Weekly Memo
Week 14, November 7-11, 2016
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Thank you for all your hard work on conferences. Know SST is at the ready to debrief or strategize with you about any students. Remember to change your clocks back. Tuesday is election day. Be prepared for some post election discussion on Wednesday. See email from David with link to Election Do’s and Don’ts for Independent Schools. The 5th Graders are taking the ERB’s this week; 4th grade in next week. Keep things quiet in the commons during testing mornings. Thursday morning the playground design team gets back to work. Thursday night Dori offers the second Community Conversation. Friday is an Affinity Gathering.
COMMUNITY
Chapel
The first attempt was excellent. The last class was in the Chapel by 8:10. We will continue to start Chapel at 8:10 and end at 8:40.
Chapel on Election Day
As of 11:00am, the Chapel will be open for quiet and safe space, should you wish to find respite from the clamor and potential stress of the day. A solitary candle will remain lit on the altar throughout the day.
Affinity Gathering Opportunity, Nov. 11th:
Our next Affinity Gathering on November 11 corresponds with Veteran's Day. If you are looking for activities for your Affinity Gathering on that day, please consider writing cards of thanks to active-duty service members or veterans. Share words such as: "Dear Hero," "Dear Veteran," "Dear Warrior," "Thank you for your service," "Thank you for your bravery," "We appreciate what you have done for our country," "We appreciate you!" Cards will be collected and sent to a platoon currently deployed in Iraq which includes the son of Judy from our custodial staff, and to the VA hospital. Students who are interested in this gift of words may be interested to know that they can put more thank you cards in their Giving Chapel bags, and those cards will be delivered in person to the VA hospital by Tasha's class, who is visiting the VA hospital on Giving Chapel day. If you would like materials (paper, markers, a sign with possible 'thank-you' phrases) for the gathering, please let Kristen know.
PNCA Playground Exhibit
An opportunity you all might be interested in; a visit to the Pacific Northwest College of Art exhibition, Extraordinary Playscapes, running Oct. 6-Dec. 17th at the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design at PNCA.
Recess and Lunch Duty
Walk around and resist the urge to cluster up. Keep your cell phone in your pocket.
Patty Walhood Memorial Service
Grace Memorial Church, Saturday, November 12.
FLG Planning Meeting
- Thanks to Kirstin and Chris for organizing an informative FLG/PGD meeting
- Year 1 folks
- Schedule a time with David to review inventory and ideas before winter break
- Schedule a goals meeting in January or February
David at Conference, 11/11
Chris and Kirstin are in charge.
2nd Community Conversation
Arab Refugees in Our Midst. November 10, 6:00 - 8:00pm
PROGRAM
Conferences and SST
Reach out to SST if you need help developing plans, strategies for student support after conferences.
Conference Questions
SST has been discussing the kinds of information we know about students, particularly ‘missing’ information that could help us understand our students better. We wanted to share a list of questions with you that we may ask when you bring children to SST for consideration, in case asking a few of them at conferences opens any new doors.
A reminder to reach out to members of the SST for support during conferences. Please contact, Melanie, Ari, Chris or Kirstin to get on our calendar and to make a plan when necessary.
Schedule Changes
If you have made changes to your schedule, please make sure you have notified Chris and Lyn. Chris will change your schedule via the google doc, however making changes on your google calendar are your responsibility. Chris and Jeffrey are available for support and to share some shortcuts in this process.
Tech Update:
AppleTV troubleshooting/testing: Ruben from IT would like to be the first person on the scene to help you when you have a dropped connection from the AppleTV. This will help make the troubleshooting consistent and he can record where/when/conditions that the incidents occur. This should help clear up confusion as to the cause of the connection loss and speed up resolution. We've already made a number of changes that should improve the reliability of the connection to AppleTV so we are recommending at this time the following path...
- Have experienced significant disconnect problems before or during conferences? please send an email to oeshelp@oes.edu with ATV in the subject and include the "Device" or Devices used, and roughly when they occurred. Continue to use wired connections to the projector. After Ruben works with you we'll then ask you to start using it again as you feel comfortable, with wired connection as a backup.
- Haven't used AppleTV to connect? please start using it again. Report as soon as possible your drop to oeshelp@oes.edu with the information above. Have your wired connection ready as a backup.
- Have been connecting with no problems with multiple devices (ipads, macbook etc.) continue to do so and report to oeshelp@oes.edu as necessary, again with ATV as the subject line.
*** Jeffrey will be scheduling room observations over the next few weeks.. for more on "why the heck would he do such a thing" check out the OES LS Technology Google+ Community.
Calendar change: OT Presentation
Originally scheduled for November 15th, we are postponing our discussion with Jenny Alveraz, an Occupational Therapist from Advance Pediatric Therapies until the end of February.
Playground Design
The playground design team meets again on Thursday morning to continue work with the data they collected during the classroom and Saturday workshops and to begin learningabout vegetation. The 4-5th graders created a series of informative graphs (through this website) you may enjoy sharing with your class as they reflect on the playground design experience. Click here for a link to some slides that outline the playground design team’s experience.
November 14 FLG Goal Setting support meeting with Kirstin and Chris 3:15 in Flex Classroom. This is open to all FLG years to share and strengthen goals.
Assistant Teacher Meeting Nov. 16th
The next Assistant Teacher Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 16th (D day) from 12:30-1:15 in the Performance Commons. Topics will include a conference days debrief and brain-based strategies for children in distress. You can access the dates for future meetings here, and we invite Assistant Teachers to add meeting ideas or questions to this agenda planning sheet.
December 12th will be our LS Holiday Party. This year, more than ever, we want to make space to celebrate and spend time together. It has been/continues to be a busy fall, let’s have some fun together and celebrate the season of light and our community’s achievements. If you are interested in helping making this an event to remember, please contact Chris T.
The Confluence
Chris and Kirstin have updated The Confluence. In the latest post they tour grade level gatherings and focus on how Lower School gatherings connect us to our OES Identity Statement. An upcoming post will be added soon with parenting resources for families to address social-emotional topics with their children that may have come up at conferences.
Immigration Books
Check out this list and the accompanying display in the library for excellent books to share with students to broaden their ideas of immigration. With it so much in the news and also in direct connection with our two upcoming Community Conversation, Lara thought it might be useful to have stories which to help humanize the experience. You can find the books right at the entrance next to the display of books about the United States Election process.
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.
PGD Site - John Holloran has launched the OES PGD website, which will come to include recommended PGD opportunities and writeups of PGD experiences.
11-7-16 - No Meeting
11-10-16 - BY/ IY Meeting
Primary Program
The BY Teachers and support staff have been working to clarify our articulation about our Primary Program. BY Specialists, please see Kirstin’s email this week for resources related to your feedback into the process.
FLG Planning Meeting
- Thanks to Kirstin and Chris for organizing an informative FLG/PGD meeting
- Year 1 folks
- Schedule a time with David to review inventory and ideas before winter break
- Schedule a goals meeting in January or February
OPERATIONS
File Cabinets
We have 7 new file cabinets in the storage room, nice two drawer, wheeled cabinets. Pick one up if you ordered one way back in August.
Plants
We have observed wilted plants and a dead plant in the common areas. Please care for the plants you bought – they are beautiful when proper care is applied including the basic care of watering them as needed.
Loop Road Dismissal Duty
If you have Loop Road dismissal duty for our Kindergarten, Primary and First Grade children, please be aware of the following:
- All classes should arrive for dismissal no later than 2:55. Please aim to have your class out at 2:50 so you can meet this deadline. You should wait with your students if you don’t yet see a teacher on duty.
- We need at least three people with Kindergarten and at least three with Primary-First Grade. Please take a moment to visually check the other gate to make sure each area has sufficient coverage, and distribute yourselves accordingly.
- No one should leave duty until all the students for the level they are supervising have been picked up. It can be confusing with children on the playground, so please have children wait seated in the outdoor art studio area (Kindergarten) or near the Dining Commons windows (Primary-First) so we can see if there are children left.
- We have the minimal coverage for this duty, but no more. We really need all adults on duty to attend to the children and cars. If parents try to engage you in conversation, please suggest they park and find you after duty ends, or call/make an appointment to speak with you.
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.
Food Handlers’ Cards
Do you serve food to PreK or Extension students at lunch or for snacks? If so, you need a food handler’s card. They can be obtained online, and fees can be submitted to OES for reimbursement. You can find more information here. Please send Kirstin a copy of your card for our certification records before 11/15.
Dining Commons Lunch Procedures
David, Chris and Kirstin met with Kelly from Bon Appetit this week to review ways Dining Commons lunches could continue to improve. David and Kelly are investigating some longer-term solutions, but in the short term these are the changes soon to be in place:
- Some sandwiches will be pre-made
- Servers will be on the lookout for healthy eaters who may need larger portions on their plate
- Soup and gluten-free options will be available at both stations
- Kevin will support Shirley with cold options at the kitchen station so we only need one volunteer helping with the cold options at the second station
- When we have volunteers, please direct them to help with the cold food at the second station or to pouring drinks so teachers can be free to support students
- When possible we'll ask a faculty member/volunteer to circulate with a bowl of the main dish offering to give to children when they want seconds (so they don't need to return to line)
- A request is going out for volunteers who can come early to pre-pour drinks until we can find a longer-term solution. This may not be reliable, so continue to serve drinks as you do now unless you notice pre-poured trays appear.
Library Usage for Classroom Events
When considering using the library as a potential location for your classroom events:
- Notify Lara at least 2 weeks prior to the event and discuss what your expectations are regarding the space to see if it is feasible. Assuming there are no scheduling conflicts, the space can be arranged for small group events.
- Set-up request in general – the Custodial crew needs notice 2 weeks in advance so they can plan their work schedule.
Recess Reminders - Wander around so you are able to supervise our whole playground.
Substitute Procedures 2016-2017
- Email requests to lssub@oes.edu
- Google Doc of this information here if you’d like to add a copy to your Drive.
New Substitute Teachers and Sub Folders
Our substitute teachers were trained in procedures and safety last Wednesday, and we have five new teachers who will soon be available to us. You can meet them here!
Substitute Folder needs to contain:
- a class list (with photos is especially nice)
- emergency information and allergy info.
- your duty schedule
- other relevant documents
For planned absences, please also leave a hard copy of your plans in the folder for your sub.
At the sub training the returning subs mentioned how nice it is when the students’ After School Weekly Plan is easily accessible or in the sub folder--thanks for helping our guest teachers’ days go smoothly!
Food from Home
Only after we have done the following:
- Worked in partnership with the parents and Bon Appetite to test in-school options
- Had a parent meeting including a Bon Appetite representative and the OES Nurse
- Received doctor’s statement about the medical issue and proposed interventions
Maintenance Requests
Rod would like us all to return to the usual maintrequest@oes.edu protocol for maintenance requests. The Maintenance Log will become a view only document.
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.
Archive
Utilize the archive for previous Weekly Memo.
