Week of September 16th, 2013
Hi Everyone,
We all survived our first week of school! That was sure an intense week.
• Beth Shershun will be our Cohort 2 Leader with Jon Saphier – Christina Powell will continue as a member of Cohort 1. Between these two teacher leaders, there will be much information shared and supported by our staff. My work with Saphier has been high quality and helped me tremendously to think about instructional practices and teacher support.
• Math Support on the 4j Instruction Website –
Many of you are busy planning your instruction in mathematics this year. I want to remind you of a resource the instruction has created to be of value to you as you do this work. The http://www.curriculum.4j.lane.edu/ pages are an invaluable resource provided to you to help you in your planning. This page in particular will help you with math but there are several other resources available to you. In addition, the ESC at Howard Elementary has posted very detailed pacing guides that match our current school year. You may want to take a close look at these to see if they match our needs. All documents are in Pages.
PTO Meeting Sign-Up and Involvement – The first PTO meeting came and went. I appreciated all the teachers who have volunteered to sign up for the future meetings. Kristie has updated all the dates on our Awbrey Park Parent and Community Calendar if you would like to put them in your datebook. There are still a couple slots open if you would like to attend. I completely understand people wanting to find balance between home and work, but it’s still nice if we can show support for the parents volunteering their time to support out school. Hope to see you there! This weekend, our PTO ran the parking at the EWEB Parking Lot. They raised over $2300 to directly support classrooms with this event!
Tardies & Attendance – Please remember that Kristie will not give out any Tardy Slips or begin recording tardies in Synergy until after 8:45, so for any student arriving in the building before then, teachers will need to mark them down as tardy and ask students to come with a tardy slip. For teachers new to the building, our staff agreement is that students are to be marked tardy if they are not inside the classroom before the 8:25 bell rings. We are trying to get students to class as quickly as possible so our students do not miss our on Morning Meeting. In addition, please be more flexible on breakfast in the classroom. Except for the late bus issues, the majority of our students
• TAG and 504 Students – I am your TAG and 504 Coordinator. Next week, I will share a list of TAG identified students to teachers as I figure out Synergy and access our ESIS. If you have any TAG identified students in your class, you will receive an email from me this week with more detailed information. Feel free to send any TAG or 504 questions my way.
• SPLASH Grant – As in the past, the City of Eugene is providing SPLASH curriculum this school year along with grant funding for instruction in science. “SPLASH! K-8″ is a curriculum for grades kindergarten through 8th grade. Attached is an overview of the program. It includes contact information for new or replacement materials. All materials are free to teachers in Eugene.
Participating schools can receive a grant of $1,000. Schools are encouraged to use some of the money for the purpose of science/storm water education. If you choose to participate, let me know the following information:
• A brief summary of how you plan to use the SPLASH curriculum
• Names of participating teachers
• Number of students who will be involved in the SPLASH curriculum and their grade levels
Please let me know by the end of the week if you are interested.
• District Mandatory Policy Review for all Staff – A quick reminder that all staff must review the policy memo and sign & return the acknowledgement form to in my box no later than Friday, September 27th.
• Emergency Sub Plans – Teachers, I encourage you to prepare an emergency sub plan that is in your classroom available to the substitute. This is not a policy but it is good practice. The office will only provide keys to your room when a sub comes for you. You should include plans for one day minimum. It’s not a bad idea to include two days of plans. This folder should contain at a minimum and be placed in a conspicuous place for any sub to find:
• A daily schedule, current seating chart, recess/lunch/bus or other duty
• Procedures for arrival/dismissal, classroom rules/routines, school procedures
• Lesson plans and the location of materials needed for the lessons
• Bell schedule
• Map of school including the locations of helpful staff members
• Pertinent information regarding children that need medication, have special needs, or receive special services
• Names of responsible students who can be counted on for assistance
• Important characteristics of the class
• Safety Week, September 23 – September 27th – I’d like to again hold a Safety Week at the end of this month to practice all of the most common safety drills. I think this is a good way to bring awareness to staff, students and families about the various safety procedures. The schedule for Safety Week will be:
Monday, Sept. 23- Fire Drill, 9:00
Tuesday, Sept. 24 -Room Clear, time decided by teachers
Wednesday, September 25 – Lock Down , 9:00 AM
Thursday, September 26th Earthquake/Fire Drill, 9:00 AM
Claire and I have been revising the procedures over the last week. We will be posting the calendar / and procedure for you in your boxes before the end of the week. All of these drills are listed in the “Emergency Procedures Manual” which is the rainbow tabbed notebook that should be hanging in every classroom. Please check in with Kristie to ensure that your red/green attendance card is accurate and that you have the proper information on your clipboard. Kristie is posting accurate maps for you on the clipbords this week. Also, check with Larry if you are missing your red lock down key from it’s spot in your room.
• Free Space and Astronomy Resource – Find attached a flyer from Rick Kang about classroom presentations related to Astronomy and Space. They are free to schools in the Eugene Springfield area. 4th or 5th grade would probably be the best match.
• Emerald Empire Reading Council Workshops – ORA/EERC is offering another year’s worth of workshops for staff around literacy and reading instruction. See the attached workshop calendar and membership information for more details.
• Oregon Reading Association’s Patricia Gallagher Children’s Choice Picture Book Award – ORA nominates 5 picture books each year and encourages Oregon educators to read them to their students. Student then vote for a favorite at the end of the year. This year the theme for all five books is creativity and innovation. Our local council, the Emerald Empire Reading Council, can loan sets of these books to staff along with a 128-page packet of teaching strategies and activities aligned to the CCSS. Staff can email Karen Antikajian at kantikajian@cvcable.net to check them out. For more information and to see this year’s five books, here’s a link to their (very old school) website.
• Schedule of Events for the Week
September 16 (M)
K-5 Fall Easy CBM Testing Begins
10:15 -11:00, Joel Meets with Tasha Katsuda for Teacher Effectiveness Model Support Meeting (Got a question about it? Bring it by and I’ll ask her directly before 10:15.)
September 17 (T)
11:30-3:30, Sarah Grace and Lindsay Gietter out to meet with Kathy Lutein about the SEED 2 National Writing Project Grant
2:30, Joel out to appt. downtown.
3:00, First TLT meeting in Room 13
September 18 (W)
2:00, Joel meets with Peggy Marconi in office about planning SEED 2 Grant.
3:00, September PBIS Meeting
September 19 (Th)
Talk Like a Pirate Day!
September 20 (F)
9:00, Meeting with Kim Kauffman about ELL
Equity Link of the Week:
The following article (Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh )includes one of the most famous articles on White Privilege that came out over 20 years ago. I first read this article in my multicultural education course in 1997. This version also includes another article and some specific actions that we can try to be mindful of as a staff as we consider how race impact our classroom. I will provide a hard copy of it in your boxes this week. Even on the second day of school, we already had an issue of race come up amongst a few students at the bus zone. It is very important that we as a staff are comfortable to talk about race with our students and help them navigate this difficult topic.
Have a great first full week of classes, everyone!
Joel