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What is Happening at School?

Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire Schools September 2018

What is Happeningat School? Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire SchoolsSeptember 2018

Professionals Developing Their Craft

Graettinger-Terril and Ruthven-Ayrshire teachers met together for Professional Development on Friday, Sept. 14. The morning was spent with Leslie Osborn from Prairie Lakes AEA. Leslie shared with teachers the use of a QFocus (Question Focus) and having students generate their own questions about the topic. A QFocus can be a statement, picture, video, or object that creates curiosity. Students then identify if their questions are closed (single word) or open (more explanation). Students then change their questions from open to closed or closed to open. This encourages deeper thinking. From these questions learning will begin.

How are teachers using the QFocus in classrooms?

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Mrs. Benjamin's QFocus

Mrs. Benjamin presented her 4th grade students with the QFocus "Research takes time." The students generated questions and selected these two as their most important!
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Question Generating

Students worked in groups to write questions. Then they identified them as closed or open.
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Dewey Decimal System

Learning about research takes time as you need to look for information.
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Mrs. Harris' QFocus

The GT Kindergarten were presented with this picture to create questions about the seasons.
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GT Kindergarten Questions

Mrs. Harris recorded questions that her kindergarten students had about the seasons.
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Mrs. Schnell's QFocus

The third grade students generated questions about this statement "The first Olympics were held in Greece."

Developing Professionally with Mrs. Beisell and Mrs. Kirk

The afternoon of Friday, Sept. 14, was spent learning about the 5E Lesson Plan with Mrs. Beisell (RA MS/HS Science teacher). The 5E Lesson plan involves engagement, exploration, explanation, extension, and evaluation. This model is used with Next Generation Science Standards. Mrs. Kirk (RA MS/HS Reading and Language Arts Teacher) shared ideas to implement writing in the classroom. Writing takes the whole brain as it is hard to think about something else when writing. The GT/RA teachers enjoyed the afternoon learning from the models presented by our own teachers.

Mr. Harder and Mrs. Malm are students in Mrs. Beisell's lesson during professional development.

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RA Freshmen Explore the Rock Cycle

Mrs. Beisell explains to the Freshmen what their exploration will look like.
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Exploration

RA freshmen students explore the rock cycle using technology.
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RA Kindergarten are Engaged

Mrs. Knaack's kindergarten students are engaged in building a track and ramp to watch the motion of their ball.
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Mrs. Goodchild's Science Board

The Graettinger MS Science room displays the Disciplinary Core Instruction and the Cross Cutting Concepts that students learn and use in the Next Generation Science Standards.
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Engagement in GT 4th Grade Science

Mrs. Klepper used a picture of a boy holding a ball of white lights to engage students in her lesson in science.
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I Notice I Wonder

Students then drew a picture of the picture. This was followed by writing things that they noticed and wondered about the picture.

Welcome to our new GT/RA Teachers!

GT/RA Spanish - Ms. Magana

GT/RA High School Science - Mrs. Jeffrey

GT Transitional Kindergarten - Mr. Girres

RA Middle School Math - Ms. Stensrud

RA Middle School Reading and Language Arts - Mrs. Geehlen

RA Physical Education and Health - Mr. McCabe

The Magic of a Preschool Teacher

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Graettinger Preschool

Ms. Fredericksen has the attention of the preschool as they identify objects on flashcards.
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Terril Preschool

Mrs. Borchers' students are coloring and cutting.
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Ruthven-Ayrshire Preschool

Ms. William's class is busy at stations working on forming and identifying letters by writing, making, and on technology.
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New Technology at School

The school has a Dremel Digital 3D Printer for use in the Industrial Tech Department.
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3 Dimensional Printing

A digital file created on a computer, then transferred to the printer to create a 3D project. Here is a frog created on the computer.
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Drone

The school also has a drone available for school projects. Here it was used to take a picture of the football field.

GT 8th Grade Industrial Tech

The 8th Grade exploratory students are making cutting boards. A few of the projects are in the bottom right corner of this photo.

Artwork with Mr. Clouse

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RA Kindergarten Ice Cream Cones

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RA 2nd Grade Titan Signs

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RA 1st Grade Birds

I Wonder - I Know in 2nd Grade Math

Mrs. Dreeszen presented students with a math problem about beetles and lizards. The students then identified things that they wondered and know. Students then were given manipulatives to visualize and solve the problem.