Weekly Memo Weekly Memo Week 32, April 3-7, 2017

I hope you all enjoyed your week away and are returning healthy, well rested and rejuvenated. Though it seems so long ago, I want to thank the 4th grade team for the International Fair.  The information fair was inspiring; the students knowledge of their topics impressive.

Thank you Ben Starbuck and his custodial crew for their extra efforts to vanquish the stomach virus from our building.  May the students return to us healthy and ready for the learning to come.

Monday is a school day.

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

New Faculty and Staff

Mary Peterson - I am pleased to announce that Mary will be teaching Natalie’s class beginning May 1st. Mary and Natalie will have several shadow days before Natalie's last day, April 28. Natalie will be helping with Mary with report writing at the end of the year.

Jefna Cohen - is teaching Tonya Griffin’s class for the remainder of the year

Caley Peterson - is teaching Alysa WIlliams class for the remainder of the year

Gwynne Cecere - is assisting Prekindergarten Monday through Wednesday afternoons

Peter Kraft, Associate Head of School, Visit on 4/4, 4/5

Peter Kraft, Associate Head of School to be, is on campus Tuesday and Wednesday with an employee meet and greet on Wednesday afternoon 3:30 - 4:30 in the Dining Hall.

Beth Ferguson, LS Chaplain Candidate, Visit 4/4

Beth, LS Chaplain finalist, is visiting on Tuesday. See email from Lyn with visit schedule details.

New Website

Take a look at the new OES website, www.oes.edu. An email from Karen Crandall detailing changes came out before break.  Let us know what you think at marketing@oes.edu. There will undoubtedly be a few design issues, glitches, and links that don’t work correctly. And since we reduced the page count on our site dramatically, we will be adding new content as the needs arise. Please let us know if you see something we might have missed or is not working properly, and we’ll get it fixed as quickly as we can.

Looking for the catering request form,  check request form, ADP login and other important links related to you as an employee at OES in our new website? Click the “Employees” link in the http://www.oes.edu/

Farris Hall Under Construction

The two classroom wings (Primary & Intermediate, 1/2 and 3/4, whatever you call them) are now closed to all access.  The old library is also closed temporarily.  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

We are working with contractors. Playground work may get pushed out to the fall.

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.

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! Some additional new assistant teacher subs are in the works and interviews are taking place for more lead subs, so stay tuned for updates.

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 the week of 4/4 and 4/11

PreK Teacher - Finalists visiting the week of 4/12 and 4/18

5th Grade Teacher - finalists selected, scheduling visits

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

Faculty Meetings: Faculty Meeting Schedule, Faculty Meeting Agenda

• Thursday, 4/6, 7:35 LS Library - Safety
• Monday, 4/10, 3:30 Ls Library - Waking Up White - Opt in Discussion

The Confluence Update

Chris and Kirstin have updated The Confluence with a new post about project work in the Lower School. You may notice a few of your websites have been mined for photos--at least you know we read them! :)

AT Evaluations due 4/7

Just a reminder that Lead Teachers and Assistant Teachers should meet together this week to go over evaluations and goals. Please submit your completed evaluations to Lyn by Friday, April 7th unless you’ve made other arrangements with your Assistant Head.

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 Offerings

Kathleen Hicks is teaching 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 Keira 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?

Harvard Project Zero Class

Several teachers tried out the Entry-Point Chart Template before break to help think about how to keep all learners engaged during a unit/study 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.

OPERATIONS

Recess Changes

The 1-2 team is making some changes that affect duty responsibilities and the duty schedule.

Change #1: Thursday am recess (9:20-9:35) is cancelled permanently. If you have this morning recess duty and your rotation falls on a Thursday, you are no longer needed outside at this time. Please do supervise your duty on the other rotation days.

Change #2: Now that the weather is nicer, First Grade will enter through the west stairwell after lunch recess. This will require two of the lunch recess duty staff to lead the first grade class along the exterior walkway and up the exterior west stairwell to the second floor. The hope is for this to be a calmer and shorter indoor transition for the children, asking them to pause before entering the building to quiet themselves for the short trip to their classrooms. On days it is raining briskly you may still choose to have them enter through the north doors.

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.

Emergency Drills

• Calm, orderly, quiet response
• Account for students and let office know
• Evacuate building in 3 minutes or less

Cell Phones and Toys

• Please avoid using you cell phones during duty, unless absolutely necessry
• 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.

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:

• Closing windows at end of day
• Cleaning paint off floors
• Throwing out fallen raisins

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.