As a thank you for following my Blog, readers will have better access to materials being sent out! Here is my newsletter article for the April/May (and last) newsletter of the year. Enjoy it before everyone else!
Central Stakeholders,
We have finally hit the 50 degrees mark, which can only be a
sign that winter is slowly leaving us. This
has to rank as the worst winter in terms of coldness in my career, yet as with
anything, our teachers and students adapted well with the inconsistency of days
and being cooped up inside.
Along with warmer weather brings the end of a school year
and Marlene informs me this will be our last newsletter of the year. Because of this, I think it is a perfect time
to reflect on the school year as well as look at the road ahead.
My Entry Plan as I began this position set forth the
following goals:
· - Listen and learn from students, staff, parents,
and community.
· -Building and deepening relationships.
· -Ownership of data.
· -Identifying strengths and weaknesses of the
district.
· -Be visible in the school and community.
While I admit there were some hurdles along the way, I feel
I have had some degree of success toward all of my goal areas. Obtaining success in these areas hasn’t
always been easy and has led to tough conversations, disagreements, and
sometimes even tears. As a leader you
have to be able to have these types of conversations and as I look to Central’s
future, these conversations are going to happen more and more. We can no longer do what we have always done
and ignore the data in front of us. As a
district we know exactly who we are, now the tough question becomes who do we
want to be? For those that believe who
we are right now is good enough, it isn’t.
We can and will do better.
As the leader of our school district, I feel it is my duty
to all of our stakeholders to share the direction I want to see our district go
and to be held accountable for getting us there. I have made no secret that I believe our
students deserve a 21st Century education and a different public education
from what our generation and the generations before us received. Education is no longer local, it is
global. Our kids will enter a global work
force, high school diploma or not. Will
they be equipped to handle the demands of a global job-market through skills
such as memorization, note taking, and test taking? Absolutely not! We need actively engaged students who exhibit
higher levels of learning through writing and hands on activities, in other words,
creating things! That is why I am happy
to pass along that Central will host a district wide training for all of our
teachers with the Buck Institute this June.
I encourage everyone to check out the Buck Institute’s website at http://bie.org.
Project Based Learning will lead to a different looking classroom. Gone are textbooks, worksheets, and the
memorization of capitals! Replacing
these lower level skills, Central students will instead be critically thinking
and creating. I want our students to be
finding real solutions to real life problems.
This will be a first of its kind training in this part of Iowa and I am
very excited about the possibilities it will offer Central students!
Due to my belief in the importance of reading and writing
and the research surrounding this area, we need to focus on our youth. The earlier we can get our students exposed
to literacy skills, the more successful they will be in our high school and as
adults. Because of this Central will be
offering two full day preschool classes in the 2014/15 school year. This is a major, positive change for our
school district.
These two things along with multi-age classrooms and
continuing our calendar discussions are going to set Central apart from other
schools in our area, Iowa, and our nation.
We will be able to offer an education to meet the demands of the 21st
Century in which our students will be writers, critical thinkers, and problem
solvers. These opportunities will also
come with more parent and community involvement. This is already beginning as I have already
been approached by some business leaders requesting involvement with our
students on our early out Friday’s. I
hope to grow parent and community involvement as we move forward as a district.
Thank you for all of your support and commitment to Central
Community School District. The future
looks very bright!
Mr.Trenkamp
Central Superintendent/Elementary Principal
