ENSC Family Notes
September 28, 2015
Fall Break
ENSC began school four days earlier two years ago and extended fall break to a full week along with two weeks for spring break. In return, the district eliminated most of the single days in an effort to keep summer as in tact as possible. School began on Thursday, August 6 with the last day of of the school year slotted for Friday, May 27. With the use of eLearning days on weather cancellations, we do not anticipate adding any school days to the end of the year. This plan will extend the summer by one additional week over last year.
eLearning/Technology Parent Meetings
As you know, this year ENSC plans to use eLearning for every weather cancelled school day. We believe it is important to keep students engaged in their learning and eliminate disruptions as much as possible. In addition to keeping students continuously engaged in their learning, using eLearning will also prevent the district from adding days to the end of the school year and shortening summer.
To help parents learn more about eLearning days and the tools used (PowerSchool, Canvas, and Google Docs), each of the buildings will be holding parent informational/training meetings. Families are encouraged to stop in during these open meetings. Everyone is welcome to attend any building you choose.
East Noble Middle School - October 15, 4:30-6:30
Avilla Elementary - October 13, 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
North Side - October 27, 3:30 p.m. -7:30 p.m.
Rome City - September 30, 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
South Side - October 1, 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Wayne Center - October 29 during parent/teacher conferences, 3:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m.
East Noble High School was held on September 23.
If you have any questions about these meetings or eLearning, please feel free to contact your child's building principal.
Safety First!
Please be looking for a letter and outline of these procedures to arrive in your mailbox later this week. In addition to this Reunification Plan, you will also receive information about bullying, how to report bullying, and things you can do to prevent bullying from happening with your child.
Unsong Hero of the Week
Congratulations to Lindsay Deming, East Noble's Unsung Hero of the Week! Lindsay is in her fourth year as secretary/treasurer for Wayne Center Elementary. Lindsay does an outstanding job of keeping the school office running smoothly. The office is a very busy place, and Lindsay is a master at juggling multiple tasks at once. In addition to the traditional responsibilities as a school secretary/treasurer, Mrs. Deming shows great support for our students. She consoles students when they are sick, injured, or upset and serves as a great mentor for them. Lindsay also helps support students as they work on academic and daily living skills each day. Parents and staff members seek assistance from Lindsay for a variety of reasons, and she is always willing to help them in any way that she can. Wayne Center is very fortunate to have Lindsay as our secretary/treasurer and we appreciate all that she does for our school!
Rumors Are Just That
Like the old "telephone game" where a message passed along to multiple people can change its story, rumors can become embellished and deviate far from the truth. If you are hearing information that "just doesn't sound right," please call your building principal or the central office to hear the truth! All of us want to ensure you know the truth and we are all working toward the same goal--providing an excellent education to students in a caring and safe environment.
Curriculum and Building Notes
Curriculum
Awesome Resources
We have so many resources available to us that sometimes it is hard to remember all of them. This week I am highlighting some of my favorites.
TV411 - http://www.tv411.org/
TV411 will help you read for success, fine-tune your writing, expand your vocabulary, get a grip on math, and explore science. TV411 is a collection of entertaining videos and engaging web activities, all designed to help you reach your learning goals.
Want to spice up a lesson on summarizing, using a glossary, highlighting, etc? In the description it mentions entertaining videos and they are very entertaining. They are short snip-its with real people explaining some not so entertaining topics. Watch a carpenter find area using tiles or a police officer explain how to summarize. Need to bring a bit or real life application to your content? Watch a homeowner read the graphs on his utility bill and find a mistake.
NEWSELA - https://newsela.com/about/
NEWSELA is an innovative way to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news. It's easy and amazing. NEWSELA makes it easy for an entire class to read the same content, but at different Lexile levels that is just right for each student.
Find up-to-date world news to add more non-fiction to your class.
Wayne Center Elementary
Fifth grade has started their U.S. Regions project. Miss Northrup and Miss Thomas have created an independent activities grid that allows students to have the freedom to choose how they are learning. All of the students have jumped right in and are excited about learning! So far, students have created board games, crossword puzzles, and commercials. We are looking forward to seeing all of the finished products students create. Some of the projects for each region are also geared towards learning all 50 states and capitals. Before we know it, the kids will be U.S. geography experts!
This week students at Wayne Center celebrated College Go Week! Mrs. Steury incorporated classroom colleges into her guidance lessons. Grades 4-6 worked on a scavenger hunt to find out more information about their classroom college. On Thursday, teachers and students were encouraged to wear college apparel to promote different colleges and universities. All teachers also incorporated college information into their lesson plans, so their students could learn more about it.
Alternative Learning Center
It was a great week celebrating College Go Week and focusing our discussions with students on secondary education. Students need to know all their after high school options and how different they can look. Students learned about Indiana colleges, and some geography, during our daily trivia for prizes.
Kim and Emily from Ivy Tech Admissions and the ASAP program, came to speak with students on Friday. Students were encouraged to ask questions and learn more options they might not have known were available. The students were interested in the presentation and several filled out cards requesting more information. After the presentation two students went to the website and started their online applications for enrollment. Setting future goals encourages more success on the current goal of graduation.
The coming week is a four day week and Fall Break starts Friday, October 2nd, for students. Students return to classes on Monday, October 12th!
East Noble High School
What a great week at ENHS as we celebrated College Go Week! Monday night we hosted a college admissions panel for 11th and 12th grade families. The college admission panel gave students the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the college application process. Throughout the week students participated in dress up days (Mr. Munoz’s class winners), trivia about college graduates and college pennant decorating (Mrs. Disque’s class winners). In addition, 10th and 11th grader students are also getting prepped for the upcoming October 14th PSAT while, the 12th grade students complete over one hundred college applications this week alone.
We are gearing up for week three of Knight Mentors. Our Knight Mentors are selected from a fantastic pool of junior and senior applicants. They cover a range of topics with freshman students each week and focus primarily on the transition to high school. Our groups are getting to know each other and are really starting to have some fun!
Finally, our Student Council hosted a blood drive on Thursday for the Red Cross. Over 120 students and staff chose to give and donated 99 pints of blood!
East Noble Middle School
It was College Go Week at the middle school providing our students the chance to learn about the importance of a higher education. High school is right around the corner for our students and once they get there, they will need to get everything in order to attend a college. Through Indiana Learn More and Indiana Career Explorer, our students are following the steps to know more about the colleges in Indiana and the possible careers that they lead to. Students were also asked to dress for themed days.
Other happenings include 7th grade language arts students reading The Hunger Games or picking their own book to read during book club. 7th grade math classes are busy working with rational numbers and applying them to real life applications. The pre-algebra classes are busy solving equations. They will soon be creating videos showing how to solve equations. 7th grade social studies students are starting to look at and explore human geography of the world. This week, students looked at the world population clock and worked on an activity that looks at different aspects of a constantly growing population and the continuous effects it has on the world, as well as the long term effects the world faces. Students will soon look at different aspects of economics and how this affects the people of today’s society in developed and developing countries. Finally in 7th grade science, classes are wrapping up the unit on earth structure and the forces that shape the planet. Topics include earthquakes and volcanoes as well as the theory of plate tectonics. After this, the classes will continue the study of the earth by taking a closer look at the geology of rocks.
Reminder: The end of the first 9 weeks grading period is on Thursday, October 2. Fall Break is Friday, October 3rd - October 11th. Report cards will go home with students the week of October 12.
Avilla Elementary
Grandparent’s Day took place this past Friday at OUR school! OUR families supported this annual event in droves once again this year. Grandparents were able to spend time in classrooms seeing what school looks like in today’s world. The smiles on ALL the faces during the day were priceless! Thank you to ALL OF OUR FAMILIES, STUDENTS, AND STAFF for making Grandparent’s Day a success for over 500 visitors!
Mrs. Carroll’s class used this day for a big surprise! Lucas' grandma could not attend Grandparent's Day here at Avilla because she lives in Brazil, South America. I wanted to surprise him with a visit from his grandma across the seas! We facetimed his grandma and she was able to be a part of our festivities from across the world! What an eye opening experience for all students to see! She is also keeping up with his daily activities at school through the app Seesaw. She comments daily on work that Lucas uploads to Seesaw! Even though she is physically far way, she is just a click away! Technology is amazing!!! No, Mrs. Carroll is amazing!!!
OUR PTO is looking for volunteers to help take money for parking on Saturday, October 3rd at the Apple Festival. OUR PTO gets paid to do this and the money goes back to OUR students. The shifts are only two hours long and the time flies by. Please contact the school at 897-2301 if you can help out in any way! Thanks in advance for supporting OUR school.
North Side Elementary
Bully awareness, third grade swim, and Collge Go Week topped the headlines at North Side this week. On Tuesday the whole school gathered to hear an important message from Ronald McDonald. Students left with tools to help in various situations and stand up for kids who might be getting bullied. Each day this week third graders traveled to the YMCA for swim and water safety lessons. Throughout the week students learned about possible college experiences and careers made possible by pursuing a college degree. It was certainly a full week!
Rome City Elementary
Rome City fourth graders have been very busy this week! In Indiana history, they are learning about the Indians of Indiana and reading the book, Sign of the Beaver. These pictures show them exploring Indian artifacts such as boys and girls clothing, beaver pelts, and power horns. The 4th graders are also doing animal adaptation experiments. They are using the scientific method to answer the questions: how do polar bears stay warm in cold climates and how does oiling feathers help the duck survive?
The 6th grade class from Rome City Elementary attended BizTown on Friday. Students worked in their assigned businesses based on job interviews that were conducted earlier in the month. Students worked in roles such as CEO, CFO, business manager, and many more. Students were given 2 paychecks, and worked to balance a checkbook, pay taxes, and make small purchases. A fantastic number of parent and grandparent chaperones volunteered their time, and we give a huge "thank you" to them!
Mrs. Rafferty had a wonderful experience attending the religious EID celebration at the Mosque with Mrs. Ali and the children. Not only was she able to meet the parents of most of her students and learn more about this religious holiday, but she was also able to experience the bond this community has for one another and for others.
South Side Elementary
South Side had a busy week and we have enjoyed hosting many guests in our building! Last Friday, we welcomed our Kindergarten Grandparents for donuts and crafts. We had such a great turnout for this first ever Grandparent’s Day celebration at South Side! On Monday, Miss Stephanie from the American Red Cross came to talk with our students about being a pint-sized hero for our blood drive, which is scheduled for the evening of October 14th. Students can recruit an adult to donate blood on their behalf and save three lives with each pint of blood! On Wednesday, Ronald McDonald paid us a visit to teach students about battling bullying by standing up for each other, being kind, and reporting instances of bullying to adults. Lastly, the Mad Ants visited on Thursday to kick off their annual “Get Fit Challenge”! The Mad Ant himself challenged students in some basketball and hoola-hoop games, and our own Mr. Robertson to a free-throw contest! Thank you to all of our community members who continue to model for our students that learning happens in all areas and ages of life, and is not limited to the walls of our school!
We’d also like to remind our parents and students that our fundraiser ends this Wednesday, September 30th! This is when all orders and money is due!
East Noble School Corporation
Email: alinson@eastnoble.net
Website: eastnoble.net
Location: 126 West Washington Center Road, Fort Wayne, IN, United States
Phone: 260-347-2502
Facebook: facebook.com/eastnoble
Twitter: @ENobleSchCorp