With the 2010-2011 school year fast approaching, this is quick list of top priorities:
1) Lutheran Elementary School Committee
The Lutheran Elementary School (LES) Committee has been assembled. Mr. Adam Beilke, Mrs. Margaret Wolski, and Mr. Michael Helzer will serve the Lord on this committee. Mr. Bart Gurgel serves as faculty representative. Mr. Joe Jozefacki is the LES board chair and is therefore a member of the committee also. The mission of the committee is to plan for and carry out full time Christian education at the LES.
The held an orientation and organizational meeting on Thursday, August 5. Mr. Helzer will chair the committee. Mrs. Wolski will serve as secretary. Given the variety of responsibilities the BOCE has assigned to the group, they have selected facilitating the implementation of the annual action plan as the highest priority.
The committee will stay focused on that priority and complete it according the good and gracious will of the Lord. Keep them in your prayers often as they work!
2) Host A Family
We have many new families to our school this year. We want to make connections with as many as possible. Over the summer months, Pastor Unnasch and I have worked to find "host" families to welcome and assist new people to our school. While this is a pilot project, it has been blessed already. Many have stepped forward to serve the Lord as hosts. The gifts of time are truly a blessing!
If you have an interest in serving as a host in the future contact, via email, either me or Pastor Unnasch. Pray for the people who are currently involved in this project asking the Lord to bless their efforts.
3) Curriculum Development
Last year faculty closed curriculum gaps in social studies. One gap was in economics. We closed that gap with assistance from Junior Achievement. We plan on using Junior Achievement again this year in economics. A second gap was in sociology and cultural awareness. That was closed by teacher created mini-units of study. We plan to use a similar strategy this year.
At in-service meeting during August, faculty established some new development goals. One is to plan for and carry out a workshop on the Common Core standards. This is the new standards set adopted by the state of Wisconsin and presumably will be used to develop the new WKCE standardized tests. All students in grades 3-8 take the WKCE exams. The second goal is to complete phase one of a standards based report card. Teachers will use Common Core standards as a basis for this work. Staff will focus on Language Arts, specifically writing.
Faculty use Curriculum Mapping to determine development priorities. Curriculum Mapping is not simply recording some classroom stuff for an audit. It is a step by step process for reviewing school-wide curriculum data and selecting priorities for development based upon that data.
