Week of March 10th, 2014
Schedule of Events for the Week –
March 10 (M)
Direct Drive Fundraiser is on until April 3rd.
7:40, Student Support Meeting for Student (Joel attends part of meeting before heading to Ed Center)
3-4, Study Group (Room 13)
Joel at OSEA Bargaining at Ed Center. Larry Soberman will cover for Joel.
March 11 (T)
1:00, Fire Drill
3-4, PBIS Meeting (Room 13)
March 12 (W)
3-4, Rescheduled Site Council Meeting (Room 13)
March 13 (H)
3-4, Nuts and Bolts CLIC Meeting (Room 13) –
Agenda:Spring Events/ End of year Planning, Documents/Fall Registration for Fall 2014-2015
March 14 (F)
3-4, Student Support Meeting (Conference Room)
March 15 (S)
11:00, Future Chefs Competition, Habibatou is competing! (Sheldon HS)
“Compassion Music Assembly”- March 18
Added CLIC Meeting with Instructional Focus- March 18
Data Meeting Intermediate- March 19
IPBS Meeting- March 20
Professional Learning Session- March 21– Focus on Equity Work, Collaborative Work and Technology Training-AM Session & PM Planning
Spring Break Begins!- March 21 @4:00
Hi Everyone,
Awbrey Park’s OBOB team, AKDM Bulldogs (Aly, Katie, Delaney, and Maddie) did exceptionally well at Saturday’s regional competition, and advanced to the sweet 16 and then to the Elite 8 finals. We eventually lost to Holt. I heard that Ohara School took first place and Edgewood took second. It’s the top 16 teams with the most points from the “Pool Play” rounds who advance to the finals, but they did a great job representing our school. We did exceptionally well and their coach, Crista Harter has much to be proud of. These kids just rocked it. Next week, some of you might want to go to the Future Chefs Competition to cheer Habibatou on at Sheldon HS.
Some items of note this week:
• United Way Campaign (forms due Thursday!) – As some of you are probably aware, 4J has not started the 2014 United Way of Lane County Campaign. Because of scheduling and time constraints, they decided it would be best to change the campaign cycle going forward from March 2014 to March 2015. They say this works better with their overall schedule and will allow them more time to focus on the work and value that United Way of Lane County provides to our community. This is the first year they are trying this schedule, therefore the timeline will be very short. If you are able to donate, forms and/or donations are due to the office by this Thursday (3/13). I will place them in your box on Monday.
Remember that you can even donate directly to your own classroom, which may be a good thing to do since the “Educator Expenses Tax Deduction” ended this past year, but a donation through United Way is still tax deductible.
Forms will be in staff mailboxes Monday morning. If you are able to donate, forms and/or donations should be put into the United Way envelope located in my office by the door underneath the Direct Drive envelope. We did exceptionally well last year in increasing our donations! We actually increased by 1560% and participation was through the roof! We were way above district average last year, so let’s see if we can do it again!
• TSS Updates – James has been hired to take Scott Ehret’s place as the 4J TSS Supervisor. Scott left the district recently for a new position at PacificSource and James was hired last week into the position. I am happy to know that the person now in charge of TSS assignments has a good idea of how much TSS time is really required here at Awbrey Park. David will continue to serve us on Mondays and Wednesdays. Sometimes, David does have responsibilities that keeps him away on Wednesdays and he makes it up another day. Best of wishes to James in his new position!
March 21st PD Day – (2.5 hours on using the cultural fluency rubric) Jane Waite will be joining us to help us work on examining classroom libraries for cultural fluency. She will be sharing a rubric to look at texts in our classroom that are non-fiction or fiction. She will help us learn to analyze these texts and consider their use in instruction. She will also share innovative ways for teachers to talk about texts with students that address race, class and gender in our classrooms and give guidance on facilitating those discussions. This could be especially helpful to teachers looking to increase the quality of discussion during read alouds or during journaling work related to texts in the classroom.
(3 hours of collaboration time) The second part of our morning will be focused on giving teachers time to plan writing units, collaborate on examining mentor texts, and co-create relevant formative assessments to that support your writing work for the year.
(2.5 hours of personal planning time in the afternoon) Teachers are given 2.5 hours of planning time to use as they deem necessary for planning before Spring Break
Lastly, for classified staff, the rescheduled EA Extravaganza is being held this same day from 8:00 to 11:35 at the Ed Center. Information has been sent out earlier, but I did want EAs to know this training is optional. I’ve heard great things about last year’s Extravaganza, but use your discretion as to how best to use your time this day. If you are working in the building, be sure to connect with your primary cooperating teacher for to how you can best help out this day. Also, if you have interest in being a part of our PD time in the morning o learn more about cultural fluency in literacy, you are very welcome to join us in Room 13.
Fire Drill, Tuesday at 1:00 – It’s supposed to be dry on Tuesday, so weather pending, we’ll plan to hold our March Fire Drill on Tuesday, March 11th at 1:00. If we’re rained out, I’ll hold the drill during a when it’s dry sometime on Wednesday.
2014-2015 Staffing Comes April 4th – Principals found out last week that we will get our staffing allocations on Friday, April 4th. Since negotiations will likely not be settled by this date, downtown will assume a “status quo” contract, which means they will be operating off a budget that assume no furlough days or salary/benefit reductions. How this has played out the last few years is that schools get this first round of staffing and then later, following labor negotiations, get revised allocations with better staffing ratios.
National Geographic for Kids FREE! – I heard about this from Allan Chinn and Pam Reynolds. I thought was worth sharing. National Geographic Explorer, the kid version of their magazine, has issues from 2009 to present available for free download, including teacher guides, projectable versions, laptop & tablet versions, and interactive whiteboard lessons. Here is the link to the Pioneer version (grades 2-3) and the Pathfinder version (grades 4-6). To download the PDF version you have to go to “For Teachers” and then to the projectable edition on that page. There you can click to print it and then save it as a PDF.
OEA Symposium in Salem– If you have not seen Pedro Noguera, I would highly recommend this workshop. I have been fortunate to see him once in 4j in 2003. Here is a link to some of the things he has written. Educators, parents, community leaders and policymakers are encouraged to attend. I realize it is during spring break for many people but if you are around, it is worth spending the day in Salem.
63 Black Harvard Students Share Their Experiences In A Powerful Photo Project – The one is a must read! The I, Too, Am Harvard photo campaign explores the diverse experience that black students at Harvard have to face. Here are 21 of the images from an article about the project.
Study: Emotional, social learning model boosts test scores – Students in classrooms that operate under the Responsive Classroom model — a socialization technique typically used to help students develop emotional and social skills that’s very similar to Caring for Kids — had the added benefit of higher math and reading test scores, according to a recent study by researchers from several universities. The crux of the program is focused on developing positive classroom relationships, teaching students how to cooperate and encouraging a sense of “community.”
PE Schedule – I have spoken with Mike Allen, our PE contractor to run Awbrey Active Kids. He would like to schedule 6 weeks this Sprin to work with our students. This will be a challenge given the constraints of our our schedule but he is going to give it a try. Now that Andrew and Sabrina have completed a schedule for OAKs and most field trips are planned, we have a good idea where the holes are. On Tuesday, Claire will put out a potential schedule for staff to fill in. There will be references to help you at the sign up sheet like; the master schedule, the OAKs schedule, and the music schedule. Please consider all of these when signing up. The goal is to have 4 slots on Wednesdays and 7 slots each on Tuesday and Thursday.
Melissa recovering from her first surgery.– Andrew spoke to Tucker Friday and he gave him some information to pass on to everyone. Melissa’s Pathology Reports and Tests came back completely negative. Her major surgery is scheduled for 3/19. She should be came home from the hospital this weekend. Tucker said that everything turned out better than they could have hoped for.
This week we were hoping to get another photo of the staff in their tie-die shirts. I will be calling Tucker and Misty’s family friend, Mike, to come out this Wednesday to take a photo right after bus duty on Wednesday. Please remember to bring Tye-die shirts this Wednesday so we can make this staff portrait for her. It will mean a lot to her. Melody has some other fun ways planned to support Melissa while she is out. Please check in with her on the details if you are wanting to help but are not sure how.
Also, I am planning on making a “mix tape” for Melissa this week of fun uplifting music for her to listen to. Please respond to this email with songs you like her to have at home. I’ll “burn a CD” for her next Friday. Please respond to my email by Thursday at 4:00 so I can get on i tunes to purchase music for her. The theme will be “Good Feeling.” Send anything that relates to that theme.
Thanks for reading and have a great week,
Joel