February 2, 2018

Happy Friday! As we turn the calendar to February, it seems like we start to hit that lull in the school year where students seem to struggle the most with school work. I want to remind you to remain patient with the students and to continue to push them to reach higher levels. If they are not doing their work now, do not wait to contact parents.

In cabinet this week, we were discussing our next chapters in our book we are reading. These chapters focused on the importance of relationships, especially for those students who may lack a quality adult role model or just need positive interactions with others. This served as a good reminder for me that students need interaction with each other in class and with us. When done correctly, cooperative learning can lead to gains that equal a year's worth of growth. When organizing cooperative activities here are some points to consider: Give everyone a unique and valued role; set class norms for all group behaviors; give the group occasional downtime (2-4 minutes max); ensure the team works together daily; and encourage friendly competition. On the last one, keep competition to routine tasks, not academic learning. If using learning as the competition have the students compete against themselves; compare current results with past results.

One thing I find myself guilty of sometimes is not trying to get to the root of an issue a student may be having. Often times, a student will be sent down to the office and I want to deal with the behavior and give the consequence and move on. I don't want to take the time, because like the rest of you, I have other things I need to do or would rather be doing. But am I really helping the student? My guess is no, I didn't take the time to find out what was going on so that student thinks I don't care. Will I get the results I want? Maybe short term, but not in the long term. By having a little empathy for the student, I may be able to make a connection that would get the results I want. I have to remind myself why I am here and what is more important. 

Empathy is something, as secondary teachers, that may not come as easy as other things. Often times we find ourselves trying to push through content and we don't get a chance to know our students. As Dr. Webner said at the beginning of the year our clientele is changing. This can't become a crutch that we use when things don't go our way. We need to see the importance of building relationships with these students so they feel a sense of belonging. 20 years ago, this was not the case, but to quote Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress "Times are a changing." We need to adapt our ways to reach these students. Resources or lessons we have used in the past may not be as effective as they had been. A few strategies to try are to connect with students early. Here you assess how your students are doing during your bell ringer or opening activity, kind of like a doctor making rounds on his/her patients. Another strategy that Eric Jensen offers is to "learn about your students' lives, without judgement, in ways that help foster insights and different ways of thinking, acting, and feeling, as well as an appreciation of where they'r coming from." (Jensen, p.49-50.) You have all heard the students won't care what you know until they know that you care. Forming these relationships could be the biggest investment we can make to make sure all students learn at a high level and graduate career/college ready.


We have our extra hour meetings on Feb. 14 and 28. Building in-service is on Feb. 21. There will be a "shelter drill on Tuesday at 2:50 pm. 

Midterm for third quarter is Feb. 9. Please have grades updated by 8:30 am on Feb. 12. Midterms will be printed and sent home that day.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Be Extraordinary!
Mark

Staff News

Congrats to Joel Jentz and Deb Richarz on their upcoming retirements. Thank you for all the years and time you have dedicated to the students of our district. You will be missed!

Staff as Learners

Adam Moss attended a workshop on coding and STEM on Tuesday.

Cliff Collins, along with Mary Westhoff and Kurt Van Kley will be attending a workshop on DESMOS on Feb. 8.

Cassie Jacobsen, Dorene Schimek, and Jill Brown will be taking a group of special education students to a career day at Western Iowa Tech on Feb. 7.

Students as Leaders

Good Luck to all the students participating in State Large Group Speech here tomorrow. If you get a chance come and watch our students perform. 

Congrats to Crimson and Black for their Division 1 ratings at State Show Choir Competition in Spirit Lake on Monday.

We had members of our FFA chapter compete at the Sioux Empire Expo Jr. Livestock Judging Contest. The following students placed 6th as a team: Whitney Ten Napel, Daniel Kessenich, Claire Ohlrichs, and Kerstin Thoms. They also all placed in the top 35 as individuals. Brayden Utesch placed 4th as an individual.

Assistant Principal's Happenings

Librarian's News

Just a reminder that the library does have laptops for students to checkout. These are for overnight ONLY. The students do not need a signature form. The information/rules regarding the laptop use is in their handbooks. We currently have 13 available for daily checkout, and about 4-5 go out almost daily. We also have a few iPads for daily checkout. All computers are to be checked out in regards to homework. Please do not send students in at 3:30 to check out laptops as Kathy is gone and I am currently driving bus daily. Students have to have time to log in to the computer and check it out from the library, so 5-10 minutes is a recommendation for a new checkout. 

If you are checking out the iPads for classroom use, an update has caused a message to pop up before people can use it. You need to have the students keep clicking OK until the messages quit popping up (anywhere from 8-15 times). I have talked to the technology department and it is not something than can be fixed before this summer. 

Success Center Update

It is hard to believe that midterm is just around the corner, but that means that Iowa Assessments will be here before we know it.  Now is a good time to reach out to our students who are close to proficient but not quite there.  As strong readers, it is easy for us to forget that struggling readers often do not have the skill set necessary to know what to do, so modeling good reading strategies is very important.  Consider a think-aloud when you give your next close read or text-based assignment, and show your students how YOU use those critical skills.  Remember, too, that we have STAR and Iowa Assessment data from last year and new STAR data from this year for all the 9th graders.  Please let me know if I can help you connect with the data.

Instructional Coaches Corner

EdX Quietly Developing ‘MicroBachelors’ Program. EdX, the nonprofit online-education group founded by MIT and Harvard, is quietly developing a “MicroBachelors” degree that is designed to break the undergraduate credential into Lego-like components.

Google announced that starting February 26 (for some and rolled out a little later for others) you will be able to publish sites to a specific audience in the new Google Sites. This could be the turning point for those of you that want to create a website for your department and only want specific teachers to be able to see and share materials.

If you do any kinds of projects that require your students to use images it is important to encourage them to be good digital citizens and cite their sources. Another option is to have them use sources that are free to use with no attribution. Click here to learn of two sources for free to use, no attribution required images.

Those of you with ipads, if you ever use them for instruction remember that you can record what is happening on your screen to share with students who are gone or for those who need to rewatch something. 

In this edition of Teaching with Tech, Jamie Averbeck defines and shares examples of different types of visual digital technology and give examples of how students could create them for classroom use.

Another ipad/iphone tip for you...do you know there is a magnifying glass hanging out on your iOS 10 or 11 device?? Perfect to help you view items with small text or, some people who refuse to get glasses (points to self).

The 2018-2019 STEM Scale Up Grants were recently released. There were several presentations made at this annoucement. This link contains descriptions of the programs, information about Future Ready Iowa, Iowa STEM Teacher Externships, Iowa STEM Best, Iowa Math Coaches Update, Iowa Science Coaches Update, and a Computer Science Update.

Articles Worth Reading

What I've Learned From Special Education Teachers

Leading Learning for Children from Poverty

Upcoming Events

Friday, February 2

- Morningside Jazz Festival

Saturday, February 3
- IHSAA Large Group Speech State Contest in Le Mars
- Varsity Boy Basketball vs. TBA @ SF Pentagon

Monday, February 5
- 3:30 pm JV/Varsity Bowling vs. MMCRU & West Sioux
- 4:00 pm Freshmen Girl Basketball @ Sergeant Bluff - Luton
- 5:30 pm Freshmen Boy Basketball @ SBL

Tuesday, February 6
- 4:15 pm JV Boy/Girl Basketball vs. Western Christian
- 6:15 pm Varsity Girl Basketball vs. Western Christian
- 7:45 pm Varsity Boy Basketball vs. Western Christian

Thursday, February 8
- HS Band Winter Concert - MS Auditorium

Friday, February 9
- 4:00 pm Freshmen Boy/Girl Basketball @ Vermillion
- 5:15 pm JV Boy/Girl Basketball @ Vermillion
- 6:30 pm Varsity Girl Basketball @ Vermillion
- 8:00 pm Varsity Boy Basketball @ Vermillion

Saturday, February 10
- ACT Testing
- 10:30 am Robotics Super Qualifier at WITCC
- 2:00 pm Freshmen Boy/Girl Basketball @ SC West
- 4:00 pm JV Boy/Girl Basketball @ SC West
- 5:45 pm Varsity Girl Basketball @ SC West
- 7:30 pm Varsity Boy Basketball @ SC West

Monday, February 12
- TBD Freshmen Girl Basketball Sioux City City Tournament
- 6:00 pm Freshmen Boy Basketball @ Heelan

Tuesday, February 13
- TBD Freshmen Girl Basketball Sioux City City Tournament
- TBD Freshmen Boy Basketball @ Sioux City City Tournament
- 11:00 am Varsity Bowling State Qualifying @ Sweet 16 Lanes
- 6:15 pm JV Boy Basketball vs. S.C. North
- 7:30 pm Varsity Boy Basketball vs. S.C. North

Thursday, February 15
- TBD Freshmen Girl Basketball Sioux City City Tournament
- TBD Freshmen Boy Basketball @ Sioux City City Tournament
- 4:00 pm Spring Code of Conduct Meeting

Saturday, February 17
- 8:00 am IHSAA Large Group Speech All-State Festival
- 7:00 pm Varsity Girl Basketball vs. Winner of SBL and Spencer

Monday, February 19
- MS/HS NWI Jazz Festival @ Le Mars

Tuesday, February 20
- 10:00 am Bowling State Meet @ Waterloo
- 7:00 pm Varsity Girl Basketball Regionals

Wednesday, February 21
- 7:00 pm Athletic Booster Club meeting

Thursday, February 22
- 4:00 pm Spring Code of Conduct meeting

Friday, February 23
- Robotics at Iowa Championships @ Coralville

Saturday, February 24
- Crimson and Black @ Bishop Heelan Show Choir Invite
- Robotics at Iowa Championships @ Coralville
- 8:00 am IHSAA Individual Events Speech Contest @ Woodbury Central

Monday, February 26
- 7:30 pm MS/HS Orchestra Concert

Tuesday, February 27
- 7:30 pm HS Vocal Concert

Saturday, March 3
- Crimson and Black @ Clash of Titan Show Choir - Lewis Central

Tuesday, March 6
- 6:00 pm Spanish Club @ El Ranchito

Saturday, March 10
- 8:00 am IHSAA Individual Speech State Contest @ Kuemper Catholic

Tuesday, March 13
- 4:30 pm Varsity/JV Boy/Girl Track @ Buena Vista University

Wednesday March 14
- 1:00 pm Assembly

Thursday, March 15
- 6:30 pm Speech/Drama Banquet

Friday, March 16 
- End of 3rd Quarter
- 6:30 pm Dance Exhibition
- 9:00 pm Swinter Dance