20 Marbles Left

There are 20 days left thus 20 marbles left in a students jar, marking one marble per day and an opportunity each day to have an impact.  Yes we can still have impact at this point of the year.  We still are teaching and still impacting students for their future.  When we walk out the door on June 4th will we have made the impact that changes a students life?  It is not too late to make every minute count.  During these last twenty days challenge yourself to try something new, to learn something new,  to take a risk in the classroom,  to try a new strategy that maybe you have been wanting to try for awhile. We can also learn in this stretch run to the end and what a great way for students to learn from your growth mindset through modeling that mindset.  Maybe try a Pineapple Day and invite others to see your wonderful idea in action and give you feedback.  Have your students give you feedback on your lessons or your year?  Learn something new from your students to use next year.  Conduct a focus group or a student panel to get feedback.  These are all ways to continue to learn and continue to improve your practice.  It is never too late to grow.

Highlights @ Lincoln 

Teacher Appreciation Week-  Always one of my favorite weeks because in the middle as we all are our jobs sometimes are under appreciated and thankless.  We seldom see the fruits of our hard work until years later.  This week gives other the chance to show their appreciation for what you do each and everyday.  What you do is hard at the middle level.  You all are special teachers to work with our students each and everyday through the highs and the lows of the year.  I respect what each of you do and appreciate your continued commitment to Lincoln Junior High and our students.  Thank you!

Monday- Breakfast during PD

Tuesday- Chips and Salsa @ lunch

Wednesday- Ice Cream Bar @ lunch

Thursday- More chips more salsa @ lunch

Friday- Cookout/tacos @ lunch
*Sponsored by our Lincoln PTO

Shout out to Betsy Barron-  She is rocking sponsoring the NJHS.  The 8th grade dance decorations were awesome and the dance was a great time for our students.  Betsy also led numerous NJHS students Sunday participating in the Out of the Darkness suicide prevention awareness walk.  Great work in getting our students active in the community and doing service work.  We are better with your leadership.

Shout out to Megan Wiesenberg for her work with the 8th grade tee-shirts.  Thanks for conducting the art work contest and preparing the art for the tee-shirt.  Our students will love their Class of 2023 shirts.

Wow!  Kudos to Ryan Ahlrich for his detailed ELL and WIDA data break down.  Although we have made progress with our ELL population we still have hard work to do to get all students to learn at high levels.  Ryan provides us with data to help us learn about our impact with our ELL students and has great ideas and strategies to implement in the classroom.  Have you reached out to Ryan this year?  If not what a great way to end the year, to learn and implement a new ELL strategy to add to your toolbox for the future.

Thanks to all teachers for a great first week of ILEARN.  We successfully completed the math portion and learned from our first go around with ILEARN.  Thank you for your preparation and all the questions prior to the test so that we could learn together.  LA is this week and I feel a lot less anxious then last week.  Everyone did great.  One more week.

Red Storm Relays-  Thanks to the coaches and Carol Gilbert for another successful event.  Special thanks to those that volunteered to time and work the event.  Coaches thank you for your work with the athletes and getting the team ready for the relays.  Next Saturday is the conference meet.  Come out and support the team.

Peter Pan coming soon-  The set is coming together thanks to Marlena Whitworth and Brandi.  I am looking forward to a great show next week.

Best Film for Middle School National Winner-  This is a really neat and prestigious award for our students and for our school and mass media program.  This year, the Best Film for Middle School was awarded to Lincoln Junior High. The film titled, Tragedy, was written and produced by Abe Rebollo, Ivan Turcios, Juan Salas, Dom Giordano, Connor Schmiedlin, and Noble Bockman. Awesome job Paula for entering student work in the contest and for empowering student creativity in your classroom. Thank you!

New Counselor- I would like to announce the hiring of Audria De Lucenay- She will announced at the May 15th board meeting. She comes to us from Edgewood Middle School in Warsaw and was awesome in her interview. She will be a great addition to our staff and for our students. Thanks to the interview committee of Darlene Derifield, Chris Horvath, Sandy Cartwright, Becky Walters, Aimee Portteus, and Craig Hopple.

Upcoming @ LJHS

Monday PD- Tomorrow- Traveling awards presented for this month/ Teacher appreciation breakfast

Leadership- Riley Heeren
Curriculum/Instruction- Cheryl Caine
Creativity- Jodi Kallenberg
Student Advocacy-

Leadership Meeting - Tuesday 7:00 Darlene's Room

ILEARN- Tuesday through Friday- CAT Non performance task Tuesday Wednesday- Performance Task Part 1 Thursday Part 2 Friday.

LJH Spring Film Festival- Thursday 6:30

Reality Store- May 22nd 8:00-11:00 8th Grade

Have a great week!