Where is Mr. Akin?

Yes! Meetings are a large part of the principal's week and take me away from Sioux Trail for a couple hours each week. This isn't the most exciting blog topic, but I thought it might be an informative post. Today's principal meeting started at 12 (noon) and ended at at 4pm. Our agenda included:

• An hour on preparing for the next late start on November 17 and instruction on explicit comprehension
• An in-service on School Reach, which allows staff to send messages to all families that we have an active phone number for. Initially we will use this tool to get messages out for instances like a snow day or other school cancellation (power outage anyone?), reminders about late starts and other opportunities that require us to get out information to you quickly
• Updates on the data we get from the MAP assessment
• Discussion around our Professional Learning Conversations that we host at Sioux Trail on Thursday mornings
• An update from Superintendent Clegg on the data that is being collected by the ISD 191 school board
• Discussion with the Director of Special Education on report cards and meetings that require classroom teachers

I hope this insight into the life of an elementary principal was interesting - keep posting comments and sharing ideas!

New Teacher

In this Friday's folder I sent home a letter to the families of Third and Fifth Grade students announcing our newest addition to the Sioux Trail team! Here is the letter I sent home. As soon as I can I will post a photo of Katie so that you can help me welcome her when you are at Sioux Trail. Here is the letter that went home on Friday:

Dear Families of Sioux Trail Third and Fifth Grade students,

I am writing to provide you with an update on our class sizes and our staffing for grades three and five. As you probably know both third grade and fifth grade classes have more than 30 students in each classroom. I have been well aware of these class sizes, but I did not have access to additional resources to hire an additional teacher or teachers. I have been submitting updated enrollment to the superintendent's office weekly.

On Monday, October 19, the Superintendent and his staff reviewed our enrollment and recommended that additional staffing be allocated to Sioux Trail because of the large class sizes. On Thursday, October 22, the school board authorized this recommendation and assigned one additional full-time teacher to Sioux Trail. I had anticipated this possibility, completed interviews in early September and I forwarded our hiring recommendation to the Human Resources office earlier this week.

I am very excited to welcome Katie Mulvahill to Sioux Trail. Ms. Mulvahill is recent graduate from the University of Iowa. She has a degree in elementary education and journalism and she is an avid soccer player. Ms. Mulvahill will be working with students in both third and fifth grade and she will start work on Monday, November 2. Ms. Mulvahill will not have a traditional elementary classroom; instead she will be working with students in small groups or teaching in one of the classrooms so the classroom teacher can meet with small groups of students.

At the third grade level her focus will be reading and at the fifth grade level her focus will be with mathematics. She will have an office in room 214 and once she has an email address and telephone number she will share that information with you. Adding Ms. Mulvahill to our staff will help reduce the class sizes in third and fifth grade. She will be great asset to Sioux Trail as we continue to strive to be the best we can be.

Several of you shared your concerns about class sizes with Superintendent Clegg and me. Thank you for taking time to do this. As we continue with the 2009-10 school year please continue to stay in touch with me to share concerns or successes.

Thank you for your continued support,

Espanol

Hola! Yesterday we hosted the informational session on our first ever Spanish class. This is an exciting opportunity for students K-6 at Sioux Trail. This is an after school class organized through Community Education, but taught by teachers from the University Language Program in Minneapolis. They are currently working with over 1,000 students in other school districts (196 has several sites). The class costs $599 and interested families are encouraged to contact Deb at Community Education to discuss payment plan options. The class is organized by grade level and Spanish speaking ability; the cost includes 48 one hour lessons on Tuesday and Thursday right here at Sioux Trail.

The registration deadline is October 8 and based on last night's attendance there is definitely interest in the program.

If you have questions please feel free to contact me at 952.707.3301 or Deb (Community Ed) at 952.707.4150. You can get more information on the program by calling the University Language Program at 612.379.3823.

Fall Clean Up

Yesterday (Saturday, September 19) we hosted the second annual Sioux Trail school clean up event. The number of participants was smaller than our group last year, but we were just as successful. One of our first grade students was in charge if the sign in sheet and she counted at least 35 people! The primary focus was weeding and we added some plastic edging around the air conditioning unit.

What I get excited about is that parents, students and staff truly own Sioux Trail. It is our school and this is demonstrated by the willingness to give up part of a Saturday to come in and take care of our school. In addition to owning the outside of the school we ALL need to own what happens inside the school. We need more volunteers inside the school, if you can help our volunteer coordinator can match you with the right opportunity. Please continue to pass the good word about Sioux Trail and please let me know about areas where you think change should take place.
Thank you to everyone that participated.

First Day

Yesterday was a wonderful day at Sioux Trail! I was able to greet all of the students that arrived by bus and there lots of bright white sneakers, new haircuts, big smiles and yes, a couple tears too. The first day of school was wonderful success and I look forward to a school year that continues down this same road of success.

We all met in the gym at 2pm for an all school "Welcome Back" assembly and one of the students told me "Mr. Akin, thank you for welcoming me back to school" - that told me we were doing the right thing.

I told students (a.k.a. the Panthers) that they only had two jobs to do this year:

* Be Here (except when you are sick)
* Do your Best

I did let them know about AYP in a student friendly way and that we need to continue to work hard and highlight all of the many ways that Sioux Trail is great.

All of the Sioux Trail staff spoke to the students about success by taking students on a tour around the gym and introducing them to the words on the walls. These words are the traits of a successful Sioux Trail student. There are 10 words, they are:
Ambitious
Inquisitive
Enthusiasm (demonstrated by Mrs. Boche and Mrs. Engdahl in the photo)
Integrity
Leadership
Persistence (demonstrated by Mr. Kleven and Mr. Khamratthanome - trying to make shot)
Innovative
Excellence
Dedicated
Courageous

Staff members had terrific ways of sharing these words - and I posted photos of two examples.

We concluded our assembly by singing the Sioux Trail Rouser and Shadow was on hand to help with the symbols!

Back to School Speech

Thanks to all of the families that have called or emailed with questions about the president's welcome back to school speech. The first day of school at Sioux Trail will not involve watching President Obama's speech. We will be orienting all students to Sioux Trail and getting another successful year off of the ground.

Personally, I look forward to hearing what the President has to say about education, because he will set the rules for our work with students much like President Bush with No Child Left Behind. The No Child Left Behind Law has a large impact on what we do and now that Sioux Trail has been identified as not making AYP it will have an even greater impact. I'm curious to see what is next and I will read or watch the speech on Tuesday after school.

Some classrooms at Sioux Trail may share the speech later in the week (if it fits with their instruction), but parents will be notified before hand. Please contact me or your child's classroom teacher directly with questions or concerns. Additionally please watch for a "first day of school" post and keeping telling other Sioux Trail families about Panther Pages.

What is LINK?

In the last post I referenced a program named LINK and since the post I have had several questions about LINK. Please keep the questions coming - I'm glad people are reading the blog!

LINK is Language Immersion for New Kindergartners. Nationally this instructional model is known as KLDM - Kindergarten Language Development Model, but we wanted a name unique to ISD 191 and something that was a little easier to remember.

LINK is focused on immersing our Kindergarten ESL students into an English rich environment so that we give them an instructional boost at the earliest possible opportunity. This program does not have a negative impact on non-ESL students; it is not costing anything extra or pulling staff from another program. In ISD 191 ESL teachers are staffed at a ratio of 40:1; 40 students to 1 teacher. During the 2008-09 school year we observed that there were approximately 20 ESL students in our kindergarten program and began to explore other instructional models.

During the 2008-09 school year Mrs. Gonzalez was working with 2-4 students at a time for approximately one 1/2 hour with each group. For our ESL students this meant they were in and out of their Kindergarten classroom and for the students in a half day program almost half of their day was spent out of the classroom receiving Title I asnd ESL services.

With the LINK program in place our ESL Kindergarten students will be in the morning Kindergarten classroom with Mrs. Peterson. They will stay in school for lunch and then move the LINK / ESL classroom for the afternoon. Instead of pulling the students out of the classroom for ESL and Title I services the students will be together in one classroom and all of the services will be provided there. This is not All-Day Kindergarten for free, but it is a creative way to deliver ESL services. The LINK students will only be in Mrs. Peterson's Kindergarten classroom for the half-day program and then they will be in the ESL classroom for the remainder of the day. I believe that if this program is successful we will see long term benefits for 1-6 classrooms, our ESL students and other students as this changes how our teachers teach.

I welcome your feedback on this exciting opportunity for our students.