October 21, 2016
I know a few of you have talked about having PASS Plan meetings, please remember to get me the plan after your meeting with the parent or parents. I do not need a copy of the letter you send home, but I do need the plan. This is a requirement if a student is going to earn a "F" for the semester grade, no exceptions. Using your judgement as a professional, if there is a chance the student may fail, do the PASS Plan. These should be done no later than November 22 in order to give the parent and student enough notice and time to meet your essential learnings. If you need a copy of the PASS Plan, it can be found on our PD website.
When writing up PASS Plans, make sure the plan is specific. If you want the student to come in before school, state what day and with what teacher. If you leave it up to the student to come in before school we haven't really changed anything because the student can voluntarily come in before school on his/her own. There should also be interventions that we have tried before we have gotten to this point. Please put down these interventions so we know what has been tried.
I have also been asked about the retake policy and how it applies to semester test. The retake policy is not an automatic retake. The student must first gain instructor approval and then meet the guidelines set by the instructor in order to earn the opportunity to retake a test. Below is the wording from our building policy.The main words are highlighted.
Summative Retakes: Any student who wishes to
retake a summative assessment to earn a higher grade and show greater learning
may do so by gaining the instructor’s permission and meeting the course
criteria, which may include doing extra practice and having all
assignments/quizzes completed prior to the retake assessment. The student must
complete the retake within two weeks of the original date of the assessment
given in class. The teacher will use the higher assessment grade to calculate
the term grade.
We do have a building in-service next week on Wednesday. You will meet with your departments and continue the work from the district in-service on Wednesday.
Have a great weekend!
Have a great weekend!
Students as Leaders
The following LCHS students went with Mr. Oetken to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis: Keaton Koerselman, Brandon Neyens, Kennedy Schilmoeller, Christian Koch, Cheyanne McGee, Whitney Ten Napel, and Claire Ohlrichs.Assistant Principal's Corner
Le Mars Community High School Student Council is once again doing a collection to send care packages to deployed troops in conjunction with Support Siouxland Soldiers. However, this year, they have added Heroes on the Homefront to their cause as well. To start it off, they collected food items and put together a small package to show their appreciation. Sunday, October 16th, some of the Le Mars Community Student Council students met at the Le Mars National Guard Armory to distribute packages to the C troop, who was finishing up drill for the weekend. Soldiers and students unloaded the van of packages that would be distributed to all the troops when they returned from their activities.
Thank you to our Student Council Members who came to Support our Heroes on the Homefront!
On November 1st we will have an assembly at 1:30 pm sponsored by the student council. This assembly will take place in the middle auditorium with Jimmie Bell from the New York Giants as our guest speaker. He would like our students to bring a pen or something to write with so that they can fill out a comment card when he is done with his presentation. The focus of his presentation will be on students making positive choices and doing the right thing as they look to their future. Students will have a fire drill that day at 1:15 pm. Students will report back to 6th period, take role, then head to the auditorium.
Student Council will be traveling to Des Moines, IA to the Iowa Association of Student Council State Conference October 31st. The following students will present at the conference about our Support Siouxland Soldiers initiative: Madison Parker, Makena Masuen, Cole Berkenpas, Walker Raymond, and Jeff Ahlers. The council will also be receiving an Honor Council award for the second year in a row for all their hard work and dedication to excellence at LCHS. Please congratulate them on their efforts and thank you for your continued support.
Librarian's News
I attended my first edcamp this last Saturday, and came away with a lot of new ideas, resources, and knowledge. One Google Docs add-on I thought most of you would find very useful is Orange Slice: Teacher Rubric. With this add-on, teachers can load their own rubric or create one using the guidelines listed. The teacher can then add it to the template for the assignment, so the rubric is then listed on the top of each student's paper. Once the student has submitted the paper, the teacher can then click on the corresponding boxes on the rubric, and the rubric will then total the grade. It doesn't put it in the grade book for you, and is not recommended for long papers, but it can save a lot of time on shorter writing assignments. The creator has it so it can work with Google classroom, and you should be able to hit next to see the next student's work. It also can track the student's progress The creator is constantly working on improvements based upon teachers' input, so give it a try and see what you think. Here are some instructions from the creator: Speed Tip...1. Paste the rubric and open Teacher Rubric to save settings BEFORE you send out the assignment via G Classroom.
2. In the future if you forget to paste in the rubric before distribution, also paste in the Grade Table with the Rubric Table for each opened assignment. If the Grade Table has the settings saved in it, the small size 6 font, Teacher Rubric will open and present Selections so you can start scoring the rubric.
NEW BENCH - If you haven't noticed, there is a new bench out in front of the competition gym in memory of Kelby Klein. A nice tribute. Thank You!
Instructional Coaches' Tips
Education on Air: It Takes a Teacher is a free, online conference put together by Google. Share with and learn from other educators. Hear from inspiring speakers. Get tips and tools to help boost student engagement, collaboration and productivity and in the classroom. Sessions run around the clock from around the world starting at 5:00 pm on Friday, December 2 and ending at 6:00 pm Saturday, December 3. Click here for more details.Do you have students who have reading issuse? Could they use a text to speech tool when reading websites? If so, then the SpeakIt extension found in the Chrome Web Store may be just what they need. The hyperlink above will take you to a 4.5 minute video explaining and demonstrating the tool.
Success Center Update
Think about the number of vocabulary words you require students to know in any given week. Now, multiply that number five, six, or even seven times. That is the number of vocabulary words our students may be trying to stuff into their brains every day. For the struggling reader, that can be pretty overwhelming. That does not mean, however, that they can't learn! We spend a lot of time in the Success Center working with vocabulary. Yes, we look at words and definitions, but we also target defining words using context clues, identifying the part of speech for the word, tying the words to the content of your class, and finding ways to make connections between the words and a student's background knowledge. If you know you have a vocabulary-heavy unit, or even if you require vocabulary every week, send us your lists! We are happy to create flashcards, online practice and games, white board activities and more to help your students be more successful.
Article Worth Reading
Teen Engagement in Learning Starts with Respect
Secure Students' Hearts or You Don't Have a Shot at Their Brains also has a video
Video Worth Watching
Upcoming Events
Friday, October 21- 4:00 pm Music Booster Soup and Pie Supper
- 7:00 pm Varsity Football vs. Humboldt
- Halftime - Mass Band Show
Saturday, October 22
- 8:00 am District All-State Music Auditions
Tuesday, October 25
- 7:30 pm 6-12 Orchestra Concert
Friday, October 28
- End of 1st Qtr
- 7:30 pm Indoor Marching Band Concert
Saturday, October 29
- Robotics Competition - Olsen League in MS Commons and MS Gym
Monday, October 31
- State Student Council Convention - Des Moines
Tuesday, November 8
- 7:00 pm CTE Advisory Meeting
Thursday, November 10
- 7:00 pm High School Musical
Friday, November 11
- 7:00 pm High School Musical
Saturday, November 12
- 7:00 pm High School Musical
Be Extraordinary!
Mark
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