KaukaunaTeachers.org

Several district teachers have received grants through the U.S. Cellular’s “Calling all Teachers” program at donorschoose.org.  New books, technology, and classroom supplies that couldn’t be funded through the annual budgeting process were donated as part of this million-dollar charitable campaign.  Donorschoose.org is a non-profit charitable organization that accepts donations of as little as $1, with the money going directly to a classroom project that you choose.  I would encourage those interested in helping classrooms to check into it.

It has been an exciting weekend for Kaukauna Schools.  In addition to our girl’s volleyball team winning the state championship, twenty-eight of Wayne Slowinski’s 7^th and 8^th graders from River View Middle School performed at the Lawrence Jazz Festival this past weekend and did a beautiful job. They were cliniced by renowned educator, performer, and composer Dean Sorenson. Dean is the author of the jazz ensemble method book that we use at RVMS called The Standard of Excellence Jazz Ensemble Method.  Music teachers Lori Lacey and Karen Stangel also had students performing at this festival.

Riverview Intermediate School is piloting a new program in conjunction with RTI (Response To Intervention).  Mrs. Swedberg the 5th grade Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) teacher is co-teaching with Mrs. Weast , Mrs. Wyngaard and Mrs. Janssen (all 5th grade teachers).  Mrs. Swedberg and Mrs. Weast share a room and have all the 5th grade SLD students, along with a few regular education students. This has enabled them to offer the entire 5th grade curriculum to the SLD children.  The kids are thriving under this new program. The parents have sent emails, made phone calls and sent notes in support of this new and innovative way to include special education children in the regular curriculum.  In the past the SLD students have been pulled out from the regular education classes to attend class in an SLD room.  As a result they have not always received the same material others have.  The teachers work closely together to modify all materials to ensure quality instruction.  Mrs. Swedberg travels with the class as a whole to math with Mrs. Janssen and then to Social Studies with Mrs. Wyngaard. Mrs. Weast and Mrs. Swedberg co-teach reading, writing and word study. The result is a well-rounded program that focuses on each child’s individual needs as stated in each IEP. So far, test score averages are right in with those of all regular education classes.

Mrs. Swedberg, Mrs. Janssen and Mrs. Weast also attended a summer class at UWO that focused on this new form of teaching.  When the University found out that this was actually happening in Kaukauna the teachers became part of a study in co-teaching. The University received a grant to learn more about this form of teaching and was thrilled to have Kaukauna actually doing it.  The UWO staff was impressed with administration in Kaukauna for taking this step and being ahead of the game.  Stacy Knapp has been very supportive and allowed the 5th grade team to venture into this pilot program.  It has been a team effort involving parents, students, administration and staff.

At KHS, the freshman Core Team is in its third year and is once again working to help freshmen find success.  The freshmen class is divided into two teams, based on core area teachers.  The teams of teachers meet formally each Tuesday during a shared prep period, as well as informally as needed.  They discuss successful students who they want to celebrate through student of the week, as well as students who are struggling and need extra help.  For students who are struggling, the core teachers work on interventions that can help them succeed.  This year, each freshmen parent received a letter outlining what they can do to help make their child’s freshmen year successful.  The Core Team teachers, along with help from Link Leaders, will also be holding the freshmen Wing Ding near the end of the school year to celebrate a successful freshmen year for those students who qualify.  Core Teams have proven successful in increasing the number of credits earned by freshmen the past two years and look forward to assisting in freshmen success again this year.

This week, pre-K teacher Lisa Mader will be having her third session of “Read, Rumble and Roll.”  It is a community-school-home literacy program that she developed herself.  Guest readers from the community come in with a vehicle that they drive and read to her students.  The students have a chance to tour the vehicle after the guest reader reads the book.  Students then make a book about the visit and each gets a chance to share their class book and the book that our guest read with their families.  The graphic arts department at the high school helped make canvas totes for students to bring home their books. This week’s guest reader is Brandon Sanderfoot from the city of Kaukauna street dept.  He is bringing a garbage truck.  Students have already toured a race car and a tractor.  There will be 3 more sessions of Read, Rumble and Roll throughout the rest of the year.

Teachers in the Kaukauna Education Association are continuing their long history of serving the Kaukauna Area School District community.  On the first day of school, the KEA coordinated a food drive that resulted in the donation of over 350 pounds of food and $186 in cash to a local food pantry.  We hope to top those numbers next year.

This year, Stephanie Federwitz, second grade teacher at Electa Quinney, has organized a school store for students to purchase from.  All items are under $1.  Once a month students will be able to shop for items.  Fourth grade students are being recruited to assist in running the store.  This will provide the students with a real life experience in using money and the money collected through the school store will be used to provide classroom teachers with needed resources.

This year Jennie Gries, second grade teacher, and Angie Burnett, first grade teacher, spearheaded a new school wide behavior plan for Park school.  This program rewards students for demonstrating good character and provides a progressive discipline approach for students who are not demonstrating good character.  This program dovetails with Park’s character education program to teach students how to be respectful, caring, and good citizens.

This summer, Quinney 2nd grade teachers Jessica Ullmer and Caryn Rosenbeck attended the Eisntein Project at UWGB. The goal of this program is to  increase teachers’ confidence with inquiry-based learning by providing hands-on, minds-on experiences in science. This marked their second year attending. This year, they were excited to deepen their understanding about and learn more uses for science notebooking, as well as increase content knowledge in the areas of Human Biology and Botany. Many materials are purchased for participants by the professors. Among many items, Rosenbeck and Ullmer received a light bank for each of their classrooms. This will allow the teachers to grow plants right in their rooms. This is especially helpful since their classrooms are without windows! “We have been inspired with many great plant and biology experiments that we are anxiously waiting to use in class!” Rosenbeck remarked.

KHS and River View Spanish teacher Ann Marie Lahti shares this story:

I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Nicaragua through the Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners Program this August.  For the past 2 years my Spanish students have been raising money at Christmas time to help support the first lending library that was started in Nicaragua (before that people had to read their books at the library – they couldn’t take them home!). We have done a penny war, and the students raised over $300 the first year so that these children, most of whom have next to nothing, could have a Christmas celebration and receive a small gift.  The second year my students raised over $500, which allowed them to replace the plastic tarp roof, that often caved in, spilling water all over the library and the books, with a metal roof, and have Christmas celebrations at 3 different libraries in the area.

I had the chance to visit the Biblioteca Rosa (Rosa’s library) – named after the woman who started it and who still runs it. I had the chance to play and talk with the children, and bring back letters of thanks for my students. I also had several opportunities to work with Rosa, as well as the opportunity to work with women from a small village, where there is no unemployment.  The group of 10 teachers that I went with brought down craft ideas that the women could do to sell in the markets a 40 minute walk and hour-long bus ride away, so that they can help provide for their families.

We were also able to visit the Wisconsin School in Managua, which offers a quality education, technical training and a hot meal each day to over 300 students, who otherwise would spend their day working in a garbage dump and eating whatever else they could find in the dump.

I have plans to continue communication between my students and the children at Rosa’s library throughout the school year, and introduce Nicaragua to my students.  There are also plans in the works to bring up visiting artists from Nicaragua to work in area schools and teach the students about different forms of Nicaraguan art, and also to bring a dance group to the Appleton area from Nicaragua to perform for our students.  I’m very excited about the many doors that have been opened to me through this experience, and can’t wait to share the love of the Nicaraguan people with my students!