East Oakland PRIDE Epistle

II hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and are ready for the week to come. It has gotten cold this weekend, so if you have students without coats please let Amapola know and we can go to the parent center and get them a jacket. It is way to cold for students to be outside without a coat on.

As you move around campus and your classroom this week, I want you to remember your why! I want you to look in the faces of your students, especially the ones who give you the most difficulty. You know they are the ones who need you the most and remember why you are here on time and ready to teach every day. I want you to remember that for some of our kids this is all they have. This is the safest, most stable place for them and the education that you provide is the one thing that will help get them out of a very difficult situation. Our work is extremely important to the growth and success of our students, so in that moment when you think you can't do it one more day just remember your why! Have a great day!

I truly appreciate you all taking the time to create a split list of your students for the office. I asked you to do this because you know your students best and in an effort to put them in a classroom with other students where they would succeed the best is really supporting them. I am not asking you to do this because I can't because we in the office can definitely split kids, but as stated you know them best. Thank you, so much for putting your students needs first. Thank you to the following teachers: Sam Petty, Nelly Alcantar, Dayan Romero Mason Reilly, David Reese, Erin Ronhovde, Leigh Ann Bliss, Connie Lam, Laura Crowell, Carmen Preuss, Jennipher Carpenter, Vila Wade!

It is critical that you get sub plans to the office. We have had several people out and we do not have sub plans for them. If you have been out please make sure that you refill your sub plan binder. It is important that if you know you are going to be out you run copies as the office staff does not have time to run copies for your class. Please send a copy of your schedule for the day to me, Ms. Obrera and Ms.Monterrosa as all of us handle your students when they arrive in the morning. Thank you in advance for getting these prepared and to the office as soon as possible.

Below is the current contract language on Sub Plans:10.2.11.1

Substitute assignments are to include but not limited to the reasons below:

• Employee Illness;
• Participation with District Committees;
• Court appearance; Jury duty;
• Death of member of Immediate family;
• Emergency illness in immediate family;
• Religious holidays;
• Approved educational meetings and conferences;
• Participation in the Association negotiating team;
• Other meeting for purposes of negotiations;
• Reasons approved by the Superintendent.

Teachers shall have the right to request specific substitutes; these requests shall be honored when feasible. Unit members shall provide necessary lesson plans for substitute employees. In the case of a last minute emergency, unit members shall have available emergency lesson plans for use by substitute employees. Emergency lesson plans shall be available in the unit member's classroom/work area or designated location in the school.

I hope this clears up any concerns anyone has about the need for and my request for sub plans when you are absent. Thank you to those of you who have provided your emergency sub plans to the office and if you have not done so, would you please provide them, per contract.

As you grow and develop as practitioners there are different needs that you ad your student need. As you know we ask for plans for reading, writing and math. In the past I have sent a template for you to use you would like or said please use one of your choosing. I appreciate that most of you have done this and turned in your lesson plans. Now we are in a place where we are going to take it up a notch.

I am going to be moving from just looking at whether or not you turned lesson plans in, but what the quality of your lesson plans. I will be looking at some of the of following things: Does the student task match the objective? Is the standard you are teaching a grade level standard? How much teacher talk verse student talk is there in the lesson? Are there DOK level 3 & 4 questions present in what you are going to ask your students to do? Is there academic discussion going on during the lesson?

This is all to help you improve your practice. It is also to help your students be prepared for all that they are going to see as they move trough school. EOP is an awesome school and students doing well is how we are going to share that with the rest of the world.

Please make sure that you have your lesson plans in no later than Sunday evening. If you need a little later Monday evening will be fine. If you are having some trouble please let me know, so I can support you with your getting your lesson plans in on time. Also please note that in an effort to reduce paper (9.2.4) I am asking that you send lesson plans in via Google Docs. Please know that I do not require you to write your lesson plans in a certain format, but there is specific content that I am asking for and can do per (9.2) section of the current contract.

I would like to give a shout out to these teachers for having their lesson plans to me: Kunal Maharaj, Carmen Preuss, Vila Wade, Alex Jones Nelly Alcantar, Dayan Romero, Erin Ronhovde, David Reese,!

Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do. I look forward to the continued growth and development at EOP!

February 12 - F & P assessments - Test using Fiction

February 5 - March 23rd - 5th grade Physical Fitness Test

February 12 -March 2 SIRA Window open! Don't forget to put your score in Illuminate

Writing On-Demands need to go into Illuminate

ELPAC Schedule was sent out by Dr. O'brien. Please make sure to check your email for the schedule and the times she and the other coaches will be pulling students to give them the assessment. There were a couple of changes that Dr. O'brien needs to make. Please recheck the schedule and your email to see if this involves you.

COST Forms - If you have a student you feel needs to be brought to COST please make sure you have the form to Ms. Obrera by Friday. COST is next Monday, February 26, 2018

Thank you to those of you who have been coming to recess duty on time. I still need those of you who have not been arriving to make sure that you are there at you specified time. In order for there to be less chaos in the classroom after recess is over it is extremely important that there be staff present during morning recess. Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this need. Please let me or Ms. Obrera know if you need any support with this.

We will be closing the gate in the afternoon at 2:30 and Mr. Smith will not reopen the gate until 3:00. We have got to keep our students safe and that is the only way that we can do that. On Wednesday he will close the gate at 1:15 and reopen it at 1:45. I have seen some very close calls on the yard. I saw a parent speeding through the lot this past Friday. They are not safe and someone is going to get hurt. We will be sending out a robocall to families with this information, so they are aware of the times that the gate will be closed for student safety.

We are still having some trouble with getting things where they need to be for BAB. Please make sure that your students are returning your bags to the cafeteria after you have completed breakfast and that you are getting your rubbish bags out into the hallway between 9:30 - 10:00 in the morning. That is when the custodian comes around to pick them up.

Do not put milk or food in your classroom garbage cans. It leaves additional to clean up especially if the bag breaks while he is trying to remove it from the can because they are not meant to hold food. Please make sure that you put your food garbage where it belongs daily and then you get it out at the proper time.

I know this has been a challenge, but we are definitely seeing fewer hungry and cranky kids in the office and we are getting our kids who do not have food at home a good breakfast daily. Thank you again for making this work for the students who need the food and the staff that have to take care of the program following breakfast.

Due to the current events in our society it is important that we have a lockdown drill.

Lockdown Code: Principal Webster's in the building (when you here this, do the following)

The procedures are as follows:

Teachers:

1. Lock your door.

2. Close blinds.

3. Put a sheet of paper in front of door glass.

4. Place the green or red sheet under your door, so we know if you have any missing students.

5. Wait until you hear an all clear from the office.

Mr. Smith will lock all the doors headed to the yard, and check for red or green sheets.

Marquis will lock all the doors by the cafeteria and front hallway.

If there are students out on the back yard by the cafeteria they will combine and head to the library.

If there are students on the yard they will go in to the nearest safe shelter, either portables or the auditorium.