Week at a Glance

I really enjoy reading the classroom newsletters you send home to our families! This is one of the ways I try to stay up to speed with what is happening in our classrooms. If you are emailing one home and could include me in your list that would be great! Thank you!

Early this week we sent out information to 3rd-5th grade teachers with some updates/changes in the world of digital learning this year. If you are interested this info can located here. One change that could impact all of our students is that Google Images is no longer accessible to students in grades K-8. An alternative site for image searches is: http://bit.ly/BLSimage_search

Certified Staff: What should our schedule be for Conferences this year? These dates are October 23-25 and April 8-10. Please complete the one question Conference Survey to give your input into this decision. The survey will close on Thursday at 12:00.

The PTO is at it again! In the coming weeks, thanks to PTO, we will be upgrading two of our drinking fountains to water filling stations. One will be outside the music room and the other at the Main Entrance in the North hallway that leads to Discovery Falls.

Notes from the September 11th ICCL Meeting can be found here.

Here is the list of safety items we discussed at the Staff Meeting

Week at a Glance for September 16th-20th

Monday:

Tuesday:

• 3rd -5th DreamBox math train the trainer training 7:45 at District Office
• First Day of Running Club! Please share the info that was in your mailbox with students prior to lunch. Thank you!
• PLC Meeting with a Reading Focus @ 2:45-3:30- Here are the Focus Questions for your team.

Wednesday:

• School Improvement Wednesday 2:00-3:30: Work in Classrooms

Thursday:

• Potential Fire Drill

Friday:

• Potential day for Fire Drill

• Movie Night! Doors at 6:15 with the Secret Life of Pets II around dark.

What a wonderful start to the school year for our Lions! The first week is always extra busy and this one went very smoothly. Thank you for all of your efforts that made this happen.

Wednesday is our first School Improvement Wednesday. The ICCL Team discussed the scheduling of this time and have landed with 2:00-3:30. Below are some ideas behind the selection of this time.

• It aligns with District SIW time
• Provides an hour of time for teachers to work in classrooms right after school 🙂
• Student dismissal issues/bus delays should not impact

This year, the SIWs below will be available for teachers to work in classrooms or if you choose, to meet with other colleagues. Each elementary school has set aside the same dates to provide the potential for cross-school collaboration. These dates are: September 18, October 23, November 20, December 18, January 8, February 19, March 18, April 8, May 20.

Week at a Glance for September 9th-13th

Monday:

• 7:30 Arrival choice begins (recess or breakfast) + Visitor/Volunteer stickers in the morning too! (Thank you for escorting anyone without a sticker to the office)
• easyCBM Window Opens for 1st-5th grade
• 3:00 PBIS Meeting in the Media Center

Tuesday:

• Staff Meeting @ 2:45-3:30 in the Media Center

Wednesday:

• 1:00 Dismissal (If you can remind families that would be wonderful!)
• School Improvement Wednesday 2:00-3:30

Thursday:

Friday:

• Assembly at 8:05 (Kick-off for Safety theme) Staff are invited to wear safety gear for the assembly! 🙂
• Free lunch for families through Nutrition Services

Duty Schedule for September 9-20:

Thank you for all of your hard work this week! It was great to have our staff back together and to feel that synergy of us all working together to make it a great start to the school year!

What a fun week! Here is the Staff Field Trip Video (You may have to first download the video and then VLC should open as the option to play the video.)

A reminder that the first day of school we will follow a Tuesday Specials Schedule

First assembly will be on Friday, September 13th time TBD soon!

The Lava Ridge Student and Family Handbook will be sent to families next week.

Week at a Glance for September 2-6

Monday:

• Holiday-Enjoy!

Tuesday:

• Potential Day to Work in Classrooms (ie day #188)
• Work day for Special Education EA’s

Wednesday:

• First Day of School!
• Half of our Kindergarteners attend
• 8:05 PTO Event for Kindergarten parents in the Media Center
• Free lunch for Staff from Nutrition Services
• 2:30 Dismissal

Thursday:

• Half of our Kindergarteners attend
• 8:05 PTO Event for Kindergarten parents in the Media Center

Friday:

• All Kindergarteners attend

I am looking forward to seeing everyone this week! For Tuesday, we will be up moving a lot so I would suggest comfortable shoes and clothing. Also, while we have been advertising since June that Tuesday and Wednesday would be inservice days it is now looking like we should have about 2 hours of work in classroom time on Wednesday. 🙂

With our new school hours we are moving most meetings to after school. Below is our plan for meetings. Site Council, ICCL, and some others are still TBD.

• Tuesday 2:45-3:30: Either Staff Meetings (first Tuesday) or PLC Meetings (all others)
• School Improvement Wednesday meeting time TBD; potentially from 2:00-3:30 (I learned on Friday that is the time frame for the 4 district SIWs this year)
• Thursdays 2:45-3:30 EBISS Meetings

Nicole Stefano has taken a new job and will not be serving as our FAN Advocate. Tarra Ha was recently hired as our new advocate and will begin in the position this week.

We learned last week that Kim Worchester will be serving this year at North Star and Sky View and will not be at Lava supporting our students this year.

Greetings! I hope your summer has been wonderful. The DeFrang’s had a fun one. We stayed close to home for the most part with visits to Sunriver, some camping, and time at the coast. It was nice to have extra time at home for gardening, walking the dog, Netflixing, trying to catch up on house projects, etc. Lots of family time. Priceless.

This year I will again send out notes to you via this blog once a week. It will contain reminders about the upcoming week and other information for you. Thank you for making this a must read before the start of the next week so you are up to speed on goings on at Lava Ridge and are in the know with all of the information posted. Again this year, you will be able to toggle back in time for attached documents, website addresses, and information from earlier in the year.

It has been a busy summer on campus. Below are some pictures of some of the work that was happened at Lava Ridge.

In early August we send welcome letters to families via U.S Mail. Here are copies of the letters: 1st-5th letter and kindergarten

The Education Foundation has a new grant program this year! Deadline is October 18th. Here‘s the scoop.

Here is another grant opportunity from Selco Credit Union. Grants are awarded for up to $1000 for classroom projects through September 30th

Here is a repost of information from Lora Nordquist about the certified work days in late August (no changes from the spring)

Through, August 26th the building alarm will be set at 4:00 everyday. If you need to access the building after 4:00 be ready to disarm the building alarm after you enter through the Main Entrance. Be sure to also write your name on the whiteboard and reset the alarm after you leave. Your attention to detail is appreciated. Thank you! Each false alarm costs our school $50+ dollars and potential sanctions from the Fire Department.

Work Hour Adjustments for 2019-20: A reminder that Certified Staff work hours this year are 7:30-3:30. The Main Office hours will be 7:30-3:30. Miriam and Amber are planning to work from 7:00-3:30. Certified substitute teacher hours are 7:15-3:15.

Here are some classroom set-up ideas from Saif I was asked to share with you.

Details below for August 26th-September 4th

Monday, August 26th

• New Teacher Day at Sky View
• PBIS Meeting at 10:00
• Potential Day to Work in Classrooms (ie day #188)

Tuesday, August 27th

Welcome back in Media Center at 7:30. We are planning for a fun kick-off to the year! Some of our activities this morning will get us up and moving outside before we eat lunch together and head to Bend High School for the Bend-La Pine Schools celebration.

Wednesday, August 28th

Inservice and Meeting Day with lunch provided 🙂

Thursday, August 29th

• Work in Classroom Day
• Work day for non-special education EAs
• Open House 3:00-5:00

Friday, August 30th

Potential Day to Work in Classrooms (ie day #188)

Tuesday, September 3rd

• Potential Day to Work in Classrooms (ie day #188)
• Work day for Special Education EA’s

Wednesday, September 4th

First Day of School!

Thank you for a wonderful school year! I feel fortunate to have been able to work alongside you this year. I hope you have a fun and restful summer!

Thank you for taking the time to provide input into the decision of when we have recesses and lunches next year. The consensus feedback on the draft from staff was positive. Lunch and recess times for 2019-20 can be located here.

Fifth grade promotion was a very special event. Picture below. This was the first year in sometime that the 5th grade teachers did not present the Step Up Award. Lisa, Paul and Michele decided this spring to not include the award due to the difficulty in narrowing selection in such a wonderful class to the list of nominees and then the very difficult task of selecting winners. The team also felt that as a school we are doing a really great job of recognizing students with PAW, Golden Tickets, and the other recognition systems that are part of Lava Ridge.

Thank you for your input into the decision to have Open House on Thursday, August 29 from 3:00-5:00

We finished up ICCL interviews on Friday. Below is our team for next year.

Katie Duval, Carole Nase, Amanda Gylling, Dyan Sultzer

Below are some year end technology notes from Brad:

• If you choose to leave your laptop and/or iPad here turn it into the Media Center with power cord, charging cables and power bricks LABELED with your name so they can be updated. If you are signed into iCloud on an iPad you need to sign out! (Settings > iCloud > Sign out) For laptops, don’t just shut the lid – shut them completely down.
• Staff with laptops need to walk out the door for summer with Mojave installed on your Mac. Find it in Self Service.
• All classroom laptops (student use) and classroom iPads (student use) need to be brought to the Media Center to be updated over summer. If you want the same stuff back please label everything with your name.
• If you are leaving or moving classrooms: please leave projector remotes, classroom cords and cables and the document cameras in your room. These items may be unique to each room so it’s important they stay where they are. If you have questions about this please let Brad know.

Here is information from Lora Nordquist about the certified work days in late August.

Teachers: We will have information to you on Monday about SLGG year end meetings.

When do you feel we should have Open House? The last two years we have had Open House in late August prior to Labor Day and before that we used to host the event mid-September in the evening. We would appreciate your feedback via a short survey. Thank you for completing by Thursday, June 13.

Week at a Glance for June 10th-June 14th

Monday:

• 5th Grade Departs for Outdoor School
• 3rd – 4th Recitals 9:00-11:00
• PAW Celebration at 3:00

Tuesday:

• 3rd – 4th Recitals 9:00-10:00
• Check Out Document Available

Wednesday:

• Fire Drill likely
• Friday Specials Schedule
• 3:30 Dismissal (If you can remind families that would be wonderful!)

Extended Recesses :

• K-2^nd  10:15-10:45 (PM recess times remain the same)
• 4^th      2:00-2:30
• 3^rd, 5^th  2:30-3:00  

• 5th Returns from Outdoor School

Thursday:

• 9:05 Promotion
• Golden Ticket Celebration at Lunches

Extended Recesses:

• K-2^nd  10:15-10:45 (PM recess times remain the same)
• 4^th      2:00-2:30
• 3^rd, 5^th  2:30-3:00  

Friday:

• Assembly at 9:05

Extended Recesses:

• K-2^nd  10:15-10:45 (PM recess times remain the same)

• 2:00 Dismissal

Our .3 Interventionist position closes next week. At this point we are planning this position will be a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, morning position teaching Lava Read groups.

Duty Schedule June 10-June 14

Below is the original supervision schedule; I understand in some cases people are covering duty for those listed.

What a fun yet super busy and stressful time of year we are experiencing! We understand that the end to this year has some additional variables we are all navigating. We hope this might help.

As you know, Promotion is June 13th at 9:00. We are anticipating a huge crowd for this event! With space limited for seating, we are only inviting our 5th graders, the 1st grade hat designers/presenters, and family members to attend. We are working on a plan for class coverage for faculty that have 5th graders so they are able to enjoy the event.

The final Lion Pride drawing of the year will be at the all school assembly on the last day of school. This assembly will be at 9:05.

The feedback on the building map the ICCL Team designed was very positive! Thank you for taking the time to provide this. Here is our school floor plan for 2019-20.

The Ninja Warrior Game launches on Monday! Can’t wait to see Jake’s gym set-up for this year! We won’t be able to eat in the gym during this event so are planning to eat everyday outside next week unless the weather does not cooperate and we need to eat in classrooms.

Week at a Glance for June 3rd-June 7th

Monday:

Tuesday:

• No Staff Meeting

Wednesday:

• 8:05 ICCL Meeting
• 1:15 Kindergarten Dress Rehearsal
• 5:30 Kindergarten Program
• SIW: Work in Classrooms
• Final AR day

Thursday:

• 8:05 Kindergarten EBISS
• DIBELS Day
• PTO Meeting @ 3:45

Friday:

• The Lava Ridge Olympics
• Newsletter

A note this week of encouragement for you from Carole Nase…This isn’t a teaching tip this week.  It is an encouragement. A true story. During the toughest year of my life multiple things happened.  I was on bed rest for six months.  My daughter was born and put into intensive care. Three months later, I had a surgery that went bad.  I was put into intensive care.  It was one of those years when I was hit hard with stress. I was the lowest I have ever been physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  Rock bottom. One thing that really helped me during that time was writing down what I was thankful for that day.  Just a few things a day of what was going right.  That simple shift in focus gave me energy and I began to heal.  Sometimes in teaching, in life, we try so hard to improve, and to solve problems.  Sometimes we just need to stop and reflect on what is right and true and good.  It is in those quieting moments that I find rest.  In rest, I find strength. So my encouragement is just that you know that you are valuable.  You are making a difference.  There are many things that have happened this year that are good.  It is a purposeful shifting of our focus.  And with that, have a restful weekend.

As requested, I reached out to Jay Mathisen for clarification on the certified close of the year and grading day. Jay’s response is below and is similar to what we discussed on Wednesday. As I shared with you, I will be ready to finalize check-out for you on Friday or Monday, whichever date is best for you. Also, please let me know if there is anything I can do to make this unique end of the year go well for you.

Friday, June 14^th was the originally calendared last teacher day, the day when grades are typically entered.  Due to the decisions to make up some of the lost days of school, Monday the 17^th is now that day.  However, flexibility does exist for teachers who want to complete report cards, enter grades and other year-end duties to complete those tasks prior to Monday the 17^th as long as they check out with their principal.  In other words, the hours on the 17^th can be flexed with principal approval and check-out.

Remaining SIW schedule:

• May 29-Time for class list development
• June 5-Work in Classroom Time

Time! Often our most valuable asset…Your grade level has my support to use PLC time for the remainder of the year for items of your choice including working in your classrooms.

At Site Council we discussed some upcoming dates. I thought they would be helpful for you and potentially save you time checking the master calendar.

I learned this week that Chris Stoaks will be returning to other police duties at the end of the school year and will not be a SRO next year. I will keep you posted on who will be our SRO for 2019-20.

Week at a Glance for May 28th – 31st

Monday: Memorial Day Holiday-Enjoy!

Tuesday:

• 8:05 PLC Meetings
• 4:00 Celebration of our retirees and those off to new adventures at Worthy’s

Wednesday:

• 8:05 ICCL Meeting
• 12:00-1:00 Volunteer Luncheon in the Media Center
• SIW: Class Creation List Time

Thursday:

• No EBISS
• 8:00-4:00 American Fidelity in the Staff Room
• Commute Options PM presentations in Neighborhoods

Friday:

• Oregon Coast Aquarium Assembly 9:00-10:00 (K-2); 10:15-11:15 (3-5)
• 8:00-4:00 American Fidelity in the Staff Room
• 1:30 School Tour

Duty Schedule May 28-June 7

I talked with Brad Henry about House Bill 3427, the new tax on large Oregon businesses that Governor Kate Brown signed into law on Thursday. Brad shared that the dollars raised from this tax would be part of the 2021-22 budget and that the state is currently setting the rules for how school districts will be able to use these dollars. He shared with me that he predicts the district will be able to be use the dollars to support the big ideas Shay shared in his April 5th Budget email-smaller class sizes, increased health and safety services, more learning time, and a well-rounded education.

Our Instructional Tip of the Week is from Dyan…One of the eight components of features of SIOP is Building Background. One way to build background is to emphasize key vocabulary.  The most effective vocabulary development is closely related to the content.  Vocabulary should be presented in context, not isolation. 

Some techniques for emphasizing key vocabulary are:

• Contextualizing Vocabulary: choose vocabulary words that are important to understanding the lesson and present the definitions in context
• Vocabulary Self-Selection: students select vocabulary as individuals, in pairs, or in small groups. After learning the terms, students share their lists with the class
• Personal Dictionaries: created by students as an individual spelling and vocabulary resource
• Word Walls: are effective for displaying content words related to content
• Concept Definition Maps: structured webs that are used to explore more complex concepts. The center circle can be a broad concept such as “habitat” and the spokes leading of the circle may be organized to respond to questions such as, “What is it?”, “What are some examples?” and “Why is it important?”
• Word Sorts: used to categorize words or phrase that have been previously introduced
• Word Study Books: student-made personal books containing frequently used words and concepts. The teacher or class determines the words and definitions to include and how to organize the words (e.g., by structure, by concept)

Week at a Glance for May 20th – 24th

Monday:

Tuesday:

• 8:05 Math focused PLC Meetings
• 5th Grade Move Up Day (AM)
• 5:00 North Star Kindergarten Open House

Wednesday:

• 8:05 ICCL Meeting
• SIW: Ross Greene Seminar Share-Out
• 11:00 1st grade dress rehearsal
• 1st grade music concert @ 6:00

Thursday:

• 8:05 1st grade EBISS
• 4:00 Site Council

Friday:

• Culture of Care Student Survey
• Lion Pride Drawing at lunches
• Newsletter

Here is a copy of the job description for those interested in learning more about the primary responsibilities of an ICCL team member. People on this team are also part of Site Council and are not involved in personnel decisions (ie. this team is not involved in the development of our staffing plan or grade level assignments) except for potentially serving on interview teams. Please see me if you have any other questions. We plan to interview for our open positions in early June.