FISD Faculty Update Vol. 8 June 5, 2013
FISD PROUD
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FHS Valedictorian & Salutatorian Logo Winners FNE Teacher Honored FHS ROTC & Make A Wish Afterschool Program & Wal-Mart LVN Student Honored FMS Band FHS Band
COLLEGE GOING CULTURE GenTx Days FHS 24 Hour Challenge Advise TX SA Ready
FISD STAFF LEADING THE WAY MS Staff Presenting at State Conferences Alternative Staff Presenting at TASB South Elementary Presenting at TCASE
ENGAGING STUDENTS FSE Journalism Club FHS Cursive Writing Project Coaching & iPads Little Sprouts FNS Hosts First Annual Camp-Write-Along FSE Celebrates Reading
MORE FISD NEWS PLC Retirees Central Office News Rachel’s Challenge August Staff Development
Congratulations 2013 FHS Valedictorian
FISD PROUD
Alexandria Butts has been named the 2013 Valedictorian for Floresville High School. Alex is the eighteen year old daughter of Devin & Allison Butts. Her strengths are Input, Strategic, Connectedness, Achiever and Belief. In the fall, Alexandria has chosen to attend Liberal Arts Honor College at the University of Texas in Austin, focusing on political science and pre-law. Congratulations Alexandria!
Congratulations 2013 FHS Salutatorian Liesel Raabe has been named the 2013 Salutatorian for Floresville High School. Liesel is the eighteen year old daughter of John & Tammy Raabe. Her strengths are Belief, Responsibility, Learner, Harmony and Input In the fall, Liesel has chosen to attend Texas A&M University where she will pursue Interdisciplinary Studies with plans on becoming a math teacher. Congratulations Liesel!
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Strengths & Rachel’s Challenge
FNE Art Teacher Honored at San Antonio Museum of Art
FISD PROUD
FNE is proud to announce that Mrs. Supulveda, our awesome art teacher, is being honored by the San Antonio Museum of Art for her outstanding lessons with the students. She will be sharing some of the student work with other art educators and is being rewarded $100 honorarium for all her hard work. When you see Mrs. Supulveda be sure to offer her congratulations! FNE is very fortunate to have so many outstanding teachers!
Afterschool Program Receives Grant
FHS ROTC & Make-A-Wish
Congratulations to Ruby Perez and The Afterschool Program for receiving a grant from Wal-Mart Store #465 through the Local Community Contribution Program in the amount of $1000!
Floresville High School Air Force ROTC Sabertooth Tiger Corps Cadet Jack Dunn, FHS Junior, presents a $1,030 check to Sarah Connor, Director of National Initiatives for the South Texas Make-A-Wish Foundation. Cadet Dunn was this years corps project officer for the March 2013 drive.
FHS LVN Student Receives Recognition Nneka Offor receives recognition at the Academies Graduation for her participation in the Dual Credit Health Professionals Program.
Go-Spurs-Go Wear your Spurs gear on Thursday, June 6th!!
FMS Band performs at Region 11 Concert
FISD PROUD
The FMS Band performed at the Texas Music Educators Association Region 11 Concert and Sight-Reading Contest held at Champions, HS in Boerne. The Concert Band, under the direction of, Mr. Michael Childress received superior ratings in concert and excellent ratings in sight-reading. The Symphonic Band, under the direction of, Mr. John Curtin received superior ratings in both concert and sight-reading earning the sweepstakes award. The directors are extremely proud of their students’ dedication and effort.
FMS Band Competes in the Bluebonnet Classic in San Antonio Earlier this month the FMS Symphonic Band competed in the Bluebonnet Classic Music Festival in San Antonio. The Band earned awards for a superior rating, outstanding performance, and best middle school band. The judges also recognized Gena Munoz (flute) with the outstanding soloist medal. Congratulations to these exceptional musicians.
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FISD PROUD
FHS Band Travels to Canyon Tx On Saturday, March 23rd, the Floresville High School Symphonic Band took part in the West Texas A&M University Instrumental Band Clinic in Canyon, Texas. The Symphonic Band was one of four bands in the state invited to participate in this incredible learning opportunity. The members of the band participated in clinics given by Don Lefevre, Director of Bands at WTAMU; Professor Emeritus, Dr. Gary Garner; and the applied music faculty of the WTAMU School of Music. Mr. Lefevre commented that our students were his favorite to work with because of their rehearsal decorum and enthusiasm for improvement. The event culminated in a concert given by the invited bands. The students were able to have a little fun, too, visiting Cadillac Ranch and having dinner at the historic Big Texan Steak Ranch.
FHS Band Competes at UIL This year, Floresville High School had three bands compete in UIL Concert and Sight Reading Contest. Concert Band B, under the direction of Steven McCardle received Excellent ratings in Concert and Sight Reading. These were the highest ratings given to a third competing band in the region. Concert Band A, under the direction of James Benton, and the Symphonic Band, under the direction of Jim Cathey, received Superior Ratings in both Concert and Sight Reading. The UIL Concert ratings combined with the UIL Marching ratings in the Fall result in a UIL Sweepstakes Award for both bands. Judges remarks for both ensembles reflect an incredibly high level of performance on music above the required difficulty for 4A varsity and non-varsity bands. We are extremely proud of the hard work done by FHS band students during the Spring concert season.
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College Going Culture
FISD Celebrates GenTx Day
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College Going Culture
FHS Students Take the 24 Hour Challenge Alamo College offers FHS students the opportunity to take dual credit courses for free their Junior and Senior years. During this time, students are challenged by Palo Alto to earn 24 hr. college hours by graduation. 2011 was the first year of the challenge with 12 students and by 2012 the numbers have grown to 23. FHS has an amazing 36 students for 2013 to be recognized at graduation. There are also 2 nursing and 5 aerospace students who have earned 24+hours with St. Phillips through the academy programs.
Advise Tx Numbers Rise As of May 10th FHS currently has 159 students that have completed a FAFSA which is 69% of the 229 senior class compared to the 142 completed last year at 56 % of the 252 senior class.
Generation TX & HEB Over Spring Break, several FISD teachers participated in a focus group for Generation TX and HEB. The focus group was an opportunity to bring together teachers from various districts around the San Antonio area to discuss Career and College Readiness and CSCOPE. “Meeting with other educators where you have the opportunity to share and communicate about what is going on with curriculum and the classroom is truly gratifying,” FHS teacher Carol Dziuk said. “You get validation, ideas, support and knowledge from the people who do what you do… teach kids! It was a priceless experience. I’m lucky that I was able to go.” Teachers participating in the focus group were Carol Dziuk, Dixie Haag, Monica Schlueter, Laura Yeager, and Anthony Warzecha. GenTX veteran teachers Heather Brooks and Amy Carter also participated in a focus group on the same day that centered on how to put a spotlight on the CCRS and the SA Ready Web site, which features career and college lessons written by San Antonio area teachers. The lessons, some of which are written by Floresville ISD teachers, complement existing curriculum and directly teach skills and concepts necessary for post-secondary life. Please visit the site www.sa-ready.org to learn more and download great, free lessons.
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FISD Staff Leading The Way
South Elementary Presenting at TCASE To maintain high quality services for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder, special education programs in small districts must get creative. Paige Fuller (retired FISD Special Education Director), Shelley Keck (Floresville North Elementary Principal) and Jeff Stavinoha (FSE Special Education Re-direct Teacher) will present Relationships, Technology, and Consultation. They will highlight some of the innovative approaches being used in Floresville ISD, including creative interventions that meet several best practice guidelines for students with ASD.
Middle School Staff Chosen to Present at State Conferences Sara Mann, Heather Brooks, and Monica Schlueter have been selected to present “DOWN! SET! HUT! Do Your Teachers Know Which Play To Run Next” at the TASSP Summer Workshop. The summer workshop is scheduled for Wednesday June 12, through Friday, June 14, 2013 at the Austin Convention Center. This trio has also been accepted to present the same workshop for CScope, congratulations ladies!
Alternative Staff to Present at TASB At-Risk students, often behind the power curve relative to state-mandated curriculum and standardized testing, can detrimentally impact Chapter 37-realted school safety and discipline imperative as well as attendance and completion rates. Learn from the educator responsible for growing Floresville ISD’s (4,000 ADA) alternative center from a one-room experiment into a model multidistrict, multijurisdictional cooperative.
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Engaging Students
Elementary Students Excited About Journalism The Journalism Club is teaching the students how to ask questions about what is going on around them and then how to take that information and put it into story form. The students have been given an information sheet that they were to take to a teacher to do in an interview. After the interview, they were then given the task to write the story so it could be published in our newsletter, The Paw Print. Our younger students also learned how to take the information from the idea of the story and then draw a picture to go with it using Paint. All of the grade levels worked together to interview, write, edit, illustrate and then publish the stories. At the end of our weeks of club time, the newsletter is published and then sold to Teachers, Administration, and Students for .25$ per copy. We have published four separate newsletters this year. The students really enjoy helping with the interviews, writing the stories, and eventually selling the finished product. It has been fun helping the students hone their skills on the computer and helping them to express themselves in creative ways. Mrs. Elaine McGregor
FHS Cursive Writing Project With Mrs. Stakes and Mrs. Johnson's urging, we offered a voluntary, not for credit mini semester handwriting class, for some reason the 2013 cohort claims they never learned cursive! This class was a big hit. Students were always on task and took the opportunity to write in cursive thank you cards to Choice staff who made a big impact in their lives. This is a good example of allowing operational flexibility even on the campus level.
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Engaging Students
iPads: The New Coach’s Clipboard Several Track and Field coaches at FHS have discovered how useful iPads can be when training athletes. Coach Donnie Bishop uses an app called Ubersense which enables coaches to record athletes and then slow down the video so that the athletes can easily see and isolate missteps for correction. “Using the iPad to video our athletes gives immediate critique and the ability for our throwers to see what they did wrong and correct it before their next throw,” Bishop said. As a distance coach, Aubrey Lindberg uses an app called Time Calculator everyday, which allows her to add up lap splits and to divide and multiply times to determine athletes’ training paces for different intervals. Time calculators that perform the same usually cost $27 but the app is only $1.99. Lindberg says it is also much easier to use than a stopwatch. “The app allows the coach to go back and watch a run through again and even further fine tune athletic performance,” Lindberg said. Coach Coy Tackitt has also found success when using the iPad with his high jumpers. “It helps give kids a very quick reference to positioning and form so they can see with their own eyes what the coach is talking about.”
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The Little Sprouts’ garden is in full bloom. We have several varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, herbs, and more. This spring we increased our garden size to 17 raised beds with drip irrigation. We have added two compost bins to continue the care of our garden. The Little Sprouts Garden club had 2 fundraisers this spring. We held a bake sale at the Wilson County Gardening Day and our annual Flower Power bulb fundraiser. The funds raised will enable us to install our rain water recapture system over the summer. We would like to thank Tank Partners of Seguin for donating a 10, 000 gallon cistern, the STARS Program for donating all of our plants, the FISD Maintenance Department for installing the cistern and water lines, and our parent volunteers for all of their support.
Camping Under the North STAAR: FNS hosts first annual Camp-Write-Along In March, FNES fourth grade teachers had the opportunity to attend a staff development with consultant Veronica Flores. After getting fabulous ideas for writing lessons, FNES fourth grade teachers Michelle Soriano, Heather Sawers, Heather Burns, and Carolina Longoria and FNES Instructional Coach Jenette Wiatrek created FNES’s first annual Camp-Write-Along! During the three day camp, all fourth grade students participated in singing camp songs, writing by the fire and a daily awards ceremony for top writers and most improved writers. There was even a hot dog lunch to kick off the three day camp! Students were so excited to be part of such a neat event and their writing showed! All had a great time preparing for the upcoming STAAR writing test. We can’t wait until next year!
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Engaging Students
FNS Little Sprouts Garden-Blooming with Success
Engaging Students
South Elementary Celebrates Their Readers
South Elementary student Hunter earned special recognition from administration for reaching his reading goal. Way to go Hunter!
First graders at South Elementary enjoy reading familiar text from their browsing bags.
Fourth grade mentor writers give third grade students writing advice to get them ready for next school year. The third graders were given summer writing journals to document their exciting summer experiences while on vacation.
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In the weeks leading up to the EOC exams for math, science, and social studies, PLC teams at FHS used much of their collaboration time to design review “boot camps” and remediation lessons. The math teams— Algebra and Geometry— used data from Checkpoint 3 to determine a group of students that needed intense remediation prior to the big exam. Students were then placed into small groups based on Student Expectations they most needed help on. This way, students received the most concentrated instruction where they needed it the most. Algebra teacher Marcia Schuh said one of her students remarked that the one-on-one atmosphere really helped. “The small group setting is making a difference,” Schuh said. In social studies courses World Geography and World History, students were able to participate it a variety of activities to help recap the year of instruction. One of the more popular activities was Musical Word Wall, a game that resembled musical chairs but with vocabulary. “The kids had fun, and it was especially funny when they were trying to avoid sitting at the "hard" words.” Chemistry also had success reviewing for the EOC by guiding the students in inquiry-based lab activities and making foldable notebooks that included key components of the Student Expectations with emphasis added to those that were historically low. “PLC time has enabled us to look at our students' strong and weak SEs and develop a plan for our EOC review,” Chemistry teacher Amanda Herrera, said. “This would not have been possible without provided collaboration time and effective teamwork.”
Zach Bindsiel and Damian Gonzales compete against the clock in a game called Three-Way World Review
Match in Coach Donnie Bishop’s class.
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Professional Learning Community
PLC Review Boot Camps for EOC
We Appreciate Your Years of Service
2012-2013 FISD Retirees Orie Ramirez, Central Office, 12 Jackie Kutac, Central Office, 26 Jesse Ramos, Central Office, 36 Donna Urbanczyk, North Elementary, 29 Janice Gimble, Alternative, 27 Diana Tate, Middle School, 29 Stacie Miller, Middle School, 45 Eugene Kosarek, Alternative, 51 Paige Fuller, Central Office 35 Judy Phipps, High School, 29 Carol Sonkin , High School, 40 Col. Kenneth Williams, High School, 7 Carolyn Richter, High School, 26 Gary Butschek, Choice, 25 Joyce Rives, Choice, 25 Marilyn Ebrom, Middle School, 26 Roselind Pelech, South Elementary, 34 Hilary Reile, South Elementary, 38 Gayle Gleeson, High School, 36 Karen Work, North Elementary, 33 Katherine Armstrong, Middle School, 23 * 16 *
Information From Central Office
HR/Payroll News: Thanks to all FISD employees for taking the time to provide updated employee information to our offices. We will work diligently this summer to make necessary updates! If you need assistance this summer, please contact our offices at (830) 393-5300. Summer hours are 7:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, June 10th – August 2nd. All FISD offices will be closed the week of July 4th. Please note the deadline to resign your present position for the 2013-2014 school year is Thursday, July 11, 2013 at 4:00 p.m. Thanks for all your hard work and dedication to FISD and our students this past school year! Have a restful and enjoyable summer vacation!
Salary and Benefits for 2013-2014 At the upcoming June School Board meeting a plan will be presented for approval to provide additional monies toward health insurance costs for those who participate in the TRS health insurance benefit. The proposed plan will provide a contribution of $260 towards professionals (this is a $35/month increase) and $285 towards non-professionals (this is a $60/month increase) for participation in TRS ActiveCare. A district stipend plan will also be presented for approval at the June meeting.
Laptop Pick-Up Schedule The deployment of the new laptops will occur August 5th – 9th in the Technology Training Room. Please see the schedule below for your specific date/time assignment. Make sure to bring your current laptop with you even if you intend to buy it as there are some changes we need to make to it. We are happy to help move your data to your new laptop, but the process may take some time. Be prepared to spend an hour or more if you would like this service. If you would like to save some time, you could move your data to a flash drive, portable hard drive, or your H drive.
Monday-August 5th=High School & Alternative Friday-August 9th North Elementary 8am-11am=A-F 1pm-4pm=G-L
8am-11am=A-L 1pm-4pm=M-Z
Tuesday-August 6th=High School & Alternative 8am-11am=M-R 1pm-4pm=S-Z
Wednesday-August 7th=Middle School 8am-11am=A-L 1pm-4pm=M-Z
Thursday-August 8th=South Elementary 8am-11am=A-L 11am-4pm=M-Z
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FISD Creating A Chain Reaction
2013 Rachel’s Challenge End of Year Rally September 12, 2012 Floresville ISD took Rachel’s Challenge encouraging our administrators, faculty, staff and students to demonstrate simple acts of kindness throughout the year. On May 23, 2013 we celebrated a year of kindness and compassion at Floresville ISD with presentations from Rachel’s Challenge very own Cody Hodges with every campus ending with a community wide Pep Rally at Eschenburg Field. It was an exciting day full of encouragement and challenges for next school year. Please follow the links below to see highlights from the rally.
South Elementary http://www.highschoolcube.com/highlight/floresville-south-elementary-s-64522
North Elementary http://www.highschoolcube.com/highlight/floresville-north-elementary-s-64523
Middle School http://www.highschoolcube.com/highlight/floresville-middle-school-stor-64524
High School http://www.highschoolcube.com/highlight/floresville-high-school-storie-64525
Choice http://www.highschoolcube.com/highlight/floresville-choices-campus-sto-64528
Kindness Shake http://www.highschoolcube.com/highlight/floresville-isd-kindness-shake-64534
The links that represent simple acts of kindness for the 2012-2013 school year at FISD!
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Staff Development News
2013 August Staff Development News We’re changing it up! On Thursday, August 15th, our first day of Staff Development, everyone will report to their campus. August 16th all district staff will meet at Floresville High School. Breakfast snacks will be available in the hallways as you move from session to session. Rosters will be posted outside the classroom doors. Any last minute room changes will be posted in front of the FHS counseling suite. Remember to keep a copy of your portfolio printout so you will know where to report.
HAVE A FABULOUS SUMMER!
Room Assignments for Friday, August 16th in Pink
Room Assignments for Tuesday, August 20th in Yellow
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http://www.fisd.us/pdf/2013-2014%20FISD%20Calendar.pdf Link to 2013-2014 School Calendar