February 1, 2019

Happy Friday! Are you ready for the warm up? I will be glad when we hit 40 degrees tomorrow. It will feel like shorts and t-shirt weather after Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. We are getting to that time of year again when I will be coming around asking for summer maintenance items. This is for items that cannot be done during the year, if you have a routine maintenance item, please use the repair@lemarcsd.org email to make that request. You may email me you summer maintenance or wait for me to get to your room to ask. 

Requisitions will not be far behind. I know you don't know numbers yet, so if you need a rough ideas come and see me and I'll let you know. We haven't started to create a schedule yet as I am waiting to see what the legislation does with the financial literacy requirement that was passed last session. If this stays as written, we may have to have Juniors look at their request again.

Looking ahead at the calendar, we have our extra hour meetings on February 6 and 20. February 13 is the district in-service day. February 6 is also our final shelter drill of the year. That will happen at 2:10 pm. 

The foundation is in search of nominations for employee of the month. If interested in nominating one of your peers, please fill out the form. This can be found online on the www.lemarscsd.org website.

I will just keep this info in here for a couple of weeks so you have it. This year we will be giving the ISASP (formally Iowa Assessments) differently than in the past. On April 8 and 9 we will run a block schedule. 

Monday, April 8 will be:
1st: 8:30-10:00
3rd: 10:04-11:34
Lunch: 11:34-12:22
5th: 12:26-1:56
7th: 2:00-3:30

Tuesday, April 9 will be:
2nd: 8:30-10:00
4th: 10:04-11:34
Lunch: 11:34-12:22
6th: 12:26-1:56
8th: 2:00-3:30

Both of these days will be "A" days. We will then run "B" days on Wednesday-Friday.

The students in grades 9-11 will take the reading and math tests in their core class (English and math). Sophomores will take the science exam during Biology. This leaves us with the writing tests. Students in grades 9-11 have to take this one. The ISASP guidance on this test is that it will take 2 hours. During advisory, between now and the end of February, please have your students take the practice language and writing test. This is important for those that have Ipads. I need to know if students are able to do this and that they feel comfortable. The plan right now is for everyone to take the writing test on Wednesday in their advisory room. However, if the students are not comfortable with the Ipads and we don't have enough devices, we will have to split up this 2 hour test and spread it out over April 10-12. Students testing will be in designated rooms and the rest of the school would operate as normal. 

If we can take it all at one time, this is what the schedule will look like that day. That day is also a 2 hour early out.

Wednesday, April 9

7th: 8:30-8:58
Assessment: 9:04-11:06
8th: 11:10-11:42
Period 5
1st class: 11:46-12:31
2nd lunch: 12:31-1:03
1st lunch: 11:50-12:20
2nd class: 12:24-1:03
6th: 1:07-1:30

As we get into second semester, please do not wait too long to meet with parents for PASS Plans, especially seniors. If you have a senior struggling, please keep me in the loop of communication so I can also be talking to parents.

Have a great weekend!
Mark

Students at Leaders

Good Luck to the wrestlers as they start their post season run on Wednesday. They travel to Fort Dodge to beat Ceder Falls and then beat Fort Dodge to qualify for the team dual state tournament.

Good Luck to the students participating in State Large Group Speech tomorrow in Spencer. 

Staff News

Congrats to Coach Hessenius for being named the NW Iowa Wrestling Coach of the Year!

Staff as Learners

Assistant Principal's Happenings

Resources of all kinds - notes from the Librarian

Do you need videos to supplement a lesson but don't know where to find them or want to pay for some? Create a user name for BoClips, BoClips is specifically for teachers and has organized different videos to supplement almost any curricular area. Give it a try!

As the prom sponsor, I want to let you know that the teachers assigned to prom and the committee groups of students will meet in the library, Monday, February 11, during advisory. The prom teachers may have to farm out the rest of their advisory students as not all in an advisory are signed up to help. Please help them out. This should be the only meeting during advisory with the prom teachers. I will be emailing lists of the students who should be in the library that morning closer to the date. Mr. Utesch will be meeting with Student Council at another location.

Student Council, LeadDogs, and NHS are working together with CSADV to promote #LoveRevolution. It is a movement to educate people on what the warning signs of abusive relations ships are and what true love is. The goal is to prevent even just one person from being involved in an abusive relationship. Feb. 6 & 7, students will be selling orange #LoveRevolution bracelets during the lunch hour. All proceeds will go to CSADV to help those escaping abusive relationships. Everyone in encouraged to wear ORANGE on February 12. 

Instructional Coach's Technology Tid Bits

Have you ever clicked on a link to some sort of Google document and it asked you if you wanted to make a copy of it? You can actually transform a shareable link into a Preview, Copy, Template, or PDF link. Click here to learn how to do just that.

6-year-old boy busted for cheating on homework with Alexa

A new look and feel for Gmail on mobile devices rolled out this week. Click here to learn more.

Five Predictions for the Future of Education in 2019

1. Digital Transformation will kick into high gear for more than just academics.
2. Open Educational Resources will become more common—and more interactive.
3. Students will spend more time interacting with simulations.
4. Personalized experiences will make education more engaging.
5. Student work will move into e-portfolios.

Spencer, Iowa will be the home of our nearest EdCamp 2019 this year on February 23. What is an EdCamp? The premise of the day is that the professional development is created by the people who attend that morning, with four sessions throughout the day.  Go to a session that interests you, and, if you decide it's not for you, learn with your feet--go to a different session or create a new impromptu session and invite others to join you.  There are no hurt feelings; the focus is on providing you with a learning experience that's meaningful for you. Sessions do not have someone leading them; instead, the proposing person facilitates the session, with everyone participating, learning, and sharing together.

The Pudding is a site that explains ideas debated in culture with visual essays. I can honestly say I have never seen anything quite like it before. If you have 5 minutes it is worth exploring. For instance, this example that explores how FOX, CNN, and MSNBC cover the news is probably eye opening for some students.

Success Center

Article Worth Reading

Upcoming Activities

Saturday, February 2
11:00 am  Varsity Boy Basketball vs. Hamlin @ Sioux Falls Pentagon
Robotics Super Regionals @ WITCC
8:00 am IHSSA Large Group Speech @ Spencer
9:00 am Freshmen Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City North

Monday, February 4
3:30 pm Varsity/JV Bowling vs. MMCRU and West Sioux
6:00 pm Freshmen Girl Basketball vs. SBL
7:15 pm Freshmen Boy Basketball vs. SBL

Tuesday, February 5
4:45 pm JV Boy/Girl Basketball @ Western Christian
6:15 pm Varsity Girl Basketball @ Western Christian
7:45 pm Varsity Boy Basketball @ Western Chrisitian

Thursday, February 7
7:30 pm HS Band Winter Concert @ MS Auditorium

Friday, February 8
4:00 pm Freshmen Girl Basketball vs. Vermillion
4:45 pm JV Boy/Girl Basketball vs. Vermillion
5:15 pm Freshmen Boy Basketball vs. Vermillion
6:15 pm Varsity Girl Basketball vs. Vermillion
7:45 pm Varsity Boy Basketball vs. Vermillion

Saturday, February 9
10:15 am Freshmen Boy/Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City West
12:00 pm JV Boy/Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City West
1:45 pm Varsity Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City West
3:15 pm Varsity Boy Basketball vs. Sioux City West

Monday, February 11
TBD Freshmen Girl Basketball @ TBD Sioux City, City Tournament
TBD Freshmen Boy Basketball @ TBD Sioux City, City Tournament

Tuesday, February 12
TBD Freshmen Girl Basketball @ TBD Sioux City, City Tournament

TBD Freshmen Boy Basketball @ TBD Sioux City, City Tournament

TBD Varsity Bowling State Qualifying

5:30 pm JV Boy Basketball @ Sioux City North

7:00 pm Varsity Boy Basketball @ Sioux City North

Thursday, February 14

TBD Freshmen Girl Basketball @ TBD Sioux City, City Tournament
TBD Freshmen Boy Basketball @ TBD Sioux City, City Tournament

Friday, February 15

6:30 pm Dance Exhibition

Saturday, February 16

8:00 am Large Group Speech All-State Festival @ Ames

Monday, February 18

TBD State Bowling

NWI Jazz Festival

Thursday, February 21

State Robotics @ Coralville

Friday, February 22

State Robotics @ Coralville

HS Show Choir Home Performance

Saturday, February 23

Show Choir @ Bishop Heelan Show Choir Invite

State Robotics @ Coralville

8:00 am District IE Speech contest @ Whiting

Monday, February 25

7:30 pm Orchestra Winter Concert - MS Auditorium

Saturday, March 2

Show Choir @ Lewis Central Show Choir Contest

Tuesday, March 5

6:30 pm Spanish Club Field Trip

Saturday, March 9

8:00 am State IE Speech Contest @ Woodbury Central

Tuesday, March 12

4:30 pm Varsity/JV Boy/Girl Track @ Buena Vista University

Saturday, March 16

Show Choir @ Hinton Show Choir Invitational

Sunday, March 17

Show Choir Banquet

Monday, March 18

7:45 am NHS Induction practice

6:30 pm NHS Induction Ceremony

Tuesday, March 19

7:30 pm HS Vocal Recital

Saturday, March 23

State Solo/Small Ensemble Contest

12:00 pm Varsity/JV Boy/Girl Track @ SDSU

Monday, March 25

8:00 am IE Speech All-State Festival @ Cedar Falls

Tuesday, March 26

5:00 pm Varsity/JV Boy/Girl Track @ Unity Christian