ENSC Family Notes
April 21, 2014
The Wrath of Winter is Over!
Flex Time Discussion
During the 2013-2014 school year, there were six school districts in Indiana that implemented the Flex Time pilot. Students were engaged in their learning from home while teachers were in school developing their craft. A few of the school districts that were approved for Flex Time were also approved to use an eLearning day during one of our severe snow days and then did not have to "cancel" school for snow. Students and teachers stayed home and were engaged in their learning through the computer.
ENSC recently held K-12 eLearning day. While it was not a perfect day, we were able to learn much from this experience and have a better understanding of how to make this a valuable day that does not overwhelm students and families. Yes, we can improve on this design.
With that said, the IDOE Flex Time Pilot could allow ENSC an opportunity to engage students in their learning in unique ways at the same time allow teachers the opportunity to receive valuable professional development that directly impacts students!
We will keep you posted!
2014-2015 Make Up Days
First cancelled day to be made up on February 16, 2015
Second cancelled day to be made up on May 8, 2015
Third cancelled day to be made up on May 15, 2015
Fourth cancelled day to be made up on May 22, 2015
Fifth cancelled day to be made up on June 4, 2015
Sixth cancelled day to be made up on June 5, 2015
Seventh cancelled day to be made up on the first day of spring break, March 23, 2015
Eighth cancelled day to be made up on the first day of spring break, March 24, 2015
If the Indiana Department of Education approves eLearning days the 7th and 8th days (and any others) would be scheduled differently.
This Week's Super Hero is North Side's Kelly Savage
This week’s staff member of the week hails from North Side Elementary. Kelli Savage has been with East Noble Schools for 14 years after being with West Noble School Corporation for 4 years where she started her teaching career. She is the proud mother of two children: Michael is finishing his sophomore year at Rose Hulman Institute and her daughter Emily is a junior at East Noble High School. A recent addition to Kelli’s family occurred just a few years ago when Oliver, one of North Side’s therapy dogs, joined her happy home. Kelli’s love of children, as well as the art of teaching, can be seen on a daily basis. It is not uncommon to see Kelli with several students staying after school to sharpen up on those academic skills that the students may be struggling with or coming back in during the month of June to re-teach and reinforce reading skills that third graders from across the district may need in order to perform at proficiency on IREAD 3. Due to her active involvement in professional organizations she is able to implement best practices with her students to ensure academic success for all of them. Her dedication to her profession, as well as to those she touches, can also be seen outside of the school building itself such as her involvement in Relay for Life and P.A.W.S. Inc. As a culmination to this current school year, Kelli was nominated by her peers as North Side’s Teacher of the Year.
Be More Dog!
Do you feel at times like each day is like all the others? Bored with the "usual?"
Take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMzgl0nFj3s
Take a risk, be more dog.
Have a fabulous week.
Ann
CURRICULUM AND BUILDING NOTES
Curriculum
This week a draft version of the Indiana Academic Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics was released. Next steps in the process towards the State Board of Education adoption of Indiana Academic Standards on April 28 at 9:00 a.m. will be a presentation of the draft standards on Monday, April 21, at the Education Roundtable Meeting. At that time, the Education Roundtable will be provided a resolution to recommend the standards to the State Board of Education.
The proposed ELA and Math standards can be accessed at:
I started the process of looking through these drafts. I have identified that some standards were combined and some were removed from the previous draft. I am also pleased to see that the standards were placed back into multi grade level bands so that teachers will be able to see the progression from grade to grade. As we begin the process of revising the elementary report cards, these standards will serve as our guide. Look for more updates in the weeks to come.
North Side Elementary
North Side 3rd graders have been working hard preparing for the 2nd round of ISTEP. The North Side ISTEP theme this year is “Race to the Top on ISTEP.” In keeping with the theme, the teachers created a large race track in the hallway. Each child was assigned a car on the track. The students are completing Acuity lessons to advance on the track. Each time a child completes a lap on the track, he or she is rewarded. Lap rewards include a new book, free video rental and coupons from a variety of local restaurants. When the students finish the “race”, they will enjoy a pizza party. This program has really motivated them to complete the Acuity assignments. Students are also allowed to complete the lessons at home. Third grade is ready to race to the finish line and beat ISTEP!!
Rome City Elementary
Tuesday evening was our Kindergarten Round-Up. This is always a fun evening to see the new kiddos so excited about attending school. This year we added our Pre-School’s Round-Up which ran in a different room at the same time. While parents were learning, Mrs. Green was reading, coloring and riding the bus with the new little ones. The students were extremely excited about coming to school.
Mrs. Krebs and the P.E. classes were not quite able to meet their goal of $4,000.00 for the American Heart Association, but they were able to raise $3866.72. She is so proud of her kids who show real “Heart” themselves.
Students in Mrs. Fuller’s 6th grade classes choose different ways to show their knowledge of the latest class novel they read in class, here are just a few of the options they were given: writing a research paper, poetry, creating a game, or creating a play. By far the biggest choice was creating a board game about the book and what they learned. The students then presented their games to the class and had a chance to play some of the different games.
First Graders at Rome City are learning more and more every day about animals and insects and other zoo things around us. Miss Haley from the Limberlost Public Library came to teach them about worms. The students worked to make an illustrations with labels in their science journals. The most difficult task was identifying the head from the tail. First graders are also working on Shadow Puppets to express their need to want to go to the zoo. Their Shadow Puppets are still in the editing stages, but extremely cute to watch as the students send Mrs. Green Shadow Puppets asking to go to the zoo, with supporting details. http://get-puppet.com/s/ZddjEsHPHF0?autoplay
South Side Elementary
South Side Elementary School had 2 winners in last Saturday’s Noble County Quiz Bowl! Mikiah McDonald and Destany Targgart will both move forward to McMillan Center next Saturday for the Northeastern Indiana competition. Good luck to our Trailblazers!
Also this week, South Side STAR members were excited to donate $129.00 to the Noble County Humane Shelter. Members wanted to sell lip suckers in order to raise money for the local animals. After school Thursday, STAR members walked across to the Shelter to give this donation to the staff. Students also donated their time by petting and playing with many excited dogs and cats.
Our grade level update this week comes to you digitally in the form of a student video showcasing what our Kindergarten has been up to! Click the link for the full story!
Wayne Center Elementary
Saddle up the horses and ride on over to the Wayne Center Carnival. This event is sponsored by PAC and is on April 25 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. There will be food available: pizza, drink and dessert dinner for $4.00 as well as a cotton candy booth. Children can purchase a game card to play any of the many games available such as: horseshoes, sandal lasso toss, silver mine, nail painting, football, tattoo station, ring toss, snake in the hole, and many more. Fill up the game card and win a prize. Warm up your pitching arm and pay for the chance to dunk your favorite staff member! Bring the family out for a night of Old West fun.
ISTEP is coming up the week of April 28th. There are several things parents can do to help children do their best. Be sure your child gets a good night’s sleep. Eight hours or more is optimal. Make sure your child eats a good breakfast. Hunger can distract a child from the task at hand. Because brainwork can be stressful, it is beneficial to have your child engage in physical activity after school to unwind. Have them play outside, go for a walk, or do something they enjoy.
Important test taking strategies:
*Praise your child and assure them that you believe in their ability to do their best on the test.
*Encourage them to read the questions before reading the passage. (this helps your child know what information they should be looking for)
*Suggest to your child that they read all answer choices before choosing their answer. (helps eliminate incorrect answer choices so they can focus on choosing the correct answer)
*Recommend that they go back and reread to assure they have chosen the best answer.
*Encourage them to take their time and make sure you have clicked on the correct “bubble”.
Wayne Center honored students on Thursday for high academic achievement. Students were awarded honor roll certificates for achieving all As or As and Bs on their report cards for the third quarter grading period. Students with outstanding character received Character Counts awards. Those with perfect attendance were honored as well. Homework awards went to many students. Congratulations to all on your hard work and dedication
Alternative Learning Center
We welcomed three new students this week at the ALC. Two students are brand new to us and one student was returning to us from another district. It has been good to see all of them have the opportunity to continue their education with us. Our weekly credit total stands at 43 and continues to grow as we have several students nearing graduation. It may come down to the wire for a few, but we are confident they will find the determination to succeed. In non-academic news this week, we had a visit from Dianne Shoppell from Before 5 who conducts monthly parenting classes with our parents and expectant parents. This is a wonderful service and is of great benefit to our students and their children. Thanks to Ms. Justis for coordinating and arranging this valuable opportunity for our students!
East Noble High School
Thursday April 24th is the national “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day”. East Noble High School will be participating with over 300 students shadowing in the Kendallville area. Nationally there are 37,400,000 participants annually in more than 3,000,000 organizations and workplaces in every State. Students will be shadowing dozens of careers to gain a better understanding of what careers are available in NE Indiana.
In addition to this job shadowing experience, ENHS has scheduled a variety of field trips for students to explore career options. Some students will be engaged with hands on learning experiences while others will be exposed to the variety of technical career options offered at Impact Institute.
The Business Pathway is delving into social media in an effort to create buzz for our Campus Beautification Project. The Business pathway has created a Facebook page about the Campus Beautification Project and will be looking through old yearbooks to add East Noble Alumni as “friends” to our Campus Beautification page. The Business Pathway will be looking in yearbooks from all past graduating classes; be looking for your “friend request”!
For more information on the Campus Beautification Project go to our website www.enhscampusbeautification.com. Follow us on twitter @ENcampusfacts Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/ENHS-Beautification-Project/1426063780976579.
East Noble Middle School
Life in the middle school continues to be busy! 8th graders are working on cross-curricular projects in social studies and language arts; they are working on chemistry in science. In math they are working on statistics. 7th graders are working on the novel Guts in language arts, and statistics in math. Social studies classes are finishing up units and taking post-tests. Many classes are continuing to do ISTEP prep and review lessons for the upcoming testing in a few weeks. Students are preparing their computers for the ISTEP test by doing updates and cleaning out their hard drives. Next week the students and staff will be participating in the Hoops for Heart fundraiser. East Noble Middle School welcomes Gail Nezworski as our new Media Center Instructional Assistant!
East Noble School Corporation
Email: alinson@eastnoble.net
Website: www.eastnoble.net
Location: 126 West Rush Street, Kendallville, IN, United States
Phone: 260-347-2502
Facebook: facebook.com/eastnoble
Twitter: @ENobleSchCorp