November 19, 2018

By Allan 　

 

Hello Fellow Roadrunners,

I’m hoping someone got a video of it, but the PTO Family Science Night had a great turnout and the Pumpkin Rubber Band Challenge was excellent! Allison and I wrapped 396 rubber bands around a pumpkin when it spectacularly exploded! Do a YouTube search if you want to get a visual from others who’ve done this, but kids and families were quite impressed when the pumpkin blew. PTO folks told me the next Family Activity Night will be a Harry Potter Wizarding School theme, but our new PTO Board really knocked it out of the park with their first big family event of the year!

And for this short week, I have my shortest announcements of the year.

Twelve items of note for this week:

• NEW Classified Trade and Comp Time Forms – HR is standardizing the process for approval and tracking of Trade Time and Comp Time. From this point forward, the process will be:

1. Get Approval Before Working Over Regular Work Hours – Get approval from me by email or in person before working over your normal work hours. If it’s an unforeseen event that made you to work over (i.e. late bus, late parent pick-up, etc.) notify me by the next day and document it on the new forms below.

2. Complete Trade or Comp Time Form – Complete the linked Classified Trade Time Form (hardcopies also in the office) and a separate Comp Time Form (which should soon be posted on the HR Forms website). In most cases, classified staff will use the Trade Time form (comp time is only used if you’ve been approved to work over 40 hours within the same week, which earns you time and a half). Use the above linked form to track trade time hours within the same workweek.

3. Submit Form to Allan Within One Week – Forms must be submitted to me within one week of using the pre-approved trade time hours. Trade time is equal time that is intended to be exchanged within the same workweek, although OSEA and HR are working on clarifying this that timeline because there is conflicting language in the contract that would allow staff and admin though mutual agreement for classified staff to use trade time at a later date outside of the same workweek.

More information can be found on page two of the form, but let me know if you have any questions.

• PLC Meetings Next Week – Not this week, but Monday and Tuesday next week are Grade Level PLC Meetings with roving subs. Dates and Times, the same as last month, which are:

Monday, Nov. 26
1st – 8:30-9:30
2nd – 10:00-11:00
5th – 11:15-12:15

Tuesday, Nov. 27
KG – 11:10-12:10
3rd – 12:15-1:15
4th – 1:25-2:25

• Hour of Code Dance Party! – Lupe forwarded a cool email to me about an Hour of Code Dance Party. Students can choose from 30 hits like Katy Perry’s “Firework,” Sia’s “Cheap Thrills”, Ariana Grande’s “No Tears Left to Cry,” Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way,” Justin Bieber’s “Sorry”, or international hits such as J Balvin’s “Mi Gente”. The tutorial helps students code interactive dance moves and special effects as they learn basic CS concepts. See the above links for details!

• Artist in Residence Finalized – LaneArts finally got back to me on our preferred artists and dates. We will have:

• Jan 8 – Feb 8 – Functional Pottery with Nicole Hummell. She will do four 45-minute session with each class.

• May 6 – June 7 – Puppetry and Storytelling with Noah Mclain. He will do four 60 minute sessions with each class.

• Allan Out 11/27, Erin Subbing – I’m going to be out all day Tuesday, November 27th, first at an Elementary Principals’ meeting and then I have to testify at the courthouse at a DHS case. However, Erin will be covering for me this day, so she’ll be availalbe to help folks out if anything comes up.

• Care Team Holiday Resources – Linked here is the 2018 Winter Holiday Resources Guide, in English and Spanish, which has information regarding holiday food boxes, meal sites, and gift programs. We’ll share this in the December school newsletter, on the school website, and on social media, but staff can feel free to pass this along to individual families as well.

• REPEAT: Student Care Team Referrals DUE WEDNESDAY – The Student Care Team meets next week so referrals are due this Wednesday. Try to get a signature on the 4J Release Form (English or Spanish) but you can also refer hypothetical situations. Linked here is a Student Care Team Flyer, now in English and Spanish, which you can share with families. Let me know if you have any questions.

• REPEAT: PTO Meeting TUESDAY – This Tuesday is the November PTO meeting, so if you’re able to volunteer your time to come, I know parents appreciating seeing staff attend. Hope to see you there!

• REPEAT: ESC Job Posting – Our job posting for a Howard 0.6 FTE Title 1/ESC is now up on the 4J Jobs website, so if you know any candidates, please encourage them to apply.

• 15 Ways to Bring More Positive Language into Your School – In the middle of a chaotic classroom or other stressful situations, it can be hard to find the kind of mindfulness and positive language we hope to model. I know I’ve caught myself using some of this language (saying “You need to … “ instead of “Together let’s … “ or saying “Look at what you’ve done.” instead of “How can we fix this?”). See this We Are Teachers article for a few ways we can do this with some small adjustments to our words.

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

November 19 (M)
8:00, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
9:25, Natives Presentation – Stone/Cortez (STEAM Room)
10:55, Natives Presentation – Rock/Callihan (STEAM Room)

November 20 (T)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Cafeteria)

November 21 (W)
December Newsletter Articles Due
Fluoride Varnish (Community Room)

November 22 (H)
Thanksgiving Break – No School

November 23 (F)
Thanksgiving Break – No School

November 26 (M)
Lori Out
7:30, Allan to IEP Meeting (Conference Room)
8:30-12:15, Howard PLC – Half-Day (5/2/1)

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

2:45-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)

November 27 (T)
Erin Subbing for Allan
8:15-12:00, Allan to Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)
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

1:30, Allan Testifyign at DHS Hearing (Lane Co. Courthouse)
2:45-3:30, Staff Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
4:00-7:00, Allan to 4J Assessment Adoption Workshop Group (Ed Center)

November 28 (W)
School Picture Retakes
11:15-12:40, OBOB Lunches (Community Room)
2:45-3:30, Student Care Team (Conference Room)
3:45-5:15, Allan to Elementary Grade Book Sub Committee (Ed Center)

November 29 (H)
Regular Day

November 30 (F)
Title 1 Progress Monitoring Day – No Groups
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
10:30-12:40, November Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Community Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD – Data Team Meeting (Library)

December 1 (SA)
9:00-3:00, PTO Holiday Bazaar (Gym & Cafeteria)

And I keep forgetting to post this, but below is our all-school photo from last month’s Tech Trot.

Excelsior!

Allan

This entry was written by Allan, posted on November 17, 2018 at 4:35 pm, filed under Announcements, Articles, Arts, Video. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.