Week 4

Great Things We Noticed: 

• New bulletin board in the office thanks to special ed.
• Mrs. Rubens taking the learning outside.
• Mrs. Ebie and her students flawless transitions.
• Mr. Sheffield helping in the cafeteria during lunch time.
• Mrs. Borza and her ten dot artwork.
• Teams working together to come up with their WIN plan.
• Surviving another day of inclement weather.

Nuts and Bolts: 

• Please note the dates for SLT listed to the right - We are in Collaborative 2
• MANDATED REPORTER TRAINING: Complete by 9/20!
• Take your STRENGTHS ASSESSMENT!  You don't have to read the book to learn your strengths! Find the link to the results survey here.
• REEF Teacher Grants Last year, REEF gave $192,756 in grant funds to enrich learning for students across the district. Teacher Grants were awarded in science, language arts, math, social studies, physical education and the visual and performing arts. Since its founding 24 years ago, REEF has given 2,423 grants for a total of $2.13 million.  Applications are available now at the link below, and are due to the district office no later than 4:00pm on September 13, 2019. https://www.reef4rusd.org/teaching-enrichment-grants/   
• A list of professional development offered by the Special Education Department can be located here.   Please have staff sign up through Sched.  This includes monthly Pro-Act trainings.  http://bit.ly/SPEDpdCalendar    
• Resume Writing and Interview Skills WorkshopDepartment of Personnel – Leadership and Development is offering workshops to ALL classified employees providing tips on building a strong resume and on how to create the greatest impact during the interview bringing you closer to obtaining your career goals. 
• Dates & Times for Workshop 
• Sept. 24, 2019 10:00am – 12:00pm
• Sept. 26, 2019 5:00pm – 7:00pm
• Feb. 19, 2020 5:00pm–7:00pm
• Feb. 25, 2020 10:00am–12:00pm
• All workshops will be at the District Office: 3380 14th Street, Riverside. Please contact Personnel Department with any questions: (951) 788-7135 ext. 80104
• RUSD is stepping up its volunteerism by once again taking part in the City of Riverside’s annual 9/11 Day of Service, remembering and honoring our first responders. There are several ways to join in service for students, staff, faculty, and administration. You may remember seeing an email with this video of Mayor Rusty Bailey encouraging everyone to take part. We have a number of volunteer opportunities that have been curated specifically for RUSD schools and classes to sign up for at Giverside--a new website supporting volunteering in Riverside. As usual, sites can work with Keep Riverside Clean and Beautiful to organize clean up projects around their schools and in their neighborhoods, and volunteers can donate blood with Lifestream down by City Hall. For questions, contact Carolyn Power.
• The Riverside Art Alliance and Riverside Art Museum, in partnership with the City of Riverside Parks, Recreation, and Community Services, invite all RUSD students to submit works of original art for the “Paint That Pup!” art contest! This is in conjunction with a huge, public art show of Art Pups by local artists called Art Bark in the Park, coming up October 4–10, 2019. Submissions due Sept. 20. More info 
• Also, check out these fun lesson plans in preparation for the Art Bark event!
• The Arts Partners newsletter is back with a wealth of resources for teachers and students in the arts.  Check it out here. Also, sign up to receive the newsletter direct to your inbox here.

Focus: 

Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: 

According to Zaretta Hammond, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, culturally responsive teaching is not a strategy or tool, but a process, and within this process teachers must do the following: 

• acknowledge and understand the sociopolitical context that has created different learning outcomes for our students. 
• Recognize the cultural learning tools that students bring to the classroom and not see them as negative behaviors, rather give permission for students to use them.  For example, many students learn through the use of storytelling, not just reading and writing.  
• Mimic students' cultural learning tools by sing similar ones during instruction (music, metaphors). 

Culturally Responsive pedagogy encompasses the social emotional, relational, and cognitive aspects of teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students.  This leads to cognition and high level thinking  and gets the brain firing in multiple areas.  

Hammond outlines six interdependent core principals or "culturally responsive brain rules" to help teachers understand how the brain uses culture to make sense of the world.

1.  The brain seeks to minimize social threats and maximize opportunities to connect with other in the community.  The brain will not connect if it perceives threat from microaggressions - the subtle everyday verbal and nonverbal messages that con serve to invalidate or trivialize culture and experiences. 
2. Positive relationships keep our safety threat detection system in check. The brain can focus on higher level thinking and taking risks when a positive relationship is established. 
3. Culture guides how we process information. Common Cultural learning adies - stories, music and repetition - help build neural pathways that make learning stick. 
4. Attention drives learning - Before learning can take place, the brain must pay attention to it;  learning must not be passive, and instead, should focus on active engagement and conscious processing. 
5. All new information must be coupled with existing funds of knowledge in order to be learned. Teachers must determine prior knowledge and how that knowledge is organized in the schema.  The teacher can then construct scaffolds between existing schema  and new content.  
6. The brain physically grows through challenge and expands its ability to do more complex thinking and learning.  For the brain to become smarter it must be stimulated with new learning and challenged with complex tasks that stretch the brain beyond its comfort zone.  

In reviewing the six principals consider how important it is to create a classroom environment that is safe and structured.  This, coupled with strong relationships, allows students to express themselves freely and take the risks needed to stretch their brains.  

Game of the Week: 

Mannequin Tag

https://www.playworks.org/game-library/mannequin-tag/ 

Upcoming Events: 

9/11 - Title I Meeting - Carrie Out 2:30

9/10-9/11 Prints Drivers Groups 1 and 2 
9/12 & 9/13 - Excellence through Equity Conference - Indian Wells - Carrie, Longi, Judid and Rhonda Out (Erin Masi Admin Designee) 

9/17 - Fire Inspection 

9/17 - Staff Meeting 3:05 E103

9/18 - Riverside Council PTA Breakfast - Carrie Out 9:00am

9/18 - Coffee with the Principal 8:15 MPR

9/18 - Principals Secretary Professional Development  - Cindy out 11:30-4:00

9/19 - K-12 Principals Meeting - Carrie out 8-12

9/19 - RUSD Leadership Meeting Carrie and Longi out 2:30

9/21 - Family Engagement Summit - Poly High School 

Birthday: 

9/11 - Rhonda Tilton - 4th Grade

9/13 - Marian Lasak - Kindergarten