This Week: Robotics Team Competes on Global Playing Field, Math Challenge Develops Growth Mindset, Student Spotlight, Board Accolades, plus more

March 14, 2016

Students Qualify to Compete on the Global Playing Field - Robotics Students Head to World Championships

Pictured left to right: WRHS Team, Jens Blackman, Cameron Maxwell, Zach Deal, Sean Sheehan, Joseph Anderson, Kevin Lupton, Dawson Hicks, Drew Merrick, Carson Smith, Carter Gerringa, Kegan Lupton. N ot pictured Kevin Browder.

Wood River Middle and High School students qualified for 3 of the 4 Idaho slots for the VEX Worlds in Kentucky April 20-23. 2016 VEX Worlds, presented by the Northrop Grumman Foundation, brings together top robotics teams under one roof to celebrate their accomplishments and participate with the best teams from around the world. Teams will play the game Nothing but Net during the 2015-16 season. Read more.

Math Challenge Develops Growth Mindset

¨Each wrong answer makes your brain a little bit stronger.¨ Kahn Academy

Silver Creek High School has joined the Kahn Academy LearnStorm challenge. SCHS students are competing in a state-wide challenge to see which schools and individual students can earn the most mastery and hustle points. Read more.

Student Spotlight

Meet Joel Parke in the Weekly Sun.

Each week, Jonathan Kane will be profiling a local high-school student. If you know someone you'd like to see featured, e-mail [email protected].

Read the article here.

Students Explore Careers at An Early Age

How do students understand that what they do at school and outside of school connects to what they do when they grow up? To help students make this connection, Bellevue Elementary students kicked off their Career Unit with a Career Day. Read more.

See more photos of students and the career fair here .

Board Accolades

Catherine Parris - BCSD Occupational Therapist

Marilyn Baybutt - Librarian at Hailey Elementary School

If you would like to submit a nomination for a Board Accolade, go here.

Preschool Open House: Parents, Community, Invited to Learn About Play-Based Learning

Monday, March 14

12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.

Bellevue Elementary

Blaine County School District offers preschool for children age 4 at Carey, Bellevue, Hailey and Hemingway Elementary schools. The classes are taught by certified teachers with endorsements in Early Childhood education. Two half day sessions are offered five days a week. Tuition is on a sliding scale and over 80% of children attend free of charge. Read more .

Carey Leadership Night

Wednesday, March 16

6:30 p.m.

Carey School

Carey Principal John Peck stated, "We are so excited to open our doors and let everyone see our wonderful students shine. Carey School started The Leader in Me program in 2010 and became the first Lighthouse School in Idaho in 2013. The Leader in Me Lighthouse School title is awarded by FranklinCovey to honor the attainment of a well-rounded leadership model. Lighthouse Schools serve as models of leadership and mentors to other schools. Currently, there are 173 Lighthouse Schools in the world. Read more.

Internet Safety and You

Thursday, March 17

6:00 p.m.

Queen of the Hills Room, Community Campus

Blaine County School District technology department is offering a presentation on internet safety on Thursday, March 17 at 6:00 p.m. at the Queen of the Hills room at the Community Campus. The event is free of charge.

According to Paul Zimmerman, Technology Integration Specialist at BCSD, "Recent news reports of data breaches at large organizations such as the IRS, Home Depot, Target, Anthem and JP Morgan highlight our vulnerability to online threats. How can we protect ourselves?"

Peter Zimmerman will offer a public presentation discussing common threats and how we can realistically raise the bar against hackers while enjoying the conveniences of online access. Peter Zimmerman is an engineer with the Department of Defense specializing in security.

BCSD Announces Bellevue Elementary Principal

Superintendent Dr. GwenCarol Holmes announced that Bellevue Elementary interim Principal Mark Sauvageau has been named the Principal of Bellevue Elementary pending Board of Trustees approval. Superintendent Holmes said, "Mark is a systems thinker, team builder, communicator and most importantly focused first on students." Read more here .

Website Survey

Please give us a few minutes of your time. We want to hear from you. Please take this quick survey to give feedback on the website. The goal of this survey is to assess our current websites and evaluate how to improve them. Take the survey here .

Why?

Feedback in the recent budget survey indicated that district and school websites are primary sources of news and information for staff, students, parents and public visitors.
Changes in technology are driving the school district's interest in updating the websites to keep up with current trends toward mobile devices and to improve user experience.
Recent analytics indicate that 7,361 users visited the websites 14,004 times and viewed 39,308 pages in the last month. This does not include internal traffic.