Staff, Students & Families
From the desk of Principal Graber
Spring is approaching and learning is in full swing! As you may know, this is a time of year that students make the most academic and social learning improvements. Make school a priority! Very soon the weather will change with spring right around the corner. It can be challenging to keep children focused on learning. What can you do to make school a top priority for your child? Keep these ideas in mind:
Make attendance your number one priority. Let your child know that unless they are sick, they must attend school and be on time.
Show you care. Talk about school activities and the learning that is happening in the classroom. Make an effort to attend as many school activities or events as you can.
There has been some recent excitement in the classrooms at G-R! The FFA members held various activities and dress-up days to celebrate FFA week where PK-12 students and staff had the opportunity to participate. One highlight of FFA week was watching competitions during homeroom between the students in grades 7-12. The PK-6th grade students had an assembly performed by the Science Center of Iowa called Simply Electrifying. Students explored the exciting world of electricity where they learned what electricity is, how it moves and how to interact with it safely. The Read Across America celebration just wrapped up last week so students dressed up each day and had many opportunities to read throughout the week including to their buddy. I thoroughly enjoyed being the “Mystery Reader” and surprised the students by reading the book, Going Places, to the PK-4th grade classes. Hooray for Differndoofer Day and Say Something were the books that I read to the 5th & 6th grade classes. This was a huge highlight for me!
From the desk of Activities Director Kahler
Winter sports have come to an end and our spring sports will be rolling before you know it. Great job to Coach Ashley Kahler and the girls basketball team! They finished the year 13-11, and it is always nice to have a winning season. Paige Klocke surpassed 1,000 career points and 600 rebounds. Paige also received 1st team all-conference, and Tiela Janssen also received 2nd team all-conference. Congratulations also goes out to Vanessa Koehler and Kassidy Wenck for receiving Honorable Mention. The boys basketball team showed a lot of improvement in their last game of the season vs. Ankeny Christian. It was nice to see them end on a positive note. Our two wrestlers, Treynor Cose and Jacob Meshek, had a great year competing with Coon Rapids Bayard. Their season came to an end at their district meet at ACGC. Great job to all of our players and coaches during the winter season!
Spring sports actually got kicked off the week of February 27th. Below is a timeline of specific dates of when each spring sport is starting and who those coaches are:
HIGH SCHOOL TRACK: DAVE PRESCOTT/TYLER SHIPLEY
The first meeting was February 27th, and there was optional practice that whole week.
The first official practice is March 6th.
HIGH SCHOOL GOLF: ANDY GOLAY/ASHLEY KAHLER
Optional practice is during the week of March 13th.
The first official practice is March 20th.
JUNIOR HIGH TRACK: TRICIA BOCK/KRISTA ZAVADIL
There will be a meeting on March 21st, and there will be optional practice Tues-Fri.
The first official practice will be on March 27th.
Remember to follow us on Varsity Bound and on our social media pages. You can look at Varsity Bound through a web browser or they have the Varsity Bound App. You can find varsity, JV, or junior high information on Varsity Bound. Our district calendar also has all the dates for all our activities.If you ever have any questions please call the school or email me at bkahler@glidden-ralston.k12.ia.us.
GLIDDEN-RALSTON ACTIVITIES INFO
ROLLING VALLEY CONFERENCE INFORMATION
WERGR!
BRAD KAHLER
ACTIVITIES DIRECTOR/DEAN OF STUDENTS
Counselor's Corner ~ Mrs. Bach
I can’t believe how quick the school year has gone. We have been learning a lot of different life skills during guidance classes. The past few weeks we have dove deep into empathy. When we start talking about empathy and what empathy really is, students must first identify feelings in general. From there, it goes more in-depth on specific situations that students work through during their guidance class such as identifying feelings for others and oneself, respecting different perspectives, learning how to disagree respectfully and more. We just recently started a new unit of emotion management and so far the students have responded very well to this. We first started with “Stop and Name your Feeling”. It also goes with the songs we sing during class so students are able to remember the steps. As we work through this unit, we will discuss more on coping skills and what causes the situation or “triggers”. A very important piece to the curriculum we use at Glidden for guidance is working through the units in order.
For high school students, especially seniors, this is definitely a busy time of year. In January and February, I have started to receive some scholarships but by the end of February and the beginning of March, I will start seeing a lot more. Scholarships are always emailed out to the seniors. A copy is printed in Mrs. Bach's office, and there is a copy on the school website. Any questions about scholarships, please email Mrs. Bach. Other items to email Mrs. Bach may include questions about GPA, credits, class rank, schedules, transcripts, etc.
The months of February and March have brought some visitors to Glidden to speak with students as well as having students traveling somewhere for on-site career experiences. Jamie Haden from Iowa Central Community college was at the school on February 27th. Katie Smith from DMACC was at the school on February 28th meeting with all 8th grade thru 11th grade students. This meeting provided the students with a quick online application that will be kept on file if students decide to take a DMACC course during high school. Lisa Story from Northwest Iowa Community College will be at the school on March 8th at 11:00.
On February 24th, the 8th grade students traveled to John Deere in Paton to learn more about the field of manufacturing including the awesome technologies that they use every day in their jobs. On March 10th, juniors will travel to DMACC in Carroll for an Innovate U day where they will learn about entrepreneurship and participate in a challenge similar to what we see on the TV show, Shark Tank.
The Nurse's Station ~ Mrs. Bock
Uplift Education Board Policy defines bullying as a single significant act or a pattern of acts by one or more scholars directed at another scholar that exploits an imbalance of power and involves engaging in written or verbal expression, expression through electronic means, or physical conduct and that has the effect (or will have the effect) of physically harming a scholar, damaging a scholar's property, or placing a scholar in reasonable fear of harm to the scholar's person or of damage to the scholar's property.
The action must be sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive enough that the action or threat creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for a scholar; materially and substantially disrupts the educational process or the orderly operation of a classroom or school; or infringes on the rights of the victim at school. The definition of bullying includes cyberbullying; which is bullying that occurs online or through other electronic media or technology.
Ways to prevent bullying:
- Help kids understand bullying. Talk about what bullying is and how to stand up to it safely. Tell kids bullying is unacceptable. Make sure kids know how to get help.
- Keep the lines of communication open. Check in with kids often. Listen to them. Know their friends, ask about school, and understand their concerns.
- Encourage kids to do what they love. Special activities, interests, and hobbies can boost confidence, help kids make friends, and protect them from bullying behavior.
- Model how to treat others with kindness and respect.
Helping kids understanding bullying ~
Kids who know what bullying is can better identify it. They can talk about bullying if it happens to them or others. Kids need to know ways to safely stand up to bullying and how to get help.
- Encourage kids to speak to a trusted adult if they are bullied or see others being bullied. The adult can give comfort, support, and advice, even if they can’t solve the problem directly. Encourage the child to report bullying if it happens.
- Talk about how to stand up to kids who bully. Give tips, like using humor and saying “stop” directly and confidently. Talk about what to do if those actions don’t work, like walking away
- Talk about strategies for staying safe, such as staying near adults or groups of other kids.
- Urge them to help kids who are bullied by showing kindness or getting help.
1. Keep open communication, and help children know they can talk to you. It's as easy as asking a few questions over dinner
- What was one good thing that happened today? Did any bad things happen?
- What is lunch time like at your school? Who do you sit with? What do you talk about?
- What is it like to ride the school bus?
- What are you good at? What do you like best about yourself?
2. Model Behavior
Kids learn from adults’ actions. By treating others with kindness and respect, adults show the kids in their lives that there is no place for bullying. Even if it seems like they are not paying attention, kids are watching how adults manage stress and conflict, as well as how they treat their friends, colleagues, and families.
BE KIND!!!
Tricia Bock, RN Glidden-Ralston CSD Nurse
Tech Talk ~ Mr. Thelin & Mrs. Henderson
Education today is more than lessons and classrooms. Today’s teachers and families expect learning experiences that prepare students for a digital future. Staying relevant means keeping pace with a tech landscape that’s evolving more rapidly than ever. Wi-Fi is a mature technology, and most of the advances over the past few years are about fine-tuning and improving a very stable service. However, new versions bring faster speeds, greater density and better security. Planning took place a year ago and GR updated our entire infrastructure over the holiday break. While we added additional access points and switches, we also replaced all the current ones.
Technology is an everyday learning tool in our PK-12 classrooms. Teachers incorporate the use of many education platforms such as PearDeck, Nearpod, Seesaw and Kahoot. With the use of these platforms, students are actively engaged through videos, gamification, and a wide variety of activities, all of which enhance the students’ learning. Technology also allows for differentiation of instruction to take place in the classroom. In the elementary classrooms, teachers provide students with instructional practices that allow for each student to be working on skills that he or she needs to strengthen. This self-paced individualized learning is done through a “play to learn” approach on the iPad with various apps and websites, such as eSpark, Prodigy, or Dreamscape. As the students get older you see technology used in many different ways. You will find students creating presentations, podcasts, videos, expressing creativity through writing or digital storytelling, working collaboratively with the G-Suite tools to complete a project or assignment and learning through an online course. Many of our curriculums used in our classrooms have online components which allows for our students and teachers to interact digitally with content. Technology is ever changing, and there are always new fun creative ways to support education and reshape the classroom experiences for our students.
Glidden-Ralston can expect to see these technologies continue to trend through 2023 and beyond, becoming more popular and widely used by learners at all grade levels.
Kindergarten ~ Mrs. Schwanz
Mrs.Schwanz’s Kindergarten class has been busy learning about 3D shapes and recently learned how to use the app, Seesaw. Seesaw is an app that the students can use to complete assignments digitally instead of on paper. One of the first activities they learned to do on Seesaw was “Valentine Addition”.
The students use an iPad to login to Seesaw and complete the assignments. The teacher can assign activities for literacy, math, and social emotional skills. The best part about Seesaw is that parents can see what their child is learning at school in real time. Once the activity is submitted, the parents can see it instantly on their phone, iPad, or tablet. It’s a great way to keep parents involved while their child is at school!
Kindergarten will also be celebrating Read Across America Week during the first week of March. We will be reading many classic Dr. Seuss books during the week. Happy Reading! We Are GR!
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7th & 8th grade English ~ Mrs. Kiger
Junior High English classes are finishing analyzing class novels by creating image biographies of the different characters. The 7th graders created individual images while writing about people from the community in "The Giver". The 8th grade classes delegated work within their groups, diving deeper into understanding the main characters from "The Outsiders". Their conversations sharing details from the book have been wonderful, and the finished products always look great each year. Keep reading kids!
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Modern U.S. History ~ Mr. Walker
Earlier in the term, Modern US History students learned about the Transcontinental Railroad and how it truly connected Americans for the first time. Using what they learned in class, students were tasked with designing their own board game based on the railroad. Working in groups, some of the game boards were inspired by Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, and the Game of Life. Other groups got super creative and designed their own board from scratch. To display their knowledge of the Transcontinental Railroad, students had to create question cards with facts, event cards based on realistic situations you could find yourself in on the railroad, and use real geographic locations on their board. When each group was finished, students took turns playing each others’ games and comparing their work with that of other groups.
Geometry ~ Mr. Schumann
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McKenze Grossman ~ Para Educator
- April 3 ~ G-R Blood Drive in the Smith Center
- April 7-April 10 ~ NO SCHOOL/Spring Break!
- April 21 ~ 12:45pm DISMISSAL (Midterm/Teacher In-Service)
- April 26 ~ National Honor Society Ceremony
- April 29 ~ Glidden-Ralston Prom
