Juniper Elementary Technology Magnet School

Hello everyone ~ Well…I waited until the presidential debate was over to post my WW and now I am NOT in a good mood.  So this might be one of my shorter WW’s!  I know what you’re thinking…maybe I should watch more debates if it results in a shorter WW!  Ha.

Anyway, I want to follow up with our Summative Evaluation conversation and let you all know that we will be doing Summative’s on K-2 and some specialists.  Next year, we will do 3-5 and the other specialists.  Everyone still has 6 mini-observations and a few formals for those probationary and temporary teachers.  I was finally able to get into a few classrooms last week and it was AWESOME!  I love getting into classes and observing the great instruction and learning going on.

Our Thriving Citizen team met last Thursday and I was fortunate enough to sit in on it.  I heard great discussion of our Thriving Citizen goals, upstream indicators and professional development.  Thanks to everyone on that team for your participation and effort.  Our Academic Excellence team is meeting this Thursday in the conference room at 8.  If you signed up for this team last year, please join us.

The SIW for this week is a District Training.  Please click here to sign up and view the offerings.  My recommendation is to go as a team.  I know this is not always feasible.  If you cannot make it as a team, please share in your next grade-level team meeting.

PTO and Site Council @ 3:45 in the library tomorrow.  Also, movie night is this Friday. Should be really fun and family oriented.  Please join us if you can.

See you tomorrow – Dan

Hi everyone ~ We are in October already!  I can’t believe it.  I always look forward to October because routines and structure seem to resonate with the students and the entire school settles down a bit and begins the year.

We have a  great week planned ahead of us with lots of things going on.  Claire will be out tomorrow am at a training and Maria and I will be out in the afternoon at Leadership.  We have a staff meeting on Tuesday to go over the Walk-A-thon and Walk ‘n Bike to School Day.  SIW will be GLTs.

I want t0 touch base about evaluations for this year.  We will conduct six mini-observations on each of you for the year using the same format as last year.  Probationary teachers will have two formal observations and four mini-observations.   The big change is that only half of staff is required to do summative evaluations at the end of the year.  We will let you know who that is later.  For our mini-observations, we would like to focus on growth areas you selected in your summatives from last year.  Our goal is to create more meaning in the observations for the year, rather than try to cover the many standards in our evaluation process.  Hence, the first post-conference conversation will be about a growth area you want to focus on.  It’s OK if it doesn’t match up to your Summative evaluation, but you may want to review it from last year before we meet with you.

Primary grades, if you are interested in having a COCC Student Intern come to your class and receive hours, please contact Maria and she can arrange that.

I have noticed a lot of furniture in hallways and I would like to clean that out and clear some of the clutter.  Please let Shawn know if you want to keep any of it or move back into your class.  Let’s try and keep the hallways cleared and looking good.

If you are getting a warning to change your District password, the process is so simple, but necessary.  Here is some helpful instructions to help with that.  Password Update

Remember to check the calendar for all the daily goings-on and have a great rest of your Sunday!

Dan

If you ever wanted to try a flipped lesson by recording yourself, or have your students do that, you can follow the directions below to get started.

Source: Create a Screen Recording Using QuickTime

Now that our iPads are up and running I wanted share this link for ‘how-to’ videos and troubleshooting tips.

http://blogs.bend.k12.or.us/instructionaltechnology/2016/09/22/video-tutorials-for-common-tools

Maria

Hi all and happy beautiful Sunday evening!

For this year, plan on almost all Tuesday mornings with some sort of activity.  We will either be having a staff meeting, training, grade-level teams, or small group meetings.   I have uploaded the PLC Four Essential Questions on the main menu of the Weekly Wildcat for your review.  I know you have tons to talk about in your teams, but these are good to review occasionally.

For this week’s SIW, Kerry Morton will be leading the staff in a Bridges training in the library that will focus on small group instruction.  The below survey will help her with specific information.  It is only four questions long and should only take a minute or two. Please complete by Monday pm.  SIW Survey

Even though we postponed our whole staff work on school design, we are already getting work.  For example, Jaime and Ryan’s tech-institute for Future Ready, focusing on small group instruction for Academic Excellence and Mind Up! Curriculum for Thriving Citizens.  Our Mind Up! team consisting of Cindy, Cammy, Claire, Maria, and Stu attended a training on Thursday and I was able to make it as well.  We heard about a lot of exciting lessons, background information on trauma kids and what current research is saying.  Below, I’d like to share an example of student civil rights that Ray did with his class that fits right in with this.    Ray’s Video  Ray’s Video#2  The PBIS team will be planning implementation and then kick things off on the 10/19 SIW.  Please bring a small appetite before we start!

Please remember Kim Jackson will be out all week, a sub will be in there.

I am always updating the WW calendar.  You can hold your cursor over an event on the calendar to get information, or click on it for all the information in a more readable format.  For example, the Picture Day schedule is uploaded and ready for viewing.

Thanks everyone!

~Dan

Hi everyone ~ I hope you were able to get out enjoy this beautiful weekend!  I looked out in the backyard this morning and some leaves were starting to fall; which was a good reminder to enjoy the warm weather before fall is upon us.

Bend Open Streets was really fun.  Thanks Betty and Maria for helping to man our table, handout some Juniper grocery bags, and talk to our many families that passed by.  Thanks Tracy and Bradley for letting us set up in front of your house.  This was such a creative and fun community event that was put on by Commute Options, who we work with every year on safe transportation, Walk & Bike to School Day, and bicycle awareness.

As you go forward with your year-long planning, make sure to check the District guidelines for Reading, Writing, & Math.  We will be meeting in Grade Level Teams on Tuesday and these are a good reference if needed.  I am planning on uploading these on the menu bar this week for quick and easy access.

Kudos to Heather and the entire EA team for making DIBELs Day so smooth!  They were able to get through all the intended classes and then some.  This is a big effort and really helps us with the baseline data in reading.

Field Trips are starting this week.  Please, please, please remind your parents to fill out a volunteer form.  It must be approved for them to attend the field trip or volunteer in the classroom.

Thanks for all you do each and every day!

 We talk a lot about “21st Century Learners”.  How about a “21st Century Teacher.”  Very interesting read about the characteristics of a 21st Teacher.

Source: 15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century Teacher | Edutopia

Following up with Maria and Cammy’s discussion on Mindfulness, this quick video is a nice overview.

Mindfullness

Please check the calendar for the DIBELS schedule,  it has been posted.