Franklin Elementary School - Gr. K-4 |
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CELEBRATING OUR PARAS!
Children count with you, but
teachers count on you!
During the week of January 25, we celebrated all of our paraprofessionals. Thank you so much for all you do for our students, teachers, and families. Every one of you is always willing to help out and be a team player. This year has not been easy with COVID. Being a paraprofessional during a pandemic looks different. Some of you were asked to supervise students and help them complete their school work. You have always had the teacher in the classroom with you, but for part of the year, you had students with no teacher physically present in the classroom with you. You had to plan what to do with students that were in the building during their downtime. Some of you went from assisting a classroom community of learners to struggling to connect with learners at home through an iPad. You learned quickly about technology, Zoom, Schoology and answered many emails from learners at any time of the day, helping parents and learners with new content and assisting teachers in making sure material was ready to go out weekly. This is a huge, challenging change for all of you and you handled it overwhelmingly well.
As learners become untethered from their classrooms, you talked about how you miss seeing your students every day. You worried about their emotional welfare and if they were getting enough to eat every day. We are grateful for our paraprofessionals. To completely rework what being a paraprofessional looks like, to work tirelessly to connect to learners, and to do it with passion, flexibility, and grace shows us how deeply invested you are to be a paraprofessional and nurturing our learners.
THANK YOU!
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Parkview Learning Center - Gr. PreK-2 |
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Mrs. Asuma’s class was busy doing snowy experiments during the month of January. They were learning about the scientific method and how to follow it to learn something new. The little learners wanted to know how dirty snow is, and how much water is in snow. So, they used that curiosity as their question. Next, they came up with a hypothesis. They predicted the water would overflow the bottle when the snow melted, and there would be clean water left in the bottle. When they conducted the experiment, they were all very surprised to see the water level drop significantly, and the water that was left was SUPER dirty. We got a lot of “THAT IS DISGUSTING!” reactions from the class. The kindergarten learners were very excited when they were informed that after they came up with the conclusion, the last step is to publish their work! They can't wait to see this article in the paper!
Here you go kids! You all look great in print!
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All those years of eating freshly, fallen white snow have come to end after this experiment! |
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Gilbert Campus - Gr. PreK & 5-8 |
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FOR ALL THAT YOU DO, THANK YOU! |
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Last week the Gilbert Campus celebrated our wonderful Paraprofessionals to thank them for all they do for both our students and teachers.
We served cake and ice cream on February 3rd to let these amazing staff know how much that they are appreciated!
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L-R Paraprofessionals: Courtney Briski, Jeremy Liimatta, Bretta Albrecht, Sheila Kutsi |
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Roosevelt Elementary School - Gr. 3-6 |
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WELCOME BACK & BOOK FUN TO COME |
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Roosevelt was bursting with excitement on Tuesday, January 19th when Grades 3, 4, and 5 returned to in person learning - and then again on Monday, February 1st when 6th grade was also able to return. Roosevelt Elementary staff worked together to decorate the entire school to show how excited we all were to have our kids back in the building. Posters decorated the hallways, lockers had streamers, and balloons could be found throughout the school. It was the sounds of laughter, feet on the stairs, classroom doors opening and closing, the rosey cheeks coming in from playing hard outside during recess - makes us all so grateful for the career we are in. |
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February 1st also kicked off I LOVE TO READ month - the theme for Roosevelt this year is "Chill Out and Read." Celebrating with different activities of dress up days, bingo, book reviews, Super One Bag coloring book reviews, breakfast and books. The top class in the whole school will get a sledding party! The top class in each grade level will get an ice cream party! And in the spirit of prizes, the top 4 students in each class will also get something amazing!
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Eveleth-Gilbert Senior High - Gr. 9-12 |
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Another 1st for
Rock Ridge Schools:
“Selkie” Wins Top Honors at the
Subsection One-Act Play Contest
The Wolverine thespians were awarded a 1st-place championship at the Subsection 7A-1 one-act play contest this past weekend, which means the cast and crew will be advancing into section competition this week. At sections, the play “Selkie” will compete against five other shows, just as it did in the subsection contest. Aitkin, Esko, Cook County, Cherry, and Northeast Range will also participate, with the winner of the contest advancing to the MSHSL State Festival.
According to Dramatic Publishing, the play “Selkie” takes place in the wild rocky islands north of Scotland where it is told 'round the peat fires that the selkies transform into beautiful lasses on Midsummer's Eve and dance on the beach, celebrating the dual nature of the seal people—land and sea. “Selkie” chronicles the story of 16-year-old Elin Jean as she discovers a hidden pelt that unlocks a mystery foretold and is set on a path to find "the knowin'" she desperately seeks.
Cast and crew members include Dani Logan as Elin Jean; Brennan Muhich as Pa; Ellie Norvitch as Margaret, Elin Jean’s half-selkie mother; Jake Bradach as Duncan, Elin Jean’s father; Dylan Celley as Tam, Elin Jean’s first love; Daisy Borden and Sophia Peterson as selkie sisters of Margaret. Sophie Statsman is the production stage manager and accent coach, and Natalie Petron is the assistant stage manager. The show is directed by Jack Gritzmacher, and Jeremy Liimatta serves as the tech director.
Break a leg at the section contest, Wolverines!
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Virginia High School - Gr. 7-12 |
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THE SHOW MUST GO ON….
Senior Musical Thoughts
The Goodman Auditorium stage is once again alive with action! With a new director, Lori Ismil, and a new assistant director/choreographer, Amber Johnson, the cast is in full swing working to bring you another fantastic musical which, this year, is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Students and staff are working around the current restrictions including wearing masks and social distancing. Cade Peterson said, “It's definitely different, but not in a bad way...just different.” This musical will be like nothing we have ever done before. “The cast size has been greatly reduced, and there is only one act. It should be interesting to see how we adjust, and how that will affect rehearsals and performances," said Harrison Logan. Alexis Gustafson added, "It's weird with the social distancing and a smaller cast, but I’m just glad to be in it. I’m excited for performances." This is Wyatt Prout's first year in the musical, "It is hard to sing with the masks on because it ends up getting so hot in the mask, but overall the rehearsals for the musical and the musical in general are a fun experience, and I’m glad I took the step to audition for it! I wish that I had done it sooner!" Last year's Virginia High School musical was just one of numerous events canceled due to COVID-19.
Last year, with just over a week before curtains were to open on the musical Catch Me If You Can, the 2020 cast was informed that the show would not go on. Juliana Pauling said, "I thought last year was going to be one of the best musicals the school put on and I was really sad that it was canceled." Harrison Logan echoed her thoughts, "Having it be cancelled hurt. Emotions were running high, and it was not a good time. Our director had just announced it was to be her last year with us, so yeah. Not a good time at all." Mary Skorich added, "I understood the safety reasonings behind the cancellation, but I still wish we could have come up with some way to show off all of the hard work we put in." With Cade Peterson saying, "It was pretty tough--I didn't know what to do with myself for a while."
Unbelievably happy, extremely excited and beyond thrilled are just a few of the student reactions to getting back on stage. Some students, such as Mary, are a little nervous, especially after the events of last year's musical being cancelled right before performances; however, the overall mood is of excitement for the performances. Harrison said, "The best part is working with a cast and crew of amazing people, putting on a great show for everyone!!" Wyatt agrees, "I am very excited for the musical, it has a fun story with wacky characters and I am very proud to be working alongside the amazing people in this production."
Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to performances which will be held March 25th to 28th. There's no doubt the cast will knock it out of the park once again!!
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Some of the Senior cast:
L-R: Juliana Pauling, Grace Wilson, Wyatt Prout, Cade Peterson and Mary Skorich
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Have a wonderful month ahead. Spring is right around the corner! |
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