LCHS Friday Focus

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. We have almost made it to Christmas break. This will the last Friday Focus for 2023. For those of you working on your extra hour, personal PD plans, January 2 is the next date available to work on those hours. After January 2, the dates are May 24-31. Remember you will need to scan the QR code. I will have that hanging on the office window.  Finals will begin on Dec. 18 with the odd periods and Dec. 19 with the even periods. Students will be required to take test during their assigned period unless they have an advance makeup or you have heard from Mr. Moss or myself. Students are expected to stay in the rooms for the entire testing period. The only way the student can leave is if they have a pass from the office. These will be in the form of the blue passes to leave the building or a pink pass to go to another room. Please inform the students that they should be prepared to work on something else after the test or read a book.  ...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. This coming week will be the last week of regular classes for semester 1. Finals will begin on Dec. 18 with the odd periods and Dec. 19 with the even periods. Students will be required to take test during their assigned period unless they have an advance makeup or you have heard from Mr. Moss or myself. Grades, PASS Plan summaries, and incomplete forms will be due before you leave on the 20th for break. You will need to verify your grades, if you don't remember I have a throwback video for you to watch. Grade Verification Video I have met with the seniors that are failing a classes where the credit is needed for graduation. They are aware of what is at stake. I have also entered all the PASS Plans that have been given to me into the spreadsheet. Please double check to make sure that students are on the list that have had PASS Plans, it is possible that I didn't get a copy of the PASS Plan. Report cards will be sent home on January...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. We have made it to December. Normally we have already started the registration process for the following school year, but we have moved it back a couple months since 1st semester has fewer days then 2nd semester. Starting in January, the counselors will be doing their registration talks with the students. We will be hosting our Career's Day with the 8th graders on January 17. The goal is then to have all the registrations done by the end of February and master schedule done by mid April.  With the end of the semester near, just a few reminders regarding semester test days. The only classes that students will not need to report to is study hall and resource room. Students will need to attend all other classes. Grades, PASS Plan summaries, and incomplete forms will all be due by 3:30 on Wednesday, December 20.  I have been talking with Seniors that are failing classes that would put their graduation at risk. They have all been told...

  Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. This is our Thanksgiving post as there will not be a Friday Focus next week.  I am thankful for the great staff that I get to work with day in and day out. I am always in awe of the passion and the drive of all of you. I am very fortunate to be in this with all of you. I hope during this break, you are able to step away from being a teacher/aide/custodian/cook/counselor and just enjoy some time with your families.  When you come back from break, we only have 15 days of class and 3 days of semester tests. It will go by fast! Grades and pass plan summaries will be due before you leave on the 20th.  The tech department asked me about any potential technology needs we may have for next school year. They are setting up a testing space at central office where they are getting new technology that you can try out in the classroom. If there is something you would like to see if it would work in the classroom let me know and I'...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. Thank you for your work during in-service on Wednesday. The groups I made it to were having some great discussions.  As you all know, we currently have an opening for a Science/Ag teacher. I do not anticipate we will fill this position. Because of that, we are making changes to the 2nd semester schedule. With the changes, some classes are going to become bigger. This is an unfortunate consequence of making changes to the master schedule once we have started. I am unable to go back and make changes in PowerScheduler and do a reload of semester 2 only. This would be ideal as it would help us with our numbers. With the Biology classes, we are cutting the applied junior science class and those students will either be moved to applied physics or they can take the 2nd semester next school year. The science teachers also asked me to consider counting ag science as a science credit. That is something that is being considered. In order to get ...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. Don't forget to turn your clocks back an hour on Sunday.  I won't be in the building today as Tessa has oral surgery mid morning so I'll be with her all day. I will check my emails during the day so if you need something I should respond sometime today. As we enter November, the first semester will be ending quickly. After today, we have 27 days of instruction and 3 days of semester tests.  Our Fall season activities have all come to an end. The winter activities will be kicking off quickly. Girl's wrestling did start this week, followed by girls basketball, bowling, and boys swimming next week. Boys Basketball and Wrestling start the following week.  Dates to keep in mind: Midterm for quarter 2 is 11/16. All PASS Plans need to be done by this time. For those really planning ahead, day 1 of semester test will be on December 18. This will be the odd periods. Day 2 is on December 19 and will be the even periods. December 20 ...

  Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week. This week seemed to be very crazy for Adam and I. I told Dr. Webner a couple of times we needed a snow day.  The Iowa Performance Profile has been released by the state. You can find our results here:  https://www.iaschoolperformance.gov/ECP/StateDistrictSchool/SchoolSummary?k=15805&y=2023  I am very proud of our results and the work that you have all done with our students to get us to this point. We are identified as a high performing school. If you click on the little bar graph by overall performance you can see the history of our scores. I am blessed to have a great staff that is willing to go the extra mile for our students.  Thank you for the continued work on DOK's. We want to get to the point were our tier 1 instruction is meeting the DOK levels that the Iowa Core calls for. If you are seeing a trend in our tier 1 instruction not meeting the DOK levels, the resources being used will need to be eva...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week.  Adam and I have both been asked this week about various student computer usage. Schoology is the platform we are using for classes, but that doesn't mean you have to have the students work off of Schoology in class. Schoology does make some things more convenient, but that means you need to be vigilant when students are given work time and are using the computer to do that work. When we have made our rounds, some students are not actually doing the work that was asked. I know this may surprise some of us that some would be off task. It is very important that you walk around the room to make sure students are on tasks. This also promotes students asking questions. Many students will not walk up to your desk to ask questions in front of their peers, but may ask questions while you are walking around the room. This practice helps those students that get anxious. This is also another way to make sure the students are doing the work t...

              Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week. Thank you for your work during in-service on Wednesday. I think the new EVAAS system will be nice so we can see the growth of each student. Again, Adam and I have our training on that system on Wednesday. Once we learn more about it, I am sure we can get reports that will give us all the info we need.  We are approaching the end of the quarter. The last day of quarter 1 is Oct. 19. The school calendar lists the end of the quarter for the other levels that will end S1 after winter break. We end our S1 before winter break, so the end of our quarter is earlier. Grades will be due on Oct. 23 by 8:00 am. Amy and Deb and will run report cards that morning. These will be mailed home.  I know there were several PASS Plans during conferences, but there are several more students that may need one. All plans need to be completed by Nov. 16. Also, please make sure I get a copy of the plan....

            Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week! This coming week, the firm that the school district hired to do the facility study will be touring all the buildings next week. Jayden will be taking them around to look and the current condition of each building. Yesterday you received a survey asking for your input on how the building functions, what isn't working, future needs, etc. It is important that everyone fills out the survey. This is being sent to every school employee. In December the firm will make their report to the school board. From that the school board will determine the direction they will go. This information will also be  used to update the 10 year facility plan. I would like to welcome Mr. Kluver, who officially started on Thursday. A big thank you to Paul Fischer for postponing his retirement and filling in until Mr. Kluver could start.  Please keep the Heidbrinks in your thoughts and prayers as Doug's mom passed a...