Proud to be EV... Week of November 17-23, 2013

I am very proud of our EV students. The Student Council held a food drive and our students raised 1501 items for our local food pantry! On Monday, Mr. Nachtman, the Student Council Advisor, and a couple of his Student Council members delivered the items~

On Tuesday, Iowa Secretary of State, Matt Schultz, came to visit our seniors. He led a Rock Iowa presentation in which he talked about the importance of voting and held interactive activities with students centered around focusing on key issues that may arise when making decisions on how they will vote. A couple of our students took part in a mock debate! At the conclusion of the presentation, each student was given a Rock Iowa t-shirt. We appreciate his visit.

On Tuesday night, several of our English Valleys choir students performed at the SICL Honor  Choir event held at Iowa Valleys Jr/Sr High School in Marengo. The performances were wonderful to listen to~

On Wednesday night I attended the monthly Booster Club meeting. They have been working hard to find ways to raise money to support various groups and activities in our district. They have done an excellent job with finding ways to assist the district in increasing pride in our school~

On Thursday night, we hosted an information meeting on the possibility of transitioning to 8 man football. This meeting was attended by over 60 students and parents. On December 2, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. a special school board meeting will be held to make a final decision on this topic.

On Friday, we held our weekly "Spirit Assembly". Mr. Ling introduced the Junior High Wrestling team. We hosted a Junor High Wrestling meet on Thursday night in which many of our wrestlers had first ever wins!

The Spirit Assembly was hosted by the Student Council. They played our all time favorite- DODGEBALL! It is still wonderful and amazing to see our students showing pride in our school week after week...

We are nearing the middle of our school year and the students and staff will soon be taking a Thanksgiving and Winter break. The construction of the gym is coming along beautifully... can't wait for the end result!

Go EV Bears!

Proud to be EV... Week of November 10-16, 2013

Another great week at English Valleys Junior/Senior High School...

On Tuesday, the football banquet was held. The 5th & 6th grade, Junior High, and High School football players were honored, as well as the cheerleaders. This had an amazing turnout!

On Tuesday night, the SIAC committee met. Mrs. Andreassen spoke about the upcoming Iowa Department of Education State Site Visit. Mr. Fritz updated the group on how construction is going.  I spoke about Perkins. I also addressed changing the requirements for the Academic letter, after researching what other districts require. This will be decided upon at the December 2 meeting.

On Thursday, our foreign exchange student, Bo, presented to the students and staff about his country. He is a wonderful student and we are pleased to have him join us for the year~

New gymnasium update...

The inside of the new gym:

The new front parking lot:

Progress on the new fitness room:

We are very excited for the completion of our new gymnasium!

This week's "Spirit Assembly" was hosted by Jane Brun's advisory group. Due to attending professional development at GWAEA, I was not able to take pictures. From what I heard, Mr. B won the staff karaoke!

There are just a few of the highlights from the week. There is never a dull moment at English Valleys Junior/Senior High School!

Go EV Bears!

Proud to be EV... Week of November 4-10, 2013

 As always, another great week has concluded at EV...

The basketball and wrestling seasons are ready to begin... ready for winter sports!

On Thursday night, the High School Vocal Music Concert took place. Our high school choir is taught by Denise Wade.

The Girls Glee performed several nice songs with some lovely solos...

Our foreign exchange student, Bo, gave a wonderful solo of "Hey Soul Sister"...

Anne and Audrey performed a duet from "Wicked" that was wonderful to listen to...

The Mixed Chorus also entertained the audience with a nice selection of music and solos...

I would like to thank everyone who was available to attend this event~

On Friday, Mrs. Colbert and I took a group of young ladies to the Kirkwood Community College High Tech Girls Day.

This was an excellent opportunity for our students to explore opportunities in the technology field.  Upon arrival, each student was given a free t-shirt and a 2GB flashdrive bracelet! One of the sessions focused on web design. This session was amazing, the students create their own web page within 40 minutes or less and saved this onto their flashdrive to build upon on their own.

Another session focused on Global Information Systems (GIS). Students learned to create digital maps.

The Interior Design Instructor asked that students stop by after they were finished eating their lunch. She described her program to the students and presented a portfolio created by one of her students. This is another exciting field that a student could potentially enter.

This was an exciting opportunity and we are looking forward to many more...

The "Spirit Assembly" this week was hosted by Mrs. Nachtman's Advisory Group. They had a competition that involved trying to get a certain amount of balls out of the middle of the gym floor and move them to the designated corners of the gym floor- this was no easy task! However, the students had a great time trying!

There was also a dance-off competition. The seniors won the first set, and the 7th grade won the second set.

Looking forward to next week...

Go EV Bears!

Proud to be EV... Week of 10/27/2013-11/2/2013

On Monday and Wednesday night, Parent/Teacher conferences were held. Both nights had very nice attendance. I want to remind parents/guardians that they are welcome to email, call, or schedule a visit at any time if they have questions/concerns for their child(ren). I welcome these visits and feel that as a team we can work together to provide the best educational opportunity for our students.

On Tuesday, our junior/senior high school building was honored to have the current Miss Iowa, Nicole Kelly, visit. She spoke about how she decided to try out for Miss Iowa. She discussed her disability, missing her left forearm from the time she was born. This did not deter her from doing the things that she wanted to do in life. She took answered questions from our crowd of students after her speech.

After she spoke she spent time taking pictures with students and answering any further questions that had that were not addressed in the assembly.

I encourage any other schools, clubs, and organizations to have Nicole come and speak. She is truly an inspiring individual and I wish her the best~

School was dismissed early on Wednesday due to a water main leak at our building.  Mr. Ling had Sergeant Blankenship in our gym classes using "human hamster balls". The students enjoyed this immensely and for those who missed out, he is planning to try to schedule this in again.

On Thursday we held a brief "Spirit Assembly" honoring our senior athletes. We also used this time as a "send-off" for Allison Hewitt who represented our school in the State Cross Country Meet held in Fort Dodge, IA. Allison shared some words with our student body~

On Thursday, Halloween, my husband Jason and I dressed up in Star Wars costumes and decorated our trunk in a Star Wars theme. It was a pleasure to be a part of this community event- we are already looking forward to and planning for future trunk and treats~

On Friday, the Boosters planned a "send off" for Allison that included she and her coach, Jeff Gordon, being led out of town by firetrucks. It was a pleasure to be there to witness this and to see the community support our athletes~ Allison represented us well at the meet.

After two nights of conferences this week, the staff and students had Friday off~ I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend~ looking forward to another great week at EV~

Go EV Bears!