February 5, 2016

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Happy Friday! I hope everyone got to enjoy the extra days off this week. It is my guess that we will now be into the next week after Memorial Day for school. I am sure the board will decide in March/April sometime.

I just wanted to touch more on moving parent teacher conferences next year to the beginning of October. This will give us a great opportunity to reach parents sooner in order to help with students that may be struggling. The earlier we have these conversations, the more of an impact we can make on the student's learning. It will be a little different at first, but we need to try something new to see if we can boost parent/student attendance.

I am including a link to an interesting article on grading. I think it is appropriate for what we are discussing as a building. The article talks about standards based grading, I want to assure you that we are not moving towards a true standards based grading policy at the high school. In order to do this, we will need to educate ourselves, students, parents, board members, and the community as a whole. This is something that can't get done in a year. But the article makes a good point about being together as a building. I hope you take the time to read it.

Have a great weekend!
Mark

Staff News

We will have a shelter drill Thursday, 2/11 at 9:05 am.

Staff as Learners

CIA members, Judy Zeka, Doug Martin, Adam Moss, Colleen Bortscheller, Rhonda Beach, Sherri Permeswaran, and myself will be finishing a 2 day workshop on RTI or MTSS. I am sure more updates will follow once CIA has a chance to discuss what we learned.

Doug Martin, Adam Moss, Kyle Gerdes, Tami Dunn and myself will be attending a Next Generation Science curriculum meeting in Sioux Center on Tuesday.

Tracy Wingert, Nancy Isebrand, and myself will be heading to Harrisburg South Middle to check you their maker space and to see how we can incorporate one here at LCHS.

Students as Leaders

Congrats to the Crimson and Black for their division 1 ratings at State Show Choir on Monday evening.

Good luck to the Jazz Band as they participate in the Morningside Jazz Festival today.

Good luck to all the students and coaches in State Speech here on Saturday, If you get a chance come out this weekend and check them out and show them our support.

Assistant Principal's Corner

Happy Guidance Counselor Week to Barry and Nicki!  You are greatly appreciated and we are grateful to have you in our building helping our students.  Hope you had a good week!

The student council will be selling neon t-shirts with the bulldog on them along with the wording "Le Mars Bulldogs" as a fund raiser.  All profits from the t-shirt sales will be donated to our cause. Details about the fundraiser will be announced once we have permission to share information from the local family who needs the assistance.  The cost of the shirts are $10.00 and our plan is that they will be worn on NEON night, February 16th when the bulldogs play Sioux City North at home in basketball.  Donations will also be taken at the game that night and profit from our SWINTER dance will be part of our contribution to the cause.

Some common signs of a youth being bullied:

1. Loss of friends or avoidance of social situations.
2. Academic challenges, such as worsening grades, lack of engagement in school work, and school avoidance.
3. Emotional distress, such as feeling helpless and loss of self-esteem and confidence.
4. Loss of or damage to personal property, such as clothes, books, or other belongings.
5. Complaints of frequent headaches, stomach pain or just feeling "sick", difficulty eating or sleeping.

Common signs of a youth bullying others:

1. Getting into physical or verbal fights.
2. Having friends who bully others.
3. Worrying about their reputation, social status, or popularity.
4. Becoming increasingly aggressive toward peers, parents, teachers, and other adults.
5. Blaming others for their problems, or not accepting responsibility for their actions.

See more information regarding warning signs about bullying at:

www.stopbullying.gov/blog/2015/10/29/warning-signs-bullying

Instructional Coaches Corner


Have you been looking for a timeline creation tool to use in your classroom? The following article has 10 free timeline creation tool recommendations: http://elearningindustry.com/top-10-free-timeline-creation-tools-for-teachers

Did you know that you can spell check gmails that you compose?
http://info.bettercloud.com/hay3J5Z00K000215e030YYj

As a child of the 1980's I used to LOVE to read the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. Eric Curts was able to recreate this reading adventure using Google Slides. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1K8RR9F6ahwYnYJg6JX_UJC2FDmbEBrIWiKehMEXmKNs/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Here is an interesting idea---use Google Sheets to create an organizational structure chart:
http://info.bettercloud.com/z02j31a0005ZeP03KyZ0Y00

The Brightbytes Survey will be open starting Monday, February 8. Please take the time to fill it out and share your views as high school teacher. Also, if you have children in the school district you are asked to fill it out for each building your children attend. (I get to fill it out twice as a parent myself)

If you have any tech PD requests OR you would like assistance in your classroom for an activity OR you are interested in writing a tech grant and would like some assistance OR want to bounce a tech idea off of me OR some other instance that I can help you do what you do just send me an email and we'll get together ASAP!

Tracy

Article Worth Reading

What Does Research Say About Standards Based Grading?

Upcoming Events

Friday, February 5                     11:30 am Morningside Jazz Festival
                                                   4:45 pm Girls JV Basketball @ Spirit Lake
                                                   4:45 pm Boys JV Basketball @ Spirit Lake
                                                   6:15 pm Girls Varsity Basketball @ Spirit Lake
                                                   7:45 pm Boys Varsity Basketball @ Spirit Lake

Saturday, February 6                 8:00 am State Large Group Speech in Le Mars
                                                   6:30 pm Boys Varsity Basketball vs. SBL @ Sioux Falls Pentagon

Monday, February 8                  3:30 pm Varsity/JV Bowling vs. MMC
                                                   6:00 pm Girls Freshmen Basketball @ SBL
                                                   7:30 pm Boys Freshmen Basketball @ SBL

Tuesday, February 9                  4:45 pm Girls JV Basketball @ Emmetsburg
                                                   4:45 pm Boys JV Basketball @ Emmetsburg
                                                   6:15 pm Girls Varsity Basketball @ Emmetsburg
                                                   7:45 pm Boys Varsity Basketball @ Emmetsburg

Thursday, February 11              7:30 pm High School Band Concert

Friday, February 12                   4:45 pm Girls JV Basketball @ Storm Lake
                                                   4:45 pm Boys JV Basketball @ Storm Lake
                                                   6:15 pm Girls Varsity Basketball @ Storm Lake
                                                   7:45 pm Boys Varsity Basketball @ Storm Lake
                                                   8:00 pm SWINTER Dance

Saturday, February 13               1:00 pm Girls Freshmen Basketball @ SC West
                                                   1:00 pm Boys Freshmen Basketball @ SC West
                                                   2:45 pm Girls JV Basketball @ SC West
                                                   2:45 pm Boys JV Basketball @ SC West
                                                   4:30 pm Girls Varsity Basketball @ SC West
                                                   6:30 pm Boys Varsity Basketball @ SC West

Be Extraordinary,
Mark

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