Update, Week of February 22, 2010

Hello,

Well it was nice to finally escape a snow storm for a change. I, for one, am not sad at all that Mother Nature decided to move this storm further to the south. Please note that our high school tournament basketball game that we were scheduled to host tonight against Fairfield has been postponed until Tuesday night.

Once again this week I will try and provide a daily update via the blog.

Monday- Today our administrative team spent time visiting classes at our high school. As you may recall this is a weekly event that we rotate from building to building. It is great to visit the different classrooms throughout the district. Today I had the opportunity to visit English classes at the high school. It's always good to see our former middle school students in the high school setting.

Tuesday- One of the goals of our district is to help our students learn about the world of work and different occupations in our area. It's very important to help our students see the connections between the work we do in school and the work the adults do in our communities. Tomorrow, Wednesday, February 24th, our 6th grade students will be traveling to Iowa City for workplace tours. The 6th graders will be divided into four groups and different sites at the University of Iowa including; Gross Anatomy and Plastinated Specimens Lab, MRI Research Facility, Performance Based Assessment, and Hardin Simulation Center.

Next Wednesday, March 3rd our 7th graders will be taking various workplace tours in Iowa City. The students will be split into six groups and visit one of the following job sites; Proctor and Gamble, TruArt, Integrated DNA Technology, National Advanced Driving Simulator, University of Iowa Hydroscience and Engineering, and PIP Printing and Document Services.

On March 9th our 8th grade students will be participating in the Financial Literacy Fair. This will be held at the Coralville Library. The fair is designed to help our students consider some of the decisions that we all make as adults such as; buying a car, paying taxes, purchasing a house etc. Once again, this is a great opportunity for our students to learn about adult life.

All three of these opportunities are provided by the Workplace Learning Connection of Iowa City.

Wednesday- Our 6th graders are departing the buses as I write. They are off to various locations in Iowa City for work site visits. They seemed very eager as they left the building.

This afternoon during professional development our teachers will be busy completing the personal learning plans for the individual students that they advise. The PLP's will be mailed home next week. The teachers have been individually reviewing the personal learning plans with their students during advisory time.

This afternoon I will be taking a trip to Best Buy. I have a meeting scheduled there to talk about purchasing some laptop computers for student use. We would like to do a pilot program with several students yet this year.

Thursday- By all accounts, our 6th graders had an eventful day yesterday as they visited various sites at the University of Iowa. Thanks to the Workplace Learning Connection of Iowa City for setting up this opportunity for our students!

Tonight we have both a basketball game and swim meet. The 7th grade basketball team will be home facing Solon. The swim team will be traveling to Bettendorf. Don't forget that we have our middle school band solo competition on Saturday morning. A letter that went out to parents and the schedule for the competition will be on our website sometime today. www.cca.k12.ia.us

Friday- Happy Friday everyone! We have had a busy week at our middle school this week. The boy's basketball and coed swimming seasons wrapped up this week. Thanks to all of our athletes and coaches for great seasons! Now our middle school kids can focus their time on preparing for the upcoming drama production. The play is under the direction of 6th grade teacher, Jessica Sauer.

Just a reminder, our middle school band student's will have their solo competition tomorrow morning at our middle school. The competition begins at 8 AM. You can find the schedule for tomorrow on our website.

Looking forward to next week student's do not have school on Monday, March 1st, as the teachers will have professional development activities. The teachers will be learning more about Iowa Core Instruction. Michele Pettit, who works for Grant Wood AEA will be conducting this learning opportunity.

We will also have a session titled, Designing Instruction for Learning. This will be taught by DJ Corson who is Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Services at Hawkeye Community College. All of our teachers will participate in both of these sessions and we are looking forward to a great day of learning.

Have a great weekend! I will talk to you again in March!!
Brad