https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=7433
Greetings Roadrunners,
Thank you to all the staff who came out for the PTO Spaghetti Dinner/BINGO Night! It wasn’t a huge turnout of families, but there was yummy food and lots of fun!
Fifteen items of note for this week:
• Science Investigation #1 by March – One science item I left off last week’s science kit notes is the goal for all 4J elementary students to complete Investigation #1 before March 1st. Downtown is follow up with principals to measure Kit #2 implementation, as well as scheduling some times for school walk-throughs. Please let me know if there are supports that will help you with science implementation.
• PTO Meeting, Tuesday at 6:00 and Board Members Needed for 18/19 – Tuesday at 6:00 in the Community Room will be the January PTO meeting. On a related note, most of our current PTO Board is moving on next year, so if you know of any parents who’d be good, willing, and able to help out next year, please encourage them to become involved. We have a dynamite PTO right now who does a lot more than is necessarily expected, but we really just need one or two fundraisers and a school carnival. Hope to see you there and also any potential future board members!
• PE/Music Semester Transition – Ronny and Siera’s last day teaching will be Thursday, Feb. 1st (Ronny is headed to River Road and Siera going to Spring Creek) and starting Monday, Feb. 5th, Michelle Lampe will begin teaching PE and David Adee will begin teaching Music. The second semester schedule is the same as first semester except that PE and Music slots will flip-flop, meaning your PE time is now your Music time and your Music times are now your PE times. Linked here is an updated Second Semester Specialist Schedule (XLS and PDF) and is also on the Howard Google Team Drive. Ronny & Siera, we’ll miss having you here, and Michelle and David, welcome to Howard!
• Major-Minor Behavior Matrix – Linked here is the 4J Elementary Behavior Matrix, which includes a handy grid on pages three and four with guidelines on when we should respond to misbehavior with a Redirect/Reteach (Uh-Oh/Level 1), a Minor Referral (Level 2), or a Major Referral (Level 3). For example, for Disrespect/Noncompliance, a Level 1 is appropriate for passive refusal to participate, with very slow response to request, a Level 2 is appropriate for ignoring a reasonable request with a prolonged refusal to participate, and a Level 3 would be appropriate for repeated refusal that leads to substantial and ongoing disruption. Other guidelines are for Disruption, Inappropriate Language, Fighting/Aggression, Teasing/Harassment, Property Damage, and Lying/Cheating/Theft. And as we all know, the referral forms mean nothing and it’s all in our reteaching, reinforcing, and consistency that helps to improve student behavior.
• 19 Big and Small Classroom Management Strategies – Related to the above, this Edutopia article has some excellent behavior management reminders (even if it was written by a 12th grade English teacher). A good reminder I know I sometimes forget is #2, which said, “Keep your consequences as minimal as possible – When a rule is broken, assign the smallest consequence possible and see if that gets the job done. Don’t use up big consequences too fast.” There’s also plenty of good small reminders, like never punish an entire class or give students choices or publicly announce classroom management goals. Read on for more!
• TeacherVUE Synergy App for Attendance – The TeacherVUE Synergy app (iOS and Android) a few years ago was discouraged from being used to take attendance because of reliability issues, but Jenny gave it a try this week and it seems to be working now. Using the app on your phone or tablet can be easier for taking attendance than on your computer if teachers want to download and use it. In setting it up, just use the URL https://sis.4j.lane.edu/
• Copier Printing on Tag Paper – The downstairs printers were jamming multiple times last week and when Steve the repair guy came to look at it, he said it looks like people have been putting tag paper where regular paper goes and that is the cause of the jamming. If you want to print on tag paper, remember to put the paper in the tray for tag paper or select the specific setting to print from the drawers. It is happening with both printers downstairs and my guess is it’s happening with the printer upstairs as well.
• Staff Use of Library Computers – Two reminder for staff using the library computers to check email. One, remember to log out of your email so students don’t have access to your information (closing the window or tab does not log you out). Two, please leave the web browser how you found it (with the library student search webpage open).
• No Slime! – It’s okay for teachers to make or use slime in your classroom, but we can’t have slime leave classrooms. It’s getting to be a mess in the library, cafeteria, playground, and other areas around the building. If kids ask, you can tell them this falls under the no-toys-at-school rule.
• Superboundary Change for Next Year – River Road and Howard have a shared “superboundary” where students can get bussing to either school and receive a priority when doing school choice. For next year, the superboundary is opening up so that students living in either the River Road or Howard attendance areas can attend either school without having to go through school choice. For Howard, this means we may see a jump in the number of students coming here, as we have a few River Road student on our wait list. In the past, the school choice process allowed us to control our class sizes from getting too big, but for the past two years the expectation has been that we take all new non-Spanish speaking students grades 2-5 from River Road, so this change essentially matches the policy with the current practice. I did warn downtown that this could potentially open the flood gates (we get at least a couple calls a week from River Road families wanting to come to Howard) and that they need to be prepared to provide additional FTE.
• Seesaw Update & Tips – I wanted to let teachers know we’ve purchased a 3-year license with Seesaw for the pro version, so please feel free to use this amazing communication tech tool with your families! We have several teachers who are VERY active users of Seesaw who I’m sure have plenty of good advice for anyone wanting to know more, but linked here are some useful step-by-step grade-specific Get Started Guides that have everything you need to introduce Seesaw to your students including the Seesaw Student Challenge, task cards, badges, and certificates. Seesaw also offers an in-app, self-paced online course once your accounts is setup. I’ll likely plan to do a Seesaw review/training at a future staff meeting, but feel free to let me or any of your techie colleagues know if you have any questions.
▪ District Admin Updates – Cydney Vandercar, Director of HR, is assuming additional leadership responsibilities for the district’s operational departments in the reinstated role of Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services. As Assistant Superintendent, Cydney now oversees the district’s operational departments and services, including human resources, business services, financial operations, food services, technology, transportation, and facilities, while the Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Dr. Charis McGaughy, oversees instructional services. Another change down the road from us is Spring Creek Elementary School’s principal, Raquel Gwynn, has accepted a position with the Oregon Department of Education and will be leaving 4J in early February. Larry Sullivan, 4J’s prior special education director, will step in as interim principal at Spring Creek for the remainder of the school year.
• REPEAT: Care Team Referrals Due Friday – The January Student Care Team is next week, so any new referrals are due to me this Friday. Linked here is the 4J Release Form to get signed, but you can also refer “hypothetical” student or family situations. Let me know if you have any questions.
• REPEAT: PRIDE Awards, January 17th – This Wednesday during lunchtime in the cafeteria will be our PRIDE Awards for Integrity. If you haven’t already, teachers should remind students about PRIDE and the meaning of Integrity (Being Honest), and then pick 2-4 students who have demonstrated this trait. Please get the PRIDE Integrity Certificates to me before Tuesday.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:
January 15 (M)
Martin Luther King Jr. Day – No SchoolJanuary 16 (T)
Fluoride Varnish
Howard Winter easyCBM Benchmarking Begins
8:00-8:30, Allan Meeting with Parent (Office)
2:30-3:30, Staff Meeting (Ashley’s Classroom)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Community Room)January 17 (W)
9:00, December Book Winners (Conference Room)
11:00-12:45, PRIDE Awards at Lunch (Cafeteria)
1:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
2:30-3:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)January 18 (H)
9:15-9:45, 5th Grade Music Performance (Gym)
10:00-3:00, Allan to ILT Meeting (Ed Center)
12:00-12:30, KG Music Performance (Gym)
1:00-1:30, 4th Grade Music Performance (Gym)January 19 (F)
7:30-11:30, 5th – Number Talks Peer Observations
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
10:15-10:45, 1st Grade Music Performance (Gym)
12:30-1:00, 3rd Grade Music Performance (Gym)
1:30-2:00, 2nd Grade Music Performance (Gym)January 22 (M)
School Choice Week #2
9:30, Allan leading school choice tour
2:30-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)January 23 (T)
8:15-11:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:30-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Mellissa/Mariah’s Room)
6:00-7:00, School Choice Evening Presentation (Library)January 24 (W)
7:30-11:30, 2nd – Number Talks Peer Observations
1:30-2:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
2:30-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)January 25 (H)
February Newsletter Articles Due
7:30-11:30, KG – Number Talks Peer Observations
6:30-7:30, KG (Sugar) Read In Your JammiesJanuary 26 (F)
Howard Winter easyCBM Benchmarking Ends
7:30-11:30, 1st – Number Talks Peer Observations
10:30-12:45, January Birthday Lunches with the Principals (Community Room)January 27 (SA)
8:00, Staff Social – Queens of the Stone Age/Eagles of Death Metal Concert (Hult Center)
Have a great week, everyone!
Allan
