ENSC Parent Notes
November 25, 2013
It is a short week.....Message to our Staff
I started the above paragraph Saturday night and then Sunday began to think more about the many ways a person can make an impactful difference in the lives of others. It is a door that someone puts on a homeowner's house who has been using a board to block the elements of the outdoors. It may be the Illinois football team and families that paid for seven busses to bring the tornado devastated Washington, Illinois team and fans to their semi-state football game. It may be ENHS sophomore Kevin Williams who pulled a young neighbor from his burning house. It can be the many ENSC students and staff who collected items for the Basket Brigade to provide a Thanksgiving dinner for our local families.
Never underestimate the value of each minute you spend with your students. You make a difference every week, regardless of the number of minutes or number of days in the week. It only takes a few moments to create that impactful moment and lasting memories.
Thanksgiving is a time for all to reflect and be thankful for our year, the people in our lives, and perhaps the "things" we have. I am thankful to be a a member of ENSC where there are amazing students, staff and community members . I am also thankful to have a wonderful family who will all be together on Thanksgiving Day.
2014-2015 School Calendar
Students still attend school 180 days and teachers still have a 183 day contract. The days are slightly reorganized and condensed to provide three longer breaks, fall, winter, and spring. Yes, we do start four school days earlier; however, we are slotted to end the same day in 2015 as we do in 2014. We will try the calendar and see how it goes. The beauty of a school calendar and approving just one year at a time; we have the ability to make changes for future calendars.
Progress on East Noble Middle School
There has been much talk for several years about the future of the current ENMS building. The concerns range from air conditioning to safety to athletic facilities. Part of the building was built in 1915 and the last renovation was done in 1983. As the Board proceeds in determining what the future of facilities will look like for the middle school students, there are many elements they need to consider. Most important right now is determining the value of expenditures in the building for repairs. Does the district make investments to remain long term or do we make less expensive repairs that "buy" a few more years?
While turn out was low at the three community meetings that were held, most of the conversation supported a new building. Determining a location is a challenge. Is it in the current location or somewhere that may not be in the center of Kendallville? As the Board moves forward, they will be listening to input from all families in the district as well as community members. Everyone's input is important as ENMS serves all students in the district.
Super Hero of the Week - Jenny Stohlman, Rome City Elementary Art Teacher
Rome City has the “Gate Keeper” to imagination. Every day I walk into the art room at Rome City, I am proud to say Jenny Stohlman is our art teacher. She has the key to opening all student’s imaginations. All students who walk through her class feel they are an artist. She motivates them and encourages them to express themselves through being creative. No matter how messy the project is, Jenny is eager and willing to bring it into her classroom.
Jenny’s energy in the art room does not stop just in art. She is the Rome City photographer. She captures all of our memories for the yearbook and other various slide shows throughout the year. Each year Jenny applies for an art grant. The art grant opens another gate of learning for the students of Rome City. Students get an opportunity to learn about a designated country and experience all aspects of the country such as food, music, art, clothing and much more. Jenny Stohlman is amazing she definitely inspires students to go through the gate into the world of imagination.
Curriculum and Building Notes
Curriculum from Becca Lamon
Everyday Math and Technology
As most of our elementary classrooms now have interactive white boards, it is time to say goodbye to a longtime friend – the overhead projector. Luckily, Everyday Math has amazing interactive resources and tools to assist our teachers in the transition.
Two features that teachers and students will quickly become familiar with are the ePresenations and the eTools sections of the online program.
All K-6 teachers received a code to establish an account previously, but it has also been resent to them this week.
To access the ePresentations follow the directions below:
https://em-ccss.everydaymathonline.com/pdf/Getting_Started_with_ePresentations.pdf
ePresentations provides examples, art, tables, manipulatives, tools, student pages and other relevant information from the Teacher’s Lesson Guide thus eliminating the need for overhead transparencies and minimizing advance classroom preparation. As teachers add to the presentations, they can be saved and then reused as many times as they like for reteaching.
The eTools section is extremely easy and allows you to post an interactive tool on the spot, write on the board, add text, and demonstrate how a tool is used in an engaging format for students. The two main features allow you to add a background and then write on top of it just as you would with a transparencies or access the interactive tool that will allow students to physically manipulate the tool.
Our students will find using the whiteboards fun and engaging when they get to make these tools “work” with a simple touch!
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What I am Thankful For:
As we approach Thanksgiving, I thought I would share with our parents and community what I am thankful for.
· I am thankful that I work in a school system that supports all the needs of its students – academic, social, emotional, and physical.
· I am thankful for the parents who support their students by helping with homework, reading with their students, and letting us know when they are proud of us.
· I am thankful for all of our staff members who go above and beyond to do everything they can for the students.
· I am thankful that I can see how far ahead our students are because of the amazing resources we offer.
· I am thankful that every day I can’t wait to come to work because I love my job.
Rome City Elementary
Rome City’s 5th & 6th graders were given a challenge to read to be “reaped”, or receive, a ticket to the public library’s showing of Catching Fire at the Strand in Kendallville. A total of 39 students participated and roughly 6000 minutes were read during the challenge! Effie Trinket arrived to draw names for the reaping and students were buzzing with excitement hoping their name would be drawn. Those students “reaped” were: Mo, Cameron, Sam, and Madyson. Special thanks goes to the library ladies and Carrie Huelsenbeck for putting on this rewarding event for our students!!!
Mrs. Ruse’s first grade class along with Mrs. Rogers’s fourth grade class teamed up to create a Christmas card for the park. The fourth grade students painted the giant Christmas card to resemble a festive front door. First and fourth grade handprints were used to create a decorative wreath. Their Christmas card will be displayed at Bixler Lake Park during the month of December.
East Noble Middle School
In a joint community effort the Kendallville Library and Kendallville Strand held a special screening of the new Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire, for the middle school. Sara Stein did all of the organizing for over 250 students to attend this great event.
Our 7th graders study the Hunger Games in their language arts class and do many cross curriculum projects with the novel. Students create their own Hinger Games arena with the use of technology or with the use of other mediums.
This was a fantastic evening and a great way to have a strong community connection. However, the houses along the route to the movies may have been a little frightened with 250 students walking past their house.
In other community connections this week the middle school also did a canned good drive for the local food bank and our art club painted a beautiful Christmas card for the Park Departments winter festivities
South Side Elementary
This was an eventful week for South Side Trailblazers. We came into the week from a South Side Future Knights basketball victory as our Trailblazers came into the championship ranked fifth out of seven teams with a 4 - 3 record going into the tournament. Playing the final championship game, we were down 17 to 2 at the half. They went out there and battled, only giving up one point by a foul. Tied it up 18 to 18 with 3 seconds left on the clock when Darren Donat got fouled and shot the bonus free throw hitting it to win the game! They truly worked as a team, every one of them, to overcome a huge deficit. More than just winning the game itself, they learned to never give up no matter how difficult the adversity. We are so proud of these young men, and South Side does have heroes amongst them.
In addition, our South Side Spellers competed in their annual meet on Wednesday. The team placed second out of four teams in our class. We also placed second out of all seven teams competing at West Noble. The team scored just one point behind the first place team. Destany Targgart and Holly Butler each had near perfect scores by spelling correctly six out of seven words. The whole team represented South Side well, models of excellent character.
Our grade level update comes from the 4th grade this week: On Friday, John Arnold visited with our fourth grade students. Mr. Arnold discussed forms of energy and shared a pamphlet with fifty ways to conserve energy. The students were excited to identify phantom energy uses in their homes and ways they can eliminate that waste. We are very lucky to have John with us at East Noble. He is a wonderful resource, and the students enjoyed his visit. We thank John for taking time out of his day to help the next generation of Johnny ShutItOffs.
North Side Elementary
The North Side Spell Bowl team competed in the area competition Thursday night at West Noble Middle School. There were 7 teams at the competition representing 3 classes. North Side captured 1st place in their class spelling 37 words correctly!
On Tuesday, a few of the members of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic came to North Side and provided students with a variety of different Marches that are played using their brass instruments. A few of the musicians told stories about different marches that were shared with the students. At the end of the performance, a few students were chose to help conduct while they played their final mart.
For the past three weeks, 6th grade students have been participating in a reading program in collaboration with the Kendallville Public Library. The theme of this reading program was Catching Fire. Students could earn tickets for a variety of things throughout the school day and reading after school. These tickets then went into a clear bowl bearing similar resemblance to the bowl used to hold the names in the Hunger Games. On Friday, November 15th, all of the students who participated were lined up as girls and boys to await their fate. Ms. Katie from the Kendallville Public Library played the role of Effie Trinket and reenacted the scene from the Hunger Games when the participants are chosen. Student’s who were selected received a free ticket to the Hunger Games premier at the Strand Theater in Kendallville on Thursday. These students also had the opportunity to participate in the activities scheduled prior to the beginning of the movie.
The 2nd graders at North Side performed a Thanksgiving music program highlighting Thanksgiving customs beginning with the Pilgrims and Native Americans through today’s traditions. With help from Mrs. Downer in the Art room, each student created a paper bag vest to replicate what the Native Americans wore when the Pilgrims arrived.
In Music class with Mr. Johnston’s help, the classes sang and played xylophones and tubano drums for songs that included “The Mayflower Song”, “Hip Hop Turkeys”, “Pumpkin Pie Polka”, and a patriotic song that included the Pilgrims, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” that also included audience participation. Both Miss Ebert and Mrs. Sibert included Thanksgiving lesson ideas into their curriculum making this music performance a multi-disciplinary performance.
East Noble High School
Wayne Center Elementary
This week the Kindergarten classes put up a display of turkeys from their Turkey Trouble Family Project. After reading the book Turkey Trouble, by Wendy Silvano, students invited their parents to help them disguise a coloring sheet turkey. Our kindergarten classes and their parents were very imaginative having turkeys dressed like Mickey Mouse, Elvis, snowmen and more.
Tuesday, Mr. Starkel started celebrating Thanksgiving with the school by holding a Turkey Trot for each grade! Kindergarten through 2nd grade is running a half mile, and 3rd grade through 6th grade are running one mile. Mr. Starkel is trying to encourage more kids to get out and do some good exercising as the holiday quickly approaches. For the younger kids this is more of a fun run and the older kids look at it more as a competition!
Twelve art students from Mrs. Mossburg’ s art classes were invited to have their art displayed at the Noble County Public Library in Avilla along with students from other local elementary schools. Many students received awards.
Mrs. Dean’s and Mrs. McDonald’s First Grade classes have been reading the book, Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Friday they celebrated “Pioneer Days”. Students were able to experience life in pioneer times by making candles, butter, bread and needlepoint. They were also able to participate in a wagon making craft and a quilting bee. A direct tie in to the book was a visit by a live calf furnished by the Krehl Family. Cari Krehl informed the students about the life and care of the calf.
Avilla Elementary
The past two weeks have been very busy in all of the Chacter Counts classes. First, OUR students did Career Week and learned about careers for the Common Core Standards. This past week, all classes did College Bound Panther Week and learned about college. This follows the NEU philosophy that OUR students are receiving in all areas of their education here at Avilla.
OUR Spell Bowl team competed at West Noble this past week. OUR students represented Avilla very well with a second place finish in the Blue Division. The team missed first place by just two points. Thanks to Mrs. Hudson for preparing the team so well.
OUR STAR and NEHS groups completed a week of collecting items for the Basket Brigade. This year, OUR school will be sponsoring eight families. Thank you to ALL STUDENTS AND FAMILIES for sending in items for families in need.
Mrs. Smith’s 4th grade and the NEHS completed postcards for the Drive-Thru at Bixlter Lake. The students worked very hard and created two very cool boards. A special “Thanks” goes out to students for staying after school to work on the boards. A very, special “Thanks” goes out to the parents for allowing their children to stay and work. We truly are blessed to work with such a great community that allows OUR children to have memorable experiences while they are here at Avilla with us.
Alternative Learning Center
Tri 2 is off to a rip roaring start at the ALC!!! Eleven credits have been earned so far this Tri. The ALC staff would like to recognize Justin Anderson as the winner of our most recent Character Counts drawing. Justin was recognized for Citizenship, for lending a helping hand in various situations at the ALC without being asked. Last but not least, IT IS WITH GREAT PRIDE THAT THE ALC STAFF ANNOUNCES THE GRADUATION OF BETHANY DANGLER!!! Beth recently completed her graduation requirements, earning several credits at the ALC in addition to her credits at ENHS. She is a young lady that came in and worked hard at her education every day. The ALC staff will miss Beth and we wish her well on a bright future.