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