LCHS Friday Focus

  Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week. This will be the last Friday Focus in November.  We sure did start the week off exciting, fire alarms going off before school. Most of you were not here yet, so consider yourself lucky. If the fire alarms are going off and it is not a scheduled drill, we do need to move all students towards the exits. If it is cold (under 30 degrees), wait by the doors to be given an evacuation order. If it is above 30 degrees, then evacuate the building. Please do not reenter until told so by myself, Mr. Formanek, or any member of the Le Mars Fire Department. On Monday, Someone silenced the alarms and people started to come back into the building. If the strobes are still going off, the building has not been cleared. So it is easier to wait for an all clear to be given before reentering the building. During the winter months, if we need to evacuate, go out the closest exit and make your way to the bus barn. We will use the bus barn as a sh...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week. Thank you for all your work to help make our students better. I appreciated the conversations I heard on Wednesday. I wasn't able to make it into every group, but the groups where I was at were having deep conversation on what our students need. That was really great to hear!  We are almost to a break, I know many of us are feeling a little stressed and need a little more time away from the students to get refreshed. That time is almost here. After Thanksgiving, we only have 14 days of class and then semester tests.  On Wednesday, I asked you to think about ways to motivate students or how we can let students know how the ISASP do impact them and that their effort is important. If you have thought of any ideas, please make sure you let someone on CIA or myself know. One idea is maybe ask your advisory students if they know what ISASP are and what they are used for? Starting to educate them on the importance of the test may he...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week. I have been trying to think of something really good to write about, but have been drawing a blank. So I only have a few updates. I did have a meeting with NW AEA regarding our targeted status for IEP student growth on the ISASP. I'll talk more about this on Wednesday at our in-service. How growth is calculated is too confusing to put down in the Friday Focus. Anyway, by us being identified as a targeted school we will be in a 3 year process to get ourselves removed from this list. Year 1, our only real task will be to come up with a plan. I will have a small committee set up that will work on this. There will be meetings for us to attend at the AEA. Year 2 and 3 is where we implement our plan. I have a webinar on November 15, hopefully the state will give us more information. Thank you to those of you who have been getting the PASS plans done. These all need to be completed by Nov. 16. The time after that is going to fly by. We d...

                  Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week. Halloween is on Monday, we do not allow students to dress up for this. Please make sure they are aware that they still need to be following the dress code. We are getting close to the end of the 1st trimester. The trimester will end on November 16, which is the same day as midterm of the 2nd quarter. Reminder that all PASS plans must be done by November 16. If a student would not earn a passing grade at the end of the semester and no PASS plan was held, the student will not be given a failing grade. No incompletes will be given for this reason. PASS plans are a building requirement.  First trimester grades will be due on 11/18 at 8:00 am so we can print midterms/trimester report cards. Those will be handed out in 8th period that day. If you have a student that failed a trimester course, I will need the PASS Plan summary page filled out and handed into me. I am meeting ...

                Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week. Today, we will be sending home report cards. With the completion of the first quarter this week, this is a good reminder to make sure PASS plan meetings are happening in a timely fashion. The last day to have a PASS plan meeting is on November 16. Any student that is at risk of failing a class must have a PASS plan on file in my office. This is a requirement. As I am typing this, I have had 19 forms turned into my office, we currently have 135 students earning at least 1 F or D-. Please get these scheduled soon. If it was your child, you would want some time to try and make a difference as a parent.  I have talked to some friends in different schools around the state and the Midwest. What we are experiencing with some of our students, in regards to their view of education, is very similar. I think some of our students are still feeling the effects of the extended Covid summer...