Joel’s Journal for the Week of January 6th, 2014
Hello Bulldogs,
Welcome back from Winter Break! After having had a week off at Thanksgiving and all of the snow days, it almost feels like coming back from Summer Vacation. I certainly enjoyed my time off with my kids and my wife Anna. We had a lot of fun around town in Eugene and went to Portland for a day trip. My son, Solomon, turned 7. We built numerous Lego sets, played Jenga, had dinner with friends, watched several movies, and went swimming at Echo Hollow Pool. It was just the down time I needed to get rejuvenated for the winter months. I hope all of you had a relaxing and special holiday season.
Schedule of Events for the Week –
January 6 (M)
Furlough Day – No School
January 7 (T)
Classes Resume
PBIS Focus: PRIDE- (Perseverance)- Please discuss the meaning of PRIDE as a North Eugene PBIS program and define Perseverance.
(7:30 AM) IEP Meeting at 7:30 for CLCB Student including Amy Tidwell
(1:00 PM) Kristen and Joel meet with 3rd grade parent.
(3:00 PM) Staff Meeting-
Agenda: All are welcome to attend.
15 minutes- Connections (nuts and bolts) (Please send me agenda items you would like to bring up.)
Items I am bringing: Enrollment data discussion 2014-2015. Survey of Instructional Items for CLIC to discuss.
45 minutes (this may run longer if we start later than 3:00)- Peggy Marconi and Robert Young present on selecting mentor texts.
January 8 (W)
Joel out for IBB internal bargaining training with the OSEA/ District
Greg Marron will be our guest principal.
January 9 (H)
Joel out for IBB internal bargaining training with the OSEA
Greg Marron will be our guest principal.
(3:00) IPBS Meeting -Greg will take minutes and help with the meeting.
January 10 (F)
Regular Day
Here are several items of note for this week:
• How project-based learning fits into the Common Core – Project-based learning (PBL) can help teachers and students make the transition to the Common Core State Standards, writes Sara Hallermann, curriculum development manager at Buck Institute for Education. She writes in this blog post that PBL allows teachers to design and use the project as the unit, facilitate inquiry and shift from searching for the right answer to searching for meaning.
• PBIS Focus: PRIDE (Perseverance) – This month, we will be having a PRIDE Award/ MLK Jr. Assembly on January 30th. I encourage you to think about students who have consistently shown progress and hard work in your class.
• TalentEd and SMART Goals Due – SMART Goals were to have been entered into TalentEd by Dec. 31st. If you haven’t entered these yet please save them and have them ready to submit at the mid-term goal meeting this January. Also, if you haven’t completed the Self Assessment, be sure to complete that as well. I’ll be combining the January Mid-Year Conference with a review of the SMART Goals. Let me know if you have a preferred time to meet, but I’ll plan to send out individual emails to schedule meeting times.
• Changes in the 2013-14 School/Work Year Calendar – Everyone should have received an email about the updated calendar as a result of snow days. For teachers, Celia said that all licensed staff will be paid for a regular work month in December, but that you will need to make up any hours that were not worked. If you did not report to work on December 9th, please email or let me know in person how you plan to make up the missed work hours. Any work outside of your regular 8 hour workday would suffice.
• iT3 Apple Award Board Presentation January 21st at 7:00 PM
Eugene School District 4J iT3 iPad Pilot has been recognized as an Apple Distinguished Program for 2013–2015. The Apple Distinguished Program designation is reserved for K-20 academic implementations within one school, across a district, or in a higher-education academic program that provides one-to-one access to Apple notebook computers and/or mobile devices to all students, faculty, and administrators. The selection of the iT3 iPad Pilot as an Apple Distinguished Program highlights our success as an innovative and compelling learning environment that engages students and provides tangible evidence of academic accomplishment.
Apple will be presenting this award on Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at the School Board meeting. You are cordially invited (and highly encouraged) to attend the presentation. It is a chance for Apple and the School Board to be able to recognize all of you! This has definitely been a team effort that, even with some struggles, has provided valuable information that benefits all our current and future K-12 students. The presentation is scheduled for the beginning of the 7:00 pm Board meeting.
• Staffing Changes across the District – Jeralynn Beghetto at HR announced earlier that she is moving out of the state, but there are a couple other changes downtown which staff might not be aware of. HR Director, Celia Feres-Johnson, has accepted a position at OSU and will be leaving mid-February. Also, Laurie Moses, the Director of Secondary Education, has retired, but is finishing out the school year. Principal vacancies for 2014-15 have been posted at Adams, Willagillespe, and River Road. Juan Cuadros is an interim 0.5 principal at River Road (remaining 0.5 at BV) for the remainder of the year. Nadira Rizkallah (River Road’s former ESC), is acting as an Assistant Principal for the 2013-2014 school year at River Road and BV.
• Bond Update – Technology – If you’re interested in how the district is planning to spend the bond funds earmarked for technology, their first step is to focus on a technology refresh of a COW (36 laptops) per school. Most schools need more than this number to achieve any sensible ratio of modern computers for students, but this is a start and it enables CIS to train up on how to centrally deploy 1500+ computers. Their next steps will be to expand and build upon the iT3 iPad Pilot and deploying more mobile devices throughout the district. See Peter Tromba’s email for more details.
• 2014 Annual Community MLK March, Standing United! January 20th, 9:30 AM – The Eugene/Springfield NAACP invites everyone in the community to take part in the 2014 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day march on Jan. 20th at 9:30 AM, starting at the Science Factory parking lot. The theme of STANDING UNITED! is meant to reinforce the idea we are indivisible when we stand together for Justice and Equality. See the flyer for details.
• January Title 1 Newsletter – If you’re curious 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 includes a short useful list titled “Verbal Behaviors in a Class That Let Kids Get Smart,” listing 10 items teachers can do and 7 that students can do.
• Asking better questions: 6 ways to improve classroom discussion – “Although many of us don’t realize it until we step foot into our own classrooms, we quickly learn that facilitating a lively, but controlled, classroom discussion is truly an art form,” writes ASCD EDge community member Ryan Thomas. In a recent blog post, Thomas presents a list of questions educators can ask their students to find this balance in their own classrooms. He suggests that educators start with questions that test for comprehension and understanding.
Have a great week.
Joel
