Proud to be EV... Week 6

Another busy week has passed at English Valleys Junior/Senior High School...

The SIAC meeting took place on Tuesday night. As part of the meeting, Mr. Jensen took the committee on a tour of the new gymnasium area. It was a really neat feeling to know that in just a few months time the project will be complete.

We held a fire drill in our building Tuesday afternoon. With construction taking place, this can be a bit tricky so we made sure that students were aware of the exiting procedures, especially in the areas affected by the construction. The fire drill went smoothly.

We have new wireless infrastructure in the junior/senior high school building! ITS installed the system on Tuesday and Wednesday. The internet is much faster now that this is in place.

I attended the Leadership for Continuous Improvement Series in Cedar Rapids with several of my teachers. Mrs. Andreassen also took a group of her teachers. The junior/senior high school group took part in the Competency Based Education series. We will be attending four more meetings focused on this. This series is hosted by Grant Wood AEA. The secondary building is exploring Competency Based Education/Standards Based Grading and the impact it can have on student achievement. We anticipate moving in this direction at some point in the future. The first meeting focused on introducing what CBE is. There were many schools in attendance for this series. I will explain more about CBE in a future blog post.

On Friday we held our weekly Spirit Assembly. The Community Club explained the upcoming "Zombie Run" that they are hosting for junior/senior high school students.

 Mr. Gordon's 8th grade Advisory group hosted the assembly. They had an egg toss, a Skittle find (students participating had to find a skittle on a plate of whipped cream), and a game of Dodgeball in which students faced the staff.

Looking forward to what next week brings us...

Go Bears!

Homecoming Week...Proud to be EV: Week 5

We had a fantastic, spirit-filled week at English Valleys Junior/Senior High School! Many of the students participated in dress-up days throughout the week. On Wednesday night, the Homecoming Pep Rally took place. This event was well-attended and showcased many fun games.

On Thursday night, several students asked if they could decorate the hallway. I told them absolutely. I offered to supervise them. The end result was definitely something to be proud of. Those girls put a tremendous amount of work into showing pride in our football team. The next morning I made sure to upload the photos of the decorations to Twitter for many to enjoy.

There were so many moments embedded in my mind that I will always cherish. One of these is watching the band play the school song on Friday in the hallway and students and staff clapping along. Priceless.

On Friday, game day, the hallways and classrooms were filled with students and staff wearing blue and gold. At 1:00 p.m. the elementary and secondary students and staff filled up our gymnasium for a homecoming pep rally.

Coach McCulley wished the best of luck to his team as well as our other athletic teams. The cheerleaders led the crowd in cheers.

The 3rd- 6th grade students danced to the "Cha-Cha Slide".

The elementary and secondary teachers competed against each other in a game in which the elementary teachers defeated the secondary teachers. The sounds of the cheers from the elementary students filled the gym!

Mr. Dusdieker and his band played the school song for us. The junior/senior high school students were dismissed at 1:30 to work on floats while the elementary students lined up for the "Hug and High-Five" line with the football players, cheerleaders, and Homecoming Court.

The Homecoming Parade was excellent! I walked behind the band and enjoyed every step I took. I never tire of hearing our school song play. Each grade in 7-12th grade had a float. The Homecoming Court rode in convertibles. The football team rode on the firetruck. The FFA entered a float. The Marengo Hospital showered the crowd with beads and footballs. Every single student in grades 7-12 participated in the parade.  There are many pictures on the English Valleys Bears Fan Page on Facebook. There was such a tremendous amount of pride and spirit this week that one could not help but be part of it.

The Homecoming game was filled with many fans! The Homecoming court was introduced at half-time. Our boys won the game! I will never ever forget the looks on those faces as the raced to ring the Victory Bell. I hope they have many more opportunities to ring that bell.

The Homecoming dance concluded the week. The students were so excited! Listening to them sing "We are the Champions" made me smile. Many times students commented on what a wonderful week they had.

These past few weeks have been wonderful. I truly believe that it will only get better~

There are no words to really describe this week at English Valleys. Just stepping back and observing students and staff taking pride in their district is such an inspiration to me and reminds me of how truly blessed I am to be a part of this district.

Go Bears!

Proud to be EV... Week 4

The last four weeks have really flown by at English Valleys Jr/Sr High School! Students and staff are settling into their daily routines.

We held our first tornado drill of the year last week. Staff and students did a great job with this. On Wednesday and Friday we ran on an advisory schedule both days in order to prepare for Homecoming week. Advisory groups decorated doors for Homecoming so that we are able to enjoy them the entire week, rather than decorating in the middle of Homecoming week.

We hosted our first home high school volleyball game against Montezuma on Thursday night. This was also "Parent's Night".  The coaches and young ladies did a great job and worked hard. It was a pleasure to see many fans in attendance.

On Friday, we had our weekly "Spirit Assembly". Jane Bruns and her Academic Decathlon group hosted it. They played a trivia game that had several categories that included asking questions pertaining to staff. I learned several things from the game they hosted and I look forward to the Homecoming Pep Rally we will be holding this week.

Go Bears!

Proud to be EV... Week 3

It was another great week at English Valleys Junior/Senior High School! The staff and students did not have school Monday in order to enjoy and celebrate Labor day. On Monday night,  the Booster club held an informal meeting in which ideas were presented in order to raise funds, and promote and support our athletics even more. Booster club meetings will be held the third Wednesday of every month with the exception of this month. The Booster club meeting will be held on September 25th due to the pep rally being held on September 18. If you are not a member already, please consider joining and supporting this program.

Attendance. I cannot stress enough the importance of attending school. However, I do understand that people get sick, and other life events happen. We have a policy that if a student has an excused absence, they have two days to make up assignments for full credit. If a parent does not call in the morning to report their student's absence, our building secretary calls home to find out where the student is. Teachers take attendance every period. If the attendance does not come through, she calls the teachers to have them resend it if they haven't already. If a student isn't in class,  I investigate to find out way. The well-being of our students is of high priority.

Grade checks. I conduct grade checks every three weeks. In our Powerschool system, I am able to print the most updated D's, F's, and Incomplete grades. The goal is to not see many of these. This gives me an opportunity to visit with teachers on struggling students, and then I meet with students to find out why grades are suffering. Students have access to Powerschool. In this system they are able to check their attendance and grades 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Parents also have this access. Teachers are encouraged to update grades as often as they can, this way students and parents have the most up to date information.

Spirit Assembly. For the "Spirit Assembly" this week, 20 names from each grade were drawn and students had to spell "Bears" using formations. It was quite entertaining. Jeff Gordon, our Cross Country coach, introduced the team. Denise Wade, our music teacher, led the 7-12 students in learning the school song, if they didn't know it already. It was wonderful to listen to the words of our school song echo throughout the gym and to see the students enjoy singing it. The pep band performs the school song at every Spirit Assembly. They do a fantastic job playing music to the start of the assembly also. We are very lucky to have a great group of performers.

Gym update: the final panel is up! Walk or drive by to check it out when you get a chance~A big thank you to Scott Romine for the pictures~ here is one below with the final panel in place.

At times I will break my blog down into topics, especially as we move forward with initiatives in our building. As always, I am thankful for my staff and students and eagerly await for the next week to arrive~

Go Bears!

Proud to be EV.... The Second Week of School

I believe that I am one of the most fortunate principals in the world! Another great week at EV Jr/Sr High School. This week was a warm one~ every day this week school was dismissed at 1:00 p.m. due to the heat. The heat, however, did not stop us from providing educational services to our students. Our building began an 8 period 1:00 dismissal schedule on Tuesday this week. This schedule was created in order to make sure that our teachers were able to meet with their students in the event of early outs, such as these. Also, we have several 1:00 dismissals due to Professional Development for teachers, so this was the perfect time to troubleshoot the schedule and it worked out nicely.

One of the things that I enjoy the most about every day is lunchroom supervision. I will more than likely write a blog on this topic alone at a later date. I supervise all three lunches in our building. There are times when I am pulled away briefly to attend to other administration needs, but not frequently. I cherish the time that I can observe students and interact with them. I believe it is extremely important to understand and learn about each student in the building. Being a new principal in this district, it will take me a bit of time, but it is worth it. Sometimes I just eat and observe what takes place. We have good students at EV. Yes, at times students can be a bit ornery, but they are good people. Lunchtime seems to be the time that they feel very comfortable. It is a time when they can just relax and visit with their friends and catch up on the events of the day. I like to sit at several different tables at different lunch periods throughout the week. The students are very welcoming and are very enjoyable to talk to. They are full of very good ideas for what they would like to see in our building and I keep a list of ideas that they bring to me and reflect and research on ways to implement some of these ideas in the building.

On Tuesday night we had a 6th, and 10th though 12th grade (and new students) iPad orientation in the cafeteria in the junior/senior high school building. We had a majority of parents and students attend this. For those who were unable to attend, they met with Tami Marsh or myself in order for their child to take home an iPad. I am amazed at the opportunities that English Valleys provides for their students and am excited to see what else is in store that we can offer to them to help them grow in their educational experiences.

This week my husband and I had the pleasure of hosting a football supper with Deana Colbert in the basement of the Catholic church. We served a spaghetti dinner with sides and desserts that the players seemed to enjoy. Each member of the team that was present at this dinner was very polite and it was a true joy to be a part of this.

On Friday we held our weekly Spirit Assembly. The Student Council hosted this assembly and the class competitions this week centered around the "In It to Win It" type of games. It was truly enjoyable. Also, during this weeks assembly, Stacie Christner introduced the English Valleys Volleyball team.

On Monday, Labor Day night, there will be a booster club meeting in the Study Hall room at the junior/senior high school for anyone who is able to attend. There will be regular meetings the third Wednesday of every month, unless otherwise noted. For the month of September, the meeting will be held on the 25th due to the third Wednesday landing on Homecoming week and the night of the pep rally.

Once again, I would like to encourage parents and community members to stop in and visit. I have had the pleasure of meeting many of you and look forward to meeting many more. Please continue to support our school and attend any events that we host. We really do appreciate it.

Go EV Bears!

Proud to be EV... The First Week of School

Wow! What an excellent week at English Valleys Junior/Senior High School! This truly has been one of the greatest first weeks of school in my educational career. The halls started out empty and slowly filled up with students whose lives I hoped would be affected in a positive way this school year~

The students managed to work around the parking lot situation with all of the construction taking place. This picture was taken towards the beginning of the week. The elementary classes came over to watch the walls be put in place. The junior and senior high school students were also given this opportunity. History is being made at EV~

On the first day of school an assembly was held at the beginning of the day. At that time I introduced myself, laid out some immediate expectations, and introduced new staff- the students were absolutely excellent. It was also exciting to listen to the club sponsors talk about their clubs and Mr. McCulley leading the students in a loud and boisterous EV cheer! When the assembly concluded, students were dismissed to their advisory classrooms to go over the handbook and take part in a leadership building activity. 

As I walked through and observed the activities in each classroom, I was in awe of how collaborative the students were in the task they were given. As I walked through the halls and peered into classrooms this week I could not help but get excited when I saw the enthusiasm displayed by the teachers in their classrooms.

The week ended with a "Spirit Assembly". 

I will be talking more about this in a later blog. Every Friday we run on a shortened schedule in the afternoon in order to hold a "Spirit Assembly". This is the time that we take to have class competitions and a pep rally. On weeks when there isn't a pep rally, we will just celebrate being who we are, English Valleys Bears. This assembly this week was run by the Student Council. They did an excellent job coordinating Tug-of-War. The juniors defeated the freshman, the seniors defeated the sophomores, the juniors then defeated the seniors in a really tough match! For the final match, several of our staff members defeated the juniors.

Fridays are "Spirit Days" in our building. Staff and students are encouraged to wear school colors or EV attire. We had 100% participation from staff and most of our students also took part in this display of school pride. What an excellent feeling to see the week end on such a note.

I am so proud of my students and staff. As I stated in a tweet on Friday, "So much pride today and tonight- words cannot describe it". Beyond this, I felt a sense of pride from so many in our district throughout the week. I feel like I am part of something really special and I believe that my students and staff feel the same way. I truly believe that this will be an excellent year and am looking forward to what next week will bring~

Go Bears!

On to English Valleys...

I am looking forward to my new role as 7-12 Principal at English Valleys Jr/Sr High School in North English, Iowa. My family is looking forward to becoming a part of the community as well. My children are excited to begin at their new school. Autumn will be in 8th grade, Liberty will be in 5th grade, Governor will be in 4th grade, and Justice will be in Kindergarten.

There are some really great things in store for the secondary building. There will be a brand new gymnasium. As I walked through the building last week, I was thrilled to hear the noise of construction taking place! Also, the 9th through 12th grades will be 1:1. The 6th through 8th grades are currently 1:1 with iPads. I have experience with 1:1 initiatives and know first hand the difference this can make for each student.

I plan to blog about the exciting things going on in the junior/senior high building. I am looking forward to working with the students, parents, staff, administration, and community members on ways to increase student achievement and keeping students engaged in their learning. Go Bears!