https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=8721
Hello Howard Staff,
You all are amazing and incredibly hard working, and just like the above mentioned Mars Opportunity Rover.
Fifteen items of note for this week:
• 15th Annual Literacy Night,Thursday, February 28th– I’ve seen lots of classes making their way through our school-wide books on Eugenie Clark “The Shark Lady” (K-2 and 3-5) and making some cool related projects to share with families the evening of Thursday, February 28th. For the event we’ll have sign-in sheets for each classroom and each family that signs in will get a book delivered to their classroom the following week.
We’ve already advertised Literacy Night in the February newsletter, but we’ll also send home the linked Literacy Night Flyer in Friday Folders this week. We’ll also continue our traditional free pizza and cookies for families.
For the schedule, we’ll stick with last year’s schedule, which is:
5:30-6:00: Free Dinner (cafeteria)
6:00-6:45: Visit Classrooms
6:30-8:00: Scholastic Book FairTalk Literacy Night up to your students and get them pumped to attend!
• Literacy Night Staff Dinner – We’ll once again provide a meal for staff working Literacy Night. I’m planning to order a variety of pizzas and salads from Mezza Luna (including some of my “weird” pizza choices) and also some drinks. If you’d like to suggest a particular pizza or salad, just let me know!
• Classified Staff Help at Literacy Night – Several folks have already spoken with me, but we could use about 6-8 classified staff members to help set-up, serve, and clean-up in the cafeteria for Literacy Night. If you’re able to help, I can offer trade time. Just let me or Corianne know if you’re able to help.
• ESSA Updates – Licensed Staff Site Council Reps meet last week with Mary Imran, District Data Team Facilitator, and Jeff Johnson, 4J Federal Programs Coordinator, for a review of Howard specific data, including attendance, easyCBM data, OAKS, data, and others. If you’re interested, I uploaded all of this data to the Howard Team Drive > Meetings/Teams > ESSA. We’re doing well in a number of areas, but the areas for improvement that stood out were improving our number of students who are regular attenders and also bringing up our math scores. I’ll plan to share more at a future staff meeting.
• Fire Drill Thursday at 8:30 – As of writing this, Thursday is the only dry school day the next two weeks, so we’ll try to hold our February fire drill this day at 8:30, so plan accordingly. If we’re unexpectedly rained out, I’ll shoot for sometime next week.
• The Five B’s (Bleeding, Barfing, Bruised, Broken, Burning Up) – Time for my annual (and sometimes biannual) reminder about The Five Bs, which refers to the only five reasons students should be sent to the nurse’s office; Bleeding, Barfing, Badly Bruised, Broken Bones, or Burning Up with Fever. Please note that tummy aches, coughs, and “not feeling good” are not on the list. I was teaching a 2/3 blend when The Five Bs first came to Howard and I remember it was an effective way to teach kids what constituted needing to go to the nurse’s office. Also, when you do send kids to the office, make sure they have office passes so we know they have permission and are not trying to be free range children.
• Classified Self Evaluations Due 3/15 – HR has moved up the due date for principals to finish classified evaluations from the end of the school year to to March 31st, so the linked Classified Self Evaluation From is due to me by the March 15th , which is also a non-student Professional Development Day and which should give me enough time to complete and connect with all fifty-something Howard classified staff members. I’ll also put hardcopies in everyone’s mailboxes, but emailing me an electronic copy works as well. Let me know if you have any questions.
• Friday Early Release PD – This Friday’s Early Release PD is Behavior Module #7, The Positive Behavior Game. We’ll meet in Erin’s Room (RM17) at 2:30 for the training.
• Perfect Attendance Awards – Speaking of attendance, if any teachers would like me to recognize your students with perfect attendance first semester (no tardies or absences) or near-perfect attendance, let me know and I can give a 30-second award presentation to perfect attenders in your classroom. Just give me a date and time to come in and I can make a big deal about regular attendance. Attached in my email is a list of all the students with perfect attendance first semester. Also, if you know of any kids with “near perfect” attendance who you’d like to recognize, let me know and I can award them as well. I’ll plan to do the same at the end of the school year for perfect second semester attendance and for students with perfect attendance all year.
• Staff Room Computer – The library circulation computer needed upgraded to run the new checkout applications, so the old circulation computer is now set up in the Staff Room for any staff who do not readily have access to a laptop or another device. The password for staff is our usual generic pass, which you can ask me if you don’t already know.
• REPEAT: PLC Meetings TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY – Not this week, but Tuesday and Wednesday next week are Grade Level PLC Meetings with roving subs. Dates and Times for grade level teams are:
Tuesday, February 19
1st – 8:30-9:30
2nd – 10:00-11:00
5th – 11:15-12:15Wednesday, February 20
KG – 11:10-12:10
3rd – 12:15-1:15
4th – 1:25-2:25• REPEAT: PTO Meeting TUESDAY – Tuesday at 6:00 in the cafeteria will be the February PTO meeting, so if you’re able to volunteer your time to come. Hope to see you there!
• District Admin Updates – Cheryl Linder, 4J’s Director of Student Services, is retiring this spring. Cheryl has served in 4J for many years and in many roles (I also went to principal school with her). Downtown is posting the position and will undertake a process to select the next director of student services.
• Teaching Students How to Deal With Stress – This Edutopia Article shares strategies to help upper elementary and middle school kids who have experienced trauma understand and control their emotions. Some strategies include seeing that peers have had similar experiences and suggested prompting questions for helping upset or agitated students, such as “Is there anything you need right now that would ease your mind and feelings?” and “When you’re ready, I want you to know I’m right here, ready to listen.”
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the rest of the year:
February 18 (M)
No School – Presidents DayFebruary 19 (T)
Book Fair Delivered
8:30-12:15, Howard PLC – Half-Day (1/2/5)1st – 8:30-9:30
2nd – 10:00-11:00
5th – 11:15-12:159:30-11:30, Allan to Staffing Allocation Meeting (Ed Center)
2:45-3:30, Staff Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)
6:00-7:00, PTO Meeting (Cafeteria)February 20 (W)
Exclusion Day
11:10-2:25, Howard PLC – Half-Day (K/3/4)KG – 11:10-12:10
3rd – 12:15-1:15
4th – 1:25-2:252:30-3:30, Allan to 504 Plan Meeting (Matt’s Office)
3:30-5:00, Allan to ESSA Schools Meeting (Ed Center)
4:00-6:00, Apple Trainer Meeting Cohort A/B Reps (STEAM Room)February 21 (H)
Book Fair Set-Up – Library Closed
March Newsletter Article Due
8:00, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)
11:15, Allan to Truancy Hearing (Office)
12:00, Kindergarten Hearing Screening
2:45-4:45, ESSA Meeting #2 (Conference Room)February 22 (F)
Student Book Fair Preview
7:30-9:00, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
9:00-9:30, K/1 Music Performance (Gym)
10:30-12:40, Feb. Bday Lunches w/the Principal (Conference Room)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD-Behave-Framework (Erin’s Room, RM22)February 25 (M)
2:30-6:00, Book Fair Open (Library)
2:45-3:30, Site Council (Conference Room)February 26 (T)
8:15-11:30, Allan to Admin Meeting – J. Wayland subbing (Ed Center)
2:30-6:00, Book Fair Open (Library)
2:45-3:30, IPBS Meeting (Erin’s Room, RM22)
4:00-6:00, District iPad Training (STEAM Room, RM16)February 27 (W)
2:30-6:00, Book Fair Open (Library)
2:45-3:30, Student Care Team Meeting (Conference Room)February 28 (H)
2:45-3:30, TLT Meeting (Angela’s Room, RM24)
5:00-8:00, Literacy Night5:00-5:30, Staff Literacy Night Dinner (Staff Room)
5:30-6:00: Free Dinner (cafeteria)
6:00-6:45: Visit Classrooms
6:30-8:00: Scholastic Book FairMarch 1 (F)
PTO Read-a-Thon
PBIS Monthly Theme – Safe Bodies
Book Fair Take Clean-Up & breakdown – Library Closed
8:00-9:45, ODE EdTech Visit (Larsen, Pond, Groshong, Kreider)
1:30, EA Supervisors Meeting (Title 1 Room, RM25)
2:30-3:30, Early Release PD, Reading Progress Monitoring (Library)
And if you missed it on the Howard Facebook or Instagram, the Howard Ukulele Ensemble did a fabulous job at the Oregon Asian Celebration this past Saturday. We even had several staff member come out for the performance, which was great. Nice work, Seira!
Allan
