ed#conewsletter&september&2013& · ed#conewsletter&september&2013&! &...

Ed-‐Co Newsletter September 2013

High School News

News from Mrs. Bond Greetings Parents and Students, the year is off to a good start. This year I am teaching English grades nine, ten, eleven, and two electives. Students are settling in fine and working on their projects for the quarter. Ninth grade is currently reading Lord of the Flies, tenth grade is studying world literature, and the eleven grade is studying American literature. Their projects revolve around the type of literature they are studying in class.

In addition, I have set up my staff page on the Edgewood-‐Colesburg Schools website. On this page you will find student assignments, so if your child is absent, go to that page and their work will be found there. I usually update this site page in the afternoons. To get to this page, click on junior/senior high school link, click on staff page link, and then click on my name. The assignment pages are listed and just click on the link that represents your child's grade. Thanks again for your support and have a good year.

News from Mrs. Meyer This year has started off great within the Art

Department. I'm teaching three completely different class this quarter: Graphic Arts, Desktop Publishing, and Visual Arts I. They all have very different focus areas.

Graphic Arts is learning the ins and outs of Adobe Illustrator. Right now we are working on learning the program through lessons in a book. Once that is completed, students will apply what they've learned and create various computer generated art pieces. Desktop Publishing is learning the foundations of creating the 2014-‐2015 yearbook. This month we will be focusing on the layout of the book, the books theme, the cover of the book, section templates, photography skills, ad sales, and will finish off the quarter by creating spreads. Please be on the look out for students sometime this month as they practice their business and photography skills. The 2013-‐2014 Yearbooks arrived in August. There are many extra copies available to purchase at this time for $45 (contact Mrs. Meyer). Visual Arts I students have started the quarter off by learning how to draw portraits. They will be doing nine other various projects that focus on drawing perspective, animals, still life, and landscapes. Once they've learned drawing skills, we will move onto painting with watercolors and acrylics. They will learn what abstract art is and create a piece that represents abstract art. The quarter will be wrapped up with learning and completing a relief print and a mixed media self-‐portrait. Please be on the look out in the commons throughout the quarter as work will be displayed as it's completed. Art Club is accepting members this month grades 9-‐12. Students can contact Mrs. Meyer for more


information or visit the Art Club page on the school's website. News from Mrs. Janssen Fundraisers for the Ed-‐Co Band

Buy a Yard Line for a Chance to Win $50 Want a chance to win $50? Purchase a yard line (or

group of 5 yards) at the home football games. If the ball starts on your yard line at the beginning of the 4th quarter, you're the lucky winner!

One yard line for $5

5 yard lines (consecutively) for $20

Purchases are good for the entire 2014 football season. Winners not in attendance at the games will be contacted to receive their money. Yard lines may be purchased at the home games or by contacting Stephanie Janssen at 928-‐6412.

Wake Up With The Band

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Do you want to surprise your friends and neighbors? The Ed-‐Co High School Marching Band will be storming yards on the morning of October 18 and would love to give your buddies a wake-‐up call!

Suggested minimum donation -‐ $40

To participate, please visit the band at the home football games, contact Stephanie Janssen at 928-‐6412, or stop by the high school office.

The band will travel to homes in the Edgewood and Colesburg area. Locations must be within a reasonable distance from the high school.

All proceeds from both fundraisers will go toward purchasing new instruments and repairing old instruments for the Ed-‐Co Band Department.

News from Mrs. Wille The 2014-‐2015 is off to a great start in Mrs. Wille's portion of the science department! Check out Ed-‐Co's new website. Located under JH/HS staff I will be updating my classroom page weekly to keep parents and community members informed about what we are doing in the classroom. Life Science This year's 7th graders are an enthusiastic group of scientists...full of questions! So far we have acquainted ourselves with our classroom and spend some time getting to know each other as well as the expectations of this building. Later this week we will discuss the tools of a life scientist and practice using microscopes. Environmental Science The 8th graders are getting back into the groove of school and most of them are TALLER!!! We began our year by defining environmental science and pinpointing our planets major concerns. Later this week we will discuss how we use the scientific process to investigate solutions to environmental issues. Parents of 8th graders should mark their calendars, September 23rd is River Fest. We spend the day exploring the Mississippi at and around Lock and Dam 10 in Guttenberg. Chemistry Tenth graders in chemistry this semester have already done two labs and will be testing over classifying and changes in matter this week. Our next unit of study will include some history of


the development of atomic structure and its relationship to the building of the periodic table.

Ed-Co Volleyball Pink Event

“Pink is the New Black”

Ed-Co vs. Kee High Thurs. October 9th

o Variety of Silent Auction Items-

Bidding during HS Vball games on Oct. 9th

o Cake/Dessert Silent Auction-

Volleyball players will be making a variety of cakes and hosting a silent auction during the October 9th game

o Soup Supper on the night of the game Oct. 9th – 5:00-7:30 (Free-will donation)

o Volleyball Head Raffle-Winners drawn

during the JV warm up Oct. 9th

o Breast Cancer Quilt Raffle-donated by Marilyn Kinyon & Jackie Johnson

To order pink event t-shirt download form at www.edcovolleyball.weebly.com Order forms also available at the High School Office.

From the A.D.’s desk… Summer Honors Congratulations go out to the following baseball and softball athletes on receiving post-‐season honors: In softball, Kennedy Carithers was named 1st team all-‐conference, all-‐district, and 2nd team all-‐state; Kari Fitzpatrick was named 1st team all-‐conference; Shelby Steger was named 2nd team all-‐conference; Haley Bergan was named honorable mention all-‐conference. In baseball, Joe Meisner was named honorable mention all-‐conference. Cross Country On August 26, Ed-‐Co hosted its first ever cross-‐country meet at Woods Edge Golf Course. We had seven teams that participated with six different races being run. It was a great night weather-‐wise and due to the hard work of our cross-‐country coaches and volunteers, the meet ran very well.


I would like to take this opportunity to thank our cross-‐country coaches Mike Lutgen and Matt Welp for setting up the course and managing the meet. I would also like to thank our volunteers Jeff Niehaus, Jolene Niehaus, Tanner Wenger, Aggie Putz, Jane Christiansen, Andrea Knipper, Aaron Hamann, Kevin Kleis, Dick Welp, Eden Gaul, and Jill Lueken for all of their time and hard work the night of the meet. A special thank you goes out to Woods Edge for allowing us to use the course to host the meet. It was a great night and we look forward to hosting the meet again next year. Junior High Athletic Admission Prices The junior high sports seasons will start this week and the following schools will charge admission to junior high games: Maquoketa Valley $2 for adults only; Midland $2 adult, $1 student; Springville $2 adult, $2 student; Starmont $2 adult, $2 student; Ed-‐Co $2 adult, $2 student. These are the schools whose admission I know at this time. There may be others that charge as well for various events. Please remember to treat ticket takers respectfully as they did not make the decision to charge for events. Junior High Football A reminder to parents that due to the number of participants, the 8th grade game will be played first on all of our JH football dates. We will make a decision weekly on playing 2 games, 6 quarters, or 1 game. As of now, the games against East Buchanan and Maquoketa Valley will be 6 quarters with a full 8th grade game starting at 4:30 followed by 2 quarters of 7th grade. We will play a single game starting at 4:30 against Starmont. The other 3 dates will depend on the health of both teams and number of athletes available.

Elementary News News from Mrs. Mather

We are off to a great start in 6th grade. We have a super group of students this year! They have adjusted to 6th grade very well. 6th grade social studies students have just completed a review of map skills, latitude, and longitude. They are now venturing back in time to study the Old Stone Age. The social studies students will be taking more trips into the past to visit ancient civilizations of the eastern hemisphere. 6th grade math students are really working hard this year with the new Math series that is being implemented. We all are excited to see what happens next in 6th grade. News from Ms. Prestemon The First Week of Kindergarten! The first day of kindergarten was Monday, August 25th. It is always exciting getting a new batch of students! We have been working on learning the rules and routines of kindergarten. Kindergarten is students’ first experience with all-‐day, every day schooling, so we spend quite a bit of time learning how to line up, sit at the carpet, walk in line, hold our lunch tray – the list goes on and on! We have also been busy with our academics. We started the Jolly Phonics program right away on the first day. We have also been exploring shapes on geoboards and learning how to write the letters of the alphabet. Students


learned in a fun way on Friday, writing letters in shaving cream! In addition, we are also reviewing colors in kindergarten. Students have been wearing a “color of the day”, starting on the second day of school. A read aloud we have incorporated into this color theme is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. Students love this predictable text with colorful illustrations. Students enjoy center time at the end of the day, where they interact and play in small groups. Our centers this week were: sensory table with “sea animals”, farm, play doh, stringing beads, and art. It has been a busy first week and it is going to be a wonderful year! There is a new kindergarten teacher we are excited to welcome to Ed-‐Co! Miss Brittini Borgerding joined our team this year, and we are very excited to have her. Miss Borgerding just graduated college and this is her first teaching job. We also have a new junior kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Mary Frazier! Mrs. Frazier comes to us with eleven years of teaching experience. Welcome aboard to both of these professionals! If you see them out and about in the community, please introduce yourself and welcome them! Thank you and have a great week! News from Mrs. Meyer

We are off to a great start in third grade this year. We have 36 students in our two rooms that are already working hard

on their math and reading skills. We have a new math program this year called Go Math, which is a little different than our other math program, and is taking a little while to get used to. We are working on rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100 and working on solving patterns. We have also started Rocket Math, which helps us become fluent with our addition and subtraction facts. Our third graders are also doing some research on the 50 states and reading nonfiction

literature about the states. We are reading a story in our anthology called Boom Town, and in this story a town begins to grow out west during the gold rush. We are learning about different Pioneer jobs and how they were important to a town’s survival. We will be taking a field trip to Plagman Barn in September to experience some of these pioneer jobs up close. We are all excited for a great 3rd grade year.

News from Mrs. Glime It’s great to have the students back and school in session! We are busy getting schedules set up with the general education teachers, learning about new mandates from the Department of Education, and working with our children on the Individual Educational Plans. This fall we are pleased to have Miss Chelsea Kluesner as a student teacher in our classroom for the first eight weeks of school. Miss Kluesner is a student at the University of Northern Iowa. She is busy learning the names of students and staff, helping set up schedules, working on her own student projects for student teaching, and working with children. Miss Kluesner will be heading to Mrs. Putz’s room for her second student teaching assignment in October. News from Mrs. Ramsey Fifth grade is off to a great start! We are looking forward to a fun fall in fifth grade.


Science class has given students opportunities to practice the scientific method and scientific inquiry. Our first experiments involved learning about surface tension. We planned an experiment to see how many pennies would fit in a full glass of water before the water overflowed. After making predictions, students were amazed to see so many pennies would fit in the full glass of water. Results were shared with the class and conclusions were drawn about surface tension and how water molecules stick together. We applied surface tension to situations in our everyday lives and elaborated on our experiment by seeing how many drops of water could fit on a penny before overflowing and how soap on our finger broke surface tension when we touched a drop of water. Students may be looking at drops of water in a new way these days. The next plant experiment we designed was growing rye seeds under special experimental variables. We are still waiting to draw our conclusions about how the rye grows being watered with a variety of liquids other than water including milk, Powerade, salt water, warm water, fertilizer, and hydrogen peroxide. We will apply this to the real world of gardening and farming by relating how pollution, temperature, and other experimental variables affect the growth of crops. News from Mrs. Trenkamp I hope you all had a wonderful summer and am ready for a great school year! Welcome to the new students and I look forward to getting to know all the new families. As a school counselor my goal is to help every student be the best student they can be. This includes working directly with students as well as collaborating with staff and families. Please contact me anytime during the school year if I can be of help to your child.

Start your school year off on the right foot: New Study Skills Ideas! Set up a homework space, but study in lots of places. Have a place for books and supplies, but it is not always important to study in that space. Research is showing that kids learn better when they study in multiple places. Some kids may like to do math in one area and social studies in another. That is okay, let them do it. Distractibility in another topic that research has shown has changed. A bit of distraction helps the brain to focus. That is why come kids study better with music on. Having the TV on while studying is still a no no! Mentioning the TV, please limit the amount of viewing time your child has every day. Use that time to read instead! Have a great year and contact me at any time with your concerns! Karla Trenkamp

News from Mrs. Askeland Ed-‐Co Preschool is off to a good start with 24 students. We are busy learning a school routine and classroom rules. Social skills are a huge part of our preschool program, especially at the beginning of the year. Many things we encourage and practice are: using words when asking for something, raising hands to speak at the carpet, standing in line and table manners. Most preschoolers are so eager to learn. We will master colors and shapes and begin number recognition/writing and letter recognition/writing. Later in the school year we will work on letter sounds and sight words. We are looking forward to a great year!! News from Mrs. Borcherding


Mrs. Borcherding's art class is requesting project materials at ..an award-‐winning charity....DonorsChoose.org. Donations of any size will be doubled (up to $100) through September 5th, just by entering the promo code INSPIRE. If you know anyone who is passionate about education, please pass this along. Your donation will brighten my student's school year, and you'll get photos and thank yous from our class. My requests are found here: http:www.donorschoose.org/project/lets-‐make-‐a-‐mural/1315111/?rf=email-‐system-‐2014-‐09-‐teacher Thank you for supporting the arts!! Mrs. B.

.

District News

From Superintendent Rob Busch

Welcome back to all Ed-‐Co students and families! This promises to be an exciting school year Edgewood-‐Colesburg Community Schools provides to you a quality education through great professional educators.

I look forward to the opportunity to visit with you in classrooms, cafeteria, and school events. I encourage you to visit me anytime at the district office as well.

The teaching staff continues to learn collaboratively through Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to increase student achievement. Our Annual Progress Report (APR)

goals for 2013-‐14 were met, and we will finalize our 2014-‐15 goals at our School Improvement Advisory Meeting on September 10th.

• Reading: To improve the average grade equivalency of the 2012-‐13 6th graders. In 2012-‐13, the average grade equivalency was 6.5. We would like to see them at 7.8 in 2013-‐14, reflecting 1.3 years of growth. As 7th graders the students increased the average grade equivalency to 8.7.

• Math: To improve the average grade equivalency of the 2012-‐13 6th graders. In 2012-‐13, the average grade equivalency was 5.9. We would like to see them at 7.3, reflecting 1.4 years of growth. As 7th graders the students increased the average grade equivalency to 7.6.

• Science: Although this score is quite high already, we would like the 2012-‐13 7th graders score to increase even more. In 2012-‐13, these students averaged 7.8. We would like to see them at 9.1, reflecting 1.3 years of growth. As 8th graders the students increased the average grade equivalency to 9.8.

The school district website has been updated, and I encourage you to explore at www.edge-‐cole.k12.ia.us . It will always be a work in progress so please let us know what information would make the site more helpful. Thank you for allowing us to educate your children again this year. As always, I ask that you please become involved with the educational opportunities for our young people and assist us in making Edgewood-‐Colesburg the best school in the State of Iowa. I thank you for taking the time to read these articles as we proceed through a very exciting 2014-‐2015 school year. If you have ideas for information you would like to see in this newsletter, please


contact me by phone at 928-‐6411 or e-‐mail at rbusch@edge-‐cole.k12.ia.us .

Make it an outstanding school year!

Your Partner in Education, Rob Busch

EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY The school district does not discriminate in its

education programs or educational activities on the basis of age, sex, race, religion, color, national

origin, gender identity, religion, creed, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, marital status or disability. Students are educated in programs that foster knowledge of, and respect

and appreciation for, the historical and contemporary contributions of diverse cultural groups, as well as men and women, to society. Students who feel they have been discriminated against are encouraged to report it to the school district Affirmative Action Coordinator. The

Affirmative Action Coordinator for each building is the principal. Inquiries may also be directed in writing to the Director of the Region VII Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, 310 W. Wisconsin Ave., Ste. 800, Milwaukee, WI, 53203-‐2292, (414) 291-‐1111, or the Iowa

Department of Education, Grimes State Office Building, Des Moines, IA, 50319-‐0146, (515)

281-‐5294.

ed#conewsletter&september&2013& · ed#conewsletter&september&2013&! &...

Documents