Recently students from NHS and the Key Club caroled and played bingo with some of our community members! A "merry" time was had by all!

3M Receives an award from WASB (Wisconsin Association of School Boards) for their contributions to the Prairie du Chien School District at the School Board meeting on Monday, December 10, 2012.

Message from our State Superintendent on College and Career Readiness

Just a quick blurb from the state superintendent....Just an FYI...

High School Staff Meeting 12/11/12

1.  Administrative/Guidance Roles - Further discussion of this in January
2.  Teacher Effectiveness
3.   Congratulations on Reading Counts and Skills USA
4.  Bullying Assembly Thursday 8AM
5.  Day of the Dead - Tuesday - afterschool
6.  Do not be in the building from 12-4pm due to a police drill





Upcoming Events
K-2 and 3-5 Music Concert  - December 11
HS Band and Choir Concert - December 20
Progress Reports Due Friday, December 21 - remember there is an extra step
NAEP Assessment taking place on January 29 and 30

Andy receives award for technology at SLATE conference.

Andy Banasik is pictured  here with Brad Saron (Superintendent from Cashton).  He received an award for his achievements in technology leadership along with Laura Stuckey, Drew Johnson, Aaron Amundson, and Jen Gallagher.

Congratulations!

This video discusses the Smarter Balance and the PARCC assessments and what is being speculated as coming down the road. Just an overview.

The above PDC Key Club abd NHS students participated in the Preview to Christmas.  Great job!  We are proud that they continue to serve our community.

Reminder - No Technology Training Tomorrow!  Enjoy your week!  Jen

Term 1 Academic Excellence

Term 1 Academic Excellence Program. Congratulations to everyone who did receive an Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Maroon Card.  Great job in the Reading Counts Program and look forward to more students in Term 2.

A special thanks to all the area businesses who support the Prairie du Chien High School Reading Counts Program and Academic Excellence!!

Great Article on Flipped Classrooms

Great Article on Flipped Learning

Veteran's Day Program

Veteran's Day Program:  It was great to see the planning by our Student Council, Band, and Choir students given to our Veteran's Day Program on Monday, November 12th, 2012

November High School Staff Meeting

Staff Notes


WKCE/ACT Testing:  I appreciate the effort by the staff.
Veteran's Day Program:  Student Council and Advisers   It really did make me proud to be the high school principal.  The event was well organized by the Student Council, students did demonstrate great respect during the ceremony, and the band/choir did a phenomenal job performing.
Fall Musical:  One last week!  Don't miss-out on the excitement.
American Educational Week:  Be proud to be making a difference everyday!!  Great job making our school a great place for students and a great resource for our community.


1. Prairie du Chien High School Report Card

• PDC High School was ranked #2 in the SWC.
• Great ranking out of CESA 3 and 4.

2.Skyward:  There are questions concerning grades for Term 1/Term 2 in the 8-period day

• Term 1 In-completes are due on Friday, November 16th, 2012 @ 4:00

3.  CTE Perkin's Meeting:  Wednesday, November 14th at 3:45 in Room 218

4.  WKCE Testing will be completed by this Thursday, November 15th.  The make-up will be in the morning with Elaina Knoble-Janney, school counselor.

5.  School Calendar:  Wednesday, November 21st is a full day of school.

6.  Term 2 Progress Reports:  Due Friday, November 30th @ 5:00.  

7.  Announcement of school cancellation or delay?  How to proceed?  A school text?  This item will be discuss in the November staff meeting.

8.  Professional Technology Piece of Information:  

 

NHS Banquet

Congrats to our 2011 NHS Members, 2012 New NHS Members, and Mrs. DeBruin- NHS Advisor for putting on a great program.  Keep-up with the dedication and service to our school and community!!

Future of Learning: Easy Listening

Getting Butts Out of Seats and Kids Out of Ruts

Ready or not - here it comes - Let's work to be with the change!

Common Core and Tech

This is a great link to the use of technology and common core... http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2012/10/17/01competency.h06.html Thanks for all of your hard work and innovation!

Blogging

This will give a little explanation as to the value of blogs. Thank you everyone who attended this mornings "taking on technology"!!!!!

Thank you to all the staff that attended our "Taking on Technology" piece this morning! We had great attendance and hope you got something out of it you can use for your own professional development! Next week we will be adding blogging and twitter - Believe it or not Twitter can be a great professional development tool for you!!!!

Google Reader in Plain English

This is just a video - quick overview of what we discussed this morning. Remember - anything that looks like a

can be placed in your reader. You can also copy and paste the address (URL) into the box after you click on the subscribe button. Let me know if you have questions! Thanks!

Taking on Technology: Twitter

Our next Taking on Technology Meeting will be Tuesday, October 23rd, we will be discussing Twitter and Blogging.  Here is a excerpt or resource about Twitter.  It was great to see some of our staff member this morning in our Professional Technology Meeting.

Please click on the resource below:

Twitter Resource

Please click on the VCR Button in the middle of the page to see the entire document.

Holding Back Our Children

Holding back our children

by dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

Digital technologies are magnifiers and amplifiers of our humanity. They extend the reach of our human voice. They increase a millionfold our capacities and inclinations to find, connect, and share with others. They boost exponentially our abilities to collaborate with others, do meaningful work, and contribute to the overall good.
Can you exercise human voice without digital technologies?
Can you find, connect, and share with others without digital technologies?
Can you collaborate with others, do meaningful work, and contribute to the overall good without digital technologies?
Sure. We did so for millennia. But in the digital, global world that we now inhabit, decisions to marginalize technology are intentional relinquishments of potential and power. In the digital, global world that we now inhabit, decisions to ignore technology are willful disconnects from community, society, and the way the world works.
In schools, we are supposed to be empowering children. We are supposed to be preparing our students to be not just competent – but hopefully adept – in today’s and tomorrow’s information environments, work climates, and learning landscapes. But instead of recognizing and seizing the affordances that these new tools provide us for learning, teaching, and schooling, we pretend that our students can be masterful WITHOUT learning how to use digital technologies authentically. Or meaningfully. Or powerfully. And by doing so, we do our students a horrible, sometimes shameful, disservice.
By now it’s clear that digital technologies are here to stay. By now it’s clear that they’re having transformative impacts on everything around us. And yet we hesitate. We dig in. We resist and we rationalize and we make excuses for ourselves and our institutions. And every day that we do so, the gap widens between our practice and our reality. Every day that we do so, our youth lose another opportunity to be better prepared for our present and their future.
Educators, policymakers, professors, and parents: Our lack of vision and our limited understanding of our technology-suffused landscapes are holding back our children. Why don’t we care more?

Meetings this week for HS Staff - Reminder that we will have the following upcoming meetings - Tuesday - October 16 7:15AM Taking on Technology - we will be looking at the Google Reader and how this can SAVE you time! Wednesday - October 17 - 11:50AM - Humanities Common Planning - Chapter 2 - further discussion on pacing, common assessment, etc.

A Special THANK YOU to Cabela's for donating approximately $3,000 in waders and equipment for Kurt Hutter's AP Environmental Science class to do some "in the field" ecology research!

Great Read on Math....

Great Video on Flipped Learning

Article on the Chrome Notebooks

Good article on Chrome Notebooks.....we do have a pilot group with our AP US Gov't class.

Enjoy the reading!!

Top Tech Tools



Check this out...This is the top 100 ratings for technology tools from 2011.  Click on the above...

Notice Google, Twitter, and some of the tools we are using are trending right now!

Keep up the hard work in incorporating technology into your classroom.

 Staff Notes - October 9th 

1. *Reminder we will meet October 9th at 7:30am to revisit Google and to touch base on the following announcements:
   
   
   
   1. 6 Week Progress Reports due Friday, October 12th at 5:00pm 
   2. Parent Teacher Conferences are Thursday, October 18th from 5:00pm - 8:00pm
   3. Teacher Workday - Friday, October 19th
   4. ACT Plan - Pilot Exam - Thursday, October 11th - 8:20-9:20am for all Sophomores.
   5. Mom's Night Out - Monday, October 22nd - 6:30-8:30pm
   6. High School Gym is Closed October 19th-22nd due to resurfacing.
   7. End of the Quarter - November 2nd.
   8. Finals/Midterms - November 1st and 2nd - Periods 1-4 will test November 1st and Periods 5-8 will test November 2nd.
   9. WKCE Testing - November 6, 7, 13, 14 - More information to follow.
   Professional Technology Training will be every Tuesday beginning October 16th at 7:15AM.  This is optional - but come to see some really neat new tools for your classroom.
   
   
   We will begin with Google and Diigo refreshers....
   
   
   During the meeting today we will be reviewing Google Docs and Sharing Documents.
   
   - 

Homecoming 2012 Press Release

Theme:  Winner Take All!

Monday

·       Dress up-Class Color Day

o   Seniors – pink

o   Juniors – purple

o   Sophomores – blue

o   Freshmen - brown

Tuesday

·         Dress up – Temporary Tatt Tuesday (break out your temporary tattoos!)

·       Soccer vs. Platteville/Lancaster

·       Cross Country @ Dodgeville

Wednesday

·       Dress up – Camouflage clothing Day

·       1:25 dismissal to work on floats, windows and skits

·       2:30 dismissal for all other staff and students for a special presentation

·       Parade leaves from the island at 6:00 pm 

If your business, club or organization would like to enter a float or walking unit in the parade, please contact Marge Johnson at 326-3741 by September 26^th.

·       Coronation in gym approx.  7:00 pm  (public is encouraged to attend – admission is free)

·       Skits follow coronation (public is encouraged to attend – admission is free)

Thursday

·       Dress up – Halloween Costume Day

·       Volleyball @ River Valley

·       Soccer @ River Valley

·       9^th Football @ River Valley

Friday

·       Dress up- School Spirit Day

·       Breakfast 6:30-10:00 am

·       Powder Puff 1:00 pm

·       All school pep rally 2:30

·       Football vs. Richland Center (colors- orange and black) 7:00 pm

Saturday

·       Dance in HS cafeteria 8-12 midnight

Homecoming 2012 - Events 

1.  Class advisors for grades 9-11 will need to nominate five girls and five boys for Homecoming class reps.  You may do this by paper or voice nomination.  Please remember that nominees will need to be academically eligible and have no code or criminal violations.  Please get these names to me on Friday; Kayla and I will compose a ballot for your class.  We will be voting for reps (each class 9-11 will select 1 boy and 1 girl - all classes will vote for royalty) and king and queen at a later date (probably next week).  Tammy Stovey has the senior voting well in hand as those boys who are selected will need to be fitted for tuxs ASAP.

2.  Elect class officers and/or leadership team if you have not done so.

3.  Have students sign up to work on floats, windows and skits.  We are not chalking or doing other activities this year.  You may work on these activities earlier if you desire to do so. Those kids who sign up for floats, windows and skits will be released at 1:25 on Wed. to work.  Each class will need to select two advisors per activity to supervise.  Please get the names of these teachers and the lists of kids involved to me by Friday of next week, so that we can arrange coverage and get the kids in the computer for attendance.  It is up to the advisors to decide how many kids they would like per activity. (I would limit my window committee to 15, for example.)  You will receive applications in your mailboxes as the ideas for floats, skits and windows need to be approved by Mr. Banasik no later than Monday Sept. 24th.  All windows will be judged at 3:40 on Wed.  Skits  and floats will be judged that evening.

Window assignments - Windows are to be done on paper and taped up.  Kayla has paper in her room.  You will need to provide paint, etc from your class fund.

Seniors - back middle doors

Juniors - upstairs chem hallway windows

Sophs - front doors

Fresh- Mrs. Gallagher's and Mr. Banasik's office windows

Overall agenda

MONDAY - regular school day - no evening activities

TUESDAY - regular school day - soccer @ home - X-country @ Dodgeville

WEDNESDAY - 1:25 dismissal for students and staff involved with windows, floats and skits 

All other staff and students will be dismissed to the theater at 2:30 for a special presentation.

Parade 6:00 pm from the island

Coronation approx. 7:00 in gym followed by skits

THURSDAY - regular schedule - volleyball @RV - soccer @ RV - 9th football @ RC

FRIDAY - Homecoming breakfast starting at 6:30 am  (classes will be dismissed on a rotation)

Powder Puff @ 1:00

Pep Rally @ 2:30

Game @ 7:00

SATURDAY - Dance 8-12 (seniors in charge)

Kayla and I would like to thank all of you for your help.  We know that this is over and above your teaching assignments and we do appreciate you.  We will probably talk a little about this at the October staff meeting and see if this is a better approach and/or what to do to improve it.

Staff Meeting - September 11, 2012

Please see Mr. Johnson's blog on new policies for spending and charging purchases.

High School ACT Plan study - Our sophomores will be testing a new pilot ACT Plan test during the week of September 17th.  This test will be given tentatively on September 19th during 3rd block.  More information to follow.

Progress Reports will be September 21st.

Common Planning Meetings next week:

Humanities Team will meet September 19th.
Science Team will meet September 21st.

All meetings will be in the Learning Lab during 5th period.

What Great Teachers Do Differently: Part One