ENSC Family Notes
October 20, 2014
October 31 eLearning Day
ENSC will be using October 31 as an eLearning Day to better prepare using eLearning days in place of a cancelled school day due to weather. eLearning days will only be used for those days that we have advance notice of severe weather.
As outlined in the letter, the teachers will be participating in a full day of professional development; however, they will have the ability to stay in contact with students and families if they have any questions. In addition, since this day falls on a Friday, work will be due from students by Monday, November 3.
I have had a few families ask how students will complete work if the family does not have Internet connection. Teachers are to give students time during school no later than October 30 to download to their computers any materials they may need to complete their work.
Also, if students need lunch for that day, they may reserve a lunch that will be served at North Side Elementary from 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (transportation will not be provided). Forms can be obtained through the student's school or from any of the ENSC district or building websites.
East Noble Middle School
During the public forum last Thursday, many people asked "why don't you..," "why can't you....," "did you think of...," "did you consider...," etc. The board has spent nearly 18 months planning for these projects and have evaluated nearly every possible scenario, ways to save money, and the needs to best serve our middle school students and staff. The questions that were asked at the forum have been assessed and answered during the past 18 months. A common theme at this meeting, as well as across the community, nearly everyone believes "something" needs to be done. We cannot continue in the current building and do nothing. Building a new middle school, renovating the current building, or simply doing "patch work" are the options. The Board had to decide "what is the best investment of the taxpayers dollars to serve our students of the district."
With that said, the Board had to choose one plan to place on the ballot. Following much research, ongoing conversations with the community and experts, and tours of other middle schools, the proposed plan includes a modest middle school with two gymnasiums and a football field/track for the students. It is not a "palace" as the Board has been accused of building. It is a facility that meets the needs of our students currently and will be flexible to meet the needs of students for many years to come.
When you go to the polls and vote, ENSC asks that you are basing your vote on correct information regardless of a "yes" or "no" vote. If you have any questions, please contact Ann Linson at alinson@eastnoble.net or 260-347-2502. If you are not comfortable talking with Ann, please feel free to contact the business manager, Brian Leitch at bleitch@eastnoble.net or 260-347-2502.
Special Board Meeting
All Star of the Week
Cindy Mertz is the All Star of the Week. Cindy was hired 14 years ago as a substitute teacher’s aide. She moved to the Superintendent’s Office in 2011 as the Receptionist/Transportation Secretary and has since become indispensable in both areas due in no small part to her calm, efficient manner and ability to multi-task. Over the course of a day, Cindy efficiently and skillfully routes buses for our special needs students, schedules drivers/buses for our extra-curricular trips, manages incoming visitors, deals with telephone queries from the public, plus a myriad other duties unknown to most. Cindy truly is a shining star. Thank you Cindy for all you do for the transportation department and the district.
Have a great week!
Monday is National Clean Your Virtual Desk Day
Tuesday is National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day
Wednesday is National Color Day
Thursday is National Mole Day
Friday is National Bologna Day
Enjoy your week and find some fun each day!
Ann
Building and Curriculum Notes
Curriculum
While I was at the ICE conference last week, I heard and saw several programs that I knew about but somewhere along the way I pushed them to the back of the list. After seeing them again, I thought they were valuable enough to share them again.
Paper Rater – www.paperrater.com
Students can cut and paste their work into the program and have the program identify their grammar and spelling errors, so that you don’t have to.
No Red Ink – www.noredink.com
Allows students to practice and improve their grammar through skill and drill type activities.
Classroom Organizer - http://classroom.booksource.com/
A tool to help teachers organize their classroom library.
But, the biggest thing that I learned at the conference is that East Noble rocks! We continue to move forward with 1:1 for teachers and students and we have not remained stagnant in our ability to grow and learn more. Thank you to all of you for pushing to ensure that students are prepared for their futures. #ENSCRocks
Alternative Learning Center
This week seemed to fly by quickly. We had the Body Safety Program by Terri Hall at ENHS and that went very well. It was a great presentation and definitely got the attention of our students. We participated in the National Shakeout campaign and learned about earthquake drills and how to protect ourselves (drop, cover, hold). The students are still working hard to finishe credits before the end of the trimester. If you want to order lunch for e-learning day on October 31st please get your reservations turned in to the school.
Avilla Elementary
Monday, November 3, will mark an evening of giving – giving of blood. Avilla 4th graders are inviting one and all to consider donating at the Avilla Blood Drive from 2:30-7:00. Mark your calendars! Tis the season for giving. To sign up online: Go to www.redcross.org, then click on the tab Donate Blood, put in our sponsor code: avillaelem! We’d LOVE to beat OUR goal of 40 appointments! We have learned the importance of every given unit. One unit of donated whole Blood is separated into components before use (red Blood cells, white Blood cells, plasma, platelets, etc.) (www.bloodbook.com)
White Blood Cells (WBCs) are the largest of the three types of cells and are responsible for fighting infections or germs. White Blood cells have a rather short life cycle, living from a few days to a few weeks. One drop of Blood can contain from 7,000 to 25,000 white Blood cells. If an invading infection fights back and persists, that number will significantly increase.
Red Blood Cells (RBCs) make up approximately 40% of Blood volume, carry oxygen to the cells of your body and return to the lungs to excrete carbon dioxide.
Platelets, the smallest of the Blood cells; make up 5% to 7% of total Blood volume. Platelets form a 'mesh' net to form clots in the Blood to help stop bleeding. (www.bloodbook.com)
OUR Kindergarten through 2nd grade students went on a study trip to the Avilla Fire Station to learn about fire safety this week. Mrs. Miller’s Kindergarten class enjoyed learning about the tools on the fire trucks.
East Noble High School
The East Noble High School Marching band has had a very successful competition season so far this year and the hard work that the students put in clearly shows. The band had the great surprise of returning after fall break to an awesome newly painted competition trailer. They just competed at the ISSMA Regional Competition on Saturday in Chesterton, and for the third consecutive year will be advancing to the Semi-State level…Good luck!
Theatre classes are working on their new original script, Flight 1106. They will write and perform this play as a classroom project and then compete at the Regional Competition on Nov. 22 at Bethel College. The three top-scoring shows at this competition will advance to state.
The visual art department has been very busy so far this year. The students have been working on self-portraits and watercolor paintings in the two-dimensional art classes and the creating teapots and packing tape sculptures in the three-dimensional courses. The AP Studio Art class has been creating drawings based on common idioms such as “A Little Birdie Told Me.” These pieces will be added to their AP portfolios and submitted to the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition after winter break.
Newly designed marching band trailer.
"A Little Birdie Told Me"
East Noble Middle School
After a very relaxing fall break, students seemed pretty excited to be back in the building! With a new grading period and a clean slate, students have started working extra hard in their classes for the 2nd nine weeks. Not only are our students busy, but our student athletes are as well. Cross Country wrapped up their season this week, football played in the NHMLC conference, and will finish their season next week, and volleyball is currently in NHMLC play.
This week we held parent teacher conferences at ENMS and had a great turnout. We enjoy having families spend time at ENMS and are looking to promote more ways to encourage parents and family members to visit our building.
October is Bullying Prevention Month, and the FOR club (Friends of Rachel) have been working hard to promote a positive school atmosphere. They have created posters, high five Friday videos, are selling light blue ribbons (the color of bullying prevention), are sponsoring blue day at ENMS, and finally are ending the month with a Penny War. The top 3 teachers with the most money, will be "pied" by a student/teacher that donates money and is drawn for the honor!
In social studies, 7th graders are researching world religions. Many have chosen to build different places of worship from the major world religions in Minecraft. Eighth graders are studying the causes and effects of the French and Indian War. They are looking at the causes from multiple perspectives, and making argumentative stands on which group they would join.
In both seventh and eighth grade science students are wrapping up the metric system and graphing unit. Students have had many labs this last nine weeks and have lots of data and information in lab notebooks. Students had a lot of fun learning bar graphs by stacking wooden blocks and comparing hypotheses to the averages of our actual results. Next week students are gearing up to start a geology unit in seventh grade and a weather unit in the eighth grade.
North Side Elementary
This week at North Side started with sleepy eyes as everyone returned to school after Fall Break with smiles on their faces. Third graders had the opportunity to visit South Side and learn about healthy habits, third thru sixth graders took their first look at what the new ISTEP might like when they took their first Acuity test, and in primary grades teachers were meeting all week to figure out intervention groups to specifically target areas of weakness for various groups of students. It all added up to business as usual at North Side.
The North Side PTO met this week and discussed their various fundraising initiatives and their desire to put their monies back into the classrooms to support learning. In other fundraising news the school’s fundraiser concluded this week as orders were due on Friday. Orders will still be accepted Monday morning. Also in the North Side news, students from grade first on up were able to sign up basketball teams and sixth grade girls were abuzz as they eagerly signed up for volleyball. Lastly, a select group of fourth graders were trained in the important task of raising and lowering the flags in front of the school. They took the job seriously and were proud to serve their community with this job.
Rome City Elementary
Hooray!!! IPads are back in use at Rome City! IPads arrived before fall break and Romans were extremely excited! First grade started to learn about their iPads. The students loved taking “selfies” to add to their background and lock screen. They also learned how to type their spelling words into notes and how to email them to their teachers.
Also before fall break the “Ned Show” came to Rome City. The entire student body enjoyed hearing about the 3 important messages, never give up, encourage others, do your best. It was so much fun watching him doing yo-yo tricks and story-telling at the same time!!
This week fifth grade students had a family technology night. All but 5 families were able to make it to the fifth grade night. Families were able to enjoy pizza, learn about the capabilities our students have with technology, and Mr. Yoder even played a game with the families. The students, parents, and teachers had fun. Fifth graders are now able to take their devices home.
South Side Elementary
On October 1st, South Side participated with 2,400 students from Noble County in a visit to Huntington College. After discussing our champions, learning about future careers, and a virtual tour of Huntington University; students experienced their first taste of college life. Students rotated through stations and took part in hands-on learning experiences. Activities ranged from creating caricatures to encouraging others, and students learned that science can be magical. Thanks to our sponsor, Noble County Promise, for making this all possible!
Last week, South Side students participated in the NED show and learned about Never Giving Up, Encouraging Others, and Doing The Right Thing. The presenter linked this to our focus on the Six Pillars of Character. Many students purchased the “NED” yo-yos that they will be able to use in the “NED Zone” at recess.
Our grade level update this week is for 3rd grade: Third graders recently enjoyed the culmination of our sound study. Through hands-on experiments, we learned about pitch, vibrations, frequency, and how sound travels. All students created a “How-To” so others could build their instrument. During University Time, third graders practiced reading by conducting their own reader’s theater presentation. After much practice, students were excited to perform for kindergarten, first, and second grade classes.
Wayne Center Elementary
Recently, fifth graders took a field trip to Camp Potawotami. The fifth graders participated in archery, nature hiking in the wetlands, rock climbing, canoeing, owl pellet dissecting, and the Underground Railroad. Students not only had a great time, but they also learned a lot about their environment, each other, science, and social studies. A major focus of the evening, the Underground Railroad activity, was for students to have empathy for those who were forced into slavery. This turned into a great discussion about bullying during the debriefing.
In Language Arts, sixth graders have recently completed reading Hatchet. They are getting ready to begin a “Power of the Mind” unit that will really challenge their thinking! One of their writing experiences so far this year has included writing a friendly letter to a person of their choice (famous or family) and anxiously awaiting a return letter from those they’ve written to. Several students have received letters and autographs from those they’ve written including relatives and even famous actors and singers! As one can imagine, our students were quite excited when their letters from those famous people arrived. The students have also written poetry books, mysteries, and personal narratives. In math, the students recently finished Unit 2 that had a focus on decimals. We are getting ready to move into learning basic algebraic concepts with writing and evaluating algebraic expressions. Students are completing partner projects in science on ecosystems and biomes on Earth. The Fall Break proved beneficial to our students as they returned ready and eager to learn!
Also at Wayne Center, there are several extra-curricular groups that have begun. Miss Thomas and Miss Patterson have started the academic Spell Bowl team. Students have started working on learning different spelling patterns to help them with their upcoming competition. Miss Hull and Miss Northrup’s student council students did their first community activity of making encouraging cards for different organizations. Mrs. Ferguson and Mrs. Millus started National Honor Society of with a bunch of smiles! Did you know that October 7th was National Smile Day? Our NHS members decorated our halls with many smiles! Mrs. Foster’s sixth graders have also started volleyball practice. The girls were very excited to get some action on the court! Music Makers start this week.
East Noble School Corporation
Email: alinson@eastnoble.net
Website: eastnoble.net
Location: 126 West Rush Street, Kendallville, IN, United States
Phone: 260-347-2502
Facebook: facebook.com/eastnoble
Twitter: @ENobleSchCorp