Teacher Representative Board Report March 2016

By Bruce Richardson

Kalskag Schools News from Joseph Olinga Gregory Elementary School

Congratulations to Zach Budrew who is the special education teacher at JOGES. He recently won a $1000 scholarship from CASE, which is the Council of Administrators of Special Education, a subsidiary of CEC, the Council for Exceptional Children. Zach was one of many applicants for this award, which is given out yearly to a person in a degree program in the pursuit of a Special Education certification. He was presented with the award at the recent ASSEC (Alaska Statewide Special Education Conference) in Anchorage on February 9. Congratulations to Zach for being an exemplary special education teacher! We are lucky to have him!

In February at JOGES, we have continued having whole school activities once a week including a Valentines activity as well as an activity centered around the 100th day of school. We also held a potluck in which the community was invited for Valentines Day and students performed Yupik dancing. Towards the end of the month, we will have a culture week in which students will participate in a variety of activities including NYO games, basket weaving, story-telling, cooking, and beading Zackar Levi Elementary School Rebecca Donahue

Ms. Donahue's Class is doing KITE practice to prepare for AMP testing. They are also studying the planets, dwarf planets, moon phases and all things space related. They are practicing their fractions and have just started the novel “The Island of the Blue Dolphins.” Ms. Donahue's class recently finished studying the 50 states and their capitals. George Morgan Sr. High School Richard Spencer

In SS, the most interesting happening would be students are now following the news and suggesting current event topics for me to use instead of me providing all the topics. Specifically, North Korea's missile launch, Russia's involvement in the Ukraine and TSA's overreach.

In Art, we now have a wheel and a commercial, (as opposed to our homemade ones) kiln and students are becoming very excited as they see their pieces coming out and can finally take them home. I tell them they have to be displayed at the school for one week before they are allowed to bring them home.

Aniak Schools Aniak Jr. Sr. High School has had a very busy month with basketball nearly every weekend. The boys and girls’ teams are working hard to try to get to state. We will be hosting the regional tournament in just a few weeks.

Several students have been participating in the Battle of the Books contest. We have two teams, one from the high school students and one from the Jr. High classes. All the classes have been working on preparing for testing that is coming up with the state mandated test. It will hopefully go smoothly and all will do well. In Mr. Richardson’s shop class, many students are designing and making some elaborate woodworking projects. We have everything from tables to gun racks. We are having a good time working in the shop. In Social Studies we have been working with the ELA classes on a mini lesson on the Holocaust. We learned about the Nazi party and how they were able to take control of the German government. This lead to the exterminations of the Jewish and others during World War Two. They have had reading and writing on the many sides of the event. In the ELA classes, they have also been reading different forms of literature from various authors. Many of them are some great reads. In the high school science classes some of the students are learning about nutrition and what is healthy and what is not when it comes to foods that we eat. They are also working with periodic table of elements. Math classes are continuing to advance in their levels and working to recover any areas that they continue to need help in. Mrs. Hager and the Student government are getting ready for prom this year, the theme is “The Northern Lights.” They will be making decorations and preparing for the night of dancing and fun. Students in Hailey’s Language Arts room are continuing to work in their grade level curriculum successfully. Juniors and Seniors have read passages by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe and an excerpt of Moby Dick. Lower grades continue to work on non-fiction including biographies of Maya Angelou and Harriet Tubman. 9th and 10th graders are reading Night by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Weisel. Battle of the Books regional and state competitions were held. High Schoolers Justin Ward, Chelsey Zaukur, and Aeryn Zimmerman took 12th place at State and Middle Schoolers Nate Chamberlain, John Charles, James Mougette and Shahaila Raymond took 24th place at State. Both teams worked hard and supported each other. They all have lofty goals for next year! Have you ever been CLOSE-UP to the legislature, the senate, a United States Senator? Almost fifty students from all over Alaska had that privilege last week and two were from our village of Aniak. We could not have asked for Aniak Junior/Senior High or Kuspuk School District to be represented in a more mature and knowledgeable manner. Chelsey Zaukar and Alfreda Gregory worked on not only the required assignments but advanced assignments and a local project that brought about much interest. The required assignments gave them background knowledge of the governmental branches and information about Alaska’s future. For their local project focused on the ‘Small Schools Matter’ Initiative, the girls will be speaking to the board at the upcoming meeting. We would like to thank the board for allowing us to go and supporting us, Superintendent Johnson for encouragement and approval, and the ladies in the

business office for getting us organized. We would like to extend a very special thank you to Mr. Bruce Richardson for arranging the entire process and helping the young ladies prepare. The amount of confidence and learning that occurred was phenomenal. Thanks again, Heather Berry Aniak Student Justin Ward gave a presentation to The Alaska Forum on the Environment as part of a session titled “ Engaging Alaska Youth in Environmental Decision Making. He talked about the Excel Alaska float trip, and many things he learned about science, math, and leadership. Justin also discussed how it will prepare him for future involvement in things like Salmon Management Working Group to help sustain the valuable subsistence resource we depend upon. Good job Justin! Auntie Mary Nicoli Elementary School students participated in the District Battle of the Books this month. The 3rd and 4th graders in my class had to read 15 novels to prepare for the battle. They worked hard reading both at home and at school. We worked on parts of a story such as characters, setting, problem, solution, etc. They memorized the 15 titles, and authors that wrote them. In the end, we came in second place to Sleetmute, and it was a well fought battle. Congrats to the Sleetmute Wildcats, and good luck at the state battle! Ms. Mary's class is working to build our teamwork skills. We have been focusing on two digit addition and are really making connections. Animals always interest us! We are learning how to classify animals into their groups. We love creating art and are really working on our writing skills.

Upriver Schools Sleetmute Happenings: February

February seems to have flown by, probably because of all the fun things happening in Sleetmute. This month we had another student complete his community service project. B.J. D. delivered wood to some of the elders in town with the help of his dad, Brian Derendy. We also held our annual basketball tournament. We had teams from both Sleetmute and Stony River. The Wildcat Grill sold out selling 10 pizzas, 80 hamburgers, and 40 Navajo tacos along with countless cans of pop, ice cream, and candy. A big “THANK YOU” to our community for faithfully supporting our students. This fundraiser has put us much closer to our financial goal for our trip to Florida. We have been overwhelmed this past month with the generous donations that we have received from people both near and far. We are very close to our goal and are finalizing our plans for our trip. We also held an online t-shirt sale through Booster.com using our newly design shirts by Madison Mellick. We sold both long and short sleeve shirts and sold a record number of 32 T-shirts in 2 weeks! Thanks for all those who purchased a new Sleetmute T-shirt. We also used DonorsChoose.org to raise part of the funds for our Discovery Cove/Sea World excursion. We raised $1200 but are still in need of another $3200 so we’re launching a second project: Snow to Dolphins--Part 2. You can find our project at www.DonorsChoose.org/SLQWildcats to make a contribution or you can kindly share this with anyone else who might like to donate.

A major development in our trip is extending the invitation to Crooked Creek to join us for this adventure. They’ll be adding another, at most, five students and one chaperone to our fun. This takes our total number of participants to a maximum of 20. We’re excited to be sharing this amazing experience with even more students. The Sleetmute Wildcats represented us well at the district Battle of the Books. The K-2 Team had a hearty competition with 5 Aniak teams battling it out for 1st place. Kiley H., Kayla E., and Neal S. comprised the team. The 3rd and 4th Grade team also had stiff competition with 5 Aniak teams and took first place. Axel Z., Kristyn G., and Desirae M. will be representing Kuspuk SD at the State Battle on February 25th. Finally our 5th/6th Grade team put in an honorable effort but were defeated by one of the 5 Aniak teams. We’re very proud of our dedicated and persistent readers. Finally, Taylor Hayden played a big role in cultural activities this last month by helping students sew mittens using fur. He also took students downriver, between here and Red Devil, to a local carpenters house. There, students learned to carve bowls out of the burls that grow on the side of the spruce and birch trees. We look forward to displaying these items in the District Office for the month of March. CVSS  Teacher  Board  Report  Amanda  Henderson  

 

   

Events  and  Academic  Achievement:    

Crow Village Sam School has had a very busy year! Here are a few things we have been doing the 2015-2016 school year; two day cultural event, Harvest Festival with moose cutting, Halloween Carnival, Thanksgiving Pot Luck, Christmas Program and Pot Luck handing out toys to families, Scholastic Book Fair, Library Clean Up, Trapping, Movie Night Fundraiser and Basketball Tournament Fundraiser. All events have had wonderful community turn out and student participation! A special thank you to our community volunteers and support staff, for putting in extra time to make all of these things possible! Crow Village Sam School staff continues to work in best interest of students, by providing a strong response to intervention and tutoring program. We have been using our Star Literacy and Star Math testing to help progress monitor students’ achievement, identify gaps in learning, and create support plans. We are getting ready for AMP test in the spring. We have been implementing CHAMPS with positive results. We look forward to the Upriver Basketball Tournament, Art Festival, Ski Journey, and the Kalskag Culture Week!