August 28, 2020

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Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great start to the school year. Overall, I have been pleased with how the year has started. I have only had one angry call about the masks. I was expecting much more than that. The students have done a good job starting out, but I think we will start to have some that will test the waters soon. 

We will continue to be hard on those not wearing masks. If students are in the building after school hours, they still need to have a mask on. If you see someone not wearing, please ask them to put it on and then let Kyle or I know who the student was and one of us will follow up.

Thank you for your flexibility and patience these first few days of school. We have made plans, but no plan is perfect. If you see something we could do better, please let us know. Flexibility and change may be a constant this year. We are making copies of the bell schedule so they can be given to the students to keep in their student handbook. We are all getting use to the new schedule. 

Please make sure you check the dates of our extra hour meetings. We had our first one on Wednesday and I heard good discussion on Schoology and Tier 2 plans. Reminder I need your Tier 2 plan by today. I have also not received seating charts from several staff. This is needed so if we have to contract trace we can get this done quicker. 

As you can see from this first week, we have had a few kids gone already due to quarantine. These students are out 14 calendar days. It is important to keep Schoology up to date as that is how they will access their schooling during this time. We will not be able to have parents pick up work as the parents would also be in quarantine. 

We are still working out the kinks in various areas, like how to turn in devices when teams are leaving early. As of now, if they are leaving during a class, we will have them turn them after the last full class period they are here for. For example, if the volleyball teams leaves at 2:45, the participants would turn their computers back in between 7th and 8th period. If this starts to cause issues, we can look at other options, but our goal is to limit the distractions in your classroom. 

The lunch process has gone very well. In fact, we may have to keep it this way when we are able to get back to some of our old procedures. It is nice not having a long line with kids cutting and pushing each other. 

Have a great weekend! I am sure your voices need the weekend to recover.

Mark


Assistant Principal's Happenings

Thank you everyone for a great first week back after 5 months!  Down below is a picture I took on the first day of school.  Every school in the state is dealing with this challenging time.  We have the unfortunate distinction of starting the year off with the highest positivity rate in the state.  I believe we have done a great job and will continue to learn and change to make things better every day and week.  You should all be proud of yourselves for your efforts to have a successful week despite our high numbers in the county.  Use this as a positive note as we go through the school year.  We will have ups and downs but by being flexible and learning as we go we will get through it.

Chromebook Checkout
We will need to begin allowing students who had a need at home to check out Chromebooks.  Right now, only students that said they had a need should be allowed to take a Chromebook and charger home.  During the last advisory, they will need to request it and you should document it on the spreadsheet that has the students.  I ask you to hit the checkmark and write a date, then when they bring it back the next day remove those until they check it out again.  The reason we are allowing this is because of the need to complete work on Schoology.  If students can only access materials on Schoology they will need the Chromebook to do that.

Next week, I will be towing cars; please share this in both advisories.  I will also make an announcement. 35 cars, including 3 teacher vehicles and Officer Vickery's car could have been towed on Thursday.  Have a permit hanging from your mirror so I know not to do that.  We do run plates first but please have those on there.





Ideas from the library

Students and teachers have the option of accessing ebooks, audiobooks, AEA videos, databases, and more all through the app MackinVia. The students in Mrs. Schindel and Mrs. Ludwig's classes learned how this week. They can also access these sources directly on the computer as well. We did discover (after a long call to tech help) that they must log in through the library system the FIRST time for the username and password to work in Mackin. If you would like to know more, please ask. 

 I know I do not have all the teachers updated in the library system, so I know we are all inundated with technology tips and tricks right now, but here's a fun way to create Digital notebooks using Google slides.  

Success Center Updates


Instructional Coaches


Articles Worth Reading

Upcoming Activities

Friday, August 28
7:00 pm Varsity Football @ Sioux Center

Monday, August 31
5:00 pm Freshmen Football vs. Central Lyon
6:30 pm JV Football vs. Central Lyon

Tuesday, September 1
10:00 am Varsity Golf @ Fort Dodge

Wednesday, September 2
1:00 pm JV Golf @ Floyd Park Golf Course

Thursday, September 3
10:00 am Boys Golf @ Dodge Riverside Golf Course
4:30 pm Freshmen Volleyball @ CB Abe Lincoln
5:30 pm JV Volleyball @ CB Abe Lincoln
7:00 pm Varsity Volleyball @ CB Abe Lincoln

Friday, September 4
4:00 pm Freshmen Football vs. Sioux City East
7:00 pm Varsity Football vs. Sioux City East

Saturday September 5
8:45 am Cross Country @ Iowa Western Community College
9:00 am Varsity Volleyball @ Sioux City North

Tuesday, September 8
10:00 am Varsity Golf @ Willow Creek Golf Course
4:30 pm Cross Country @ Prairie Rose Golf Course
4:30 pm JV Football @ Sioux City East

Wednesday, September 9
1:00 pm JV Golf @ Floyd Park Golf Course

Thursday, September 10
4:30 pm Freshmen Volleyball vs. Sioux City East
5:30 pm JV Volleyball vs. Sioux City East
7:00 pm Varsity Volleyball vs. Sioux City East

Friday, September 11
4:00 pm Freshmen Football vs. Spencer
7:00 pm Varsity Football vs. Spencer

Saturday, September 12
8:00 am Varsity Volleyball - Le Mars Invite

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