domingo, 22 de abril de 2018

April 23, 2018


KARCHER STAFF BLOG
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Kudos
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  • Kudos to our Rube Goldberg students and advisors Mike Yopp & Eric Sulik!  Two of the four teams competed this past Friday and our all girls team took 2nd place out of 20 teams!!!  Awesome job!  
  • Thank you to Jenny Geyso, Kurt Rummler, and our 8th grade academic teachers for your adjustments this past week to allow the 8th grade students to have time on their Forward writing assessment!  
    • In general... we may have a few Forward makeups this week still but not many overall!  
  • Zach Cowan won the NJHS Outstanding Achievement Award!  He is one the recipients and will receive a $500 award that will be placed in a savings account for college!  When you see Zach congratulate him!  
  • Noelle Voegeli won "Outstanding Middle School Soloist" at the Jazz festival in March. Therefore, she won $200 in free tuition towards one of the Conservatory's clinics or camps!  When you see Noelle congratulate her as well!  
  • Congratulations to 7th grade orchestra members Samantha Riley, Patrick Savaglia and Julia Torpy for their performance at the Wisconsin Young Artist Honors Orchestra at UW-Whitewater on Saturday!
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Information/Reminders...
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  • Wednesday, April 25 - Administrative Assistants Day!  
    • Help make Wednesday a special day for Kim Moss, Jane Peterson, Marian Hancock, and Amanda Wilks for all they do for our students, staff, and the school! 
    • Those willing... please bring in a dish to share for a luncheon for them!  We will make sure they have time to be down in the staff lounge for both lunches in order to eat with all of you!  
  • Applied Academics... it is your week to have students email their parents/guardians about all the happenings in your class over the past five weeks! 
  • Monday, April 23 - House Splitting 
    • Kurt Rummler, Mike Jones, Andrea Hancock, and Brad Ferstenou will be splitting houses for the 2018-2019 school year.  
  • Monday, April 23 - Special Education teacher meeting from 12:00 - 12:45 in the conference room.  
  • Monday, April 23 - Afternoon Inservice from 1:00 - 3:00 below is where staff should go for the afternoon!  
    • All K-12 special education teachers will be in the library with Kathy Merlo talking about RtI... starting at 1:00.  
    • The rest of the staff I would like to have a quick meeting with everyone to share some staffing information.  We will meet in the conference room at 1:00 - 1:10.  Then from 1:10 - 3:00 will be for the below items/groups (special education teachers I will fill you in during the 12:00 - 12:45 time):  
      • All Karcher English, Math, interventionists, and counselors will meet in the conference room to discuss RtI adjustments for the 2018-2019 school year.  We are starting with English and math as the adjustments district wide is around English and math.  
      • All social studies and science teachers should meet with your grade level partner and work on your Essential Skill work, focusing on your written goals you discussed.  
      • All applied academic teachers will be meeting with other elective teachers K-12.  
        • Due to different dismissal times Dyer will arrive around 1:15, K-4 around 1:25, and BHS around 1:50.  This allows you to get organized and work on what you can until the entire group is present.  
      • Ryan and I will be moving from group to group throughout the afternoon.  If you would like us to come to your room please call the office and they can radio us to come by your classroom.  
  • Monday, April 23 - Jazz Fest in the BHS Auditorium starting at 6:40pm!
  • Wednesday, April 25 - Essential Skills PLC.  
  • Friday, April 27 - 7th grade field trip to Gateway, Elkhorn Campus.  
    • Steve Berezowitz will get more information to teams this week!
Additional Reminders:  

  • Students should not have their cell phones in the classroom.  Currently our handbook says they can use them during passing time and at lunch, as the year progresses be cognizant of sticking to our handbook as we have seen a rise in cell phone issues in the main office.  
  • Just a reminder to have your last your class put up their chairs to assist the custodial staff with cleaning your rooms at night.  
  • Also... don't forget to use the maintenance request for any furniture items you need assistance with, issues you are seeing in the building, etc.  
  • Please continue to communicate and reach out to parents/guardians at least every two weeks via Skyward.

Pictures from this past week!

Rube Goldberg Competition!  Our all girls team took 2nd place out of 20 teams!  





Students in Ms. Fulton's class working on reading stamina!  

Students in Mr. Jones and Ms. Thate's math class solving systems of equations.  




Students in Ms. Murphy's English class participating in a mini lesson focusing on a note taking strategy for factual pro or con evidence within multiple articles.  

Our weight lifting club fundraiser allowed for some reupholstering of some of the weight lifting equipment!  Below are the before and afters!  Thanks to Jon Nelson's father-in-law for the help!






By -

domingo, 15 de abril de 2018

April 16, 2018

KARCHER STAFF BLOG
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Kudos
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  • Kudos to our ENTIRE staff for a great week of Forward testing!  Thank you for your dedication to our students and your focus on ensuring all of our students are able to maintain and focus on doing well on each assessment.  The Forward data speaks to all of our work so thank you for assisting with the process!  
    • Forward testing will continue this week with the 8th grade writing assessment during periods 4 & 5 Tuesday - Friday.  
  • Kudos to Steve Berezowitz for your time with the setup of Forward Testing for us!  There is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into testing - thank you!
  • Congratulations again to Stephanie Rummler who received an Herb Kohl Teacher Fellowship Award this past Saturday! You inspire our students and staff on a daily basis!  Congrats again!!!  Herb Kohl was an amazing speaker and has donated over 14.5 million dollars to students, teachers, schools and education overall in Wisconsin - awesome ceremony! 




Video for the week:  
Love has no labels (focuses on the importance of diversity and inclusion)

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Information/Reminders...
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  • Social Studies... it is your week to have students email their parents/guardians to share the progress and work they have been doing over the past five weeks since the last social studies email.  
  • Reminder... all staff should be sending weekly or biweekly emails to all parents/guardians via Skyward in order to ensure we are communicating with parents about upcoming activities, assessments, etc.  
  • Forward Makeup testing... 
    • Students will be called to the library to complete testing in the library this week!  
  • Monday, April 16 - BLT Meeting 2:40 - 3:30 in the Conference Room 
  • Tuesday, April 17 - Start of new iTime rotation.  
  • Tuesday, April 17 - 8th grade testing schedule for Forward Writing.  
    • Testing time frame is 10:26 - 12:16
    • 8th grade testing schedule
    • Reminder to keep the noise volume down during the testing time frame Tuesday - Friday throughout the building.  
  • Tuesday, April 17 - I will be meeting with 8th grade parents/guardians interest in assisting with 8th grade recognition at 7:00pm in our Karcher library.  
  • Wednesday, April 18 - Tornado Drill at the start of 6th hour.  
  • Wednesday, April 18 - Essential Skills PLC - focus is on the document and goal you and your team discussed for this PLC time.  
  • Friday, April 20 - Rube Goldberg competition!  We have four total teams in our Rube Goldberg club and 2 of the 4 teams will be competing at the competition!  
    • They will be leaving around 7:55 and returning at 2:15.  
  • Monday, April 23 - House Splitting will be taking place with Kurt Rummler, Mike Jones, Andrea Hancock and Brad Ferstenou in the morning.  
    • Ryan Heft will be coming to 7th grade team times in order to highlight some natural leaders for the 8th grade advisories.  
  • Monday, April 23 - Afternoon Inservice from 1:00 - 3:00 
    • The focus of this inservice is around Essential Skill work.  More details will come out in next week's blog.  
  • Monday, April 23 - BASD Jazz Fest @ 6:40pm in the BHS auditorium.  
Pictures from this past week!
Culver's Night!  Great service provided by our student council!  Thank you to all who came out for dinner to support!



Students getting some energy out in PE during testing week!


Rube Goldberg students making final adjustments to their machines!  Two of the four teams are competing THIS Friday!  Good luck to all!!!


Students in Ms. Rummler's social studies class wearing World War I uniforms from Burlington veterans!
















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domingo, 8 de abril de 2018

April 9, 2018

KARCHER STAFF BLOG


Karcher 2017-2018 School Calendar

Students of the week!!!!!!! 
(Running slide show) 

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


Article... 

How to Use Grading to Improve Learning

by Susan M. Brookhart
Table of Contents

Chapter 2. Grading on Standards for Achievement

Curriculum Goals and Intended Learning Goals for Classroom Instruction

The "standards" on which you grade achievement for individual assignments and for report cards are not exactly the state or Common Core standards. The standards on which you grade students are your actual expectations for their learning for that assignment or that report period. They are usually narrower in scope than state standards, which are typically broad. Expectations for student learning are derived from state standards and then translated or subdivided into curriculum goals and then into intended learning goals for classroom instruction. This is a distinction some people have a hard time making, probably because the word standards is used for both state standards and curriculum and classroom learning goals.
A state's annual state test is aligned to the state standards, but that state test is intended to be a general summary of learning over the course of at least a year. Any one standard is usually covered by just a few test items, and the scores reported for accountability purposes are aggregated across all standards to report proficiency levels in subjects (for example, mathematics, reading/language arts, science). And although one of the points of being "standards-based" is alignment, which means that the same standards are the basis of planning, instruction, assessment, and ultimately achievement, it is important to know that the curricular standards and learning goals for classroom lessons are not state standards per se but derived from them.
It is common to derive classroom unit goals and lesson objectives by reducing the grain size (that is, increasing the specificity) of concepts and skills so they are appropriate for lessons and units of instruction. Then, the teacher-oriented objectives are put into a form students can use as the learning targets they aim for in each lesson.
This process should not change the ultimate goals for learning. For training-style objectives (those that involve a very specific performance), state the specific learning outcome, even if you use the same language as the standard. For example, an outcome might be "Adds two-digit whole numbers." This statement is derived from the Common Core mathematics standard 2.NBT.6, "Add up to four two-digit numbers using strategies based on place value and properties of operations" (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010, Mathematics, p. 19).
Most learning outcomes are not that specific, however, and they focus on understanding terms and concepts in such a way that they can be applied both to tasks similar to those in which the concepts were learned and to tasks beyond that. You will hear such learning outcomes described variously as requiring "higher-order thinking skills" or "21st century skills" or "deep knowledge." For this kind of learning outcome, deriving learning goals for instruction and assessment requires two steps. First, state the general standard clearly; then specify what sorts of performances—among many that you could choose—will be evidence of mastery of that standard (Gronlund & Brookhart, 2009).
For example, a standard might be that students can comprehend literal information from informational text and use it to make inferences (Common Core Standard ELA, Reading Standards for Informational Text K–5, grade 4, #1: "Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text") (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010, ELA, p. 14). How will you know when students can do this? State the general standard first, and then list performances that clarify it. Assess these performances, but realize they are a sample of all the possible performances students could do to show you they can recount literal information and use it to make inferences.
Your grades on individual assignments, then, are a sample of scores from a larger, potential, unmeasured set of performances.   (Meaning... we collect evidence on our sub skills which then give us information about or Essential Skills.  But we never collect direct evidence of the Essential Skills in class.  The "unmeasured set of performances" are the Essential Skills as our sub skills will give us a preponderance of evidence for the Essential Skills).

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Kudos
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  • Kudos to Brad Ferstenou and Grace Jorgenson who both chaperoned the HS Grand Canyon trip over spring break!  The trip was a success and chaperoning over your spring break is very much appreciated!!!  
  • Thank you again to all of our special education aides for your dedication and work with our students and our staff!  Your time and efforts is truly appreciated as it takes everyone to have an impact on our students!  
  • Kudos to Grace Jorgenson and Mike Jones along with our 7-8 grade math team students for their 2nd place finish the past week at the regional math meet!  Only the top 2 schools advance to state!!! The state competition will be on May 16 at Madison College!  
  • Thank you to Donna Sturdevant and Mike Jones for another great FNL.  We had about 120 students in attendance!  Thank you also to Kurt Rummler, Stephanie Rummler, Wendy Zeman, Eric Sulik, and Ryan Heft for assisting as well!  
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Information/Reminders...
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  • Science... it is your week to have students email their parents/guardians about the happenings in science over the last five weeks!
  • Monday, April 9 - Start of Forward Testing!  
  • Lunch this week:  Staff who usually assist with lunch duty should still assist with lunch duty this week.  
    • Due to the schedule our lunches are back to back.  Those assisting with lunch duty please have students assist with wiping down tables after 7th grade lunch so that the tables are clean for 8th grade.  
  • Monday, April 9 - Grades are due for term 3 by 3:00pm!  
  • Monday, April 9 - Secondary Curriculum Committee Meeting @ 3:30 - 5:00 in our Karcher library.  
  • Tuesday, April 10 - Karcher Culver's Night from 5:00 - 8:00!  
    • Come on out for dinner or take out to support our Student Council!
  • Friday, April 13 - Forward Testing Groups for 8th grade (Friday).  Please let these students know where to report for Friday's testing.  
    • Stoughton's group will be with Marian Hancock in the library 
    • Nelson's group will be with Steve Berezowitz in the ULab
    • Sulik's group will be with Molly Ebbers in the Conference Room 
    • Salbrieter's group will be with Ryan Heft or Jill Oelslager in room 124 (Zeman's room)
  • April 16 week... 8th grade ELA Forward testing during this week in the area of writing.  Students and staff need to be cognizant of hallway noise during this week to assist with the testing environment for ELA.  
    • Testing will be taking place during periods 4 and 5.  

Pictures from this past week!
7th grade math students working on statistics and probability.  


Students creating anamorphic paintings!






Students in STEM experimenting with static electricity.






Students in track and field working through stations!





Friday Night Live!!!












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