Ballard Dimensions
December2020/January 2021
From the Superintendent's Desk
This month I begin my message with an invitation to watch our December 2nd Board Work Session at 6:00 PM. The Board’s guest is Dr. Meg Schaeffer. Dr. Schaeffer is an experienced epidemiologist, data scientist, researcher, and consultant. Dr. Schaeffer’s experience over the past 18 years includes public service as a Disease Prevention Specialist and Epidemiologist at the county level and leadership roles at the Iowa Department of Public Health. She has also served in executive leadership roles in private health corporations while teaching courses in Epidemiology and Public Health at Drake University.
Dr. Schaeffer will present information on the current Covid-19 Pandemic and engage with the Board in dialogue and learning. We are honored to have her as a guest and look forward to increasing our capacity in understanding this virus. Following Wednesday, Dr. Schaeffer will continue to support the district and Board in a consultative role. Please join us Wednesday at 6:00. Here is the link.
Over Thanksgiving I thought a great deal about Ballard, the year we have had, and what lies ahead. Two words that came to mind were endurance and patience. To me, endurance is to simply keep going and resist fatigue. People endure in a variety of ways and, frankly, with a range of emotions. That is where patience comes in. Patience is tolerating the challenge, pain, or discomfort, without getting angry or upset.
Enduring with patience is hard. Right now, I can think of people that are seemingly unscathed by the past nine months. They appear no different than a year ago! I can think of others at the opposite end of the spectrum. Where I am going with this is not to say to those of us who are struggling, “Hey, change your attitude and be like the happy ones!” Quite the opposite, I am validating that this is difficult.
Some of our neighbors are doing well, and some are not. If things are great for you right now, with gratitude and humility, find a way to help. If things are not going well, look up. I know hundreds of people that want to lend a hand.
Endurance takes the support of others. Ballard is here to help. If you are in need of anything, material or otherwise, let us know and give us a chance to help. I cannot promise we can do everything, but I can promise we will try our best. Start with someone you know, and if you do not know anyone, start with me. Likewise, if you want to help and do not know how, tell us and we will find a place to direct you.
I hope your holiday season is the best it can be. Thank you for all you do for our students and staff. I look forward to seeing you soon! GO BOMBERS!
Ottie
Ballard Health Department
West Elementary News
ELP Class
At Ballard West, we are working hard everyday to make learning fun and in a safe environment. This often means that things are different than they were in the past, but no less educational or fun. This year, Mrs. Zielke is able to go into each Kindergarten classroom and teach a STEM lesson each week. We use a curriculum, Project Lead the Way, to teach biomedical engineering, design, and computer science. We are currently learning about the engineering model and design elements. The culmination of the unit is allowing each student to design and create their own paint brush, using everyday materials. Students will then use their own paintbrush in art class to create a masterpiece.
In ELP, we incorporate STEM once a month on “Fun Fridays.” Most recently, we used legos to create a Marble Run. Each student had a flat Lego base and their own legos/marble to create their masterpiece. Lots of things look different this year, but learning continues to be interactive and fun at Ballard West! - Stephanie Zielke, Ballard West ELP Teacher
Ballard West Students Honored Veterans for Veterans Day!
Mallory Johnston, Kindergarten Teacher
East Elementary News
Teaching Social Skills Through Books
1. Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
2. Even Superheroes Have Bad Days by Shelly Becker
3. Those Shoes by Meribeth Boelts
4. Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins
5. If Everybody Did by Jo Ann Stover
Kate Vandenberg, East Special Education Teacher
Helping bridge the home to school gap during breaks
Ideas for prompts
"We are going to pause doing our drawing to brush our teeth. Then, you can draw again before bedtime."
"Pause the video game to load the dishwasher, then you can go back to the video game." Feel free to follow up with "If you don't pause the video game to load the diswasher then the video game does away fro the rest of the evening."
We use this language quite often with students at school and using some of this at home should hopefully help with getting some chores done during the school breaks! Furthermore, it will assist teachers when students are back in the builidng because they have continued this practice during breaks.
Stephanie Kilker, Behavior Specialist at East and West Elementary
Middle School News
7th Grade Dwarfs
- Mrs. Levendusky - Dancy
- Mrs. WIlson - Bakery
- Mrs. Deason - Smiley
- Mrs. Reilly - Witty
- Mrs. Maher - Hungry
- Mr. DeMeester - Nerdy
- Mrs. Tvrdik - Sleepy
#Go M.A.D
We like to take the time out at our assemblies to recognize our students that participate in school activities. It takes a lot of managing their time when doing outside activities. These studetns are putting in time with practices and ecents along with keeping up with their school work. We don't want their accomplishments to go unnoticed.
Middle School Football
7th grade football highlights
We had a great season this year with a very good group of athletes. The coaching staff had a fun time and we hope the athletes did as well. We played nine total games which includes six red team games and three white tema games. We went undefeated and scored a total of 370 points while only giving up 34.
8th grade football highlights
8th grade football had a good season as well. We took a little bit to hit our stride but when we did we came out running. We ended our season 4-1 with our last game getting rained out.
Middle School Cross Country
This year we had Annika Larson as conference champ. Jayden Leland placed fourth in the same meet. The girls placed 3rd while the boys placed 6th. At the state-wide meet, the boys team finished in the 4th place with is the best placing I have had in the past three yeras for boys at this meet. For the girls, all 7th grade runners ran in the 8th grade race, which was pretty courageous to see. Annika placed 3rd, Brynn placed 59th, McKenzie placed 67th, Paige placed 69th, Nora was 74th and Sydney finished 80th. In my past three years this has been the largest group brought to the state-wide meet. Overall, the season was rich in growth for everyone!
Middle School Volleyball
7th grade highlights
Overall game record 73-29 and match record 26-9. Congratulations on a great season!!
8th grade highlights
8th grade had a successful season also. 26 girls participated and continued to improve their skills and knowledge while having fun each night. There were a lot of exciting points, games and matches this season. Their future as a team is bright!
Middle School Choir
The 6-8th grade choirs will be recording their songs for the quarter in November. Those recordings will be streamed and available after that. Students that have dont an amazing job in choir leading their sections and working hard to improve thier music literacy skills are: Noah Thompson, Jude Jones, Addison Landmesser, Breanna Kruger, Athan Soash and Eleanor Lawler.
Student Recognitions
6th grade: Kylie Chambers, A'niyah Alexandre, Lilianna Brady, Margo Baldwin, Jackson Moore, Parker Miller, Greyson Ehresman and Seth Hilleman.
7th grade: Hannah Roush, Bri Rodriguez, Jayden Leland, Layla Holmes, Abi Philgreen, Grant Bartlett, Liam Hurst, Bree Kruger, Nora Loveland, Claire Albaugh and Jude Gibson.
8th grade: Bennett Bruns, Morgan Lockey, Jenna Onstot, Addison Landmesser, Nasaya Taylor, Sydney Ehresman and Logan Huntrods.
Staff Recognition
M.A.D not only recognizes students, but we have an AWESOME staff that has put in many hours of work to help the transition of coming back to face to face possible. We don't want to go without recognizing all the staff's efforts! The students nominated a teacher from each grade level they wanted to honor. We would like to recognize for the first quarter in 6th grade, Mr. Adams, in 7th grade, Mrs. Reilly and in 8th grade Mr. Thein and Mrs. Adams who teaches mulitple grade levels during the day. Thank you Ballard Middle School Staff for all your efforts, time put in, and devoted heart to our students in making face to face possible.
High School News
Ballard National Honor Society
New Inductees 2020-2021
Courtney Bloock
Grant Boyko
Colby Calvert
Morgan Catron
Mya Ehresman
Thomsen Harrison
Sarah Hartman
MacKenna Heggen
Brooke Hennick
Molly Houge
Brynna Huen
Kate Huisinga
Bethany Kallio
Emma Kielsmeier
Kale Krogh
Abigail Leonard
Brooke Loewe
Ellee Mortensen
Logan Neel
Nora Nosekabel
Meg Rietz
Gabrielle Shepherd
Blake Stover
Cassidy Thompson
Connor Utley
Elly Witt
Ashley Wuestenberg
High School Student Mentors
Ballard High School's Career Corner
From the Activities Office
Community Resources
Ballard Elementary PTO
Ballard Education Foundation
Ballard Dollars for Scholars
Ballard Fine Arts Boosters
Ballard Activities Boosters
Digital Backpack
Ballard Community School District
Email: ajungst@ballard.k12.ia.us
Website: www.ballard.k12.ia.us
Location: 509 North Main Avenue, Huxley, IA, USA
Phone: 515-597-2811
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BallardCSD
Twitter: @BallardCSD