Joel's Journal- A Weekly Bulletin Paulo Freire — Education transforms people. People transform the world.

Joel’s Journal for June 16, 2014

Calendar of Events

June 16 (M)

7:30-  Joel has end of year meeting with a teacher

9:00-10:30- Joel at Ed Center in end of the year principal evaluation.
Last Day for Kindergarten and the 5th Grade Swim Party

June 17 (T)
Last Day for Students

9:00-11:00- 5th Grade Breakfast
“Grab & Go” Sack Lunch (see times below)
11:40, Dismissal

Have Ice Cream in the Staff Lounge at 11:45 and celebrate the year.
12:00-3:45, Staff Checkouts with Joel

4:01- ?- Celebrate the school year at Hop Valley with your fellow Bulldogs!

“GRAB & GO” SACK LUNCH SCHEDULE
11:00 1st grade
11:05 2nd grade
11:10 3rd grade
11:15 4th grade

11:20 5th grade

Students will enter the cafeteria through the doors closest to the office.  As students pass through the line, they should form a new line at the doors exiting to the parking lot. Once all the students have gotten their lunches, the class can leave the cafeteria. This process should take 5-8 minutes.

If staff, not supervising students, are available to help during this time, that would be terrific ☺.

June 18 (W)
Last Day for Staff (Classified and Licensed)
Staff Checkouts all day.

June 19 (H)
Budget Reduction/Unpaid Furlough Day

June 23 (M)
Being a Writer Training Session

June 24 (T)
Being a Writer Training Session

June 25 (W)
Being a Writer Training Session

August 20 (W)
Being a Writer Training Session

Here are some updates for the week:

• Learning Palace Coupon – It’s shameless marketing by Learning Palace, but I was sent a 15% off your entire purchase coupon to share with staff, which I thought I’d pass along in case any of you are planning on making an IKEA/Learning Palace trip this summer.

• Technology Checkout – If you are taking home any of your technology (laptop, iPad, etc.) over the summer, be sure to fill out and turn in a copy to the office of the 4J Technology Equipment Checkout Contract before your checkout time.

• More District Admin Updates – Kim Ketterer will be serving as the interim Director of Technology Services. As I’m sure you all know, Kim has been the Instructional Technology Administrator for a number of years and will fill this position until a permanent Director of Technology is hired. Also, Chris Castillero, Associate Director of Curriculum and Professional Development Mathematics, announced last week that he is leaving 4J for a job in Wisconsin. This adds another vacancy to the list of open 4J admin positions, which are for our school, Spencer Butte, South Eugene, Technology Director, Teacher Quality Administrator and the Federal Programs (Title 1) Coordinator.

Also, the interviews for Awbrey Park will be held at the Ed Center on June 23rd all day. Currently, there are 4 candidates being interviewed. The interview team consists of Kristen Gianforti, Kristie Long, Claire Smith, Jason Robbins, Sara Justice, Jamie Tait, Xochitil Salgado Rivera, Andrea Smith and Sara Cramer.

This will be my last blog post for the year. I hope this method of communication has been helpful to all of you. I will continue to send each of you emails over the summer if you need to communicate with me. My last day of work is June 27th for the school year. I will miss you all and know that you will do great things with your new leader. You are an amazing team of educators and your commitment to our student’s success continues to impress me. I do have some tidbits of advice to you before I go.

I ask that you continue to these three things once I am gone:

Stick together and love each other.

Speak up and do what is best for our Awbrey Park students.

Never stop learning how to improve your practice. It feeds your soul and it helps the students.

With love and admiration,

Joel

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Joel’s Journal for June 9, 2014

Schedule of Events for the Week

June 9 (M)
1:25-1:55, Meeting with Teacher
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting

June 10 (T)
7:15, Meeting downtown
8:45, Meeting with Teacher
9:30, Meeting with Teacher
10:00, Meeting with Teacher
11:30, Meeting with Parent
1:00, Reading Train Assembly
1:45, 504 Meeting with Parent
3:00, Joel to IEP
3:00, PBIS Meeting
4:00-6:00, Joel to the Equity Committee
6:00- River Road PTO Meeting

June 11 (W)
7:30- 8:15, Meeting at North Eugene HS with North Admin Team
8:30 – 9:30, Reporting Title Programs Meeting with Sabrina
10:30-1:00, 3rd Graders to Skinner’s Butte Park

June 12 (H)
8:00- 10:30, Joel at meeting at UO
12:45- Kristie begins seating for assembly.
12:15-2:15, Bulldog Recess
3:00-4:00, Final CLIC Meeting

Agenda:

Planning and approving dates for 2014-15.
Update on Being a Writer Trainings and PD for 2014-15.

June 13 (F)
3:00-4:00, Kristen, Joel, Sabrina, Andrew meet to revise Intervention Schedule
4:00, Joel to River Road Design Meeting

June 16 (M)
Last Day for Kindergarten and 5th Grade

June 17 (T)
Last Day for Students
“Grab & Go” Sack Lunch (see times below)
11:40, Dismissal
12:00-4:00, Staff Checkouts with Joel

“GRAB & GO” SACK LUNCH SCHEDULE
11:20 1st grade
11:25 2nd grade
11:30 3rd grade
11:35 4th grade

Students will enter the cafeteria through the doors closest to the office.  As students pass through the line, they should form a new line at the doors exiting to the parking lot. Once all the students have gotten their lunches, the class can leave the cafeteria. This process should take 5-8 minutes.

If staff, not supervising students, are available to help during this time, that would be terrific ☺.

June 18 (W)
Last Day for Staff (Classified and Licensed)
7:30-2:15, Staff Checkouts with Joel

June 19 (H)
Budget Reduction/Unpaid Furlough Day

June 23 (M)
Being a Writer Training Session

June 24 (T)
Being a Writer Training Session

June 25 (W)
Being a Writer Training Session

August 20 (W) TENTATIVE
Being a Writer Training Session

• Year End Checklist – Year End Checklists were put in staff mailboxes last week. It’s pretty much the same checklist that’s been used in the past, but let me know if you have any questions. Staff Checkout Form 2013.14

• Staff Technology Summer Checkout – Related to the above items, if you are taking home any of your technology (laptop, iPad, etc.) over the summer, be sure to fill out and turn in a copy to the office of the 4J Technology Equipment Checkout Contract.

• 2014-2014 Instructional Calendars – These may change, but here is the Elementary 2014-15 instructional Calendar approved by the board last week. Please note a few things:

• Employee work year calendars will go out by the middle of this week, and they will answer the most commonly asked questions about employee report dates and work years.
• Our first day with students is the Wednesday after Labor Day, September 3, 2014.
• The calendars presume a full instruction and work year for teachers and do not include any furlough days. Furlough days are under discussion as part of contract negotiations. Accordingly, as in prior years, it is possible that the board may issue amended calendars at a later point.

• 5 activities for the last day of class – “On the last day of school, I like to keep things light, but I also think it is important to have them reflect on their classroom experience,” writes ASCD EDge community member Ryan Thomas. In a recent blog post, Thomas shares a few activities educators can use to keep their students engaged on the last day of school. This comes from a secondary person, but these could easily be adapted for elementary.

• Science Fair at the Fair! – Here is an opportunity in July to showcase K-12 school STEM posters and projects at the Wheeler Pavilion during the Lane County Fair. See the flyer for details.

• Free ebooks for the summer through MyON – The ESD offered this free ebook program earlier in the year, but they are bringing it back for staff, students and families over the fummer. See this email, link or parent flyer (in Spanish and English) for details.

• Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program (Free Books for Kids!) – I’m sure this is a marketing ploy, but the Barnes & Noble’s Summer Reading Program only requires kids to fill out a Reading Journal (available in both Spanish and English) of what they read and who they would recommend that book to, and then they can redeem their completed journal for one of the free books listed in the journal.

• More District Admin Updates – Sarah Brown is the new Director of Human Resources and will start on June 18, 2014. She began her career in education as a teacher (Florida) and has since served as a building principal in an international school (Venezuela), a program director (Florida), as well as 7 years in human resources (California). Admin vacancies yet to be filled are at Awbrey Park, Spencer Butte, South Eugene, Technology Director, Teacher Quality Administrator and the Federal Programs (Title 1) Coordinator.

• Staff Summer STEM Course – Here’s some some information on a free summer course that came from Kim Finch:

In thinking at “STEM”, a principle that is emerging nationally is how to inspire creativity and problem-solving in students, both in classrooms and in informal learning locations. There is a course that was just recommended to me that is on-line and free this summer. The unfortunate part is that is is summer. However, you might have colleagues that are looking at how STEM fits into more traditional curriculum and courses, and this could continue the interesting discussion you have started at the elementary level. Eugene is taking off with the idea of “maker-spaces” which equates to tinkering in industry (software, environmental solutions, sustainability) using math, science and engineering principles. This course might be a way to look at how classrooms could invite students into that world.

6 1/2 days to go!

Joel

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Joel’s Journal for June 2, 2014

• Schedule of Events for this Week

June 2 (M)

7:30-8:00, Joel  meeting with Pam

10:30-11:00, Joel  meeting with Tami

11:05-11:20,  Joel having lunch with kinder

12:50- 1:20,  Joel meeting with Cindy

3:00-4:00 Awbrey Park PTO Meeting (Teachers are encouraged to attend)

June 3 (T)

Joel out for OSEA Bargaining (Greg Marron in for me.)

Back for Staff meeting by 2:45 PM

3:00-4:00, Staff Meeting

Agenda:
Connections
Reflection Activity
Scheduling 14-15 update
Principal Search Update

EEA Update- Joel Leaves

June 4 (W)

7:30- 8:00, Arwen, Joel and Kristen in meeting with Parent via Skype

10:00-11:15,  Joel at title budget meeting at Ed Center with Suzy Price

2:00-4:00, Joel at River Road for dual language meeting

June 5 (H)

8:00-2:40, IIPM Consult Day in Room 13

2:50-3:20,  Joel in meeting with Beth

4:00-6:00,  Joel at Elementary Expo Round 3 for River Road Openings

June 6 (F)
Grading Day – No School
Class Lists Due to Kristen

Hello Awbrey Park Staff,

Be sure to check out the cleaned up school garden beds! Berenger Constantino, a former Awbrey Park student, was completing his Eagle Scout Project last weekend. He (and his troop) worked all Saturday to build new cedar compost bins and to clean out all the weeds. Next up, the Gallego Family’s Church will be supporting us with ongoing gardening support (and other volunteer support). Our hope is that they will be able to water the plants over the summer and mulch more of the space so we can get into the garden year round.

Some items of note this week:

•Title Update – After reconsidering our Title Coordinator position for next year with the help of the Intervention Team, I decided to reallocate our Title Coordinator Position to a 0.8 FTE Position. I will meet with Suzy Price next week to change this. The idea is that we will add more classified hours to the Title EA position in order to provide higher levels of support in kindergarten and first grade. This should help us boost the amount of students we can help in this year’s kinder class. It will also be a more proactive approach to helping the incoming kinders get a boost in their literacy from the get go. This will also allow us to purchase some much needed materials to support more of the kinders with Optimize.

• 2014-2015 Class Lists Due Friday – Class Lists are due to the office by this Friday.

• More District Admin Updates– Casandra Kamens will be the new principal at North Eugene High School next year, replacing Eric Anderson, who was hired to be the new principal at Fox Hollow. Cassandra has been at North Eugene since 1998 as an administrator, a Small Schools Coordinator and a World Languages teacher. This still leaves admin vacancies at Awbrey Park (here), Spencer Butte, South Eugene, the District Federal Programs (Title 1) Coordinator, HR Director, and the Teacher Effectiveness Administrator.

• Standards for a Better World – Backward map for social justice! Teaching Tolerance’s new Anti-bias Framework provides the anchor standards and grade-level outcomes you need to build activism and social emotional competencies into your curriculum. This could be something to discuss as a staff next year if we wanted to somehow incorporate it into Caring for Kids class meetings.

Thanks for reading.

Have a fulfilling week with your students. Before you know it, they will be moving up a grade.

Respectfully,

Joel

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Joel’s Journal for May 26th, 2014

Schedule of Events for the Week

 

May 26 (M)
Memorial Day – No School

May 27 (T)
EasyCBM Spring Benchmark Testing Continues
Last Week For Library Check Out
9:45-11:30, 5th Grade Visit to Madison
2:15-2:40, End of the year meeting with teacher.
3:00-4:00, Site Council Meeting (Room 13)

May 28 (W)

2nd and 4th Grade Field Trips occur in morning. (Shershun stays in building)
12:00-12:30, End of the year meeting with teacher.
1:00-2:00, Annual Medication Review Meeting, Kristie, Claire, Robin attend. (Joel’s Office)
3:30-4:00, Care Team and Loving Space Meeting for all who want to attend the circle.

May 29 (H)

3:00-4:00, CLIC Meeting (Guest from Jordan Schnitzer Museum on VTS)
3:00-3:00, IPBS Meeting (Conference Room)
4:00-6:00, Joel to Job Expo – Round 2 (Ed Center)

May 30 (F)

8:30-10:00, Intervention Team Scheduling Meeting
2:15-2:30, Bulldog Recess

 

Some items of note this week:

• Site Council Agenda for Tuesday:

Principal Selection Committee Process
Review and revise Title 1 Documents for Fall (Parent Involvement, Compact)
Review Spring EasyCBM Benchmark Data

• CLIC Agenda for Thursday:

VTS Presentation from Jordan Schnitzer Museum (Visible Thinking Strategies)
Leadership Plan for 2014-2015  & PD Focus for next year.

• Classified Bumping Update – No classified staff from Awbrey Park are being bumped this year! HR completed classified bumping last Friday and have notified staff who would be impacted. Awbrey made out well and did not have ANY classified staff bumped out of the building, which is great news! In fact, we have a new staff memeber for the Fall, Mindy Schifberg. Mindy is a Title EA from Mc Cornack and will be a great addition to the Bulldog team.

• Being a Writer Teacher Training Sign-Up – Teachers may now sign-up for the Being a Writer Trainings on the 4J Workshop webpage. Trainings are K/1/2 or 3/4/5 and are being held on June 23rd, 24th and 25th. There will also be trainings offered in August, tentatively scheduled for August 21st, 22nd and 23rd. Trainings are first-come-first-serve, so sign-up now for a date if there is one that fits your schedule better.

• Anticipated School Start Date – Semi related to the above item, HR has presented to the Board a proposed instructional calendar for 2014-15 with these key dates:

• Tuesday, August 26 — Teacher report date
• Wednesday, September 3 — Classes begin for students
• December 22-Jan 2 — Winter break
• March 23-27 — Spring break
• June 11 — possible last day for students

These dates are not yet official, but I think they will be made official in a couple weeks. The Board will take action on the proposed calendars on Wednesday, June 4th. HR is currently working on employee calendars for all employee groups, and anticipate being able to send out information about all employee report dates, as well as a Board-approved instructional calendar for 2014-15, on June 5th.

• District Admin Updates – Churchill High School also now has a principal, BJ Blake. BJ has been the principal at Spencer Butte Middle School, Meadowlark/Buena Vista, Bohemia Elementary in South Lane and the assistant principal in CHS. I expect to hear of the finalist for the North Eugene Position, the Technology Director, and the HR Director this week.

14 days until summer!

Joel

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Joel’s Journal for May 19th, 2014

Schedule of Events for the Week

May 19 (M)

K-2 EasyCBM Spring Benchmark

7:45-10:00, Joel in the building.

10:00-12:00, Joel at OSEA Bargaining
12:00-2:30, Joel to Title I Principal and Coordinator Meeting (Ed Center)
3:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting

May 20 (T)
Last day to submit PO’s, ans Student Body Funds for Receipts.

5 :00 PM Deadline to submit the new staffing information to HR.
10:15-12:00, 5th Grade to Madison

11:00-11:30, Joel  and Sarah G in Parent Meeting

May 21 (W)

9:00- 9:20, Joel running a school tour.

3:00-4:00, Scheduling Meeting- Intervention Schedule, SMART Schedule, Lunch Schedule

Mucho Gusto Fundraiser in the evening

May 22 (H)
8:30- 12:30, 4th and 5th Grade to Track Meet
3:00-5:00, 4J Retirement Celebration (Ed Center)

3:00-3:30, End of the year conference with Lindsay.

4:00-5:30, Joel to the Instructional Policy Council in Instruction Dept.

Mucho Gusto Fundraiser in the evening

May 23 (F)

1:00-1:30, Assembly: Awbrey Park Choir and North Eugene Choir sings for students!

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Joel’s Journal for May 12th, 2014

Schedule of Events for the Week

OAKS Testing Continues.

May 12 (M)

Joel in building.
1:00 PM Fire Drill

5:00-8:00 PM Joel to Equity Committee Presentation to the Board (Ed Center Auditorium)

May 13 (T)

Joel in building.

10:30-1:00, K-5 Spring Individual Photos (Room 13)

May 14 (W)

Joel in building.

Regular Day
May 15 (H)

Joel in the building until 2. Saphier cancelled due to Jon getting a cold.

1:00- 1:30,  Save The Earth Assembly (GYM)

2:00-4:00, Joel at the UO for the BRT “my iLogs” research project. (UO BRT)

May 16 (F)

8:00-12:15, Flouride Varnish Treatments (Room 13)

2:00- Joel leaves to Teach Out Conference at the Unitarian Church

Hello Bulldogs,

It sure was rainy last week but the weather this week looks like it should make up for it. Summer is fast approaching! There are 25 school days left.

Some items of note this week:

•    Work Sample Entry IT: This is a reminder that work samples for 3rd, 4th & 5th grade Writing, Speaking, Mathematics Problem Solving need to be entered into Synergy. I am asking that you not enter the Scientific Inquiry into Synergy but that you implement the inquiry lesson and include it in your grade book as a simple pass/no pass. The math WS can be an embedded unit that you have already completed in order to save some time in your math sequencing. Previous WS attempts in your scope and sequence can be used for entry. I also wanted to remind teachers that the contract allows you 12 hours sub time for “record keeping, assessment or planning related to standards based instruction.” Attached are TeacherVue directions Marlee emailed earlier on how to enter work sample information into Synergy.

•    Kitchen Staffing Update – We’ve received our kitchen staffing for next year. Donna Marquez will not be returning as our Head Cook. In fact, she recently resigned. Meagan will finish out the year with us as the Head Cook and the position will open up this Summer as a vacancy. Tracy will continue on as the four hour cook.  Pat will be moving to Camas Ridge. Her smile and hard work with our kids will certainly be missed.

•    Awbrey Park OAKS Scores –I have contacted downtown about the lower scores and potential reasons for these issues. Since testing isn’t finished, our scores and the state and district averages will likely fluctuate some, but for now we’re pretty much right in the middle of the bell curve for our overall passing rate across the district. Andrew, Sara, Justice, Charlotte, and Becki/Cindy will be supporting 3,4,5 teachers in retakes in the coming days. Andrew is still working hard to create this plan which will be published early next week.

•    Fire Drill, Monday at 1:00 PM – With good weather in the forecast, we’ll plan to do our May fire drill on Monday, May 12.

•    2014-2015 Class Lists due June 6th – Remember you can find the class lists in the staff lounge. Class lists will be due to the office by Grading Day on Friday, June 6th.

•   End of the Year Financial Dates – 

• This Year’s Print Orders – May 13th
• All receipts for reimburse turned in – May 20th
• Next Year’s Print Orders June 11th

There is an “End of Year Timeline” and a Checklist for Closing” that will be in your boxes next week.

•    Writing Curriculum Adoption – The school district is adopting the writing program that is currently being piloted around the district and by several teachers across the district, Being a Writer, which is by the same folks who made Caring for Kids. More details on how it will roll out will be coming soon, but I did want to give teachers a heads-up that downtown has tentatively scheduled a half day training for teachers to attend on either June 23rd, 24th or 25th. They are working to be flexible within those days and will try and have options available for teachers who cannot attend.

•    Non-ESS Licensed IEP Time Meeting Compensation – Many teachers attend IEP meetings during planning times or outside the workday. The EEA contract entitles classroom teachers to be compensated for up to four hours of additional pay. I wanted to remind teachers that the Non-ESS Licensed IEP Time Log will be accepted between now and June 6th, and can be found on the HR Forms section of the 4J website.

•    More District Admin Updates – More changes downtown. Suzy Price has accepted a position in Springfield to be the Director of Elementary Eduction, which leave her Federal Programs Coordinator position vacant. I will miss Suzy and her deep understanding of Title 1 schools and instruction.

•    U.S. Department of Education study about Data-Driven Instruction – I know Awbrey has a history of piloting everything that comes down the pipe, but I’m inclined to decline participation given that we’re already pretty maxed out. The short version is this is a DOE study focusing on supporting schools to use data driven instruction. Highlights include:

•    Funding for a half time data coach in each building
•    Paid professional development and technical assistance
•    Opportunity to establish an ongoing culture of data use.

Although my sense is staff are busy enough, I did want to present the opportunity. For 4J to participate, they will need 8 schools to be a part of the study. Let me know if you have questions or if you think our school should participate, but I’ll plan on saying “no” unless folks tell me otherwise.

•    Tech tools that are used to motivate student participation – Student engagement can be increased by combining meaningful instruction and motivational technology tools that are innovative, user-friendly and applicable to real-world situations, Nicolas Pino James, a teacher researcher and trainer, writes in this blog post. He describes four free Web-based tools that can be used to boost student engagement, including PosterMyWall, which enables students to create artistic, high-quality posters to be shared online or printed, and Screencast-o-matic, a tool that allows users to record their computer screens.

Thanks for reading and have a great week,

Joel

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Joel’s Journal for May 5th, 2014

It is Staff Appreciation Week!

Hello Awbrey Bulldogs,

This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week and I’d like to take the opportunity to thank ALL Awbrey staff for your work and dedication, which is absolutely what makes our school the wonderful place it is. We at AP, we celebrate this as a week of STAFF  appreciation. I know kids and families really do love and appreciate the hard work you all do here every day of the year. Awbrey staff ROCKS! Our Social Committee have been working hard to make for a week of fun and celebration.

• Schedule of Events for the Week

Teacher Appreciation Week All Week, OAKS Testing Continues.

May 5 (M)
1:30-2:30, Joel and Kristie in Financial Closeout Meeting (Office)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

6:30-8:00, Awbrey Park PTO Meeting (Staff Lounge)

May 6 (T)
3:00-4:00, May Staff Meeting (Room 13)

4:00-5:30, Joel to Equity Committee Meeting (Ed Center)

May 7 (W)

7:30-8:15, Joel to Student Support Meeting in (Arwen’s Classroom Rm. 4 )

8:30-4:30, Joel to District office for Classified Bargaining (Ed Center)

May 8 (H)

3:00-4:00, CLIC Meeting (Room 13)

6:30-8:00, Cookies and Engineering Family STEM Night  (Gym and Cafeteria) Please come and help out.

May 9 (F)
Regular Day

Some items of note this week:

• Helping out on Thursday’s STEM Night- Please do consider helping out with the STEM night.  It should be a fantastic evening of fun activities and learning with families.  The sign up sheet is in the Staff Lounge.

• May Staff Agenda – Agenda for the Staff Meeting

1. Connections -10 minutes

2.  Taking it up action plan and update on our capacity in the area of equity. -10 minutes

3. Saphier focus from our CLIC Leaders- Conversation about 14-15 planning. 20 minutes.

4. Math Opportunity brought to us by Jamie Tait. 10 minutes

5. Work Sample and Writing Sample Conversation and Decision-  Prioritization for 3,4,5 work samples. 10 minutes

• Title 1 Newsletter – If you’d like to know what’s happening in Title 1 from the district perspective, here is the latest Title 1 Newsletter that went out to all Title 1 Coordinators and principals. This month’s issue is mostly a lot of coordinator compliance tasks, but there are a couple good short articles included, one is “A High-Level Classroom Checklist” and the other about “Responding Effectively to Incorrect Answers.”

• More District Admin Updates – The new 4J Chief of Staff position has been announced. See David Brewer’s email below for details. I haven’t heard the duties of this position yet, but I imagine it will be something of a Deputy Superintendent, like Tom Henry and Jim Slemp used to fill.

Dear Colleagues –

Human Resources is proud to announce our new Chief of Staff. Charis McGaughy will be taking on this key position for our district beginning July 9, 2014. Charis has had a “life-long commitment to public education” and eliminating the achievement gap. She started her career as a classroom teacher and went on to earn her Master’s degree in Public Affairs. She has worked at the state level in both Texas and Tennessee. She returned to school and obtained her PhD in Educational Policy, Leadership, and Organizations. She has spent the last 7 years as a director at the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC). Her vast background in practice, policy, and research as well as strong oral and written communication skills will serve our district very well. Charis is passionate about supporting our mission to provide each student with an excellent education. She is a former 4J student and a current parent. Please join me in welcoming Charis McGaughy to 4J.

David

David Brewer
Interim HR Director

• Should educators look beyond technology, student engagement? – In this blog post, George Couros, a division principal in Alberta, Canada, reflects on the myth that technology is the magic formula for student engagement. He suggests educators are the key to student learning and they should aim beyond engagement to empowerment. “If we can develop meaningful learning opportunities that empower our students to make a difference, our impact will go beyond their time they spent in our classrooms,” he writes.

• 5 apps to enhance students’ social learning skills -“ Although it might seem counter-intuitive for educators to turn to apps and online gaming to enhance students’ social learning skills, we believe that when used in tandem with personalized instruction and an engaging curriculum, social learning games can be incredibly useful,” writes ASCD EDge community member Ryan Thomas. In a recent blog post, Thomas shares five apps that can help enhance students’ social learning skills.

• Study challenges stereotypes about female performance in math, science – On average, girls outperform boys across all subjects in school, including math and science, according to a recent meta-analysis by the American Psychological Association. The largest performance gap was in language, and the smallest occurred in math, the analysis found. “This contrast in findings makes it clear that the generalized nature of the female advantage in school marks contradicts the popular stereotypes that females excel in language whereas males excel in math and science,” the researchers wrote.

Have a great week, everyone!

Joel

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Joel’s Journal for April 28th, 2014

This Week’s Calendar of Events:

April 28 (M)

2:15-4:00, Joel and Becki to the Principal and Coordinator Title 1 Meeting
OAKS Testing this Week- 3rd, 4th, 5th Reading
Joel in the building until 2:15.

April 29 (T)

Apple iT3 Visit – 40-45 people kick off at Awbrey Park to tour all it3 Schools
-Dr. Berman in the building and Apple Reps in the building.
2:15-2:30, Bulldog Recess 2:15
3:00-4:00, Site Council Meeting
Joel in the building.

April 30 (W)
Regular Day
Joel in the building.

May 1 (H)

8:30-4:00, Joel to Jon Saphier session (leaving Ed Center at 2:45)
9:00, 5th Grade Group Photo
3:00-4:00, Joel returns to meet in CLIC Session Discussion of Saphier/CFK /Climate focus for next year., Agenda setting for May Staff Meeting. Review of nuts and bolts end of the year activities.
Joel not in the building before 3:00.

May 2 (F)
Regular Day
Joel in the building.

Hi Staff,

Here is a shorter blog entry of this week’ items of note. Also,  please pass on any agenda items of interest to your CLIC representative for the May Staff Meeting.

Here is my first try at an Agenda-

1.CFK Connection activity.

2.Report back from our Taking it up cohort and new focus for our action plan.

3. Math Opportunity brought to us by Jamie Tait.

4. JSMA Art and Writing VTS Announcement

5. Saphier focus from our RBT teacher Leaders.

VTS and Awbrey Park Staff Professional Development in 14-15 plus an opportunity.

We applied for a grant to bring more connections to art from the University next year. Some of you may be familiar with VTS- Visible Thinking Skills in Art.  This is used at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and it is coming to Awbrey Park next year and maybe even this Spring for our kids. If you would like to find our more about this program you may be interested in going to this lecture coming up by the author of the VTS book,Philip Yenawine.

Tami Brittenhams’ Cool Website that Promotes Movement Break in the Classroom

Tami sent out a great link to a wonderful program called Gonoodle. It is a great movement break website with multiple kinds of movement and brain friendly movement activities.  Tami’s students love it and we have been using it multiple times a day. You have to try it!!! It is at gonoodle.com and it’s really easy to set up and get going. Perfect for the spring!

Here is a sample of one called Run with Us and a short clip on helping kindergartners stay focused.

4J Admin Updates

If people are curious about some of the vacant admin positions around the district, a few hires were announced last week. Willagillespie will have David Jacobsen as their principal next year, taking Stella Dadson’s place. David is currently serving as an assistant principal in Chile and previously worked as an administrator in both South Albany and Springfield School Districts. Adams will have Kevin Gordon as their principal next year, taking the place of Cindy Sainz. Kevin taught at Parker Elementary for 10 years and currently teaches in the Junction City, while also serving on the ODE Assessment Team. He is also the husband of our Sabrina Gordon. Congrats to the Gordons! At Fox Hollow, Eric Anderson, the current North Eugene HS principal and former principal at Roosevelt, will be taking over for Morely Hegstrom as principal. Downtown also announced that SEHS principal Randy Bernstein will be the new Director of Secondary Education, taking the place of Laurie Moses. That still leaves principal vacancies for Churchill, North, South, and River Road/El Camino Del Rio, along with the Director of HR, Communication, CIS and the new Chief of Staff position all left to be filled.

How to motivate students by making them feel valued, important

It’s common in the classroom for teachers to involve students in the process of putting their chairs on their desks at the end of the day, educator Jim Dillon writes. In this blog post, he shares two scenarios, one in which the teacher asks students to put their chairs on their desks and rewards them for doing so, and another in which the teachers — with the help of the custodian — explains the reasons behind the task and why the responsibility is important. Dillon writes that he favors the second scenario, which turns the chore into a motivating “noble” task.

Targeted Transfer Message from Cydney Vandercar

Here is a message from Cydney Vandercar about the targeted school process and the new Expo concept. It is mostly for your information on how HR handles the targeted school process and on the new Expo concept they are trying out this year.

The following process will be used to assist licensed staff interested in transferring sites through the District Targeted School process for the 2014-2015 school year.

Important Points

*Licensed Staff may opt out of the targeted school process at anytime during the process listed below.  By doing so, they will remain at their current school.
*Human Resources will keep the list of licensed staff indicating they want a transfer confidential until May 7, 2014.
*Displaced staff members from the staffing plans are not eligible for the early Target School Transfer process.
*Teachers interested in participating in the Targeted Transfer must e-mail Cydney Vandercar expressing their intent to participate by April 28, 2014.
*The licensed staff from the targeted school that are interested in transferring will be given a list of the open positions in their licensure area(s) on April 29, 2014.
*Human Resources staff (Cydney Vandercar) will communicate with each qualified staff from the targeted schools to identify prioritized interest in the open positions.  The licensed staff will give their three preferences from the open positions.  HR will e-mail principals the list of teachers interested in their open positions on or before May 2, 2014.
*On May 5, 2014, principals will have conversations with licensed staff from the target school who have expressed a prioritized interest in any known vacancies.
*In conjunction with the Principals & Instruction, HR will assign licensed staff from the Targeted School interested in transferring to one of their open prioritized positions.
* Licensed staff from the Targeted Schools will be informed of their new assignment offered on May 6, 2014.  They will have until 5pm on May 8, 2014 to accept or reject the assignment.  If they choose not to accept the assignment they will remain at their current school.
*Upon completion of the steps above, the regular procedures for posting and filling positions will take place through the EXPO.

Thursday, April 17
Staffing plans submitted to Human Resources

April 18-April 27
Reconciliation of staffing plans

Friday, April 25
Meet with ATA staff to explain Targeted School Transfer process

Monday, April 28
Interested teachers must e-mail Cydney Vandercar with intent to participate in the process.  Include in subject line:  Targeted School Transfer Process.

Tuesday, April 29
Human Resources will identify open positions.

Vacancies sent to participants in process.

Thursday, May 1 (on or before)
Communicate with Cydney Vandercar to discuss preferences.

Friday, May 2
Principals notified of licensed employees interest to transfer to their building.

Monday, May 5
Informal interviews with principals with openings

Tuesday, May 6
New assignment offered to employee who has until 5 PM on Thursday May 8 to accept. If they decline offer, they remain at current school.
Notification of placements for 2014-15 from this process will be recorded.  Any new openings will be added to the EXPO list.

Have a great week! 34 days remaining of school.

Joel

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Joel’s Journal for April 21st

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Week of April 14th, 2014

• Schedule of Events for the Week 

April 14 (M)
1:00, Fire Drill- Risk manager, Ryan Massey will observe.
2:00-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)

April 15 (T)
3:00-4:00, PBIS Meeting (Room 13)

April 16 (W)

3:00-4:00, CLIC Meeting- STEM night preparations and instructional focus

April 17 (H)

6:00-8:00, Awbrey Park Art Show

Christina, Claire, and Barb out at the Taking It Up Conference

April 18 (F)
Regular Day (and it’s Friday!)

Christina, Claire, and Barb out at the Taking It Up Conference

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all were able to get outside this weekend to enjoy the sunny weather! It’s about time that spring weather got here!

Some items of note this week:

• Music assembly and Pride Awards, Friday, April 25th at 1:00 – We will be presenting  PRIDE awards at the next music assembly in the gym on Friday. Classroom teachers should pick 2-3 kids you think have been an excellent example of PRIDE. Blank certificates will be on the counter in the staff lounge.

• OAKS Items and schedule reminder –
Read Aloud- Some have requested to have your system enabled for the read aloud option in OAKS.  Kerri Sage has now set up for that purpose for all 3,4,5 teachers at Awbrey Park.  Students still have to hold down the control button and click the mouse on the item they want read to them.

COW availability:  In general, COW availability is limited during the OAKS testing weeks. Plan accordingly.

OAKS Schedule:

Science occurred last week and went fairly well after a few kinks were worked out.

• Earth Day, April 22nd – Not this week, but next week is Earth Day on Tuesday, April 22. Teach your students how to care about their world — and how they can make it better! — throughout the year with these resources and downloads from Scholastic, TeacherVision.com, ScienceLinks.com, EducationWorld.com and Edutopia.

• 2014 Public Works Day, Thursday, May 15 – Online registration for teachers who want to take their classes to Public Works Day on Thursday, May 15th is now open. See their website for details on this fun field trip.

• TEDxSomerville – Dan Rothstein: Did Socrates Get it Wrong? –

Where did you learn to ask questions? Did you know the skill of asking questions is not used, shared and definitely not taught very well? Even worse, educators are given little training and often indirectly discouraged from spending time on teaching the skill. There’s good news with a deceptively simple solution to the problem. Its called the Question Formulation Technique™ and you have a chance to learn and experience it! Related to this video is a free questioning resources site, RightQuestions.org and also a helpful two page guide of sample questions from RBTeach.com.

•  Where are all the people of color in children’s books?

Christopher Meyers

Here is a New York Times article on representation of students of color in children’s literature. It is an excellent article and reiterates several points that Jane Waite made about analyzing children’s literature.

I’m starting to get used to five day weeks again, which I suppose is a good thing since we’ll be on a roll for the next five weeks. 45 kid days to go!

Joel

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