A Message From Mr. Soderberg, Superintendent
The time has finally arrived! We’ve reached the first major break of our school year and that’s hard to believe. In some ways, the start of the school year seems like yesterday, yet it still feels like years ago. This fall has been one of continued growth, forming meaningful traditions, and creating a culture of excellence. Our time together has been marked by many successes and positive moments that have created a sense of service, optimism, and pride for our entire school community.
A few of the highlights this year include the Veteran’s Day Assembly, the National Honor Society Blood Drive, the Albany Fall Yard Clean-Up, our Homecoming celebration, and our holiday concerts. These events are important because they honor members of our community, provide valuable service, build traditions, and highlight the musical talents of our students. Through these events and the many other school-related activities, our students experience the value of citizenship, achievement, respect, and excellence.
Our staff continues to do something big in a special little place. They dedicate themselves to professional growth and excellence in all they do. Each day our staff steps up whenever and wherever needed to put the needs of our students first. The students continue demonstrating enthusiasm, school spirit, and a sense of family that models the very best. Through the hard work and dedication of our students, staff, and families we saw a significant increase in our performance ratings on the state report card. We have many more great things on the horizon and the future looks very bright.
As we part ways to enjoy time with family and friends, I want to wish all Comets the very best during this holiday season and beyond.
It's a great day to be a Comet!
Go Comets!
Mr. Soderberg
A Message from Mr. Kostroun, Middle and High School Principal
Christmas Break is here! What a wonderful opportunity to spend time with friends and family!
Our music department put on a great winter concert last week. It was very well attended by our families and community members. Our students were able to show their growth and did a great job representing themselves and our school. We are so thankful for the continued family and community support.
We had a group attend the SLATE Technology Conference in the Dells earlier this week. A major focus was placed on the role of AI in education. Sessions included AI platforms, AI extensions, workplace efficiency, aligning state standards using AI, using AI to collect data and generate reports, and how students can use AI as a learning tool. Students come first here at Albany. The information we gained at SLATE will help our staff and students stay on the cutting edge.
The safety of our staff and students continues to be a top priority. It is important for a school safety approach to be multidimensional. Physical Security, Focus on Relationships, Collaboration with Law Enforcement, and Awareness Training are all part of keeping our staff and students safe everyday. Let me also take a moment to remind all parents and families to report any suspicious or threatening activity to the school administration or local authorities. We have systems in place with multiple agencies and we follow-up on all reports. We are very grateful for the support of our community as we work together to build a layered approach to school safety. Please reach out with any questions, concerns, or suggestions.
We have accomplished a lot so far this year thanks to the dedication of our staff and the support of our community! I hope this holiday season brings everyone well-deserved rest, joy, and excitement for the year ahead!
Mr. Kostroun
A Message from Ms. Becher, 4K-5 Principal & Director of Special Education/Student Services
Happy Holidays from Albany Elementary School students and staff! We had a festive and fun week leading up to our winter break. Some highlights were:
Tinsel Toes and Grinch dress up days
The Albany PTO Christmas shopping event
3rd and 6th graders singing Spanish Christmas carols
Winterfest activities
Cozmo the Comet visiting our 4K class
At our monthly assembly, we recognized the following students for demonstrating kindness: Westlynn, Sage, Yulieth, LilyAnn, Emma, Lucas, Jasper, Colt, Aria, Alex, Brielle, Nora, Gianni, Addisyn, Mitchell, and Kaelynn. At the assembly, the students helped to thank their teachers with a poem and cards. Many students also helped spread kindness in our community by making holiday cards for residents at Albany Oaks.
After break, we will dive right back in with learning! Our winter assessment window will begin, and elementary students will take the STAR math and reading tests. They will participate in the mid-year benchmark checks with Dibels, and continue a new reading assessment through aimswebPlus. We will be communicating information about student's reading progress with families during the month of January.
SCHOOL DISTRICT NURSE - Nurse Lindsey
Flu season is ramping up. For those who were not able to participate in our school event for flu vaccines, I encourage you to reach out to your child’s provider to help keep them healthy this winter. A flu vaccine can take the flu from Wild to Mild! (see CDC flier).
Next, the most important intervention to keep kids healthy is good handwashing! Be sure to encourage and teach good handwashing, especially before eating, after coughing, blowing one’s nose, or sneezing, and after using the bathroom. Washing for 20 seconds on all surfaces of the hands and wrists is important to prevent spreading germs. Let’s have a healthy and safe winter season!
Thank you!
Lindsey Arnsmeier, RN, BSN
Albany School Nurse
lindsey.arnsmeier@albany.k12.wi.us
608-862-3135 x2418
SCIENCE DEPARTMENT - MR. BAKKEN
6th Grade Science- The students have just concluded learning about cells and heredity. They completed a family pedigree and conducted research about genetic engineering. Our next unit is Earth's Atmosphere. The students will be learning about the different climates around the world and how the global weather patterns interact. We will be tracking our local weather and watching our local meteorologists predict what's going to happen in Albany's weather future.
7th/8th Grade Science- The students just finished their Space Science unit. We talked about many different aspects of space including the moon, all of the planets, and the technology that has been developed to explore them. As a final project, the students were asked to come up with a plan to colonize Mars for one year. They had to develop a timeline, a supply list, and pick out a specific location on Mars to settle. Each project was very unique with a lot of really neat ideas. The students hung them up in my classroom for others to look at and it has been a great way for students to have discussions about the different ideas they came up with.
Brandon Bakken
Albany MS/HS Science
(608) 862-3135 Ext. 2203
MS/HS CAREER & TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION DEPARMENT - MR. BROUGHTON
Our CTE students have been busy with exciting projects as the holiday season approaches. 7th graders are building and programming Lego Mindstorm EV3 robots, while Tech 201 just completed their Adirondack chair builds. Tech 101 students are finishing balsa wood bridges, and applying engineering principles. The Comet Media team has wrapped up their Christmas special video, showcasing their editing skills, and upper-level students are creating some unique Christmas gifts. Thanks to all the students for their hard work and the community for supporting our CTE department.
SOCIAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT- MRS. BROWN
10th Grade World History: Upon returning from break, students will continue their unit on Changing Europe, with a focus on the Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, and the Age of Absolutism. Students will focus on identifying cause/effect relationships between changing thoughts of Europeans and actions/developments of European governments.
Modern US History: Students will finish the semester looking at the Rise of Conservatism in the 1980s and the developments of the New Century. It's been a great semester!
SOCIAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT- MR.CAMPBELL
Here is what is happening in Mr. Campbell's classroom...
8th Grade U.S. History:
For several weeks we have discussed the events leading up to the American Revolution. A war or conflict is never caused by one single event but a series of events, so we have focused on these events throughout that time. After, we discussed the key events during the Revolutionary War and the impact on the rest of the world. We will start the new year by discussing the foundations of our government including the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
9th Grade U.S. History:
From the start of the year until December we had been discussing things going on throughout the United States from the time period just after the American Civil War to around 1910. These topics included immigration, industrialization, reconstruction of the South, and the Native American Wars. All of these events culminated in a time period in history known as the Progressive Era, which has been our focus for December. The Progressive Era brought a lot of changes to American society, many which we still see today. These include the minimum wage, a standard work day, the end of child labor, women's right to vote (suffrage), and many more topics that we discussed in this unit. In January, we will start to move beyond the late 1800s and begin discussing American expansion (imperialism) and involvement in other areas of the world. This will include the Spanish-American War and how we obtained Alaska and Hawaii.
Civics:
Through the month of December we have been discussing the role of the Legislative Branch in the United States. We focused on the ins and outs of both chambers of Congress, including the requirements to become a Senator or member of the House of Representatives. We also discussed the term lengths, how districts are divided, and the names of our current representatives. We also spent time discussing the ways that constitutional amendments are passed and the intricate process of how a bill becomes a law. We start the new year by discussing the Executive Branch and the presidency.
Psych:
Psychology is a very fast-paced class that can be intense at times. This past month students have focused on two key topics. Our first topic this month was about learning. We discussed ways in which people learn through classical conditioning, operant conditioning, positive/negative reinforcement, etc. We discussed phobias and how conditioning can help people cope with these phobias or eliminate them. We also started a unit right before break regarding memory. We focused on ways in which we store information and also how injuries can affect our memories. In addition, we discussed a handful of people with superior memories that can remember specific days from any point of their lives. This is called "Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory" (HSAM). To start the new year, students will be preparing for our final exam which will culminate our first seven units we have discussed.
Law:
In law we spent the first half of the month of December finishing our discussion on various types of crimes and their levels of severity. This included crimes against people and against property. We started a unit on defenses shortly after. This included different types of defenses people can claim if accused of a crime. Also, if accused, what does a typical court trial look like? We will go into January finishing up our unit on defenses shortly before mid-January which is the end of our semester class.
I hope that all of my students and their families have a safe and happy holiday season!
Thanks,
Jeff Campbell
MS/HS Social Studies
Data Coordinator
Graduation Coordinator
MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELOR - MRS. DOYLE
Doyle- December S'more Newsletter
Thank you!
Signe Doyle
Middle and High School Counselor
608-862-3135 Ext. 2117
"Every child deserves a champion-an adult who will never give up on them."
HS ELA DEPARTMENT - MR. EVANS
Albany High School ELA says ‘tis the season to read and write!
In English 9, we read and analyzed Lord of the Flies. Students are wrapping up their argumentative essays on the text, and are working hard to advance their writing skills!
English 10 is focusing on the concept of community, what it means, and how they can foster it as they read A Man Called Ove.
In Adventure Lit, we are full speed ahead on Joseph Campbell's concept of the monomyth and the hero's journey, and they are applying it to a book of their choosing.
Sci-Fi/Dystopia, just finished fantastic comparison and contrast essays on their dystopian reading, and they are now enjoying Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
Creative Writing Workshop has been writing poetry for the last month or so, experimenting with forms like sonnets, villanelles, and metered poetry, and culminating in creating their own portfolios of poetry!
MS ELA DEPARTMENT - MRS. JOHNSON
ELA 6- Students in 6th grade have been studying the genre of science fiction. They have learned about the different characteristics of this genre and read the science fiction story, All Summer in a Day." They also read a nonfiction article about the planet Venus. Our next novel will be called, Among the Hidden.
ELA 7- 7th graders just finished reading and watching, A Christmas Carol" They then had to demonstrate their knowledge of the story by writing three ACE paragraphs that responded to different prompts/
ELA 8- 8th graders just finished their Hunger Games unit. After writing an essay on the theme of the Hunger Games, they got to enjoy the movie. To wrap things up before break, we read the short story, Gift of the Magi and learned about different kinds of irony.
MRS.HAYLEY JORDAN - MS/HS FACE TEACHER
The 7th grade Exploratory class recently completed a unit on the chemistry of baking and celebrating by baking and decorating Christmas Cookies!
In Child Development, students completed a unit on the growth and development of infants and are moving on to the toddler and preschool years.
Culinary Arts 2 has focused on preparing meats. Students demonstrated their skills by preparing a Chick-fil-A copycat recipe, grilling both chicken and beef and preparing a roast.
Students in Introduction to Foods have diligently completed a gingerbread house unit. Students researched designs, created templates, cooked, built and decorated their unique designs.
Confection Arts focused on decorating with buttercream frosting. Students designed and decorated their own cookies and will be participating in a cupcake challenge after winter break.
BAND, CHOIR & DRAMA DEPARTMENT - MR. KAROLEK
5th Grade Band and General Music: This month the 5th grade students prepared for and performed at the Albany Music Department Winter Concert. This was their first ever band concert and they did an amazing job!
Middle School Band: This month the Middle School band performed in the Albany Music Department Winter concert. The 7th and 8th graders continued their pep band performances this month at the Albany Boys and Albany/Monticello Girls Basketball games.
High School Band: This month the High School band performed in the Albany Music Department Winter concert. The 7th and 8th graders continued their pep band performances this month at the Albany Boys and Albany/Monticello Girls Basketball games.
Music Department Update: We would like to thank all of the friends, family, and community members that attended our Albany Music Department Winter Concert! This event was a major success! From our Cookie-a-thon and tumbler sale we raised over $1000! The funds we raise will go towards future trips for the music students, including our Disney Trip happening this Spring!
Drama Department Update: This month Middle and High School students participated in our first script read throughs for our Middle and High school plays. Our Middle School students will be putting on 10 Reasons You Should Have Stayed Home Sick Today. Our high School students will be putting on The Mad Tea Party. These plays will be brought to the stage for the Albany community in April!
SPECIAL EDUCATION - MRS. KOLASCH
Life Skills Math: We have been continuing with our budgeting unit, learning on principal and interest on loans, and debit vs. credit cards. While this has been challenging, the students are doing quite well! During the week before break, we are learning about checking accounts, complete with their own checkbook and checks, and a debit card. Balancing a checkbook is a task we can all use a refresher on!
Life Skills: The holidays are a great time, but is also a very stressful time. We are doing bellringers on ways to stay healthy physically and mentally during this time. Students have really been working hard to stay on top of grades, and are enjoying their classes!
Comet Coffee Cafe: The Comet Coffee Cafe has been doing great, with sales of hot chocolate far exceeding anything we have seen before! Coffee sales are still good, and everyone seems to like the variety of flavors we can offer. Students are also learning how to make sure orders are correct and going out quickly especially when we are busy. They are learning great skills for the workforce upon graduation.
Resource Room: The number of students who come in the Resource Room each day, especially during LEARN, is increasing. Projects are being worked on, and students are using the time to work together, and get caught up on work. Students are also doing great at making sure to check in to see what teacher they are scheduled to see that day.
Looking forward to 2025 and the great things our students will do each and every day!
MS MATH DEPARTMENT - MR. KOPLIN
Geometry: Students have been learning about the trigonometric ratios sine, cosine, and tangent to be able to find the missing side or acute angle of a right triangle. Then students started looking at the special relationships of the sides of 30-60-90 triangles and 45-45-90 triangles.
8th grade: Students have transitioned from solving equations with algebra tiles to solving them without them and recording their work step by step. They also determined when an equation has one, none, or infinite solutions. Now students are studying negative and 0 exponents.
7th grade: Students are learning how to move between different representations of proportional relationships. They can find a unit rate and use it to write an equation for the relationship.
6th grade: Students have been solving percent problems with tape diagrams, double number lines, and ratio tables. Now students are using the same strategies to compare different rates which will eventually lead into finding a unit rate.
Tim Koplin
6-8 Math and Geometry
Albany School District
608-862-3135 x2213
MS/HS PHYSICAL EDUCATION - MR. OLSEN
GENERAL MUSIC - MR. ROHLOFF
Elementary (K-4th Grade): Elementary music students did a wonderful job at their Winter
Concert! I am so proud of all the work they put in for a festive night filled with music! Thank you
to all of those who showed up to support the students, they were excited to perform for a large
crowd. We have started talking about composing and making our own music using the
Incredibox website, which has been very popular among all students.
Middle School Choir: Middle school choir students did a fantastic job in the Band and Choir
Winter Concert. They have grown so much throughout the course of the year so far, and I can
see a noticeable change in their confidence when performing. When the New Year hits, we will
start working on applying our musical knowledge to new pieces of music in preparation for
events in the spring.
High School Choir: The high school choir students had a great performance at the Band and
Choir Winter Concert this month. I have heard lots of positive comments from the community
and other students about the overall sound for a smaller ensemble! I am incredibly proud of this
group of students and cannot wait to see what the spring has in store for them. We are now
shifting gears to our Solo and Ensemble unit, where students can choose to participate in the
festival in Monroe in March, or complete a small project. I look forward to seeing how these
students will grow in their musical skills over the coming weeks and months!
HS MATH DEPARTMENT - MR. SCHWAB
The high school students have been busy at work all of December.
In Algebra 1, the students have been working on solving systems of equations using graphing, substitution, and elimination.
The Algebra 2 class has been exploring different ways to represent solutions to equations, inequalities, systems of equations, and systems of inequalities using number lines and graphs.
The students in Integrate Math have collected their data and are analyzing it as part of their semester project. This project requires students to utilize the various concepts they have learned throughout the semester in a meaningful context.
In Precalculus, the students learned about Pascal's triangle and the binomial distribution in order to expand binomials with higher order exponents. They have also been analyzing various types of sequences and series.
For the students in Calculus, there has been a continuation of learning different methods of differentiation. These methods include: differentiation of inverse trigonometric functions, logarithmic differentiation, implicit differentiation, and differentiation using the chain rule.
The Statistics class has continued progressing on their observational studies as well as learning one of the most important theorems of the year (The Central Limit Theorem). The students will be utilizing this important theorem to analyze sample means and make valid conclusions about data.
Jim Schwab
Albany High School
Math Teacher
HS SCIENCE DEPARTMENT - MRS. RYAN
Anatomy and Physiology - Students are working on bone and bone anatomy.
Chemistry - Students are learning about Molecular geometry and how the VSEPR Theory relates to electron repulsion. Next up will be electron hybridization.
Ecology - Students are learning about The Water Cycle.
Physical Science - Students just took a quiz on waves and how waves behave at boundaries.
Biology - Students will be finishing up on Nucleic acids and Protein synthesis and moving into photosynthesis.
AG DEPARTMENT - MS. RYAN
https://secure.smore.com/n/9ju32
Hala Ryan
Albany Agricultural Educator
Albany FFA Advisor
SPANISH DEPARTMENT - MS. WICHITA
¡Hola!
Wow, I can’t believe we are at the end of 2024! We were able to finish up units before leaving for break and learn some holiday vocabulary in Spanish.
Please read on to find out more about your child’s class. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
Exploratory Spanish: This is such a great group of students. They are polite, excited to learn and share, creative, and positive leaders. We are still working with Ms. Searls' 3rd Graders on Fridays. This month Mr. Rohloff helped us learn three Spanish carols, which we performed in a mini-concert.
Spanish 1: We were able to complete all of Unit 5 before break! The first part of the unit was centered around learning vocabulary and working with a story about a protagonist's brother who steals his girlfriends. We are learning the ASL signs when we learn the core Spanish vocabulary. Please ask your student the English translation as well as the sign for this unit’s vocabulary: su hermano / hermana va a, tiene una novia / un novio, está enojado. Our past core vocabulary with ASL are: quiere ser, habla, toma.
Advanced Spanish: We are really working on improving our communication skills by playing a lot of different types of games. Some class favorites are circumlocution, scattergories, and What Do You Meme? The focus of our curriculum is to be comprehensible, not to be perfect. It is different from the way many of us learned a second language. That being said, we are explicitly learning some important grammar points. We have practiced verb conjugation by using the website conjuguemos, playing “seis”, and class conjugation competitions.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT - MR. WACHHOLZ
1st Hour MS Exploratory - The 6th graders have been developing their typing skills and learning about and using conditionals and functions in their computer coding lessons.
2nd Hour Entrepreneurship - This class has completed detailed study of a business plan and will begin developing their small business presentations next month.
3rd.Hour Intro to Computer Science - This past month we completed units on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and Networks and the Internet.
4th Hour Accounting - This month we learned how to complete the accounting tasks that wrap up a fiscal period (i.e. prepare financial statements, document closing entries, and prepare a post-closing trial balance.
5th Hour Personal Finance - During this month our focus was on how to effectively budget your income.
If you need anything else, please let me know.
Rich
EMILY HOWARD -LIBRARY MEDIA SPECIALIST
Emily Howard
Library Media Specialist
Albany, WI 53502
Phone: 608-862-3135 x2309
Albany JV/Varsity Boys Basketball Schedule 2024-2025
***Time listed is the JV start time***
Friday, December 27th @ Parkview (JV 5:00 pm / Varsity 6:30 pm)
Friday, January 3rd @ Cassville (6:00 pm)
Tuesday, January 7th @ Barneveld (6:00 pm)
Friday, January 10th (H) vs. Potosi (6:00 pm)
Monday, January 13th (H) vs. Argyle (6:00 pm)
Thursday, January 16th @ Monticello (6:00 pm)
Tuesday, January 21st @ Black Hawk (6:00 pm)
Friday, January 24th @ Belmont (6:00 pm)
Monday, January 27th (H) vs. Shullsburg (6:00 pm)
Thursday, January 30th @ Juda (6:00 pm)
Albany-Monticello JV/Varsity Girls Basketball Schedule 2024-2025
***Time listed is the JV start time. Home games are at Albany unless otherwise noted***
Friday, December 27th @ Parkview (JV 5:00pm / Varsity 6:30pm)
Thursday, January 2nd (H) vs. Belmont (6:00pm)
Monday, January 6th @ New Glarus (6:00pm)
Thursday, January 9th @ Argyle-Pecatonica (6:00pm)
Saturday, January 11th (H) vs. Evansville (JV 5:00pm / Varsity 6:30pm) GBB Alumni Night
Friday, January 17th @ Potosi-Cassville (6:00pm)
Monday, January 20th (H) vs. Juda (6:00pm) @ Monticello Senior Night
Thursday, January 23rd (H) vs. Black Hawk (6:00pm) @ Monticello
Saturday, January 25th (H) vs. Randolph (JV 2:30pm / Varsity 3:45pm)
Tuesday, January 28th (H) vs. Barneveld (6:00pm)
Friday, January 31st (H) vs. Benton (6:00pm) Parent’s Night
