March 15, 2019

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Happy Friday! Looks like we should have some drier weather here for the next few days, which will be a nice break. Grades will be due on Tuesday now at 8:00 am. We will run report cards then. Advisory this week will take place in the competition gym. We will be recognizing students for their achievements so far this school year, and a certain Social Studies teacher in room 101 will get to kiss a pig.

 I have had a couple of questions about retakes recently and I wanted to make sure we are all the same page. If a student is retaking an assessment, the entire assessment may be given as the retake or only have them do the part of the assessment they did poorly on. You can't make sections of a test off limits to retakes, that kind of defeats the mentality that a student can learn the material better. The purpose of a test is to see what a student has learned. If the student works harder and learns the material to a higher degree, then he/she can retake the test. If it is a habitual student, then talk to him/her prior to the test and ask him/her to come in before because a retake may not be an option. 

A few questions I had asked about the ISASP after people left and I felt everyone should hear the answers. 

Q1. What about the student who failed Freshmen English last year and is in both Freshmen and Sophomore English this year? 

A1. The student will just test during Sophomore English. During Freshmen English send him/her to study hall. Please let Susan know if you are sending a student there. 

Q2. What about the student honor code that needs to be developed?

A2. I will work with Judd and Melissa to come up with something to be read to the students. We will have you read it in class prior to the test and will also have it read on Monday and Tuesday of that week over the intercom a couple times each day. 

Q3. I have seniors for advisory, what should I do during the Wednesday testing?

A3. Senior advisory teachers will be assigned to work with a couple of other advisory teachers to give them breaks during the 2 hour session.

Q4. I am worried about the batteries on the computers lasting for the Thursday and Friday testing days.

 A4. Each class is 90 minutes that day, Iowa Testing recommended only 60 minutes. If the computers get plugged in when the students are done testing, Bruce is confident the batteries will last.

 If you have any other question about the ISASP, please ask. This is our first time doing online testing in this capacity, so I am sure we will have bugs to work out.

Have a great weekend!
Mark

Assistant Principal's Happenings

Resources of all kinds - notes from the Librarian

Instructional Coach's Technology Tidbits

Have you heard of Gimkit? If you answered "No" then you are in the same place I was until Tuesday. Similar to some of the other popular "review" games out there students answer questions on their own device at their own pace. One difference is that students earn in-game cash by answering questions correctly. But be careful, an incorrect answer will cost you! Students can reinvest their money by purchasing upgrades & powerups (much like many of the online games they play on their own). Also, Quizlet sets can be imported into Gimkit. There are so many interesting features about this tool I highly recommend you go check it out. As always there are free features and pay features. (Sigh)

 What Teachers Need To Know About The Science Of Learning--And What They Don't. This article is a cognitive neuroscience vs cognitive psychology debate -- which one is more important for a teacher to know to significantly improve student outcomes. I found it to be an interesting read. I hope you do to.

 If you have experienced some issues with any of your Google products recently, you are not alone. Outage sends Google Cloud Services, Gmail, Drive, YouTube fuzzy.

 If you are someone who has concerns about Google and their ever increasing presence in your life, one individual has found a browser that they have found to be an excellent replacement so far. Why I chose Brave as my Chrome browser replacement

Success Center

One of the things we talked about last week was the importance of collaborative learning for all students, especially for students who struggle and English learners.  We all do some type of group work in our classes, but truly productive group work can be rare.  Psychologists call the situation where students rely on the person most willing and able to do the work social loafing.  Miller (2014) offers five steps to make group work productive and eliminate social loafing: teachers must clearly communicate expectations, grouping must be intentional, activities must have a purpose and a structure, work must be scaffolded and supported, and each participant in the group must be held accountable.  Here is Miller's article with examples and cues you can use to increase the value of collaborative learning for your students.


Article Worth Reading

Upcoming Activities

Friday, March 15
3:30 pm Varsity/JV Boy/Girl Track @ Buena Vista University
4:00 pm Dance Team Tryouts

Saturday, March 16
Show Choir @ Hinton Show Choir Invitational
8:00 am Cheer Tryouts
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

Monday, April 1
11:00 am Boy/Girl Varsity Track @ USD
6:00 pm ICAN College Planning/Financial Aide Night

Tuesday, April 2
4:00 pm Boys JV/Varsity Tennis vs. Sioux City East
4:30 pm Boy/Girl JV/Varsity Track @ SBL

Thursday, April 4
Sine Nomine Honor Band @ Spencer
4:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Golf vs. Western Christian @ Willow Creek
4:00 pm Girl JV/Varsity Tennis @ Spirit Lake
4:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Tennis vs. Spirit Lake
5:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Track @ Cherokee

Friday, April 5
4:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Golf @ Hinton
5:00 pm Music Booster Pancake Supper
5:00 pm Girl JV/Varsity Track @ Cherokee

Monday, April 8
4:00 pm Girl JV/Varsity Golf vs. Cherokee
4:00 pm Girl JV/Varsity Tennis vs. Spencer
4:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Tennis @ Spencer
5:00 pm Boy/Girl JV/Varsity Track @ Memorial Field, Sioux City

 Tuesday, April 9
4:00 pm Girl JV/Varsity Golf @ Lake Creek Country Club
4:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Golf @ Estherville Golf Course

 Thursday, April 11
4:00 pm Girl JV/Varsity Tennis @ Storm Lake
4:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Tennis vs. Storm Lake
4:30 pm Girl JV/Varsity Track @ Sioux Center
7:00 pm Spring Play

 Friday, April 12
WITCC Skills Day Contest
5:00 pm Boy/Girl Varsity Track @ Sioux City Relays
7:00 pm Spring Play

 Saturday, April 13
8:00 am Boy/Girl Track @ Sioux City Relays
7:00 pm Spring Play

 Monday, April 15
9:00 am Boy JV/Varsity Golf @ Spencer Country Club
4:00 pm Girl JV/Varsity Tennis vs ELC
4:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Tennis @ ELC
4:30 pm Girl JV/Varsity Track @ Sheldon
5:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Track @ Unity

 Tuesday, April 16
4:00 pm Girl JV/Varsity Golf @ Rolling Hills Country Club
4:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Golf vs. Western Christian
4:00 pm Girl JV/Varsity Tennis @ Cherokee
4:00 pm Boy JV/Varsity Tennis vs. Cherokee

 Thursday, April 18
10:00 am Boy/Girl JV/Varsity Track @ Sioux City East High

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