April 8, 2019

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

2018-2019 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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• Congrats to Donna Sturdevant who was made a grandma on March 18!  Her daughter Shelly had Leah Mae Perrone late at night on the 18th coming in at 8lbs 12 oz!  Shelly and Leah are doing great!  Congrats again Donna :))) 
• Andrea Pangburn will be joining our team starting Monday, April 8 filling one of our special education aide positions.  Andrea will mostly be working with Sue and Katie but does have parts of her day in other areas of the building.  Please assist Andrea with the lay of the land, changes in schedules these next two weeks, etc.  Welcome to the team Andrea!!!  
• Kudos to Kelly Fulton, Andrea Hancock, and Alyssa Riggs for assisting with our special education teacher interviews this past week!  We interviewed 8 candidates and are hopeful to have found a few strong prospects!  
• Thank you to Mike Jones and Kailee Smith for attending the WOW Conference this past Thursday.  Mike and Kailee will be sharing with the rest of the staff some take aways at our PLC on April 17.  And... thank you to Jon Nelson for filling in for Ryan and I while we both also attended the WOW Conference.  Thanks again!
• Kudos to Hans Block and Jon Nelson for assisting our profession by taking on a field student, Corbyn Thornton, from now through May 10.  So... if you see Corbyn working with Hans or Jon welcome him to Karcher as well!  
• Thank you to Jane Peterson and Korrine Peterson for assisting with the organization of all of our Forward Exam tickets!  It takes a lot of time so please thank them when you see them for their help with ensuring our testing tickets are organized for our building.  

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Information/Reminders

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• We interviewed for our open special education position last week and are in the process of securing a candidate for the position.  Once it is solidified we will share information about the new hire. 
• You may have noticed the Karcher library/office aide posting that went out this past Friday. We are looking to fill our library/office aide ASAP as Karen Gerold resigned her position.  

This week:  

• April 8 - April 11 Forward Exam Week 1 
• Click HERE to see the schedule for April 8 through April 11.  The focus during this week is for both grade levels to complete the writing prompt portion of the Forward Exams within student's ELA classes.  
• Applied Academic staff:  Note that there is an adjustment to where morning electives fall and the length of time.  
• You can see your actual schedule on page 2 if you click on the link to view the schedule.  The times have been adjusted to have 49 minute classes during the testing periods.  Please make sure you look at page 2 for your schedule.  
• Academic teachers:  Note that your schedule too is different and you will have one period per day that is extended as well.  
• Friday, April 12 is a normal bell schedule day!!!


• Monday, April 8 - Essential Skills Committee in our Karcher library from 3:45 - 5:15 
• Wednesday, April 10 - PLC in the Band Room.  
• We will start at 2:47 and go until 3:27.  
• Friday, April 12 
• Last day for students to complete their 7 iReady lessons for the next incentive day!  They need to complete 3 reading and 3 math with 1 additional in either subject area. 
• We will then use the makeup time slots during the week of April 15-18 to get kids to note where they want to go for the incentive.  
• April 22-23 for 7th grade:  
• 22nd - prep for assembly in advisories 
• 23rd - students who get the incentive will attend the incentive.  Those not will report to their 1st hour academic teacher and SSR or do iReady.  
• April 22-23 for 8th grade:  
• 22nd - students who get the incentive will attend the incentive.  Those not will report to their 2nd hour academic teacher and SSR or do iReady. 
• 23rd - prep for assembly in advisories 

Looking ahead:  

• April 15 - Monday - BLT Meeting from 2:40 - 3:30 
• We will discuss chapters 4 from both books and also an update on the change over to a skills based gradebook for the 2019-2020 school year.  
• April 15 - April 18 - Forward Exam Week 2 
• Click HERE for the schedule.  This will be for all 4 days during the week.  There will be no extended advisory or iTime due to the adjusted bell schedule.  
• There are 4 pages to this schedule so keep scrolling :)  
• We will also have all applied academic teachers joining/assisting in academic classrooms this year throughout the testing sessions.  We will finalize this during this week and get information out to staff prior to the weekend.  
• Note... page 2 of this schedule is for applied academic teachers.  In order to still get prep you will leave your testing group at 10:25 (this is noted in your schedule).  
• Special education teachers will be working with students in a small group setting and our interventionists will most likely be doing the same.  Ryan and I may also take a small group as well depending on need, etc.   

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Pictures from the week

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7th graders creating scientifically accurate models of the reproductive structures of angiosperms

April 1, 2019

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

2018-2019 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 Jennifer Pelnar and the following students who were all participants in the Kiwanis Art Show!  3D displayed at BHS, 2D at Public Library.
• Winners
• Sarah Hartlage - Judges Choice: Food Truck Unit (Orthographic View, Menu & 3D Model)
• Clare Freeburn: Pen & Ink Stippling
• Corrine Graham: 1 Point Perspective Room Drawing
• Alaina Avila: 1 Point Perspective Room Drawing
• Participants
• Patrick Savaglia: 1 Point Perspective Room Drawing,  Food Truck Unit (Menu & 3D Model)
• Sarah Hartlag: 1 Point Perspective Room Drawing
• Jessica Luxem: Mixed Media Exploration
• Clare Freeburn: 1 Point Perspective Room Drawing - Tessellated Self Portrait
• Corrine Graham: Colored Pen Texture Drawing, Stippling, Mixed Media Exploration, Clay Night Cat Hightop 
• Laney Mangold: Mixed Media Exploration
• Alex Ament: Pencil Hand Drawing
• Gregg Pavlik: 1 Point Perspective Room Drawing
• Michael Phillips: 1 Point Perspective Room Drawing
• Kendall Kafar: Clay Rainbow Hightop
• Isabella Dober: Clay Rainbow Shoe
• Genevieve Hauser: Clay Unicorn Shoe

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Information/Reminders

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• Academic teachers:  
• For the final iTime rotation there is a bit more flexibility we want to offer.  Please think about something within your academic area that you either do not get to or that you would love to be able to do with students that fits within 5 days of iTime.  
• Please put your plan next to your name by the end of the day on August 3 in THIS Excel Document.  
• Monday, April 1 - Forward Prep during Extended Advisory.  Please make sure you are looking over the plans as we want to ensure all students receive this prior during Extended Advisory on April 1 and April 8.  
• Monday, April 1 - Staff Meeting from 2:40 - 3:00 
• The focus of this staff meeting will be about our Forward Exam weeks and ensuring everyone is on the same page.  
• Tuesday, April 2 - Start of new iTime rotation.  
• Click HERE to access where your advisory students should report for iTime.  
• The focus for these two weeks should be Forward test prep/review.  Note this was going to be three weeks but our bell schedule during the week of April 15-18 does not have any iTime in the morning.  So this rotation will be for two weeks (FYI)  
• Wednesday, April 3 - End of term 3!  
• Grades will be due by 3:30 on Friday, April 5.  
• April 8 - April 12 Forward Exam Week 1 
• Click HERE to see the schedule for April 8 through April 11.  The focus during this week is for both grade levels to complete the writing prompt portion of the Forward Exams.
• Applied Academic staff:  Note that there is an adjustment to where morning electives fall and the length of time.  
• Academic teachers:  Note that your schedule too is different and you will have one period per day that is extended as well.  
• April 15 - April 18 - Forward Exam Week 2 
• Click HERE for the schedule.  This will be for all 4 days during that week.  There will be no extended advisory or iTime due to the adjusted bell schedule.  
• We will also have all applied academic teachers joining/assisting in academic classrooms this year throughout the testing sessions.  That schedule of who goes where will be shared prior to testing but has not been determined yet.  
• Special education teachers will be working with students in a small group setting and our interventionists will most likely be doing the same.  Ryan and I may also take a small group as well depending on need, etc.   

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__________Pictures from this week!_________

Students in Jennifer Pelnar's class who have their art work displayed at BHS or the Public Library!

March 18, 2019

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

2018-2019 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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• Congrats to Rod Stoughton and our 5-12 grade choir programs on a great Sing-a-bration concert this past week!  The last song was so beautiful with such a great message!  Nice job.  Thank you to Rod as well for his work in the musical.  We went this Saturday and thought it was truly an excellent performance!  Our girls were on the edge of their seats the whole time (minus when the dentist was about to drill Seymour) - awesome to see the collaboration of staff across buildings!  
• Thank you to Alyssa Riggs, Amanda Thate, Kurt Rummler, Mike Jones, Brad Ferstenou, and Andrea Hancock for our behind the scenes work to start the beginning stages of the 2019-2020 scheduling process this past week!  So dedicated to doing what is best and right for all students - thank you!
• Thank you to Jon Nelson for assisting this past Wednesday in the office while Ryan and I were both out of the building for a conference with the rest of the administrative team!  
• And... kudos to all of our staff or assisting with the recording of where students wanted to go for the iReady incentive!  Thank you to Kurt Rummler, Brad Ferstenou, Mike Jones, Hans Block, Andrea Hancock, and Jon Nelson for helping during the iReady incentives this past Thursday and Friday.  The students all had a blast and our hope is that it was a success and created a feeling for students where they want to get lessons done so they can do the next incentive as well!  Thanks again! 
• Kudos to Wendy Zeman and Grace Jorgenson for your hard work and time with our Academic Bowl students.  They competed this past week and GOT FIRST PLACE!!!  
• The team had a total of 671 points, scoring 97 point higher than the second placed team.  We had several first, second and third place finishers in science, social studies, math and language arts.  We also had two of the three current events teams place!!!

• Ashely Parr's family will be making the move to Ohio as her husband Josh was given the opportunity to run one of the stores for Menards.  This is an exciting opportunity for the Parr's but a sad one for Karcher as this means Ashley will be leaving at the end of this school year.  I share this because a posting will be going out tomorrow for a special education teacher at Karcher and wanted everyone to understand the why.  Josh has already moved to Cleveland, Ohio and Ashley has committed to finishing the year at Karcher along with both of their boys staying in Burlington as well until June.   

Video of the week: 
This video is just something I happen to reference and reflect on frequently and thought I would share it with you!  Having break coming I thought you might have a little time to watch this.  Intriguing to me and, I personally, love working on this!  

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Information/Reminders

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• Monday, March 18 - Staff Meeting in the library from 2:40 - 3:00 
• Monday, March 18 - MTSS District Committee Meeting from 3:45 - 5:15 in our Karcher library.  
• Monday, March 18 - Student Council Culver's Night from 5:00 - 8:00!  
• Have dinner at Culver's or do the drive through to support our students!
• Tuesday, March 19 - Skyward training
• Just wanting to keep you in the loop.  We have Skyward coming in for a training on using a standards-based grade book so that we can make that transition for next school year.  Just administration and secretaries are attending this training as there are behind the scene needs that we want to figure out!  The goal is to be able to talk as a team about this at our next inservice in May!  
• Tuesday, March 19 - Mix it up lunch for our students!
• Tuesday, March 19 - Have dinner at Lucky Star and 15% will go back to Karcher!!!  
• Bring a coupon with!  
• Wednesday, March 20 - YAR student group will be meeting from 8:05-9:05.  
• Wednesday, March 20... we are supposed to have PLC but... you all deserve to have this time to finalize any needs prior to spring break so that your mind can be on break and not school!  So... use this time for what you need it for!  
• Friday, March 22 - End of this iTime rotation.  
• Academic teams... please use team time this week to determine who will take which students for the next rotation.  The Excel Document simply shows you who needs to be in a reading group and who needs to be in a math group.  Now... there are more reading groups than math so someone that did reading it might be best of they help do a rotation of math... made a suggestion of how in the document, if you want to pick someone else to help with math that is up to your team!  Suzanne Dunbar can assist with 7th grade reading (this is noted in the document and can have students from both houses).  
• Click HERE to see the document for the next rotation.  The plan for the next rotation is still focused on prepping for the Forward Exam.  You will have this group from April 2 through April 26 with the focus on reviewing topics, etc as you did this last round.  This way all students have some review in both ELA and math.  
• Social Studies and Science teachers I also would suggest thinking about doing a few things in class that would prepare students as well (those in 8th grade).  


Looking ahead:  
• Wednesday, April 3 - End of term 3!  
• Grades will be due by 3:30 on Friday, April 5.  
• April 8 - April 12 
• Both grade levels have to give the writing prompt portion of the Forward Exam this year.  In the past it was only required in 8th grade, now it is required in 7th as well.  Last year we had students do the writing prompt outside the testing block for all the other assessments.  This year we will do the same by having the writing prompt done during the week of April 8 - April 12.  I will talk to our ELA teachers this Monday/Tuesday to finalize our plan for this and ensure it is shared with the rest of the team prior to that week!  
• April 15 - April 18 - This will be our Forward Exam testing week.  We will be creating a different schedule for this week where classes will be somewhere around 30 minutes in length with a testing period taking place at the same time throughout the building.  This schedule will be added to the next blog.  We did something very similar last year where we still ran all classes they simply will be shorter due to testing.  
• We will also have all applied academic teachers joining/assisting in academic classrooms this year throughout the testing sessions.  
• Special education teachers will be working with students in a small group setting and our interventionists will most likely be doing the same.  Ryan and I may also take a small group as well depending on need, etc.  
• We will be sharing the schedule first with BLT this week to double check what we discussed at BLT and then it too will be shared in the next blog.  My goal is to get everyone the next blog this Friday, prior to spring break.  
• House splitting for the 2019-2020 school year took place last week.  We will really be ramping up on taking care of scheduling for the 2019-2020 school year with the goal of having everything set by May of this school year so we can look at sections, see if they are balanced, look at students who are in sections together, etc.  This is the goal... 

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Pictures from the week

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Students dissecting owl pellets in 8th grade science with Ms. Sturdevant!

Students in Ms. Botsford's social studies class working to escape from the underworld first within teams!

Ms. Thate working with a small group of students in order to understand their thinking and processes with math concepts.  

Academic Bowl students - FIRST PLACE!!!

Students working through 13 circuits during PE class!  

Sing-a-bration!!!!!!!

iReady incentive!