Parents and students,
Welcome back to the 2011-2012 school year. It is a very exciting new year and we are well under way. We have many new things at WHHS this year.
This is my blog and I plan to update date it at least once a week.
1. The lap tops have been pretty good so far. We are still working out the bugs. Please be patient with us as we figure out the best way to utilize these tools for your child's education. We are very excited about how these have already changed how teachers are teaching and students are learning.
2. The Geo Thermal heating and cooling is working very well. There are some things we will be working out with this also. But I was very happy to have our new system in place at the beginning of last week. While it was very hot outside, our students and staff were quite comfortable inside.
3. The bathrooms in the main lobby are done and are very nice. We put all new partitions and mirrors in along with tile and paint. There are also baby changing stations for our guests at evening activities.
4. Mrs. Winter and Ms. Wilson have gotten off to good starts in our English and Music programs. I feel they will be great additions to our staff.
Feel free to stop in and check out our new things when you have some free time. We always encourage visitors. Just check in with Peg at the office. If I am available I will give you a personal tour.
With the new laptops we will really be expanding our use of Sharepoint in the high school. If you do not know what Sharepoint is, I encourageyou to ask your son or daughter. They can show you and explain how it is being used in their classrooms. All lesson plans will now be on Sharepoint.
So far things have gone very smoothly at the high school. Just a couple of quick reminders for parents as we start the school year.
1. If your son or daughter will be absent from school please let Peg at the office know as soon as you can. E mail works great for Peg, so do not be afraid to use that. If you do not contact us, we will contact you. Remember our attendance policy no longer effects semester testing, but we do want every student here every day. If they are not here we need to know that you excused them. As parents it is your responsibility to make sure they are in school if at all possible.
2. If a student is in an activity and they miss one period or more (half of first period counts as a period) they will not be allowed to practice or perform in their activity. Pre-approval is fine for the following: medical appointments, legal obligations, funerals, obtaining a drivers license, college visits and things at the discretion of the principal. Please remember that we need to know about these things before school starts. E mail would be fine for pre approval as well. Just know that you are not approved until Peg or I responds to your e mail.
3. Please keep track of lunch accounts. Peg tries to keep students aware of where they are at but remember you can access that information on JMC and also pay online through our pay-schools link. Any questions contact Peg at the office.
4. JMC grade books should be starting to have some scores. Please use this tool to check your student's progress through the semester. We do not anyone to be surprised in December.
5. Yes I said December. With our new calendar we will wrap up the semester tests before Christmas break.
Academic Letters
We have began an academic lettering program here at West Hancock. Any student who maintains a 3.5 GPA for the year will receive a letter for the year. This will look like an activity letter but include the inscribed word "academics". We handed our first ones out Friday at our pep rally based on last years grades. As students become 2,3 or 4 time letter winners we will have a pin for each year they can add to the letter. We feel this is just another way to honor our high achieving students.
Advisory Update
For our first activity we had 40 minutes of time to get reacquainted and meet new people. We did a couple of group activities and discussed many new school policies. It was a nice beginning to our advisory year. This Friday we met and discussed goals for our academic year. Each student got to see their transcript and was to think about how they can improve this year. Don't be afraid to contact your student's advisor to check in on how things are going with them. Coaches Bob Dodge and John Paulus will be joining our male group of advisors. This will help our numbers be a little more manageable of the boys end of things.
For those of you who made it to the football game Friday night (judging by the crowd I would say that was most of you!) you saw a great display of our community support and school spirit. It was also a heck of a game. Let's keep up the support as we get into Volleyball and Cross Country seasons and our fine arts groups begin their performances.
This weeks calendar:
Monday - JV FB - Newman - H - 6:30
Tuesday -XC @ Newman - 4: 30
VB @ Forest City - 6:00
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday - 1 hour early out
V FB @ Lake Mills - 7:00
Weekend - Draft horse show
Monday - No school - Labor Day parade @ Kanawha - WHHS Marching band
Tuesday - XC @ BK - 4:15
VB - GH - H - 6:00
JV FBGH - H - 6:30
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Mrs. Reiter's Technology Class!
Welcome class! If I can Blog - then you can Blog. Mrs. Reiter is very helpful!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break!
Things have been busy here at West Hancock in the last few weeks. We ended Hex 2 and grades were sent home. If you did not recieve your student's grades please ask them about that. There are less than six weeks remaining in the semester so please remind your children that they need to do their best and finish strong. Please continue to check your students' grades and teacher's lesson plans on line. Many of our teachers are now utilizing Sharepoint. I know several of them have been in contact with their parent groupings and made this known. We are very excited about the potential of this new tool.
As many of you know our middle school will be implementing one to one laptop computers starting in January. The plan right now is to move ahead with these in the high school starting in August. We are very excited about the potential that this will bring for our students.
We had two interesting speakers here shortly before the break. Don Denkinger spoke to our students about working hard and chasing their dreams. He was an American League Umpire for many years. His presentation was very interesting. Paul Dunbar came and spoke to us on Monday before Thanksgiving break. He talked about substance abuse, bullying, and suicide. He encouraged students to make good choices and really think about the choices they make and how they effect our lives. He was a very powerful speaker and our students responded very well.
Our winter activities are in full swing. As a reminder, in order to play or practice in an athletic, music, speech, drama or other extra curricular or co-curricular event students need to attend all of their classes each day. If they have an appointment, funeral, college visit, driver license appointment, or court appearance and they let the office know beforehand they are prior approved to be absent. If you have any questions about attendance issues please contatct us in the office.
As we get into the winter season please make sure that if you want to be on our alert system you sign up on our website under parent access.
Things have been busy here at West Hancock in the last few weeks. We ended Hex 2 and grades were sent home. If you did not recieve your student's grades please ask them about that. There are less than six weeks remaining in the semester so please remind your children that they need to do their best and finish strong. Please continue to check your students' grades and teacher's lesson plans on line. Many of our teachers are now utilizing Sharepoint. I know several of them have been in contact with their parent groupings and made this known. We are very excited about the potential of this new tool.
As many of you know our middle school will be implementing one to one laptop computers starting in January. The plan right now is to move ahead with these in the high school starting in August. We are very excited about the potential that this will bring for our students.
We had two interesting speakers here shortly before the break. Don Denkinger spoke to our students about working hard and chasing their dreams. He was an American League Umpire for many years. His presentation was very interesting. Paul Dunbar came and spoke to us on Monday before Thanksgiving break. He talked about substance abuse, bullying, and suicide. He encouraged students to make good choices and really think about the choices they make and how they effect our lives. He was a very powerful speaker and our students responded very well.
Our winter activities are in full swing. As a reminder, in order to play or practice in an athletic, music, speech, drama or other extra curricular or co-curricular event students need to attend all of their classes each day. If they have an appointment, funeral, college visit, driver license appointment, or court appearance and they let the office know beforehand they are prior approved to be absent. If you have any questions about attendance issues please contatct us in the office.
As we get into the winter season please make sure that if you want to be on our alert system you sign up on our website under parent access.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
A Great Time to be an Eagle!
There have been many of positive things going on at West Hancock in the last few weeks. We have a lot to be proud of in our academics and activities. I am very proud to be working with our staff and students so far this year. It has been an exciting year. This week is no exception as we will be very busy.
We will be hosting our fall parent-teacher conferences this Tuesday and Thursday. Conferences will be in the high school from 4:00 until 7:45. Conferences will be in teacher's classrooms. Maps will be available for those parents not familiar with our layout. Please make an effort to get to school on one of these nights to speak with your children's teachers. If you cannot make it to conferences, make sure you contact teachers that you have questions for. Teachers all check their e mail regularly and have phones in their rooms. They are available from 7:50 - 3:30 each day. We will also be hosting a college fair on Tuesday night in the high school gym from 4:15-6:15. We will also have a FAFSA meeting for parents of juniors and seniors Tuesday at 6:30pm in the high school lunch room. The college fair and FAFSA meeting are great opportunities for students interested in college. Please make plans to attend. We will have one hour early outs on Tuesday and Thursday. There will be no school this Friday.
I hope you were able to see the article in the newspaper discussing our increased MAP scores. I was very happy with how our students responded to our increased focus on MAP improvement. I really feel that increased student awareness and effort helped drive the scores up. Hopefully, the education the students receive from now until May, along with their continued effort, will really show what our students were able to learn this year.
Congratulations to our Band on their 2nd place finish at Algona Band Days! The band has also done a very nice job for all of our half times this fall. The Chorus had a great concert on Thursday night. It was a great first performance. Our speech team has begun practicing, and looks forward to their contests down the road.
Congratulations to our Cross Country team on their state performances. We combine with Garner Hayfield and Ventura and run in the 3A division for Cross Country. The girls finished fourth in the State and the boys were ninth! It was a great year for our Cross Country team.
On Monday night, our football team will host West Sioux - Hawarden. Game time will be 7:00 pm and no passes will be accepted. For those of you who traveled to Moville, you got your money's worth. Our boys were down by 22 and came back to win 28-22. A great team effort by our boys. Our volleyball team had their ups and downs this year, but finished on a high note advancing to the second round of tournament play before falling to WCLT in round two.
It is a great time to be an Eagle and we have many things to be proud of. Let's keep up the good work! As a reminder to parents, you can always access student's grades and teacher's lesson plans through the school's website. We continue to have Success Center each night after school from 3:30-4:30. Please encourage your child to take advantage of this opportunity to catch up on missing work or just to complete regular homework.
We will be hosting our fall parent-teacher conferences this Tuesday and Thursday. Conferences will be in the high school from 4:00 until 7:45. Conferences will be in teacher's classrooms. Maps will be available for those parents not familiar with our layout. Please make an effort to get to school on one of these nights to speak with your children's teachers. If you cannot make it to conferences, make sure you contact teachers that you have questions for. Teachers all check their e mail regularly and have phones in their rooms. They are available from 7:50 - 3:30 each day. We will also be hosting a college fair on Tuesday night in the high school gym from 4:15-6:15. We will also have a FAFSA meeting for parents of juniors and seniors Tuesday at 6:30pm in the high school lunch room. The college fair and FAFSA meeting are great opportunities for students interested in college. Please make plans to attend. We will have one hour early outs on Tuesday and Thursday. There will be no school this Friday.
I hope you were able to see the article in the newspaper discussing our increased MAP scores. I was very happy with how our students responded to our increased focus on MAP improvement. I really feel that increased student awareness and effort helped drive the scores up. Hopefully, the education the students receive from now until May, along with their continued effort, will really show what our students were able to learn this year.
Congratulations to our Band on their 2nd place finish at Algona Band Days! The band has also done a very nice job for all of our half times this fall. The Chorus had a great concert on Thursday night. It was a great first performance. Our speech team has begun practicing, and looks forward to their contests down the road.
Congratulations to our Cross Country team on their state performances. We combine with Garner Hayfield and Ventura and run in the 3A division for Cross Country. The girls finished fourth in the State and the boys were ninth! It was a great year for our Cross Country team.
On Monday night, our football team will host West Sioux - Hawarden. Game time will be 7:00 pm and no passes will be accepted. For those of you who traveled to Moville, you got your money's worth. Our boys were down by 22 and came back to win 28-22. A great team effort by our boys. Our volleyball team had their ups and downs this year, but finished on a high note advancing to the second round of tournament play before falling to WCLT in round two.
It is a great time to be an Eagle and we have many things to be proud of. Let's keep up the good work! As a reminder to parents, you can always access student's grades and teacher's lesson plans through the school's website. We continue to have Success Center each night after school from 3:30-4:30. Please encourage your child to take advantage of this opportunity to catch up on missing work or just to complete regular homework.
Monday, October 4, 2010
The Start of the Second Hex!
Well it's hard to believe, but October and the start of the second Hex are here. Things have gone well in the high school and we continue to have a lot of positive things happening at West Hancock! Congratulations to our high school and middle school bands who both finished 2nd in their divisions at Algona Band Days!
Grades will be handed out to students on Tuesday. Please ask to see your student's grades and have a discussion with them about their scores. We will devote our advisory time on Friday to discussion of Hex 1 grades.
We are finishing up MAP testing today and tomorrow. I really feel it went much better this time around. I hope the score reports will reflect our students increased efforts. We have spoke with students in advisory about their MAP tests and will also be discussing the results.
Homecoming went very well. We had a whole week of positive activities. Thanks to Mrs. Lang and student council along with Mrs. Sanger and pep club / cheerleaders for their efforts in planning and carrying out our homecoming activities.
We had our first parent advisory meeting and it went very well. We discussed several topics and had some good discussion. Any parent is welcome to come to these meetings. We will meet three more times throughout the year.
We have had some issues concerning some bullying and harassment in the school and community. I have had some parents in and we have had good discussions. Mrs. Clark, the staff and I are making every effort we can to prevent this from happening. I know some of you have had some involvement in these cases. I encourage you to support your children but also act as a model for appropriate behavior. Our actions as parents have a direct impact on how our children act. Some of our advisory sessions have been focused on bullying and we will continue that into October. We will have one session discussing Internet safety and bullying. Technology is a great thing, but like anything else, if it is used inappropriately it can be a negative. Facebook and texting have made it easy for people to say things that they might not say in person. My message to the students has been that we do not have to be friends with all of our schoolmates, but we do have to be decent and civil. In the last week things have calmed down and hopefully we can move on and have a great year.
This is a link to the video we watched in relation to bullying: Advisory bullying video
The Lutheran church will be having a pork burger supper this Friday night when we play Belmond Klemme. All proceeds will go to the Cody Schmitt scholarship fund. They will be set up in the South parking lot. The cost will be a free will donation. On another note please remember that the Chamber of commerce's Chili Cook off will be the following Friday when we play host to Bishop Garrigan. This is a really neat event. It will be held in the Elementary Gymnasium. Please stop in and support the Britt Chamber of Commerce.
I know many of you have heard, but I am happy to announce that a nationally known Christian Radio program has chosen West Hancock from a national contest. The contest was designed to pick one place in the United States where the DJ's would visit and cheer on a high school football team with an inspirational story. People from our community nominated our football team for their determination in dedicating this season to Cody Schmitt's memory. They will be here on Friday night before the Garrigan game. They will be talking with the team and several members of our community before the game. We will have a pep assembly at the end of the day on Friday and are hopeful the DJ's will be here for that. This is a great honor and we are very excited for Ron and JJ to visit us.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Mr. Recker
Grades will be handed out to students on Tuesday. Please ask to see your student's grades and have a discussion with them about their scores. We will devote our advisory time on Friday to discussion of Hex 1 grades.
We are finishing up MAP testing today and tomorrow. I really feel it went much better this time around. I hope the score reports will reflect our students increased efforts. We have spoke with students in advisory about their MAP tests and will also be discussing the results.
Homecoming went very well. We had a whole week of positive activities. Thanks to Mrs. Lang and student council along with Mrs. Sanger and pep club / cheerleaders for their efforts in planning and carrying out our homecoming activities.
We had our first parent advisory meeting and it went very well. We discussed several topics and had some good discussion. Any parent is welcome to come to these meetings. We will meet three more times throughout the year.
We have had some issues concerning some bullying and harassment in the school and community. I have had some parents in and we have had good discussions. Mrs. Clark, the staff and I are making every effort we can to prevent this from happening. I know some of you have had some involvement in these cases. I encourage you to support your children but also act as a model for appropriate behavior. Our actions as parents have a direct impact on how our children act. Some of our advisory sessions have been focused on bullying and we will continue that into October. We will have one session discussing Internet safety and bullying. Technology is a great thing, but like anything else, if it is used inappropriately it can be a negative. Facebook and texting have made it easy for people to say things that they might not say in person. My message to the students has been that we do not have to be friends with all of our schoolmates, but we do have to be decent and civil. In the last week things have calmed down and hopefully we can move on and have a great year.
This is a link to the video we watched in relation to bullying: Advisory bullying video
The Lutheran church will be having a pork burger supper this Friday night when we play Belmond Klemme. All proceeds will go to the Cody Schmitt scholarship fund. They will be set up in the South parking lot. The cost will be a free will donation. On another note please remember that the Chamber of commerce's Chili Cook off will be the following Friday when we play host to Bishop Garrigan. This is a really neat event. It will be held in the Elementary Gymnasium. Please stop in and support the Britt Chamber of Commerce.
I know many of you have heard, but I am happy to announce that a nationally known Christian Radio program has chosen West Hancock from a national contest. The contest was designed to pick one place in the United States where the DJ's would visit and cheer on a high school football team with an inspirational story. People from our community nominated our football team for their determination in dedicating this season to Cody Schmitt's memory. They will be here on Friday night before the Garrigan game. They will be talking with the team and several members of our community before the game. We will have a pep assembly at the end of the day on Friday and are hopeful the DJ's will be here for that. This is a great honor and we are very excited for Ron and JJ to visit us.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Happy Homecoming!
Happy Homecoming week!
We have lots of very spirit filled activities going on all week. Please see the Weekly calendar I will attach below. The big things are the coronation / pep rally which will be Thursday night at 7:30. This is a change from previous years start time at 7:00. Our parade will be starting at 2:30 from the South parking lot. We will end up at Swenson's Hardware for a pep rally at roughly 2:45. We will play MMC at 7:00 pm on Friday night. Our dance will be Saturday from 8:30 - 11:30 pm.
We will begin MAP testing this Monday morning. It will last two weeks. Please encourage your child to do their absolute best on these tests. It is imperative that they give their best efforts to show what they have learned and how we are performing as a school.
Our attendance has been doing well. We are at 97% for the year. Please remember to work with us if your child is ill or going to be gone. We would like to know before school or as quickly as possible. If your child is in an activity and they want to be able to participate that night in practice or a game they need to have their absence approved in the office before it happens. Please contact me with any questions regarding this.
School pictures will be on Monday September 20th. Please make sure you have gotten a form if you want one and send the forms along on Monday. Forms are available at the office.
Our activities continue to go well. In case you have not noticed we have an outstanding Cross Country team. They continue to win meets by large margins. Great job guys! Congratulations to our Volleyball team on their fourth place finish at the BK tournament. Football will be home this week and at North Iowa next Friday.
Our first parent advisory committee meeting will be on September 29th at 5:15 in the library.
Please not their is After Prom meeting in the HS lunchroom at 7:00 pm this evening.
Have a great week!
Mr. Recker
We have lots of very spirit filled activities going on all week. Please see the Weekly calendar I will attach below. The big things are the coronation / pep rally which will be Thursday night at 7:30. This is a change from previous years start time at 7:00. Our parade will be starting at 2:30 from the South parking lot. We will end up at Swenson's Hardware for a pep rally at roughly 2:45. We will play MMC at 7:00 pm on Friday night. Our dance will be Saturday from 8:30 - 11:30 pm.
We will begin MAP testing this Monday morning. It will last two weeks. Please encourage your child to do their absolute best on these tests. It is imperative that they give their best efforts to show what they have learned and how we are performing as a school.
Our attendance has been doing well. We are at 97% for the year. Please remember to work with us if your child is ill or going to be gone. We would like to know before school or as quickly as possible. If your child is in an activity and they want to be able to participate that night in practice or a game they need to have their absence approved in the office before it happens. Please contact me with any questions regarding this.
School pictures will be on Monday September 20th. Please make sure you have gotten a form if you want one and send the forms along on Monday. Forms are available at the office.
Our activities continue to go well. In case you have not noticed we have an outstanding Cross Country team. They continue to win meets by large margins. Great job guys! Congratulations to our Volleyball team on their fourth place finish at the BK tournament. Football will be home this week and at North Iowa next Friday.
Our first parent advisory committee meeting will be on September 29th at 5:15 in the library.
Please not their is After Prom meeting in the HS lunchroom at 7:00 pm this evening.
Have a great week!
Mr. Recker
Weekly Bulletin
Monday – NHS Ditch cleaning – 5:30 pm
JV Football cancelled – Belmond forfeits due to lack of numbers.
Tuesday – VB @ Newman – 6:00 pm
Wednesday – In service – 1:12 early out
Thursday – XC @ Clear Lake – 4:00 pm
Coronation Pep Rally – 7:30 – HS Gym
Friday – Dismiss at 2:00 – Parade – 2:30 (see homecoming e mail for specifics)
FB – Marcus Meridan Cleghorn – 7:00 pm – Britt
Saturday – Dance 8:30 – 11:30
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
JV Football Correction
The JV Football team will play at Garner at 6:30.
Sorry for the mistake.
Mr. Recker
Sorry for the mistake.
Mr. Recker
Great Start to the New Year!
West Hancock Community and Parents,
It has been a great beginning two weeks of school. I really get a good feeling from our staff and students and I know this year will be a great one!
In case you haven't figured it out this is my blog for the year. This will replace my Recker's report. It will be available on the school website. The nice thing about blogs is that you can go back and see what the previous blogs have been. Plus it gives me a little more flexibility in how I do things. Please be patient with me as I discover all of the things that blogging will allow me to do.
Do the best you are capable of every day!
This is our theme for the year. I expect each teacher, student and parent to do their best each day to help our students succeed in all areas of their lives. All we can ask for is the best effort, so that is what we are looking for. Don't be afraid to ask your students about giving their best efforts in class, in activities and in how they deal with their fellow citizens.
Attendance Policy Changes
As many of you know we changed our semester test attendance incentive. It changed in two ways and I wanted to make sure that was clear to everyone.
1. Student's attendance will have no bearing in how they are assessed by teachers at the end of the semester. This is the big thing everyone notices, but I feel it is secondary in importance to number two.
2. Teachers will be given much more choice and freedom in how they asses students and what format of assessment they will use. Teachers no longer have to give large cumulative tests if there subject matter does not fit well with that type of assessment. Teachers may choose to use projects, portfolios, take home tests, essays, term papers, masterpieces or anything they can come up with to give students the chance to show what they have learned in the course of a semester.
I am really excited about the opportunities this will give our teachers and in turn our students.
How we do attendance in the office is no different. If someone is going to be gone we expect that the parents will contact the school either the day of the absence or before. If we do not receive a phone call or the student fails to bring a note, the absence will be unexcused and we will proceed that way. We expect that parents will not allow their children to miss school with out a valid reason. If students are "skipping" they will be disciplined like they have in the past. We expect parents will continue to work with us to provide the best education we can for all of our students. I think we all agree, the more time a student can be in school the more they will grow academically.
Advisory Program
Our advisory program will be a little different this year. We will meet each Friday with our advisee students. The focus will be combine our relationship and character building with more academic things. We will discuss MAP tests, Success Center referrals, ITEDS, scheduling, and future plans with our students. The first two sessions combine MAP goal setting and planning with a "get to know each other" activity to welcome new students. We are very excited about our advisory program and the changes we have made.
MAP Tests
We will begin MAP tests on September 20th. Please make sure you speak with your student about the importance of these tests. As I stated advisors have spoken with students and we want to all do our best. Last year especially during the spring test we felt that students efforts were not where they should be. We had several capable students who did much more poorly in the spring than in the fall. We really hope that we are not decreasing student achievement over the course of the year. Hopefully with more focus on the test and increased discussions among teachers, parents and students our scores will be as good as they can be.
Heating Ventilation and Cooling
Our high school underwent some major updates to our climate control capabilities. We are still one year away from completion but many of the things that happened this summer were underground and in areas not seen by students and teachers. Beginning next spring some of the changes will be much more visible. By the end of the process we will have geo thermal heating and cooling throughout most of the school. This is a very exciting time. We will all have to be flexible as construction will begin in the school roughly May 1st.
Homecoming
Homecoming will begin this Sunday. I will be posting a complete schedule later in the week on my blog so look for that. We will be playing Marcus Meridan Cleghorn on Friday and the dance will be Saturday night from 8:30-11:30.
Lets do our best to make this a great year!
Mr. Recker
Here is our schedule for the week.
Monday – No school
Tuesday – XC @ Belmond Klemme
VB vs. Forest City – H – 6:00
JV FB @ Garner – 6:00 pm
Wednesday
Thursday – VB @ Garner – 6:00 pm
Friday – 1 hour dismissal
FB @ Lemars Gehlen
Saturday – VB tournament @ Belmond Klemme
Sunday – Powder Puff / He Man VB
It has been a great beginning two weeks of school. I really get a good feeling from our staff and students and I know this year will be a great one!
In case you haven't figured it out this is my blog for the year. This will replace my Recker's report. It will be available on the school website. The nice thing about blogs is that you can go back and see what the previous blogs have been. Plus it gives me a little more flexibility in how I do things. Please be patient with me as I discover all of the things that blogging will allow me to do.
Do the best you are capable of every day!
This is our theme for the year. I expect each teacher, student and parent to do their best each day to help our students succeed in all areas of their lives. All we can ask for is the best effort, so that is what we are looking for. Don't be afraid to ask your students about giving their best efforts in class, in activities and in how they deal with their fellow citizens.
Attendance Policy Changes
As many of you know we changed our semester test attendance incentive. It changed in two ways and I wanted to make sure that was clear to everyone.
1. Student's attendance will have no bearing in how they are assessed by teachers at the end of the semester. This is the big thing everyone notices, but I feel it is secondary in importance to number two.
2. Teachers will be given much more choice and freedom in how they asses students and what format of assessment they will use. Teachers no longer have to give large cumulative tests if there subject matter does not fit well with that type of assessment. Teachers may choose to use projects, portfolios, take home tests, essays, term papers, masterpieces or anything they can come up with to give students the chance to show what they have learned in the course of a semester.
I am really excited about the opportunities this will give our teachers and in turn our students.
How we do attendance in the office is no different. If someone is going to be gone we expect that the parents will contact the school either the day of the absence or before. If we do not receive a phone call or the student fails to bring a note, the absence will be unexcused and we will proceed that way. We expect that parents will not allow their children to miss school with out a valid reason. If students are "skipping" they will be disciplined like they have in the past. We expect parents will continue to work with us to provide the best education we can for all of our students. I think we all agree, the more time a student can be in school the more they will grow academically.
Advisory Program
Our advisory program will be a little different this year. We will meet each Friday with our advisee students. The focus will be combine our relationship and character building with more academic things. We will discuss MAP tests, Success Center referrals, ITEDS, scheduling, and future plans with our students. The first two sessions combine MAP goal setting and planning with a "get to know each other" activity to welcome new students. We are very excited about our advisory program and the changes we have made.
MAP Tests
We will begin MAP tests on September 20th. Please make sure you speak with your student about the importance of these tests. As I stated advisors have spoken with students and we want to all do our best. Last year especially during the spring test we felt that students efforts were not where they should be. We had several capable students who did much more poorly in the spring than in the fall. We really hope that we are not decreasing student achievement over the course of the year. Hopefully with more focus on the test and increased discussions among teachers, parents and students our scores will be as good as they can be.
Heating Ventilation and Cooling
Our high school underwent some major updates to our climate control capabilities. We are still one year away from completion but many of the things that happened this summer were underground and in areas not seen by students and teachers. Beginning next spring some of the changes will be much more visible. By the end of the process we will have geo thermal heating and cooling throughout most of the school. This is a very exciting time. We will all have to be flexible as construction will begin in the school roughly May 1st.
Homecoming
Homecoming will begin this Sunday. I will be posting a complete schedule later in the week on my blog so look for that. We will be playing Marcus Meridan Cleghorn on Friday and the dance will be Saturday night from 8:30-11:30.
Lets do our best to make this a great year!
Mr. Recker
Here is our schedule for the week.
Weekly Schedule
Monday – No school
Tuesday – XC @ Belmond Klemme
VB vs. Forest City – H – 6:00
JV FB @ Garner – 6:00 pm
Wednesday
Thursday – VB @ Garner – 6:00 pm
Friday – 1 hour dismissal
FB @ Lemars Gehlen
Saturday – VB tournament @ Belmond Klemme
Sunday – Powder Puff / He Man VB
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