LS Weekly Memo
October 31 - November 4, 2016
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Open House was a great success. Thank you for your preparations and participation. Next week begins with Halloween, which has not fallen on a school night since 2012. Best of luck managing the excitement. The week ends with conferences. Seek out an SST member if you want to talk through or follow up about a conference.
COMMUNITY
Chapel Begins at 8:10
Please be on time. Heather is doing her best to end on time, but it is more difficult when the last class does not settle into their seats until 8:18.
Gathering, Friday, October 28
Thank you Kristen and Laura for our gathering. Arun was wonderful. The work some students did on the mandalas was beautiful.
PNCA Playground Exhibit
An opportunity you all might be interested in; a visit to the Pacific Northwest College of Art exhibition, Extraordinary Playscapes, running Oct. 6-Dec. 17th at the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design at PNCA. November 6th is a free Design Museum Portland pop-up Adventure Play workshop for families (reservations recommended).
Lower School Open House, Wednesday, October 26
Thanks to all for welcoming prospective families into the Lower School and sharing your love of teaching. We had 155 visitors, which was slightly above our average October Open House attendance.
Spooktacular
There is no Spooktacular this year. No volunteers stepped up to run it. We will try again next year.
Halloween
The children will undoubtedly have a lot of excitement around this day, but they should not wear costumes to school.
- save their Halloween traditions for home/family time
- decide as a grade level team if Halloween is a no homework night
- Candy belongs at home, not at school
Some thinking we’ve heard from teachers around managing the possibility of increased energy have been an intensive storytelling focus for the day, spider or leaf observation walks, and outdoor community service. Share your creative ideas with your team!
JR - Challenged by competitive sports
We will check in with him on Monday (he has been out sick for two days) and communicate out his plan upon his return.
PROGRAM
Conferences are on November 3,4, 2016
- If parents cannot attend conference during the two days David will ask them to try and work out a phone call or skype session during conference days
Conference Questions
SST has been discussing the kinds of information we know about students, particularly ‘missing’ information that could help us understand our students better. We wanted to share a list of questions with you that we may ask when you bring children to SST for consideration, in case asking a few of them at conferences opens any new doors.
A reminder to reach out to members of the SST for support during conferences. Please contact, Melanie, Ari, Chris or Kirstin to get on our calendar and to make a plan when necessary.
Fall Conference Reports
We know many of you in the midst of fall conference preparation. The templates for Fall Conference Reports were sent to you via email on 10/10 to preserve formatting:
The Lodge Fall Conference Report Template: see email from Kirstin
Grades 1-5 Fall Conference Report Template: see emails from Kirstin and Chris
SST Member at Conference
Please contact individual SST members if you’d like Melanie, Ari, Kirstin, Chris, Elaine, Heather or David to attend a child’s conference. Be sure to let parents know in advance.
Schedule Changes
If you have made changes to your schedule, please make sure you have notified Chris and Lyn. Chris will change your schedule via the google doc, however making changes on your google calendar are your responsibility. Chris and Jeffrey are available for support and to share some shortcuts in this process.
Calendar change: OT Presentation
Originally scheduled for November 15th, we are postponing our discussion with Jenny Alveraz, an Occupational Therapist from Advance Pediatric Therapies until the end of February.
Playground Design
Our playground design team met on Thursday morning to synthesize the data they collected during the classroom and Saturday workshops. The 4-5th graders created a series of informative graphs (through this website) you may enjoy sharing with your class as they reflect on the playground design experience. Click here for a link to some slides that outline the playground design team’s experience.
Important Dates in November
November 11 Affinity Gathering - start thinking about what affinity exploration you want to prepare. Chris and Kirstin are always available for brainstorming support!
November 14 FLG Goal Setting support meeting with Kirstin and Chris 3:15 in Flex Classroom. This is open to all FLG years to share and strengthen goals.
December 12th will be our LS Holiday Party. This year, more than ever, we want to make space to celebrate and spend time together. It has been/continues to be a busy fall, let’s have some fun together and celebrate the season of light and our community’s achievements. If you are interested in helping making this an event to remember, please contact Chris T.
The Confluence
Chris and Kirstin have updated The Confluence. In the latest post they tour grade level gatherings and focus on how Lower School gatherings connect us to our OES Identity Statement.
Immigration Books
Check out this list and the accompanying display in the library for excellent books to share with students to broaden their ideas of immigration. With it so much in the news and also in direct connection with our two upcoming Community Conversation, Lara thought it might be useful to have stories which to help humanize the experience. You can find the books right at the entrance next to the display of books about the United States Election process.
SST meetings are available on Thursdays from 3:15-4:00 for anyone who would like a whole team approach to supporting a student or students. Please contact your Assistant Head to request a Thursday afternoon SST. Also let us know who you’d like to request to attend.
PGD Site - John Holloran has launched the OES PGD website, which will come to include recommended PGD opportunities and writeups of PGD experiences.
10/31 - No Meeting
11/3 - No meeting - Conferences
Primary Program
The BY Teachers and support staff have been working to clarify our articulation about our Primary Program. BY Specialists, please see Kirstin’s email this week for resources related to your feedback into the process.
FLG Planning Meeting
- Thanks to Kirstin and Chris for organizing an informative FLG/PGD meeting
- Year 1 folks
- Schedule a time with David to review inventory and ideas before winter break
- Schedule a goals meeting in January or February
OPERATIONS
PA System Form
If you have not done so already, please complete the PA form so Jon can get to work on it next week.
Loop Road Dismissal Duty
If you have Loop Road dismissal duty for our Kindergarten, Primary and First Grade children, please be aware of the following:
-All classes should arrive for dismissal no later than 2:55. Please aim to have your class out at 2:50 so you can meet this deadline. You should wait with your students if you don’t yet see a teacher on duty.
-We need at least three people with Kindergarten and at least three with Primary-First Grade. Please take a moment to visually check the other gate to make sure each area has sufficient coverage, and distribute yourselves accordingly.
-No one should leave duty until all the students for the level they are supervising have been picked up. It can be confusing with children on the playground, so please have children wait seated in the outdoor art studio area (Kindergarten) or near the Dining Commons windows (Primary-First) so we can see if there are children left.
-We have the minimal coverage for this duty, but no more. We really need all adults on duty to attend to the children and cars. If parents try to engage you in conversation, please suggest they park and find you after duty ends, or call/make an appointment to speak with you.
ADP Tutorial
For help on any ADP related matters: login or registration, password retrieval, or time card approval process, please view this beautiful presentation that Ed Cecere put together. This is a helpful guide and should answer your ADP related questions. If you still have problems after using Ed’s helpful guide, please let Veena: iyengarve@oes.edu know. There is a plan to put the ADP resource link in the LS Employee Resource page for future reference. Stay tune.
Food Handlers’ Cards
Do you serve food to PreK or Extension students at lunch or for snacks? If so, you need a food handler’s card. They can be obtained online, and fees can be submitted to OES for reimbursement. You can find more information here. Please send Kirstin a copy of your card for our certification records before 11/15.
Dining Commons Lunch Procedures
David, Chris and Kirstin met with Kelly from Bon Appetit this week to review ways Dining Commons lunches could continue to improve. David and Kelly are investigating some longer-term solutions, but in the short term these are the changes soon to be in place:
- Some sandwiches will be pre-made
- Servers will be on the lookout for healthy eaters who may need larger portions on their plate
- Soup and gluten-free options will be available at both stations
- Kevin will support Shirley with cold options at the kitchen station so we only need one volunteer helping with the cold options at the second station
- When we have volunteers, please direct them to help with the cold food at the second station or to pouring drinks so teachers can be free to support students
- When possible we'll ask a faculty member/volunteer to circulate with a bowl of the main dish offering to give to children when they want seconds (so they don't need to return to line)
- A request is going out for volunteers who can come early to pre-pour drinks until we can find a longer-term solution. This may not be reliable, so continue to serve drinks as you do now unless you notice pre-poured trays appear.
Library Usage for Classroom Events
When considering using the library as a potential location for your classroom events:
- Notify Lara at least 2 weeks prior to the event and discuss what your expectations are regarding the space to see if it is feasible. Assuming there are no scheduling conflicts, the space can be arranged for small group events.
- Set-up request in general – the Custodial crew needs notice 2 weeks in advance so they can plan their work schedule.
Thunder and Lightning
If there is thunder and lightning children must go inside or remain inside until an hour after the last thunder and lightning. If it happens within the time for dismissal we will conduct and indoor dismissal.
Recess Reminders - Wander around so you are able to supervise our whole playground.
Substitute Procedures 2016-2017
- Email requests to lssub@oes.edu
- Google Doc of this information here if you’d like to add a copy to your Drive.
New Substitute Teachers and Sub Folders
Our substitute teachers were trained in procedures and safety last Wednesday, and we have five new teachers who will soon be available to us. You can meet them here!
Substitute Folder needs to contain:
- a class list (with photos is especially nice)
- emergency information and allergy info.
- your duty schedule
- other relevant documents
For planned absences, please also leave a hard copy of your plans in the folder for your sub.
At the sub training the returning subs mentioned how nice it is when the students’ After School Weekly Plan is easily accessible or in the sub folder--thanks for helping our guest teachers’ days go smoothly!
Food from Home
Only after we have done the following:
- Worked in partnership with the parents and Bon Appetite to test in-school options
- Had a parent meeting including a Bon Appetite representative and the OES Nurse
- Received doctor’s statement about the medical issue and proposed interventions
Maintenance Requests
Rod would like us all to return to the usual maintrequest@oes.edu protocol for maintenance requests. The Maintenance Log will become a view only document.
Your Announcements
Send any announcements you have for faculty to Kirstin, Chris or David by Thursday each week and we will include them in the Weekly Memo. This should help reduce the number of emails we are receiving, and maximize our time to collaborate during meetings.
Archive
Utilize the archive for previous Weekly Memo.
