Weekly Memo
Week 40, May 29 - June 2, 2017
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Last week was packed with memorable experiences; the 3rd grade overnight, PreK and 1st learning celebrations, the PreK and Lifer Lunch, Primary to 2nd Discovery Day. What a gift to have a three day weekend to reflect and prepare for the final three weeks of school.
This week Chris, Kirstin and I are away Wednesday through Friday at a conference, 3rd grade has the final Moving Into Coffee of the year, 2nd and Primary celebrate learning and Caley’s class performs their play.
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
Admin Team Off Campus
Ari and Melanie will hold down the fort Wed-Thurs-Fri. this week while David, Chris and Kirstin attend a nearby Art of Hosting training. Call the LS Office if you need student support on those days. We have a number of duties to cover--you can sign up to help here. Thank you!
Resources About Upstanding
Some of you may be wondering how to address last week’s tragedy and violence on the MAX line if or when it comes up in your classes this week. The question What helps people do the right thing when it’s hard to do? may be a good one for Community Conversations. We thought you might also appreciate these resources for talking to kids about what it means to be an upstander vs. a bystander:
- Edutopia’s 5 Min. Film Festival has short films for all ages on kindness and standing up to unkind behavior
- Teaching Tolerance’s Teacher Guide for educators who want to speak up
- For grades 3-8, Teaching Tolerance’s Dealing with Dilemmas: Upstanders, Bystanders and Whistle-Blowers lessons
- Here’s a particularly clear 4 min. animated video for all ages on being an upstander with four specific strategies (also included in the 5 min. film festival link)
- And here’s a powerful student-produced video for older students on the power of words and the small actions that can help those facing injustice (also included in the 5 min. film festival link)
Dori put together further resources:
- Nine Tips for Talking to Kids About Trauma Kira Newman outlines why and how we should talk to students of all ages about events like this one.
- Making Decisions – Ally or Bystander Offers activities to rehearse reacting to situations in the moment.
- Try It Out: Anti-Bullying Role Play Another way to have students conduct role plays.
- What is an Upstander? Define the term upstander.
Moving Into Coffees (MIC)
While we reserve 8:00 - 9:30 for coffees, the agenda is only planned for an hour.
For 2-5 grade classrooms, we rely on support and specialist teachers to help cover classrooms. You can trade your class time for earlier or experience a morning homeroom schedule. Please help support at least one classroom coffee. Thank you!
See schedule below:
DATES
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GRADE
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TIME
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Specialists
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Wednesday, May 31
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Moving into 3rd
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8:00 – 9:00
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Outdoor Ed, PE, Theater
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End of the Year Library Info
- All LS Library books are due Friday, June 2; books used for teaching can be returned after this date, but please return them as soon as you are finished.
- There will be no checking out the week of June 5-9 so we can gather and inventory the collection.
- Everyone can check out for the summer during the week of June 12-16.
Summer Building Use
Kati is finalizing her summer schedule and room use plan. Look for communication from her this week. Summer programs will be using the Performance and Dining Commons all summer. She hopes to have OES faculty teach in their own rooms and minimize the use of other classrooms. Please support her efforts to use space as needed during the summer. She is leading Extension to be a true extension of our school day and year.
Care of Building
Please take good care of our new building. Ben Starbuck and the custodial crew have had to put in extra time cleaning up rooms after some projects ended up with paint on the floor and cabinetry.
Student Support
Some of our First Grade students need some extra support. We would like to ask that you keep a particular eye out for Alex Ji, Aaron Stein, Andy Bryant and Juliette Bull. Specialists, these children will also require heightened supervision in your classes. See Kirstin’s email for more details. Please check in with Katherine or Kirstin if you have questions or observations.
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
PreK Play and Learning Celebration
Because we know you all wish you could have been there…
Link to play video! Thanks, Ryan Finley!
Art Fair to Benefit Refugee Care Collective--June 8-9
As many of you know, Tasha's class was interested in sponsoring a student art fair, with all proceeds to benefit Refugee Care Collective. The art fair will take place on Thursday and Friday, June 8-9. All art pieces will be between $1-$5. Classes will be invited to sign up for a slot to attend. There will also (hopefully) be an after-school time when parents can come with their children. Any student or class is welcome to submit art to sell. If you have art you made as a class, or if you want to create some things to be sold at the show, great! All art must be to Tasha's class by Monday, June 5. Student art made at home is also welcome. Thanks for supporting this great student-led endeavor!
Time to Read
Making Does Not (Necessarily) Equal Constructionism...interesting article as we consider the possibilities of Fariss Hall!
A Level is a Teacher’s Tool, Not a Child’s Label...so fascinating to see this article appear on the Fountas and Pinnell website! Since we are considering an all LS switch to F&P assessment, this is worth reading, particularly if you utilize leveled libraries in your classroom.
Any essay that contains this line really vaults up to the must-read list: “Collecting data on human learning based on children’s behavior in school is like collecting data on killer whales based on their behavior at Sea World.” This one should stir up some opinions for lively conversation at your team meetings! The essay is called “A Thousand Rivers” by Carol Black, and although (because?) you might not agree with all of it, you should read it.
Faculty Meeting Follow-up
If you missed it or need the link for the resource slides that Kirstin shared at the last LS Faculty meeting, you can access it here. Here are links to the books she referred to:
Additionally, a number of faculty across divisions are reading Thanks for the Feedback, which may also be of interest to you. (If you are on the Essential Competencies Task Force a copy has already been ordered for you).
Summer Stipends
The Division Heads and Chairs met Wednesday to work on funding Summer Stipends.
We are budgeted for 250 stipend days and have requests for 350.
- Monday, May 30 - No Meeting - Memorial Day
- Thursday, June 1 - Fidgets, School Calendar Reflection, Safety Revisit
Promotion, 6/16, 9:00 - 10:15
Promotion timing will be altered this year to accommodate all divisions ending on Friday, June 16. Lower School promotion will be from 9:00 - 10:15 and dismissal at 11:00.
Office White Board
Please make sure you write your class location when leaving the building. This is for field trips, walks to wetlands/woods, visiting other divisions, etc. Thank you.
6th Grade Plays
6th graders who have some stories they would love to share with LS Students. These stories are generally for the younger members of our community but all classes are welcome.
We have two dates:
Monday 6/5 8:25 - 8:55
Tuesday 6/6 9:10 - 9:40
OPERATIONS
Cooling the Building
In an effort to realize the energy efficiency of our building, here are the basics of keeping your room cool. Remember that part of the building design is to provide a wider temperature range, as low as 66 during heating season and as high as 76 degrees in cooling season.
1. Nighttime air flush to cool building down. Automatic, no teacher action required.
2. Open windows in am to cool room further
3. Press green light button, after opening windows, to increase airflow, cooling
4. After green light goes off, close windows and let building manage cooling
Purchases - Order by Wednesday, May 31
We are asking that all purchases on this year’s budget by completed by the end of 5/31. Next year’s budget begins July 1st. Classroom material orders are due this week!
SAFETY ISSUE: Shelves 4’ and Above Need to be Secured to Wall
Recent safety audit let us know any shelves 4’ or higher need to be secured to a wall. Please submit work orders by May 12 for any shelves needing to be secured.
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.
Reminders: (New section for still-relevant information that was posted last week)
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.
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