Viking Cheers!! Focus on the Fabulous!!
What a Team!
Wednesday night, our first night of parent teacher conferences, Mrs. Alfson organized the Financial Aid/College Fair in the library for high school students. She had a number of different schools and organizations present to speak with our kids and help them make the best choices for their future plans. She is working hard to accomplish our core belief of preparing kids to be successful in life. On top of that, she cooked and baked all day long to provide our staff with an amazing meal that evening. Thanks to Adele for all her hard work and preparation in making the evening so pleasant. The food was remarkable and it was nice to sit down, relax, and visit with colleagues before the conferences. Thanks to everybody who pitched in to help Adele.
Lady Vikings
7th Grade Team
Congratulations are in order for our middle school girls’ basketball teams. The end of the season tournament was held in Sanford this weekend and our girls did very well! The 7th grade girls defeated Centauri and won the championship in the green bracket. The 8th graders won a close game against Alamosa to take third place in their bracket. Way to go Lady Vikings!
Everyone must be committed to the pursuit of excellence.
8th Grade Team coached by Mrs. Donaldson
On Monday, administration met with the Focal Point team and used the mid-year report to identify key areas for leadership and instructional improvement in the coming year. That afternoon we met with the District Leadership Team and continued that conversation. We identified key points to focus on and created rough drafts of action plans to bring about positive changes for our buildings. Through this process I have identified some key areas that I will be focusing on personally as part of my effort to raise student achievement and to reinforce my commitment to the pursuit of excellence. Some of the areas I will be targeting include instructional feedback, providing support and guidance to the staff to help perfect the development of objectives and DOLs, and continuing to provide support and training for teachers in the effective use of multiple response strategies. I will also be working to develop a system to effectively use DOL data to continuously inform instruction. Some of my long range goals include working towards a more collaborative approach to lesson planning and establishing a schedule that will allow teachers to plan together and review lessons on a weekly basis. To ensure that our core belief of quality planning is taking place, we decided that we would work towards having lesson plans turned in at the end of the week, instead of first thing Monday morning. This would give administrators a chance to review plans and provide feedback before instruction started. Quality planning is imperative if solid instruction is to take place. As a district we are committed to making sure plans are top notch and turned in prior to instruction starting. We are working towards making this change towards the end of March to give teachers a chance to plan ahead.
Rewind
Tuesday evening we hosted Monte Vista in the first round of the girls’ basketball tournaments. Both of our teams won. The rest of the tournament games were played in Sanford on Friday and Saturday.
We had eight students compete at ASC in the Valley Spelling Bee. Although none of our students advanced to the state competition, Carmen Ruggles took place second in the written round.
Wednesday and Thursday we held parent teacher conferences. Wednesday night we had a good turnout and middle school teachers reported having between 20-30 parents throughout the evening. Thursday night was quite a bit slower, but teachers did have the chance to meet with parents and discuss student progress. Mrs. Villagomez and Mrs. Martinez hosted dinner that evening with the 7th grade class and our staff was treated to another tasty home cooked meal.
We had eight students compete at ASC in the Valley Spelling Bee. Although none of our students advanced to the state competition, Carmen Ruggles took place second in the written round.
Wednesday and Thursday we held parent teacher conferences. Wednesday night we had a good turnout and middle school teachers reported having between 20-30 parents throughout the evening. Thursday night was quite a bit slower, but teachers did have the chance to meet with parents and discuss student progress. Mrs. Villagomez and Mrs. Martinez hosted dinner that evening with the 7th grade class and our staff was treated to another tasty home cooked meal.
I had a variety of meetings during the week. I had several RTI meetings, as well as a meeting with Wendy O'Rourke, Del Norte's middle school principal, to discuss our experience with the Focal Point calendars and talk about the possibility of meeting with middle school staff to discuss curriculum maps and lesson planning.
The Last Hurrah activities were fun throughout the week and we appreciate the high school including the middle school in the fun! Friday night was a memorable experience and I was glad to be there to share the memories of Center alum.
The Last Hurrah activities were fun throughout the week and we appreciate the high school including the middle school in the fun! Friday night was a memorable experience and I was glad to be there to share the memories of Center alum.
Forward Focus
On Monday I will be attending the coffee talk with Bruce Caughey to receive an update on current legislation and its impact on education. Monday night we will have our monthly Accountability and BOE meetings. I plan on getting into a number of classrooms during the week to observe instruction and learning. I also have several meetings scheduled - RTI, expulsion, BLT and Health Advisory. I will be meeting with Gabe Futrel from Monte Vista to plan the next Monte/Center administration PLC.
The school Science Fair competition will be held this Friday in the library. Kids have been busy working on their projects in their Explore classes.
Have a super week!
The school Science Fair competition will be held this Friday in the library. Kids have been busy working on their projects in their Explore classes.
Have a super week!