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Page 10 www.turnerusd202.org The Turner February 2009
Junction Elementary School
288-3600
Jay Douglas, Principal
Junction News for the Semester:
Let me first apologize to all the parents, students, staff, and patrons. This is one of the first letters
to go out in the Turner this year. We’ve been sending home lots of informational paper from within
our building and neglected the district paper that everyone receives. So, I will try and get everyone
caught up this time around and stay on top of things in the future.
Junction has been busy this year. Students have been getting assignments and taking practice tests
for the State Assessments. They’ve taken the district MAP tests, which is a test to keep track of a
student’s individual progress throughout the year and from one year to another year. Students will
start taking the state assessment tests, not for practice, in late February, and our last group will be
done in April. (Spring Break falls during the testing time.) By the time this article is printed, we will
have had a second visit from a team who checks up on us for our school improvement process. Mrs.
Peggy Hodges is our building Chairperson. She has been working very hard to organize paperwork
for the December 16th visit. We’ll let everyone know how all this goes at a later date. I don’t want
to forget to mention that we made Annual Yearly Progress this past year. Last year our goal was to
get 7 out of every 10 students passing the state assessment. We did just that, when grades 3-6 were
tested, the combined scoring of all, got us to this goal. This year, to meet the state’s percentage goal,
we will need to get 8 out of every 10 students passing the state assessment. What is considered “passing”
We tell our students, a reasonable goal is try to get 7 out of every 10 questions correct—70%.
This is considered passing the reading and math assessments. I would like to see them all get 100%,
but this puts way too much pressure on the students before and during the test. I would like to see
them all take the test stress free and do their best. We can make it.
So many valuable events have happened since school started this year, I don’t have space to list
them all, but the following represent our busy schedule thus far:
• In September, we had our Annual Picnic for (9-1-1), honoring guests from the Police Department,
fire Department, and Armed Forces.
• Our first grade made the annual trip to Atchison, Kansas to visit the farm, farm animals, and
to bring back pumpkins for carving.
• The 2nd grade made a trip downtown to the Coterie Theatre to see a show
• Our Writing Club, Science Club, Math Club, and Chess Clubs meet one time a month.
• BOOST, a group which now meets 4 days a week for students needing additional help in the areas
of Math and Reading, is going very well with almost an average of 40 students per night.
• For Turner Days, our PTA float took first place. We want to thank our PTA volunteers and
everyone who made it a success
• Mr. Douglas, Principal at Junction, received an award for the Turner Walk of Fame, joining Mr.
Bob Beery in the honor this year.
• Mrs. Rose Miller, 1st grade teacher, did a great job of organizing our Veteran’s Day Assembly,
honoring local veterans, some of whom visited classrooms and talked about their military
experience.
• Ms. Tina Towle (Music Teacher), conducted our Winter Concerts. Between the two nights, we
saw a combined turnout of some 700 people.
• PTA had the annual Breakfast with Santa on Friday, December 12th. Again, it was a great success.
As the 2008 year comes to an end and we look toward the spring semester of school, I would like
to offer everyone our best wishes. January to May usually goes by pretty fast. Students will be in
and out of school because of professional development days, parent-teacher conferences, and other
holidays. Keep your children reading and working on math problems. Everything you do at home
helps them at school. I want all of you to know, “It’s great to be a Cardinal” here at Junction, so please
stop by and visit us when you can.
Instructional Coaching
A Message from Junction Elementary Instructional Coach, Peggy Hodges
Finding ways to motivate all students to be proficient readers is a challenge for teachers. This
year at Junction, we started a reading club for students in grades two through six. Since there
is not one program or strategy that works for each student, we try to supplement their reading
program with other means and incentives. Each teacher selected students they believed would
benefit from the club where students are expected to spend independent time in study hall or at
home improving their reading skills.
As the instructional coach, I am in all the classes every week. During that time, I do a timed one
minute reading test with the students who are in the reading club. The passage that they read is
a story they will practice several times to become more fluent. Besides increasing their reading
speed, they also need to correctly answer the story questions in order to earn points.
When we had our holiday parties prior to the winter break, I went into a third grade classroom
and two students asked me if I would test them. I reminded them that their party was just starting,
but they insisted they wanted to read to me. As an educator, that was the best Christmas present
I could have received.
Peggy Hodges
Instructional Coach
Junction Elementary
Morris Elementary School
288-3700
Becky Billigmeier,
Principal
From the Principal’s Desk
The second quarter of the 2008-09 academic year was very
busy.
The Reading Counts Program is going strong. Students should
be reading vigorously over the Break. They can still reach the 50%
mark before the lock in that is scheduled for January 16, 2009
Students in grades three, four, five and six are participating in
the Kansas Formative Assessment program. They are working
their way through all the online mathematics and reading assessments.
The goal is for all these students to meet or exceed
the standards established for the Kansas Assessments that will
begin at Morris in March.
Students in every grade have completed a follow up MAP test
in reading. Students are showing gains in their reading levels.
The Morris Book Fair event a success.
Santa’s Secret Shop organized by Beth Marine and staffed by
many parent volunteers allowed our students to shop for gifts
for their families and friends.
Mustang tickets, and class rewards associated with PBS system
have been extremely successful. I hope all students can keep up
the great efforts next semester
The Student Council sponsored a party December 17th. All Morris
students participated. Dancing and snacks were a great hit.
Teachers have been hard at work studying MAP results and
putting strategies in place to address the needs of all kids.
In addition, to all the above activity there were many grade
level activities, club meetings, student projects and most of all
learning events.
Pronouncer Damon Roberts signals to the Morris champion
spellers that they’re “good to go.”
Oak Grove
Elementary School
288-3900
Deborah Ayers-Geist, Principal
www.turnerusd202.org/oakgrove
Oak Grove Reflections
from Instructional Coach, Tim McFarland
The Oak Grove team continues its vision of “Dreams begin
at Oak Grove.” Teaching and learning are blended in such a
way it is not a specific group function. Everyone teaches and
everyone learns.
Teacher expectations of their student’s remains very high, but
Oak Grove students are up to the challenge. Parents have high
expectations of Oak Grove but within those expectations there
are those who step up and say “How can we help”
While Oak Grove says “Goodbye” to its team leader, remember,
“Dreams begin at Oak Grove.” Students and staff must move
on to realize the dreams and turn them into reality.