From the Middle: Student Involvement

Our Students Reach Others Outside Our Walls: 

For the past couple of years, Mr. Rude has been having student write letters to past soldiers who travel to Washington D.C. on honor flights.  We have gotten many letters back to our students from soldiers.  This past week, Jake Frahm received a letter from a soldier from Oelwein who just returned from on of these Honor Flights.  The soldier wrote back using an envelope and paper from his deployment to Vietnam.  We never know how our actions will impact others.

Many Spaces of Opportunity: 

As we close our first month of school, teachers and students are figuring out many different uses of our new space.  We have been able to use our large collaboration rooms for PE and other grade level activities while our gym is being finished.  Students spread out into the areas to work in small groups and even present projects.  Below are a few pictures of students utilizing the different spaces.

Students Spreading Messages of Kindness:

Mrs. Miller and her 6th grade intervention students came up with an idea to spread kindness in the Middle School.  Students are writing positive messages and posting them on the conference room windows on each floor.  Some messages are also being put on to lockers for students to see.  Both teachers and students are getting involved creating a positive caring culture in the Middle School.

FAST Testing Screeners Have Begun:

This past year our school was identified as a Targeted school based on the previous Iowa Assessments scores regarding our achievement gap in reading between general education students and special education students.  Our staff has taken a close look at how we identify, monitor, and provide interventions for all of our students.  In the past we have we screened all of our 5th and 6th grade students in math.  Through our work as a staff last year, we have decided that we need to monitor and evaluate all students in the areas of math, reading, and social emotional wellbeing.  We are taking these screenings three times a year on our iPads to help teachers identify areas of student strength and areas of improvement. We will then use this information to help focus our class time and intervention supports.  Students will be completing these three screeners by the end of next week.

Homecoming Week Thoughts

Homecoming Week

Another Homecoming has come and gone in New Hampton and I could not be more proud of our students, staff and community.  Homecoming is a time when I am always reminded of what a great place New Hampton is.  When we think about Homecoming, what does it really mean? Upon using google, an educators best friend, I found, "the return of a group of people usually on a special occasion to a place formerly frequented or regarded as home especially : an annual celebration for alumni at a high school, college, or university." This dual definition brings us all together. So not only do we celebrate with candidates, crowning of a king and queen, a football game and dance, and pep assemblies, but we honor the tradition of the alumni and welcome back any and all to our great town. I enjoy seeing the graduates from my tenure come back, but also enjoy the crowds who hold our traditions of excellence so dear that they return here every year to celebrate. One of our goals is to create graduate who have the opportunity to stay in the greater New Hampton area and/or return to raise their families here.  So, one of the great benefits of Homecoming is that is becomes so much more than a week of activities as we see more Chickasaws invested in growing our community and becoming a part of our every day celebrations. Because after all, New Hampton is a wonderful place to work, live and play, no matter what week or day.

 Congratulations to our King and Queen, Ethan Rosonke and Abby Robinson.  We are so proud of how you represent the student body and the community!

 Candidates Ashlyn Tank and Evan Rosonke

Candidates Paige Laures and Bryce Maloy

Candidates Michaela Fitzgerald and Austin Bast

Candidates Maddie Hoeck and Conner Gorman

Elementary moving right along!

Elementary has been busy in the first few weeks of school! Refreshing our memory on how to be a TRIBE (Trustworthy, Respectful, Involved, Be Prepared, Effort) Student and taking on new projects!

Some grades starting off with Project Based Learning- you ask what is PBL?

In Project Based Learning, teachers make learning come alive for students.

Students work on a project over an extended period of time-from a week up to a semester- that engages them in solving a real-word problem or answering a complex question.  They demonstrate their knowledge and skills by developing a public product or presentation for a real audience.

As a result, students develop deep content knowledge, critical thinking, and communication skills in the context of doing an authentic, meaningful project.  PBL unleashes a contagious, creative energy among students and teachers.

1st grade is taking on the Driving PBL question of: How can we take care of the homeless animals at SNAP and inspire our community to help? These are questions that we can ask the people at SNAP when we visit next week!  We also learned how there are many things that make us happy, but there are certain things we really need to live.  We found out our pets have a lot of the same needs/wants as us!

2nd grade is taking on the Driving PBL question of: How can we as school officials design and propose fire safety routes for school? Mrs. Lansing and Mr.. Rude recruit 2nd graders to be Junior Fire Inspectors. 

Collaboration Everywhere!

One of the 21st Century Goals of New Hampton High School is collaboration.  You do not have to look too far to see collaboration in every setting all day long. At NHHS, collaboration means:

• taking responsibility for oneself
• helping the team
• respecting others
• making and following agreements
• organizing work
• working as a whole team

Mrs. Schmitt's Foods 3 class is working with Phil at the Pinicon on prep work each week.  They will be practicing authentic kitchen skills while helping his staff prepare for meals.  They will be focusing on noon time work including a full meal for the Rotary Club in upcoming weeks.

In Spanish 3, students are working collaboratively in groups while analyzing Spanish language music.  They are choosing which phrases are used and how they fit in the context of the music. Later in that lesson, the students worked together to create a scenario comparable to the music video and act it out using their new Spanish vocabulary.

Our custodial staff also demonstrated collaboration and modeled our values while staying late to complete the new stencil on the football field Thursday night.  They worked more quickly and efficiently together that evening when they were able to focus on the task at hand while other items were handled during the day. Great job!

Students from across the district participated in the Giant Chicken Dance last Friday. The collaboration in addition to constant communication helped make this activity a success once again this year.