LCHS Friday Focus

Happy Friday! We have wrapped up the month of October and the first quarter. Just a reminder grades are due Tuesday at 8:30 am. We will run report cards that day and then hand them out at conferences. If you have a student at risk in your class, a phone call home inviting the parents to conferences will go a long way. Lets not leave this up to the parents to decide if they should come. Research supports that having engaged parents leads to greater student achievement. It also sends a message to the students that we do care about their academic progress and them. Conferences are next Thursday and Monday, November 9. Both nights go from 5:00 to 8:30 pm. Don't forget about having a PASS Plan for students at risk. The important part of that plan is having something the parents are responsible for. If you don't make the parents accountable for their child's success, then we are still the ones doing all the work. This should be about coming up with a plan that each person has...

Happy Friday! We are now entering the last week of the first quarter. Time is certainly moving. As we end the quarter, please take the time to call parents of students who are struggling. If a student is at risk of failing, make sure the PASS Plans are done in a timely fashion. As a parent, you would want a chance to be able to help your child if needed. There is no reason to have a influx of PASS Plans towards the end of the semester as that really doesn't allow much time to make a difference for the parents. Grades will be due on November 2 at 8:30 am. We will run report cards that day and will pass them out at parent/teacher conferences like past years. Looking ahead, our building extra-hour meeting will be on Wednesday, October 28. At this meeting you will meet with your mixed group that you made your SMART goal with. During our last SIT meeting, the group thought it was important to be able to talk with this group about what you did and how it went since this is the grou...

Happy Friday! Congratulations to the BIG RED BAND and Curt Ohrlund, Randy Ewing, Randy Benton, and Mary Benton on the Division 1 ratings at State Marching Band Competition this past Saturday. They have had an outstanding season. If you haven't seen them yet, you can catch them at halftime of the football game on October 23 or the Parade of Bands concert on October 30. The student council will be attending the State Student Council Leadership Conference again this year on October 26. At the conference, they will be recognized as a honor council for the work they did last year. This is a first for our student council so please make sure to congratulate the student council members and their advisers Nancy Isebrand and Neal Utesch. It is no small feat to earn this distinction! We will also have students presenting this year at the conference, which is another first. We have had a few PASS Plan meetings taking place since midterm. This is a good time to meet with the parents b...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had an excellent week. I have received some feedback from a few students about the goal activity during advisory. The students were questioning why we are doing this. They had legitimate questions, but once I explained Growth Mindset to them they understood. You will want to reinforce this idea during your next advisory. Please let the students know that goal setting and working towards a goal will help them not only in school but in life. When they graduate from high school, students will have certain dreams they will want to accomplish. In order to accomplish those dreams, they need to have a plan. Part of the plan is setting a goal and reflecting on what you are doing to either help or hinder reaching the goal. We do have our building PD meeting next week. We will meet in our department groups before school. The SIT team has come up with a protocol to use during this meeting to keep the discussion moving towards the SMART goals and strategies ...

Happy Friday! I want to take a moment to address the goal setting and reflections sheets the students are filling out in advisory. Please make sure you take the time to look over the reflections. Especially the last question that asks: Are there some things I can do to help you achieve your goal? When holding a PASS Plan meeting these sheets would be valuable to help focus the meeting on the student’s goals and what he/she wants to accomplish in each class. At midterm, there are 71 students failing one or more courses. This would be a good time to call home or have a PASS Plan meeting for these students. It is expected one of the two will occur, please refer to Iowa Teaching Standards 1a, 1g, 5b, and 5e. As a parent, I would think you would appreciate this. We do not want them to get into a deeper hole. If it was your child struggling in class, what would you want done?   While I was doing one of my formal observations I had the chance to see a teacher use the app Nearpo...