https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/chinn/?p=9962
Hello Roadrunners,
It was fun seeing everyone who came out for last Thursday’s Zoom Dance Party. We had nearly 80 participants, which I thought was pretty darn good! It was a fun way to keep families connected.
And speaking of missing our students and families, if you didn’t catch it on the Howard Facebook or Instagram, check out the video below. If you’re a film nerd like me you might recognize the music from the excellent action film True Romance, but my first choice of music was flagged by YouTube’s autodetect system for copyrighted music and wouldn’t let me use it, so if you want to see my preferred “Director’s Cut” of our video (which the music for makes me all sentimental and sappy), watch this one I saved to my Google Drive.
One last bit of good news, if you come by school this week, our former PTO President, Brande, donated a TON of Girl Scout cookies for staff. I’ll leave them in the offie by the sign-in sheet, so feel free to help yourself. Anything left after this week, we’ll give out during lunch distribution times.
Y’all are an amazing group of people to work with, even we don’t get to see either other all that much lately.
Fourteen items of note for this week as well as notes from last Thursday’s Staff Meeting:
• Job Expo Updates – For the final round of the Job Expo, HR did not fill either of our two 4th grade vacancies or our kindergarten vacancy. In all likelihood, these vacancies will be filled by the 4J Early Hire Pool, where HR made job offers earlier this year to top tier student teachers before they got hired by other school districts.
• Food Assistance for Howard Families – Don’t make a blanket announcement on this, but if you know of families in need, Howard was given $2,000 worth of WinCo gift cards (40 cards of $50) by Trinity United Methodist Church down the road. If you know of families needing assistance, reach out to them and let me know so we can coordinate a date to pick up the gift cards, which would be a MWF during lunch distribution.
• Tech Pick-Up and Swap-Out, MWF Only – Teachers, if families need to swap out iPads or need to pick up an iPad, tell them come when I’m in the building during meal distribution times, 11:00-12:00, Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays. It’s become difficult to sort out what exactly it is families are needing at times for staff passing out meals.
• Summer Clean Out Updates – Two new items from last week:
• Want your board and walls cleaned? – Custodial staff have been directed by Facilities to wash walls and boards, which means taking down all classroom artwork, borders, and wall decorations. However, taking all that down creates a lot of work for teachers in the fall, so I’ve told custodial staff to NOT wash walls and boards unless teachers have told me they want this to happen.
• Technology Checkout Link – Linked here is the Technology Equipment Checkout Contract 2019-20 for staff wanting to take any laptops, iPads, or other devices home over the summer.
• May Birthday Zoom Lunches With the Principal – Not this week, but next week on Friday, May 29th at 12:00 will be the virtual May Birthday Lunches with the Principal. In my email, but not on my blog, are the Zoom links and a short blurb for teachers to send to families. Also in my email and not on my blog are a list of the May birthdays. I’d love to have a “Zoom Bouncer” or two to help me keep an eye on things and I’d love to also have some “Special Guests” if anyone wants to pop in. Kids loved everyone who dropped in last time!
May Birthday Lunches with the Principal
Each month, Mr. Chinn celebrates student birthdays with Birthday Lunches with the Principal. Students with birthdays in May are invited to join Mr. Chinn for a Zoom birthday lunch celebration on Friday, May 29th,12:00-12:15. Enjoy some corny jokes, magic tricks, and special guests!
• Distance Learning Coming Attractions! – Principals got a heads-up on a few items at our meeting on Friday, with the promise of more details to come, but I thought I’d share what what shared so far:
• Class Lists – More info will go out this week, but staff will create class lists as we have every year. Downtown said teachers may want to create classes with an A group and a B group in case we return in the fall only seeing half a class at a time. My own advice would be for teachers NOT to create multiple lists since we typically have a number of move-ins and move-out, which will necessitate reconfiguring classes in the fall anyhow. If teachers do want to do this, we’d need to take siblings into account.
• June 5th Transition Day – More details will come soon, but this day can be used for grade level teams to create class lists or for teachers to work on report cards.
• Report Cards – Report Cards will not be mailed home this year and will be sent to families through Seesaw and/or email. For families not online, report cards will be mailed home. The only marks teachers will record on the report card is if students were “Engaged in Learning” or “No Basis” and if student participated in “Digital” or “Analog” (paper packet) learning. For comments, teachers will not provide feedback, but will instead have two boxes to complete. One is “Well wishes from your school and teacher…” and the other for “Optional Grade-level Summer Learning Ideas…” Detailed directions on all of this will go out this week.
• Facilities Phase III – Phase III will involve the technology drop off and will likely happen June 10-12. The process will be the reverse of the initial tech distribution. Families unable to make it these dates because they are out of town or for other reasons, there will be a central return site at the district office. For families who don’t return devices, the Tech Department will rely on the remote device trackers installed on the iPads to locate them (lost devices are often found misplaced somewhere in schools).
• 5th Grade “Graduation” June 8th – Downtown is putting some parameters on what school can do for purposes of equity, so there are not some schools going overboard and some doing nothing for 5th graders moving onto middle school. Details are coming this week, but yard signs are only being allowed for high school seniors, though we are allowed to do a drive-thru (kids driving, walking, biking, skating, etc. though the parking lot past staff holding signs on a scheduled basis [likely by classroom]) and pass out certificates. All 5th Grade “Promotion” events/celebrations must happen Monday, June 8th. Building funds will be unfrozen to support these events.
• Optional Staff Meeting, Thursday @12:30 – Our weekly Optional Staff Meeting is this Thursday at 12:30. On my email and on a forthcoming Zimbra calendar invite, but not on my blog, are the Zoom Meeting Invite links.
• Call Logs – Save Until Fall – Jessy asked a good question about the call logs teachers should be keeping. There is not official format, but keep track to dates/times, method(s) of communication, and any messages or other relevant notes. You do not need to submit your call logs, but do retain them until the fall just in case any families try to make the claim no one ever tried to contact them during the school closure.
• Retention Process – Should this come up, the state is not allowing any student to be retained, either by parent or staff request, as a result of the school closure. However, if concerns existed prior to the school closure, then the usual district retention process would be followed.
• BEST Surveys Due May 30th – Classroom teachers, you should have received an email regarding the annual BEST Survey for each of your students who attend BEST. The survey was emailed through the student data software-EZ Reports manager with connection to our Federal Programs Coordinator- Julie Quelch, so be sure not to delete it. All surveys must be completed by Saturday, May 30th.
• 4J Library Lowdown – Follow this link to the latest issue of The Library Lowdown from Amy Page, Eugene 4J District Librarian. Highlights inlaced info on May is “National Get Caught Reading Month” and a link to the new updated Library Service Website.
• SSD Newsletter – If you’re interested, linked here is the latest Student Service Newsletter #6.
• Schedule of Upcoming Events – See the Google Calendar for future events, but here are the events of note for the next two weeks:
May 18 (M)
Virtual Walk & Roll to School (or Anywhere) Week
11:00-12:00, Free Meals & Meal Deliver for M-V FamiliesMay 19 (T)
11:00-12:00, Free MealsMay 20 (W)
11:00-12:00, Free Meals & Meal Deliver for M-V Families
1:00-1:30, Kindergarten & Interventionist Meeting
1:45-2:15, 1st Grade & Interventionist Meeting
2:30-3:00, 2nd Grade & Interventionist MeetingMay 21 (H)
11:00-12:00, Free Meals
12:30-1:00, Optional Howard Check-In Meeting
1:00-1:30, 3rd Grade & Interventionist Meeting
1:45-2:15, 4th Grade & Interventionist Meeting
2:30-3:00, 5th Grade & Interventionist MeetingMay 22 (F)
11:00-12:00, Free Meals & Meal Deliver for M-V Families
11:00-12:00, Allan to All Admin Meeting
12:30-4:00, Classroom teachers take attendanceMay 25 (M)
Memorial Day – No SchoolMay 11 (M)
11:00-12:00, Free Meals & Meal Deliver for M-V FamiliesMay 26 (T)
11:00-12:00, Free MealsMay 27 (W)
11:00-12:00, Free Meals & Meal Deliver for M-V Families
1:00-1:30, Kindergarten & Interventionist Meeting
1:45-2:15, 1st Grade & Interventionist Meeting
2:30-3:00, 2nd Grade & Interventionist Meeting
2:45-5:00, Allan to Pay Grade Eval Committee MeetingMay 28 (H)
11:00-12:00, Free Meals
12:30-1:00, Optional Howard Check-In Meeting
1:00-1:30, 3rd Grade & Interventionist Meeting
1:45-2:15, 4th Grade & Interventionist Meeting
2:30-3:00, 5th Grade & Interventionist Meeting
4:00-7:00, Allan to Job Expo Zoom Interviews
7:00-7:10, Howard Zoom Dance Party!May 29 (F)
Fun Friday! – Go to the Beach Day
8:00-9:30, Allan to 4JMAPS Meeting
11:00-12:00, Free Meals & Meal Deliver for M-V Families
12:00-12:15, May Birthday Lunches With the Principal (Zoom!)
12:30-4:00, Classroom teachers take attendance
I’m now switching from weeks to days. 17 student days left and counting!
Allan
