https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/howardstaff/2024/04/28/april-29th/
STATIC BUILDING RESOURCES (HERE EACH WEEK)
Teacher Professional Development Unit (PDU) Tracking
Teachers, the LINK TO THIS TRACKING PDU SHEET – All staff, please feel free to access this to help track your professional development units (PDU’s) when it’s time to renew licensures. This is here to help you easily compile the hours you need to report when processing renewal.
Student Attendance Concerns Reporting
Teachers, please remember to report student attendance concerns HERE. Our front office team will follow up with families. Thanks!
Meeting Agendas and Notes from this past week:
LINK TO HOWARD SHARED GOOGLE DRIVE HERE – To streamline access of information. The link to our Howard shared Google drive will remain here as a static feature on the blog each week. In this drive is a folder titled, ‘Meetings/Teams,’ which houses all the important meeting agendas and notes from various teams past and present. This week’s meetings included the following below. Please go to their respective team folders within the ‘Meetings/Teams’ folder to review the notes. Thanks!
- Meetings this past week, April 22nd-26th, included:
- 4/23 – PBIS Tier 1 Team
- 4/24 – Classified Staff Meeting
PTO Request for Funds
Teachers, our PTO wants to help you and your students! If you have a particular lesson, unit, or project you want to enrich and could use some additional funds to fulfill it, please fill out the request form from the PTO → LINK TO FORM! It is SUPER rare that the PTO denies funds to teachers, so please access this resource. The PTO appreciates you!
Monday Morning Announcements this Week:
ARTSPARK (LANE ARTS COUNCIL) AND OSAS TESTING SCHEDULES (Email, 4/23):
Here is the LINK TO THE ARTSPARK AND OSAS TESTING SCHEDULES. A BIG THANK YOU to Jennifer Dillon and Cyria Wisner for putting this schedule together! It was no easy feat! If you have questions, please let us know. We will have a one-page reference of the schedule in the near future. Thanks!
PBIS FOCUS FOR MAY: TEAMWORK
May’s monthly theme will be Teamwork. At the end of the year, this seems like a consistently needed focus. Here are some fun activities you can do with your class to improve teamwork.
There are also a lot of books on Epic related to teamwork and cooperation that kids can read. Here are a couple examples of collections that have been created:
- https://www.getepic.com/collection/401287/team-work
- https://www.getepic.com/collection/370207/teamwork
Community Day:
May’s Community Day will be on Friday the 24th. With your buddy class, enjoy some fun team or group activities. These could include team art projects, relay races if the weather is nice, creating something as a group with sidewalk chalk or you could play kickball or any other team activity you’d like! If you have any wonderful ideas feel free to share with staff
The Community Day dress up will be wearing your favorite team’s jersey or colors.
SECOND STEP LESSONS
The remaining weeks are the perfect time to engage students with important Second Step lessons as we strive to keep our students engaging in positive behavior before we end the school year. It’s strongly recommended to hold morning meetings and facilitate Second Step lessons that will promote equity, inclusion, and social justice. Here are the resources again from Learning for Justice that complement and enhance social-emotional skills. LINK HERE.
SPRING SAEBRS SCREENERS OPEN MAY 1ST
Teachers, please complete the spring screeners by the end of next week, Friday, May 10th. Time is being allotted on Tuesday, April 30th, and Wednesday, May 8th to complete the spring Upbeat Survey and SAEBRS screeners.
To administer SAEBRS, you need to access the Fastbridge website. All teachers, counselors, and students have been loaded into the site, which can be accessed via 4J’s universal single-sign site called, Clever. If you are not familiar with Clever, log in with the Active Directory, which will take you to your 4J login, which will take you to the Clever landing page.
From the District Clever page, select the icon that looks like this: Illuminate/Fastbridge. If the system is working properly, you should automatically login to Fastbridge. LINK HERE TO THE DOCUMENT THAT HAS SCREENSHOTS FOR REMINDERS.
From here, you simply select “Screening” from the top menu (circled in red). Once you select Screening, you will have a list of all the students assigned to you in Synergy. If you are an elementary teacher, it will be your class list followed by three columns (Fall, Winter, Spring). Select the grade level of your advisory students. You will only assess the students in your advisory.
This assessment is designed to be done three times a year: Fall, Winter, and Spring. Our goal is have school teams begin using the tool this winter and spring and problem-solve any issues that might arise with the implementation. We estimate it will take 2-3 minutes to conduct each assessment for your students.
To have your students take the assessment, they would log in to the single sign on with 4J Clever (it appears by typing 4J Clever into any browser), use their 4J credentials to log in, select the Illuminate (Fastbridge) icon and it should take them straight to the assessment.
Thanks again for all your efforts to support our students!
BEHAVIOR DISCIPLINE MATRIX WEEKLY DRILL DOWN
This week, we are focussing on the specific behaviors listed on page FIVE (5) of our district’s Discipline Matrix document LINKED HERE. Examples to responses to these behaviors are linked in the supporting documents. As always, focusing on our tier 1 PBIS supports, including our curriculum resources (Second Steps) and making ample time for morning meetings involving relationship building and class discussions help mitigate these behaviors.
Please note, the examples on this particular page of our district behavior matrix document reference minor behaviors and how to respond to, document as minor referrals, and communicate to families.
STAFF SURVEY ABOUT OVERNIGHT OUTDOOR SCHOOL for next year (5th Grade) – UPDATED!!!
Please note, this survey has been UPDATED based on great feedback from the classified meeting this past 4/24. Please note the addition of “MAYBE” might attend overnight outdoor school. If you respond with ‘maybe,’ please then explain why in the comments. Thanks!
We are in the very early planning stages for 5th grade Outdoor School next year. LINKED HERE IS A SURVEY to see which staff members are willing to chaperone a MULTIPLE OVERNIGHT 5th grade Outdoor School trip next year. This is for ANY STAFF MEMBER. If you are interested, please complete the form. Also, if you want it expressly known you do NOT want to chaperone a multiple night overnight trip, please let that be known. Lastly, to be clear, this survey has nothing to do with day trips. Only overnight trip input at this point. Thanks!
DISTRICT INFORMATION
Science & Math: STEM week resources!
Hello Elementary Teachers!
Did you know STEM week is May 4-12?🔬⌨️ 🧮 💦 Oregon STEM Week is dedicated to igniting enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The Oregon STEM Week site includes a weeks worth of classroom & at home activities, workshops, and demos that everyone—students, parents, and the whole community—can enjoy and learn from. There is a little something for everyone.
But wait, there’s more:
STEM Women Posters: Printable posters celebrating women role models in science, technology and math.
A-Z Stem Careers: Careers from A-Z are highlighted in a slide presentation
Discovery Stem Coalition: A variety of interactive resources that encourage students to start tackling real challenges through creative problem-solving.
We hope you find these resources useful and fun!
Maggie Frassetto Cline & Jamie Tait
Summer Opportunities for Teachers
WREN is offering some amazing opportunities for teachers this summer. Check them out at the link above!
ONE week left to apply for an EEF 2024-25 school year Annual Grant!
Every year, EEF funds projects and programs across the district that provide students with access to an equitable and excellent education, foster a sense of belonging, and provide opportunities for every child to reach their fullest potential.
Individual grants are available up to $5,000 for teachers/school staff and up to $10,000 for district-wide programs.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY? Eugene School District 4J educators and staff members of all kinds are invited to apply. If you have an idea for a project or program that will benefit 4J students, we want to hear from you!
WHEN? Applications for the 2024-25 school year grant cycle are open NOW through May 3rd at 11:59pm (1 week left to apply!).
HOW? Read more about EEF grants and submit a grant application here. Returning users will use the same login credentials as the previous grant cycle to access the application. Please update your profile if anything has changed since your last submission. New applicants will need to create a profile before starting an application.
Help us spread the word to friends and colleagues across the district!
P.S. Recipients of 2023-24 school year grants have until 6/30 to spend remaining grant funds or they will be returned to EEF. Final grant reports are now available as well, due 6/16. Access the report form here.
WEEK OF APRIL 29TH-MAY 3RD
Monday, April 29th
- No scheduled meetings – Time to complete spring Upbeat survey
Tuesday, April 30th
- No scheduled meetings – Time to complete spring Upbeat survey
Wednesday, May 1st
(SAEBRS spring screening window opens through end of May)
- 9:00am – FOG
- 12:15pm – Latinx Student Union for 2nd/3rd
- 1:30pm – Certified Professional Learning in the Library
- Unpacking and reviewing SPED Inclusivity Survey Data
Thursday, May 2nd
- 1:50pm – Beep! Beep! Winners
- 2:45pm – Grade Level Team Meetings
- 3:35pm – School Site Council meeting in the library
- 5:30pm – 4th grade concert in the gym
Friday, May 3rd
- 1:50pm – Beep! Beep! Winners drawing
WEEK OF MAY 6TH – MAY 10TH
Teacher Appreciation Week!
Monday, May 6th
- 2:45pm – IPBS Meeting in the Nest
Tuesday, May 7th
- 2:45pm – Equity & Inclusion Leadership Team Meeting
Wednesday, May 8th
- 9:00am – FOG
- 12:15pm – Latinx Student Union for 4th/5th grades
- 1:30pm – No Meeting: Time to complete SAEBRS screeners and spring Upbeat Surveys
Thursday, May 9th
- 8:10am – Howard Safety Team Meeting
- 1:50pm – Beep! Beep! Winners
- 2:45pm – Grade Level Team Meetings
Friday, May 10th
- 1:50pm – Beep! Beep! Winners drawing
