May 21, 2010

Open House for Mrs. Sims! We'd like to take the time next Wednesday to welcome Mrs. Sims to Washington Intermediate so we have planned an Open House for her and I want to invite all WIS staff.  We will have it in the media center beginning at 3:30 pm.  Come as you are and welcome Barb as we get ready to bring the 2009-10 school year to an end. 

Purpose, Planning & Communication!  With many special events and classroom parties over the next week, please communicate your schedule with those who need to know!  I also hope you continue to find ways to plan engaging lessons and remind (and model to!) the kids that our last day is not until May 28th. We will have year end assemblies on Friday, May 28th.  The 4th grade will be at 8:45 am and the 5th grade at 9:30 am.  These will not be as long as previous years!  :) 

The last day for teachers is Tuesday, June 1st, unless you've talked to me about other arrangements.  Check out sheets will be in your box today (Friday). Checkout for teachers may be scheduled during the day and staff who have checked out may leave after 1:00 P.M. You may schedule a 15 minute time via Outlook appointment and this time will include reviewing your ICD plan so you need to bring documentation/data with you.

Track Meet – Thank you to Karen for organizing the event and to the Optimist, Hy-Vee and Fareway for providing lunch. It was a wonderful day at the track!

Orders and Budget - Teams/teachers should begin putting together your orders for the 2010-11 school year as these need to be turned in prior to checking out. Due to budget concerns, I need teams/teachers to make requests for items needed for the 1st quarter only. Think about what you need to get started in the fall and use this to guide your orders. This includes all teachers outside the general classroom too. After registration in the fall, we will have more definite student numbers and be able to make orders for the remaining year.  This is a change in process so if you have questions, you or your team needs to talk to me ASAP.  All "bulk" items (markers, erasers, etc.) should be on a separate list and turned in to Stephanie for her to compile numbers for our central office.

Summer Lunch Program will be held at Washington and Inman this summer.  Lunch will be served to any children ages 3 through 18 at both buildings from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.  This is free to any child in Red Oak and will begin June 5 and run through July 30 with July 5th being the only day the program will be closed.  This will make it even more important that you lock your classroom doors if you visit this summer as we will have a lot of traffic in the building this summer. 

Pandora.com'ing Education:  Students Choose Their Modality - We've all gotten used to the thrill of customization -- getting exactly what we want to make us smarter, richer, happier. Pandora Radio lets anyone customize the music he or she wants to hear. Could a New York City pilot program called School of One do the same thing for education?  Freakonomics Radio offers this very interesting podcast (click here) worth downloading and listening to over the weekend or summer.

It’s not about what happens. It’s about perspective.

I may not be able to change what takes place,

but I can always choose to change my thinking.

-- Michelle Sedas

One week and counting...

May 21 – 3rd Annual Reading on the Square
May 21 - Grade Cut-Off
May 25 - Grades due in office by 4 pm
May 26 – End of Year Picnic @ Fairgrounds
May 27 – Transition Day
May 28 – Assemblies; Last day 1:10 PM dismissal
May 29 – Work day for retiring staff (Mr. Barry not here)
June 1 – Work day/checkout for staff

May 14, 2010

PTO Carnival Friday was a great success!  Thank you to all your support and work on putting this year's carnival together.  Please be sure to thank any and every parent who was involved with the event - Christy Bennett and Leah Mensen did a wonderful job organizing their team!  It appears nearly $6,100.00 profit was made from the carnival...WOW!!!  Thank you notes should be completed by your students and turned in to the appropriate person. 

Your Individual Teacher Career Development Plan is due by the last day of school. All classroom/Title?SPED teachers  would need to have your Gates and ITBS data compiled (growth spring to spring for ITBS and fall to spring for Gates) before you schedule your meeting with me.  Teachers who do not have an academic focus for their ICDP should have appropriate data available for their conference.  These meetings can be set for the last week of school or on June 1st.  A reminder that I will not be in the building on Saturday, May 29th.  

ELL Teacher Hired - Lauren Finn from Glenwood, IA, will be recommended for a contract to fill the ELL position. She is a spring graduate from Iowa State University and has certification in ESL. Her experiences in ELL programs in Ames and Des Moines will benefit our ELL program in the years to come.  She hopes to visit the district soon to meet many of you.  This hire also means that Sonia will officially be approved to move to 4th grade and we all welcome Mrs. Kunze to the WIS family!


Odd's & End's - (1) If you're in the media center between 10:30-11:30 with a student, class or by yourself, please help us out.  We have 6-9 fifth grade students working independently on sixth grade math.  If the students are not on task, any adult may choose to take the students back to their classroom - classroom teachers will have the students remain in the room to work for a period of time.  (2) If you're at WIS after 5:00 pm and you hear footsteps on the roof of the building, please feel free to call our local police at 623-6500 - it is not Gene up there.  I have talked to a few middle/high school boys who I have caught on the roof after hours and explained we would call the police and I'd push for trespassing and theft as they get on the roof to take the balls that are kicked up there during recess.  Thanks for taking care of the building. 

Smath - An article, Talking SMath, from NSTA was posted in the lounge.  It is a very interesting read and something teams and/or individual teachers may want to try out the last couple weeks or begin in the fall.  It looks like PWIM for math/science.  For more information about SMath, vist Where is the SMath website.
http://communication.sdhc.k12.fl.us/whereistheSMath/

End of Year Checklist will be coming to a mailbox near you soon.  A few items I know you and/or your team will want to get a jumpstart on are...
__ SMART Goal for Reading (teams)
__ SMART Goal for Math (teams)
__ SMART Goal for teachers not on a grade level team
__ Student List of students to separate next year (emailed)
__ Yellow Student Cards filled out
__ Individual Career Development Plan Data
__ Supply/Order forms completed

Reading on the Square - We will take students to Square next Friday.  Fifth graders will begin walking over at 11:20 AM (use your Friday order).  Fourth graders should begin walking over at 11:30 AM.  Students must bring a book with them and we will expect them to find a place at noon and begin reading.  This year, if students are choosing to run around and not read, I'll take volunteers to take kids back to WIS early.  :)

Two weeks and counting...
May 17 – 5th grade spelling bee (1:40 pm)
May 17 – Board Meeting, 6 pm (5th grade proposal presentation)
May 18 – 4th grade spelling bee (12:40 pm)
May 19 – PLC Math Focus (follow this week's format)
May 20 – 3rd Grade Parent Orientation Night (6:30 pm)
May 21 – 3rd Annual Reading on the Square
May 26 – End of Year Picnic @ Fairgrounds
May 27 – Transition Day
May 28 – Assemblies; Last day 1:10 PM dismissal
May 29 – Work day for retiring staff (Mr. Barry not here)
June 1 – Work day/checkout for staff

May 7 , 2010

PTO Carnival Tonight!!

5- 8 pm @ IPS

PTO Carnival - Thank you to everyone who has helped prepare for tonight and to those helping after school and this evening. It is quite an event at quite a time of year! Rain or shine, I know we will have a big crowd this evening. Please talk to you students about the event tonight and how it helps us provide books, materials and technology to the classroom!

FORGOT TWO ITEMS... (added 10:00 am)
Summative & ITSC Conferences – I will be scheduling summative and ITSC (3-yr reviews) next week for all teachers under my supervision. The appointment will come from the office and it will include 10 minutes for summatives and 20 minutes for summatives/ITSC conferences. All summative conferences for classified staff who are under my supervision (including all paras at WIS) will take place the week of May 17. In addition to the summative review with classified staff, it would include a conversation about position and/or role changes for the 2010-11 school year.

FORGOT TWO ITEMS... (added 10:00 am)
ITBS Results – Individual student results will be shared with students the over the next couple weeks. We will identify a day the reports will be sent home with students after it is discussed with IPS & MS.
May 5th PLC minutes were emailed out by Jeannie.  I appreciate your discussion, suggestions and follow up with the items.  Everyone at Washington should take a look at the notes regarding the Tiger Behavior Plan as we are all involved in this program.  Individually or within your Monday/Thursday PLC time, please continue planning/discussing and then provide me additional feedback if needed.  I will have a "menu" of lessons that could be taught in the fall by classroom teachers for your team to review Monday/Thursday.  Please give your feedback as to what will be vital for everyone to teach each fall or semester.

May 12th PLC time will be focused on literacy data.  After seeing our ITBS scores, this is an extremely important afternoon for our staff and students.  Gates and fluency will be completed by then and the ITBS item analysis data will be available in my office.  Please complete the appropriate forms for your current students and the students coming to you next year.  I will email these to teams early next week.  This will also be the day to review your 2009-10 reading SMART Goal and structure your 2010-11 reading SMART Goal.  As the data indicates, a solid, team-driven plan for literacy next year will be vital to improving our students' achievement scores in reading.  Having both teams in the same room may be important as you review and set your SMART goals for next year.  This needs to be a building effort. 

Summer Curriculum Work - Our ICC leadership team will be meeting on Tuesday to discuss a two-day summer curriculum workshop to finalize curriculum (fix gaps and lay out essential skills by grade level), learn more about how to implement 21st century skills within the content areas and discuss a district-wide behavior plan (response to intervention).  From our building, Mark Haufle is involved in Tuesday's meeting.  More information about this summer's workshop will be out soon! 

The End Is Near? ...but we still have 14 instructional days left in the school year.  There is much left to be accomplished so please help make every moment count by providing engaging and meaningful lessons and activities! Providing some great hands-on learning experiences that are directly linked to your curriculum is a great way to keep student motivation and engagement high. I would also encourage you to continue being proactive, positive, yet consistent as we finish the school year. It is very important we do not let up on our high expectations for students...both academically and behaviorally!

Thank you to Jan and Melanie West for creating a commercial to promote our Third Annual Reading on the Square day on May 21st.  It is posted on our WIS website and will be on KCSI over the next couple weeks.

Dates to Notes can be found in our May newsletter on our webite.
May 10 – 4th Grade Iowa Day (History Center)
May 10 – 3rd Grade Parent Orientation planning mtg (Haufle's rm)
May 11 – ICC Leadership meeting @ IPS MC (3:45 pm)
May 12 – PLC Reading Focus
May 14 – WIS Track and Field Day (all day @ HS Track)
May 17 – Board Meeting, 6 pm (5th grade proposal presentation)
May 19 – PLC Math Focus
May 20 – 3rd Grade Parent Orientation Night (6:30 pm)
May 21 – 3rd Annual Reading on the Square
May 26 – End of Year Picnic @ Fairgrounds
May 27 – Transition Day
May 28 – Assemblies; Last day 1:10 PM dismissal

April 30, 2010

Keep on Truckin' - The last month can be a daunting one (this past week may have been a sign of things to come) but I know that we will continue to work and grow together as a family until that very last day.  Thank you in advance for being consistent and continuing to focus on the academics while you persist students be respectful, responsible and show pride in themselves, others and our school.  We have much left yet to do!!

Special Assembly - Just a reminder that we will have a special assembly this Tuesday, May 4.  Karen Gale, FBI Victim Specialist will be in the WIS gym from 12:30-1:30.  Fourth grade students should come in at 12:30 from recess and report directly to the gym.   Fifth graders should come down shortly before 12:30 to get seated.  This is the scheduled guidance for the week.  In addition to her assembly, Karen will be doing an online safety presentation to staff, parents, students and community members from 6:00-7:30 in the evening.  Join us there too!

Gates & Fluency - It was brought to my attention Friday that we are out of scantron sheets.  Due to the budget concerns, we will not be purchasing scantron sheets this spring.  My assumption was that classrooms would be using the Senteo to complete the Spring Gates.  If this is not the case in your classroom, you will need to see me to determine the best approach to completing Gates as we will not have scantron sheets available.  Mrs. Rea will begin pulling students this week to complete our spring fluency. 

May 5th PLC will be focusing on 2009-10 review and 2010-11 planning (schedules, programs, behavior plans, etc.).  An agenda will be developed Monday and sent out to staff Tuesday for review, edits and suggested changes.  We will begin in Sue Timmerman's room at 1:30 pm.  The SPED teachers will be with Monica Crouch at Webster.

Recruitment Updates - A team interviewed two ELL candidates on Friday and we have one left this week.  We hope to have a decision and board approval by May 10th.  Middle school principal and counselor candidate interviews will be taking place in the next week. 

PTO Carnival - Attending the PTO meeting last week, it appears we are all ready for the big date this coming Friday!!  I'm on the dunk tank around 5:30 so make sure to bring enough money to take your last shot at me!  Knowing this staff, it may take quite a few tickets to get me dunked once.  :)  There will be a special duet at the end of the evening by an up-and-coming local act, Buck & Barry.  Get the kids excited this week and pray for sun and no wind! 

Have a great week!

May 4 – Internet Tips and Education (12:30 @ WIS; 6:00 PM @ HS Aud)
May 7 – 5th Grade Oregon Trail; PTO Carnival (5-8 pm)
May 10 - 4th Grade Iowa Day (History Center)
May 14 – WIS Track and Field Day (all day @ HS Track)
May 20 – 3rd Grade Parent Orientation Night (6:30 pm)
May 21 – 3rd Annual Reading on the Square
May 27 – Transition Day

Memo from the week regarding schedule changes for PE...

May 5                    Early Out Day

Braymen & Timmerman to HS track together

-          Leave 9:30 & return at 10:30

-          Maynes & Rea go with to assist

-          If it rains, PE will be in gym at 8:30 & 9:07

May 12                 Early Out Day

Chelsvig & Haufle to HS track together

-          Leave 8:30 & return at 9:30

-          Dukes & Gilliland go with to assist

-          If it rains, PE will be in gym at 8:30 & 9:07

May 19                 Early out Day

No extra PE

May 26                 NO early out

No extra PE