State Classification RankingsBy: Superintendent Lambert

Collecting and studying data is a great tool to see where you have been, where you are going, and what things you can focus on. Last month, the Nebraska Department of Education released all of the 17-18 school year data to the public along with how they would classify districts based off of the data collected.

There are four classification categories: Excellent, Great, Good and Needs Improvement. Cody-Kilgore, as a District, ranked Great, which is something we all can be proud of. Our teachers and staff work extremely hard every day to provide students with the best learning environment, and this “ranking” is another way to show the great things that we are doing here at CKUS.

As I am extremely proud to be identified as a Great school, data sometimes doesn’t tell the full story. Data is merely a snapshot and, in this case, is based off of how our students did on the state assessments (NSCAS for elementary and ACT for high school). Data doesn’t always represent the true growth of a student or a school district. For instance, a score could come in far below the level of proficiency and that score could be red flagged as “needs improvement”, but the data doesn’t show that the child doubled their score from the previous assessment. It merely looks at the score by itself. In small schools, data can fluctuate a lot due to the small number of students. If one student in a class of 12 doesn’t do well, then it brings the average down much more quickly than if one student in a class of 100 doesn’t do well.

Our district’s Curriculum Improvement team, which has representation from all three schools, has been doing great things in moving our district forward academically. We have a strategic plan in place and have been continually studying different types of data to help guide our decision making. We are currently looking at improving our English/Language Arts curriculum, starting with Pre-K through 5th grades. When looking at the data, you will see that we are not scoring very well at the elementary level in ELA, and I applaud our team in recognizing this and taking the necessary steps to improve before any scores or rankings even came out.

If you want to look at all of the data, you can find it by going to http://nep.education.ne.gov and search for Cody-Kilgore District, elementary, middle and high school. You will also have access to all other school districts in the state of Nebraska. Even though our district overall scored Great, our high school and middle school individually scored Excellent and our elementary scored Good, due to our low ELA scores. This simply shows that our younger students need more support in learning to read and reading to learn, which we will provide with our ELA series.

I am extremely proud of where we are currently as a district. We are collecting data, studying it, and making informed decisions to help move our district forward. With this type of strategic planning in place, Cody-Kilgore will continue to build on its already excellent academic achievements.

February2019

Greetings from the Art Room!

Have you ever wondered why teachers assign the homework and projects that they do? Although we have freedom to be creative, we are also guided by the Standards. Standards are concise, written descriptions of what students are expected to know and be able to do at a specific stage of their education.

To understand a Standard you must first dissect the formula. For example, FA 2.2.4 is FA (Fine Arts) 2 (K-2nd grade), 2(Visual Arts) and 4 (Strand) . Each Standard then has subcategories, a, b, c, d, etc.

One Standard the elementary art students have been working on is FA2.2.4. FA 2.2.4 – Students will identify contemporary, historical, and cultural context in art and life.FA 2.2.4.a Communicate that “I can be an artist.”FA 2.2.4.b Identify examples of how humans have always made art.FA 2.2.4.c Communicate that works of art are made for different purposes.FA 2.2.4.d Identify how images and objects are used to convey a story, familiar experience , or connection to the world.

The students made connections from that art standard by creating art pieces based on the following prehistoric art.

PreK- 1st grade – Cave of the Hands, Argentina, (c. 7300 BCE), is known for painted animal figures, a range of geometric shapes, and a sensational panel of hundreds of red, white, purple, yellow and brown hands.

Similar projects for different levels are:2nd-3rd grade - Lascaux Cave, France, (c. 17,000-13,000 BCE) is a famous cave that contains some of the first drawings in the world! It shows that art was important even to people living long ago.

4th-5th grade - Stonehenge, England, (c. 3000-1520 BCE) is a prehistoric monument built by Neolithic people of large stones that are arranged in an inner and outer circle.

Cave of Hands Lascaux Cave Stonehenge

SCHOOL LOGO

Please submit your school logo ideas by March 4th to either offices or send via email to alambert@cody-kilgore.com

Some examples of logos that have already been submitted are…. Keep them coming!

STRATEGIC PLANNING!

Please make sure you fill out one of the patron input forms to help the board of education strategically plan for the future. The link was sent out to all parents via email and posted on the school’s facebook page. The address to the form is….

https:tinyurlcom/yb5pnknm

The Cody-Kilgore Cowgirl Volleyball team has been invited to the Nebraska Top Ten Volleyball Camp at Kearney Catholic High School on July 30-31, 2019. The camp is a competitive tournament opportunity for top volleyball programs in the state to get a head start on their seasons. Last year, eventual Class D2 State Champion BDS earned first place at the tournament, and this year the Cowgirls will face 2018 state-qualifying teams such as Ewing, CWC, Exeter-Milligan, Mullen, BDS, and Falls City Sacred Heart in the D1/D2 division.

“To be invited is a huge honor,” said head coach April Lambert. “It means you are one of the premier programs in the state. This is also a big opportunity for us. Due to our location, we would never have the opportunity to compete against some of these teams during the regular season.”

The Cowgirls will have some work to do this off-season to replace their roster of six seniors, including standout Addison Johnson who was 1st team All-State, earning 1,000+ career kills and a volleyball scholarship to Midland University.

“We will be young, but I think that is to our advantage. Our goal at this tournament won’t necessarily be to win all our games, but to improve, grow, and learn. Hayley Schied will be our only senior, so we will look to her for some leadership, but Elle Ravenscroft and Shaelyn Welch both return with varsity experience. We will have two years to develop and keep some great talent in the program, and I expect us to be competitive for a state bid again this year and for years to come,” Lambert said.

The Nebraska Top Ten Camp is open to spectators and is located at the two gyms at Kearney Catholic High School. The event regularly attracts not only volleyball fans but also college recruiters and coaches

Cowgirls Invited to Nebraska Top Ten Volleyball Camp

PreK-2nd grade small fry participants getting ready to play during half time of the high school basketball games.

Volleyball Clinic

Cody-Kilgore High School PO Box 216

Cody, NE 69211

Cody Office - 402.823.4117 Kilgore Office - 402.966.2291

cknews@cody-kilgore.com

School Reach Want current, up-to-date information on happenings at Cody-Kilgore? Don’t receive the School Reach call from

the office? Find out about changes on the calendar after the fact? Does it seem like you’re the last to know?

Consider calling the Cody office and ask to be put on the School Reach call. 402-823-4117

The goal of the clinic is to get girls as many contacts of the ball as possible, essentially letting the ball be their teacher. “That strategy is something I learned at the UNL Coaches Clinic last year,” said April Lambert, clinic coach. “I remind the girls that if the ball doesn’t go where they want it to go, then they need to make an adjustment. Every time they contact the ball, they learn. I go around and adjust their form or give them reminders and cues, but there is a lot of action in the gym.”

Coach Lambert felt everyone improved. The older girls were getting multiple contacts on the court and setting up hits, while the younger girls were just working on serving and passing balls that come at them over the net.

In March, the older JH girls will go to the March Madness JH tournament in Ogallala. They will get to play for an entire 24 hours, which will be a lot of games and a lot of touches on the ball. Plus, they will get to see some really good teams and be inspired to get better. The goal at this age isn’t necessarily to win every game. No one remembers how many wins a team had in the off-season. The goal is to learn and improve and be inspired.

Volleyball is a life-long sport that teaches many valuable lessons. “Girls have to learn to work together with people who are different than them. No one can play volleyball alone, and learning those communication and conflict resolution skills when the pressure is on is a valuable life skill. Working through adversity and frustration in practice and games is another skill I see girls learn throughout their career. We are teaching a lot more than volleyball in this game,” said April Lambert.

Fourteen girls, grades 5-8 attended a volleyball clinic with Coach Lambert. The clinic lasted three short hours and focused on passing fundamentals, hitting techiques, footwork and serving.

Programming II

Digital Journalism Class

Hayley S.Emmy C.

Ms. Richards

Cody-Kilgore will YouTube.com to broadcast home games, concerts and graduation. You will find our broadcasts on YouTube Live. Go to www.youtube.com and search for Cody-Kilgore Schools.

The Programming II class is busy with Java and learning the importance of correct syntax. They’re doing a great job with it. The class is currently taking a side trip to learn about the 3D printer. Using the tinkercad.com, a design program they have designed a print. On the second print they had to verify their measurement before printing. Once it was printed they used digital calipers to verify the measurements and discovered there will need to be some adjustments made.

Once the class is finished with 3D printing they will move on to more programming using Legos Mindstorm. Chad Schneider donated two Mindstorm kits to use in class. The kits will have to be built and then programmed to work. The hardest part might be the building of the robot.

Thank you Chad for the donation of Mindstorm. It is greatly appreciated.

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