School Performance Profiles and Building Update

School Performance Profile

This week, the Iowa Department of Education released School Performance Data for each public school in the state.  You can find the information here.  They look at a variety of data elements to come up with a score for each building level.  Some of the data items they look at include: Graduation Rate, Reading and Math Achievement, Conditions for Learning, Assessment Participation and Growth in Math and Reading.  They put all of that information in a formula and come up with an overall number or score for each building.  New Hampton Elementary had an overall score of 57.55,  New Hampton Middle School had an overall score of 56.61, and New Hampton HIgh School had an overall score of 57.08.  The state average for all buildings is 54.91.  It's great that we are above the state average and shows that overall our students are getting a good education.  

However, it's important to note that the New Hampton Middle School Building has been identified as a building needing Targeted Assistance.  This is because our Students with Disabilities (or IEP students) perform significantly below our other students.  Below is a chart that shows the Reading and Math Growth of our Low Socio-Economic Status students along with the Growth of our Students with Disabilities.  

The black dot on the chart represents the state average for students with disabilities and our students are coming up short in the growth they are making.  In order to address this, our middle school staff is putting together a team that will analyze this data much deeper to identify what the issues are and then make a plan to address it and help make sure all of our students are making adequate growth.  Like most things, there are always challenges that come up.  This is one of them, but I know our staff can handle this.  

Building Update

Things are continuing to progress nicely.  All of the walls on the upper floor are framed and ready to go.  The electricians are doing the wiring and the plumbers are installing the heating/cooling units and the masons are installing some brick on the front entrance.  In addition, the gym roof is installed and they are now heating the gym and locker room areas to dry them out to prepare them to pour concrete.  

They are expecting the windows to start going in sometime during the second week of January and then everyone will be able to see the progress.  They are still planning to be done in June.  It's exciting to see the changes each week.  

As the first semester comes to an end I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  It's an honor and a privilege to be a part of such an awesome community like New Hampton and to lead two outstanding districts.  Happy Holidays and I will see you next year!  

From the Middle: 1st Semester Wrap up

Project Based Learning in the Content Area: 

Our teachers have been working hard to implement Project Based Learning into the classroom.   We have highlighted several of the units students have participated in since the beginning of the school year. Our second semester will have more PBL opportunities for students including Midmester.  Midmester will take place February 7- February 22nd.  Please mark your calendars for Presentation night on February 22nd from 4-6 pm in the Middle School.  Below are some other content PBL units teachers have been working on:

Teachers:  Mrs. Geerts, Mrs. Laures, Mrs. Quirk

Topic:  Jet Toy Activity

Driving Question: How can you design, develop, and sell a balloon-powered toy made from inexpensive, common materials that will appeal to children?

Project Summary:  Students learn about science, math, and writing in this unit. Students learn about how to collect data and compute speed. Daily reflection and writing personal goals are important in this unit. Students were given directions to build a jet toy, but then have to come up with a unique design by applying what has been learned during this class. The final step is to market the new toy and be able to sell it to others.

Teachers:  Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Bear, Mrs. Brincks

Topic:   Graphing Stories

Driving Question:  Can you design a video to help students learn to sketch a graph that represents a function?

Project Summary:  Students worked to design a video that included a short skit followed by a graph that measures variables represented in the skit.  They chose a variable that could easily be measured by their audience.  The video needed to include a short clip of the variable to be measured, the video shown at real speed, the video repeated at half speed and a final clip of the graph that shows the variable that they chose to measure.

Tell your story

If you have not yet picked up on New Hampton Community School District hashtag yet #NHTribe, please join us in telling our story.  This summer I went to a speaker who talked about that what you put out there is a reflection of yourself and what is going on.  If you are not putting anything out there, people will make up the story for you.  It made myself and other administrators in the district think about, are we letting parents/community know all the wonderful things happening in our district/building?

As teachers reflected about this, they have also started to share more with parents about what is taking place in the classroom through various ways, Twitter, Facebook, SeeSaw, Remind App, etc. 

Please ask your classroom teachers if you are not aware what social media they are using to see all the amazing things happening at the school.  Search for hashtag #NHtribe on Twitter and see the all the district postings of things taking place.  Follow the below Facebook pages to see each building and the district page.  Thanks for helping us tell our wonderful story! What is your story you want to tell!

https://www.facebook.com/NewHamptonCommunitySchools/
https://www.facebook.com/NewHamptonElementary/
https://www.facebook.com/NewHamptonMiddleSchool/
https://www.facebook.com/NewHamptonHighSchool/

Finals at NHHS/Upcoming Networking and Opportunity Fair/Celebrating Each Other

Finals at NHHS

We are in the final push of the semester leading up to finals next Thursday and Friday.  Some reminders during those two days:

• Open campus for all students, quiet space is available in the library and cafeteria for study
• Hallways are closed during testing time
• You may not enter a test late
• Opt out information will be available Tuesday morning
• The coffee bar held by the PBIS student team and sponsored by Kwik Star will be open during all finals outside the cafeteria

Below is the schedule for testing times:

2 day Finals Schedule, December 2018

Dec 20 Dec 21

8:15- 9:15 Period 1 Period 6

9:30-10:30 Period 2 Period 7

10:45-11:45 Period 3 Period 8

11:45-12:45 Lunch Lunch

1:00-2:00 Period 4 Make Ups

2:15-3:15 Period 5

Upcoming Networking and Opportunity Fair

The Greater New Hampton area NICC Business Sector Board spent time this fall pitching a marketing plan to Iowa BIG North including an idea to bring businesses into New Hampton and Turkey Valley high schools in a more intentional way than a career fair.  The outcome has been the upcoming Networking and Opportunity Fair.

On February 27th from 9-11:30 the NICC initiative students are hosting an event that includes speed interviewing, business and industry panels, and intentional networking for 11th and 12th graders in both districts.  Students will be preparing the next couple months to ensure that they have researched job opportunities, polished resumes, and built questions around their interest area.  Look forward to more updates!

Celebrating Each Other

The holiday season and the end of the semester can be a tough time for students and adults alike.  Although we are serious about buckling down for finals, we also want to celebrate the season and each other.  As you see above, we are providing a coffee bar during finals and we also have our Ugly Holiday Sweater event this Friday. In addition, we have started "Pass the Pig" this week among high school staff to show anonymous appreciation for each other.

You will also see decorated doors throughout the building that will be judged by students.  Keeping a positive vibe not only helps days go quickly, but adds to the comfort level of all in the building.  What are you doing to build up those around you, children and adults alike?

Wrestling Room and Building Project Update

Wrestling Room

There's been a lot of rumors and talk about whether the district is building a new wrestling room or not as part of the new building.  Hopefully, this will clear up some of the questions.  First, a wrestling room wasn't included as part of the original project.  There are several reasons for this, but the primary one was the district was worried the addition of the wrestling room may have caused the bids to come in higher than the funds that we had available.  In addition, one of the optional items that was included in the initial bidding was an enlarged gymnasium.  The primary bidding documents included a competition gym that was larger than our current gym, but not as large as we would like.  To address this, we included an option for a slightly larger gym to provide more seating and generally more space on the floor.  This was an option as we didn't know how the bids would come in, but we wanted to get the most bang for our buck.  Fortunately, the bids came in lower than expected and we were able to do some options.  What about the wrestling room?  

The board was presented with options to expand the Vocational Agriculture/Industrial Technology room or add a wrestling room to the project.  On March 27, 2018 a special board meeting was held.  Following extensive discussion, the board voted not to make any decision on using the potential extra funds or adding on to the project until the project is complete or nearly complete and the board knows exactly or nearly exactly how much money they may have available before deciding what to do with it.  They didn't say yes or no to a wrestling room or Voc Ag/Ind.Tech Addition.  They simply said let's not make any decision until we're sure how much money we will have available.  At that time, there hadn't been any concrete poured yet or anything, so they didn't know how many change orders they would have and what the final amount available would be.  They were being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars.  Good progress is being made on the building, but there is still a long way to go and who knows what may come up.  

At the April board meeting representatives from the FFA Alumni group asked permission from the school board if they could attempt to raise funds privately to expand the Voc Ag/Ind. Tech. Building.  Through many generous donors and two large donations from ATEK Industries and NICC, they raised enough to expand that facility without the board having to use any of the project funds to do so.  Frankly, that takes one thing off the table that may have competed with the wrestling room project.  There has been no other discussion by the board on doing or not doing a wrestling room since the March 27th meeting.  They have never said or discussed not doing a wrestling room or anything else with any extra funds that may remain after the project is complete.  I am going under the direction that we will bring this up again when the project is finished and we know exactly how much funding is left over.  I would estimate this will be some time between next April and June.   

Where am I at with this?  First and foremost, I believe the wrestling program should be housed in our facility.  There is no doubt it creates issues for the student-athletes leaving practice at the CWC and going out into the cold when they are so hot and sweaty in the middle of the winter.  In addition, it's our program, they compete in our facility, their practice room should be here.  A new wrestling room would be a wonderful addition to our facility and the board had the foresight to do the earth work to minimize costs if and when one is added whether it's after this project or some point in the future.  The site is ready to go.  However, what if there isn't enough money left after the project is complete or something else comes up that needs immediate attention?  I'm looking at other options to get them in our facility.  Again, these options would involve spending project money, and I've been directed by the board to wait until the project is complete or nearly complete so they know precisely how much money will be available.  

In the end, the board hasn't held any further discussions on the wrestling room and certainly no decisions have been made one way or the other on what to do with any excess funds that may be left over after the project is complete.  Stay tuned until next spring as that's when the discussion will likely start.  

Building Project Update

Just a few notes on the project.  The middle school classrooms are now enclosed and they are installing the stud walls on the upper level.  The lower level is being prepped to pour concrete down there sometime in the coming weeks.  They are finalizing the roof installation on the locker rooms and will be moving to get the final roof layers on the gym and cafeteria areas.  Once those areas are enclosed, they will move to the AG/IT building.  They are making a lot of progress, but it's not quite as apparent with everything enclosed.  Here's  a picture of the inside of the building.  

It's hard to believe, but they plan to be substantially complete within 6 months.  Stay tuned for more updates.  

From the Middle: RC Car Challenge PBL

Project Based Learning in the Content Area: 

Ms. Remmen is a special education teacher at New Hampton Middle School.  She chose to pursue a PBL project with students during study hall to work on problem solving skills and how things worked.  This group of students is interested in RC cars, how they are made, and how they work.  Students made video diaries as they progressed through the project.  Each day they reflected on how well they did and what the next steps will be for the following class period.  Students then learned about the different components as they took the car apart and how they worked.  The end goal is to be able to build a RC car and have it function.  Many students have broken cars and they will now be able to fix them.

Topic:  RC Car Challenge

Driving Question: Can I build an RC Car from scratch?

Project Summary:  Students will conduct research online and interview experts to explore the basics of how remote control vehicles work. Students will then collaborate with each other and outside sources to see if they can build their own RC Car from scratch. Students will document the process as they work and create a google slide presentation to share with others upon completion of the project.

Building Update/Choice Is Important

Building Update

The 5-12 addition, new gym and Ag/IT building have walls up and are within days of having roofs.  That makes it incredibly difficult to see what is happening inside.  I assure, you neat stuff is happening behind these walls. I was able to walk through the inside with Mr. Jurrens and Mr. Manson this week to see the work in progress.  Please check my twitter and/or the High School Facebook page for videos.  Excuse the audio as I get really excited when I see what is happening.  Aside from rooms getting wall upstairs, the Commons and gym are taking form very quickly.  I am amazed at how large the Commons is--- probably twice the size of our current high school cafeteria and the natural light that will fill that room will be a great highlight for a space used both by students and the community.

Choice Is Important

An important part of student-centered classroom is the use of choice for students to guide their own learning. The easiest place to see this in during hands on courses.  This week Ms. Nelson and Ms. Voigt from Luther College are working with Art 1 students on being comfortable with choice. 

Students were given instruction on a pinch pot and then given freedom to make a crazy critter out of that pinch pot using clay materials.  One of the aspect of this project that pushes students is the opportunity to fail forward regarding what will work and what will not work with clay.  Although students find this frustrating at times, it also leads to deeper learning. They figure out what works and the working memory holds this much longer that hearing or seeing information.

From the Middle: Project Based Learning in Art and Band

Project Based Learning in the Content Area of Art: 

Mrs. Dunagan is an art teacher at the Middle School and Elementary.  She came up with the following Project Based Learning Unit for her intervention students to promote a positive culture and climate between various grade levels.

Topic:  Rocking Chairs for Elementary Classrooms to Promote Self Regulation

Driving Question: How can we design a rocking chair for an Elementary Classroom for students to
use for self regulation.

Project Summary: Students collaborate with an elementary teacher to create and design a rocking chair allowing students to rock to self regulate themselves. Students will sand, paint and design chairs to represent the different classrooms making them functional pieces of art.

Project Based Learning in the Content Area of Band: 

Mrs. Adam is the Middle School Band teacher that came up with the idea of helping students take more ownership in becoming a musician and how to become a better performer.  Students did an awesome job or playing in front of others and preforming for a judge.  We had several Level I and Level II performances. 

Topic:  Owning Your Solo

Driving Question: How can I convey emotions through music?

Project Summary:  Students will aid in selection of solo literature and perform their solo work, with accompaniment, for an audience, including an adjudicator, who will provide constructive feedback for student reflection.

Winter Activities in Full Swing/State Dance

Winter Activities in Full Swing

All winter activities are in full swing-- from basketball and wrestling to dance and speech. It keeps the schedule busy and allows for students to not only be involved, but also support their fellow students.

Meet the Team Night introduced us to our winter sports teams and all teams have begun competition during this week. You can access athletic schedules on the school website, www.new-hampton.k12.ia.us

There are many reasons for students to continue to be in activities throughout the year.  Evidence shows that students who are involved in extra-curriculars have more success in the classroom and have improved attendance.  This is evident in our amount of students who make the all-academic teams throughout the year. Team building that happens on the courts, fields, and during competitions bleeds back into the classrooms where students can use the leadership skills to increase collaboration and communication in our changing educational environment. In addition, the impact our students in activities have on our "littles" is beyond measure.  It is always a good reminder of how much our younger students are watching what our high school students are doing and how much they look up to the older students.

State Dance

The NHDT competed at State Dance in Des Moines this week.  The group participated in both Pom and Hip Hop where they received a Division 1 rating in their pom routine.  On Friday, they stayed to watch college teams compete and network with college coaches and dancers.  It is a fun and exciting event where the team is able not only compete but gain knowledge and skills from teams throughout the state. Nice job!!!

Reflection on Being Thankful

Starting on my 5th year at New Hampton Elementary School, there are many people daily I am thankful for.  During this blog I will reflect on a program that started 3 years ago called the Teacher Leadership and Compensation Program, a grant provided by the state of Iowa. These three ladies took on the adventure of new positions for the district.  While as administrators we weren't for sure what is would exactly look like, they helped the transition go easy and excel the program to far beyond the level I thought we would see.  They help teachers and staff daily with instruction, help out during duties when a teacher/administrator needs assistance, provide a listening ear for everyone that walks by their door, chocolate bowl and many more things that go unnoticed. These SMILES show up daily and continue to love what they do and keep excelling our school district to reach new goals. 

TEACHER LEADERSHIP PROGRAM:

https://sites.google.com/new-hampton.k12.ia.us/nhtlc/home?authuser=0

https://educateiowa.gov/teacher-leadership-and-compensation-system

From the Middle: Voices of the Voiceless PBL

Project Based Learning in the Content Area: 

Topic:  Holocaust and Speeches

Driving Question: How do we keep historical stories alive? What effects come from rash judgements?

Project Summary: Students will research stories of Holocaust victims.  Students will write speeches, in their own words, from the perspective of a Holocaust victim. Students will read the play “The Diary of Anne Frank” and relate common themes from the time period.

Mr. Rude and Mrs. Egemo worked on a collaborative PBL project.  8th grade students have been working on the Voices for the Voiceless project for a couple weeks. Our students were focused on keeping alive the stories of the Holocaust, as many survivors have passed away over time.  This has been a joint effort between both Mrs. Egemo's Literacy class and Mr. Rude's Social Studies class.  The students started with primary source research. The bulk of it was done through reading first hand accounts and interviews from survivors. We also had support from the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center as they sent us a trunk full of resources.  A huge thank you to Mr. Jurrens for coming across this resource and forwarding it to Mr. Rude.  

Once research concluded, the students wrote speeches and narratives that call attention to the experiences of Holocaust survivors.  Some were written as narratives about Jews being captured, others were about the experience of being in the camps, and a few even examined the role of Allied soldiers that came upon the camps and liberated them.  Some of our students wrote speeches, which not only addressed the abhorrent treatment of those affected by the Holocaust, but also made a call to action for people to remember and apply the lessons learned.

Finally, the students used their oratory skills to craft and hone their narratives and speeches for public presentations.  The students presented them in the auditorium, on stage, and with a microphone during this last week.  In the lead up to the presentations students had an opportunity to work with Mr. Rude's Oratory Teacher Artist, Heidi Fortune.  The students delivered well crafted, and engaging speeches.  This project will lead into a project that starts in January, in which the students will take on a social injustice topic to write an argumentative essay, which in turn will be crafted into a speech.  Our students will have an opportunity to use these speeches to compete for a chance to go to Washington D.C. to participate in the Ford's Theater Oratory Retreat in May.

School Board Convention, Future Ready Iowa, and Other Stuff

School Board Convention

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I was able to accompany some of our school board members to Des Moines to attend the Iowa Association of School Board's Convention.  This is a great learning experience for board members to improve their skills as board members.  This year, the New Hampton Board was awarded a "Team Achievement Award" for the learning activities they've completed over the past year.  

They were one of nine boards out of 367 school districts in the state of Iowa to receive this award.  They've devoted some of their personal time and we've taken some time at the board table to improve their skills and knowledge as board members.  They have received no compensation for this and do it just to make themselves better board members.  In addition, when we attend the school board convention they usually have to take vacation or personal days from their place of employment in order to attend.  This is one way that really shows their commitment to our district. 

I'm sure you're wondering what do they learn at the convention and what other things have they done to improve their learning.  At the convention this year, they learned about school safety and the various threats that exist in schools.  This will help them as they review and approve the district's "Crisis Plan" that we are currently revising and updating.  One of the things that stood out to me was the focus that schools place on preparing for active shooters.  This is an important thing and we are doing things to make sure we are prepared, but there are other safety issues that are much more likely to happen in a school that could cause harm to our students and staff.  These are things that may or may not have been in our previous plan, but I'm sure didn't receive enough emphasis.  The board now has the knowledge to know what questions to ask and what to look for to make sure we are covering all areas of safety and not just what has been in the news.  They also attended sessions on school finance so they learn about things to look for that may be overlooked by boards or not presented clearly by the superintendent.  They also learn about what to question and why it's important to not just go with what the superintendent says, but to make sure they understand why something is the way it is.  Finally, they get a chance to see what other schools and districts are doing across the state and nation and how it compares to what we're doing here and what may be appropriate here. 

Our board members are dedicated to doing the best they can for our students, staff, and community.  They do all of it on a volunteer basis.  If you see one of our board members, I would encourage you to ask them about the convention.  I'm confident they will have a lot to share. 

Future Ready Iowa

On Tuesday, I attended the Future Ready Iowa Regional Summit in Cedar Falls with some of our staff members.  If you're not familiar with Future Ready Iowa, I encourage you to check out their website at www.futurereadyiowa.gov .  This is the "top priority" of Governor Reynolds to meet the future workplace needs of our state.  

The goal is to have 70% of our workforce with some sort of post-secondary credential by 2025.  This may be a 4 year degree, 2 year degree, or even some type of training certificate.  The basis for the goal is that is what will be needed by our employers based on current projections.  As the following chart shows, the most help is needed in the middle skill occupations.  54% of the jobs from that time period were middle skill jobs, but only 34% of the workers have these skills.  High skill workers are matching the available jobs pretty closely, but the low skill workers far exceed the available low skill jobs.  That is the target group.  

This is for the entire state, what does this look like for Northeast Iowa?  

It's not exactly the same data, but it gives you an idea of where we are.  First, 58% of Iowans have some type of education or training beyond high school.  Here in Northeast Iowa it's 53%.  In the next area, you can see our region needs an additional 21,800 individuals to attain these credentials in order to meet the goal.  An interesting note, the largest area that will need these additional skills is the 25 and older group with no postsecondary educational experience.  If you want to know more about the data and a lot of additional information, you can check it out here in the Future Ready Iowa Workbook.  

Other Stuff

The building project continues on.  They are installing the kitchen panels on Friday and looking to come back Saturday to install the Vocational Agriculture/Industrial Tech areas.  Because of the snow in the forecast, it looks like they will be doing the Ag/IT panels on Monday.  The roofers are going full speed to get the roof fully done and there is a lot going on every day.  If they do the AG/IT panels on Monday, the driveway will be closed all day.  

Finally, Monday night is our monthly board meeting.  I will be posting the agenda and all additional materials to this website later this afternoon.  Please take some time to check it out.  You may also sign up for an account and you will be notified anytime there is an upcoming meeting.  Or, you may simply click on the link to this month's board meeting in the upper left corner of the page.  These are usually posted to go live around 5 p.m. on Fridays.  There is a lot going on with our district, but we have the board, staff, and students to handle it all.  Go Chickasaws!