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!

Fall Play/Looking at Furniture

Fall Play

The Fall play, Donovan's Daughters was performed last week to a full house both nights as well as a matinee for middle school students. Through weeks of hard work, students showed their growth together as a group and individually as part of the drama program.  This was Ms. Konecne's first directing appearance at NHHS and she was able to use former directors and other school staff to put together a great performance.

Participating in extracurriculars, including drama, continues the work toward our 4 Cs of collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity. The extension of the learning and growth in classrooms is evident in the final public product that goes beyond any assessment on paper.

 Looking at Furniture

As we get closer to having our new 5-8 middle school addition done, we are working on the details for the inside of the building. Last week I was able to go with a group of students who will be working on common area furniture to look at some options.  We were given the opportunity to look at and try out some furniture for use in the student commons and collaborative work area.  We will continue to meet as a group to write a proposal for the board in January of furniture we recommend.  What better way is there to know what students need than to ask them?

State Volleyball

It has been 45 years since the NHHS volleyball team made a trip to the state tournament.  This is the year-- our young lady athletes decided it had been long enough.  They left Tuesday afternoon after a send off beginning at the high school, stopping at each school building, and parading down main street to head to Cedar Rapids.

On Thursday morning what seemed to be the entire Chickasaw Nation caravanned to Cedar Rapids and the Chickasaw volleyball team did not disappoint.  They fought a hard 4 games and eventually fell to Tipton. This is just the beginning of what is surely to be a long history of appearances at the state volleyball tournament as Coach Geerts and her staff have built a strong and deep program that will last past the 2018 season.

 In addition, the tournament staff recognized our own Anita Quirk as a community member that represents the character and good sportsmanship demonstrated by our student body and fan base throughout this amazing volleyball season.  We look forward to the trip to the Cell next year.  Great job, ladies!

What does innovation really mean?

In October, NHCSD had the opportunity to spend the day with George Couros, the author of Innovator's Mindset. Since that time, you have probably seen an increase in social media posts throughout the district as we try to tell our story and share what we are doing in classrooms, building, and learning sites. Even after that day, there is an on-going discussion about what innovation actually is. Right now we point to two programs that are pushing our boundaries for how we engage and educate students and you have seen much about them.  Iowa BIG North and J-term with project based learning have been on the forefront of innovation at NHHS.  Those programs have proven to successful engage students and we have had positive feedback from students, parents, and the community about those offerings to kids.

On Monday, I had the opportunity to attend the MISIC Personalized by Design Conference in Ankeny with a group of students and staff from Iowa BIG North.

 

During that day, we had the opportunity to present twice on innovation happening among our campuses and the evolution of the Iowa BIG North program. We always enjoy a chance to talk about what students do and the passion driven education of the program throughout the schools.

Before our presentations, we were given the opportunity to listen to and interact with Dr. Trace Pickering, one of the co-founder of Iowa BIG in Cedar Rapids.  He spoke to us about personalization in our educational environment and changing our paradigm from reforming education by polishing up what we have been doing since the Industrialization Age to transforming education by responding to our current needs.  The questions we need to ask ourselves surround the ideas of vigorous education as opposed to rigorous, learner-centric as opposed to school-centric.  What do our kids need?  How can we create an experience pre-K through 12th grade that transforms education to truly personalize education for each student? We are striving to keep these questions on the forefront.... these are questions that keep me awake at night. How can we in New Hampton lead innovation not just by talking about it, but by also taking risks and be willing to fail forward to better serve our kids and communities?

State Volleyball and Action Everywhere on the Building Project

State Volleyball

Once again, congratulations to the Chickasaw Volleyball team for qualifying for the state tournament next week in Cedar Rapids.  They earned their way there after beating North Fayette Valley, Waukon, and finally Camanche in the regional final.  If you haven't had a chance to see them play yet this year, you have missed some awesome play by our girls.  They have worked hard to get there and it shows when they play.  They look like they are enjoying the game and everyone of them pumps up each other through the high points and the low points they encounter.  It truly is fun to watch them.  When they played Camanche, they were confident and kept digging in when they needed to in order to come out on top 3 games to 0.

They open the state tournament on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. against. Tipton.  This takes place in Cedar Rapids at the US Cellular Center.  Here's some information on parking for the event.  If you haven't seen them yet, this will be an ideal time to come cheer them on.  These girls are fired up and ready to play.  I look forward to the game.  

Because of the game, we will not have school on Wednesday.  We want everyone to be there to cheer on our team.  The last time our volleyball team was in the state tournament was 1973.  If they win on Wednesday, they will play again at 2:00 on Thursday.  Of course, we will make sure everyone has the opportunity to attend.  They are currently in the top 8 in the state in class 3A and knowing these girls, they are aiming for higher than #8.  I wish them luck and hope to see you in Cedar Rapids next Wednesday.  

GO CHICKASAWS!

Building Project

There's a lot of action on the building project today.  I will post a number of pictures below.  They are currently pouring the concrete for the floor in the upper level of the middle school, working on the supports for the bar joists for the gym, completing a retaining wall for the front of the building, preparing the AG/Industrial Tech area for the wall panels next week, and the plumbers and electricians are working in many areas of the project.  

When they put in the wall panels for the Vocational Agriculture/Industrial Technology Building, we will need to close the driveway for the day as the trucks will need to park there when they are unloaded.  Right now they are telling us it will be next Friday, November 9th when this will be happening.  The parking lot will still be accessible from Hamilton.  Thanks for everyone's patience and assistance as we complete our project.  Here are a few pictures of things going on today.