Weekly Memo WM  10, October 16-20, 2017-18

First, thank you Dori for bringing Renee Watson to campus for several community experiences. Then, thank you Dori and ICC facilitators, for offering equity informed dialogue experiences to OES employees on PGD Day. I look forward to hearing about your PGD experience at the Thursday faculty meeting.

This week we continue field trip season with several classes heading off campus. Wednesday through Friday OES is hosting a Crisis Management Institute. CAST members, division heads will be attending.

LS Faculty Norms

• 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

We continue our new Weekly Memo format with repeat items in blue and new items in black.

COMMUNITY

LS PAL Meeting

The LS PAL meeting on Friday will focus on emergency preparedness.  Jon von Behren will present on school preparedness. Parents will be guided through family preparedness information.

Grandparents Day, Tuesday, November 21

• 8:00 - 8:30 - breakfast in gym
• 8:30 - 9:30 - LS Classroom Visits
• 9:30 - Grandparents Choice
• Recess, snack and then over to Gym
• State of Lower School in LS Library
• Specialist visit
• 10:10 - 10:50 - Concert in Gym

Playground Construction has Begun

• Please keep an extra eye on safety around the site
• David has a project timeline if you are interested in details

Janet Schilling’s Sabbatical

Janet will be taking her long awaited and well deserved sabbatical this spring. Mary Peterson will be stepping in to teach her class after Spring Break to the end of the school year.

Popsicle Party, as promised!

Oct. 27th, end of the day! Pick up your popsicles anytime after 1:30 in the 1st or 2nd floor freezers.

Library Assistant

Lara and I will finish initial interviews this week and determine finalists.

EC3 Design Center Update

• Requests to use the "Open Campsites" with Jeffrey
• Discuss your activity, timeline, occupancy needs, any follow-up
• Currently "Bring Your Own" materials and tools during this Explore phase for the EC3!
• EC3 Presentation from Peter Kraft

Music Substitute

Amy will be away from school from October 23 - November 17. Clara Baker will be the substitute teacher during her time away.  Clara will be on campus for several days shadowing Amy between now and October 23.

Gathering and Chapel - Please be seated and ready at 8:10

• Chapel and Gathering are required
• Plan on attending and avoid scheduling field trips and special events at this time
• Lower School Chapel Schedule for 2017-2018
• Diwali in LS Chapel on Tuesday, October 24th

Upper School Helpers Every Wednesday and Thursday

• Send “help requests to Sandi Lillevik (lilleviks@oes.edu), copy Ashley (scatesa@go.oes.edu)

Employee Giving to the OES Fund - consider making a gift to the OES fund

• The OES Fund Form is entirely online this year

PROGRAM

Faculty Meetings

Monday, 10/16, 3:15 - 4:30: AS Benefits Meeting, Dining Hall

Thursday, 10/19, 7:35 - 8:35: LS Division - PGD share, Purpose to Practice exercise

Monday, 10/23, 3:15 - 4:30: Department, BY, IY

Thursday, 10/26: ICC cohort?

PGD Day, Friday October 13

We will take 10 minutes at the Thursday faculty meeting to share experiences from PGD day.

Renee Watson Visit - Thank you Dori

I was glad to see so many of you at her Thursday afternoon experience. Her conversation Thursday evening was great as well. Renee was clearly in her element answering questions from students, faculty and parents across the three divisions.

4th Grade Mt Hood Overnight

The Mazama staff recommends that 4th grade teachers do not include ourselves in the 6:1 ratio needed.  Therefore we are in need of 12 adults total (not counting Nicole, the nurse).  Right now we have 9. The Chaparone Sign-up link.

Related Events:

• October 31 @ 7:40am - 8:20am - Parent Information meeting about the trip.  Mazama staff will be coming to show some slides, discuss the program, and talk preparation. Location TBA.

• November 30 @ 3:30 - 4:30pm - Chaperone Training in my classroom.  This training is also put on by Mazama staff and is required for all our chaperones.

Conference Expectations
Conference signups

7:30 - 5:00 on Thursday, November 2

7:30 - 2:00 on Friday, November 3

50% or less FTE - Thursday only

More than 50% FTE both Thursday and Friday.

Conference Attendance by SST member

LS conferences are 11/2 and 11/3. Now is the time to start thinking about having an SST member attend a conference with you.

• Check availability of the SST member you’d like to join you
• Notify parents who will be accompanying you at the conference and why
• Schedule a time to make a plan with the SST member before the conference

Park Academy Visit

Ari and David visited. Park is a school that exists to support children with dyslexia and other language based learning differences. Great school with clear mission.

Literacy Assessments

Thanks for all the good thinking and work many of you dedicated to the Fountas and Pinnell training these last few weeks.  We know some of you are diving into your assessments--this blog post from the F&P site called Five Tips for Conducting an Assessment Conference Efficiently may be useful! Here is the F&P link to the post “A Level is a Teacher’s Tool, NOT A Child’s Label” in case you missed the link last spring.

Chris and Kirstin compared conversations from Thursday and found both groups had very similar agreements.  We’ve combined them into one document: please read the Common K-5 Agreements for Assessment Use.

Harvard Online 2-week classes

Harvard has a number of 2-week online courses that may support some of your professional goals including courses like “Improving Math Instruction Through Feedback,” “Learning Through Discussion and Disagreement,” “The Opportunity of Bilingualism” and “Learning to Talk by Talking: A Developmental Approach to Maximizing Language and Literacy Skills.”  Here’s the link!

OPERATIONS

Safe Schools Video link

Two open faculty meeting times remaining, 10/30, 11/6 to complete the videos or choose to watch the videos on your own time.

You received a message from the SafeSchools system with all the information you need to access this year’s required trainings:

1. Child Abuse Mandatory Reporter - Oregon Full Course -  Approx. 30 minutes
2. Sexual Misconduct Staff to Student -  Approx. 30 minutes
3. Sexual Harassment - Staff to Staff - Approx. 15

New this year: All courses are available in English and Spanish, you will be able to select your preferred language once logged into the system.

Paper Copy of 2017-18 Lower School Calendar

This week Lyn, Chris and Kirstin are double checking the 2017-18 paper calendar we worked with over the summer with the LS Events Google Calendar. If you have made changes to events since the start of school please let them know.

Bus Cost: To help you with field trip calculations, know that buses cost $50/hr or $2.75/mi

• Information Organization
• LS Common Forms & other Relevant Information in LS Important Documents
• Calendar Manager -  LS Calendar information.
• Lice Policy - There have been some changes
• Field Trips- use the Field Trip Checklist and forms
• Ordering materials and supplies - use this Order Form and Order Tracking List
• Amazon orders - OES Amazon Business Account
• Curriculum, Furniture and Students Services Supplies - Contact your division Assistant Head Trips around and off campus - be sure Ls Office knows where you are
• Disease Prevention - health department predicting an early  and heavy influenza outbreak
• SmartFind Express Reminders - Use SmartFind Express to report all absences
• Field Trip Budgets - approximately $1500 per grade.
• Food From Home - must have approval from the nurse
• TIME SHEET -Fill out your timesheet digitally in ADP and approve it twice a month

Your Announcements

Send any announcements you have for faculty to Kirstin, Chris or David by Thursday each week August-June 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.