KARCHER STAFF BLOG
Karcher Character Students of the Week
All 6 of these students displayed positive character behaviors within our 8 focused traits:
Be... responsible, respectful, kind, safe, honest, loyal, compassionate, courageous.
Students: (left to right) Jemenez Oswaldo (Silver), Yar Zar Kyaw (Diamond), Amanda Viel (Onyx), Stasha Brewer (Hive), Tyler Duesing (Applied Academics), and Nathaniel Borris (Karcher Bucks)
The story about the missing hearing aids:
Tuesday was a great field trip day for the Hive to the Capitol building in Madison. Upon returning, however, Matthew Gregoric realized he did not have his hearing aids. I called the bus company hoping they could be tracked down. Since it was near the end of the school day, I knew I probably would not hear anything until the next day.
Stasha Brewer decided to take some action on her own. After school, she called the Capitol, talked with several people, and then finally connected with the Capitol police who had the hearing aids. Stasha then followed up the next day - again all on her own - with the police to make sure that the Silver House would know how and where to pick up the hearing aids. An 8th grader, wading in to the "adult world” to advocate for a friend - pretty cool stuff.
We talk about the Karcher Way and what it means all the time in our building. This is the definition of it.
Ms. Hancock's science class.
Ms. Pelnar's art class.
Mrs. Rummler's social studies class - great looks going on here!
Spaghetti Dinner! Great line workers :)
The Hive and Silver House field trip to the capital and Vet's museum (1st five pictures are the Silver house, last picture is the Hive house)
The Hive House...
Students with Ms. Fons at the high ropes course at Camp MacLean!
AMAZING example of "The Karcher Way"... Stasha is a member of the Hive House and Kurt Rummler told me this story about Stasha and it is to cool to not share with everyone. Stasha is pictured above as the Hive student of the week!
The story about the missing hearing aids:
Tuesday was a great field trip day for the Hive to the Capitol building in Madison. Upon returning, however, Matthew Gregoric realized he did not have his hearing aids. I called the bus company hoping they could be tracked down. Since it was near the end of the school day, I knew I probably would not hear anything until the next day.
Stasha Brewer decided to take some action on her own. After school, she called the Capitol, talked with several people, and then finally connected with the Capitol police who had the hearing aids. Stasha then followed up the next day - again all on her own - with the police to make sure that the Silver House would know how and where to pick up the hearing aids. An 8th grader, wading in to the "adult world” to advocate for a friend - pretty cool stuff.
We talk about the Karcher Way and what it means all the time in our building. This is the definition of it.
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Kudos
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- Mike Yopp was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK! Congrats Mike and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits.
- Also thank you Mike for your all your time filling in for Kaylyn Waki and Stacy Stoughton!
- The Hive and Silver field trips went very well! Below are some pictures from the trip. Thank you Jack Schmidt and Stephanie Rummler for leading the way for your houses.
- I have never seen so many Kringles in on place! Great job Mike Jones and Linda Amundson with your organization and work putting together the Kringle fundraiser!
- The spaghetti dinner was a nice event Sunday night. Thank you Mike Jones, Jack Schmidt, Alyssa Riggs, Dina Weis, Stephanie Rummler, Kurt Rummler, Amanda Thate, and Judy Heinz for helping with the event.
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Reminders
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- The boilers in the building will be down through Wednesday. The goal is to be able to turn them on starting Wednesday so please keep your windows and assist with keeping the outside doors closed as much as possible on Monday and Tuesday.
- The back elevator will be down most likely through Tuesday.
- If you would like to add a blog or website to the school website we now have a tab for you - "Parent Links" on the left side! Linda Amundson, Kurt Rummler, and Jack Schmidt have all taken advantage of setting up their own classroom blog and they are accessible from the Karcher main page. See any of them or myself for help if you would like to create one and have it added to the main page.
- BLT meeting on Monday @ 2:40.
- PLC meetings this week are for Standards Data Collection and Common Assessments.
- Grading window will open on October 29th at 12:00am for term 1 grades.
- Grades for the term will be due November 5th by 3:30pm.
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Pictures from the week
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Ms. Pelnar's art class.
Mrs. Rummler's social studies class - great looks going on here!
Mr. Malewicki with our students at the last BHS home football game!
Spaghetti Dinner! Great line workers :)
The Hive and Silver House field trip to the capital and Vet's museum (1st five pictures are the Silver house, last picture is the Hive house)
The Hive House...
Students with Ms. Fons at the high ropes course at Camp MacLean!
The final segment of: Knowing your learning target
Knowing Your Learning Target
The first thing students need to learn is what they're supposed to be learning.
Explaining the Criteria for Success
Success criteria are developmentally appropriate descriptions and concrete examples of what success in a lesson looks like. They are not the grades students should earn, the number of problems they must get right, or the number of times they should include something in a performance or product (for example, how many descriptive adjectives they should include in a paragraph).
"I can" statements, like those pictured on p. 67, are a great way to explain success. Another useful strategy is to ask students to examine work samples that represent various levels of quality and discuss what makes some samples better than others. Teachers can also use rubrics to define the elements of a successful performance or product and describe various performance levels for each element. An especially powerful way to do this is to have students apply a rubric's organized criteria to work samples with various levels of quality. Then ask students to explain their decisions using the language in the rubric. When students know the success criteria, they can be mindful of what success looks like as they use the rubric to guide their learning.
Empowering Every Student
Armstrong teachers began embedding learning targets into their lessons in October 2009. Now, almost a year and one-half later, shared learning targets guide lesson planning, formative assessment, and classroom walk-throughs. But the most impressive transformation is that of students into full learning partners. Now that students know where they are going, they are more motivated to do the work to get there.
It's just this simple. Do we want classrooms full of empowered, self-regulated, highly motivated, and intentional learners? If we do, then it is time to own up to the obstacles that educators create by withholding the very information that would empower learners. Students cannot regulate learning, use thoughtful reasoning processes, set meaningful goals, or assess the quality of their own work unless they understand what success looks like in today's lesson.
Calendar for October and November:
