November 17, 2019

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

2019-2020 Karcher Calendar

Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/KarcherMiddleSchool/

BASD Staff Blog:  https://basdstaffnews.blogspot.com/

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Kudos

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• Kudos to ALL of our staff as we "Exceed Expectations" again on our school report card!!!  It is great to see the hard work you all put in with students and to see the growth our students make within the Forward data!  If you did not have a chance to see the breakdown of our school report card and how we compare to other districts please go to the small link on the upper right hand corner of this blog to get to the archived blog posts.  The post prior to this one is all of our Forward/School Report Card data.  It is nice to have it separate from the other blog posts so you can refer back to just the data at any time!  Another reminder... we have GREAT students, a GREAT staff, and a GREAT school!!!  
• Thank you to all of our staff for everything you do for students on a regular basis.  A small token of appreciation was the t-shirts given to everyone on Monday.  If you did not get yours or it is the wrong size please let Kim, Lisa, Annie, or I know so we can get you the right size or one :)))  
• Kudos to Katherine Botsford, Brad Ferstenou, and all the 7th grade staff for two great trips for all of our 7th grade students to the Field Museum this past week in Chicago!  So great to get our students not only to the museum for to have exposure to Chicago is awesome!  We all know there is so much planning going on behind the scenes and we appreciate all of your efforts!  
• Kudos to the 8th grade team and all of your collaborative efforts in setting up the Spaghetti Dinner this past Thursday night.  Over 440 dinners were sold (a record high)!  So awesome to see the community and partner support for the event!  And... the service throughout the evening from staff was awesome!  Thank you Mike Jones, Donna Sturdevant, Alyssa Riggs, Jenny Geyso, Stephanie Rummler, Kurt Rummler, and Stacy Stoughton for making this event happen! 
• Thank you Kim Moss for getting yet another staff luncheon going this past week and for all who brought in items to share! Food is always one great way to pull staff together AND we have some amazing chefs on staff!  
• And lastly, thank you for your work analyzing our Forward data by standard and developing your content area plans to assist with addressing areas of need based on standard.  Click HERE to see the data, BLT synthesis, and content plans for infusing the work around standards where we see need based on student data.  

Video this week:  

See the whole paper...

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Information/Reminders

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Overall reminders: 

• Please remember to email parents/guardians biweekly to keep our families informed.  I did have a parent reach out to me sharing they have not heard from any of their student's teachers yet this school year.  
• This is a gentle reminder that the expectation is that you are reaching out and communicating biweekly with parents/guardians via Skyward.  
• As we approach the winter months be careful on the roads and sidewalks as you walk into the building.  There may be slippery spots here at there so take your time with your footing as you approach the building.  
• We have requested more rugs by the gym doors where all students enter from the buses as the hallway and stairs get very wet and slippery due to student foot traffic.  Please also help students remember to walk with caution as well!  

This week/next week:

• Monday, November 18 - 7th grade incentive time during our Extended Advisory!  
• Monday, November 18 - District MTSS Committee meeting from 3:45-5:15 in our Karcher library.  
• Tuesday, November 19 - Parent/Guardian/Teacher conferences from 4:00 - 7:00.  
• These are open conferences in your classrooms.  Please have chairs outside your room for people to use in the event they need to wait.  
• As I am sure you all have in your biweekly communication with families, please send out reminders for conferences to your student's parents/guardians either this weekend or on Monday.  
• Also... please position yourself in your room where you do have the ability to see if you have a line forming so that no one is waiting to long.  Parents/Guardians have been giving this information and we shared that time with one teacher should be 5 - 10 minutes max.  Be mindful of this!!! 
• Also... the expectation is that all staff are ready and in your rooms by 3:45 so that we are professional and ready to meet our parents/guardians on time. 
• Wednesday, November 20 - Learning PLC in the library!  We will continue our conversations and planning around what areas of focus we all want to improve upon and discuss our "how" with each other when it comes to traditional lens versus student focused lens.  You will be paired up with other staff who also chose a similar focus and have time to do a PDSA (plan, do, study, act).  

• Thursday, November 21 - Orchestra Concert at 7:00pm in our Karcher gym!  
• Tuesday, November 26 - Afternoon assembly schedule!  Both grade levels wanted to utilize an afternoon assembly schedule to assist students who need support and provide an incentive for students.  Therefore, note the change in the schedule as Tuesday will now be an afternoon assembly schedule. 
• Wednesday, November 27 - Comp day for staff - no school
• Thursday/Friday, November 28/29 - No school - enjoy time with family and/or friends!  

Looking ahead:  

• Monday, December 2 - BLT Meeting starting at 2:40-3:30.  
• Click HERE for the BLT notes.  Please add anything that we need to collaborate and discuss.   
• Tuesday, December 3 - Band Concert at 7:00pm in our Karcher gym!

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Pictures from the week

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Some AWESOME art work of our students displayed outside the art room!  Thank you Jennifer Pelnar for your work putting the art work up for everyone to see!  

Patti Tenhagen pulling a strategy group during Pre-Algebra!  

Students solving multi-step inequalities with Stacy Stoughton in HS Algebra by playing bingo!

Students practicing a new code for their robots so that the robots use a laser to follow a path based on color with Eric Sulik and Ryan Hoffman.

Wrestling and boys basketball have both started their seasons!  Great turn out of student participation in both!

Students with Barb Berezowitz looking at cells to observe the difference between living and nonliving things!

8th grade Outdoor Education fundraiser, the spaghetti dinner!  Such a great turnout with over 440 orders!!!!!!!!

Students in 8th grade science with Dina Weis analyzing images to determine the positive or negative impact of humans on Earth systems.  

Students working on using -ar verbs within their speaking and writing during Advanced Spanish with Dawn Salbrieter!

And lastly... check out the development of the new construction!  The footings are in the process for the new gym!  When looking at this... the new gym, as a reminder, is the section of the new school that is right next to our current building.  When you look at the plans on the library counter this just helps you orientate where things are when looking at the project!  The music suit is to the left of the gym footings!  

Forward Results 2018-2019 Data

Forward Exam & School Report Card results!  Kudos to everyone as we "Exceed Expectations"!!!

The first data to look at is our Forward Data 

Below is a breakdown of how we measure up against other school districts when it comes to the number of students proficient or advanced on the Forward Exam by subject.  7th grade students take the ELA and math assessments.  8th grade students take: ELA, math, science, and social studies.  Overall, as a school, we did a nice job!!!  Especially on our student growth!  You will see that in the break down of the School Report Card at the bottom!!!  Nice work everyone!!!  Proud of you all!

AND... great work this morning analyzing our data by standard on the Forward.  I read all of your thoughts and plans to address areas of need... such great reflections and intentional focus on making improvements to our curriculum and instruction!  Thank you for that!  Click HERE to see your plans and data dive comments from this morning.  

Comparing us to neighboring conference schools  

 7th grade ELA

8th grade ELA

7th grade Math

8th grade Math

8th grade Science

8th grade Social Studies 

Other neighboring school districts...

8th grade Social Studies

8th grade Science

8th grade Math

8th grade ELA

7th grade Math

7th grade ELA

AND... as I always like to do... comparing us to "high flying school districts" with very different demographics to ours and yet we hang with them!!!!!!!

7th grade ELA

7th grade Math

8th grade Math

8th grade ELA

8th grade Science

8th grade Social Studies

School Report Card Data

Over the past two years there has been an adjustment to School Report Cards in that there is "priority area weights" given to the four priority areas.  Each district has a different percent weight for each of the four categories.  Our HIGHEST score comes from our School Growth data.  What that really means is... once we have the students we grow the students more than the expected amount of growth, which, is AMAZING!!!!!!!  We have consistently been strong in the school growth area.  Our lowest area is our Closing Gaps area where the achievement scores are compared to each other when it comes to race, socio-economic status, and students with disabilities.  These areas continue to be areas of concern for our building and across the district.  I have been pleased to see our focus in iTime around targeted instruction for students along with your focuses on your SLOs to bring up our students who are below grade level while also pushing our students at or above grade level as well.  

Here is the breakdown of the Student Achievement data.  This shows us the number of students who scored advanced, proficient, basic, or below basic over a three year trend for ELA and math.  

And... our achievement data by subgroups.

Here is our School Growth Data!  What is awesome to see and analyze is that anything above a 3.0 is above the expected growth because a score of a 3.0 IS the expected growth goal "number".  So we want ALL of our scores to be above a 3 and we are WELL ABOVE the a 3.0 in all areas!!!  So awesome!  When they get to us we really know how to grow students!!!

Here is our Closing Gaps data.  As an admin team we will be learning from CESA 6 on how to analyze our report card data further so we can leverage our work to improve our student outcomes.  This will be one area of focus for us.  

And lastly... the On-Track and Postsecondary Readiness involves our attendance and our math achievement scores.  We score ok here but I would like to analyze our attendance data further to see if we can clean some of it up!