Welcome!

In an effort to provide more direct and ongoing communication with Sibley's school families and the larger community, I have created this page. It's content will be developed to provide small bits of information whenever there is a need. I encourage you to subscribe to this blog so that you will know whenever new content is available.

District Aims:

Safe, healthy, welcoming schools;
Increase student opportunity and achievement;
Operate in the most effective and efficient manner.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Sibley Academic Growth Continues

Today, District 241's Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) as determined by our Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA's) became public.  Last year, Sibley did not make AYP in 6 different categories.  In 2011, we missed in only 1 area by 1%!!!!  In case you didn't realize it, under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), 100% of students in every tested group will be proficient in reading and math by the year 2014.  However, like all things, improvement and individual academic growth is a priority for us.  We are dedicated to a collaborative effort in increasing student achievement as evidence by our work in Professional Learning Communities.  As educators, we believe all students can achieve at high levels and we want them to believe they can as well.  We will continue to focus our efforts on the individual growth of each child through our focus on learning; staff and students.  To read about all buildings within the district, please review to Dr. Mike Funk's blog as it is all encompassing from a district standpoint.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Gifted and Talented Services

In my previous post, I talked a little about the purpose behind some of our fall assessments.  This year, our district is developing further our Gifted Program and using MAP assessments as one part in the qualifying process.  To possibly qualify, a student would score in the 95%ile on the MAP reading or math tests.  After that, and with permission from parents, an aptitude test would be given to further determine the benefit and placement.  A third bit of information from parents and teachers will also be used to help in the process.  As a district and school, the mission of the program is to maximize the potential and meet the unique educational and affective needs of our gifted and talented students.  Programming options include but are not limited to: pullout small group instruction, differentiation within the classroom, mentorships, sponsored competitions such as Math Masters and Spelling Bee, Junior Great Books discussion groups, and other enrichment opportunities as they arise and need dictates.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

A word on Assessments

During the first full 2 weeks of the school year, all of our district's elementary students will be assessed K-5 through the use of two assessment tools; AIMSweb and MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) testing.  Both assessments are used to help teachers know where students are in terms of their learning.  AIMSweb contains a progress monitoring component which allows teachers to study data on students frequently to assure that if mid-course corrections need to be made, they can be.  All students will be assessed using AIMSweb three times a year, and MAP testing has that same ability.  Because we are focused on high levels of student learning for all students, the purpose of these assessments are primarily to inform us.  When certain grade level targets are not where we determine they should be, we use this data to plan accordingly within grade level teams. 

Defining MAP: MAP is used to measure a student's progress or growth in school.  They are important to teachers because they let teachers know where a student's strengths are and if help is needed in any specific areas.  Teachers use this information to help them guide instruction in the classroom.  If you have ever used a growth chart in your home to show how much your child has grown from one year to the next, this will help you understand the scale MAP uses to measure your child's academic progress.  Called the RIT scale (Rasch unIT), it is an equal-interval scale much like feet and inches on a yardstick.  It is used to chart your child's academic growth from year to year.  RIT scores typically start at the 140 to 190 level in 3rd grade and progress to the 240 to 300 level by high school

Defining AIMSweb: AIMSweb is a benchmark and progress monitoring system based on direct, frequent and continuous student assessment. The results are reported to students, parents, teachers and administrators via a web-based data management and reporting system to determine how best to adjust teaching and respond to an individual students needs.


Special School District, St. Louis, Missouri from Kerri O'Meara on Vimeo.

Great Start

To kick off our school year, we ended our first day with a celebration that the students really enjoyed.  As a staff, we decided that we would assemble all of our grades to welcome them to the start of what will be a great year "together."  Throughout the day, and certainly the first four days, students and teachers will spend time building their classroom communities around the Responsive Classroom approach.  We didn't want to forget that we are a school-wide community of learners as well, which was a major focus for the assembly.  Jane Hansen, our physical education teacher, also taught the whole school a dance that was set to the song, "Celebration," by Kool and the Gang.  At Sibley, we are focused on learning and individual growth.  To that end, "We Celebrate Learning."

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Exciting News for Sibley!

I hope that you had a wonderful and restful summer, and are looking forward to a great school year.  Last spring, our district made the decision to change our grade configurations in light of a number of things.  At Sibley, one reason for K-5 buildings, was our lack of space.  This year, art will be taught in a classroom, not our cafeteria.  Our ELL program will have a classroom, and not need to use a conference room.  In addition, our Learning Center support room will be in a space that will allow much more room for students to work.  Last year, our Learning Center was making the most of a space one-third the size of a regular room. This year, we will operate with four K-5 buildings, a 6-7 middle school, and an 8-12 high school.  Maximizing the learning space and facilities of both our middle and high schools was also accomplished with our district reconfiguration. 

In addition to some of the physical changes we underwent in our buildings, we also learned that we had received a grant from the state to support 5 FTE's known as ADSIS (Alternative Delivery of Specialized Instructional Services) teachers.  Our application was written to support a teacher at each elementary school and our middle school.  The goal for Albert Lea's ADSIS program is to provide research based interventions for students identified as being at risk for academic failure and possible referral for special education services in the areas of reading, math, and behavior.  We want students to remain in the general classroom receiving additional support and intervention as needed.

Sibley will once again be able to support a Title 1 program for students grades K-3 in reading and math.  Historically, buildings that dropped below the district's average of poverty have not had Title 1 services. At the Federal level, the district received much more Title 1 dollars than anticipated due to the 2010 census.  Because of this, an in depth analysis was done which determined that we can support a Title 1 program if we adhere to the 35% rule(As a district we are over the 35% poverty threshold).

It is going to be a fantastic year at Sibley as well as for the district.