Belle Plaine Professional Development

Today staff members from Belle Plaine and HLV spent the afternoon learning technology skills they will use in the classroom to enhance and support learning.  Sessions staff could attend included Digital Citizenship, Google Forms, Google Sites, and Twitter.  Teachers will use these skills to increase communication with students and parents and provide additional ways to introduce skills and concepts to students in a variety of ways that will appeal to students who all learn in various ways.  Throughout the remainder of the school year, teachers will be designing web-sites, Blogs or Twitter accounts to enhance communication and many will be using Google Forms to assess learning in the classroom.  Some of the staff are already incorporating some of these skills.  It will be very exciting to see the new ways BP teachers use technology to increase the learning of all students.

Belle Plaine's Kameo Pope All-State

Belle Plaine Senior Kameo Pope was recently named to the 2nd Team All State Volleyball squad by the Des Moines Register.  Kameo was also named to the 1st team SICL volleyball squad.  At this time her plans for college are undecided.  Congratulations on a great career and best of luck in the future!  

CLASS 1-A

First Team

MH: Mikaela Foecke, Fort Madison Holy Trinity, jr.

MH: Maddie Thompson, Des Moines Grandview Park Baptist, sr.

OH: Carmen Subbert, Stanton, sr.

OH: Kendyl Sorge, Janesville, jr.

S: Maria Vonderhaar, Fort Madison Holy Trinity, jr.

L: Sydney Danker, Guthrie Center, jr.

Second Team

MH: Noreen Morrow, Harris-Lake Park, sr.

MH: Jordan Carter, Sigourney, jr.

OH: Kameo Pope, Belle Plaine, sr.

OH: Olivia Yutzy, Iowa Mennonite (Kalona), sr.

S: Casey Perez, Iowa Mennonite, sr.

L: Destiny Christopher, Janesville, sr.

Belle Plaine P/T Conferences Have Great Turnout!!

On November 6th and 7th, Parent/Teacher Conferences were held at Belle Plaine.  Twice a year every parent and/or student has the opportunity to schedule a time to visit with their assigned Advisor to discuss their academic progress and performance.  These conferences are a great time share and discuss ideas and ways in which the parent, student, and school can all work together to help every student succeed.  Communication is key in this process!

Shortly after my arrival to Belle Plaine I sensed a slight distance in communication between the school and home through many discussions I had with parents, students, and staff,.  Since the first day of school, I have encouraged teachers and parents to reach out to one another to establish relationships that would benefit students.  In a short time I feel we have made good progress in this area, but there is still room for growth from both sides.  Attendance data from conferences is a good indicator that we do have parents and teachers who are eager to discuss what needs to be done to see that ALL students succeed.

Fall 2013 Belle Plaine P/T Conference Attendance Data

7^th Grade: Class of 2019

Bird                    16 out of 17        94%

Rupp                  15 out of 17        88%

Wonderly           16 out of 16        100%

        

TOTAL           47 out of 50   94%

8^th Grade: Class of 2018

Bohlen                     12 out of 13           92%

Cronbaugh               11 out of 13           85%

DeGraff                   12 out of 13           92%

TOTAL               35 out of 39      90%

9^th Grade: Class of 2017

Coleman             10 out of 10       100%        

Dahlquist           9 out of 10          90%

Prather               9 out of 9            100%

Ridout                9 out of 10          90%

TOTAL           37 out of 39   95%

  

10^th Grade: Class of 2016

Kramer               9 out of 10          90%

Long                   8 out of 9            89%

Maxwell              11 out of 11       100%

Stull                    9 out of 11          82%

TOTAL           37 out of 41   90%

11^th Grade: Class of 2015

Anderson           7 out of 7            100%

Mantz                 8 out of 8            100%

Mast                   7 out of 7            100%

Walton                7 out of 7           100%

TOTAL           29 out of 29   100%

 12^th Grade: Class of 2014
Day                     7 out of 8            88%

Mattmiller          9 out of 9            100%

Tegeler              8 out of 8            100%

Yilek                   8 out of 8            100%        

        

TOTAL           32 out of 33   97%

Thank you to all parents, students, and staff for making the learning of our students a priority!

JH Students Learn About Success

Yesterday students in Mrs. Ridout's 5th period Exploratory talked about success and made a video to share some of their individual thoughts about what success is to them.  Learning about success and using technology to share what they learn.  Great job by Mrs. Ridout and her students!! Check out the video at the link below.

http://photopeach.com/album/14w0dob

Belle Plaine Focusing on School Safety

Several things took place today at Belle Plaine that will move our district toward a more safe and secure environment for our students and staff.  This morning, Rob Rotter, Iowa County Sheriff and Josh Humphrey, Iowa County Emergency Management Coordinator provided training on the ALICE program to administrative team members from Belle Plaine and HLV.  The main focus of the ALICE program is to enable people (teachers, students) to do whatever is necessary based on a given situation to save a life.  The components of ALICE include:

Alert- talk to people & students, address potential problems

Lockdown- situational, barricade, strap doors shut, block lines of sight

Inform- be specific with info, use room numbers, inform responders, update asap

Counter- anything done to evade

Evacuate- get out quickly, anyway you can

Today's training provided scenarios and examples from other school emergency's along with strategies and advice for our administrative teams to consider as we begin to review and revise our emergency response plans.  One of the first steps in this process will be to select rally points (gathering locations), for staff and students to relocate to in the case of an emergency.  Once some of this preliminary work is done, Sheriff Rotter and Josh Humphrey will return to train staff at each building and eventually students.  A session for parents to learn more about the ALICE may also be provided.

Also this afternoon a representative from Hawkeye Alarm in Waterloo was at the high school to assess our current security system and provide information on updates that we are wanting to complete this year.  One change that will be occurring in the very near future will be the installation of a video camera and buzzer system at the main entrance.  Once this is installed the entire building will be completely locked at all times of the school day and all visitors will be viewable by camera and will have to be granted access to enter the building by school staff.  

Each of these steps is a positive move toward making Belle Plaine schools a safe learning environment for everyone.