August 26, 2016

Happy Friday! Congratulations! We have made it through the first day of school.

I always enjoy this time of year when everyone comes back and I get to hear about the great trips or activities you all have done over the summer. It is also exciting to get the students back and for us to meet the new students.

I just want to take this first issue of the Friday Focus and go over some reminders that we skimmed over at the staff meeting on Monday. Don't forget grades need to be updated on Monday at 8:30 for the previous week. I understand projects/papers sometimes take a little longer to grade and sometimes life happens. Lesson plans should be updated on the lemarscsd.org website before you leave on Friday for the following week.

I have posted our PLC handbook and meeting form on the the 16-17 PD website. Please upload the meeting form like last year. Your group should meet every week we do not have an extra hour meeting. Our extra hour meeting this year will be: 9/14 & 28, 10/12 & 26, 11/9 & 30, 12/7 & 21, 1/11 & 25, 2/8 & 22, 3/8 & 22, 4/5 & 19, and 5/3 & 10. These will take place at 7:00 am. SIT team will send out and post agenda's to the pd site.

Mr. Martin has set up a shared google calendar that you all have edit rights. The students will be able to access the calendar. The purpose of this shared calendar is for us to put the dates of major projects and tests. Hopefully this will keep us from all giving tests on the same day. Please take the time to use this, it is not required, but will help students and other staff.

New this year in advisory we will be watching a video series from Jostens called "The Harbor". This series address various issues our students are facing. Each video is anywhere from 3-9 minutes long and does have some discussion questions. Along with the video series we will have the students do some goal setting like last year. We won't do the checkups as often, just at midterm. We will have the initial goals setting take place on September 6.

As always remember your school email is part of public record and may be requested. So with that being said, please refrain from using your school email account to vent about students, use for non-school related business, or vent about other items or people. Some emails are flagged for potentially inappropriate words. These emails are then sent to the administration to review. Please create a gmail, Hotmail, or some other type of address for your personal business and jokes that you may get.

Finally, one more reminder to take the time to call home to parents, especially when their child is doing well or was helpful to you. These calls home help give a positive image of the school and you and it also helps you build an ally if you ever need one.

Good Luck, and remember "It's a GREAT day to be a BULLDOG!"
Mark

Staff News

Barry Borchers has been selected to serve on the state bowling committee that will make recommendations on rule changes and other items related to bowling to the IHSAA.

Judy Zeka is serving on the Governor's Commission for Teacher Leadership this year.

Staff as Learners

Joel Jentz took a class on Bizinnovator from the University of Iowa. By taking this class, students who take Business Marketing and pass the exam will get a college credit from the U of I.

Assistant Principal's Corner

Welcome Back!  It is great to have you all back and ready to go.  Remember that we will have class meetings on Monday, August 29th during advisory.  Locations for the meetings will be as follows:

Seniors - Competition Gym
Juniors - Carey Gym
Sophomores - Commons
Freshman - Little Theater

Make sure that you consult your teacher handbook on page 10 to see what class you are a sponsor for.  Freshman, Sophomores, and Juniors please plan your float building and decide what your theme will be and what supplies may be needed.  You can get a purchase order in the office to get supplies for your class float.  The theme for homecoming this year is, "No Place Like Home" (a Wizard of Oz theme).  Float building sign up sheets are posted in the teacher's lounge, please be sure to sign up to help supervise these activities and remember that if you forget to sign up, then I will assign you to a job.  Senior sponsors should sign up for parade line up help since a float will not be built by your students.  Also, make sure that your class president fills out a parade line up sheet explaining your float and theme and have them hand it into me as soon as possible.

LCHS Student Council will again be awarded with an Honor Council Award at the state conference in DesMoines, IA.  The conference will take place on October 31, 2016 in DesMoines.  Please congratulate our hardworking student council kids!

Reminder to consult your duty schedule and to honor your duties.  If there are conflicts with the schedule for you, then please find a substitute for your duty and make the changes in the google form to reflect those changes.

Hope that your year goes well!  Remember to stop by and have some chocolate!

Instructional Coaches' Corner

Welcome back! I hope everyone has returned recharged and ready to start another year! One new to me item I learned about this summer that I am excited to share with you is called hyperdocs. A hyperdoc is a Google document that replaces the worksheet method of instruction. It can be full of instructions, links, graphic organizers, and any other tools students need to complete a task. It can be used in a teacher directed instruction/discussion classroom or a flipped classroom. It could be used by an individual, partners, or group work. Click Here to learn more about hyperdocs and to see examples of what they can be. We have a few teachers trying them this year. Please contact me if you too would like to try one and would like some assistance!
---Tracy

Articles Worth Reading

How to Make Learning Easier than Cheating
Teaching Empathy: Are We Teaching Content or Students?
Why Ninth Grade is the Pivotal Year for Dropping Out of High School

Video Worth Watching

Walking in a Student's Shoes

Upcoming Activities

Friday, August 26
- 7:00 pm Varsity Football vs. Sioux Center

Monday, August 29
- 5:00 pm Freshmen/Sophomore Football vs Central Lyon

Tuesday, August 30
- 4:30 pm Varsity Volleyball @ MOC Floyd Valley
- 5:00 pm Cross Country @ Spirit Lake

Thursday, September 1
- TBD - Freshmen Volleyball @ Hull Western Christian

Friday, September 2
- Varsity Football @ MOC Floyd Valley

Tuesday, September 6
- 4:30 Cross Country - Gary Meyer Meet @ Brunsville
- 5:00 pm Freshmen/Sophomore Football vs. Western Christian
- 5:00 pm JV Football @ Sioux City North - Leeds Field

Thursday, September 8
- TBD Varsity Volleyball @ Sioux City East

Be Extraordinary!
Mark