Month: September 2019

Good Morning!
Fall is officially upon us and I hope it lasts a good long time! How about a good Fall joke to get us started?

What do you call a tree that doubts autumn? Disbe-leaf. 

Some notes to get you going:
1) DIBELS this week on Thursday. Scott will coordinate.

2) Picture Day is also on Thursday. Korey (subbing for Patti) and a parent (or two) will coordinate this.

3) The first Café Amity of the year is this Friday, October 4 from 7:30-8:15. Grade 5 hosts. Community Time will start at 8:15am. If you want to order coffee for home it needs to be done via Friends of Amity website (https://www.friendsofamitycreek.com) by Tuesday afternoon.

4) EasyCBM schedule for this week:
*Grades 1: Wednesday 10-11am, half class at a time
*Grade 2: Wednesday 8:30-9:30am, half class at a time
*Grades 3/4/5 in classrooms before the end of the day Friday (Oct 4)

5) SIW this week will be focussed on Conversations (parent/teacher conferences), discussing the idea of moving towards portfolios, and end of year Narratives (our “report card”). 2pm in Frans’ room.

6) Harvest Festival is coming soon–Saturday, October 19 from 4-7pm. This is a parent run event but we always appreciate teacher’s presence and support for the event.

7) We still have 2 ICCL (Instructional Couch and Curriculum Leader) positions available. From the job description: The ICCL will support and facilitate the school’s work of professional learning communities toward continuous school improvement, teacher effectiveness, and increased student achievement. Do you have an area of focus in which you’d like to take a leadership role (not expertise, but a desire to learn more and share)? A few ideas: Collaborative Problem Solving (a la Ross Green), Multi-cultural education (bringing the wider world to Amity), and Math (diving deeper into Jo Boaler’s work). Just a few ideas. Stipend is $1250. Please let me know if you are interested.

8) Our first EBISS (Effective Behavior and Instructional Support Systems) meeting will be Wednesday, October 16. For those that are new to this it is a time for us to meet (30 minutes) to look at available data and get your input about interventions needed for students in your class. I’ll touch base with those of you that are new. Schedule (sub will cover your class):
8:30-9:00: Kinder
9:00-9:30: Grade 1
10:00-10:30: Grade 2
10:30-11:00: Grade 3
12:00-12:30: Grade 4
12:30-1:00: Grade 5

9) We have a few field trips this week–hoping the weather cooperates!
Friday: Grade 2 to Fall River, Grade 5 to Lava Lands
Next week: Grade 4 heads to Soda Creek/Sparks Lake on Monday, and Grade 3 heads to the Metolius River on Tuesday.

10) Reminder, NO ART next week\, October 10 & 11

11) Our first Family Night will be November 7–BINGO. 5-6:30pm.

Upcoming
October 3: DIBELS
October 3: Picture Day
October 4: Cafe Amity! 7:30-8:15am
October 10: Fire Drill @ 9:20am
October 16: EBISS
October 19: Harvest Festival, 4-7pm
October 23-25: Conversations, no school for kiddos
October 28: K/1/2 to D & D Ranch
November 7: Family Night BINGO, 5-6:30pm

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

Good Morning!
It’s always a good day when you wake up and remember it’s Camp Amity! I’m looking forward to spending time with all of you up at camp. A few notes about camp:
*We’ll have Community Time at school both days, regular time
*Between CT and departure time please remind your classes about the boundaries, flowers, sticks in the pond, etc.
*We’ll load buses at 9am
*Once at camp we will likely be met by the resource manager who may want to speak with us before we head out–he indicated he would be around
*Before dismissing students let’s make sure a few of us (me, Stu, Jake, Scott) are outside to guide students in the right direction
*I’ll have the speaker and we’ll play YMCA
*I’ll be away from camp from 11:45-1:30 at a meeting but will return just before you all head for the buses. We should be leaving Aspen Hall close to 1:30pm.

A few notes to get you going:
1) Please continue to work with your kiddos to get the hallway clean at the end of the day. Jim and Andrea are appreciative of the efforts!

2) Math Inventory–have you done it yet? I still have a few folders here in my office. It’s imperative we get these done so we can work with Brad to set up support groups. Please work to get these done by the end of the week or first thing next week. Those that have completed the inventories please share the information with me, specifically which students are most in need of additional support.

3) Lockdown drill on Wednesday at 10:50am (10 minutes). We’ll meet Tuesday after school (3:00) to discuss procedure.

4) Quick staff meeting on Tuesday at 3:00 to discuss Lockdown procedure. Jeff’s room.

5) SIW this week: This week will be an early start SIW. We’ll meet over at the community garden at the environmental center at 1:30 to chat with Denise (Grade 1 Nora’s mom) so she can share some ideas of how we can continue to be involved at the garden. At 2pm we’ll meet Jen Lachman (Abby’s mom) back here at school for a diabetes talk. The remainder of the afternoon will be spent with your team–K-2, 3-5.
Note: October 2 SIW is no longer a district SIW. Instead, on October 16 we’ll engage as a staff in an Equity and Excellence listening session–more details to share later.

6) iPad distribution for Grades 3/4/5 has been rescheduled to this Wednesday starting at 8:15. We’ll do one class at a time between 8:15 and 9:15.

7) Julie (art) will be out this week but Korey (former Amity parent and art teacher) will be here to cover for her–the kids are in good hands!

8) I’ll be headed out around 3pm today for an admin meeting

Upcoming
October 3: Picture Day
October 3: DIBELS
October 4: First Cafe Amity! 7:30-8:15am. Community Time starts at 8:15am.
October 4: Grade 2 to Fall River, Grade 5 to Lava Lands
October 10: Fire Drill, 9:20am
October 10/11: NO ART. Julie will be out these two days and no sub has been secured (will let you know if this changes–fingers crossed!)
October 23-25: Conversations, no school for students

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

Good Morning,
Congrats on getting through the first full week of school! I don’t know about you but I was exhausted on Friday night and ready for the weekend.

A few notes to get you going:
1) We have a few required drills this week, one we already knew about and the other added due to time constraint:
*Monday: Fire Drill (TODAY) at 9:20am. Sorry, but we have to get this done in the first 10 school days so today is the day!
*Tuesday: Bus Evacuation Drill, 9:15am. For the last few years this has happened in the museum parking lot across the street and we anticipate it will be the same this year. Please be at the busses by 9:15am.

2) Back to School Night picnic on Wednesday, 5-7pm. 5-6pm picnic on the green, 6-6:15 parent meeting in the gym to discuss Friends of Amity, Site Council, and Volunteering (EAs watching kids on playground). 6:15(ish) to 6:45 meet with parents in classrooms.

*PLAN B: If the weather continues to be wet we will have to cancel the picnic part of the evening and start in the gym with parents at 6pm. Also, if it’s wet we won’t be able to provide childcare. I’ll let you know tomorrow and I’ll send a note to families tomorrow night.

3) SIW this week:
*New Camp Amity guidelines
*Pledge follow-up
*Back to School prep time

4) Related to new Camp Amity guidelines I’d like to schedule 15-20 minutes with Grades 1-5 to do a short presentation this week on Thursday or Friday. I’ll put a sign-up sheet in the staff room–please choose a time that works for you on Thursday or Friday.

5) Ray and I will be out Tuesday AM for a Dreambox (new on-line math program) training. We’ll return shortly after lunch time.

6) Grade 5 will be on a field trip to the Newberry Crater on Friday all day.

7) Grades 3-5 are supposed to have iPad distribution on Thursday but we have yet to get the forms back from the print shop. So, it’s likely we won’t be able to do this until next week. I’ll keep you posted.

8) I will be leaving school around 3pm today (Monday) for an admin meeting.

Upcoming:
September 23/24: Camp Amity! Busses leave at 9am. We’ll do Community Time at school and dance to YMCA at camp.
September 24: Lockdown Drill meeting, 3:15-3:30
September 25: Lockdown Drill, 10:50am (we’ll meet the day before at 3:15 to discuss)
October 3: Picture Day
October 4: First Cafe Amity, Grade 5 hosts (Ray, let’s connect about this)
October 19: Harvest Festival–more info to come

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

Good Morning Team,
Thanks for a great first week, it all went so smoothly! Everything feels so positive and the hallways were teaming with joy! I’m looking forward to our first full week and beginning to get into some rhythms.

A few notes (well, quite a few) to get you going:
1) Community activities this week:
*Monday-Get to Know You Bingo in the gym, 1:45-2:15pm. K/5 and 1/4 will buddy up for this activity (2 and 3 on their own). I’ll provide the BINGO sheets.
*Wednesday-Some fun with Petit in the gym, Name that Student (photos), and sing the Amity song, 12-12:45pm.
*Friday–Pancake Breakfast starting at 7am (Sara, Jeff, and Ray we’ll fill you in on this!). We’ll serve cakes until 8:15 and then head out to the playground for 15 minutes. Community Time will start at 8:30.

2) Music and PE start this week, please refer to the schedule below. Music will take place on the stage (due to the Bookfair in the studio). Please remember to walk your kiddos to specialists. Art will start next week.
*No Kinder PE today due to community activity

3) Bookfair runs all this week, culminating on Friday at the Pancake Breakfast. Please remember to visit the fair and pick out some books for your wishlist. Unless you arrange a special time with Autumn to take your class, all sales happen before and after school.
(Autumn: [email protected])

4) Official Community Time Line-up:
Monday: Grade 3
Tuesday: Grade 5
Wednesday: Kinder/Grade 1
Thursday: Grade 4
Friday: Grade 2

5) Thanks for your early Stewardship efforts of working with your classes to clean your rooms at the end of the day and keeping the hallways (and shelves outside your classrooms) clean. Jim and Andrea appreciate your efforts, and so do I!

6) SIW (School Improvement Wednesday) this week. We’ll meet at 2pm (Frans’ room), here’s the agenda:
*First week Check-in (highs, lows, needed support, concerns)
*Discuss development of Take Care of Yourself/Others/Place
~Please take time early this week to begin/continue discussion of what this will look like for your class and be ready to share with the staff
*Revisit Pledge of Allegiance conversation
*Grade 4 Boys
*Meet in teams to discuss use of Running Records (K-2) and IRI (3-5)

7) Math Screeners. Please remember to book time to do the math screener in the next week or two. If you’d like to take a whole day to do this please let me know so we can pick a day and book a sub. Alternatively, Brad could do some of the screening as he is currently not running intervention groups–he is waiting for screeners to be completed. He could do some of the initial screening and then you could follow up with students of concern. I am also happy to do some screening for you. Let me know how I can be helpful. If you don’t already have the screener please stop by and pick it up from me.

8) Outdoor Education Field Trips. Darek and I met on Friday and set some dates for the Fall outdoor education trips. Dates were limited and we needed to get trips on the books so we don’t miss out! Below are dates and trips scheduled–please let me know today or tomorrow if these dates don’t work. I’ll work with Patti to organize buses.
October 4: Grade 2
October 7: Grade 4, Soda Creek/Sparks Lake
October 8: Grade 3
October 28 or Nov 1: Grade 5 Deschutes River (Slough to Ryan Ranch). Ray, Darek has two options, please let me know which day works best.

For Kinder and Grade 1 Darek suggests we look to Children’s Forest to find appropriate options, and I am happy to do this with you.

9) Just a reminder that Campfire will be using your classrooms this week. Please refer to my email from Friday. Thank you for accommodating this request!

10) Pledge of allegiance on Fridays. I’d like to revisit our conversation about the pledge before we move forward with reciting it every Friday. I’ve added it to the SIW agenda for this week.

11) I’ll be heading out at 3pm today for an Admin meeting.

Upcoming
September 13: Pancake Breakfast, 7am start time.
September 18: Back to School Night, 5-7pm. Picnic from 5-6pm, Meeting in gym from 6-6:15pm, classroom meetings from 6:15-6:45pm. We could organize food for the team if you are interested–let’s chat at SIW this week.

That’s more than enough for now. Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy