April 25, 2008

FWR – The weekly memo is provided to keep everyone on the same page about issues, events and activities. The expectation is that anyone involved in Washington’s activities should at least skim the memo to make sure you’re aware of what is going on (prior week, next week or down the road). I feel this beats a weekly meeting, but would encourage input if you feel that a weekly meeting would be a more productive way to disseminate information.

5th Grade Music Program was great! The kids looked professional and sang wonderfully. Congrats to Ms. Mann and thanks to the 5th grade teachers who helped put the “nifty” props into the “Nifty Fifty” song. You must have done well in elementary art growing up! The 5th graders will present two songs to the 4th grade Monday at 2:15 pm. I will continue to post pictures from the program & some videos on the website (http://wistigers.blogspot.com/).

Science Fair - Teanna Pafford (5-2) took “Best of Show” in the 3-5 division. Her project was titled “Popcorn Madness.” Washington contestants in the 3-5 division receiving a third place ribbon included Cassie Vrabel and Sydnee Esaias. Receiving second place ribbons were Vincent Breedlove, Chase Rea, and Brenna Craig. First place ribbons were awarded to Grace Blomstedt and Jamie Storesund. My wife, boys, and I though the projects were great and the kids did a nice job!

ICAMs should be returned to the office no later than Monday, April 28.

School Board meeting scheduled for Monday, April 28, at 6:30 P.M, will be at the IPS media center.

Purchase Orders for 2007-08 are due next Friday, May 2nd. These would include any PTO purchases for this year. Orders for next year (2008-09) will not be due until after our May team planning day.

Gates & Fluency will be completed the week of May 5th. Please coordinate the schedule with Lorie.

After School Math Celebration will take place on Tuesday, May 6th. We will have each teacher keep their own students from 3:10 – 3:45 to practice and then have a class contest to choose four students. Four students from each room will compete in the gym starting at 3:45 pm. Please let your students know that parents and grandparents are welcome to join us in the classroom and gym.

Professional Development – Vocabulary implementation logs are due in the office. Next PD is scheduled for May 7th at IPS. A Smart Board presentation will take place in the high school at 3:00 pm that afternoon. Also, thanks to Sandra for stepping into the past two leadership team meetings.

School Board meeting scheduled for Monday, April 28, at 6:30 P.M, will be at the IPS media center.

Local Wellness Policy – Repeat announcement….The state department completed a review of our local wellness policy and food service operations. Under areas needing more work, it sited “withholding recess and PE to complete class work or as discipline is not recommended.” Refer to the Demo Schools February News, Notes & Wellness newsletter located in the lounge for rationale and alternatives.” Possibly a good discussion for your team – I would be glad to sit in. Full report is available in the lounge. Another study with useful suggestions can be found by clicking here.

He who laughs, lasts – DB

April 18, 2008

Tough Times – my grandfather use to tell me before a sporting event or after a trying time (usually after being dumped by a girlfriend) to “Get my nose hard.” I never really understood that phrase growing up, but the reality and harshness of real life has allowed me to understand it over time. Even outside of events our district has faced the past three springs, April and May bring the 6-8 weeks in education that require us to ‘get our nose hard.’ There will be times students test our patience or tap dance on our nerves, but I appreciate you continuing to focus on what needs to get done between now and the last day of school. Please continue to support the students academic and emotional needs the best you can each and every day - Jeannie and I are there to support yours!

Our National Library Week ready party will be postponed until Thursday, May 1st. Thank you to Jan for putting this all together and making the needed changes and phone calls yesterday.

Young Writers – Thank you to Connie and Cheri for chaperoning the students on their trip this week. I heard from many kids yesterday that it was “the best time ever!” I’m thankful we can provide an opportunity like Young Writers for our students.

Local Wellness Policy – The state department completed a review of our local wellness policy and food service operations. Under areas needing more work, it sited “withholding recess and PE to complete class work or as discipline is not recommended. Refer to the Demo Schools February News, Notes & Wellness newsletter for rationale and alternatives.” Possibly a good discussion for your team – I would be glad to sit in. The full report is available in the lounge. Another study with useful suggestions can be found by clicking here.

The K-5 Science Fair is scheduled for Monday, April 21. It will begin at 3:45 P.M. in the IPS cafeteria.

5th Grade Music Program is set for Monday, April 21 at 7:00 pm. It will take place in the middle school gym and I hope to see many of you there in support of the students and Ms. Mann. I know they have been working hard to prepare!

ICAMs will take place next week. 4th grade teachers should pick up materials from the office before leaving today. We are only taking 2 tests this year.

Leadership team will meet on Wednesday, April 23, at 12:15 P.M. Mark and Sandra will attend.

School Board meeting scheduled for Monday, April 28, at 6:30 P.M, will be at the IPS media center.

Smart Board presentation – tentative plans indicate a presentation during our May 7th PD. Bob has set up it up for 3:00 P.M. I will get you the final word when I receive it.

WEBSITE – Please look for ways to tie in student writing tasks/assignments to projects that can be posted on the website. You all do units or projects in your class on a weekly basis that students can share through the writing process. If you need ideas, let me know. A prize will go to the first classroom who supplies three articles for the website about their class, our school or community. How about a prize to the first three teachers who indicate they have read this far in the memo too.

Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you,

but not in one ahead.”—Bill McGlashen
He who laughs, lasts – DB

April 11, 2008

ITBS Week – Thank you for supporting our students during a successful testing week. I heard many times over: "The kids are working hard." and the "The kids are trying their best." Please attempt to get make-up tests done today. Mrs. Burnison and Mr. Maurer are available to help with the make-up tests. All tests are due to the Ms. Bates no later than 4:00 pm on Tuesday, April 15.

National Library Week is the next week. The April Student Advisees will be walking to the Square on Monday at 10:30 to invite businesses to join us for the reading party on Friday, April 18. Student Advisees were given a letter to take home to their parents and should talk to his/her teacher about making up any work they will miss during that hour on Monday. If you have questions, please see me. There is also a 1:00 PM dismissal that Friday.

Network/Phone Work – Please do not plan computer activities next week. Although we there will be little interruption in service, it would be safe to plan around the work being done next week. There will be high school students and staff from New Visions in your rooms next week. They will try to keep the disruptions to a minimum, but you may want to inform your students of the possible "guests." New phones will be in next week. To access the online training, go to: http://www.newvisioncommunications.com/training/RedOak/index.htm

Interviews – Two interviews for the BD room were completed. We should be able to have an announcement sometime next week. Thank you to Connie & Lisa for assisting with this process.

Board Meeting is set for Monday, April 14 at 6:30 pm at Webster. The Board Members will also be touring the school buildings and grounds on Monday.

Young Writers will be heading to Graceland University. We have 24 students attending.

The K-5 Science Fair is scheduled for Monday, April 21. It will begin at 3:45 P.M. in the IPS cafeteria.

5th Grade Music Program is set for Monday, April 21 at 7:00 pm. It will take place in the middle school gym and I hope to see many of you there in support of the students and Ms. Mann. I know they have been working hard to prepare!

ICAMs will take place the week of April 21st. 4th grade teachers should pick up materials from me late next week. We are only taking 2 tests this year.

My Schedule - my April schedule has not allowed me to be in the building as much as I would desire. I appreciate knowing that the staff does an excellent job managing the ups, downs and decisions in my absence. Your flexibility, communication and leadership is unmatched. Thank you for your hard work.

WEBSITE – Please look for ways to tie in student writing tasks/assignments to projects that can be posted on the website. You all do units or projects in your class on a weekly basis that students can share through the writing process. If you need ideas, let me know. A prize will go to the first classroom who supplies three articles for the website about their class, our school or community.

Develop a passion for learning.

If you do, you'll never cease to grow.

-- Anthony J. D'Angelo

He who laughs, lasts – DB

April 4, 2008

ITBS Week – Thank you for all your hard work getting our students ready for testing next week (both mentally and academically)! I enjoyed going into each classroom to do goal setting and know the students are serious about trying their best. Our short assembly next Monday afternoon will be a fun way to kick off the testing week!

Network/Phone Work – Please make sure you have read Bob Deter’s email regarding upcoming network and phone work/installation. All teachers should take time this weekend or next week to go through the online training for your new phone. Your team may want to do the training together or in pairs. All staff members will have voice mail and need to know how to access it. If you have questions, please let us know. To access the online training, go to: http://www.newvisioncommunications.com/training/RedOak/index.htm

Interviews – Interviews for the BD room had been mentioned in a previous email & I was asked the question, “What for?” I am sorry for not giving the entire story to everyone. J Next year, Lorie’s role will be to serve 4th & 5th grade Level I students and Connie will move to serving 4th & 5th grade Level II & III students. We will continue serving 4th-8th grade students who need additional help and support in order to be successful in the regular classroom at Washington (BD room). This is the position we are trying to fill at this point. One interview today and one next week.

Budget – Stephanie and I met this week and we are on track with our building budget (which includes copying cost). I would need any remaining 2007-08 purchases to our office by Friday, May 2nd. More detailed information about this year’s budget progress and the 2008-09 summer deadline to come in the next couple weeks.

School Board Meeting is scheduled for April 14, at 6:30 P.M.

Teacher Quality Committee met on Wednesday, April 2, at 4:00 P.M. Summer professional development for the TQC, the calendar and planning the pre-2008-09 school year professional development days were part of the discussion. Minutes will be available in the near future.

National Library Week is the week of April 14 and the theme this year is, Join the Circle of Knowledge. Jan has been planning a great even for April 18. Notes will be going home with students today and Jan & three of our very own will visit KCSI on Monday at 6:15 AM.

Flexibility – Working at Washington is great because we have such a flexible staff! A recent example comes from Kaiser, Lamb, Subbert, Petty & Schwartz’s flexibility and work to move offices to accommodate the lunchroom concerns. Mrs. Kaiser gave up a majority of her spring break to make it happen!! This is just another example of the family attitude at WIS….thanks!

WEBSITE – Please look for ways to tie in student writing tasks/assignments to projects that can be posted on the website. You all do units or projects in your class on a weekly basis that students can share through the writing process. If you need ideas, let me know. A prize will go to the first classroom who supplies three articles for the website about their class, our school or community.

You get the best efforts from others not by lighting

a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.

- Bob Nelson

He who laughs, lasts – DB

March 28, 2008

Join the Circle of Knowledge
We would like to formally invite the Red Oak CSD School Board to join our “Circle of Knowledge” at the Red Oak downtown square on April 18th, 11:30 – 12:30. To celebrate National Library Week, WIS students will be eating sack lunches in the park and then reading their favorite books. All parents, grandparents, business people, etc. are invited to join them for an hour of eating and reading. The public may bring a sack lunch and a book and eat with the students for ½ hour, then read for ½ hour. If you would rather listen to a child read, you are welcome to do that. This reading event should be a fun-filled and enjoyable hour bringing school and community together to celebrate the contributions libraries and books make in all our lives.

Solo Try-Outs for Music Program
The following students will tried out for solo parts for the upcoming 5th grade music program on April 21st. They should be commended for their desire to give extra time, effect and dedication. Please join Ms. Mann and our 5th graders on April 21st, 7:00 pm, at the middle school gym.

Tatum Allensworth Gavin French Colton Goldsmith
Ana Hamm Jerrica Tarbox Clayton Wall
Aaron Jackson Donnie Talbott Logan LeRette
Yessica Lemus Gilman Cooper Grace Blomstedt
Rylee Palmer Mikayla LeRette Teanna Pafford
Morgan McFarland Cameo Stephens Cade Johnson

Iowa Tests of Basic Skills
I was in each of the classrooms the weeks prior to ITBS week. Our focus was sharing individual students with their scores from previous years and goal setting for this year’s tests. Students looked at their prior grade equivalent scores for reading comprehension, math total and math computation and then set a grade equivalent goal (score) for this year. If 80% of students reach their goals, we will announce that during an assembly and students will get to pick from something fun for us to do or for them to do to me. J We hope to have some fun with it. Also, grade level goals and rewards were set – basically if grade levels hit the NCLB/Iowa trajectory target for their grade level in a math and/or reading, they earn a reward (i.e. class goes bowling or skating, etc.).

AEA 14 Accreditation Visit
I have been (and will continue) to be a part of the Department of Education’s accreditation team’s visit with AEA 14. There are five AEA 14 administrators, five AEA personnel from NE Iowa and five DE employees on the team. We reviewed documentation for two days, interviewed AEA staff, LEA staff and parents for two days and the final paperwork and presentation of findings will be two days in late April. It has and will be time consuming but a good learning experience and opportunity for me to give feedback directly to the state and AEA as to how they are serving the AEA districts and especially our district.

KCSI
Melanie West spoke with me this week to discuss the possibility of promoting Washington’s activities and setting up a live remote like IPS and the MS have done. We discussed a few possibilities and look forward to building lasting partnerships with KCSI to promote student activities. Melanie also mentioned creating ‘public service announcements’ for Washington and the district. One example would be students creating a 30 second commercial to promote our after school math program. I’m sure our staff will have more ideas too!

Curriculum Updates

Washington Intermediate Explores Math Grouping – we spent a ½ day in teams discussing ability grouping options for math instruction for our 4th and 5th graders. Many options were presented and discussed. The general consensus was we were not ready to pursue doing something with math ability grouping as an entire building yet. At our teacher meeting on Friday, March 28, I indicated to the staff that I would definitely support teachers or teams who would like to pursue options to differentiate math instruction on a smaller scale (i.e. guided math groups within the classroom, 2-3 teachers working together, etc.). We also have started creating pre & post tests directly tired to our math curriculum and math instruction that is tied directly to our standards/benchmarks & supported by the textbook/materials, instead of vice-versa.

Math Curriculum – The district math curriculum team met in February to look ahead to next year’s tasks (cycle: write and selection). As far as the writing and editing of current curriculum, we will be in a ‘holding pattern’ until direction is given from the state as to when the K-8 math standards and benchmarks will be in place. Other items covered was review of assessment data, and input from other key stakeholders (district staff, SIAC, etc.). I am also putting together a data base of what other AEA 13 and 14 school districts use for math series and for their mandated 2nd assessment. Currently, I believe our math ICAM tests and data are not useful and it does not drive instructional decisions – the cost is too much to continue to use it just because we have to have a 2nd assessment. More to come…

Science Curriculum – The district science curriculum team met in late March to revisit some work left undone in 2003. As mentioned above, we will await the state’s decision on K-8 science curriculum and then cross-reference with our local curriculum to ensure compliance. We did see some glaring repetition and the team saw a need to spend time ‘fixing’ those issues this coming year during professional development time.

Reading Curriculum – The K-5 leadership team discussed the $3000 grant we received from the AEA. This Instructional Decision Making grant will allow a team to spend a day this summer to create a solid core curriculum (essential learnings/indicators) document that all K-5 teachers can follow to ensure core reading instruction is consistent from room to room and eliminate gaps from grade level to grade level. The final product will be a useable, workable ‘curriculum map’ of sorts that will be presented to teachers in the fall and follow-up professional development will be needed to assist teachers with this process.

Special Education teams met in January and came up with four very doable, needed, yet possibly time consuming tasks that need to be completed: (1) District delivery plan/review case loads; (2) Continuum of services/programs; (3) Resources & programs research; (4) Developing a transition day for SPED teachers to meet with parents/students in spring. With Monica Crouch’s assistance, we have started moving on these tasks and hope to have more to report during the spring, summer and next fall.

ELO – Talented & Gifted – Bates, Kaiser and Barry met in February and the main topics discussed were to determine how we can better serve our ELO students and to create a parent survey we can administer each spring. The survey would be a K-12 survey for ELO parents and a draft has been completed.

Guidance – Counselors met with me in February. Two areas of focus were communication and curriculum (look at the K-12 National Model curriculum). All agreed that added professional development time during the 2008-09 school year would help with communication between the counselors.

March 21, 2008

Portfolios & Evaluations – Portfolios are due on Friday, April 4. Thank you to those who have turned them in advance. Teachers not on cycle need to have their yearly observation completed by April 18th.

Leadership Team will next meet on Tues, March 25, at IPS. There is a regional leadership team meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 2. It will be held at the conference room at the Montgomery Memorial Hospital beginning at 9:00 A.M.

Teacher Quality Committee will be meeting on Wednesday, April 2, at 4:00 P.M. This will be held in the Sue Wagaman Board Room.

National Library Week is the week of April 14 and the theme this year is, Join the Circle of Knowledge. Jan has been planning some fun activities for the week and we are planning on doing something special with the kids on Friday, April 18th. More to come after…

Spring Break!! – I hope you enjoy your spring break week. It is a well deserved rest for each of you. Relax and take a break from school…that may be the only way you can return on March 24th ready to roll for the big finale (i.e. 4th quarter)!

WEBSITE – only one student piece is on the website so far. Please look for ways to tie in student writing tasks/assignments to projects that can be posted on the website. You all do units or projects in your class on a weekly basis that students can share through the writing process. If you need ideas, let me know.

People hear what we say but they see what we do.

And seeing is believing.

-- Eric Harvey and Al Lucia
He who laughs, lasts – DB

March 7, 2008

Team Planning is set for Monday, March 10th. Fourth grade will meet from 8:00 – 11:40 am and fifth grade from 12:10 – 3:50 pm. The items for discussion are:

• Math Ability Grouping – Possible options will be presented and teams should discuss the options and give feedback to me as to whether or not we should continue to move forward with the research and planning for the 2008-09 school year.
• Math Pre/Post Test – Teams will view 2nd & 3rd grade pre/post tests, 4th/5th grade curriculum, ITBS grade level indicators, and current textbook/resources. From these resources, teams will create a math pre/post test to reflect the indicators and concepts expected of all 4th and 5th graders. This will be administered this May.
• ITBS Test Week – Teams will work on the schedule for testing week, determine student and grade level goal setting and decide on grade level incentives.
• Classroom/grade level expectations – please create a list to be turned in.
  

Staff Meeting – Thank you for your input from Wednesday’s staff meeting regarding student pride and classroom/building expectations. I will look for more ways to recognize individual students and look forward to your discussion about grade level and classroom expectations during your grade level planning time on Monday.

Interviews – we have three interviews set up between now and Monday evening. Thank you to Sue T., Sue C., and Mark for assisting us with this process.

After School Math will be next Tuesday, March 11. March 25 will be our last one before our May 6 celebration and contest.

3rd Quarter ends on Friday, March 14. Grades will be due by the end of the day on Tuesday, March 25. We will send grades home on Thursday, March 27.

The School Board Meeting was changed to Monday, March 24, at 6:30 P.M.

WEBSITE – only one student piece is on the website so far. Please look for ways to tie in student writing tasks/assignments to projects that can be posted on the website. You all do units or projects in your class on a weekly basis that students can share through the writing process. If you need ideas, let me know.

He who laughs, lasts – DB