PLEASANT HILL DISTRICT NEWS
Week of February 8, 2016
DISTRICT
This week, on Friday, February 12, the district math teachers in grades five through twelve will be attending their fourth session on
Project Based Learning (PBL) at Central Office. This year-long journey will include the teachers sharing results from their last PBL they
facilitated with students. They will then design a final PBL for the school year. The PBLs the teachers have created will become of a
part of their online math curriculum. The math teachers have put a tremendous amount of work into PBLs this school year and have
seen many successes throughout the course of development and implementation. This year-long series of professional development
has helped to upgrade the current mathematics curriculum for students.
PRIMARY SCHOOL
February started as a busy time, especially for our 2nd graders. All students
celebrated the 100th day of school on the first, and National School Counseling Week
with Mrs. Shari Doutt all week long. In Guidance classes, 2nd graders did research
on career paths using multiple resources, including sessions online in our computer
lab. Their finished products include opinion pieces with illustrations. 2nd. graders
participated in Jump Rope for Heart with PE teacher Mrs. Janet Anderson, raising
over $6000 for the American Heart Association. Everyone went home with a
certificate and prizes; large donors will be recognized at our February assembly. As
part of our character education emphasis, Shari Doutt is teaching about “acceptance” in all Guidance classes, and has started
“friendship groups” with specific students to work on social interactions. Our current school décor is hearts, hearts, hearts, and we
can’t wait for Valentine parties next week!
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Student Leadership welcomed 340 guests on Friday, February 5th for our Donuts
with Dads event. The canned goods donated were delivered to the Pleasant Hill
Food Pantry on Saturday. This club is sponsored by Mrs. Brundage and Ms.
Halfmann.
Fitness Club: We have 35 third and fourth graders meeting twice a week
from 7:30-8:10 to get their day started off right. This program is designed to give
students a variety of ways to be active and keep healthy while having fun in a
safe environment. This club is sponsored by Mrs. Christy Reeves and meets in
the PHES gym.
The Character Club, sponsored by Mrs. Zimmerschied, is offered to 4th Graders second semester. The club has three main goals:
Promote Positive Character, Perform Random Acts of Kindness, & Provide a service/donation to those in need. There are currently 40
members. In January we broke up into three groups to brainstorm and plan how to
accomplish our three goals, we started working on creating a new Elementary
School Pledge, and we did our first random act of kindness for the PHES staff!
Mrs. Z is excited to work with this group of caring, motivated students who are
eager to make a positive difference!
Coding Club provides students with an opportunity to learn the language and
critical thinking skills used by software developers and robotics experts. Students
are working their way through modules on code.org, a website that teaches a
coding language called Blockly. Mrs. Humphrey set up an account for each club member so students can even continue their work at
home. We are also fortunate to have a parent volunteer, Mrs. Jen Motush, who is a software developer.
Third graders are finishing
their Build a Town projects
which
showcase
their
understanding of geometry,
measurement
and
communities.
The finished
products will be on display in
the PHES gym February 16th
between 4:00-6:00.
This week we will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Friday with classroom parties and
our PHES students are showing their LOVE for reading by participating in the 100
Page Reading Challenge this month. The Challenge ends this Friday!
INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL
Congratulations to the PHIS Students of the Week: Sam McDowellDriskell, Karsyn Johnson, Sophia Gregory, Isaac Bledsoe, Cooper Divine
and Kylie Lloyd! They have done a great job exhibiting character traits
and doing good deeds!
Congratulations to the PHIS Students of the Month for February: Ayden
Jackson, Ethan Hall, Dylan Kauffman, Aryana DeVault, Haley Ross,
Raegan Watterson, Seth Stafford, Elijah Reynolds, Jonathan Rivera,
Logan Mann, Hannah Ponder, Nathan Hays and Ali Little. These students
were nominated by their peers for exhibiting the character trait kindness.
We are so proud of them!
In addition to all the teaching and learning, there are many activities taking
place at PHIS:
•
February 1 was our 100th day of school; we had a banner where students left a positive message using a sticky note.
Students put their name on it as the members randomly selected a few and gave out treats during the Morning Motivator and
at the end of the day.
•
Pennies for Patients Project: This activity will take place from February 1-19 and supports the Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society. Each team will have a box to collect coins during the three week period and the team with the most money will earn a
popcorn party. Each day during our Morning Motivator one of our PSC/FOR members will read a brief statement to
encourage participation. What another great way to demonstrate kindness!
•
During Rooster Time on February 3, the Rockin' Roosters performed a flash mob of Lion King songs. The flash mob was
performed to help promote the raising of goods for the Wayside Waifs wish list. Rockin' Roosters will be raising goods for the
animal shelter throughout February and up until the concert on March 8th. On March 9th the students will be going on a field
trip to perform for the shelter and take all of the donated goods.
•
STUCO is selling Valentine grams which will be delivered Feb. 12th. Students enjoy the opportunity to surprise a friend and
promote kindness.
•
Mrs. DeMoure-Umscheid’s classes participated in a Kindness activity. Prior to the activity, she led students in a lesson that
included a short video clip from Remember the Titians to get them hooked. They engaged in a toothpaste experiment (after
students squeezed toothpaste out of the tube, other students attempted to put it back—an analogy was made demonstrating
that once we say harmful words, it is not easy to take them back just as it is not easy to put toothpaste back in the tube). Time
was given for discussion and a “snowball activity”. Lastly, students collaborated to identify adjectives that describe their
classmates. These became evidence of their learning and students loved them! Check out the mini posters in the 5th grade
hallway when you visit and the two examples below.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Middle School Student
Council Dance….
The Positive School Climate Committee (teachers) and the FOR
club (students) have been very busy this school year. This was
the second year these groups sponsored and worked the middle
school concession stands. Thanks to donations from parents
and community members our concession stand profits were
above expectation. All of the profits will go toward purchasing
items to improve the climate of the school. In the works right
now is the planning stages of a permanent concession stand. This stand is something the middle school is
missing and can benefit all clubs, groups and organizations.
We have also planned a spirit week February 8th-12th: Monday, Lazy clothes day; Tuesday, When I
grow up day; Wednesday; We love Kansas City Day; Thursday, sports day; Friday, Dress your
best/formal day.
Last but not least, we are in the beginning stages of working with the City of Pleasant Hill to plan our 2nd
Annual Community Service Day. We are excited to see what kinds of jobs our students and staff will be
doing to beautify and better our town and community.
Every year at this time, our Student Council also sponsors several fundraisers
which directly benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Staff, parents,
and students will have several different ways to support this cause. We will
once again be offering parents, students, and staff the opportunity to purchase
a lollipop Valentine for one dollar. Students will be able to pick from four
different card designs and parents and staff will have two choices. The lollipop
Valentines will be delivered on Friday, February 12 during advisory. This
program has always been a big success; students love both giving and receiving the Valentines. Sales for students began last week
and will continue until Tuesday, Feb. 9. Student Council members will be taking students’ orders before school in the foyer. Parents
can send in their order form for orders until Tuesday as well.
Students are invited to go on a “Blind Date” with a book in the upcoming weeks. Each bag has a hint
that refers to the title or the content of the book. Students then select a book from the hint. They are
asked to try at least three chapters before making a decision to continue their date. At that point, they
may choose to finish or select a new "date".
Many students are destined to find their true Book Love this month!
HIGH SCHOOL
Pleasant Hill High School Student Earns Award for Aspirations in Computing
As part of an effort to encourage more young women to choose careers in technology, the National Center
for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and Garmin International has recognized Pleasant Hill
High School Junior, Alyssa Kramer as one of 15 high-school women to receive the Runner-up of the
NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. This was awarded to Alyssa at a ceremony and reception at
Garmin International in Olathe, KS. on February 5. 2016.
“With technology jobs projected to grow faster than all other job sectors in the next decade, it’s imperative
that we nurture the computing aspirations of women, who will make up half the professional workforce,”
said Lucy Sanders, CEO and Co-founder of NCWIT. “This award allows us to recognize and encourage
talent that might otherwise be overlooked.”
The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing was created to encourage the computing aspirations of young women, introduce them
to leadership opportunities in the field, and generate visibility for women’s participation in technology fields. Winners are acknowledged
for their outstanding aptitude and interest in technology and computing, leadership ability, academic history, and plans for postsecondary education.
"Double Up"....Agriculture Classes offer College and High School Credit
Students enrolled in Agriculture Courses in Pleasant Hill can earn up to 13 College Credit hours in Equine Science, Horticulture, Ag
Mechanics and Intro to Animal Science when they enroll in the corresponding High School Ag Courses.
Pleasant Hill FFA students enrolled in Welding, Ag Structures and Small
engines can earn three hours of college credit from UCM (University of Central
Missouri, Warrensburg) in Ag Mechanics for about half price tuition. Those
who received College Credit in Ag Mechanics are: Jaleah Jones, Jamie Ross,
Kaycee Mullin-Struzick, Sara Ross, Kylie Mullin-Struzick and Bailey Wileman.
Pleasant Hill High School AG Students have the ability of receiving 3 hours of
college credit (Dual Credit) through Missouri State University in "Intro to
Horses" when they enroll in Equine Science . Eight students who took
advantage of earning dual credit are: L to R: Christina Waddle, Madison
Voorhees, Kylie Heublein, Colten Haak, Kylie Mullin-Struzick, Bailey Wileman,
Zandri Bredenhand and Kyley Keith.
TECHNOLOGY
Recently Kerri Kay, Erica Smothers, and Diane Williamson were selected to pilot Nexus 7, or Android, tablets for their use in the
classroom. On February 3rd, a professional development day was held to familiarize the teachers with the tablets and develop plans
for the implementation of the tablets. The day was spent learning how to distribute apps to the tablets, use the apps for teaching and
learning activities, and understand how the settings can help or distract from the learning environment. These teachers will not only
learning the new tablet platform, but also comparing and contrasting the usefulness to the iPad tablets. The information gathered will
be very useful in helping determine the most effective mobile devices for the district. Their pioneer spirits are much appreciated!
Special Services
Primary
Kay/Underwood 2nd Grade Co-Teaching
The Big Idea: What have you learned about the world that surprises you?
Essential Question: How do the Earth’s forces affect us?
Through parallel teaching, students read the story “I Fall Down” by Vicki
Cobb, while practicing making predictions and checking them throughout the
passage. The story demonstrated the effects of gravity in a variety of ways.
After reading the story, students were given a cotton ball and foam magnet.
They were to drop both pieces at the same time from the same distance to
see which object falls faster. Students have been very engaged in learning
about the Earth’s forces this week.
Speech
Student’s receiving speech and language therapy services are hard at work this quarter meeting
their individualized objectives. Many of these students are using a program called Hearbuilder on
the iPad. This is a program designed for students pre-k through to 8th grade who struggle in the
following areas: basic concepts, following directions, phonological awareness, sequencing, and
auditory memory. It can be used on an iPad/tablet, laptop, or desktop to help students who struggle
with these components of language. Additionally, this program allows the facilitator to keep data
relevant to each enrolled student. This program is a tool used to teach and strengthen these skills,
and then targets are addressed in functional activities such as play (for preschool), reading,
spelling, listening, and storytelling in the classroom.
Elementary
Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Smothers-4th grade
I can listen to details in a narrative story and find the pros and cons written by the author.
I can defend my opinion using text evidence.
I can form an opinion based on an informative text.
Students in Mrs. Smothers’ class worked on forming opinions and then writing an argumentative essay based on information gathered
in both narrative and informative text.
To begin the lesson, students made a t-chart graphic organizer on an index card and labeled one side “should squish the ant,” and the
other side, “should not squish the ant.” Mrs. Armstrong read the story, “Hey Little Ant,” while students took notes on both sides of their
chart while listening to the narrative text. The story is about a boy who wants to step on an ant and the ant who is against being
squashed!
At the end of the story, students formed an opinion on if the ant should be squished or not. Using information from the story, students
presented their position to their peers using accountable talk.
To continue defending their opinions, students received two informational articles about ants. They took notes from the passages to
support their opinion on whether ants are beneficial or harmful. The lesson concluded by students writing an argumentative essay
based on the opinions they had formed and facts from the informational texts.
Intermediate
Kayla Heishman
This lesson was taught in a co-teaching 6th grade ELA class. The unit of study was Latin Roots meeting CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.4.B.
The objective of the lesson was “I can use Latin roots to help me find meanings of unfamiliar words in a text.” The why of the lesson
was “So I can expand my vocabulary and have a better understanding of Latin roots” This lesson was taught utilizing the co-teaching
model of parallel teaching, using Unit 2 Week 1 of the building’s Wonders Reading Program. Parallel teaching is a co-teaching model in
which the class is split into two different groups and are on opposite sides of the rooms. My content teacher and I taught the same
exact lesson, but did so in smaller groups. This allowed us to review material faster, and to answer more questions that the students
had. The focused instruction was reviewing a teacher made anchor chart covering why and how you can utilize Latin roots while
reading. Following the anchor chart was the guided instruction. The students were to open their Reading/ Writing Workshop books to
pg. 101. In the small group, the students and I read the “Find Text Evidence” section and discussed how to use Latin roots and context
clues to find the meaning of the word civilization. I discussed with the students that knowing the Latin root meaning does not
necessarily give a precise meaning of the word. The students are encouraged to use additional comprehension strategies such as rereading and context clues to find meanings of unfamiliar words. I emphasized that Latin roots help them gain SOME idea of the
meaning of the unknown word, but not a 100% accurate definition. Next, the students and I discussed the Latin roots struct, nav, and
port and their meanings, which were also on pg. 101. In addition to pg.101, I discussed with the students that the suffix -tion means
“the state of”. Then, the students and I broke down the word construction to determine the meaning to be the “state of building”. The
independent practice was the students were to use the information on pg.101 to determine the meanings of the words transport,
constructed and navigators. The students were given about 15 minutes to do so independently, write down the definitions in their
journals, and share with a partner. After sharing their thoughts with their partners, I had the students share out what they wrote with the
small group. The strategic teacher questions were what are Latin roots, and how can I use them to determine meanings of unknown
words while I am reading? Two ways to formatively assess the students are giving them a pretest before the lesson begins and to have
the students complete exit slips at the end of the lesson.
Middle
Jessica Parsons/MaryJo Fender
Math 7th and 8th Grade
7th grade has been work on operations with rational numbers. They have been learning how to add and subtract positive and negative
numbers as well as positive and negative decimals and fractions. The students have also been learning how to multiply and divide
positive and negative numbers. They have learned several strategies when working on this skill such as modeling the equations on
number lines as well as using (+) and (-) signs to make zero pairs. They have learned how to separate mixed numbers into whole
numbers and fractions to make the numbers easier to work with. They have also learned several techniques for multiplying and dividing
the numbers by either using the triangle method and count the number of negative signs to help them decide if their answer should be
negative or positive. Lastly, they have done a couple of puzzles to help them work on this skill, one of which was a coloring sheet
where they had to solve the equation and then color the space the correct color. The students did quite well on this project. The other
puzzle was working with fractions. They were given three equations with some of the digits missing from the equation. They then had
the numbers 0-9 to use to fill in the missing digits to find the correct answer to the puzzle. We are finishing up a station activity and then
the students will be getting ready to take their assessment.
8th grade is working on multi-step equations. They are learning the steps the need to do in order to solve for x when the variable is on
both sides of the equations. They are also revisiting the properties that help them solve these equations such as commutative and
associative etc. As they solve their equations they have to explain what they are doing, why they are doing it, and what property allows
them to complete the equations in that way. They are also learning how to determine if an equation has a unique solution, no solution,
or infinite solutions. The students are learning several way to do this such as completely solving the equations and by doing the first
couple of steps and using the rules we have learned to decide what type of solution the equation is. We have been doing this through
parallel teaching. The students also completed a puzzle where they had to solve the equations and find the answer in the pattern and
color that section the correct color. They did quite well on this project. They have a few more lessons to go through working with tables
and graphs and then they will be ready to take their assessment.
High
Mr. Hutzell and Mr. Reeves have been attending training this year about incorporating
project based learning in the classroom. With this new initiative the students are able
to solve real life problems and see their work put into action. The students were
asked to make their own business and make graphs and projections based on sales,
expenses, and inventory. It was a lot of fun to watch the students work through
roadblocks and come up with solutions to the problems. The best part of the project
was to watch the students learn from both the successes and the failures of the
project throughout their planning process.
PLEASANT HILL ACTIVITIES… “IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE A ROOSTER/CHICK!”
Highlights:
1. Rooster Wrestling: The Roosters travelled to Marshfield, Mo. this past weekend to compete in the Marshfield Duals. The team
returned home with a 5-0 dual record on the day and won their third straight championship in Marshfield! The Roosters begin
districts this coming weekend in Bolivar (Friday and Saturday). Wish the wrestlers the best of luck heading into districts!
Follow the Rooster wrestlers on twitter at @roosterwrestle
2. Rooster Basketball: The Roosters got a big MRVC West win last Friday night vs. the Harrisonville Wildcats. The team is
playing well and looks forward to MRVC West conference games at. Grain Valley on Tuesday night and home to Odessa on
Friday night!
3. Chicks Basketball: The Chicks got a win last week vs. MRVC West conference rival Excelsior Springs. They lost a tough one
at home against Harrisonville on Friday night, but hope to bounce back at home vs. Grain Valley this Tuesday. They will also
be on the road Thursday night at Odessa.
4. Speech & Debate: The speech and debate team head to Carrollton this Wednesday (Feb 10th) for “individual events”. They
will then compete in Excelsior Springs on Monday Feb. 15th in the “one acts” portion of the MRVC conference competition.
Follow the Speech & Debate team on twitter at @roosterdebate
5. Choir: Hillside had a great day this past weekend in Joplin bringing home a first in class and tying for the Grand Champion
while bringing home the “best choreography” prize. They will be competing in Harrisonville this coming weekend. That’s a
short trip! The choirs perform at 8am, 10:30am, 2pm and 5:30pm. Wish them the best of luck in their performances when you
see them!
6. Kudos to the student council for the successful Courtwarming festivities last Friday night. The dance was well attended and
the game was a good time! Congratulations are in order for senior Miss Claire Villegas for being crowned Courtwarming
queen. A special thank you to Mrs. Monath and Mrs. Boden for all their hard work as well.
FACILITIES
Staff at the Pleasant Hill Elementary School and Middle School participated in active shooter training on the early out day on January
29, 2016. The District took this opportunity to train staff in these two buildings, while students were not present due to the early release.
Teachers reacted in real time to a scenario presented to them as the intruder traveled through various parts of the building. When the
drill was completed, teachers and staff gathered together with administration and local law enforcement to debrief what took place
during the drill. We are very fortunate to have an outstanding working relationship with the First Responders in our community and
appreciate the time and effort they put forth to help protect our students and staff.