Weekly Forecast February 7 - 11

Counselor Appreciation Week!

Monday the 7th

Emily out of building

Tuesday the 8th

Staff Meeting 3:30-5:00  (Asynchronous)

Wednesday the 9th

Thursday the 10th

SEGC Meeting 6-9

Friday the 11th

Middle School Honor Roll Dessert Celebration @ 2:30 (invite only)

Lunch Service- Kempster, Benson, Kunz, Jarvis (last week)

I am absolutely enjoying the sun coming through the windows this morning (I need to get out there and clean them though). I hope you were able to enjoy the dry weather and sun. I am on the mend and will be back tomorrow. I had an MRI yesterday and hope to find out more tomorrow about what to expect in terms of healing. I am more mobile each day, but have a hard time sitting still and at the end of the day my knee is sore. I am grateful I will be able to return tomorrow, even if I will be a bit slow. 

I want to make sure we all take some time this week to celebrate our school counselors Stacey Freeman and Ana Kennedy. They have done an amazing job helping our students acclimate back into the building this year. I especially appreciate their flexible and can do attitudes. Student focused, thoughtful and proactive come to mind when describing them. Thank you for your work and commitment to Harrison Park students and staff. 

• Emily will be out of the building tomorrow and will return Tuesday. I am hoping we are more fully staffed and will take a look at ASEOP a bit later today. As a reminder if you are an employee that does not get a sub you need to let Shannon, Emily or I know so we can ensure duties are covered etc.
• Tuesday's staff meeting will be asynchronous. You will receive an email from Theresa with details prior to the meeting. We would like all staff to use this time to complete the OSAS (Oregon Statewide Assessment System) Pepper training. The training should take approximately 90 minutes. We will follow up with some building specific training on March 1st. We will have two staff in each testing session and some staff may be asked to assist, etc. We would rather be over prepared then not prepared. More details before Tuesday. 
• Another ask for Tuesday is to take a few minutes to fill out a survey on plans for next school year. We receive our staffing on Thursday and will begin work on this immediately after. 
• WELCOME Herk Ward, our new Campus Security Agent. Herk has worked as a para educator at Pioneer for several years and is excited to join Harrison Park. 
• Thank you Danelle for your work putting together the sensory pathway. I know this will be used by our students!
• Valentine's Day is next Monday and you may be getting questions from parents and students about what they can and can not bring. Please keep cultural relevancy in mind when planning any classroom events as well. If you are choosing to set aside time for exchanges, etc. limit it to half an hour. Please do not copy and send out attendance lists. If a parent is insistent on a list you may send a list of first names only.  Please be sure to make it clear to students that this is voluntary. I would also suggest calling it a friendship or kindness exchange. As we are trying to limit eating in classrooms (they are not six feet apart in your rooms) please send any food items home with students. Allowing them to open up suckers, candy, etc. is a Pandoras box that you will get to manage. My advice is avoid the struggle and just send everything home. We will remind parents that we are not allowing students to eat in classrooms and while we appreciate their generosity cupcakes, etc. are discouraged (this will go out next Friday).   

Here is a sample of what you may want to send out to your families: Parents: We will be doing a Friendship exchange on Monday the 14th in the afternoon. This is NOT required. If your child does participate they must make a note/card for everyone in class. I do have some cards to give out if needed. If candy/treats are included these will be not be eaten in class due to COVID protocols and will be sent home. Thank you! 

I stole this from my husband! Let me know if you have questions. 

• Check out the newest installment of the Learning Technologies Newsletter. There are lots of great resources and ideas here. 
• Lots of students are reporting that their Chromebooks won't charge or are dead. Most of the time they are in a deep sleep mode. To wake them, hold the refresh button (the circular arrow above the 2/@ key) while holding the power button for about 10 seconds or until the power light goes off. Wait 10 seconds. Then push the power button. That should wake it up. 
• If you have some students that you can never see on Securly OR do not have the apps button to access MAPS testing, it could mean the device is not properly enrolled. Please see Dave or Kenneth to re-enroll the device. 
• Please remind students that Chromebook chargers should be left at home. Too many students are bringing them to school and losing them. If you have random chargers in your room, please give them to Dave or Kenneth. Chargers are a hard to come by and we need to be sure to keep track of them.
• We will be distributing the cases for 3-5 devices this week. 
•   February TechSmart Newsletter