Dear Parents and Guardians:
This past week, Mrs. Fjeld (7th/8th grade Math teacher and Instructional Coach), Mrs. Hanson (High School Math teacher), and Mrs. Bartsch (Kindergarten teacher), and I had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. for the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics Conference. The reason the district was able to afford for the four us to travel to this conference was because as the Supt./Principal, I chose to not attend the four state conferences that are available for superintendents and principals. My choosing to not attend the four state conferences saved the district about $4,000.00, which is what it cost for the four of us to travel. Also to save costs to travel to the conference, we shared two rooms and transportation to and from the airport and conference.
I felt that attending this one conference was worth giving up the four state conferences because of what we would learn while attending the NCSM conference. I can assure you, the trip was well worth the four days we had to spend away from our families and out of the building. Attending a national conference gives us learning opportunities that occur throughout the country and puts us ahead of other schools in Minnesota.
While I learned so much at NCSM, the two points that I am going to share with you revolve around communication. First, next year, we are going to focus on communication regarding math instruction and how it has changed from when you and I were in school. Often times, as parents, we feel like we aren’t able to help our child complete math homework because what is being asked of the students is different from the math instruction we received. There is a reason for this and it is up to the school to do a better job of explaining the learning and how it has changed.
Second, our teaching staff will determine the math vocabulary we will use when teaching so everyone is using the same words. For example, instead of using “borrowing/carrying” when we will all use “regrouping” to describe what is being done. Another example is using “base X height” rather than “length X width.” These simple changes will make math more consistent throughout the grade levels.
We learned so much more than this and the teachers who attended will be sharing with the board as well as with the rest of the teaching staff. We are grateful to the board for this opportunity and will work to continue making a difference in the lives of our students.
Our Polar Pride lesson for the week is Self Awareness. The expectation for the lesson is to get students to recognize the uniqueness in themselves and celebrate who they are and then also recognize the uniqueness of each other. Ask your child about the lesson and what they learned.
The end of the year is coming up quickly. With only 21 days remaining in the year, I am hoping to improve our attendance to 95%. We are almost there. Please help us by ensuring your child is in school every day. This attendance rate includes excused and unexcused absences.
Sincerely,
Dr. Rae Villebrun
Superintendent/Principal