Weekly Update: August 18, 2017
Dear Board of Education, Staff, Families and Friends:
“Congratulations, today is your day, you are off to great places, you’re off and away.” (Dr.Suess) In just a few days, our students will walk the hallways and will be excited to meet their teachers. Teachers had an energizing day today in order to prepare for this annual tradition to welcome students back to school. The Grinnell-Newburg School Foundation also joined us this morning to honor the recipients of the GNSF mini-grant winners from October of 2016, and June of 2017. Thank you GNSF for your financial support, and your support for our staff’s creative ideas.
Vanguard 2017-18:
A vanguard is defined as a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas.
We have a cohort of Grinnell-Newburg teachers working together this school year as a vanguard to develop and enhance instruction using technology. They are meeting for two full days before the school year and will have four more meeting days throughout the school year during professional development time, for a total of about 30 hours.
In their sessions, teachers are working to build instructional skills using engaging tools on their laptop and tablet computers. Each participant uses a school-issued MacBook Pro laptop and an iPad. Tools include, but are not limited to, built-in applications, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, iBooks Author, and Apple Classroom.
Lesson work is built using around the Apple Culture of Learning, which includes collaboration, celebrating risk, building meaningful and relevant experiences, and inquiry learning.
I want to thank our staff for participating in our activities today with Dr. Chantel Levesque-Bristol, researcher for the past 20 years, Self-Determination Theory, Purdue University. Dr. Bristol worked with staff at individual buildings to talk about student relatedness, autonomy, and when that is in place, implementing the competency. It was a great day! We look forward to working with her over the course of the school year and reflecting on our discussions to continue to enhance our collaborative culture.
New Teachers/Staff:
Welcome to all of our new Grinnell Tiger Staff. We are very excited that you have joined our team! Our new staff engaged in many opportunities to build new friendships, participate in team building and develop Grinnell Belief Statements! Here are some photos from this past week!
Open House & Orientations
There are orientations on Monday, August 21st: Middle School New Student orientation will be from 4:30-5:15 pm, and 7th & 8th grade orientation will be from 5:30-6:30 pm. On Tuesday, August 22nd: High School 9th grade orientation will be from 6:00-8:00 pm, 5th grade orientation will be from 5:30-6:30 pm, and Open House for Bailey Park, Fairview and Davis will be from 4:00-6:00 pm. On Wednesday, August 23rd: 6th grade orientation will be from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Important Upcoming Dates:
August 21 - GMS New Student Orientation and 7th & 8th Grade Orientations
August 22 - Open House for Bailey Park, Fairview, Davis, and 5th & 9th Grade Orientations
August 23 - 6th Grade Orientation
August 24 - First Day of School
August 30 - Classroom Learning Environment Session - please join us for one of these events!
September 1 - Preschool Open House
September 5 - First Day of Preschool
September 6 - Classroom Learning Environment Session - please join us for one of these events!
First Day of School August 24, 2017!
I look forward to welcoming our students back to school! Once again, I will be riding a school bus with students as they are dropped off at school! It is an exciting day.
Congratulations State Fair Champion!
Spencer Mauss also won Reserve Champion Supreme Breeding Gilt.
Have a Fabulous Weekend!
Sincerely,
Janet
--
Dr. Janet M. Stutz
Superintendent
Grinnell-Newburg Schools