February 8th, 2013

Week of February 11th

 

“[G]ood teachers don’t give a good education to students; they provide experiences that facilitate and motivate youngsters to educate themselves through trial and error, success and failure.”

Steven Landfried

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone has enjoyed the nice weather this weekend. It should be sunny for a few more days. I am excited to say that I have no events pulling me away from the building this week. I plan to be in classrooms more doing more informal walk-throughs.

 

Here is a weekly calendar of some events of the week:

A fire drill will happen this week. Be prepared and know your attendance at all times.
Feb. 11 (M)
PBIS Focus: Perseverance
8:00-12:00, Sara Cramer visits Awbrey Park- Walk-throughs will be happening for an hour in the morning.
3:00-5:00,  Elem. Principal Meeting
5:00-9:00, Joel at university course.

Feb. 12 (T)

3:00-4:00 Licensed Staff Meeting (Don’t forget to read Jon Saphier) See agenda below.

Feb. 13 (W)
7:15-8:00- Christina and Joel Collaborative Planning meeting.

Feb. 14 (H)
9:00, Joel at PTO Planning Meeting with new incoming president Roger Cox.

Feb. 15 (F)
7:45-8:30, Weekly Meeting Joel and Melinda
8:45-9:45, Joel teaching for the Title 1 Collaborative Team Terri, Melissa, Christina.
9:45-10:00- Weekly Office Meeting
3:00-4:00-  Joel at IEP Meeting with Jason Robbins
Some items of note:

Licensed Staff Meeting Agenda for Tuesday, February 12, 3:00-4:00
Warm Up- Connections/ Community activity.
1. Introduce our new TSS on Tuesdays and Thursdays, David Greene -2 minutes. (David can you adjust your schedule to stay a bit longer to meet them?)
2. Math Leadership Report- Informing us on March Math Madness-Jamie and Beth- 10 minutes
3. CFEE Taking It Up Staff Stance on interrupting language.  Activity- Joel Leads with facilitators-20 minutes.
4. Collaborative Leader Focus on Making Thinking Visible.- Christina – 20 minutes

KMTR pieces on Awbrey Park Technology and Art!

There will be a benefit this weekend for James Dahl’s Medical Fund! KMTR did a special on this in the classroom on Friday which will air on the news this weekend.  Here is a picture of the poster for specifics if you would like to come out and support James and his family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KMTR has moved up the air date of Ryan Cummings’ story about instructional technology at Awbrey Park. It’s expected to air Monday, February 11th. It is our time to shine. Tune in to the news that night.

Fire Drill Next Week: There will be a fire drill next week but I am not going to announce the exact time. Any students who usually need extra support will be supported to reduce anxiety.

Library Printer now in Room 13 Collaboration Station:

The library printer has been moved to Room 13. Please be aware that the name displayed on your computer will not change. If you have this printer installed on your computer it will still be titled “Library” or “prt-lib-1” or whatever it was called before.

If you wish to rename the printer, follow these steps…

  • Click on the Apple menu at the top left of your screen, then System Preferences.
  • Click on Print & Fax.
  • Locate the library printer in the list and click once to highlight it.
  • Click the Options and Supplies button.
  • Make sure you are on the General tab, then type a new name in the Name field, such as “Room 13”
  • Click OK and close the window.

Spring UO Educational Foundations field students at Awbrey Park

 A Message from Jeanne Hall:  We’re already planning for spring! The UO Educational Foundations undergraduate major is in need of at least 80 field experience placements in classrooms for the Spring term (April 1 – June 7, 2013)!

Please respond by Friday, February 15.

Our Educational Foundations field experiences include the following expectations:

1. The Ed Foundations undergraduate major fully prepares our students to apply to graduate elementary licensure programs, so it is not an undergraduate licensure program. Therefore, host teachers are not required to have a certain number of years teaching experience…just a positive learning environment!

2. The field experience student will assist in the classroom for 30 hours total (approx. 3 hr. block per week for 10 wks locally).

3. Field students are eager to assist individuals and small groups, under the direction of the host teacher. During the majority of the time, students will need to assist or observe the children during instruction versus doing paperwork. Your field student will let you know of any specific assignment or observation for a course.

4. We ask that only one university student (field experience, practicum, or student teacher) be assisting at a given time frame.  However, you may request 2 field experience students if they each have their own time slot.

5. Field students will not be designing or teaching work samples, so there is no monetary compensation for host teachers. The host teacher is only asked to initial the student’s hourly log and fill out a very brief one-page evaluation of the field student at the end of the term. We believe your classroom will benefit from having an aspiring future educator as your consistent assistant!

With their varying schedules, most of our EdF juniors could be available on any day of the week, except they will not be available on Tuesday or Thursday afternoons.

If you are interested in hosting an Educational Foundations field experience student, please email Jeanne Hall with the following information: <jmhall@uoregon.edu>

1. Your name, grade, school, and email.

2. Your preferred days and 3-hr time blocks for those days each week for the Spring term.

3. The type of classroom setting you have (general ed., Title I, ELD, etc.)

4. If you wish to have 1 or 2 field experience students.

Article Link of the Week:

7 Essential Principles of Innovative Learning– I really like this article.  It applies to much of the work we are currently undertaking.

Bobble Rules:

Teachers, please remember to review Bobble Rules with students. You should have a presentation that goes over the decided rules in the classroom. We have students who are creating alliances and not including students. This needs to be addressed beyond the rules.  Remind them that Mr. Lavin could end bobble if these non inclusive behaviors continue.
Valentine’s Day Festivities- Some guidelines.
Here is the guideline we give to parents around balloons and flowers.  We will be following these guidelines on Thursday. Please understand that they will not be delivered to classrooms as it is distracting. Parents just received this information in the newsletter. I will remind them again this weekend.

Balloon and Flower Deliveries at School

Are you considering sending something special, like flowers or balloons, to school to celebrate your child’s birthday, Valentine’s Day or another event?  These deliveries interrupt classroom instruction and student learning.  They can also, unknowingly, hurt feelings of other students less fortunate.  If you still plan on sending something, we wanted to share with you our procedure for deliveries:

 

  • All deliveries will be kept in the office.  The office staff will do their best to contact your student, at the end of their school day, to pick up their special deliveries.  We do need to caution you that pressing student issues will take priority over such announcements.
  • Balloons and flowers are not allowed on the bus.  Please make alternate arrangements for transportation home, if your child is a bus rider.

In  addition, I caution you about any snacks or candy given out on Valentine’s Day. Please make sure you are following Health and Wellness guidelines in classrooms that day.  Thanks,

 

Have a good weekend,

 

Joel

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