Weekly Memo Weekly Memo Week 31, March 20-24, 2017

Last Wednesday we welcomed families with students new to OES. We all enjoyed welcoming so many folks excited to begin their OES experience. Thanks to Admissions for another great group of applicants. Kudos to the PE Team, Jennifer Young and Sonya King for organizing a great PE Family Fun Fest last Thursday, providing games and activities on the field, in the gym and in the Rainbow Room. Best of luck to the 4th grade as they finish final preparations for their International Fair on Thursday. Spring Break is oh so close.

As a collaborative professional community Lower Faculty Employees will strive to:

• Do what is best for the students
• Assume we are all doing our best at the moment and our intentions are positive
• Be present, participate, contribute, include many voices

• Create a safe space that encourages sharing different opinions, ideas, perspectives
• Seek understanding, be curious about what others think
• Express gratitude, joy and encouragement
• Communicate with compassion, clarity and effectiveness
• Demonstrate respect

COMMUNITY

Tonya Heads out on Maternity Leave

Wish Tonya all the best as she sets out on her maternity leave beginning with Spring Break. Welcome Jefna Cohen as she steps in to teach TOnya’s class for the remainder of the year.

Alysa Williams sets out on Sabbatical

Wish Alysa grand adventures as she heads out on her sabbatical beginning with Spring Break. Welcome Caley Peterson, as she steps in to teach Alysa’s class for the remainder of the year.

Farris Hall Under Construction

Beginning immediately, the two classroom wings (Primary & Intermediate, 1/2 and 3/4, whatever you call them) are now closed to all access.  The old library will be closed in the next couple of days, at which time we’ll want you to avoid using that entrance to the building.  The entrance closest the Chapel will remain open. Bathroom access in Fariss will be limited, so please have students use the restrooms before going to music.

Playground Update

Friday we review proposals from contractors interested in building the new playground. Construction will take place during the summer.

Reserving Rooms - Performance Commons

Be sure to check that the Performance Commons is available before planning on using it. Yoga is regularly being taught in the space.

Admissions Decisions Due Back Wednesday

Several siblings and connected families will have applicants in the waitpool. For some families this will be an emotional experience. Here are some tips for navigating those conversations if families approach you with questions about admissions decisions; keeping statements brief and factual seems to work best:

• Respect the confidentiality of student visits, paperwork, and other admissions components
• Acknowledge admissions is a difficult and complicated process
• Encourage families who approach you to contact Sarah Ross Bailey in Admissions with their questions

New Subs in the Building

Please welcome new substitute teachers Chris Varley, Nicole Senders and Jack Rossing to the Lower School. If you see a new face stop to say hello!

New Employees

Long Term PE sub (Jessica) - Jake Evans, former OES student

Long Term 3rd Grade sub (Tonya) -  Jefna Cohen

Long Term 5th Grade sub (Alysa) -  Caley Peterson

3rd Grade Job Share Partner for 2016-17 - Kathie Kimmy

3rd Grade Job Share Partner for 2017-18+ - Suzanne Lee

Alysa Williams to 2nd Grade in 2017-18

Alysa, ready to take on a new challenge, will be moving to 2nd Grade next year. Janet and Jackie are thrilled. We have launched the search for a 5th Grade Teacher.

Teacher Searches

LS Chaplain - finalists visiting after Spring Break.

2nd Grade Long Term Substitute - interviews this week

PreK Teacher - Finalists visiting after Spring Break

5th Grade Teacher - reviewing resumes

PreK TA Long Term Substitute. Sandy Parks is Leaving.

Sandy Parks let me know that she has accepted another position, full time and close to her home, which she will be starting on April 3rd. We have begun the search for her replacement.

Major Lower School Rules

The following infractions are considered serious and could result in a range of consequences including dismissal from the school. Unless otherwise stated, these rules apply to conduct at all school-related events both on and off campus.
Verbal abuse, physical abuse, bullying, or inappropriate physical touch.
Lying, deceit, or other dishonest conduct
Destruction of property belonging to the School, its personnel, or another student
Stealing
Inappropriate language
Possession or use of weapons or any object that is used in a threatening manner

PROGRAM

AT Evaluations due 4/7

Just a reminder that Lead Teachers and Assistant Teachers should meet together this week or the first week back from break to go over evaluations and goals. Please submit your completed evaluations to Lyn by Friday, April 7th.

Sub Requests

We have discovered that our sub pool has many teachers who are subbing for other systems, making last-minute sub requests difficult to fill.  Of course there will always be morning emergencies that require subs, but whenever possible please call in the night before as opposed to the morning of your absence. More notice increases your chances of having adequate staffing for your classroom. Thank you!

Interview With Caldecott Winner Javaka Steptoe

Heidi and Lara invite you to listen to this brief interview with Javaka Steptoe, author and illustrator of this year's Caldecott-winning book Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.  It includes a discussion of the complexity of examining heroes' lives ("You don't have to be a hero for everything in my life"), as well as how children's books bring families together and help bring historical figures to life.

Tech Reminders

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7OL6_TCwVgpaUNuajIxckZ1TH

Please take a minute to run through the Checklist for your Laptop for the week.

If you'd like another printed card like the one I passed out a while back, let me know and I can get you one.

Yoga & Mindfulness offerings!

Kathleen Hicks is doing Yoga Calm classes to grades Pre-K to 1st. Please contact her to discuss possible yoga experiences for your class: kathleenjhicks@gmail.com, hickska@oes.edu (Note that hicksk@oes.edu is Kira Hicks, Kathleen’s daughter’s, email)    When a teacher requests a yoga class, request it through Kathleen’s google calendar and go into the Performance Commons calendar and reserve the room.

Conversations around Race, Bullying and Trauma

Harvard’s Usable Knowledge Project has created a resource called ‘One and All’ to help teachers navigate difficult conversations with their communities. Through this link you can find articles, videos and reflections around the question How can we welcome diverse perspectives and hard conversations?

Faculty Meetings: Faculty Meeting Schedule, Faculty Meeting Agenda

• Monday, 3/20 - no meeting scheduled
• Thursday, 3/23 - no meeting scheduled

Gatherings: Buddy Gathering on Friday

We hope you take advantage of this opportunity to gather with your buddy class before we all head off to Spring Break. Steph Hartford is invited to circulate for pictures and community observations.

Generative Listening

If you were intrigued by Dori’s introduction to Generative Listening at our staff meeting, The LS Critical Friends’ Group has played around with a related model by Otto Scharmer called Theory U.  Here’s a link to an 8 min. video of Otto explaining the four levels of listening (including generative listening) and how they can enhance our practice.

Harvard Project Zero Class

This week the Project Zero participants are learning more about how they can nurture effective learning groups in their classrooms and among their adult collaborators. We’d love to share some resources from the class with you:

This article outlines the key features of effective learning groups. It references the video link we included in last week’s Weekly Memo.

Part of that article notes: Learning in groups, like all meaningful learning, should engage the emotions as well as the intellect. The presence of passion is a critical component of group learning. Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio schools, said that ‘Learning is an act of love that results from a fundamental desire to make sense of the world.’ Creating learning groups that leverage those passions and interests and balance the skills and talents of each individual is intentional work.  One tool that has been introduced to us to help us create intentional groups is this Entry-Point Chart Template.  The template can be used to think about how to keep all learners engaged during a unit and to highlight the connections between the curriculum and student interests and strengths before designing small groups. Depending on age, the chart can be filled out by the teacher or students can be asked to add to/fill out the chart themselves. If you’d like more details, ask Colesie, Katherine, Deborah, Carole, Chris or Kirstin.

SST on Thursdays

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.

3 PGD Possibilities

Diversity and Representation in Global Children’s Literature

NCTA and Five Colleges Early Elementary Program: Doors to the World: East Asia Summer Institute. July 9-14, 2017. Priority application deadline: Monday, April 3, 2017. PreK-grade 3 teachers, librarians, and literacy coaches are invited to apply for this institute to be held at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. Participants in this 30-hour program will examine diversity and representation in global children’s literature about and/or from China, Japan, and Korea. Participants will consider the histories and cultures of these nations to contextualize selected children’s books. Sponsored by the Five College Center for East Asian Studies and the Five College Doors to the World Project. For more information, visit the FCCEAS website.

OPERATIONS

Emergency Announcements

Jon and Rod are looking into issues where emergency announcements are hard to hear. Currently, the Flex Classroom and LS Office do not have speakers for such announcements. Complete a maintrequest@oes.edu  if you noticed issues in your classroom or other spaces.

Cell Phones and Toys

• Please avoid using you cell phones during duty
• Students should not be using cellphones while on campus
• Toys from home require special permission to come to school
• From the LS Handbook
• In general, toys from home are not allowed at school. If there is a toy which a student feels may be appropriate to bring to school, he or she should ask for permission from the Head of Lower School before bringing the toy to school.
• Children should not bring candy or money to school, except for special events when the classroom teacher has granted permission, e.g.: book fair, a party, or a field trip. Use of a cell phone is not permitted when at school or on a school function; in special situations, exceptions may be granted by the Head of Lower School.

Evacuation Drill

At our last evacuation drill Rebecca noted that we did not clear the building within the 3 minutes required by the state. Rebecca is working on the volume of the announcement. If you know of other issues that slowed your class’ departure from the building think through what you can do differently, or ask for help problem solving.

Attendance Procedures

1st Grade through 5th Grade

7:50 am – bell rings

8:00 am – start taking attendance and mark all students “Absent Unexcused” who are not physically in your class even if you know they are coming a little later.

Pre-K – Primary

7:50 – 8:10 – Gentle Start

8:10 – start taking attendance and mark all students “Absent Unexcused” who are not physically in your class even if you know they are coming a little later.

Building Care

Ben Starbuck and his team would appreciate your help with two items:

• Close your windows at the end of the day.
• Clean up paint

Dress Code

Students are starting to get creative with the dress code. Perhaps a review of the Dress Code is in order for your class.

Duty Consistency

We need people to do their duties and do it on time. Too many teachers are left outside alone with large groups of students. If this happens to you, please send a text or student into Lyn and Kathy. They will send someone out and find the duty people who are needed. Please remember to list your duties (and arrival times!) in your sub plans if you are absent, or to arrange for coverage if you need to miss a duty and have no sub.

Old Storage Areas to be Cleared

• Mechanical Room next to old LS Library

Part of the Fariss Hall remodel includes a complete clearing out of the mechanical room. Several classes have material stored in there.  Clear it out this week or the demolition crew will toss it next week.

• Back Room of old Room 10

Same goes for the storage area in back of Room 10. Clear it out or will be tossed.

Performance Commons - check to be sure it is available

If you are practicing for a performance in the Performance Commons that requires a large setup for an extended period, please do the following:

• Add this information to the Faculty Calendar under ‘all day events.’ You can see an example on the calendar between now and spring break, where a stage set-up for 4th grade has been noted.
• Let Chris, Kirstin or David know so they can add the information to the weekly memo.  This will help everyone be aware that Performance Commons usage may be limited by the setup even when the room is not reserved.

Please note that the current stage set-up in the Performance Commons will be in place until spring break.

Food Safety

We should all have obtained a current food handler’s license and dropped their receipt and certificate into Kirstin’s box.

Shirley would like to remind us of a couple food safety ***:

1. Teachers or students who are handing, cutting, or passing out snack need to wear gloves. She has put a stash of gloves where snack is dropped off everyday.  
2. Students should be washing their hands more and using hand sanitizer less when possible. Hand sanitizer is less effective than washing hands.
3. Snack boats, paper towels or tissues are available for students to collect their snacks but students should not be reaching with their bare hands into a large snack bowl to retrieve their own snack.

These these reminders from Shirley, maybe having one snack student (wearing gloves--we have some size small gloves in a white box) help pass out snacks, especially grains. These students can pass snack directly to friends or create snack boats for students to pick up.

Dismissal Duty on Loop Road
Do you know what would make the dismissal duty on the Loop Road work smoothly?

• Classes would arrive BEFORE 2:55 (the first cars in the P-1 line tend to be Primary and Whitmore). Siblings would also arrive by this time.
• Duty teachers would arrive AT 2:50
• No one would send a class outside without a teacher (who could check to make sure duty teachers had arrived)
• Teachers would stay with their class until at least 2 people were on duty for each gate
• One teacher would stay with the kids by the windows while two help at the curb

We can do it! :)

Field Trips on or off Campus

Inform the LS Office when you take your class on a trip out of the building. We need to know where your class is at all times during the school day.  Take with you what you need; cellphone, 1st aid, emergency forms and more as needed.

Calendar Updates

Update grade level events on the faculty calendar and the Finalsite Calendar.  The spring is a very busy time. We want to be sure all know what is happening when with sufficient time to work through conflicts and plan on attending

OES LS Employee Attendance

For any unplanned absences or tardiness, such as illnesses or emergency situations, whether you need a substitute or not, you must notify lssub@oes.edu. We need to track all Employees who are off campus on a given day. Lyn sends a monthly report to HR about our Division’s attendance.

Early Morning Supervision

Just a reminder to please wait until 7:30 am before allowing students into the building each morning.  Children arriving before 7:30 should wait outside the building with their caregivers until the building opens.

Schedule

Schedule feedback - we’ve created this document for ongoing schedule feedback.

Early Dismissal Plan/ Emergency Dismissal Plan

All LS employees are expected to remain for at least 30 minutes after the scheduled dismissal time to help with student management.  We will plan for the dismissal of faculty after assessing how many students we have remaining.

Employee Resources

A helpful tool is created in the OES website for employees to save time searching different sites when you need to access the basic forms like check request, catering, maintenance requests and other resources. Check out this link:

Employees Quick Links

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.

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.