February 15, 2019
Happy Friday! Enjoy the scheduled three day weekend and be happy we are not in Eastern Iowa. A few districts over there had only 2.5 days of school in a 2 week stretch. Thank you for your patience this week with trying to get different activities in.
Tonight, you have a chance to see the dance team perform for a final time this year. Show starts at 6:30, dinner at 5:00. Tomorrow, the girls' varsity basketball team will be facing SBL, game starts at 7:00 pm. On Monday, we will be hosting the NWI Jazz Band. If you have a chance come on over and check it out. The boys' varsity basketball team will also be making their tournament debut playing Spirit Lake at 8:00 pm.
We have our extra hour meeting next week. Our meeting on March 6 will be in the library so we can discuss the ISASP and testing procedures. I will also need you to sign the form that you have had the training and are aware of the protocols/rules.
If you haven't had your students take the practice tests yet, please try to get this done. There are also other training aides that might be beneficial to the students to look at. It will explain how to bookmark questions you skip and how to use the tools with the assessment.
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.
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.
Have a great weekend!
Mark
Students at Leaders
Good Luck to the All-State Speech students as they perform at the All-State Speech Festival in Ames on Saturday.
Congrats to the boy and girl bowling teams as they qualified for state. Also, Congrats to Lexi Schroeder and Bryce Timp for being the individual champions.
Congrats to the boy and girl bowling teams as they qualified for state. Also, Congrats to Lexi Schroeder and Bryce Timp for being the individual champions.
Staff News
Staff as Learners
Assistant Principal's Happenings
Resources of all kinds - notes from the Librarian
This was sent from another librarian in the state about the Stanford History Education Group website.
Within the site are lessons to help teachers tackle teaching the critical skills of evaluating online information.
These assessments show students online content and ask them to reason about that content. There are paper as well as tasks students complete digitally. https://sheg.stanford.edu/
As I start preparing requisitions for next school year, please let me know if there are any titles that you believe we need in the library. These could be books that you are think would be interesting to students and/or books that will supplement your curriculum.
A reminder that Student Council is doing the food drive right now to restorck our local food pantries. Please encourage your students to participate and help those in need. Thank you.
Instructional Coach's Technology Tid Bits
If you have any interest in being part of beta-testing for Google Classrooms Gradebook and/or Google Forms locked quiz mode, click here.
It seems that a trend now in phishing attacks is to make an email seem like it is coming to you as a fake meeting request from your boss. Click here to if you would like to read more on the subject.
Google has released a new Chrome extension named "Password Checkup" that checks if usernames and password combinations entered in login forms have been leaked online during past data breaches and security incidents. Note: it only checks if combinations have been leaked not individual usernames or passwords. Click here if you are interested in learning more.
It seems that a trend now in phishing attacks is to make an email seem like it is coming to you as a fake meeting request from your boss. Click here to if you would like to read more on the subject.
Google has released a new Chrome extension named "Password Checkup" that checks if usernames and password combinations entered in login forms have been leaked online during past data breaches and security incidents. Note: it only checks if combinations have been leaked not individual usernames or passwords. Click here if you are interested in learning more.
Success Center
I read an interesting article the other day about five functions teachers perform that make us agents of change with students in the classroom. These functions are all based in literacy and language, and to effectively undertake them requires an understanding of the structure of language. Here are the five:
Teacher as Communicator. Do you speak and write so your students can understand? Do you understand what your students are saying? Do you take the time to analyze what your students know, HOW they learn, and what teaching methods would be most useful?
Teacher as Educator. Teachers need to be able to recognize which language or learning problems will resolve themselves and which ones will likely need intervention and/or extra support. How do you make learning comprehensible for ALL students in your classroom?
Teacher as Evaluator. We make decisions and judgments all day, every day. How have you introduced authentic assessment tools into your classroom to evaluate student learning, student progress, and effective instruction?
Teacher as Educated Human Being. We have all seen and heard damaging discussions about education at the State and Federal level driven by misinformation and misunderstanding. As an educator, are you informed about those decisions that impact your classroom?
Teacher as An Agent of Socialization. We are often the only bridge for our students between home and community. Does your classroom organization help students adjust to the societal and community expectations they continue to experience as they grow toward adulthood? Are you modeling the language your students need to make those transitions?
This really made me consider the role language plays in the classroom - word choices we make and how we communicate, both explicitly and implicitly. So often it is not so much WHAT we say, but HOW we say it. We are all language teachers! It's certainly an interesting way to think about it.
Teacher as Communicator. Do you speak and write so your students can understand? Do you understand what your students are saying? Do you take the time to analyze what your students know, HOW they learn, and what teaching methods would be most useful?
Teacher as Educator. Teachers need to be able to recognize which language or learning problems will resolve themselves and which ones will likely need intervention and/or extra support. How do you make learning comprehensible for ALL students in your classroom?
Teacher as Evaluator. We make decisions and judgments all day, every day. How have you introduced authentic assessment tools into your classroom to evaluate student learning, student progress, and effective instruction?
Teacher as Educated Human Being. We have all seen and heard damaging discussions about education at the State and Federal level driven by misinformation and misunderstanding. As an educator, are you informed about those decisions that impact your classroom?
Teacher as An Agent of Socialization. We are often the only bridge for our students between home and community. Does your classroom organization help students adjust to the societal and community expectations they continue to experience as they grow toward adulthood? Are you modeling the language your students need to make those transitions?
This really made me consider the role language plays in the classroom - word choices we make and how we communicate, both explicitly and implicitly. So often it is not so much WHAT we say, but HOW we say it. We are all language teachers! It's certainly an interesting way to think about it.
Fillmore, L. W., & Snow, C. E. (2000, August). What teachers need to know about language.
Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement.
Article Worth Reading
Upcoming Activities
Saturday, February 16
8:00 am Large Group Speech All-State Festival @ Ames
7:00 pm Girls Varsity Basketball vs. winner of Spencer/SBL
Monday, February 18
NWI Jazz Festival
8:00 pm Boys Varsity Basketball vs. Spirit Lake
Tuesday, February 19
7:00 pm Girls Varsity Basketball - TBD
TBD State Bowling
HS Show Choir Home Performance
State Robotics @ Coralville
8:00 am District IE Speech contest @ Whiting
Tuesday, March 5
7:00 pm Girls Varsity Basketball vs. winner of Spencer/SBL
Monday, February 18
NWI Jazz Festival
8:00 pm Boys Varsity Basketball vs. Spirit Lake
Tuesday, February 19
7:00 pm Girls Varsity Basketball - TBD
Thursday, February 21
State Robotics @ Coralville
Friday, February 22
State Robotics @ CoralvilleHS Show Choir Home Performance
Saturday, February 23
Show Choir @ Bishop Heelan Show Choir InviteState 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 ContestTuesday, 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
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