2/25/19

A Few Things for this Week...

Mandatory Department Meeting tomorrow (Tuesday the 26th)  - Lecture Hall

We will be working on common practices for writing effective literary responses.  This is the first of many discussions we will have regarding this topic.  The long-term goal is to be on "the same page" as far as how we teach writing and how it translates across grade levels.  

Team meetings - scheduled for Thursday the 28th (coverages will be provided).  

Freshmen and Sophmore teams will be making a list of desired curriculum tweaks for this year.  We will do a more comprehensive overhaul next year but we need to make some smaller adjustments in the meantime.  

The Junior and Senior instructors will be taking a look at the writing component of our new premium subscription to NoRedInk. We did not have prior access to this component with the demo we had, but we have been given full access now. There are three (20 minute) demonstration videos that are included on the site.  Take a look at this - we will have the premium subscription for the remainder of this year and next year so it will be good to start playing with it now and figuring out how you can incorporate it into your writing instruction.  There is a quick-write option that looks practical and a peer review option that looks relatively user-friendly.  We will also have access to the skills exercises in the program that you can use as do-now or homework assignments but I wanted you to first take a look at the writing options. 

NoRedInk - Premium code (navy-9277).

Resources:

This is a Webinar that encompasses their Writing offering as a whole: Strong Writers Make Strong Choices. 

For a little more detail around specific Writing features, please see the following: 

1. Quick Writes
• What are Quick Writes and how do I use them in my classroom?
• Quick Writes Demo
2. Peer Review
• Tell me about NoRedInk Peer Reviews!
• Peer Review Demo
3. Guided Drafts
• Tell me about NoRedInk Guided Drafts!
• Guided Drafts Demo

HOME INSTRUCTION GRADING REMINDER...

As per the recent memorandum from Dr. Parent...

When a student is placed on Home Instruction, Ms. Hannigan (our Home
Instruction Coordinator) sends out the following information to all affected teachers:

“While on Home Instruction, student's grade must be changed to INCOMPLETE.  Teachers must manually enter incompletes in their grade book. When a student returns to school, the classroom teacher will update grades based on assignments completed.”

The Grade Level Advisory Teams have been monitoring the students who are currently on Home Instruction. It is evident that not all teachers are abiding by this and need to enter "INCOMPLETE" as a grade. The issuing of an INCOMPLETE is important – students who are on home instruction are not able to fulfill all proficiencies in their courses. Simply completing homework assignments or projects from home is no parallel to time in class, missed discussions, missed lecture, missed feedback, and is not an ample measurement for demonstrating understanding. Also, holding students to a grade of INCOMPLETE until after the student returns to school acts as a motivator for some students to return sooner rather than later. Upon a student’s return to school, each teacher can accurately assess the student’s academic or CTE performance in due time. The rush to issue an accurate grade is non-existent – a reasonable amount of time is approximately within two weeks of a student’s return to school.



Bereavement/Funeral Request Clarification

As per the recent memorandum from Human Resources...

We are only allowed one (1) Bereavement Day (Funeral Day) for a relative who is not a member of our immediate family.  The association agreement reads as follows: 

LEAVE OF ABSENCE - “In the case of the death of a parent, step-parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, wife, husband, child step-children, grandparents and member of the immediate household, the employees shall be granted a leave of absence without loss of pay not in the excess of four (4) school days.”

“In the case of the death of a relative who is not a member of the immediate family as set forth in paragraph #3, an employee shall be granted one (1) day of leave without the loss of pay for the day of the funeral.” When requesting Bereavement Day(s) for immediate family or relatives who are not a member of the immediate family, please refer to the above-mentioned language set forth in your respective association agreement.

When submitting your request in Aesop,  you are required to state the relationship to the deceased in the “Notes to Administrator” section. 

2/18/19

Just a few things for this week...  I may add to the blog as the week progresses...


PLC Meetings 
I am moving our next PLC meetings to February 28th due to the African American Assemblies being held this Thursday. It will be too difficult to arrange coverages on that day.  I will arrange for any coverages that are needed for the 28th. 

Department Meeting 

Our next department meeting will be on Tuesday, February 26th.  This is a mandatory meeting so make any necessary arrangements.  You are only excused if you have an athletic contest that day.  Please inform me of any conflicts as soon as possible. We will be reviewing literary response formats as a group.


IXL Live

The Freshmen instructors will be using the IXL program next year instead of APEX.  There is a training seminar on Friday, April 5th in Elizabeth.  It is a half-day, hands-on workshop that helps teachers get the most out of IXL. It offers a deep dive on all of the essentials, including our curriculum, Analytics, and the Continuous Diagnostic function.  

I would like to send approximately 3 teachers to this seminar so that they can become IXL experts and share tips and strategies with the rest of the Freshmen instructors.

If you are interested in attending, please shoot me an email.  If you attend, you would turn-key the information to the rest of the team in the future. 

NerdCampNJ 3.0

Dr. Parent wanted me to forward this info to you regarding NerdCamp NJ...

Nerd Camp NJ is an EdCamp inspired conference with an exclusive focus on literacy instruction. The workshop board is built on the day of the conference. Teachers, librarians, administrators, teacher educators, and local authors come to Nerd Camp to present and attend workshops for FREE.  If you are interested, you can register using the link posted below. 

Chatham High School

255 Lafayette Avenue

Chatham Township, NJ 07928

Sat, May 18, 2019

7:30 AM – 1:00 PM 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nerdcampnj-30-tickets-55843175441

EVERYONE HAVE A GOOD WEEK!

2/11/19

PD HOURS

If you meet with your teams outside of our designated PLC meetings, please keep a running log somewhere of the time you spend.  I will submit the official PLC hours for you at the end of the year.  You can submit the extra ones in MyLearningPlan and I will approve them.  You will have to submit those individually, so make sure you share the running tally with whomever you are meeting with so they can submit their time as well.  This also goes for workshops that you may teach after school.  Send me a copy of the workshop name, dates, times, and attendance sheet for my records.  Enter the hours into MyLearningPlan and I will process them. 

SGO STATEMENTS

The due date for SGO statements is set for 2/18, however since the 18th is President's Day and we are not in session, I would advise reviewing and submitting them by the 14th.  

Young Adult Book Grant Program

The F Wing Library is taking part in a grant program which provides free pre-published Young Adult book galleys of upcoming releases.  Our job is to provide a short review for each copy.  Students are encouraged to visit the media center, explore the offerings and participate by reading them and providing a review.  The books initially need to be checked out of the media center so they can keep track of them, however, as long as we get a review for each one, the reader may keep the galley or share it with others.  

A flyer is attached to the email Claire sent out. Please share this information with your students.

If you would like, Claire can visit your classroom to talk to the students about the program—It would only take about 5-10 minutes to talk it up, so if you’d like a short guest speaker, let her know where and when.

Student Scheduling Timetable

Here is the tentative schedule for when students will choose their classes for next year...  Current Freshmen will be able to choose their Sophomore ELA class, however, their choice is not guaranteed because there will be another sweep to filter them into Concepts level and BSI based on criteria provided by our Freshmen instructors, APEX, and ELA 9 PARCC scores. 

March 25-29	Seniors
April 1 – 5	Juniors
April 8 - 12	Sophomores
April 15 - 22	Spring Break – Course portal will remain open
April 22 - May 3	Final Student Revisions before portal closes
May 6 - 10	No more student requests. Admin revisions only.

Asian Pacific Heritage

Planning for this year's Asian Pacific activities is about to begin.  If you would like to participate in the Asian Pacific Heritage Celebration (held after school) and/or the assemblies, please see the email from Mr. Casteneda dated 2/7 for the form. The form attached to that email should be completed and returned to Ms. Michele Owens in the Rocco Office by Tuesday, February 19, 2019.



African American History Month Jean’s Day

Our school is participating in a “Blue Jeans Day in honor of Black History Month," which is being sponsored by the African-American History Month Committee. All staff members who make a $5.00 donation will automatically participate in the “Blue Jeans Day” which will take place on Thursday, February 14, 2019. All proceeds will be donated to the Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation, with a goal to provide cancer treatment that is affordable and effective. 

If you would like to participate, please see Tenaya Bascomb or Rodney De Vore (Discipline Office), Judith Scott (General Office), Sara Osorio (Central Office), Fred Dieckmann (Maintenance Dept.), Desirae Feliciano (STEM Building), Larry Owens (F103) and Gail McGeady (Rocco Building). 

Any staff member not registered will not be permitted to wear blue jeans to school. Please be reminded that since this is not a “Spirit Day” it is expected that while you are permitted to wear jeans, you must follow the guidelines in our Dress Code for all other clothing items.  

*The African American Assemblies will take place on Friday, February 22nd.  There is also a night-time performance on this date.  

WONDERFUL THINGS...

The girls swim team won their state sectional round and are on their way to the state finals today!  We wish Laura and Gen the best of luck and congratulate them on their success!

Doug Smith's Sophomores will be performing Lysistrata - one of my favorites!  Bobby D's granddaughter was just cast as the lead!  I will see if we can book some shows for our classes - every student should have the opportunity to get to know Aristophanes!

2/4/19

Georgia's General Beauregard Lee predicted 6 more weeks of winter - he has not been seen since... (who even knew that Georgia had a resident weather-rodent?)

Punxsutawney Phil and Staten Island Chuck predicted an early Spring - so they were left alone and have returned to their meaningless lives to await 2/2/20...

Good morning all,

Just a few things this week...

Department Meetings & PLCs

We have 2 department meetings this month - Tuesday 2/5 and Tuesday 2/26.  

• At the meeting on the 5th, we will have a quick overview of standards-based grading that will be presented by Renee and Melissa S.  I will review some changes to our placement criteria this year and how it can hopefully level our classes out next year.  I will also address the problem of grade inflation - this also affects placement and contributes to the incorrect placement of students in our classes.  
• The meeting on the 26th will be mandatory.  Please arrange to cancel any afterschool tutoring sessions and activities.  Coaches should arrange to have their assistants or head coaches cover their practices. If you have a competition that day, please let me know in advance that you will not be attending.  We will discuss the teaching and format of literary responses at this meeting so we can begin to achieve some consistency in how we teach and assess this task. 
• Our official PLCs are scheduled for 2/21, however, if you would like to meet with your teams outside of this date, please let me know if you need me to arrange a location for you - otherwise, keep track of any additional meeting times and minutes and submit them to me for PD hours. 

SGO STATEMENTS

The due date to submit/finalize your SGO statements to the supervisor is February 18th.  Please make sure you review them, edit them if needed and hit "submit."

BEDSIDE GRADING 

Most of us know how to handle the bedside grading process, however many of us may not have had a student on bedside in a while, or ever.  So I included this in the blog to make sure no one is in the dark.

When a student is on bedside instruction, assignment grades can continue to be entered for the student but we must force an "incomplete" into the trimester grade field.  So, for this trimester, for example, you would enter "incomplete" into the R2 field.  The "INC" will stay there until the student returns.  If the student returns before the end of the trimester, click on the R2 grade and hit the reverse arrow to the right of the pencil and the "X" (see the picture below). The grade will change back to the "calculated form."  If the student does not return before the end of the trimester, leave the "INC" in the field until they return and issue a grade change request when needed.  If you have any questions, please call me or you can call Maxiel for assistance as well.   
                                      

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Dependent Eligibility Verification Audit - Deadline Reminder

The New Jersey Division of Pensions & Benefits (NJDPB) is conducting a Dependent Eligibility Verification Audit (DEVA) to confirm the eligibility of dependents covered in the State Health Benefits Program (SHBP) and School Employees’ Health Benefits Program (SEHBP).  Letters were mailed out starting in December 2018.  All employees who cover a dependent - their spouse and/or children - under the SHBP/SEHB must complete and submit the documentation required. You will need a copy of the legal document that shows your relationship to the dependent you believe is eligible. This could include a government-issued marriage certificate, birth certificate, and adoption certificate or Legal adoption placement document. 

Invidividual deadlines may vary so make sure you check the letter to confirm yours.  My deadline was March 4th. Frequently asked questions and answers can be found on the website:

https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/documents/coltrs/coltr1118-deva-audit.pdf

Duty Periods, Preps and Lunch

Please make sure you are attending your duty periods each day.  You need to be able to be located if an emergency coverage is needed.  Also, please make sure that you are covering your zero period duties if you were assigned one. Prep and Lunch periods are in the process of being entered into PowerSchool. 

Emergency Personal Days

FYI... As per Article X(B)(1) of the contract, Personal Days are not to be used on Mondays or Fridays without advanced permission from the Superintendent... If you request one, you must provide the reason for the request in AESOP - under "notes to supervisor."  

The actual language in the contract is as follows:  Teachers are entitled to four (4) days leave of absence for personal, legal, business, household or family matters which require absence during school hours. Notice to the Teacher’s principal or other immediate supervisor of taking personal leave shall be made at least five (5) days before taking such leave (except in the case of emergency when the applicant must state in writing the reason for such request).  No personal leave days may be taken Monday, Friday, or during the months of September or June without the approval of the Superintendent. 

Requirements for Leaving Campus During School Day

Please be reminded of Article 12(C)(1) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which states:

Teachers may leave the building/school campus without requesting permission during their scheduled duty-free lunch if they sign out. Teachers requesting to leave the building/school campus at any other time must obtain permission from their immediate supervisor or Assistant Principal. 

The Annual African American Assemblies are scheduled for Friday,  February 22nd.  Please be mindful of this when planning!  Students may be out of class for rehearsals prior to the show. 

Choir Performances

FYI...  If you have students who are members of the PCTI Choir, they will be performing throughout the county in honor of black history month throughout the month of February. Below is a list of their scheduled performances:

• Tuesday, February 12, 2019 (periods 2-6) Freeholder Sumter
• Wednesday, February 13, 2019 (periods 2-9) P.S. 20 & 13
• Wednesday, February 20, 2019 (periods 5b-7) Preakness Healthcare
• Thursday/Friday (Assembly)
• Tuesday, February 26, 2019 (periods 1-3) P.S. 28

Home instruction info...

• Home instruction must be 1 hour per academic subject (weekly).
• The Bedside Teacher is responsible for contacting the teachers to secure instructional material.
• The Bedside Teacher is responsible for contacting the parent to schedule instructional appointments.
• While on Home Instruction, student's grade will be changed to "INC."
• Teachers must manually enter "INC" in their grade books.
• When the student returns to school, the classroom teacher will update grades based on assignments completed.
• The student must be cleared by the Nurses Office before returning to school.

Print Shop Requests

• Requests for printing and design work need to go through the Print Shop in room B-201. 
• Each request needs to be documented with a work order form. Mr. Colon has them posted inside the front door of the print shop.
• Include clear, concise instructions and your contact information.
• E-mailed work orders will not be accepted.
• Digital files for printing will only be accepted upon completion of the work order form.
• Work orders need a supervisor's signature.
•  Work orders must be submitted at least 1 week in advance prior to due date.
• Work orders should be submitted to the print shop during periods 1 and 9 only to minimize classroom disruptions.  If you cannot get down there during these times, I can deliver them.

WONDERFUL THINGS...

(NO ONE IS SENDING ME ANYTHING AND I AM SURE IT ISN'T BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING WONDERFUL IN THE WORLD).  I may have to resort back to whimsical photos of Ned Flanders the Cat - and that isn't going to be good for anyone. 

BUT HERE IS SOMETHING...

Lawshe has a new practicum teacher, Tiffany Rodriguez.  She is a PCTI graduate! She will be with us for the Spring semester and will return in the Fall as Brian's student teacher.  Welcome her when you see her!

AND THEN THERE IS THIS...

(I could not resist a Groundhog Macbeth Meme)

If I change the name of this section to Stranger Things, will that change anything? Just a thought - See you all in the hall!