Weekly Memo 43: End of Year

Weekly Memo WM 43, June 29, 2018: End of Year

Thank you for your great work this year.

Rest, relax and recharge over the summer and we look forward to seeing you in August.

Lower School Agreements

·      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 Weekly Memo format with repeat items in blue and new items in black.

COMMUNITY

Hiring – With so many new teams next year, we will spend time in 2018-19 getting to know one another and renewing our faculty culture.

K - Erin Moulton-80%/ Colesie Tharp-20%
1st - Anthony Villasenor
2nd - TBD
3rd - Sharon Kottler-Decker
4th - Adelaide Wainwright
5th - Leah Wyllie
LS Office - Kathy Finn-Brennan-40%, TBD-60%

Chris and Kirstin's Summer Schedule

Chris and Kirstin will be on vacation June 29 through August 3rd.

David's Summer Schedule

I will be away from July 23 through August 3rd.

Calendar Additions
As you begin holding your stipend days in July and August, one of your tasks is to add important dates to the calendar/s. Events like Learning Celebrations, Parent Education Events and Field Trips must be entered into both the LS Faculty and OES Web calendar (public calendar).  You can find information on how to add to the calendars here. 

• LS Faculty – all events  with BOTH internal and external audience
• LS Events Calendar (OES web calendar) – publicly viewed events where guests and parents are welcome to attend or where parents can browse their children group activities, for example: field trips! One thing the calendar manager needs to remember is to avoid posting specific location of field trips, for safety reasons.

Each grade level or specialty has a calendar manager with authorization to edit the calendar in order to eliminate confusion/duplication of events:

PK – Carole

K – Erin

Primary – Shelley

1^st – Claire

2^nd – Jackie

3^rd – Tonya

4^th – Rachel

5^th – Tina

Art – Margaret

Chaplaincy - Phillip

Library – Lara

Music/Service Learning - Kristen

PE – Scott

Science – Jane

Spanish – Kelola

SST – Ari

Division Calendar Managers: Admin Team and Lyn

Fascinating Podcast
If you listen to anything while you travel, clean, cook, etc., you might try a fascinating podcast called What Were You Thinking? It combines brain science with the stories of teenagers to explain why we may see some of the things we're noticing in the world today: terrorism, computer hacking, school shootings. And it reinforces the importance of some of the work we've made central in our Big Rocks related to storytelling, critical thinking, and more. Read about it here. Can't recommend it highly enough, especially if you know any teenagers. 

Summer Readings/Viewings from Dori
If you need help locating the equity and inclusion resources Dori sent to us for our summer professional development, you can access them here. 

New SST Site Coming in 2018-19
Brad Baugher has been hard at work creating a new SST site that has enhanced functionality and will be revealed next fall. We will all be trained in August.

Student Updates

The SST Site contains valuable information that is helpful in understanding a student’s history and action plans. You may want to review the entries in the site before writing a child's report. The SST Site is linked in the Weekly Memo and can only be accessed on campus.

PROGRAM

LS Faculty/Staff Day Retreat: August 29th

Our day-long meeting on August 29th will focus on building our new community through the lens of the 8 Cultural Forces and will include teaching faculty, assistant teachers and administrative assistants. It will be held at The Oregon Garden in Silverton and will include breakfast, lunch and snack.  Look for an RSVP for a bus from OES in August. The bus will leave OES at 7:30 for an 8:30 breakfast and 9:00 meeting start; we'll meet until 4 pm. 

Please bring: walking shoes, layers for indoor/outdoor activities, your laptop, journal/pen, and Creating Cultures of Thinking if you have a copy.  Please read the chapter most relevant to your 8 Cultural Forces interest before the retreat. If you do not have a copy of the book please review this brief introduction. You can sign up for a group here. 

Beginning Years Details

BY teachers, to minimize summer emails Kirstin has been adding to the BY Odds and Ends Document, which you can access by clicking the tab at the top of the Weekly Memo. Please review this document during your stipend or when you return to school. 

Thank you for a year of Service Learning!

It was an incredible year of Service Learning in the Lower School. Thank you for all the ways you as teachers supported projects, deep conversations, and heart-felt investigations around Service Learning with your students this year. We truly deepened our practice in very meaningful ways. Please visit the last Service Learning blog post to read an amazing summary of the Lower School efforts on MHCSD--by the numbers. Thank you again! Kristen

Published Articles

The latest issue of Innovations, the quarterly periodical of the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance, has reflections by our own Kimie Fukuda and parent Nan Hansen on their thinking around the Seattle NAREA conference. You can read Kimie and Nan's pieces here.  

Ellin Keene, author of Mosaic of Thought, has a new book about how to help kids find genuine engagement and her teacher-research question Can we teach engagement? Interested? Heinemann has a 23 min. podcast interview with Ellin about engagement and the book. 

Library News

Share this link with book recommendations and details about summer reading in your parent communication

Summer Stipends

Input stipend days on Faculty Calendar. Chris, Kirstin and I would like to join you for part of the time if we are available. Be sure to consult the Stipend Toolkit for ideas about how to structure you stipends, ideally creating your agenda before your days begin.  

Class Placement

Class placement is done for now. We will revisit in August if enrollment changes occur during the summer.

Placement Requests

If parents have a placement request, please direct them to David to schedule an appointment.

OPERATIONS

Ready for Summer Checklist

Below is the list for preparing your classroom for summer. Anyone who is leaving Lower School or changing classrooms has additional responsibilities.

End of Year Room Expectations

If you’re leaving you get a checklist from Tammy and prepare your room

·      Remove personal items

·      Cull and organize files and cupboards

·      Clean out teacher desk

·      Organize curriculum materials

·      Complete work orders for any maintenance needs

·      Check out with Chris, Kirstin or David by end of June

Everyone - Summer Programs may use any space as needed

·      Student assessment files to Ari’s Office

·      Reports to PCR (1-5) OR print copy to LS Office and email home on designated date (PreK-Pri)

·      Update SST files as needed

·      Remove all work from walls, windows, surfaces

·      Store all materials in cupboards or mud rooms unless they can be used by Summer Program

·      Take home or use locking cupboard for personal items

·      Make a plan for your plants

·      Remove all open snacks your room. Do not put in the LS Office or Teaching Kitchen

·      Unplug all electrical appliances

·      Clean, unplug and prop open refrigerators

·      Check with custodial or maintenance about any unique storage or disposal needs

·      Complete maintenance requests

·      Manage your own donations (check with Kelola about Woodburn)

·      Make sure your storage area in the large store room is in good order

·      Label your classroom name on your things on your shelves

·      Untidy or unlabeled items or items on the floor may be eliminated

·      Post summer stipend dates on the faculty calendar

Ordering for 2018-19

See Email from Kathy Finn-Brennan about ordering procedure.

Summer Use of Space Plan

Here is Kati's space use plan for the summer. Know that other spaces may be used as needed and as new programs are developed.

Lower School Office – Summer Hours

The Lower School has switched to summer hours and is open 8:00 – 4:00. The office will be closed Friday, June 29 and will reopen on Wednesday, August 8.

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.