What does Hope have to do with owls, bugs, and superheroes? Well, these topics meant money in the bank for some students at Hope School.
First place photo, Ididacontest
This year, students in Hope tried their hand at a new venture by competing in the state Ididacontest sponsored by the Alaska Society for Technology in Education, an organization that promotes and supports the use of technology in education throughout Alaska. The Ididacontest is broken into many different categories, including photos, tunes, documentaries, movies, podcasts, aps, and ebooks. Each category has sub categories and involves grades K-12 and adults. All works must be original works by students and copyright free.
Hope students hopped onboard back in October and began planning their strategies for making entries to this competition. Some tried their hand at writing books, others scoured hundreds of photographs for just the right choice, while others began devising a way to work with film. In the end, Hope students submitted over a dozen entries to the Ididacontest in several different categories.
Following their hard work, Hope brought home three prizes, raking in $200 in cash donated by Ididacontest sponsors. Ryker Skaaren and Wesli Dykstra won first place for their documentary, “Your First Step to Learning About Alaska’s Owls”, Liam Bureau took home first place for his photo, “Bug”, and Murphy Dykstra and Ryker Skaaren landed third place for their ebook, “Murphy and Ryder’s Book of Poems”. So, yes, right now, bugs, owls, and superheroes are quite popular in the Hope area.
If you would like to view these winning entries and others from around the state, visit www.ididacontest.org.
Story contributed by Terri Carter
PE: a vision impaired bowman learns skills
Unassumingly, everyday, KPBSD staff goes the extra mile for their students, and often we never hear about it. This #GoldenMoment took place before school started, one winter day in Soldotna, Alaska.
Before school hours, Malikhi Hansen, a Soldotna High School vision impaired student, made a visit to Redoubt Elementary, a neighboring school.
With Granger Nyboer, KPBSD vision specialist, Joe Shirley, his special education aide, and under the direction of Donny Joachim, physical education teacher and archery specialist, Malikhi received memorable lessons.
Green flag time at Kenai Alternative School #race
Every spring, Kenai Alternative School students in Wade Marcuson’s Physical Science class have the opportunity to race their cars as fast as they can. These aren’t just any car mind you. These are the CO2 cars that the students designed and built themselves. After covering the concepts of gas expansion, inertia, mass, force, and friction, students begin to design their cars. Each student then shapes their car out of wood and finishes it off with a custom paint job. When race day comes, cars from every shape, design, and color that mind could image are lined up. With this event taking place in the school gym, the entire staff and student body join in cheering on their favorite car as they race down the sixty foot track that is guided with monofilament fishing line.
This year’s race is scheduled to take place in late March when students return from spring break. The school’s principal, Loren Reese, whom over the years has held the position of race starter, said, “this year’s cars will prove to be just as exciting. Students have put a great deal of work and pride into their cars.” Without a doubt, this has become a tradition that looks to continue for the years ahead.
Parent Survey: Do student early release days make a difference?
Dear KPBSD parents and guardians,
Please take a brief four question survey, open March 11 – March 28, 2016, to share your perceptions and thoughts about the six early release days for students.
KPBSD staff is also completing a similar survey.
“Each school day, more than 1,200 KPBSD employees do all that they can to provide a quality education to our district’s students. A part of this work is our continuous improvement process that requires us to regularly evaluate our practices so that we can in turn, make the necessary changes to help our students’ find success. An intricate piece of our improvements is our professional development for our certified staff.
With the need to do more for our staff in this area, for the past three school years we designated six school days as minimum days–with a 90 minute early release for students, while staff works a maximum day in order to deliberately devote time to collaborate and collectively address the learning needs of our students.
Now that you are familiar with these shortened student school days, we want to receive your feedback. Please complete these questions, and provide your optional comments.” – Sean Dusek, superintendent
Link: Take the survey now
Thank you very much for your time.
The next early release date is Friday, April 1, 2016.
Links
- PARENT SURVEY: open through March 28, 2016
- information: KPBSD Early Release Days
Educator Linda Brady receives Golden Apple award
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
Golden Apple Award | March 7, 2016
Ms. Linda Brady, Educator
Ms. Linda Brady has been a dedicated employee for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District for sixteen years—teaching at Nikolaevsk School, Ninilchik School, and currently, Chapman School. “She is exceptional in her position as a special education teacher at Chapman School and provides the school its cornerstone for building all other programs,” said Conrad Woodhead, principal. “Linda is an active leader on our staff, conducting aide meetings each Monday morning and participating in all of our I-Team and Data Day meetings. This is great, but what makes Linda so special isn’t her willingness to step up whenever she’s needed; what makes her exceptional is her ability to seemingly pull effort out of kids that they never knew they had. The students she works with achieve what was otherwise impossible. Simply put, Linda is good for kids.”
Linda is selfless in her devoted stewardship to students. When need presents itself, Linda, and her husband Gary, have housed students, given students rides home, and on occasion, helped them with clothing items. She’s a fan favorite amongst the student body, probably because she’s there whenever they need her. A little known fact about Linda is that she has spent her life savings on her classroom library. We’ve had to give the UPS driver her own parking space, as she never drives by our school without dropping off another scholastic book order box for Linda. Every day, students work in her classroom before and after school. She even eats lunch with kids.
Legend has it that Linda does not sleep. When she finally goes home at night, she simply cooks dinner, tucks in her devoted husband Gary, and returns to work. Her colleagues have given up trying to beat her to work. “On more than several occasions, I’ve woke up to the ding of an email from my phone, only to find that’s it’s another IEP reminder from Linda. Most people are still sleeping at 5:45 a.m. in the morning; she is sending emails,” said Mr. Woodhead. “Linda is modest about her hard work and dedication, and she is deeply appreciated. We recognize Linda for her steadfast dedication to our students, our school, our community, and our district.”
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education is proud to recognize Ms. Linda Brady for her dedication to the students of the school district, past, present, and future.
Link
Golden Apple recipients
Linda Grandma Reinhart receives Golden Apple award
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
Golden Apple Award | March 7, 2016
Linda Reinhart, Volunteer
Linda Reinhart has been a consistent volunteer at Paul Banks Elementary for thirteen years, since her granddaughters attended Paul Banks. She donates one to two days every week to help teachers and work with students, in addition to other special projects. The entire staff nominated her, and said, “Just when we feel like we can’t do one more thing, “Grandma Reinhart” is there for us. Paul Banks would not be the same learning community without her support.”
Linda is willing to assist with any situation at Paul Banks—including math centers, evening events, reading centers, art projects, and implementation of interventions. Linda has taken time to learn the Handwriting Without Tears Program and Read Naturally Program so that she can support teachers in the classrooms implementing these two important programs. She will take projects home to prepare them for instruction. Linda is a talented musician and will learn educational songs and teach them to the students. An example of this is teaching students a clock song she learned on the ukulele. She is equally present to assist students with special needs, and offer enrichment for other students. She loves to learn and shares this passion with the students and staff of Paul Banks. Every day it is evident how much she cares about all of the staff and students of Paul Banks.
Over the years, Paul Banks has had situations where support was needed and the school needed help providing it. Grandma Reinhart will step into a classroom to help with students that need extra support or spend time reading with students who don’t get the opportunity to do so at home. When a student is in need of love or attention, she is there.
Linda is an active member in the community. She assisted with sewing costumes for countless school plays, for students in schools from McNeil Canyon to Homer High School. She is passionate about making music and orchestra available and accessible to all the children in our community, and has been a key leader in the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra, the Homer Youth Symphony, and several years of Link-Up programs, which provide supplemental music instruction to entire schools.
Paul Banks is a better school because of Linda “Grandma” Reinhart. Most students call her Grandma Reinhart, and some even insist that she must really be their grandma, because they see her at school all the time. This spring she will be 80 years young and the students and staff of Paul Banks think they are lucky to have her consistent, quality, caring support!
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education is proud to recognize Linda “Grandma” Reinhart for her dedication to the students of the school district, past, present, and future.
Link
Golden Apple recipients
Project SEARCH grows skills for interns
Project SEARCH Intern Showcase
Videos, posters, resumes and Project SEARCH interns combined to make a memorable evening on Monday, February 22, 2016. Guests perused booths staffed by Project SEARCH interns at Central Peninsula Hospital. Skills obtained while working alongside hospital mentors were highlighted by each KPBSD student intern. Poster boards created by students featured skills such as taking vitals, slicing and dicing with kitchen knives, reading gauges and gases, sanitizing beds, and scanning, faxing, copying. Individual posters showed snippets of interns in action.
Each intern prepared a video showcasing themselves in action, demonstrating skills learned on rotation. Everything from tightening a bolt with wrenches to analyzing and adjusting anesthesia billing sheets rolled across the screen. The event, attended by family, school district employees, hospital employees and the public provided a glimpse into the valuable job skills the interns are learning and their future plans of employment utilizing these skills.
Links
- Project SEARCH
- KPBSD Pupil Services
- Central Peninsula Hospital
- Frontier Community Services
- The Governor’s Council on Disabilities and Special Education
Story contributed by Cindy Worley, Project SEARCH teacher
KMS Seventh Graders #GoneFishing
One hundred and thirty Kenai Middle School (KMS) seventh graders descended upon Island Lake for a day of outdoor winter fun on February 26, 2016. The annual outing stresses outside life skills and activities, and is centered on an ice fishing contest. Students learned outdoor survival skills, socialized, and took part in fun activities. Twenty-five fish were caught, and trophies and prizes were awarded. The KMS seventh grade Ice Fishing Trip has become a community event, and local businesses show their support for student by donating food, gear, and prizes. A thank you extends to this year’s donors: Country Foods, Trustworthy Hardware, 3 Bears, and the Kenai River Sport Fishing Association (Hooked on Fishing) program.
Story and photos contributed by Kenai Middle School
Maddy Rea’s senior year adventure | Seward High School #Classof2016
Maddy Rea’s Adventure
Maddy Rea [Seward High School, Class of 2016], set a goal early in her high school career to travel abroad and volunteer to work with animals. At first, her plan was to travel to Malaysia and work with Sea Turtles. When she discovered that this program was not accepting more applications, her research landed her in Yungas, Bolivia, at a place called La Senda Verde (which means The Green Path). Further research convinced her mom, CJ, that Maddy had found, “the most incredible place on the planet” and that this would be an amazing opportunity for Maddy to see her goal to fruition.
La Senda Verde takes in animals that were victims of illegal animal trafficking and, with the help of volunteers, tries to return them to a life as close to normal as they can have. It is illegal to re-release an animal once it has been trafficked in Bolivia. They are currently working with 550 different animals.
Maddy secured a position for two and a half months. She saved the money from her summer job to buy her tickets, visa, and pay for her volunteer position. Many of their volunteers are there for just two weeks. Volunteers like Maddy, who stick around, get to do a lot more with the animals. Her favorite animals to work with are what they call the “special animals.” These are all of the small primates (Lucachi, Squirrel, and Owl monkeys), Capybara and Paca (both really big rodents) and the Margays and Ocelots (cats). Based on skills she learned as a volunteer at the Alaska Sealife Center she is trying to train the Capybara (attached picture is a mural of a capybara). La Senda Verde has animals of all kinds; Spider, Capuchin, and Howler monkeys, Andean Spectacled Bears, Parrots, Toucans, Macaws, Tortoises, and Coatis.
Maddy’s days begin at 6:45 a.m. and she starts work at 7:30. She works until 5:30 p.m., has dinner and then socializes a bit. She works six days a week and on her seventh day she usually makes it into the town of Coroico where she has access to the internet. There are no other American volunteers. She lives in a dorm styled room with six other people, and has met people from Australia, Brazil, Belgium, France and other countries. She has also experienced tarantulas in her bed and the shower.
Maddy will return in mid-May to participate in graduation with her class at Seward High School and begin her summer work to save for college.
2016 ASTE Technology Leadership Awards go to KPBSD employees
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District
Contact: Pegge Erkeneff, 907.714.8888
News Release
2016 ASTE Technology Leadership Awards for KPBSD employees
Soldotna, March 1, 2016—KPBSD celebrates employees Casey Olson and Trevan Walker, who received top statewide recognition with a 2016 Alaska Society for Technology in Education (ASTE) Leadership Award. Each year ASTE selects three people who demonstrate true technology integration and have a positive impact on teaching and learning in Alaska. In 2016, two of the three award recipients are KPBSD staff: the 2016 Technology Support of the Year award recipient is Casey Olson, district programmer and analyst, and Trevan Walker, Seward High School principal, who is the 2016 Administrator of the Year. #golden
Casey Olson, 2016 Technology Support of the Year
ASTE Technology Support of the Year Award recognizes Alaskans who help teachers and faculty find and use technology to support academic goals, which may include helping with hardware.
“I am very proud that Casey Olson has been named the ASTE tech support person of the year,” said Sean Dusek, superintendent. “He is an integral part of our videoconferencing effort to expand opportunities for students around the district. His effort has put a solid infrastructure in place so that students can work with experts and other students from around the world. Students are also able to collaborate with their peers within the district to experience our own diverse cultures. This award is very well deserved and I look forward to Casey continuing his leadership role in meeting our twenty-first century learning needs for our students.”
“The ASTE Tech Person of the Year recognition for Casey Olson is timely and well-deserved,” said Eric Soderquist, director of information services. “Casey has worked diligently to provide the vision and technical guidance critical to the recent Polycom RUS grant award, and continues to be a trusted resource for the video conference platform in use today. He clearly recognizes that IT is about more than just making technology work—focus must be placed on ensuring a given technical solution effectively meets the needs of users. Casey has proven masterful at combining his technical skillset with the vision required to adapt to ever-changing technology implementation and support needs.”
Learning about the award, Mr. Olson said, “I was surprised to be nominated for the ASTE award and honored to be chosen to receive this recognition. Being nominated by teachers in our school district that I’ve worked with for a number of years made the award even more significant to me personally.”
Trevan Walker, 2016 Administrator of the Year
ASTE Administrator of the Year award recognizes Alaskans who lead schools or organizations in the innovative use of technology to support academic goals.
“I am fortunate to have a staff who believes in our common vision to endeavor to be all things for all students,” said Trevan Walker, Seward High School principal. “The reality is that they should get the credit as they are the ones doing the hard work—not just with technology integration in instruction, and the innovative practices that come out of it, but also with the relationships they’re building with kids and genuine desire to see each one of them succeed at Seward High School, regardless of the pathway required to find it.”
Sean Dusek, superintendent said, “We are very proud of Mr. Walker for receiving the ASTE Principal of the Year award. Mr. Walker is an innovative school principal that has worked very hard to meet the individual needs of students at Seward High School. The entire staff is engaged in this ongoing effort and also share in this award. We are looking forward to even greater degrees of success with students in Seward as this award represents the beginning of the modern learning system in KPBSD.”
“This district is making serious headway in tackling the online and blended learning formats,” said Amanda Adams, KPBSD distance learning teacher. “It is really exciting to watch whole cohorts of teachers developing new practices to meet the needs of students. With innovative people like Trevan and Casey, they are holding the doors open for teachers like me to not be bound by tradition. The question is not why do you want to do that, but instead, how can I help you do that.”
Links
- KPBSD Information Services
- Seward High School website
- Alaska Society for Technology in Education (ASTE) website
- News Release: Two KPBSD employees receive 2016 ASTE Technology Leadership Awards
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