February 8, 2019

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Happy Friday! This weather pattern we are in is getting old. Tuesday next week marks midterm for the third quarter. Please make sure grades are updated Tuesday morning so Amy and Beth can run midterms. We will pass them out at the end of the day. During advisory on Monday, please have the students fill out the 3rd quarter midterm reflection. 

 Looking ahead at the calendar, we have our extra hour meeting on February 20. February 13 is the district in-service day. 

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.

This is a change from before. This year we will be giving the ISASP (formally Iowa Assessments) differently than in the past. On April 11 and 12, we will run a block schedule. 

Thursday, April 11
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

Friday, April 12
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

 Wednesday, April 9
7th: 8:30-8:58
Advisory - Writing 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

Both of these days will be "A" day. Monday and Tuesday will be normal. Wednesday will be the writing assessment. 

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. 

 The reason for the change is that we will need to move some laptops around to other rooms to make sure we have enough computers. This will allow us to move laptops on Tuesday to make sure they are all charged up prior to testing on Wednesday. 

 A few of you will meet in a different room for advisory that day to avoid us moving lots of laptops. Mr. Ohrlund will test in Mrs. Ohrlund's room, Ms. Pick will test in Mr. Starr's room, Mrs. Carter will test in the 211 computer lab, and Ms. James will test in Mrs. Cunningham's room. Seniors and exchange students will not need to be here for advisory. I will send out a spread sheet closer to the date that will show you where to get the laptops from. 

 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 compete at individual districts on Saturday in Fort Dodge.

 Good Luck to the Bowling teams as they have their district meet on Tuesday!

 Congrats to the Large Group Speech students who were selected to perform at the All-State Festival! Members are: Group Mime Hansel and Gretel - Chloe Calhoun, Westin Friederich, Arianna Grant, Brooke Loutsch, Keegan Pippett, and Hailey Plueger. Musical Theater Rumors - Harlie Bates, Arlinna Bowen, Alyannah Buhman, Devon Feenstra, Dalton Glawe, Jack McInnis, Keegan Pippett, and Caitlin Sudtelgte. Radio Broadcasting KTXD - Xander Carver, Tucker Herren, Drake Oswald, and Kevin Van Otterloo.

 Congrats to Crimson and Black for earning Division 1 Ratings at the State Show Choir Festival.

Staff News


Staff as Learners


Assistant Principal's Happenings

The LCHS Student Council along with NHS and Lead Dog, are promoting a campaign to bring an awareness of domestic abuse and violence.  Our hope is to educate our students on what LOVE IS...and to create an awareness of what an abusive or violent relationship looks like.  Today and Monday, students will be selling orange bracelets, #LoveRevolution, for $5.00 during HS lunch.  Student's who purchase a bracelet will also get an additional treat made from the heart.  All proceeds will go to local charities to end domestic violence/abuse.  On February 12th, we encourage everyone to wear orange as we seek to promote the Love is Respect National Movement.

On February 8th - 25th, the student council is holding a food drive to help restock the local food pantries.  A student or teacher can bring in canned foods and/or boxed foot items (Not Expired) to the library.  We will promote our official kickoff for this campaign at the February 9th basketball game with Sioux City West.  Our student council, along with West High's student council is looking to promote a competition to see which colored box (green or red) at the game will collect the most food.  All food collected will go to local food pantries.


Resources of all kinds - notes from the Librarian

Do your eyes get tired from looking at the screen all day? What about the students' eyes, especially those with dyslexia? Consider changing your background with Google extensions. Protect Your Eyes


Instructional Coach's Technology Tid Bits

YouTube Tip ---when playing a YouTube video on a desktop computer, press L to leap forward 10 seconds and J to jump back 10 seconds. 

 If you use ad blocking extensions to prevent those pesky pop up ads be warned. Ad-blocker developers fear their Chrome extensions will be wiped out by proposed changes to Chrome APIs. Stay tuned for more as more becomes available.

 New Brookings Institute Report: Teaching is among the occupations least vulnerable to automation. Whew. That's a relief.

 Edji is a collaborative annotation tool that lets students leave comments on text and images in a reading, and then optionally see comments from classmates. Edji creates what it calls a Heat Map: A real time, interactive view, that shows you where each highlight is made. When Highlights overlap, the highlights begin to glow. A word with one comment is yellow, but a word with 15 comments glows dark red; making it easy to see what your students care most about in a reading. Students do not need to create accounts to access this tool They can simply access an Edji that you create by sharing an access code --- much like when you share a code to play Kahoot.


Success Center

As we get our students ready for the ISASP, one of the most important skills students need to learn is how to analyze what the questions are really asking.  Here are three strategies we can use to teach students these skills:

1.  Analyze the question.  What is the question about?  What is the topic you are being asked to explore?  What is the main idea or problem?
2.  Consider the learning.  What are the key words that help you know how to answer?  What are the key verbs?  What other significant words do you see in the question, and are they related to the other important words you have identified?
3.  Watch for words that change the focus of the question.  What is the scope of the question?  Specific?  Broad?  Are there words in the question that alter the meaning? 

Almost every question will have key words or phrases that guide the reader toward the answer.  Taking the time to practice looking for those words might make a big difference in student performance.


Article Worth Reading


Upcoming Activities

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
11:45 am JV Boy/Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City West
12:00 pm- District Wrestling @ Fort Dodge
1:45 pm Varsity Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City West
3:15 pm Varsity Boy Basketball vs. Sioux City West

Monday, February 11
6:00 pm Freshmen Boy Basketball vs. Sioux City East @ West - City Tournament

Tuesday, February 12
4:00 pm Freshmen Girl Basketball @ South 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
7:00 pm Girls Varsity Basketball vs. winner of Spencer/SBL

Monday, February 18
TBD State Bowling
NWI Jazz Festival

 Tuesday, February 19
7:00 pm Girls Varsity Basketball - TBD


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

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