Shoutout to Mountain View Elementary students and staff for “Honoring Hometown Heroes” in the Kenai Fourth of July parade, and taking prize for the Overall Award winner!
Thank you to Snug Harbor Seafoods for donating the use of the 20-foot trailer, and Stanley Ford providing a new truck to pull the trailer.
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Sterling Elementary upgraded its Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBiS) system! Students who appropriately follow expectations are provided pompoms as recognition. Sterling staff hand out hundreds of pompoms per week to students who follow expectations! This year, Sterling started the “Golden Pompom” for students who exemplify those expectations on a daily basis over an extended period of time. Three staff members per day are given the golden pompom to recognize students. Students don’t know which teachers have the gold, and thus it requires all students to follow all expectations, all the time, because they never know when they could receive a golden pompom.
When given the golden pompom, the staff member tells the student specifically why they are receiving it. The student comes to the principal with the golden pompom and gets to turn it in for a small prize such as a pencil or an eraser. The student signs the “Golden Pompom Celebrity Log” and then the principal and the student call home to share the exciting news!
Students and parents alike have been excited about the golden pompom. Students revel in the additional recognition for following the expectations and parents love the positive phone calls home from the principal!
On January 5, 2015, Sterling Elementary participated in the re-teaching of our PBiS school wide expectations. Each teacher pre-taught the school’s expectation in his or her own classroom and then was paired with primary or intermediate to go to the following areas: cafeteria, playground, bathrooms, and lobby for arrival and departure routines to reinforce those in class lessons. At the end of the day, we had an assembly where we reviewed assembly expectations, bus expectations, and celebrated our November and December Super Star classes of the month for attendance and giving! It was a great day of relearning appropriate school behaviors!
Story contributed by Denise Kelly, Principal, Sterling Elementary
Link: KPBSD Pupil Services
The village of Port Graham has seen a burst of activity in the area of reading this year. Students’ interest in curling up with a good book has been sparked by two programs, Accelerated Reader and the Battle of the Books.
Elementary teacher, Stephanie DeVault had used the Accelerated Reader (AR) program in a previous district and saw how it motivated students to become avid readers. AR is web-based software that allows teachers to monitor students’ independent reading. It does this by providing comprehension tests on an enormous range of books. In short, students read a book at their reading level and then take a short, multiple choice test. Upon successful completion of the test, students are awarded points based on the length of the book. This allows teachers to set goals for students, monitor student understanding of reading, and provides a motivator for students to finish books on their own.
The program, naturally, is not free. Because DeVault had seen it provide the impetus needed for students to dramatically increase their reading, she was determined to implement it in Port Graham. She wrote a grant using a website called Donors Choose. Donors Choose was designed to help teachers access funds from donors for classroom supplies. People wishing to contribute to education can browse the website and choose projects they find meaningful, but all materials are purchased by the organization. Teachers are never tasked with handling the funds. This allows donors to give tax-deductible donations, but protects teachers from showing extra income.
The grant posted in mid-September and donations started arriving from friends and family of locals in the village and even from parents of Stephanie’s former students who had watched AR transform their children into voracious readers. At best, Stephanie guessed that it would take two to three months for the grant to be fully funded. In early October, the grant was complete! A generous donation from Chevron, as part of their Fuel Your School program, had paid the balance.
Story contributed by Principal Nancy Kleine, Port Graham School
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On May 2, 2015, twenty six “Mountain View Minions” participated in the Walk and Roll for Hope. This event, the 46th annual, takes place in communities throughout Alaska to raise funds for and awareness about disability services available for Alaskans.
As a large, open enrollment, neighborhood school Mountain View Elementary is fortunate to be able to provide services to students with a wide range of disabilities. By forming a team to participate in this event the Mountain View family was able to show our support for those students as well as the people who work with them, both within our school and elsewhere.
The Mountain View Elementary team included staff participating with their children, grandchildren and parents as well as students participating with their families. With a little inspiration from Disney and artistic help from Pinterest a group of staff members made customized Minion shirts for the team. Wearing bright yellow, googley eyed, and smiley faced tee shirts the team was hard to miss and certainly did its best to add to the festive nature of the event. The “Mountain View Minions” raised $900 to support Hope Community Services, the most raised by any team participating in the event.
The Mountain View Elementary staff has a strong sense of community service that it hopes to impart on its students as well. Other ways they have served the Kenai neighborhood this year include:
Mountain View Elementary is Kenai’s “Neighborhood School” and its students and staff strive to live up to that moniker. Look for their students and staff at a community service event near you.
Good morning! Today is Wednesday, May 13, 2015! Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.” …. A typical school morning announcement? Yes! Until…. “Camai uciitilat, camai uciiniit. Ernerpak nupugpet Ipitaqa aniuq.”
Nestled at the foot of beautiful mountains and along the shores of Cook Inlet, Nanwalek, or “a place with a lagoon,” is home to approximately 250 residents who are from the Sug’piaq culture. The language of the Sug’piat is a dying language, with only about 20 fluent residents. They are the elders, who often do not live with children who are developing language skills.
It is hard for most people to imagine their language disappearing off the face of this earth. What would that be like? The exponential effects are many, for language affects interactions, culture, and history. Most would make every effort to save the language – or risk losing all traditions. In Nanwalek, the school has been key in the effort to save the Sugt’stun language.
Alongside other schools, Nanwalek is focused on academic standards to help students from this isolated K-12 multi-graded school have as many options as possible when they graduate. As importantly, the Alaska Cultural Standards are essential to daily life at Nanwalek School. These provide another set of standards based on traditional and ancestral beliefs that are about survival of a Native world view, and in Nanwalek this is a way of knowing and being to preserve Sug’piaq values and history through bilingual education.
Links
School website
Connect with Nanwalek on Facebook
Connections Homeschool program supports innovative approaches in education and fun opportunities unique for students. In March we had very little snow on the ground. Our skiing club couldn’t get out on the trails as we had in previous years. We needed to find another activity. A great alternative to skiing in the winter is Fat Tire biking the beaches. Cycological and Saw and Cycle in Homer both rent Fat Tire Bikes, so we put an invite out to our peninsula-wide students.
We set a date for the ride and everyone met at Bishops Beach in Homer, for the first Connections Fat Tire Bike Ride. It was a little overcast and windy on the beach. Everyone bundled up for the weather. We had a brief safety meeting and started peddling towards Diamond Creek. Part of scheduling the event was ensuring that we could hit low tides mid-day. Our low tide was a negative 1.5 at 11:30 a.m.; there were tons of exposed boulders, tide pools, and flat sand to ride. We peddled up the coastline, hopping rocks, crossing tide pools, and scraping the edge of the ocean surf. As we moved up the beach we hit several little showers along the way. After peddling four miles up the beach we stopped in an accumulation of driftwood and took a lunch break. After refueling we started the trek back to Bishops Beach. Everyone improved their riding on the way back to Bishops Beach.
Connections provides a unique opportunity for students across the peninsula. Students were able to get outside in the winter, exercise, and learn how to ride the beaches of Homer. The only question posed by the students was, “When will we do this again?” What a great opportunity for our students!
Story contributed by Jacob Parrett, secondary advisor, Homer Connections Homeschool
Connections Homeschool on Facebook
website: Connections Homeschool
Through a State of Alaska grant, Nikiski Middle-High School received a Checkmate King CNC Laser. The “King,” as the students call the CNC Laser, has made quite an impact both in quality projects and the understanding of dimensional geometry. NMHS CTE teachers Paul Johnson and Vern Kornstad have challenged both themselves and their students to master the fundamentals of this new technology. They are challenged to understand the maintenance, functions, media, and how exportation in CorelDraw has had to change from previous machines. Should you visit the class you will hear excited and eager students anticipating their projects and troubleshooting to make them even better! Each moment is excitement in hands-on learning, applied math, computer technology, and employability skills.
The class is partnering with the Soldotna, Alaska, business Threeguysnowood.com. The task the partnership developed was to create a small inexpensive project that tourists could purchase at the business. The winning project would be class produced, marketed and sold this summer through the business with all proceeds returned to the CAD/CAM program at NMHS. Students brought their creativity and understanding of computer program tools, CorelDraw, geometry and measurements to create and execute product ideas. The class voted on the computer assisted drawings and discussed marketing potential. The samples below are some of the CorelDraw ideas that students created. Each color of a line tells the CNC Laser where to cut, how deep to cut, and where to burn on the student designs. Each component is a layover of a layover, so the students must be aware of each line, close each line, and what that line will be doing when exported to the King.
The selected design from each class was then exported to the CNC Laser. There were some exciting moments when the computer assisted drawings did not turn out exactly as anticipated. As a class, a team in the real-world, they assisted each other in correcting the pathways needed to cut out the prototype(s).
Tami Murray, Executive Director of the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce, worked with the business to assist in choosing the most marketable item. After careful consideration the Alaskan puzzle was designated to be produced.
From that discussion, the instructors further discussed with the students the factors of: packaging, cost of items, and overall marketability. One of the unforeseen and most exciting results of this grant funding is that all chosen student projects will be produced and sold at Threeguysnowood.com this summer with 100% of those proceeds returning to the CAD/CAM program. In a sense every class then has a stake in sales, and every class is a winner.
The State of Alaska CTE 2015 grant has made an enormous impact on students already. The grant has provided a vehicle in which to foster student learning and to bring resources back into the CTE program. Students are challenged in an integrated cross-content project emphasizing applied math, computers, marketing, and fostering employability skills. This has truly been a success!
Thank you to Paul Johnson and Vern Kornstad, Nikiski Middle High School for this story.
Several staff members at Voznesenka School have diligently worked to create an environment that makes students feel connected to our school, rather than school being something they attend as a requirement. Making aesthetic modifications to the facility, offering additional courses of interest, implementing a school-wide student management system and providing opportunities for our students to participate in cocurricular activities are some of the approaches we have used to produce this transformation. To the outside eye our most visible changes are the athletic opportunities we now offer our students.
Two years ago our school only had a few intramural activities available to students. Next year, we will have four ASAA sanctioned sports available at Voznesenka School, as well as a few activities for our elementary and middle school students. These opportunities bring a sense of pride, belonging and commitment to Voznesenka. Since the school is the only public entity in our village, it has been challenging to increase school-community interaction. Sporting events have opened new doors of communication among staff, students, and community members through attendance at games and meets.
Increased cocurricular opportunities are also positive persuaders for students’ academic accomplishments. Grade checks keep our athletes motivated to meet school and district expectations. Participation in practice and games is dependent on attendance, which positivity impacts students’ time in school. Furthermore, athletics will encourage more students to graduate from Voznesenka School.
We are proud of the student-centered initiatives shaping the culture of Voznesenka School. Striving to meet the needs of our students is our first priority, which does give them a sense of belonging. Continued efforts will enhance the engagement of students at their school.
Story contributed by Principal Michael Wojciak
How does your garden grow? We do not have silver bells or cockle shells. However, our ‘pretty maids all in a row’ are the ladies who work for the Tyonek Tribal Conservation District (TTCD). These “dirt ladies” coordinate and collaborate with the school and the community to create a successful and productive community garden.
The “Dirt Ladies”
Christy has been with the Tyonek Tribal Conservation District since October of 2011
Nicole began working with TTCD in April of 2014
Shortly after spring break they begin having the students plant the seeds. It is the responsibility of the students to water and care for the sprouts until mid-May when they have the students plant the sets into the prepared ground at our community garden plot.
On August 23, 2014, a community harvest meal was celebrated. People prepared their favorite dishes made from the produce gathered from the community garden. We took this opportunity and held the Open House at that time as well. Due to the fire in Tyonek last spring, we were unable to have our promotional celebration for our students, so we presented trophies and awards to our students at this celebration. Great food and trophies, who could ask for anything better?
The TTCD ladies, Nicole Swenson and Tanya Kaloa have provided and continue to provide fun activities for our students. So far they helped our students make pumpkin muffins from pumpkins harvested from our community garden. They also baked some of the pumpkin seeds. Yum-yum!!! They were at the school in January and helped the students build a watershed model and demonstrated how a watershed works and what happens when conditions in a watershed change. On February 25, they plan to take the students ice fishing for pike and later we will be dissecting some of the pike. Then in March we will begin the preparation for the new garden plants again.
We were fortunate to have Deborah Kane, the National Director of USDA’s Farm to School Program, visit our school along with the Alaskan Director, Johanna Herron. They were here to see how effectively the school is working with TTCD to help provide fresh produce for our village and to work on a plan to have some of the garden products used within our school lunch program. They spoke with our students, staff and Dean Hamburg. A couple of our students taught them how to do the seal hop.
We may not have silver bells and cockle shells, but we sure do have fresh vegetables from our local garden which are not always available to us here in a fly-in village. The garden also provides a great way for us to learn new things about science and nutrition.
Leadership is many things to many people. For this year’s Skyview Middle School Panther Student Council (StuCo), leadership can be summed up in three words: courage, compassion, and commitment.
Each of those words was exemplified in the work Panther StuCo did to raise funds for the KPBSD Students in Transition program earlier this school year. Program liaison, Kelly King, was a guest speaker at a lunch time meeting. The library was packed with seventy plus student council members who hung on her every word as she described the students and families she assists, their situations, and what our council could do to be helpful to the program. StuCo members asked great questions, the compassion for their peers in need evident in every word. And then courage made an unexpected appearance as one of our StuCo members raised his hand and shared how important the SIT program is to people in need. He knows. He was one of them. The commitment of the young people in that room grew ten-fold as they listened to their friend’s words. And that commitment resulted in a Penny War fundraiser that gathered over $700.00 in donations for the SIT program.
The young people who make up our Panther Student Council are not elected. They are not nominated. There are no speeches, campaigns, or popularity contests to win to be in StuCo. Instead, students in good academic and behavior standing sign a Membership Commitment agreeing to the following:
Lunch time meetings held in our school library are packed and table leaders work with advisor, Mrs. Pothast, to ensure agenda items are covered, votes taken, and attendance recorded. Activity Nights, Pep Rallies, and Service Projects are coordinated through committees, e-mails, bulletin board sign up sheets, and the tireless efforts of students working together to get things done.
Given the right opportunity, encouragement, and guidance leadership ability blooms in all of us. Organizers, chairpersons, artists, craft creators, music DJs, set up crews, clean-up crews, photographers, poster makers, food collectors, announcers, mascots, spirit leaders, game supervisors and more have emerged from this group of seventy plus Student Council members as each has found his or her niche, a way to step up, share a talent, and lead.
