October 15, 2018

By Allan  

 

Greetings Everyone,

We had a great turnout for our Open House this past week. I haven’t tallied the sign-in sheets yet, but based on pizza slices we had a ton of families attend. Nice work, everyone, making Howard such a welcoming place for families!

Twenty items of note for this week:

• Staffing Updates – Anita Beiker has been hired as our newest CLC 1:1 EA, which has currently been filled by subs. Anita has worked in Bethel as an EA in their equivalent of a CLC-B. For the student she’s working with, she has experience from her time working at Head Start assisting a student with the exact same medical conditions. Anita will start this Wednesday, so please welcome her to the AWESOME Howard Team!

• Friday Math PLC – This Friday’s Early Release PD is earmarked to be a PLC Meeting Time. Downtown hasn’t given principals direction on this day yet, but my plan in the meantime will be to finish up the Collective Agreements portion of the Mission/Vision work we ran out of time on last Thursday. I’ll email teachers an updated Vision Statement once I finished summarizing the green dot high priority items.

• Oct. 11th PD Follow-Up – Three items from last Thursday’s PD:

• Meeting Documents & Posters – The slides, handouts, and posters from Thursday’s PD are located on the Howard Team Drive under Meetings/Teams > Staff Meetings > 2018-2019 > Minutes > 2018-10-11

• Student Supervision Going to Recess and Dismissal – Classroom teachers, remind your students to walk in the hallways, stairs, and courtyards when going to recess and at the end of the day at dismissal. This was a concern brought up at the Active Supervision training. Older grades may continue to allow students to walk themselves at these times, but teachers may need to start escorting students if problems persist. Daily reminders will likely help.

• Keep Support Staff in the Loop on Kids – Another ask from the Active Supervision training, please keep classified staff in the loop on any big changes kids might be going through (I.e. incarcerated parent, death in the family, placed into foster care, etc.). Email may be the easiest method. Linked here is the Supervision Schedule, listing who is on which recess and lunch.

• Roadrunner Assembly Details Coming – In light of most schools no longer doing PRIDE (it was originally a North HS thing they no longer do) we’re cancelling Friday’s PRIDE Assembly (also due to an already busy week), so stay tuned for a new date and for new details on a rebooted Roadrunner Award Assembly!

• 18-19 Leadership Plan Proposals – We’ve had a third Leadership Plan submitted, so linked here are Updated 2018-2019 Leadership Plans Proposals (linked here is a short version with just the day distribution) for distributing 22 sub days among no more than 7 licensed staff members. Plan A is the same as last year. Plan B keeps the same days for PBIS & IPBS (13 days) and for the Literacy Leader (2 days), and has an Equity Leader (3 days) and Technology Co-Leaders (4 days). Plan C keeps PBIS & IPBS (13 days) and Literacy (2 days), and has an Equity Leader (2 days), one Technology Leader (3 days), and a Math Leader (2 days). If anyone has other proposals, let me know soon so I can share them before the October 23rd Staff Meeting where we’ll vote on a final plan.

• Halloween Costume Parade, Oct. 31 @8:10 – Howard’s Annual Costume Parade will again be at the start of the day, at 8:10 which last year allowed for more families to attend. Linked here is the Costume Parade Route & Directions, but note that we are NOT GOING INTO CLASSROOMS, which slowed things down considerable last year. Upstairs Buddy Classrooms will join their downstairs Buddy Classrooms at 8:05. At 8:10 Suzy’s class will lead the “Parade Train” from Blue to Green to Yellow wing. After classes complete their parade loop, they will re-enter their classroom or stand along the walls of the commons area to watch the parade pass by. Families may watch from the courtyards or commons areas (or join the parade). Classroom parties may be held at teacher discretion. Linked here is a Costume Parade Half-Sheet we’ll send home to families.

And staff, remember to keep your costumes on after school for our annual staff picture in the Library Story Cove!

• REPEAT: Safety Week, Oct. 15 – Oct. 19 – This week is Safety Week. Below are the dates/time of the drills:

• Monday, Oct. 15 – Room Clear- Time decided by teachers
• Tuesday, Oct. 16 – ALICE Classroom Lesson – Time decided by teachers
• Wednesday, Oct. 17 – ALICE Lockdown: Evacuation Drill – 8:20
• Thursday, Oct. 18 – Directed Evacuation (i.e. Fire Drill) – 8:10
• Friday, Oct. 19 – Earthquake/Fire Drill – 8:45

See my announcements from two weeks ago for details and let me know if you have any questions.

• October PTO Meeting Tuesday – The October PTO Meeting is this Tuesday at 6:00 if any staff are able to volunteer your time to come support the work of our hard working parent group. Hope to see you there!

• Student Care Team Referrals Due FRIDAY – The Student Care Team will meet next week, which means student/family referrals to the team are due this Friday. DHS has been great about helping quite a few of our families, pointing them towards resources for a variety of different situations (homelessness, assistance with bills, incarcerated parents, counseling resources, and many others), so please consider referring a student or family in need. Try to get a signature on the 4J Release Form (English or Spanish) so DHS can research the family situation to see what services they would qualify for. If there’s a situation where you can’t get a signature for whatever reason, you can refer “hypothetical” student or family situations. Let me know if you have any questions about potential referrals, but if it’s a situation that’s on your mind, it’s probably a worth referring to the team.

• New Care Team Resource: Sleep in Heavenly Peace – For children between 3-17 who are sleeping on the floor, couch, sharing a bed, or other uncomfortable sleeping arrangement, families can apply for a twin-size bed and mattress, pillow, sheet set, and comforter through Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Whatever the situation; a family the has fallen on hard times, domestic violence, returned from military service and starting over. Families can apply online at the above link refer to the linked flyer.

• Bike Rodeo, Oct. 23 – After school on Wednesday, Oct. 23rd, Howard is hosting a Safe Routes to School Bike Rodeo in the bus loop from 2:30-4:00, where students are invited to learn about bike safety, try out a bike obstacle course, enjoy free bike smoothies, and much more. Kids can bring their own bike or use those provided. Feel free to share this with students and get them excited for the event.

• Student Accident File/Documentation – Principals were recently sent an email reminder that whenever a student has a major accident it is important that we document what happened and follow up with parents/guardians within a timely manner. Downtown has seen an uptick of student accidents turning into claims against the district. To protect ourselves, it’s best practice to document serious injuries and to contact parents right away. The most common complaint HR gets from upset parents is: “Nobody has contacted me when my kid was hurt!”

• More Synergy Student Reports – There are many canned reports teachers can print from Synergy using this Quicksheet on Printing Reports in TeacherVUE. However, it doesn’t have everything you might want, in which case you can run many other reports, such as school website or news media restrictions, you can run these reports by clicking:

Reports > STU401 Student Lists (click the icon to the right of the words to “Open Report Interface”) > Conditions tab > +Add button > select from the dropdown “SchoolWebSite” or “NewsMedia” or whichever you want > change Operator to “Equal to” > change condition to “N” > press return to run the report. 

• Staff Responding to Subpoenas – This doesn’t happen often, but the district rules around responding to school related subpoenas are linked here. The main thing you need to know is if you were to received one, do not share any information until you’d contacted me, so I can contact the appropriate district level administrator.

• OMSI Guest Presenters & Field Trips – Most teachers know about the many OMSI Field Trip Offerings, but you may not know about their outreach program where they will go out to schools for assemblies, classes/labs, and even a giant inflatable planetarium, which may be something fun for grade levels to spend their PTO enrichment funds on. OMSI offers discounts for low income schools. See the linked OMSI Outreach Flyer or the OMSI Outreach website for details.

• Papa Murphy’s Student Awards – Papa Murphy’s brought us three kinds of student achievement awards. There’s not too many of them, so probably just take a few, but I’ll put them out underneath staff mailboxes.

• 2019 Oregon Blue Book Essay Contest – The 2019 Oregon Blue Book Essay Contest for Oregon’s Elementary, Middle, and High School students is now open. The 2019–2020 Oregon Blue Book theme is “Celebrating Oregon’s Local Festivals.” Therefore, essays should answer the following question: What is your favorite local community celebration, festival, carnival, fiesta, or fair and why? Contestants are also encouraged to illustrate their essays with drawings. The winning essay(s) and drawing(s) will be printed in the Oregon Blue Book, and the author(s) and artist(s) will be invited to the Capitol for the official Oregon Blue Book release party and celebration in early 2019. See the above linked website for details.

• Program helps teachers pronounce students’ names – Mispronouncing a student’s name can be interpreted as disrespectful and even discriminatory, says Tiffany Young of the Washoe County School District in Nevada in this District Administrator Article. The My Name, My Identity campaign, developed in partnership with the National Association for Bilingual Education, offers best practices to help teachers pronounce students’ names correctly, including greeting students at the door on the first few days of school and asking them to say their names. Teachers should then repeat each name, and ask if they are saying it correctly. Also, a teacher who struggles repeatedly with a name should not do so during roll call, but should practice the name with the student one-on-one.“It sends a very important message—that your name and your identity matter, and we want to get it right. It says, ‘We want to get to know you, and we respect you.’”

• Welcoming Students With a Smile – Greeting each student at the door with a positive message brings benefits for both students and teacher, according to a study. See this Edutopia Article for details.

• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the rest of the year:

October 15 (M)
Safety Week – Room Clear (Time decided by teacher)
Lori Out
SMART Goals Entry into TalentEd Due
12:20, Safety Patrol Training (Community Room)
4:00-5:00, Allan to All Admin Meeting (ATA)

October 16 (T)
Safety Week – ALICE Classroom Lesson (Time decided by teacher)
8:30-12:00, Allan to All-Admin/Elem Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
2:40-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
4:00-6:00, 4J Grade Book Training (STEAM Room, RM16)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Conference Room)

October 17 (W)
8:20-8:40, ALICE Evacuation Drill
11:35-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)

October 18 (H)
School Pictures
8:10, Fire Drill

October 19 (F)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
8:45, Earthquake/Fire Drill
1:30-2:30, PBIS Meeting (Rae’s Room, RM1)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Math PLC (Volunteer’s Classroom)

October 22 (M)
Tech Trot Pledge Envelopes Due
Newsletter Articles Due
7:30-3:30, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee Training – Travis Sheaffer subbing (Ed Center)
8:40-12:30, Howard PLC – Half-Day (5/2/1)

1st – 8:30-9:30
2nd – 10:00-11:00
5th – 11:15-12:15

October 23 (T)
7:30-2:00, Allan to Pay Grade Evaluation Committee Training (Ed Center)
8:15-12:15, Allan to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
8:30-1:00, Half of 2nd Grade to Pisgah
9:00-1:00, OSEA Visit to Howard (Staff Room)
11:10-2:25, Howard PLC – Half-Day (K/3/4)

KG – 11:10-12:10
3rd – 12:15-1:15
4th – 1:25-2:25

2:30-4:00, Bike Rodeo (Bus Loop)
2:40-3:30, Staff Meeting (Volunteer’s Classroom)

October 24 (W)
8:00-12:00, Smarty Ants Pilot Training (STEAM Room)
11:35-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)
2:40-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Volunteer’s Classroom)

October 25 (H)
8:30-1:00, Other Half of 2nd Grade to Pisgah
2:40-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)

October 26 (F)
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
9:00-1:00, Kindergarten to Detering
10:30-12:40, October Birthday Lunches with the Principal (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Math PLC CANCELLED (Make-Up Day for Oct. 12)

Okay, back to some routine five-day weeks for a while. You got this!

Allan