LCHS Friday Focus

  Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. As we get into second quarter, remember PASS Plans should be completed by Nov. 17. The 17th is mid term of the 2nd quarter. I am getting the PASS Plan spreadsheet updated. So please check that to make sure I have a copy of any plans you may have made.  We do have some seniors who could be hurting credit wise. If you have a senior that is failing a class, please make sure you are making contact with the parents, either arranging a meeting or updating them. Don't necessary rely that they will be checking PowerSchool.  On Tuesday, Mrs. Hill, Mr. Kopperud, and myself attended a workshop titled "Future Ready Iowa". Future Ready Iowa is the state's push for PK-12 programs to make sure all Iowa students are ready for life after high school. We looked at some of our post-secondary data. The state tracks students for 6 years after they graduate high school. They look at how many students we say are going to attend post-secondar...

   Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. I think this week, more than any other week so far this year, the students have been a little wound up. I don't know if it was the full moon or the change in the weather, but they were a little more crazier than normal. I know have talked with a few teachers this week and understand the behaviors are getting to us. I have found myself more impatient when dealing with the students. I need to remind myself that I need to try and get to the root cause of the issue/behavior. Many times this has nothing to do with what we are doing here, but what is going on outside of our walls. As our demographics continue to change, we need to keep this in mind. We have more non-traditional families than we have had in the past. Unfortunately, I have also seen an increase in the number of parents that throw in the towel when their student gets into high school. Continue to be patient, and remember the students are not scheming on how to make lif...

  Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. Thank you for your discussions during in-service. There was a common theme coming out of all the groups and it deals mainly with student maturity/behavior issues. This is a good time for us to hit pause and maybe reteach expectations. If a student struggles after the reteaching, they may need to come in and have a private reteaching session. I also heard we are having an issue with students doing homework. If that is the case, reach out to the parents to let them know that if their student comes to class and does not have their homework done, they will be staying after school to do this. Way back when I was still in the classroom, I would take students out to football practice with me so they could finish their homework and then give it to me so they could leave. After a couple times doing this, the students knew I was serious, so they just did it so they didn't have to come to practice with me. I know there were several PASS Plans ...

  Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. We are quickly approaching the end of the first quarter. October 20 marks the end, grades will be due on October 25 at 8:00 am. Please make sure everything is current at that time. Deb and Amy will run the report cards and will mail them out that day. Ineligibility list will come from Mr. Formanek that day also. Remember, the quarter policy is that students must be passing four full time classes.  Thank you for the discussions you had on Wednesday regarding your assessments. I know the internet was down so groups were not able to work in their document. We will give you some additional time during our 2 hour in-service to work on that.  I'll be making an announcement this morning regarding video surveillance. We will be setting up temporary cameras to record parts of hallways that have some behaviors happening we do not want. It will also allow us to see who is accessing what restrooms at what time. I also ask that their i...

  Happy Friday! It is hard to believe we are already starting the month of October. This year seems to be moving faster, maybe it is because I have a senior this year. Thank you for your patience last week during homecoming. It is nice to have that behind us now and we can get back to what we need to do.  Congrats to Mrs. Bowen for being named the September Employee of the Month. This was a very deserving recognition. Thank you Mrs. Bowen for your dedication and hard work for the students of Le Mars.  Wednesday, I sent out a letter to all of our parents regarding the TikTok challenge "devious licks". I asked the parents to talk to their students about this and spelled out potential consequences if students are caught. I have heard rumors, from other schools, that whoever started the "devious licks" challenge has a different challenge for each month. Reportedly for October it is slapping a staff member on the backside. I am hoping that this is not true and we won...

Happy Friday! Today is my traditional longest work day of the year. As we wrap up homecoming week, thank you to those that participated in the dress up days. I don't know if the staff or students did a better job with the roll out of bed and come to school. With the 7 am meeting that day, I think it may have been the staff.  Classes will dismiss today after 4th period. Student Council will be dismissed to the competition gym after 1st period to start decorating for coronation. Football players and cheerleaders will be going to the elementary schools like in past years. Coronation will start at 1 and the parade will follow. Hopefully close to 2:00 pm. It would be great to see the staff at coronation. I know some of you do have parade lineup duty. The LCS Foundation is taking nominations for Employee of the Month again. The last person was recognized in February 2019. Please take the time to nominate one of your peers. Nomination forms can be found here: http://www.lemarscsd.org...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week.  We are starting to see an influx of illnesses in the high school. There are several other bugs going around besides Covid. It is still expected that courses are up to date on Schoology so students can access work when they are absent. A secondary benefit is Jakki and Shelli can see what kids need to do when the student is in the Success Center. Also, please take care of yourselves, I know several have come to school when not feeling the best. I also know that subs are hard to find, but let that be my problem, not yours. If I can't get certified subs, I may have to give classes study hall and have an aide supervise or move them into the study hall in the commons. If possible, we can look at combining classes. I did this with Biology this week and combined 4th and 5th periods. I do appreciate your desire to be here, but I would like you to be healthy.  Homecoming is next week, I encourage you to dress up for the different days. It...