Office: 605-367-7643

Email: SFSDEdisonOffice@k12.sd.us

Counseling Center: 605-367-8331

Fax: 605-367-8457

Newsletter Date:

March 1, 2020

Volume 1, Issue 8

March 5

• NHD Regional Competition
  

March 9

• Track Sign Up Online
  

March 19-20

• No School (Compensatory Day)
  

March 23

• Track Practice Begins
  

March 27

• Late Start (Inservice)
  

April 10-13

• No School (Spring Break)
  

...If students become sick during school hours, they must report to the Health Office. Students cannot text or call parents/guardians from their personal cell phones to be picked up as students are not allowed to use their personal phones during school hours.

...If the school nurse determines a student is ill and needs to go home, their attendance will be entered as sent home by school. If a student does not check in with the health office and is picked up due to illness, the attendance will be marked as parent request (unless a doctor’s note for that day is provided later).

Students and families, thank you for taking the time to attend conferences and meet with your teachers and student’s teachers. Open lines of communication are an essential component to a student’s learning and success. When parents, students, and teachers work together, great things can happen. We appreciate that you support the teachers and are involved in your student’s education. Conferences can be a great time to connect with your student’s teachers; however, please know that conferences don’t have to be the only time to connect with staff. Parents are always welcome to come in, email, and/or call. We invite you to be part of what is going on at Edison and with your student’s education.

A special thank you to Edison PTO and all the volunteers that provided the meals for our staff on all three days of conferences. We are very appreciative of the continued support that the PTO gives the Edison community and our staff.

It always amazes me how fast the school year flies by. Amazingly enough, we only have a little over a quarter of school remaining for the 2019-2020 school year. For the remainder of the school year and beyond, I would like to challenge students and parents on the existing thought process of the purpose of grades. Unfortunately, many of our students and some parents get caught up with grades rather than learning. I propose this question for you to think about, “Do we want our students to be fixated on grades or on learning?” Do we want our students to be life-long learners and does concentrating on a grade facilitate the idea of life-long learning? I think most of us would say that concentrating on grades means that we have an end product in mind rather than learning, which has no end. One way that we can shift away from the fixation on grades and move the focus to learning is through our daily language that we use with our students. Rather than focusing on “How did you do on the test today?”, and “How are your grades?”, change the format to “What did you learn today?”, “What did you learn today that excited you to learn more about the topic?”, or “How did you improve your proficiency level or demonstrate your learning in (pick a class)?” Do your students hear you pulling for them through your questions about their learning, or do they hear that their primary purpose is grades? Ultimately, grades should be a form of communication and they should communicate what the student has learned and not what they have earned. Learning should motivate and have no end! Remember that our words and questions have a very powerful message and we want that message to be about learning and student success.

We hope you and your student have a wonderful remainder of the school year. It sounds like spring will be here before we know it. Take care and please let us know if there is anything that we can do to help your student to be as successful as possible.

REGISTRATION~

7th grade registration will be in the beginning of March during science classes and 6th grade registration will be at the end of March during science classes. A form will be sent home with your child and a signature requested.

HS Visitation!!~

March 18th – 8th graders will take a trip to the high school they will be attending next year for a visit and information. This will take place from roughly 9:30-10:45 on that day.

High School Summer School~

Registration is now open for High School Summer School.

-CONNECTIONS (located at student’s high school) is designed to assist students in making a smooth transition to high school by providing connections with math, reading, and writing skills. The class incorporates a variety of activities which provide students with an opportunity to improve their academic skills, as well as to familiarize them with their new high school, expectations, procedures, opportunities available, and organizations/clubs/activities. This is an excellent opportunity for students to get a head start as they enter high school.

Students who successfully complete the class will earn .50 elective credit toward their total high school credits.

The course will include math and language arts units which will help prepare students for high school.

Online Summer School will run at CTE! Please check the link for more information and registration. All summer school classes can be found here.

http://www.sf.k12.sd.us/schools/summer-school-high-school

Questions? Please contact 8th grade school counselors, Phil Biteler or Sonja Smith

Binders Needed…

Every year we have students that are unable to purchase binders and try to unsuccessfully organize themselves in other ways. We try to help provide students with binders that cannot afford binders and need one.

We can always use more zipper binders to help our students in being more successful. If you would feel the urge to help some of our less fortunate students out, we would appreciate donations of binders to the Counseling Center. OTHER school supplies are also accepted including pens, pencils, folders, pencil pouches, notebooks, composition books, etc.

Chill on the Hill was a great success & Mother Nature came through for us. We look forward to next year & thanks for sending your kids.

A HUGE Thanks goes out to all the volunteers who helped us out with meals during Parent/Teacher conferences:

Kjerstin Smith, Yung Ring, Leslie Raveling, Kristen Engelson, Jamie Nordin, Heidi Leuning, Tina Husser, Tammy Hanson, Kristi Hansen, Stephanie Lucas, Erica Bukovich, Cindy Rogich, Sue Mollison, Kristy Dillon, Bec Dorman, Becky Wall, Kelly Jerstad, Anne Mathiesen, Sheila Etrheim, Laurie Stadheim, Lori Blom, April Timat, Jennifer Adler, Lori Yunag, Stephanie Gongopoulos, Susan Eichacker, Sharon Ulin, Becca Hohn, Nicole Groen, Jody VerHey, Danette Saur, Amy Horsted, Tressa Kool, Shelley Nolan-Hefty, Wendy Berning, Alicia Peterson, Shelly Haan, Natalie Stamp, Erika Batcheller, Stacey Skaff, Sara Lewis, Julie Parker, Michelle Albrecht, Julie Person, Kelly Blount, Nikki Schmaltz, Emily Spaans, Wendy Kok, Lizzy Bauer, Jessica Robbins, Jackie Dumansky, Melissa Nelson, Jolene Gordon, Melissa Heiser.

We, as a PTO, are taking the Bookfair over from Chanda Fawcett & Timothy Furness continuing forward. It was a great handoff & we thank you both for helping us out to get us started. We also wanted to thank our volunteers who helped us out as well. It takes a village!!

Escadar, Nebil, and Yunus Bushra, Adel Tiah, Kelly Blount, Jennifer Adler, Emily Spaans, Tressa Kool, Sarah Morel, and Lizzy Bauer

We have our PTO Board finalized for next year & thanks to Katie Sumey for filling the role as Secretary, Nikki Schmaltz as Co-President w/Allison Crawford & Kristina Sipma as Treasurer.

Next year (2021), we will need some help with the presidency role, so come to a PTO meeting and see what it’s all about:)

Please join us at our next PTO meeting: Wednesday, February 19th at noon in the conference room! Learn firsthand about what is going on at Edison. We’d love to see you!

The countdown begins: 3 more months of school!!

Thanks again for all your support

Go Cats!

Allison Pay Crawford and Shannon Van Buskirk

2019-20 PTO Co-Presidents

PTO Officers:

Co-President: Allison Pay Crawford

Co-President: Shannon Van Buskirk

Treasurer: Emilie Ng
Secretary: Karen Walters

Contact us

edisonsiouxfalls@gmail.com
www.edisonsf.org
Edison Middle School on Facebook

We are excited to have Edison Middle School take part in the Amazon
Smile program. Don’t forget to put Edison as your charitable organization when purchasing through Amazon!!

For the latest info, past minutes of meetings and

budget information, visit our website at edisonsf.org.

The goals of Edison’s Student Council are to build school spirit and pride, to assume responsibility as citizens in our school and community, and to promote a safe, caring environment.

Student Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Students are actively involved in several projects this fall. Parents, families, and friends are encouraged to participate and become involved in these projects. The current projects are:

Chemo Bags Delivering Hope - The money we earned from Secret Valentines was used to purchase supplies for the chemo bags that Delivering Hope gives to local chemo patients. Thank you to everyone who purchased valentines.

Student Hunger Drive – We are collecting food and money for the food pantry and the Backpack Program. The PRO-Time who collects the most will receive free dance tickets for the all-school dance on March 13. We will be collecting nonperishable food items and money. A $1.00 donation will count as 10 pounds of food. Please bring your food donations to room 144 and monetary donations to Mrs. Sherard in room 145. The food drive ends on February 28.

School Dance – We will be having a school dance open to all Edison students on March 13 from 4:00-5:30. Tickets are $3.00. Students must buy advance tickets before or after school in the cafeteria on March 5, 6, 9, and 10. Advance tickets must be purchased to ensure that we have enough chaperones and concessions to sell. Chaperones are needed. If you can help, please contact Mrs. Sherard.

Pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House. Please collect pop tabs and deliver them to room 144. These pop tabs are recycled and help support the Ronald McDonald House, which provides a temporary home for families who have seriously ill children.

Next meeting date: March 10 at 8:15

Concert Dates~

Make sure your child’s concert dates are on your calendar.

Mar. 14 Band Solo/Ensemble Contest at PHMS 8:00 am–1:00 p.m.

Mar. 24 Brio Concert with 5th grade festival concert 7:00 p.m.

Apr. 3 Brio/Inventions/Jazz Band Tour Day All Day

Apr. 16 EMS Orchestra Concerts in Gym 6:00-6th gr., 6:45-7th gr., 7:30-8th gr.

Apr. 23 EMS Band Concerts in Gym 6:00-6th gr., 6:45-7th gr., 7:30-8th gr.

April 25 Orchestra Contest at Susan B Anthony elementary All Day

Apr. 30 EMS Chorus Concerts in Gym 6th grade – 6:30 p.m. & 7th/8th grade – 7:45 p.m.

May 8 Illuminations Final Concert in auditorium 6:00 p.m.

May 8 Inventions Final Concert in auditorium 7:15 p.m.

Musician of the Month~

Each month the band, orchestra, and chorus areas will each recognize a 6th, 7th, and 8th grader that shows exceptional dedication, responsibility, and character each and every day.

Musicians of the month for FEBRUARY are:

Band: Connor Sergeant (8) Lincoln Schumacher (7) Gavin Tolrud (6)

Chorus: Lucas Schreck/Mackenzie Ford (8) Genesis Manzano Huezo/Jamie Nguyen (7)

Ella White/Callison Chap (6)

Orchestra: Clara Carlson (8) Sophia Gordon (7) Nathan Stolz (6)

High School Band Auditions~

Students are not required to audition for band classes and marching band at the Sioux Falls public high schools; however, students may choose to audition for an upper level band class instead of the normal Freshman Band. Auditions for the most part are now finished for LHS, so if there is a problem, please contact Mr. Rygg. Audition music for Roosevelt will be made available to us very soon, so interested students should obtain that music as soon as possible. Students are encouraged to get help on their music in private lessons or from Mr. Rygg/Mr. Eckart.

7/8th Grade Band Solo/Ensemble Day~

We are looking for 7th and 8th grade band students who would like to have fun playing and earn extra credit! Your student has the option of playing at Solo/Ensemble Day on Saturday, March 14 at Patrick Henry Middle School. They perform solos and/or small group music in public and receive a rating and constructive comments/critique. The time commitment is only about a half-hour that morning. There is a small fee for each event ($5 per solo, $2 per person in an ensemble) to help defray costs of judging, etc. Join the fun, play with friends if you wish, and earn extra credit in band!

Brio Events~

March 24- Concert at Edison with the 5th grade festival at 7:00 pm. Be here at 6:40 in Brio shirt and jeans.

April 3- Brio tour with jazz band and Inventions to various elementary schools. All students must have NO MISSING WORK and all grades must be a C or above in order to go on the tour day with us. Be at Edison at 7:30 am wearing your Brio shirt, Jeans, and tennis shoes.

Orchestra Contest~

Your student will have the option of performing in a small group contest where they play in front of a judge and get a rating on how well they perform. Contest is not until April 25, however, we will choose music soon to start working on. We will help students choose music during orchestra class.

Private Lessons~

Now is a great time of year to consider starting private lessons on your instrument/voice. Individual lessons with a skilled teacher are a great way to learn, grow, and excel as a musician. The private lesson list can be found on the Edison Music Dept. website at http://emsmusicdept.weebly.com/private-instructors-list.html

Cleaning Your Closets?

The Sioux Falls School District is always on the lookout for donations of gently-used band and orchestra instruments. Given our funding challenges, this is a great way to increase our instrument supply and allow more students to play in band and orchestra. Please contact Mrs. Sip or Mr. Rygg for more information.

Sign Language Interpreter~

Please notify your child’s director if you need a sign language interpreter for the spring concert. Notify the director at least ONE MONTH before the concert date. (Concert dates and director emails are included in this ECHO.)

Ensemble Schedule~

Jazz Band meets Monday and Wednesday mornings from 7:40 – 8:40 a.m.

Wind Ensemble meets Thursday mornings from 8:00 – 8:45 a.m.

Brio meets Wednesday and Friday mornings from 8:10 – 8:45 a.m.

Inventions meets Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 7:40 – 8:45 a.m.

Illuminations meets Monday mornings from 7:40 – 8:45 a.m.

Edison Music Department Website~

The Edison Music Department has a website! Refer to this website for information and dates.

http://emsmusicdept.weebly.com/

“Like” us on Facebook!~

Edison Music Department has a Facebook page! This page will be used for informational purposes only. You can check concert dates, rehearsal dates, practicing tips, etc. on our page. We will NOT have any pictures of students posted, it will strictly be used for getting information out to you!

The page is: www.facebook.com/EMSMusicDept

There are other Edison schools out there so check before you “like” our site!

Band directors

• Jason Rygg - Jason.Rygg@k12.sd.us

• Tim Eckart – Tim.Eckart@k12.sd.us

Chorus directors

• Amber Sundvold – Amber.Sundvold@k12.sd.us

• Mollie Turbak – Mollie.Turbak@k12.sd.us
  

Orchestra directors

• Stacy Sip – Stacy.Sip@k12.sd.us

• Shannon Abels – Shannon.Abels@k12.sd.us

“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.” - Lao Tzu

Did you know that your student can check their library account from home? All it takes is computer (or even phone) and an internet connection. When your child logs into their account, they can do the following:

• See how many books they have checked out and when they are due
• See if they have any books overdue or have fines (including the amount of the fine)
• Renew a book
• Put a book on hold

Plus, we have several electronic audiobooks and electronic books available.

"How to" videos with directions for logging into library accounts and accessing ebooks can be found on the How To page of the Edison Library Website at http://www.catsread.com!

The following 8th grade students competed in Edison’s National History Day contest and were chosen to advance to the regional National History Day contest that will be held at the Old Court House Museum in Sioux Falls on Thursday, March 5, 2020:

Anderson, Joslyn

Boesel, Trevor

Dahler, Lily

Deilke, Claire

Egland, Clark

Elrod, Kate

Else, Elijah

Friesen, Elsa

Ge, Laura

Haluszka, Cierra

Hartwig, Ronan

Helm, Michaela

Hendrickson, Payley

Hoekman, Annaliese

Hope, Bridger

Jennewein, Jasmine

Jensen, Elizabeth

Littel-Jensen, Curran

Mayen, Angeth

Mazariegos, Isaac

McKenzie, Rocky

Mollison, Jacklyn

Moneke, Josephine

Newitt, Sam

Olson, Leni

Ralston-Perreault, Lily

Redda, Siyanne

Smith, Ian

Tao, Arthur

VanRoekel, Landon

Congratulations to these students for all their hard work and grit.

Thanks. Mrs. Bell

The 6th grade students who participated in this year's National History Day contest did amazing work. The judges were impressed with all of the entries and could not believe 6th graders did this quality of work. They really struggled with choosing only a few to move on.

Congratulations to the projects advancing to the regional National History Day competition on March 5th:

Websites:

The Battle at Midway by Naomi Jespersen, Christopher Tao, and Nadia Schneider

Amelia Earhart by Avery West

Performance:

An Idea That Built a Nation by Mason Dean and Callaway Weeks

Papers:

The End of a Racial State: How the End of the Apartheid Broke Barriers by Brady Wheeler

Profits of Islam by Lena Alhasnawi

Exhibit:

Women of NASA: Broken Racial and Gender Barriers by Mylie Johnson, Jirah Gustin, Zurie Petersen, Saniya Dysart, and Isabella Larson

Congratulations to the Edison Mathcounts participants! Our team placed 2nd at the February 20th regional competition in Sioux Falls. In addition, 7 Edison students qualified to compete at the state competition. Mr. Gerszewski is looking forward to these students continuing to display their grit and tenacity in Pierre March 14th:

Sam Newitt, Laura Ge, Dylan Bennett, Topher Post, Brady Wheeler, Rayan Barakat, & Emma Terveen.

All Edison Athletic information can be found on the Edison Athletic Website.

www.sf.k12.sd.us/athletics/edison/home

Click on "THE CAT'S INFORMATION" - which is located above the Edison Logo....this link will be your "GO TO SITE" for information throughout the year.

This site includes:

Message Board

Seasonal Sign Up Dates along with the Links to sign up for a particular sport.

Athletic Picture Dates

As well as the following:

Click on your student’s sport link...under one of the following:

FALL SPORTS, WINTER SPORTS, SPRING SPORTS.

You should see a Coach's Parent Letter, Season Calendars, Cross Country & Track Meet Results, as well as other important information.

Any questions: contact Mr. Brown (Coordinator of Athletics) or one of the coaches.

To: Sioux Falls Roosevelt Rough Rider Current/Future Students and Parents/Guardians

Re: Sioux Falls Roosevelt 2020-2021 All Activities Night: March 30, 2020 - 6:00PM – 8:00PM

Sioux Falls Roosevelt High School will be hosting a Roosevelt All Activity Night on Monday, March 30, 2020, from 6:00pm – 8:00pm regarding student involvement in Sports and/or Fine Arts for the 2020-2021 school year. Please attend (you and your student) if your student is thinking about or plans to participate in Athletics or Fine Arts at Roosevelt during the 2020-2021school year. The format for this evening will include Information Sessions in the Main Gym and an Open House format in the Commons. The Information Sessions in the Main Gym will be led by Roosevelt Activities Director Steve Moore; he will communicate important information that you and your student will need to know. The Open House in the Commons will feature our RHS Athletic Head Coaches and Fine Arts Directors who will be available to connect with you, give you details about their specific program and answer any of your questions.

The schedule for the event will be:

6:00 PM – 6:30 PM

MAIN GYM

Fine Arts Information Session

7:00 PM – 7:30 PM​

MAIN GYM

Athletics Information Session

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

COMMONS

Open House with all Athletic Coaches and Fine Arts Directors available

If you have any questions, please contact the Roosevelt High School Activities Office at 605-362-2860.

SF Washington High School will be hosting a “WHS All-Activities Information Night” for “Future Warriors” who will be incoming 9th-12th Grade students at WHS for the 2020-21 school year. This will take place on Thursday April 2nd, 2020 from 5:30-7:30 PM at WHS. The purpose of this evening is to ensure all students/parents receive essential information for Activity Participation at WHS and also to encourage our students to be involved in our Activities at WHS. WHS Activity Leaders will be in attendance to provide information about their activity on this evening.

Any questions, please contact the WHS Activities Office at 605-367-7968

YOU CAN SCAN ANY RECEIPT FROM PLACES LIKE TARGET, WALMART, HY-VEE, SAMS, COSTCO, ETC. AND IT WILL TELL YOU IF YOU HAVE ANY BOX TOPS ITEMS!!!

Email: SFSDEdisonOffice@k12.sd.us
Website: https://www.sf.k12.sd.us/edison/home
Location: 2101 South West Avenue, Sioux Falls, SD, USA
Phone: 605-367-7643
Facebook: facebook.com/WeAreTheCats