Open House

I love Open House! I love meeting my students, their families, and beginning the adventure!

The first steps into our school make me smile and feel excited for the day ahead!

Then comes something even better!! Our families!! Please note, we had 100% attendance in Open House (yeah!), but not all of our families are shared ... yet! 

Mrs. Stupar, our elementary Social Worker

the fourth grade team of teachers: Mrs. Hakes-Anderson, Mrs. Arens, Ms. Leom, Mr. Lyon, Mr. Greninger, and Mr. Lundeen

Mr. Grenigner and his family 

 

Ms. Leom with her kids and her mom. Mr. Leom was busy meeting his families in the high school, Thankfully, Grandma Jan is available to help take the Leom kids to Open House!!

 

Our families are important to our learning! Our students are precious. Every year (you can look back in the blog to see past years), I take pictures of my families. I make a copy of the picture for the families, and I post a picture of our families on our class room wall (it used to be the door, but the fire inspector was not impressed). When families participate in Student of the Week and other events throughout the school year, I continue to take pictures and add to our family display. You will see some staff faces in our classroom pictures. Students, families, teachers, staff, we are all working together for a successful school year! 

We are ready to begin!

Teacher Workshop Week

If you ever look at the Milaca one page calendar, you will note the days set aside for Teacher Workshops.

So what do teachers do on these days? We had an all staff breakfast. We appreciated Nexus Solutions and First National Bank who sponsored our breakfast. It is fun to start the day with initial catching up.

Then we went into the gym for some presentations. Superintendent Truebenbach welcomed us back. Mr. Garber spoke about the Scholarship Committee. Then we got down to business. We had two hours scheduled for Olweus (bully prevention) plan. Each year we add to our work and plan. High School Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Bell, and elementary social worker, Mrs. Stupar led the review and training. We always have a kick-off event, weekly meetings, and a week-long awareness week later in the month. From the first year, when a helicopter landed on the football field (see "W.O.W." on September 17, 2014 in this blog) when "Captain Olweus" himself stepped out, to the year, when Captain Olweus and Friendship Girl arrived by motorcycle (see the "Olweus Kick Off" posted on September 29, 2015 in this blog), we look forward to work ahead!

We had some time to work in our classrooms. Three of our custodians were working in my room to remove my smart board that was no longer effective. Just another example of how much teamwork goes into a school experience. The boards are heavy and expensive, so having three staff members helping out is important.

We had additional trainings on ALICE, our safe schools plan. Homeland Security themselves visited our school this summer to review our plan and share some ideas. We had our mandatory reporting meeting with experts from the County. Then Mr. Bistrup spoke to us about technology updates, reminders, and supports.

Tom Gonzalez, former pastor, now full time ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) expert came to talk to our staff. He was engaging and share helpful and important information to support our students and families.

That was just the first day, and it wasn't everything!

On Tuesday, the elementary had a staff meeting with Mr. Voshell and Mr. Meyer. They have a knack for sharing the important, with some fun, and inspiring us to come together for our school year.

We had a Writing training.

The Milaca teachers union, MEA (Milaca Education Association) sponsored lunch. It is important that we take time to get to know each other and work together.

Fourth grade had a team meeting. We determine who will represent on what committees. We report from the committees and groups that met over summer. We make grade level decisions for consistency. We have an agenda and work hard to be productive, so we can return to our classrooms to prepare for Open House. There are so many details to have ready before our big day!

AND, we there was more workshops planned for Thursday to work on our Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Each teacher has an area of practice they will investigate and work with other staff members to focus and improve our practice. We meet regularly, sharing our successes, failures, and learning.

My Summer

I love summer. I love everything about it. I love reading books, hanging out with my family, and staying up later, and sleeping more too.

I enjoyed visiting my college roommate. We "talk" nearly every day.

My husband has one sister. She has six daughters. I am so proud of these girls. This summer, my twin nieces graduated from high school. We were so excited to be there for the big revent.

I am in a Book Club. There are ten of us. We welcome whoever can show up for that meeting. It is our third year, and one of the favorite parts of my life.

I am with the band. All three of my children march with the Milaca Marching Band.

I was a baseball mom this summer. Many great nights were spent at the ballpark, cheering one my local favorite players.

My niece lived with us last summer as she transitioned from college to her adult life. She lives in the Cities, and we look forward to spending regular time with her.

We enjoyed floating down the river with friends

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Our Fourth of July tradition includes broasted chicken and mashed potatoes with my grandma.

One of my very good college friends who lives in Colorado came to visit.

I spent hours in the car this summer driving my kids to and from their activities. My oldest had drivers ed and her first job lifeguarding this summer. Our dog Booker took his role of pick ups and drop offs seriously and with great joy.

Every summer, my college friends gather at a cabin near Nevis, Minnesota. My kids and I sleep in our family tent. Our tradition, we line up all the kids on the dock in order of their ages and capture a picture. We were missing some families this year, but it is still fun to see the next generation make new memories each year.

I was excited for my son when he beat the 1 in 12,000 odds and had a hole-in-one at the local golf course.

I love spending time with my family! We met for a couple of meals over summer.

I enjoyed time with another college friend. She teaches in Sartell. Love having time to connect and catch up!

I took two classes for my Masters in Literacy. I read these five books for my two classes. I had eight field experiences with four different students. There were online discussion forums, assignments, and new thinking to my teaching practice. These two classes were 30-40 hours of classwork a week.

I love to. putter with plants. These are aloe vera. The original aloe vera plant was given to me by my grandma when I moved to Milaca 23 years ago. My grandma has passed, and when I play in the dirt and take care of my plants, I feel like I am spending time with her.

I attended four days of education workshops this summer. My husband, Mr. Leom, attended with me. We both love to learn. I love this!

One of our family highlights was a trip to Target Field to attend the OneRepublic and Zac Brown Band concert in August. We were unable to take a vacation this summer, but wanted to do something special. My son fell in love with OneRepublic's song, Good Life several years ago. It was a special family night.

I am thankful for the opportunity to enjoy time with my 93 year old grandma. I think sharing four generations is special. This is my mom's side of the family.

I've started preparing for the new school year ... I've been working on lockers ...

Mr. Leom and I attended the August School Board Meeting, then enjoyed some local ice cream. Cake and Cream is my favorite flavor.

I've been working on bulletin boards.

I love that I get to claim Mr. Voshell and Mr. Meyer as principals at our school. Today, they came into my classroom to unpack and set up our new new smart board. I love how they put kids first, are friends with each other, are accessible for questions and live events, willing to get "their hands dirty" (always willing to help), look for ways to "jump the hurdles" (problem solve), and make people and fun priorities.

2018-2019 is going to be a FANTASTIC year! Wrapping up summer and getting ready for a new school year!