a copy of the book) with the linked guiding questions. The following day on Thursday, Nov. 2nd at 9:00, we’ll practice the Lockdown: Evacuation Drill. For that drill I will press the office lockdown button (dropping curtains, locking exterior doors, and closing [not locking] doors to each wing) and will announce the following:
Attention students, staff and visitors: This is a LOCKDOWN: EVACUATE DRILL, this is a LOCKDOWN: EVACUATE DRILL. Repeat, this is a NOT A REAL EMERGENCY. THIS IS A DRILL. We are pretending there is a dangerous person (or intruder) in the building on the other side of the building from your classroom. We are pretending there is a dangerous person (or intruder) in the building on the other side of the building from your classroom. WE ARE IN A LOCKDOWN: EVACUATE DRILL.
Teachers will then direct students to evacuate the building to the nearest location on the perimeter of the school grounds. Classes will stop at the edge of the property and wait for my all-clear announcement. In a real emergency, students and staff would evacuate well past the edge of the property, getting much further away. I’ll share more details at the refresher training, but those are the basics. Please let me know if you have any questions.
• 17-18 Leadership Plan Proposals – Linked here are three Proposed 2017-2018 Leadership Plans for distributing 22 sub days among no more than 7 licensed staff members. Plan A is the same as last year except it eliminated the Science Leader and moved those days to the Math Leaders. Plan B is the same as Plan A except it moves two additional days from the Tech Leader to the Math Leaders. Plan C is the same as Plan A except it instead moves two additional days from the PBIS Leader to the Math Leaders. If anyone has other proposals for new positions or different sub day allocations, let me know soon so I can send it out to everyone before the October Staff Meeting where we’ll vote on a final plan.
Plan A:
PBIS Leader: 3 days
IPBS Co-Leaders: 10 days
Technology Leader: 4 days
Literacy Leader: 2 days
Math Co-Leaders: 3 daysPlan B:
PBIS Leader: 3 days
IPBS Co-Leaders: 10 days
Technology Leader: 2 days
Literacy Leader: 2 days
Math Co-Leaders: 5 daysPlan C:
PBIS Leader: 1 days
IPBS Co-Leaders: 10 days
Technology Leader: 4 days
Literacy Leader: 2 days
Math Co-Leaders: 5 days• ThinkCentral Teacher Log-In – A few teachers (and tech savvy ones at that) contacted me last week having problems with the teacher log-in for ThinkCentral. Username and passwords are:
USERNAME: your full email address (i.e. chinn@4j.lane.edu)
PASSWORD: Capital first and last initials, followed by _t, followed by your 6-digit employee ID number (i.e. AC_t654321)If you continue to have trouble logging in, you can also reset your password (though it may revert back to the above password after the nightly sync with Synergy). To get a new password, select your state, district, and school from the pull-down menus on the login page, enter your full email address for the username (chinn@4j.lane.edu), and click Reset Password. You will receive an email with instructions on resetting your password.
If you do not get an email or get a message that it can’t find an account, send an email to 4jdesktop@4j.lane.edu that includes the school name so Tech Department staff know where to give your access. Also, I still have admin access to ThinkCentral from when Howard piloted Journeys a few years ago and can reset your password.
• Track Closed a Few Days – Facilities staff are going to add some rubber to the synthetic turf field this week. This will put the field out of commission for at least a day or two while it’s being prepared and installed. I haven’t gotten firm dates when this will happen, but I’m sure it’ll be obvious when they’re working and I’ve asked them to post signs or tape for when it’s closed.
• Instructional Technology Fall Workshops – A few staff members have asked where go to register for any of the Instructional Technology workshops this fall. Just go the the 4J Workshops webpage. There is an Introduction to SMART Notebook workshop here at Howard on October 16th, which I’d encourage anyone to attend who is not familiar with the applicaiton. All workshops have PDUs for attending. If you need help registering, just call or email Misty Jackson (x7567 or jackson_misty@4j.lane.edu) for help.
• Oregon College Savings Plan – Be College Ready brings the Oregon College Savings Plan directly into elementary schools, providing school supplies promoting the college savings to families. I’ve placed an order for the free homework folders, pencils, and bookmarks for every student, along with brochures, which teachers can send home. Also, 20 families from each of the five congressional districts will be eligible to win a $100 Oregon College Savings Plan account.
• School Choice Calendar Changes – As an FYI, there will be some changes to how the school choice process works this year. Linked here is the complete email sent to principals and secretaries, but she Reader’s Digest version is that the visitation and application period will be only in January and not February, with an application deadline of January 31st. The School Showcase will still happen, but will be earlier in the year and only 2 hours.
• NEHS Run to Stay Warm! – North Eugene High School staff are organizing a North Region presence at EWEB’s Run to Stay Warm, a race that benefits EWEB customers who are having difficulties paying their utility bills. The race has a 5k, 10k, and Half-Marathon. The NEHS community is offered a $5 discount code for the race. You can register online at their website or in person at EWEB’s office at 500 E. 4th, and use the discount code HSRTSW17. Feel free to use the discount code and share it with families and students.
• Talk Time: Conversational English – Feel free to share this Eugene Public Library event with families as you see appropriate. “Learning English? Come meet other learners and practice together! Drop in for ‘Talk Time,’ a casual, conversational gathering at the Downtown Eugene Public Library on Thursday, October 5, 4:00 p.m. Everyone’s welcome and admission is free. For more information, contact Eugene Public Library at 541-682-5450 or http://www.eugene-or.gov/library.”
• What’s Rigor Anyway? – In this Edutopia article, New York teacher Brian Sztabnik notes how often the word “rigor” crops up in faculty meetings, educational conferences, and worried chats with colleagues (“Is this book rigorous enough?”). But what does rigor mean?
• Making students’ work more difficult?
• Giving them more homework and classwork?
• Assigning work further up Bloom’s taxonomy or deeper on Webb’s Depth of Knowledge?Hold on, says Sztabnik. “Rigor is a result, not a cause… Rigor is not defined by the text – it comes from what students do. It is not standard across a curriculum – it is individual to each student’s needs. It is not quantified by how much gets crammed into a school day – it is measured in depth of understanding.”
Sztabnik describes how novelist David Foster Wallace taught his literary analysis course at Illinois State University. Wallace used seemingly middlebrow works like Lonesome Dove, Carrie, and Silence of the Lambs and said to his students, “Don’t let any lightweightish-looking qualities of the texts delude you into thinking this will be a blow-off-type class. These ‘popular’ texts will end up being harder than more conventionally ‘literary’ works to unpack and read critically.”
That’s the point, says Sztabnik: “Rigor is the result of work that challenges students’ thinking in new and interesting ways. It occurs when they are encouraged toward a sophisticated understanding of fundamental ideas and are driven by curiosity to discover what they don’t know… Let us aspire to something greater than making difficult work for our students. Let’s take them to that intersection of encouragement and engagement, where they confront ideas and problems that are meaningful. Let’s stretch their thinking. Let’s unleash their sophistication. And let’s foster a love of deep knowledge.”
• 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:
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
Walk + Roll to School Day
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)
9:00, Monthly Book Winners (Conference Room)
12:35, Safety Patrol Training (Community Room)October 6 (F)
Kindergarten Hearing Screening (Room 1)October 9 (M)
7:50-11:45, Data Team Meetings (Conference Room)October 10 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30 IPBS Meeting (Mellissa’s Room, Room 23)
4:00-8:00, District First Aid/CPR Class (Library)October 11 (W)
2:30-3:30 PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, Room 1)
5:45-7:00, Open House• 5:45 Classrooms Open
• 6:00 Title 1 Presentation (Library)
• 6:00 Pizza Served in Cafeteria
• 6:45 Classrooms Close
• 7:00 Pizza Dinner in Cafeteria ClosesOctober 12 (H)
No School – Howard PD Day
8:00-12:00, Howard PD w/Kelly MS Staff (Cafeteria)
12:00-3:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)October 13 (F)
No School — State In-Service Day
Regular Workday for Classified Staff
Non-Contract Day for Licensed Staff
8:30-11:30, ALICE Training for New Staff (Churchill HS)
We made it through the first month of school, everyone!
Allan
