February 7, 2020

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Happy Friday! Midterms of third quarter are on Thursday of next week. Please make sure grades are updated by Friday morning so midterms can be sent home that day. Please have the students complete the third quarter midterm during advisory on 2/18. There will be a meeting during advisory on 2/10 for students that were in challenge in middle school in the little theater.

Dates to be aware of: Trimester 2 ends on 2/25. 

 For those groups that I was able to visit on Wednesday, thank you for the good discussion on the the 15 day unit plan. I am meeting with CIA to discuss some of the concerns that were expressed. I don't think I was as clear as I thought I was in last week's blog. For the March meeting, you need to share the data from the interventions you are doing in one section. However, I do want you to start implementing this in all of your classes for the rest of this year and next school year. This is the least intrusive way to do interventions during the school day without changing the schedule to block out a time. 

 I was also asked about what do we do for those kids who get interventions but don't improve. Those are the students that will need the Tier 3 interventions. Tier 3 interventions don't just fall on the classroom teacher. As a group, we will need to look at these students and determine what is the next best course of action. It could be assignment to success center, it could be before or after school assistance, or it could be a referral to special education or a 504. But the main thing is that we have data to show what we have tried and what has not worked for these students. This will help speed up the process of a sped referral. 

 I also appreciate hearing the comments on how your discussion on teaching and the art of teaching has changed. We have spent lots of time discussing PLC and sending people to PLC trainings. We have not looked at our data, especially intervention data, and had discussion about how we are teaching a certain skill. With the expertise in this building, this is where we will grow as a staff and all will become better at our craft. 

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

Have a great Monday!
Mark

Assistant Principal's Happenings

Thank you all for the great conversations and ideas about your classes for next year.  I haven't been apart of those conversations in the past but I learned a lot about many of your classes I haven't seen this year.  We have a lot of awesome opportunities in our district.  Please keep promoting your programs so we can help kids find what they are passionate about.

 With mid-term coming up please keep an eye on students who may need some extra encouragement to get through their classes.  I know a few teachers have already had a pass plan for a student.  Looking over some grades lately, there are a few others that are likely at that point as well.  Please be proactive and set up meetings so we can give these kids every opportunity to succeed.

 I shared this with our counselors earlier this week, but if you get a chance make sure you thank them for all they do!

Success Center Updates

We have been talking about the importance of activating prior knowledge in students and scaffolding the learning from the concrete to the abstract.  Starting with the abstract is often confusing and frustrating when students are not ready for the task.  "Since students make meaning based on their previous understanding, two things must happen.  First, students' previous knowledge needs to be identified through discussion or activities that encourage students to explain their initial thinking about concepts.  Second, the learner needs to be actively mentally engaged with new information or activities that directly confront misconceptions and reflect accurate understanding.  Teachers can encourage active mental engagement through open-ended questions that target students' naive thinking and encourage the students to compare new experiences with old ideas.  Students can be further encouraged to meaningfully engage by being asked to devise ways to test their own conceptual framework for accuracy" (Kruse, 2009, p. 04).

 Kruse, J. (2009). Learning theories: Pillars of teacher decision-making. Iowa Science Teachers Journal. 36(2), 02-07.

Technology Tidbits by Mr. Wingert

I am going to try something different this week and see how it goes.
Click here to access my Tidbits this week.

Upcoming Activities

Friday, February 7
TBD - Morningside Jazz Festival
4:00 pm JV Boy/Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City West
5:30 pm Varsity Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City West
7:00 pm Varsity Boy Basketball vs. Sioux City West

Saturday, February 8
8:00 am IHSAA Large Group Speech State Contest

Monday, February 10
1:00 pm Bowling @ Thunderbowl 
6:00 pm Freshmen Girl Basketball @ SBL
7:30 pm Freshmen Boy Basketball @ SBL

Tuesday, February 11
4:00 pm JV Boy/Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City East
5:30 pm Varsity Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City East
7:00 pm Varsity Boy Basketball vs. Sioux City East

Thursday, February 13
7:00 pm Varsity Girl Basketball vs. Storm Lake

Friday, February 14
4:00 pm Freshmen Boy/Girl Basketball @ Vermillion
5:15 pm JV Boy/Girl Basketball @ Vermillion
6:30 pm Varsity Girl Basketball @ Vermillion
8:00 pm Varsity Boy Basketball @ Vermillion

Saturday, February 15
8:00 am Robotics Super Qualifier@ Le Mars
9:00 am Freshmen Girl Basketball @ Sioux City West
10:15 am Freshmen Boy Basketball @ Sioux City West
1:00 pm JV Boy Basketball @ Sioux City East
2:30 pm Varsity Boy Basketball @ Sioux City East

Monday, February 17
TBD Freshmen Girl Basketball
TBD Freshmen Boy Basketball
TBD HS NWI Jazz Festival

Tuesday, February 18
TBD Freshmen Girl Basketball
TBD Freshmen Boy Basketball

Thursday, February 20
TBD Freshmen Girl Basketball
TBD Freshmen Boy Basketball
7:30 pm HS Band Winter Concert

Friday, February 21
Dance Exhibition

Saturday, February 22
8:00 am IHSSA Large Group Speech All-State Festival - Ames

Thursday, February 27
7:30 pm HS Orchestra Winter Concert

Friday, February 28
7:30 pm HS Show Choir Home Performance

Saturday, February 29
TBD - Show Choir @ Heelan

8:00 am IHSAA IE Speech District Contest - TBD

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