October 26, 2018
Happy Friday! Today is the first day of the 2nd quarter. Grades are due on Monday at 8:00 am. Report cards will be printed and mailed out that day. Please make sure you are following the grading policy. The policy does not allow extra credit. While I was running some of the grade reports, I noticed some students had grades over 100%. This is not possible under our grading policy. Giving optional quizzes/assignments/projects that allow students to raise their grade but exempt others is viewed as extra credit. These practices can not happen as grades are to indicate a students level of learning, by giving extra points, the grade now indicates behaviors and not student learning. When you are looking at a student's grade and there may be an outlier in his/her scores, it is fine to exclude an outlier. This is a common practice when dealing with data, which grades are. An example would be if a student had summative scores of 95, 92, 90, 89, 98, 73, 100, 95, and 96; the 73 could be seen as an outlier and excluded.
I have a Lakes Conference Principal's meeting today in Spencer and will be leaving at 9:30.
November extra hour meetings are on the 7th at 7:00 am and on the 28th at 4:00 pm.
Have a great weekend!
Mark
Students and staff can now log in to the library system and access ebooks, audiobooks, and even the Iowa AEA databases. This slide show can help you out. If you still have questions, please see me. I'd love to come in and walk students through it too! MackinVia through Destiny
Thursday, November 8
7:00 pm High School Musical
Friday, November 9
7:00 pm High School Musical
Saturday, November 10
8:00 am IGCA Girls Basketball Scrimmage
7:00 pm High School Musical
Thursday, November 15
All State Music Festival in Ames
Friday, November 16
All State Music Festival in Ames
Saturday, November 17
All State Music Festival in Ames
Robotics Club League Meet #2 at Trinity Christian High School
Monday, November 19
3:30 pm JV/Varsity Bowling vs. Sioux Central
Tuesday, November 20
6:00 pm JV Girl Basketball @ Hinton
7:45 pm Varsity Girl Basketball @ Hinton
Monday, November 26
6:00 pm Freshmen Girl Basketball @ Sioux Center
7:15 pm Freshmen Boy Basketball @ Sioux Center
Tuesday, November 27
3:45 pm JV Girl Basketball @ Unity Christian
5:00 pm JV Boy Basketball @ Unity Christian
6:15 pm Varsity Girl Basketball @ Unity Christian
7:45 pm Varsity Boy Basketball @ Unity Christian
Friday, November 30
4:30 pm JV/Varsity Wrestling @ Hinton Tournament
I have a Lakes Conference Principal's meeting today in Spencer and will be leaving at 9:30.
November extra hour meetings are on the 7th at 7:00 am and on the 28th at 4:00 pm.
Have a great weekend!
Mark
Students at Leaders
Congrats to the following students who were selected to the various All-State Music Ensembles! Band: Luke Benton, Luke Geitz, Devin Hansen, Emily Martin, and Drake Oswald. Choir: Aly Buhman, Jack McInnis, Keegan Pippett, Caitlin Sudtelgte, and Dalton Glawe. Orchestra: Sarah Meis
Good luck to Maddie Hurt, Kara Albrecht, Chloe Calhoun and Landon Parmelee at the State Cross Country meet on Saturday in Fort Dodge!
Good luck to Autumn Wessel as she interviews for a position on the state student council. She is the first Le Mars student to do this. Her interview will be on Sunday in Des Moines.
Good luck to Maddie Hurt, Kara Albrecht, Chloe Calhoun and Landon Parmelee at the State Cross Country meet on Saturday in Fort Dodge!
Good luck to Autumn Wessel as she interviews for a position on the state student council. She is the first Le Mars student to do this. Her interview will be on Sunday in Des Moines.
Staff News
Congrats to Stephanie Buhman for being named Employee of the Month. A very deserving honor!
Staff as Learners
Assistant Principal's Happenings
A reminder that we will have a special education meeting for all special education instructors on October 31st at 8:00 am in the HS conference room. We will be meeting with Shay Davis and Rachel Riphagen to learn about more of the services that they can provide through vocational rehabilitation.
Student council will be traveling to DesMoines on Monday, October 29th for the annual Student Council State Conference. Students should be talking to you about their assignments and will need to make up their work when they return. We will leave at 4:00 am and return to Le Mars by 6:00 pm. Good luck to Autumn Wessel as she interviews for a position on the state student council board. She is the first Le Mars student to do this. Her interview will be on Sunday in Des Moines.
Student council will be traveling to DesMoines on Monday, October 29th for the annual Student Council State Conference. Students should be talking to you about their assignments and will need to make up their work when they return. We will leave at 4:00 am and return to Le Mars by 6:00 pm. Good luck to Autumn Wessel as she interviews for a position on the state student council board. She is the first Le Mars student to do this. Her interview will be on Sunday in Des Moines.
Librarian's News
Sometimes, online text is overwhelmingly difficult for some of our students to understand. Try REWORDIFY. By copying and pasting the difficult text into the box provided, the site will simplify the text, highlighting which words/phrases have been changed so the student could also learn new vocabulary.Students and staff can now log in to the library system and access ebooks, audiobooks, and even the Iowa AEA databases. This slide show can help you out. If you still have questions, please see me. I'd love to come in and walk students through it too! MackinVia through Destiny
Instructional Coach's Technology Tid Bits
The Google extension Read & Write has new feature called Check It. It will check for spelling, grammar and confusable word errors. While this is a "premium" feature that requires a paid subscription teachers can get a free subscription. This link will take you to a list of all 80 premium features that come with using Google Read & Write.
Mr. Bahr introduced me to Intercut this week. It is a Beta app to record the slides and presenter, an automated video editor to dynamically merge the videos together, and a simple way to export or share the content. It's one I plan to keep my eye on. This could be handy for situations where a person and their interactivity with what is on the screen both need to be recorded.
If you want to watch a show, but don’t know where to find it, you can just search the word “watch” followed by the name of the show and Google will show you all the sites and service from which it is available.
Sick of manually copying and pasting information from an email in order to create a reminder or a calendar event? Just open the tasks on the side panel of Gmail instead and drag and drop your emails there. (This is a feature of the new Gmail)
Did you know that Google Drive is capable of making any text that appears in images or PDFs you upload searchable.
10 TED Talks For Introverts
Mr. Bahr introduced me to Intercut this week. It is a Beta app to record the slides and presenter, an automated video editor to dynamically merge the videos together, and a simple way to export or share the content. It's one I plan to keep my eye on. This could be handy for situations where a person and their interactivity with what is on the screen both need to be recorded.
If you want to watch a show, but don’t know where to find it, you can just search the word “watch” followed by the name of the show and Google will show you all the sites and service from which it is available.
Sick of manually copying and pasting information from an email in order to create a reminder or a calendar event? Just open the tasks on the side panel of Gmail instead and drag and drop your emails there. (This is a feature of the new Gmail)
Did you know that Google Drive is capable of making any text that appears in images or PDFs you upload searchable.
10 TED Talks For Introverts
Success Center
We spend a lot of time in the Success Center helping students prepare for end-of-unit tests. There are two strategies we teach every student - reading for cues in the questions and trusting their brains to have the right answer.
Especially with multiple choice and true/false questions, there are often cues in the question that will lead to the answer. Many times, it is not that students don't know the material, but rather that they don't understand what the question is asking. Looking for key words and clues in the question helps with that confusion. Also, many times other questions on the test provide cues for answers to later questions. Knowing to watch for those clues helps struggling students make connections between the questions.
And I tell the kids every day, "Trust your brain." How many times have you changed an answer on a test only to find out later that you changed it from the right one to a wrong one? If you have studied and participated in class discussion, the first answer that pops into your head is usually the correct answer. I encourage them to never change an answer unless they can prove to me why the first answer they have chosen is wrong. These strategies may seem common sense to us, but for students who struggle, they make a big difference.
Especially with multiple choice and true/false questions, there are often cues in the question that will lead to the answer. Many times, it is not that students don't know the material, but rather that they don't understand what the question is asking. Looking for key words and clues in the question helps with that confusion. Also, many times other questions on the test provide cues for answers to later questions. Knowing to watch for those clues helps struggling students make connections between the questions.
And I tell the kids every day, "Trust your brain." How many times have you changed an answer on a test only to find out later that you changed it from the right one to a wrong one? If you have studied and participated in class discussion, the first answer that pops into your head is usually the correct answer. I encourage them to never change an answer unless they can prove to me why the first answer they have chosen is wrong. These strategies may seem common sense to us, but for students who struggle, they make a big difference.
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Upcoming Activities
Friday, October 26
7:30 pm Indoor Marching Concert
Saturday, October 27
ACT Testing
State Cross Country @ Fort Dodge
State Cross Country @ Fort Dodge
Saturday, November 3
8:00 am NWI Honor Band AuditionsThursday, November 8
7:00 pm High School Musical
Friday, November 9
7:00 pm High School Musical
Saturday, November 10
8:00 am IGCA Girls Basketball Scrimmage
7:00 pm High School Musical
Thursday, November 15
All State Music Festival in Ames
Friday, November 16
All State Music Festival in Ames
Saturday, November 17
All State Music Festival in Ames
Robotics Club League Meet #2 at Trinity Christian High School
Monday, November 19
3:30 pm JV/Varsity Bowling vs. Sioux Central
Tuesday, November 20
6:00 pm JV Girl Basketball @ Hinton
7:45 pm Varsity Girl Basketball @ Hinton
Monday, November 26
6:00 pm Freshmen Girl Basketball @ Sioux Center
7:15 pm Freshmen Boy Basketball @ Sioux Center
Tuesday, November 27
3:45 pm JV Girl Basketball @ Unity Christian
5:00 pm JV Boy Basketball @ Unity Christian
6:15 pm Varsity Girl Basketball @ Unity Christian
7:45 pm Varsity Boy Basketball @ Unity Christian
Friday, November 30
4:30 pm JV/Varsity Wrestling @ Hinton Tournament
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