Weekly Memo
Week 41, June 5-9, 2017
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I find it hard to believe we are down to the final 10 (9.5 really) days of school. These weeks have been and continue to be full; events are many, minds are tired and, for many, emotions are closer to surface. I encourage you all to find ways to slow down and bring the year to a close with time for reflection and celebration. One of the many gifts of the Art of Hosting workshop that Chris, Kirstin and I attended, was the commitment on the facilitators part to pace the days well with time to engage and learn, listen and speak, construct and reflect.
Congratulations to Caley and Chris and their students for their play performances. Kudos to Jane for orchestrating another spectacular Lego display at the zoo. On to more learning celebrations, Field Days and final field trips.
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
Important Documents!
GaGa Pit on ACP
The 5th graders will begin building a GaGa pit on ACP as a farewell gift to Lower School. They were inspired by the fun they had playing GaGa at Camp Orkila. Part of ACP will be off limits for area preparation and tree removal on Monday or Tuesday.
Common Areas Reminder
Assessment Season is upon us and that means many teachers are reading with their students in the halls.
If you could please remind your students as they walk from place to place to do so with quiet feet - that would be very appreciated. And like always - if you would like a second pair of eyes on an assessment Ari is always happy to provide those eyes.
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
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!
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.
Field Day is Uniform-Optional Day - Please review with your students
There will be no uniforms required for Grades PreK through Primary on Thursday, June 8th.
There will be no uniforms required for Grades 1 through 5 on Friday, June 9th.
Students are encouraged to wear their class colors and to dress for Field Day running and water play. A change of clothes may be useful, particularly for grades PreK-2 who have earlier times.
Class
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Color
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Pre-Kindergarten
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Red
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Kindergarten
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Purple
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Primary
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Yellow
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1st Grade
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Green
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2nd Grade
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Blue
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3rd Grade
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Orange
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4th Grade
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White
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5th Grade
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Black
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End of Year Assessments to Pass up
Please only pass out these assessments. All other student work should go home.
- A grade level agreed upon EoY math assessment
- DRA/F&P reading assessment
- Writing Sample--unedited. If edited, please attach 1st draft.
- Words Their Way Spelling Inventory (grades 1-4)
Summer Stipends
The Division Heads have managed to reduce summer stipends by almost 100 days to fit within budget. If you have questions please see David. Notifications will be coming out this week.
- 6/5 - BY/IY 3:30 - 4:30 - see Agenda from Assistant Heads
- 6/8 - BY/IY 7:35 - 8:35 - see Agenda from Assistant Heads
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
Schedule for Days After School Closes
Friday, 6/16
- School Dismissed at 11:00. All to help with dismissal duty.
- Report writing in afternoon
Monday, 6/19
- Reports Writing/ Proofing Day
Tuesday, 6/20
- Reports Due 8:00 am
- LS Faculty Meeting - 8:00 - 12:00
- Report Proofing - 1:00 - 4:00
Wednesday, 6/21
- Reports loaded into PCR by 9:00 am
- AS Chapel 11:00
- AS Closing Lunch, 12:30 - 2:00
Safety Update - Active Shooter
- Are the shades too transparent? Can you see through them when the lights are out? May be particularly important in rooms adjacent to exterior stairwells.
- Shades are very effective - JVB, DL tested
- Does everyone know how to turn off their motion-sensor lights?
- JVB Research
- Doors are hard to lock from the inside.
- Practice - follow arrows
- Mudrooms/classroom doors and PreK/Kindergarten/Primary bathrooms don’t lock. Can high bolts be installed so kids don’t lock anyone out but teachers can bolt them as needed from inside?
- JVB - Looking into solution for securing
- Interior lock needed in storage room
- JVB - lock for door
- Teachers would like a copy of the standard response protocol (4 icons) for reference. Add to emergency clipboards?
- How do inner and outer gym doors lock?
- JVB checking options
- Do we need more silence in our drills or cues for emergency quiet?
- Practice
Some of the safest locations may be:
- Bathrooms (in-class bathrooms can be double locked by locking both bathroom and closet door; adult bathrooms on each floor are large and have no windows)
- Storage room on first floor (for kids in dining commons)
- Gym (Boys locker room locks from the inside--does the girls’?)
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
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)
Resources About Upstanding
Some of you may be wondering how to address the 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:
Kira Newman outlines why and how we should talk to students of all ages about events like this one.
Offers activities to rehearse reacting to situations in the moment.
Another way to have students conduct role plays.
Define the term upstander.
Resources from Dori
Kira Newman outlines why and how we should talk to students of all ages about events like this one.
Lower School
Offers activities to rehearse reacting to situations in the moment.
Another way to have students conduct role plays.
Define the term upstander.
This guide offers some suggestions and a pocket guide to give adults some suggestions and strategies for speaking up about biased language.
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).
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.
