LS Weekly Memo Weekly Memo Week 39 May 11-15, 2015

You know the sprint to the finish is on when the Lego show has come and gone in the Library.  Thank you Jane, for yet another great display.  Onto the Zoo next weekend. Friday also included Doug’s class performing their puppet show, Kirstin’s class heading out on a canoeing venture and Kiah heading off on her maternity leave.  Thank you Kathie Kimmy for leading Kiah's class to the end of the year. Next week brings three more Moving into Coffees; K, P, 1st , continued discussion of class placement and MHCSD. Thank you Jenny Cleveland, for all her efforts coordinating service for the day.  Wish the 4th grade good luck with their International Fair as they prepare to share they research with the students at Montclair Elementary.

COMMUNITY

Mt. Hood Climb Service Day- Wednesday, May 13th- A Must Read for All

Mt. Hood Climb Service Day- Final Plans

Please click on the link above to read final plans from Jenny Cleveland.

Nuts

Last week a parent brought in special treats for a class that contained nuts.  The ingredients were written in italian so it was not immediately apparent that the treats contained nuts.  Fortunately, the students tasted the nuts and let the teacher know. No one who ate the treats was allergic to tree nuts. Be sure to check ingredients of any snacks brought into school before distributing to students.

Safety Issues

We have had three safety issues occur related to day and overnight trips.

1.     One class left the emergency form binder left behind

2.     Two classes took the medications for the wrong child on their trip

Follow the trip checklist carefully. Attend to all safety matters.

AP Exams and Lunch

Thanks for your extra efforts last week.

May 20 Have Lower School students enter and leave the dining hall through the entrance near the dorms and back parking lot. AP Exams in the US Library and Platt classroom.

Enter quietly.

Hiring Updates

●      Kindergarten - making offer on Wednesday

●      Spanish- Alfredo Peche will be the new PK – 3 Spanish Teacher

●      Chaplain search – Making offer on Wednesday

●      Technology – Jeffrey Sprague will be the interim technology assistant

Class Placement – Specialists on Monday pm

Class placement conversations have begun.  Please consider:

●      Gender balance

●      Mix from all three previous classes

●      Academic balance - low & high

●      Look at language arts & math achievement – aim for balance

●      Look at learning challenges: disabilities, differences, etc.

●      Motivation

●      Social – friends from current class

●      Past social issues- check in with the grade below yours to see if there are past relationships to consider

●      Children who play well together

●      Children who work well together

●      Good role models

●      Behavior issues (think of a continuum from “never needs redirection” to “frequent redirection”)

●      Family issues

●      Parent needs

●      Only children

●      Diversity

LS Building Groundbreaking - Friday May 29, 8:30 -9:00

Planning is underway for the Ground Breaking on May 29.  All of LS will attend.

Moving Into Coffees

We have begun planning for the MIC’s.  Based on parent feedback, the majority of the MIC’s will be informational.  We will reserve the final 15 minutes for guided conversations for the parents. Our thanks to all who contributed this last week.

Monday, May 11	Moving into K	8:00 – 9:30	LS CH
Tuesday, May 12	Moving into P	8:00 – 9:30	LS CH
Friday, May 15	Moving into 1st	8:00 – 9:30	LS CH
Tuesday, May 26	Moving into 2nd	8:00 – 9:30	LS CH
Tuesday, June 1	Moving into 4th	8:00 – 9:30	LS CH
Wednesday, June 2	Moving into 3rd	8:00 – 9:30	LS CH

Incident Reports - Incident Reports

Discipline

When students need interventions because of their behavior, we have varying levels of intervention:

●      Teacher on the scene

●      Classroom Teacher

●      Chris O’Toole

●      LS Office

Remember that Melanie’s role as counselor does not include discipline interventions, unless of course she is the teacher on the scene.

       

Lego Show - Friday, LS Library

Thanks to Jane and her crew for a fantastic Lego Show. They go on the road the 5/30 and 5/31 at the Oregon Zoo.  Stop by, or offer to help out.  Our students do amazing work!

Students Who Need Extra Support

●      Fourth and Fifth Grade Basketball Court- Competition is ramping up for these players. Keep an eye on this if you are out on recess duty.

●      3rd Grade Soccer - same as above

●      Colton P - Let Chris and Tonya know if anything comes up challenges arise

●      Simon W. and Gabriel H. need swift intervention if they are revving up.  No second chances. Provide place to cool down and reset.  See Chris or Erin for details.

●      Deborah’s K Boys

The boys in Deborah’s class are working on being less physical with each other. Deborah or Chris will provide details.

PROGRAM

Summer Stipends

Department Chairs and Team Leaders will be soliciting summer stipend requests and helping prioritize requests.  We have 90 stipend days for the entire Lower School faculty and a lot of ideas for possible stipends:

        UBD work

        FLG needs

        New Teaching Teams - K, 1st, 4th

        Inquiry design

        Literacy continuums

        Team Leader/ Department initiatives

        Grade level team initiatives

UBD Reminder

Each grade level should have three units of understanding designed by the start of school 2015.

LSCTF

We had an interesting exchange of structures, strategies, language and rituals around reading instruction. More on this at our closing faculty meeting in June.

Our thanks to those who served on the Task Force this year!

Cadwell Plans- Second and Fourth Grade, May 4th

We finished our last coaching session with Louise this past week. Our thanks to the two teams who clearly put a lot of work into documenting their work with students.  Our discussions were rich, and in the end, yielded some interesting new directions for their work.

I’d like to share all of my notes and slideshows in an archive that all can access.  Grade Level Teams, if you prepared a slide show, may I post it  in an  archive?

Faculty Meetings

●      Mon., 5/11 Specialists’ Placement Meeting- 3:15 Art Room

●      Thurs., 5/14 LSLT- 7:40 Kathy Narramore’s Room

        FLG Groups

●      Thurs., 5/21 Meet with Jon von Behren- Moving Logistics- 7:40 Art Room

Team Leader Agenda

●      Plans for 2015-16

●      IDT planning

●      Summer Stipends

Inquiry Design Team - 5/6

We looked back at our Common Experiences and looked ahead. We crafted a plan for a meaningful end-of-year faculty meeting and plotted out possibilities for next year.

Safety - Students not alone in the classroom

Positive Discipline Workshop - Mind Map

Safe Schools - Previous WM

Giving to the Building - Previous WM

Math Feedback - Previous WM

UBD Reminder - Previous WM

Lower School Building – Previous WM

PGD – Previous WM

2015-16 Budget – Previous WM

Community Talks - Here is a link

OPERATIONS

Packing, Moving and Unpacking

The moving company has been hired. The challenge - we all need to be ready to move on Friday, 6/19:

4th and 5th @ 8:00 am

1st and 2nd @ 10:00 am

PK, K and P @ 1:00 pm

LS Office @ 3:00 pm

The good news – none of the rooms BS, 1-2nd  or 4-5th  are using will be used this summer so you have great flexibility for when you do room set-up.

Recycling Information from Kelly

As your start to pack up classrooms for summer or the move to new spaces, please be mindful of recycling. Co-mingling of recyclable products and garbage are on an upswing right now. Not only does recycling the right way, minimize our garage expenses on campus, it ensures that our recycling is actually recycled and stays out of the landfill.  See an easy to follow recycling poster to help with the process….

http://www.co.washington.or.us/HHS/SWR/upload/English-Business-Recycling-Guide_sml.pdfnce.

Overnight Trips

Fifth Grade Camp Hancock- Mon., May 18th-Fri., May 22nd

Please sign up to cover chaperone’s recess and lunch duties the week they are away

Things From Home

Pokeman or magic cards need to stay at home and should not be brought to school – per LS Admin Team.  In general, toys from home should stay there.  See Student Handbook.

CHANGES to Room 10:

●      to maintain the current organization in Room 10, the lock will be changed this week. The new key to gain access in Room 10 will be in the office

●      approval is needed from the office if you wish to store materials in Room 10

●      Unaccounted items are discarded every Friday

Unsafe Use of Mini Aardvark- Please Be Vigilant

Jane pointed out to me that children of all ages and stages are sitting on the railings on the second story of Mini Aardvark.  This is really unsafe. Teachers, could you bring this to your student’s attention? Folks on duty, please redirect children if they continue to sit on railings.

Substitutes - Please do not contact our Substitutes directly

OES LS Uniform Policy - Friendly  Reminder

Catering Orders - must be ordered 5 - 10 Business days BEFORE the event

See - Ordering Catering

Monkey Bars and Green Rainbow

All School Calendar Summit to Be Rescheduled

Packing Boxes

Culling for our move to temporary spaces? Here’s Some Donation Ideas

Friendly Reminder About Toys Brought to School

Attendance input at 8:00

The Yellow Line and Safety

When to Use LS Division Only and All School

Recess Reminders

Your Announcements

Send any announcements you have for faculty to Chris or me 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 to maximize our time to collaborate during meetings.