Friday Focus
2-8-19
Convocations
On Friday, February 22, the band and choir from PHMS will be here to perform for grades 5 and 6. That performance starts at 8:45 and ends at 9:30. It will be enjoyed in the gym.
Amazing
Staff Meeting
Lunch
Valerie's Vision
Preparing for a New Adventure
We are starting to ramp up our preparation in grades 3-6 for ILEARN.
This year is a brand new year for a brand new assessment, with a brand new interface, and a brand new way to question students.
While all this "newness" has the opportunity to create anxiety, I have been overly impressed with the amount of preparation that is happening. Below are a few highlights of the many ways in our building that we are preparing for all the "newness" in this high stakes assessment.
-Mrs. Mohr has been working with grade levels on giving students previews and pep talks of the new ILEARN assessment formats.
-Mr. Cox has provided professional development and compounded a list of high frequency vocabulary that will be featured in in the various content areas. that are found in the item specifications.
-Mrs. Hessler has found a website (edcite.com) that features video and text integrated questions so students have practice with multi-media questions. This website also has an entire ILEARN section.
-Mrs. Holbert has created a powerpoint with easy, medium, and hard questions as defined from the state for students to practice. In the teacher notes, she indicated why each question has it's ranking so her grade level teacher can explain this to the class when reviewing.
-Mrs. Reth works with IREAD3 tutoring groups and provides test taking tips, exposes students to the testing format and helping reduce anxiety with taking a high stakes assessment.
-A variety of teachers continue to allow students to work through the released item repository, which gives students practice with test format and content.
I know many other teachers that weren't even mentioned are preparing in a variety of other ways. This week, if you are a Grade 3-6 teacher, I encourage you to find ways to continue to prepare for the unknown. If you are a k-2 teacher, this week, I want to remind you to be prepared that I may be asking for your help in administering the assessment!
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.” ― Abraham Lincoln
Construction Updates
Located just outside of Pendleton, Maple Trails falls into the quaint town of Ingalls. The convenience of the city meets the quiet, peaceful countryside in this community. Only 15 minutes from Hamilton Town Center in Noblesville, this community provides entertainment, shopping, and dining opportunities right down the road. If you love nature, Falls Park offers many activities including golf, walking trails, and a community pool to accommodate all of its guests!
Oakmont- is the housing subdivision going up just west of Summer Lake. They will have approximately 100 patio homes. They have installed the retention pond and are now putting in sewer lines. I am not sure how many children we will receive from this subdivision. I believe these homes will be purchased by folks that want a condominium type living experience.