domingo, 28 de febrero de 2016

February 29th


KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Student's of the week for 
February 22 - February 26
  • Students will be added on Tuesday.  Three students were absent when we were going to catch the picture.  We will try to get all 6 on Monday or Tuesday and then post.
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Kudos
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  • Congrats to Wynne Slusar for turning 40 this past week!  Big milestone and what better way to celebrate than with donuts! Thank you Lori Iverson for bringing in all the carbs!
  • Congrats also to Brad Ferstenou for hitting his milestone of 30!  And thank you Kris Thomsen for setting up the pot luck and the 30 somethings for Brad.  Great idea :)  
  • Thank you Ellen Murphy, Grace Jorgenson, Jacob Malewicki, Kurt Rummler, Jenny Geyso, and Alyssa Riggs for all of your hard work on February 23rd working through the start of what our ELA curriculum and literacy infusion will look like for the 2016-2017 school year.  
  • Thank you Molly Ebbers and Wendy Zeman for all of your work on February 25th working through what our Reading and Math interventions will look like for the 2016-2017 school year.  
  • And... a shout out to Connie Zinnen for coming over to Karcher for two full days (ELA day and intervention day) this past week to help all of us work through our questions, ideas, concerns, etc as we move into the 2016-2017 school year - Thank you!
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Reminders

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  • Monday morning with students - February 29th:
  • Monday afternoon - in-service for teaching staff - February 29th (1:00 - 3:00)
    • 1:00 - 1:10 - Karcher Companions - Katie Newholm, Sue Bekken, and Erika Fons will be talking to staff about their new club/organization they will be starting up.  They are in need of one regular education teacher who would be willing to also be a club advisor for this group.  
    • 1:10 - 1:30ish - Suzanne Dunbar, our Librarian is coming to assist with some library tools that can help staff and students.  
    • 1:30 on... ELA Curriculum - brief discussion for the 2016-2017 school year.
    • Scheduling for the 2016-2017 school year - where we are in the process...
    • Student Led Conferences - touch base and show the advisory powerpoint each advisory teacher will use.
    • PBIS - Data and Karcher Character Bucks
    • Student Goal Sheets - applied academic teachers please come with your 15-20 students you would like to write a positive message to and then the academic teachers will divide out the rest.  Special education teachers please make sure you give your 15-20 student list to a team member of yours as you will be working on Forward Exam needs for our special education students.  
    • We will not be working on the MAPs test at this time... from looking at the list above we will not have adequate time to work through the tests... I will find another time to get this in.
  • Monday afternoon - Special Education Teachers - February 29th
    • You have the afternoon to work your IEPs for your students and state testing.  Here is what Gail emailed you regarding this:  Due to the additional paperwork requirements that special education will have on behalf of state testing and DPI form changes, you will be granted prep time from 1:00to 3:00 on that day.  The support staff from district office will be making the rounds to answer your questions and to assist in any way possible.
  • KCB Rewards:
    • Month of March - Hallway DJ - Students will be able to turn in the name of a song they would like have played during our common passing time for a certain number of KCBs - Matt will be sharing details at the staff meeting.  
    • March 11th is the next FNL from 5:00-7:00pm.  If you are able and willing to assist please let Mike Jones know.  
    • March 18th - students will be able to use their KCBs to buy items during lunch.  The food menu has been updated and Matt will be sharing the menu with staff on March 11th.
  • Tuesday - March 1st - Start of scheduling...
    • Members of each house will be working on dividing students into houses and working on the beginning stages of scheduling.  Special Education teachers will also be involved assisting with the needs of our special education students.  
  • Tech Tuesday - March 1st:  Molly will be assisting staff with creating an interactive slideshow in Google Slides, super cool way to use Slides.  If interested Molly will start at 2:40 in her room.
  • PLC this week are in your classrooms continuing your work with standards and common assessments.  Thank you to those of you who made a copy of your work so far, if you have not made a paper copy and placed in my mailbox please do so by the end of this week.
  • Forward Exam information:  Forward Exam Information from DPI
  • Reminder - lunch detention and collecting of KCBs is located in Jennifer Pelnar's room.  
  • Advisory teachers -  Google Slide Format
    • Please make sure you are finalizing your student led conferences for each of your advisory students.
  • March 1st - Deadline for students to have their items added to their E-portfolios for student led conferences.  
    • Classroom teachers please make sure you are checking the folders pertaining to your subject area and providing time within your class for students to add necessary artifacts.  
  • Band-O-Rama is March 7th @ 7:00pm @ BHS gym.
  • March 7 & 14 will be an extended advisory time for students to work on their student led conferences presentation to their parents.  This time should be used to practice presenting for their conferences held on either the 14th or 22nd.  
    • Student led conferences/parent-teacher conferences are March 14 and March 22 from 4:00 - 8:00. 
    • Student Led times are at 4:00 and 6:00 
    • Parent/Teacher conferences held in the library will be from 4:45 - 5:45 and 6:45 - 8:00
  • National Junior Honors Society awards will be held on March 21st in the BHS auditorium starting at 6:30pm.  
    • See Mike Jones or Stephanie Rummler for details.
  • March 24 - 8th grade Hive House field trip to Discovery World. 
  • And we can't forget that spring break starts March 25th!!!  Coming up fairly quickly :)
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    Pictures from the week
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    Some pictures from volleyball this week.  The girls and coaches are having a great season so far!




    Article of the week:
    Continuation from last...

    Leading to Change / Effective Grading Practices

    Douglas B. Reeves

    High-Stakes Grading

    The Alliance for Excellent Education estimated that the annual cost of high school failure exceeds $330 billion ("An Economic Case," 2007). Some of these failures are no doubt caused by excessive absences and poor student performance. But, as the experiment at the beginning of this column clearly indicates, many failures are caused by the differences in teacher grading policies.
    Do another experiment: Randomly select 30 course failures from the last semester, and determine the cause for failure. Two common causes are missing homework and poor performance on a single major assignment—a term paper, lab, or project. What would it mean to your school if you could reduce the number of failing grades resulting solely from uncompleted homework?
    The stakes of grading practices are not limited to student failure. When grading policies improve, discipline and morale almost always follow. For example, Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, achieved a remarkable reduction in course failures through focused attention on improved feedback and intervention for students (Reeves, 2006). I recently checked in with the school, and Principal Joel McKinney reported that the success of this challenging urban school (74 percent free and reduced-price lunch, high mobility, and increasing numbers of English language learners) did not stop with reducing 9th and 10th grade failures. As of fall 2007, enrollment in advanced placement classes had increased 32 percent; suspensions had declined 67 percent; elective opportunities in music, art, and technology had increased; class cuts and tardiness had fallen significantly; teacher morale and school climate had noticeably improved—and the course failure rate had continued to decline (personal communication, December 5, 2007). When schools take steps to reduce failures, lots of good things happen.

    The Steps to Take

    Although changing grading systems is a challenging leadership task, the benefits are so great that it's worth doing.
    First, create a sense of urgency. Identify the exact cost of inconsistent grading practices. How many failures can we prevent this semester if we improve our grading practices?
    Second, identify teacher leaders who are already improving policies. Chances are that some teachers in your school have already eliminated the use of the average and the zero on a 100-point scale and created meaningful opportunities for corrective feedback outside of grades. Provide a forum for these teachers to share their insights with colleagues and lead the effort to develop improved policies.
    Third, get the facts; gather evidence that will create a rationale for decision making. At the end of the day, your choices about teaching practice must be guided by evidence, not opinions. For example, although many people sincerely believe that giving poor grades as a punishment is effective, Guskey (2000) has marshaled 90 years of evidence to the contrary.
    Fourth, reassure parents, students, and teachers that certain things will not change. Students will still have letter grades, transcripts, honor rolls, individualized education plans, and everything else that they have counted on as part of their grading system. What they won't have is irrational grading policies that give students widely different grades for the same work.
    The benefits of effective grading practices are not limited to a reduced failure rate—although that benefit alone is sufficient to justify change. When student failures decrease, student behavior improves, faculty morale is better, resources allocated to remedial courses and course repetitions are reduced, and resources invested in electives and advanced courses increase. When was the last time a single change in your school accomplished all that?
    Calendar for March:

    By -