Month: April 2021

Greetings All,
I hope the weekend was great! It’s Teacher Appreciation Week and I’m hoping you have a week full of all the love that is out there for all of you! Two things to get on your calendar right away: On Wednesday FOA is providing an appreciation lunch (see email from Patti to order), and on Friday morning there will be bagels and treats in the staff room. As for the rest of the week, we’ll see what comes your way…

A few notes for this week:
1) Safety and Security. As we head into the last part of this insane year I know we are all feeling the exhaustion of the many challenges we have faced and continue to face. It’s natural that our vigilance is waning a bit; however, we must continue to make sure we are keeping children safe. Please read the following carefully:
~When on playground duty please always have your keys and your phone. In the case of an emergency you may need one or both of these!
~Playground supervision is more than just being available if and when there are problems on the playground. Almost more importantly it is about being aware of unsafe situations that are happening or about to happen–and prevention can save everyone a lot of pain and anguish. Prevention can be the difference between a close call and a serious injury. Please be vigilant.
~After school is especially of concern. We need to be sure we know who each child is leaving with each day, and we need to be sure students are not running out to meet their parents/guardians on the street. I have watched helplessly as two different kiddos ran across Georgia and Broadway without looking! This feels like an accident waiting to happen. I am positioning myself at the “exit” gate on the Broadway side of the playground to watch who each child is leaving with and to be sure kids are crossing the street safely. And, I need your help in keeping your students in a particular area and being aware of who they are leaving with. I appreciate your help!

2) SIW on Wednesday at 2pm. We’ll have time to discuss end of year plans including Memory Books (to be or not to be), Narratives, end of year events/activities, and Grade 5 celebrations. I’m going to hold off on discussing plans for next year for a few weeks.

3) Just a reminder that we’ll continue with current buddy pairings for the time being.

4) Bike and Walk to School Day is on Wednesday. See previous posts for the details.

5) Reminder: Korey will be out of town for the next two weeks. This means no art this week and next. A great time to do some of your own art projects or other things you’ve been wanting to do!

6) This Wednesday is Cinco de Mayo. Here is a link to the History.com site and an excerpt from the site-many think this is Mexican Independence Day, but it is not: Cinco de Mayo, or the fifth of May, is a holiday that celebrates the date of the Mexican army’s May 5, 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. The day, which falls on Wednesday, May 5 in 2021, is also known as Battle of Puebla Day. While it is a relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a commemoration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations.

7) Speaking of Wednesday, we have a social get together at Crux after our meeting on Wednesday. Please join if you can.

Upcoming:
May 5: Bike/Walk to School
May 5: Staff Meeting, 2pm
May 5: Staff get together at Crux, after staff meeting
May 12: Interview Prep, 1:30-3pm
June 2: EBISS–more details later

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

Greetings All!
It’s Spring time in Central Oregon, which means you never know what weather is coming your way–this weekend we got some sun, a little warmth, some hail, and some rain. I hope you enjoyed it all!

If my counting is correct we have only 38 days of school left–YOWZA! It feels like we are in a good groove right now and I have high hopes that the rest of the year is joy-filled and lots of fun! Let’s continue to do our best to fight the good fight and keep schools and the rest of the community open!

Big thanks to Matt and the 4th graders for this beautiful Earth Day mural!

Lots to share today, so thanks for your attention!
1) A big thanks to those of you actively bringing back our mantra: Take Care of Yourself, Take Care of Each other, Take Care of this Place. If you still have not found time to work this in please be sure to take some time this week to re-introduce (or introduce) this to your students and talk about what each means in the context of our life here at Amity.

2) Short Staff Meeting on Tuesday at 3pm in the Staff Lounge.

3) Bike/Walk to School is May 5. The plan shared with families last week has two options:
-Bikers (mostly for Olders, Youngers can join if the parent joins) will meet at Pastini’s at 7:30am and ride to school. Matt has agreed to be the guide.
-Walkers will meet at Drake Park (near the parking lot) at 7:45am and walk to school along Broadway. I will take responsibility for this group.
-Teachers, if you want to join one of the groups let’s work together to make sure your classroom is covered until you arrive.
-I’ll be asking for lots of parent support
-Class may start a little late on this day…

4) New lunch pick up routine: Starting today students who are getting school lunch will go to the cafeteria to pick up their lunch. This will allow lunches to stay a little warmer and will allow us to offer a little more choice. Please send student to the cafeteria on your way out to lunch.

5) I have heard back from a few of you about the professional development day that is available to you. For those interest please confirm with me your intentions for the day and what day you plan to be out. Subs are at a premium and we’ll need to book them soon! If you don’t plan to use the day offered to you please let me know and I will offer your day to another teacher to extend their learning.

6) Grade 4 will be hosting Community Time this week–same time as previous weeks. Who will be next? Please let me know, I’d like to keep this rolling!

7) Audio/Video training on Wednesday at 2pm. If you’re interested come learn about the new sound and lighting systems.

8) While the remodel has updated all the lighting and provided us with automatic shut off when not in use, the delay in shutting down lights can be quite long. This means lights are being left on long after you leave your room. I’d prefer that we rely on the sensors to shut lights off when we forget rather than as the default. Please make the effort to turn off lights and fans when you leave your room. It’s not just the expense of wasted energy, it’s the principle of wasting energy. Thanks for your help!

9) Variety Show update: I have shared the following details with families–it would be great if you could make time to discuss the plan with students and encourage them to submit a video.
Shared info: Nothing will stop us from having our annual Variety Show!  This year we will do it using pre-recorded videos. See below for details:
~Students may share one video to be included in the Variety Show iMovie.  The video cannot be more than one minute and 30 seconds.  
~All videos must be received by Friday, May 7
~Before uploading, please be sure to name the file with your child’s first name and last initial 
~Videos can be submitted here in this Google Form: Variety Show Video Upload.   If you are not able to download the video on the form you can email it to me: [email protected], but please try your best to get it into the form! I’m so excited to see what your kiddos want to share with the community!

10) iPad passcodes: Students should not have passcodes on their iPads. Please take time first thing this week to have them turn off the passcode.

11) Reminder: Korey will be out of town from town May 3-14. This means no art on May 5 and 7 as well as on May 12 and 14. A great time to do some of your own art projects or other things you’ve been wanting to do!

Lastly, I’d like to use our May 12 SIW time to prepare for upcoming interviews. I’d like to be thoughtful and intentional about what it means to be the “right fit” at Amity and the kind of educators/people we want to add to our team at this crucial moment in our evolution. I’ll send out some questions the week before to help us guide our conversation. Also, our SIW on the 12th will be from 1:30-3pm

Upcoming:
April 26: School Pictures
April 27: Short Staff Meeting, 3pm
April 28: AV training, 2pm in the gym
April 29/30: Grade 4 hosts Community Time
May 5: Bike/Walk to School
May 5: Staff Meeting, 2pm
May 5: Staff get together at Crux, 3:30pm
May 12: Interview Prep, 1:30-3pm

Here’s to a great 38 days ahead!
Andy

Greetings!
I hope the long weekend was great, you couldn’t have asked for nicer weather! I arrived back home around noon on Sunday after a fantastic few days away and got to spend time in my yard with my grandkids–it was glorious!

A few notes to get you going:
1) As a reminder, we had to change our Staff Meeting for this week–our next big Staff Meeting will be May 5. The next two Wednesdays are all yours! I’d like to have a short Staff Meeting on Tuesday, April 27 from 3 to 3:30pm.

2) Bike/Walk to School is May 5. The plan I’ll share with families this week has two options:
-Bikers (mostly for Olders, Youngers can join if the parent joins) will meet at Pastini’s at 7:30am and ride to school. Matt has agreed to be the guide.
-Walkers will meet at Drake Park (near the parking lot) at 7:45am and walk to school along Broadway. I will take responsibility for this group.
-Teachers, if you want to join one of the groups let’s work together to make sure your classroom is covered until you arrive.
-I’ll be asking for lots of parent support
-Class may start a little late on this day…

3) In case you missed it last week, be sure to note that Korey will be out of town from town May 3-14. This means no art on May 5 and 7 as well as on May 12 and 14. A great time to do some of your own art projects or other things you’ve been wanting to do!

4) Teachers, I’ve sent you all an email about some potential sub days to pursue professional development. I hope there’s some interest out there.

Just a reminder about something I included in the notes last week–I’d like bring back our mantra: Take Care of Yourself, Take Care of Each other, Take Care of this Place. If you were not able to squeeze it in last week please be sure to take some time this week to re-introduce (or introduce) this to your students and talk about what each means in the context of our life here at Amity. As I shared previously, I sincerely believe this framework encompasses all that we believe in and all that we want to do. Some visual reminders, which students can obviously help create, would be great to see in the classrooms and hallways!

Upcoming:
April 22/23: Grade 5 hosts Community Time
April 26: School Pictures
April 27: Short Staff Meeting, 3pm
May 5: Bike/Walk to School
May 5: Staff Meeting, 2pm

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

Hello Team,
I hope you had a fantastic weekend. It’s not super warm yet, but having all this sunshine sure is nice-and lots more to come this week! I was able to get away for a few days to the Metolius for my birthday, a place that always soothes my soul!

What a great week it was last week with outdoor lunch, buddies, and our very first Community Time! Another huge thank you to Frans and Grade 3 for kicking off the new Community Time format and inspiring us! Ray has volunteered Grade 5 for the next Community Time on April 22 and 23. Who wants to be after that on April 29 and 30? Let me know. Please see below for some reflections on keeping Community Time in line with current guidelines-a few things I hadn’t thought about until after the first CT.

One very important note here to start: A big thank you to anyone who is reading this some time before school starts on Monday morning. The intention of Monday AM notes is for you to read them prior to the start of the school week as there is usually some important and relevant information related to the week ahead. The intention is also so that there is one, consistent communication that goes to everyone, and which keeps it so that I don’t have to keep repeating the message(s) individually person to person. Please consider this as a requirement on Monday mornings, rather than something optional to be read later. I know you are busy and I try to be succinct so that you are able to read the note and jot down important info in 5 minutes or less (though I just slowed you down to read this 😏). Thanks!

A few notes to get you going:
1) Please be sure parents remember that there is school on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. NO School Friday.

2) Fire Drill on Tuesday at 8:50am. Be sure to have your Emergency Guide (red/green) and an updated class list.

3) We have been given the gift of 3 feet of social distancing which has allowed our 4th and 5th graders to return all-in and given us some really needed room to make some great changes. So, it’s more important than ever that we do all we can to honor this distance, both inside and outside. Now is not the time to abandon our vigilance and get lax–please stay on this. Just as important, remember that it’s 6 feet of distancing at lunch and any time masks are off. Additionally, for your knowledge, even though we are now using 3 feet of distancing in the classroom, if we have to contact trace due to an exposure, 6 feet of distancing for 15 or more minutes is still the measuring tool. I very rarely invoke the “slippery slope” argument because I think it is often used to avoid difficult decisions, but I feel it is appropriate in this instance; it’s a slippery slope if we start to get too relaxed and let down our guard, and we may find ourselves contributing to a situation none of us wants! Please, let’s all continue to do our very best to honor the 3 feet of distancing at all times.

4) We’ll have a Staff Meeting on April 21 at 2pm.

5) The end of lunch line-up is definitely smoothing out, thanks for your help with this!

6) No balls or playing on the playground during afternoon pick-up. Thanks for your help with this.

7) Now that we are using the gym and our new Staff Lounge regularly I kindly ask that you keep the spaces clean. In the gym this means putting everything away that you took out to use and make sure students are cleaning up any mess they’ve made (as well as take personal items). Please take an extra moment before leaving these spaces to be sure they are clean. In the kitchen, please clean your own dishes as well as food scraps in the sink, and give the tables a wipe down. Thanks.

8) Three absences this week:
*Sara will be gone on Monday, Amanda is covering both classes.
*Brad will be gone all week and there is a sub covering his duties.
*As I noted last week I will be gone on Wednesday and Thursday. Patti has Skip on speed dial if there is anything that needs his support.

9) Community Time precautions: I realize I should have initially taken a more proactive role here, but in reflection here are important guidelines that must be followed:
*No sharing of the microphone-you can have a narrator (or two since we have two mics)
*3 feet of distancing applies to actors/hosts at all times
*We can sing if the kids are 6 feet apart. If not, let’s have the hosts sing (6 feet apart) and the audience hum along (and point in the case of the bday song). Alternately, on Friday, with only two classes in the gym, we were able to space the kids 6 feet apart and sing.
*After Message of the Day, excuse the group class by class. We need to keep the exit calm and properly spaced.

10) Bike/Walk to School is May 5 and I’m planning on organizing something. Stay tuned for details, and please offer up ideas!

11) Korey will be away from town May 3-14. This means no art on May 5 and 7 as well as on May 12 and 14. A great time to do some of your own art projects or other things you’ve been wanting to do!

Last, but certainly not least, I want to bring back our mantra: Take Care of Yourself, Take Care of Each other, Take Care of this Place. Please take some time this week to re-introduce (or introduce) this to your students and talk about what each means in the context of our life here at Amity. I sincerely believe this framework encompasses all that we believe in and all that we want to do. Some visual reminders, which students can obviously help create, would be great to see in the classrooms and hallways!

Upcoming:
April 16: NO School
April 21: Staff Meeting, 2pm
April 22/23: Grade 5 hosts Community Time
May 5: Bike/Walk to School

Here’s to another GREAT week ahead, and a three day weekend awaiting you at the end!
Andy

Greetings All!
For those that celebrate Easter I hope you had a great day yesterday!

I cannot begin to thank you for all you have done to get us to today–your endless (and quite spectacular) flexibility and countless pivots, your ability to continue to bring joy to your work no matter the circumstance, and your willingness to laugh at all the insanity has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. Thank you for EVERYTHING! We are finally rebuilding our community and bringing some sense of normalcy (our special brand of normal, the good kind that we all love). It feels so good being all moved in and having Grade 4 and 5 back all-in starting this week! And Buddies, and Community time, and….it just all feels so good!

A few notes to get us going:
1) Please be sure you read the emails I sent on Thursday and Friday of last week, lots of very important information regarding changes to our schedule.

2) Weather permitting we will eat outside from now on. As per the email last week, we have spots for every class to eat and new zones for lunch recess. Check those emails!

3) Just a reminder that there is school on April 14 and 15 (previously these were non-contact days for conferencing). Still NO school on Friday, April 16.

4) Thanks for getting Conversations started! You can use SIW time this week and next. Please be sure to reach out to families that have yet to sign up, especially the ones with whom you really need to meet.

5) PE and Biddies start this week! Again, please check your emails from last week. Please let me know what days/times you’ll be doing Buddies–thanks!

6) Community Time on Thursday and Friday of this week–YAHOO! Again, huge thanks to Frans and his class. And again, check emails from last week for times. Who would like to be the next class to host? Please let me know!

5) Reminder: using scooters in the gym? A few requests:
*Please put cones in front of the doors below the stage to keep students from crashing into the doors
*We now have the space under the stage on the far end (key should be in the lock)-please put the scooters back in there.

6) A few more reminders:
*K-2 teachers, afternoon recess ends at 1:20. Please stick to this time so Grades 3-5 can easily make their way out at 1:25
*Before bringing students inside please have them check for playground equipment left out (balls, jump ropes, hula hoops) and for jackets/gloves/snacks/garbage

7) Next week I will be away from school on Wednesday and Thursday (14th and 15th). As these were originally Conversation days I made plans to be away. Patti will have Skip on speed dial in case anything significant comes up.

Upcoming
April 14 & 15: These are now school days (no longer Conversation days)
April 16: NO school

Here’s to a great, ALL-IN, week ahead!
Andy