Week of January 20th, 2014
Hi Everyone,
I hope you all had a good three-day weekend.
Schedule of Events for the Week –
January 20 (M)
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – No School
January 21 (T)
7:30, IEP with Fenn, Joel, and Melissa Barbour
9:15, Fire Drill
10:00 -10:30, Joel in PTO Meeting about holding a Direct Drive
11:00-11:25, Joel in Mid Term Goals Meeting
3:00, PBIS Meeting in Room 13
6:30-9:00- 4j School Board Meeting, AP are recognized for Apple Distinguished Program Award.
January 22 (W)
7:30, Joel in Midterm goals meeting
11:30, Joel in Midterm goals meeting
3:00, Primary Data Meeting
January 23 (H)
7:30, Joel in Midterm goals meeting
9:00-11:30, 4th Grade Field Trip
10:00-1:00, 2nd Grade Pedestrian Safety Class in Room 12
2:10, Joel in Midterm goals meeting
3:00, IPBS in the Conference Room
3:00, Intermediate Data Meeting in Room 13
January 24 (F)
8:00-11:00, 4th Grade Field Trip
1:10, Winter Reading Celebration 3-5
1:25, 3rd Grade Timbre Performance
1:50, Winter Reading Celebration 1-2
3:00-4:00, Synergy Training Session on Grading and Report Cards. Sara Justice and Joel will lead.
January 25 (S)
9:00-12:00, Joel, and ? to School Showcase (Ed Center)
Some items of note for this week:
Report Cards Information:
I attended a training on the 14th for how to work with the new elementary report card in Synergy. Sara Justice will be trained this Thursday. Generally, it has a lot of nice new features and seems more user friendly than eSIS, but it’s still a new system and there will be a learning curve for getting used to it.
We’re planning to hold a a teacher training on Friday, January 24th at 3:00 in the Room 13. The report card grading day is February 7th and my thought is to make the report card send-home date two weeks after that date to give teachers enough time to get used to the new system. I have contacted Sara Cramer about this and she seemed to think this made sense, but said it would likely need to be a decision across the district, so we’ll likely need to wait for a decision on this from the Instruction Department.
If you’d like to preview the report cards before the 29th, you can log onto Synergy and try it for real or you can go into the “Train” database (found on this page: http://www.4j.lane.edu/technology/is/synergy/) where you can safely poke around with the report cards and not worry that you’re ruining anything. Here is the Synergy Report Card Directions from Ruth Mann. (SynElemRepCardTchrs) I recommend that you download it and play with the directions on “train” this week as time permits.
“The Window”- Here is the information that Ruth Mann sent Friday about the Report Card Window:
“We wanted to let you know that all teachers should have access to the Elementary Report card area in Synergy production at this time. Due to popular demand we opened the window of access to 30 days before and 10 days after grading day for teachers to get in and begin their work, if they choose to do so. Please be sure that your staff are trained before letting them know about this change. We want to be sure that folks have the necessary information in order to have a successful grading period. The training document used at the Train the Trainer sessions is now posted on the Synergy home page.”
My last bit of advice on the report cards is to take look at the report cards on the 4J Curriculum website (use VPN if you’re logging on from home). Many of you remember this information from Reid Shepard’s Presentation at the last staff meeting on the 14th.
Go to http://www.curriculum.4j.lane.edu/math/
- From there go to ‘Elementary’,
- select your grade level,
- and head to the ‘Assessment’ link in the drop down.
Be sure to also look at not just the report card, but also the “Math Report Card Supplement” because this document provides more detail on what the cluster headings on the math report card actually mean. For example, on the 2nd grade report card where students receive a grade for “Work with time and money,” it really means:
2.MD.7 Accurately read and represent the time display to the hour and half hour on an analog clock and digital clock, using a.m. and p.m.
2.MD.8 Identify values of dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies and use $ and ¢ symbols appropriately. Solve simple expressions involving money
CLIC Meeting– Last week CLIC Team had a great discussion about the Parent Involvement Ativities at AP, our Blended classroom philosophy and the CFK initiative. Read the minutes (CLIC Minutes January 2014) to find out more details on our discussion.
January 31st PD Day – On our Awbrey Park PD day later this month, our main focus will be to begin a school wide focus on Writing. Robert Young will return to do more in depth work with the primary grades on mentor texts and non-fiction (fact-tion!) writing. Our intermediate grades will focus on close reading. Lindsay Gietter will lead the 3-5 grades in this work. Robert Young will teach in Room 12 and Lindsay will teach in Room 13.
Coffee and a little food will be available at 8:00 in Room 13.
The session will begin at 8:30 together. Classified employees are encouraged to participate in all the instructional training we do on this day.
We will run a connections activity to energize us and get the day begun. (If you have any announcements to the whole staff, please make them here.)
At 9:00, Robert Young and Lindsay will split up the teams and staff will begin their learning for the day.
The PD will run from 9:00-11:30 in both sessions.
Here is a message from Lindsay about the morning for 3-5th:
Robin Wellwood may also be running a medical training on this day, but I do not recall the time for that.
More Grants for Awbrey Park From Eugene Education Foundation! – EEF has let us know that the grant request that Awbrey Park Elementary put out authored by Joel Lavin; “EEF-Funded Multicultural Storyteller” has been fully funded to the requested amount of $2000. Additionally, “EEF-Funded College and Career Fair in Elementary” has been fully funded to the requested amount of $500. The Awbrey Active Kids Grant was fully funded in December. This program (Awbrey Active Kids) will begin in February and will provide activity for our students at least one day a week through track season.
Study: Electronic books improve students’ literacy skills – Young students’ literacy skills may benefit from the use of electronic books — viewed on iPads and other devices, according to a recent study that found students respond to the ability to see, hear and touch texts using the devices. Researchers reported finding the type of device students use may have an effect. They write that “the larger desktop touch screen, it appears, supports different modalities than the smallest device, the iPod, while the iPad support comparable behaviors.”
Have a great week, everyone!
Joel