Week at a Glance

Hot off the press from the ICCL Team….Our celebration of Read Across America Day will be March 1st! On this day we will have a Read Around the School event for all of our students from 11:00-11:30. The preliminary plan for this event is below:

• 11:00 Announcement on the intercom for students to go to the room of their choice for a story.
• 11:05 11:25 All teachers (except those on prep) read the story(ies) of their choice
• 11:25 Students released back to class

The weather has not been cooperating with our need to have a fire drill in February. At this point, Thursday next week looks to be our warmest and least-snowy option. I will keep you posted.

Week at a Glance for February 25th – March 1st 

Monday:  

• ELPA Testing Continues!

Tuesday:

• 8:05  Writing Focused PLC

Wednesday:

• 8:05  ICCL Meeting
• Lunch in Classrooms
• 1:15 2nd Grade Music Program dress rehearsal
• 2:30 SIW-Math Core Effectiveness Meetings
• 6:00 2nd Grade Music Program

Thursday:

• 8:05 Kindergarten EBISS

Friday:

• Deadline for Attendance Area Change Requests and Grandfathering papers to be returned to Amber
• Lion Pride Drawing at Lunches
• Newsletter

It is SLGG mid-year check-in time! No action is needed from you on this, I will stop by your PLC in the coming weeks to see if you would like to make any adjustments to the goals you set earlier in the year.

Duty Schedule February 25-March 8

We have about 12 members of our PBIS Team reading the book, Lost and Found, by Ross Greene. This team is meeting periodically to discuss the book. In May, Mr. Greene is hosting a seminar in Bend and we are sending five members of the team to learn more deeply about the concepts in the book. This team will share what they learned with us all at an SIW in May.

Did you know that your students can access Typing.com through Clever? Typing.com teaches typing with interactive lessons, typing games, and achievements.  The technology tracks each student’s most troublesome keys, creating individualized lessons to tackle bad habits before they’re locked into muscle memory.  Cool way to help our Lions develop a life-long skill!

The Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools will open the 2019 Classroom Grants program on February 18, 2019. The online grant application and guidelines will be available at www.engagedminds.org beginning Feb. 18th. The program closes at 5pm on Friday, March 22, 2019. An email communicating this information to all BLS educators and staff will be distributed by the Superintendent’s office on February 19th. 

Classroom Grant Guidelines

Week at a Glance for February 18th – 22nd

Monday:  

• Enjoy!

Tuesday:

• 8:05  Math Focused PLC
• 1:30-2:30 School Tour (Scheduled with families in mind that will be new to Lava Ridge in September)
• January PAW Celebration @ 3:00
• ELPA Testing Begins!

Wednesday:

• 8:05  ICCL Meeting
• 2:30 SIW-PLC Time to continue work on math planning doc and discuss 2/13 SIW learning.

Thursday:

• 8:05 1st grade EBISS

Friday:

• Lion Pride Drawing at Lunches
• Bingo! Doors at 5:30. Event @ 6:00

Thank you PBIS Team for your planning, energy and leadership! What a fun assembly on Tuesday and it’s exciting to think of the impact the February and March school-wide activities will have on Lava Ridge!

On March 12th at 5:30 in the gym, Lava Ridge families are invited to learn how to help their children find a healthy balance when it comes to screen time. Dr. Rebecca Hicks, a parent of a Bend-La Pine student and pediatrician at Mosaic Medical, will be discussing the science behind and current research on the effects of screen time on brain development. She will present recommendations to help keep children healthy and safe from issues that can arise from excessive screen time. A flyer is coming soon that can be shared with families.

At the PBIS Assembly on Tuesday we will be learning about the Bend Joy Project and making connections to Lava Ridge. If you are interested in learning more about the Joy Project prior to Tuesday you can find information here.

Heads (Books!) Up! The ICCL Team is planning for a Read Around the School activity in celebration of Read Across America Day on Friday, March 1st. More details soon!

Week at a Glance for February 11th-February 15th 

Monday:  

Tuesday:

• 8:05  Reading Focus PLC Meetings
• 10:00 PBIS Assembly (Loading at 9:50)
• Winter MAC Survey Day

Wednesday:

• 8:05  ICCL Meeting
• SIW District SIW

Thursday:

• 8:05 2nd EBISS
• Valentine’s Day!

Friday:

• Newsletter
• Lion Pride Drawings at lunch

Our instructional strategy of the week comes from Stephany Dasen and focuses on the importance of Written goals or objectives and the use of visuals.   I use SIOP strategies with all my students.  These strategies allow my students (even my non-language impoverished ones) to build upon their prior knowledge.  Visuals and written goals help my students to develop a clear understanding of the task at hand.

Duty Schedule February 11th-22nd

As you may have seen, we messaged families through the newsletter with information about the new elementary attendance boundaries. The Attendance Area webpage on the district site is a great resource for even more information. Below is the scoop on grandfathering and Attendance Change Requests.

Grandfathering Details:
Current fourth-graders affected by attendance area changes will be “grandfathered”: that is, they will be allowed to remain in the schools they now attend without having to make area change requests. Transportation to and from school will be the responsibility of the family when the “grandfather” option is chosen. Grandfathering forms (for families of fourth-graders affected by the attendance area changes) are available in our office. Completed forms must be returned to Amber by March 1st.

Attendance Area Change Requests:
Kindergarten through 3rd grade families can fill out the Attendance Area Change Request form. This form is available in our office or online on the Bend-La Pine Schools web site. Students currently attending Lava Ridge on an ACR will not need to re-submit an ACR to stay at Lava Ridge…once a Lion, always a Lion. Completed ACR forms should be returned to Amber by March 1. (The deadline for incoming kindergarten students to submit an ACR is May 1).

A note from Lindsay Burden the drama director at Mountain View High School:  The cast of Disney’s High School Musical will be doing an assembly show for area elementary and middle school students. I wondered if any of the teachers at Lava Ridge would like to take a group over to see the show. The show will be Tuesday, March 5th at 9:45 am. We will perform act 1 plus the finale. The show would be about an hour and would get students back to school in time for lunch. The suggested ticket price is $2 per student. More details: [email protected]

Week at a Glance for February 4th-8th

Monday:  

• 8:05 PBIS Assembly Planning Meeting in the Media Center

Tuesday:

• 8:05  Staff Meeting
• AM-Report cards to Amber

Wednesday:

• 8:05  ICCL Meeting
• 10:00 School Tour (Scheduled with families in mind that will be new to Lava Ridge in September)
• 10:30 SVMS Band and Orchestra Visit (4th and 5th in the gym)
• 2:30 Reading Core Effectiveness Meetings in the Media Center

Thursday:

• No EBISS Meetings
• 3:45 PTO Meeting in the Media Center

Friday:

• Lion Pride Drawing at Lunches

We recently received 11 new 2018 MacBook Airs from Tech Services. Each year we get a new fleet of laptops that we allocate to those teachers with the oldest laptops. These laptops have the new USB-C ports (not the standard USB ports) with I.T. providing dongles that give the user the ability to plug in older stuff.

Congratulations on a great first half of the school year! Next Friday marks the unofficial (hey, whose counting? ) mid-way point in the year. Thank you for the impact you have had and will have on our Lions this school year!

On Tuesday, February 4th some of our 4th grade students will participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The NAEP is a congressionally mandated assessment that is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). It has been years since our students were selected to participate (each year schools are randomly required to participate). More about this assessment can be located here.

Carole’s Language Acquisition Tip of the Week: Building Educational Background.  This week I found in discussing a Wonder’s lesson on the Earth and its neighbors with a 3rd grader that she did not know anything about planets!  On the other hand, in front-loading for 4th graders on Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela a student knew exactly what the words “opposed” and “protest” meant. He is from a 3rd world country and he has experienced people protesting.  He explained these words to the rest of the group.  Sometimes I need to stop and ask students, “What do you already know about this topic?”  We brainstorm together.  Every week I learn that I don’t realize what they know or what they do not know…until I ask. 

Week at a Glance for January 28-February 1

Monday:  

• Yummraiser at Panda Express

Tuesday:

• 8:05  Math PLC Meetings and time for teams to continue working through the Bridges planning document from the Academic Excellence Team
• DIBELS Day!

Wednesday:

• 8:05  ICCL Meeting
• 10:45 Fourth grade music program dress rehearsal (student lunches in gym)
• SIW Lava Read planning time
• 6:00 Fourth grade music program

Thursday:

• 8:05 3rd EBISS
• Newsletter

Friday:

Work day with building hours from 7:30-5:00. If you would like to come in earlier or stay later please disarm the alarm and sign-in on the white board above the alarm panel. Thank you!

We learned this week that the Team Clean is beginning again on Monday. With this adjustment we will have an additional custodian on site around 4:30 (his name is Joel Meyer) and we can plan that Gordon will set the building alarm at 7:30 each evening.

Thank you for always locking the exterior door from the Neighborhood Commons to the playground when you come in from outside (except for the door in Friendship Mountain closest to Bridges)

Language Development Strategy of the Week from Carole: This week, as a staff, we focused on math. Our Math Bridges curriculum is language heavy. In teaching the content of math we will also have language objectives. Students will need to know how to read and explain math word problems. Our language impoverished students need sufficient time to process complex language. Three Reads is a mathematical strategy that helps them to slow down and process what the overall meaning is as well as know the specific steps they need to take in solving it.  (Mathematical Thinking and Communication- Access for English Learners, 2016).  During my math intervention groups I am asking myself, “What is the specific language they need to know to solve these problems?”  This becomes the language objective.  

Congratulations again on our school report card! On Wednesday I mentioned a comparison school document that I would share. It can be located here. As you look at it you will see how different Bend-La Pine schools results compare (percent +/-) to those in their ODE determined, comparison group. There are Math and ELA tabs at the bottom of the page. Interested in historical data and more ODE assessment information? Check out this link .

Week at a Glance for January 21-25

Monday:  Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

Tuesday:

• 8:05  PLC Meetings-Writing Focus

Wednesday:

• 8:05  ICCL Meeting
• SIW: Work in Classroom Time

Thursday:

• 8:05 4th EBISS

Friday:

• Lion Pride Drawings at Lunch

At Site Council we discussed major building dates through Spring Break. These are listed below.

• January 29^th -DIBELS Assessment
• January 30^th -Fourth Grade Music Program @ 6:00 (rehearsal at 10:45)
• February 1^st -No School: Teacher Workday for Report Card Preparation
• February 5^th -NAEP Testing for 4^th Grade
• February 6th -School Tour @ 10:00
• February 7^th -PTO Meeting @ 3:45
• February 12^th -PBIS Assembly @ 10:00 (Loading at 9:50)
• February 18^th -No School: President’s Day
• February 19^th -School Tour @ 1:30
• February 22^nd – Bingo!
• February 27^th -Second Grade Music Program @ 6:00 (rehearsal at 1:15)
• March 6^th– Spring Pictures
• March 12th-Screen Time Presentation by Rebecca Hicks, MD @ 5:30
• March 14-20-Drum Residence
• March 20^th -Drum Assembly @ 9:05
• March 25-29^th -Spring Break
• April 1^st -School Resumes

Duty Schedule January 22-31

Happy New Year! I hope your week has been great!

With the number of language impoverished students we serve at Lava Ridge, I have asked Carole to share strategies and ideas with me on how we can best make sure we are meeting the learning needs of these students. Here is Carole’s tip of the week!

Content objectives are clearly defined, displayed and reviewed. In effective instruction, concrete content objectives that identify what students should know and be able to do guide teaching and learning.  Using student friendly language helps students to understand what they will be learning. (The SIOP model 2008 page 24) Writing down the objectives and reviewing them together helps ELL’s and struggling students to understand what they will be learning.  Sometimes we have to adapt the language.  I had to do this today after teaching my first group.  I had to rewrite the objective so it was clearer for students.  The questions I ask myself are, “Do they understand what they are learning?  Do they understand what they will do with this learning?”

Week at a Glance for January 14-18

Monday:

Tuesday:

• 8:05  Staff Meeting w/presentation from Kerry Morton on collaborative math conversations
• 3:00 PAW Celebration

Wednesday:

• 8:05  ICCL Meeting
• SIW: School Design Team Updates, School Report Card Review, Math Planning Template from the Academic Excellence followed by time for teams to use

Thursday:

• 8:05 5th EBISS
• 4:00 Site Council

Friday:

• Newsletter
• Lion Pride Drawings at Lunch

At our December staff meeting we completed the Work Time Survey. The results of the survey can be located here A final decision on work hours for 2019-20 is expected later this month from the Lead Together Team.

Colleagues,

I hope you have a fun and restful Winter Break!   In the spirit of giving, this will be the shortest Week at a Glance this year.  🙂  Merry Christmas!

Best staff ever!

Week at a Glance for January 7-11

Monday:

• On Tuesday 1/15, Kerry Morton is leading a seminar on collaborative math conversations for us during our Staff Meeting.  In preparation,  Kerry will be on site visiting Number Corner and math lessons to guide her planning.  Kerry’s schedule has been packed and this was the only day available for walk-through visits.

Tuesday:

• 8:05  PLC Time (Staff Meeting on January 15)

Wednesday:

• 8:05  ICCL Meeting
• SIW: School Design Team Meetings

Thursday:

• No EBISS (Round #2 begins on January 17)

Friday:

• Lion Pride Drawings at Lunch

Getting ready for the Reader’s Theater edition of the Grinch.

January School Improvement Wednesdays:

• 1/9- School Design Teams
• 1/16-Math SIW
• 1/23-Work in Classrooms
• 1/30 -Lava Read Preparation Time

Environmental Center presentation on water quality in Torree’s class.  Great stuff.  Similar presentations in all 3rd grade classes this year.

Duty Schedule January 7-18

Colleagues,

One week until Winter Break!  Whoop!  Whoop!

Interested in becoming certified in First Aid from the comfort of Lava Ridge?  On January 9th at 2:15, we are hosting a First Aid Class.  See Pam if you are interested.

On Wednesday the Literacy Leadership Team was on site learning together and observing lessons in Dyan and Amanda’s classrooms.  Below students are listening to a story and recording evidence to use in a flash debate that they recorded with their ipads.

Last Friday, some of us met and had a discussion about building safety.  It was a great conversation on a difficult topic.  Below are some safety updates for all:

In the event of an emergency, email will be our go to communication system in the event we are not able to use the intercom.  This would be the way that I would communicate information to you and the system to use if you need to communicate with another person on our staff.  While texting can be quick, cell phone service is usually compromised in emergency situations and our wifi system is designed to continue to be reliable.

Blinds-In the event of a lockdown or lockout, blinds should be kept open.   There may be instances during a lockout when we might need to close blinds depending on what is happening on our school grounds.  In this situation, Lybe or I would announce this or would go to classrooms and communicate this info in person.

The entry doors to Neighborhoods that are magnetically secured open during school hours are always locked.  This is purposeful, as they can add extra security to the wing if closed.  We do not have a remote means at this time to close these doors.

Third grade mathematicians below- Torree was using Apple Classroom to monitor how students were grouping the manipulatives and then air-playing student work.

Week at a Glance for December 17-21

Monday:

Tuesday:

• 8:00 Staff Holiday Breakfast in the Media Center

Wednesday:

• 8:05 ICCL Meeting
• Craft Fair 9:30-11:30
• SIW: PLC Time

Thursday:

• 8:30-9:00 Sky View Middle School Choir singing on the playgrounds and at breakfast
• No EBISS (Round #2 begins on January 17)

Friday:

• Secret Santas Revealed
• Newsletter
• 9:05 Holiday Sing-a-long (loading after announcements)
• Lion Pride Drawing @ Lunches

Picture from the 5th dress rehearsal below.  The evening concert was just as fantastic and the PTO event afterwards was a fun opportunity for our community to gather, eat some cookies, have some cocoa and enjoy the mild temperatures outside.

I came across this article on Seattle Public Schools decision to adjust start times in 2016 and some follow up research on the impact on students.   Not a required read by any means, just thought some might find it interesting.

Great jumps on the number line in second grade!

Need the scoop on PBIS?  Check out the new PBIS bulletin board outside of the Staff Room.  Lots of great information!

Carole’s SIOP Tip of the Week-Comprehensible input

Finishing touches on the 5th grade program.   They sound great!

Today, 3rd-5th grade families will receive this letter and the state opt out form.   A similar letter is being sent to families at all Bend-La Pine Schools with the goal of increasing participation rates on the SBAC.

Let’s celebrate…90%+ class average on a recent unit test for this group of mathematicians.

Week at a Glance for December 10th-14th

Monday:

Tuesday:

• 8:05 Reading PLCs
• Golden Ticket Luncheon 12:00 in the Media Center

Wednesday:

• 8:05 ICCL Meeting
• 5th Music Program Dress Rehearsal @ 10:00 (Loading at 9:50)
• Lunch in Classrooms
• SIW:Science Curriculum Exploration
• 5:30 5th Grade Music Program in the Gym
• 6:15  Cocoa, Fire Pits, and Cookies Social on the South Playground

Thursday:

• 8:05 Kindergarten EBISS
• Last day to drop-off items for Giving Tree (Toys or Food Items)

Friday:

• Last day to return United Way documentation to Pam
• Lion Pride Drawing @ Lunches
• Christmas Party at Jill’s 6:00 p.m.; 3108 NE Flagstone Ave of off Eagle/Butler Market

Duty Schedule for December 10-21