January 22, 2021

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Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. As we enter our last week of January and get ready to move into February we will be nearing our 3rd quarter midterm. Midterm is on February 5. I also want to remind you that I am allowing you to extend a PASS plan from 1st semester to 2nd semester. All I need you to do is contact the parent and then let me know who you are extending it for. I have had some that have emailed the parents and included me in the email.  That will work. 

I also want to encourage you to take the time to look at the Star Reading and Math data in our next extra hour meeting. Check out your students and see what areas they have difficulty in especially in reading, because we are all reading teachers. Hopefully the students looked at their scores and areas where they are not as strong. I do think we had a handful of kids not give a good effort based on how long it took them to test and their score. One report to run in Renaissance is the Monitor Student Mastery Dashboard reading or math. This report will show the various domains. If you click on the blue text, it will then show you the Iowa teaching standards and how each student did on that standard. Or for a quick snapshot, look at State Standards Mastery - Class Report. Our next screener is on 3/17. When we get to that point, please emphasis the importance of doing well on this. As I went through the scores, I found some were finishing the tests very quickly. One young man did the reading test in 18 seconds and the math test in 30 some seconds. The students need to know that we look at these scores and that we may place them in different classes because of them.

Thank you for those of you who took the time to fill out my survey. Of the 34 that filled it out, 31 want to finish semester 1 before the break again next year. We will see how the school calendar flushes out for next year. If it works, we will do this again. From the students that I talked with, this was also a popular change. We will also keep our lunch process the same next year. That has been a nice surprise on how peaceful the lunch duty has been this year. A few of the other popular changes may stick around depending on how we handle computers next year. If we keep it the same way, we will work it out so at the end of the day, students can just drop it off and go. I'll need to figure out what that bell schedule will look like. 

Just a reminder we have extra hour meetings on Wednesday, 1/27, 2/3, and 2/17. End of the quarter will be March 12. 

Have a Great Weekend!

Mark

Assistant Principal's Happenings

Continuing with the survey results, one change that seemed appreciated has been the Tardies for Advisory.  I am going to extend that to all Tardies this semester.  I will notify students when they get to five, six, and beyond and hand out the consequences, and contact parents.  If you would still like to contact them, please do to help reinforce the need for students to be in class.

We already have two Seniors starting attendance contracts after 13 days of the Semester.  Please encourage Seniors to stay on track to finish this year.  If they don't makeup time before graduation they are unable to walk during the ceremony.  

While you do not have morning duty this year, please continue to get kids to their advisories.  I talked to a group of Freshman that have been causing some issues with trying to hang out in the Middle School hallway.  It will still be a while before students will start hanging outside before school.  We have been speeding them along in the Commons and they are expected to head to Advisory.

I hope everyone enjoys their weekends!

Ideas from the library/video class/student council

Check out this video to add your comments or Your personal audio to Google slides. Mote  is the Google extension app to use. What's even better, the same app can allow you to add COMMENTS to Google docs. So, once Mote is activated, you can make comments on students' papers by recording your voice instead of typing them! This video by Richard Byrnes tells you how. 

As I add more video classes and video students, they need topics to cover. "Commercials" are always a great way to practice their filming and editing skills, but also their creative writing skills. Public Service Announcements are also good for that. If you have something you want to "advertise" or a topic you think we should cover, please let me know so I can share with my students. We'd greatly appreciate that! 

Student council is selling Puravida bracelets one more time to help fund purchases of personal care items for the bathrooms. Please stop in the office to purchase one or more for $6. They make great Valentine's gifts for the Bulldog fan! Next Friday, they will start handing out order forms for "Stronger Together: Cancer Warrior shirts" to help support students and staff fighting cancer, especially Tyra Thompson. Tune in next Friday for more information! 

Upcoming Activities

Friday, January 22
4:00 pm JV Girl/Boy Basketball vs. CB AL
5:30 pm Varsity Girl Basketball vs. CB AL
7:00 pm Varsity Boy Basketball vs. CB AL

Saturday, January 23
8:00 am IHSSA Large Group Speech District Contest @ Le Mars
9:00 am Freshmen Girl Basketball vs. Sioux City North
9:00 am Varsity/JV Wrestling @ Heelan
10:15 am Freshmen Boy Basketball vs. Sioux City North

Monday, January 25
3:00 pm Bowling vs. Council Bluffs TJ @ Thunderbowl
6:00 pm Freshmen Girl Basketball vs. Storm Lake
7:15 pm Freshmen Boy Basketball vs. Storm Lake

Tuesday, January 26
8:30 am PSAT testing
4:00 pm JV Girl/Boy Basketball @ Heelan
5:30 pm Varsity Girl Basketball @ Heelan
6:00 pm Varsity/JV Wrestling vs. Sioux Center and West Sioux
7:00 pm Varsity Boy Basketball @ Heelan

Thursday, January 28
NWI MS/HS Honor Orchestra Festival @ Northwestern College
4:00 pm Varsity/JV Wrestling @ Long Lines Family Center - Sioux City
6:00 pm Freshmen Girl Basketball @ Hull Western
7:15 pm Freshmen Boy Basketball @ Hull Western

Friday, January 29
4:00 pm JV Boy Basketball vs. Council Bluffs TJ
5:30 pm Varsity Girl Basketball vs. Council Bluffs TJ
7:00 pm Varsity Boy Basketball vs. Council Bluffs TJ

Saturday, January 30
9:30 am JV Wrestling @ Kingsley Pierson

Monday, February 1
3:30 pm Bowling @ Sweet Sixteen Lanes

Tuesday, February 2
4:00 pm Girl/Boy JV Basketball @ Sioux City North
5:30 pm Girl Varsity Basketball @ Sioux City North
6:00 pm JV/Varsity Wrestling vs. MOC
7:00 pm Boy Varsity Basketball @ Sioux City North

Friday, February 5
4:00 pm Girl/Boy JV Basketball @ Sioux City West
5:30 pm Girl Varsity Basketball @ Sioux City West
7:00 pm Boy Varsity Basketball @ Sioux City West

Saturday, February 6
8:00 am IHSSA Large Group Speech State Contest

Monday, February 8
1:00 pm Bowling @ Sweet 16 Lanes
4:00 pm Girl Freshmen Basketball @ Sioux City East
5:30 pm Girl JV Basketball @ Sioux City East
7:00 pm Girl Varsity Basketball @ Sioux City East

Tuesday, February 9
4:00 pm Boy Freshmen Basketball @ Sioux City East
5:30 pm Boy JV Basketball @ Sioux City East
7:00 pm Boy Varsity Basketball @ Sioux City East
7:45 pm Girl Varsity Basketball @ Storm Lake

Friday February 12
4:00 pm Girl/Boy JV Basketball vs. Vermillion
5:30 pm Girl Varsity Basketball vs. Vermillion
7:00 pm Boy Varsity Basketball vs. Vermillion

Saturday, February 13
9:00 am Girl Freshmen Basketball vs. Sioux City West
10:15 am Boy Freshmen Basketball vs. Sioux City West



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