Southeast Polk Community Schools: April 2024

Friday, April 19, 2024

Earth Day 2024

On April 22, 1970, 10% of the US population participated in the first Earth Day. This celebration had far-reaching implications. In fact, the government founded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and created a variety of environmental laws thanks to this first Earth Day.

Today, Earth Day is the world’s largest secular holiday. More than 1 billion people celebrate it every year across the globe.

Earth Day 2024 Resources:

Do you like saving the environment? Do you like virtual escape rooms? Then the bundle at this link will be for you! Matt Miller, author of Ditch That Textbook, releases an email newsletter 3 time each week. The bundle is for 'subscriber appreciation'. If you are interested in subscribing to his newsletter, the information is below.

Subscribe for free • Listen to this as a podcast • Browse our template library

In addition, below is a Wakelet Board with activities for K-2, 3-5, Middle School, and High School students.

Earth Day Wakelet Board

Iowa State Water Rocks!

Looking for a fun way to celebrate Earth Day on April 22?
The Rock Your Watershed! Game Challenge is a FREE, one-day-only competition for Iowa schools. Your students will get to develop their own watershed via our award-winning Rock Your Watershed! computer game. Think SimCity meets Minecraft! Select your land use for each piece of land – try to balance both environmental and economic impacts to earn a high score! Participants will be representing their classroom, and not as individuals. CLICK Here to start

Kami - 15 Earth Day Activities for Kids of All Ages Click Here

Solar Oven Challenge

Build a solar oven with your students or family using NEED's directions, or design your own oven. Use your solar oven to melt cheese for nachos, heat up a hot dog, or make s'mores!

Written directions

NEED's Climate Science guides provide great background information and hands-on activities!

Understanding Climate Science includes:Land Ice/Sea Ice - activity to learn the effects sea and land ice have on sea level, when melted.

Carbon In My Life - learn how CO2 emissions occur throughout a product's life cycle.
Carbon Footprint - quantify and describe your individual carbon footprint.We've also got Today in Energy, Talking Trash, Plug Loads, and more in NEED's suite of energy efficiency and conservation guides.

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.. AND UPCYCLE

Recycling has many benefits, but deciding to recycle is just the first step. You'll want to ensure you recycle items correctly! What is recyclable depends on your area. Do a quick online search or make a call to your local government or recycling provider and learn more on how to recycle common household items here.

Did You Know?

Recycling one ton of office paper can save the energy equivalent of consuming 322 gallons of gasoline.

Recycling just one ton of aluminum cans conserves more than 152 million Btu, the equivalent of 1,024 gallons of gasoline or 21 barrels of oil consumed.

Recycling just 10 plastic bottles saves enough energy to power a laptop for more than 25 hours.

Paper makes up 23 percent of municipal solid waste (trash) generated each year, more than any other material.

Source: United States EPA

Energy Conservation Contract

In this outreach activity, students learn about energy conservation and ask their families to sign contracts in which they agree to save energy. Students then calculate the energy savings, and re-evaluate their conservation measures. Free PDF download

Thursday, April 18, 2024

End of School Year Contract Days

The Southeast Polk Board of Education passed a motion on April 4th that indicated the last day of school for students will remain May 24, 2024. Below is the timeline for the remaining days of the school year.

May 24th: Last day of school for students

May 27th: Memorial Day-No School

May 28th: District PD Day- ½ District/ ½ Building

District Focus: School Improvement

May 29th: Building Day (Makeup Day #1)

May 30th: Teacher Work Day

May 31st: Flexible Learning (Makeup Day #2)

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May 29th (Makeup Day #1) will take place at the buildings.

May 31st (Makeup Day #2) may take place after contract hours prior to May 31st, or teachers may come to the building that day to complete their plan.

Teacher teams will work with their building principals to design a plan that best meets the needs of teams, grade levels, subject areas, and buildings.

The PD Steering Committee requested that we share the courses available on the Southeast Polk University platform should that be an option that is considered. Below are the courses. The catalog may be accessed at Southeast Polk University.

Sunday, April 14, 2024

Dr. Luis Cruz at Southeast Polk on April 17th

As we celebrate National Bilingual/Multilingual Learner Advocacy Month during the month of April, we are excited to welcome Dr. Luis Cruz to Southeast Polk this Wednesday, April 17th.

Luis F. Cruz, PhD, is a sought-after presenter, coach, thought leader, and accomplished author in the field of education. His over 30 years of practical experience as a teacher and an administrator at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, coupled with his ability to effectively communicate research-based approaches focused on the need to ensure high levels of learning for all students, has earned him acknowledgment and praise from an array of education communities around the country.

Born to immigrant parents from South America, Dr. Cruz blends his experience as an English Learner raised in a low-income community in Los Angeles with his professional experience and insight to advocate the need for public school educators to acknowledge that there is a disconnect between our inherited and antiquated public school system and the diverse student population we aim to serve today. He, therefore, advocates that public school educators learn and commit to redesigning a school system never designed to ensure high levels of learning for all the students in schools and classrooms across our country.

In addition to being an accomplished and highly desired keynote speaker, Dr. Cruz has established a skilled and effective manner for helping audiences, both small and large, learn about the Professional Learning Community at Work® and Response to Intervention at Work™ processes, transformational leadership, school culture, the role of a guiding coalition, and creating environments conducive to the success of students learning English as an additional language—to name a few of the themes for which he is contacted.

Dr. Cruz is the best-selling author of Time for Change: Four Essential Skills for Transformational School and District Leaders, which he co-authored with Dr. Anthony Muhammad, and is currently working on several books focused on strengthening multitiered systems of support for student intervention and enhancing learning outcomes for emergent bilingual students.

April 17th Professional Learning Schedule

8:00 AM - 9:15 AM Secondary Staff

All secondary staff, please report to the HS Auditorium and be ready to begin at promptly 8:00 AM.

English Learner teachers, Curriculum Coordinators, Principals, and District Leaders will meet with Dr. Cruz throughout the day.

2:00 PM - 3:15 PM Elementary Staff

All elementary staff should report to the JH Auditorium and be ready to begin promptly at 2:00 PM. We realize that due to dismissal times, not all teachers will be able to get to the Jr. High by 2:00. We will also have a virtual option available at buildings. More information on this will be shared tomorrow.

For those coming to the Jr. High, you will need to find places to park that do not include the Yellow Brick Road area (Buses start lining up at 2:30; students dismissed at 2:45). The JH will have the doors unlocked that are directly west of the auditorium so that teachers will not need to walk through the entire building to get to the auditorium. Please use the bathrooms by the entrance door (west side) as many students will be using the bathrooms on the south side of the auditorium at the end of the day. We realize that this is at the end of the day, but if you are able to carpool with colleagues, this will reduce traffic at the busy dismissal time.

We appreciate everyone's flexibility and we look forward to learning from Dr. Cruz on Wednesday!

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Preparing for the Solar Eclipse

The second part of an eclipse 'double-header' will be occurring on Monday, April 8th. The first one was on October 14, 2023 (annular or 'ring of fire' eclipse). The eclipse on Monday will be a total eclipse. This is a great opportunity to inspire curiosity and interest in earth and space science as well as deepen understanding of the science standards. Today's blog includes educational resources from our PK-12 Science Coordinator, Jim Pifer, and precautions to take to make sure that those who do observe the eclipse do so safely.

Iowa Core Science Standards

1-ESS1-1. Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted.

5-ESS1-2. Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky.

MS-ESS1-1. Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons

HS-ESS1-4. Use mathematical or computational representations to predict the motion of orbiting objects in the solar system.