Category Archives: Academics

The Quiz Bowl teams met last week for an organizational and informational meeting.  Sixteen high school students and eighteen middle school students showed interest in competing this year.  For some of these students this will be their fourth year competing.  The sophomores competed as seventh graders in the first Panhandle Middle School competition.

Edgemont will be hosting this year’s competition on Friday, March 15^th.  We don’t know the exact start time for the competition yet.  We will hold a practice meet with just the Hay Springs students so everyone will be familiar with the way the contest is run.  With this many experienced and enthusiastic students, I anticipate our teams doing very well.

Quiz Bowl participants, the links to study questions are up on the Hawks Library webpage.  Look for the Quiz Bowl link at the top of the page, or click here.

Each year libraries and schools celebrate Read Across America on or about March 1 – Dr. Suess’s Birthday.  Hay Springs School will celebrate on Thursday, March 7^th. However, you can start the celebration early by reading to a child on March 1^st.  The National Education Association estimates that more than 40 million children and adults will celebrate the joy of reading this year.  Join the celebration and read to a child.  Share a favorite book from your childhood, read a new book, or re-read a family favorite.

Read Across America

You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild,
To pick up a book and read with a child.
You’re never too busy, too cool, or too hot,
To pick up a book and share what you’ve got.

In schools and communities,
Let’s gather around,
Let’s pick up a book,
Let’s pass it around.

There are kids all around you,
Kids who will need
Someone to hug,
Someone to read.

Come join us March 7th
Your own special way
And make this America’s
Read to Kids Day.

The State Board of Education and Nebraska Department of Education developed a state accountability system as required by state law 79-760.06. The State Board of Education adopted a system that is based on student scale scores within grades, buildings and districts. The system, Nebraska Performance Accountability (NePAS), is intended to inform educators, parents, school board members, community members and policymakers about the learning progress of Nebraska schools and school districts.

Key Components of NePAS:

1) Nebraska Performance Accountability System (NePAS), is effective for the first time this year.

2) The basis of the new accountability system is NeSA statewide test results, which indicate student learning based on state standards developed to measure career and college readiness.

3) The state’s goal for students is that they will be college and career ready when they graduate so they have a successful work, military and/or college experience.

4) The purpose of NePAS is to inform policy makers, the public and school officials about school district performance.

5) The new accountability system provides information about the progress of districts by looking at state test scale scores in a category

called STATUS as well as IMPROVEMENT and GROWTH.

6) NePAS ranks districts by the following grade level configurations:

Elementary grade-level configuration (grades 3-5)

Middle level grade-level configuration (grades 6-8)

Secondary grade-level configuration (grades 9-12)

District configuration (grades 3-12)

GRADUATION RATE- ranks districts by comparing the percentage of high school graduates.

What the rankings mean: The NePAS results rank school districts from 1 to 249 in reading, math, science, and writing.  If you ranked 2 on the writing test you were the second highest ranked of the 249 school districts in Nebraska. If you ranked 249 you were the lowest ranked school in Nebraska.

Hay Springs Schools scored quite well on all NePAS tests – scores were published in the school newsletter.  When you compare all school districts in Nebraska from Omaha to Hay Springs our test scores and ranking was outstanding.  We are all proud of our student success, quality teaching, and the overall quality of the education provided in Hay Springs Public Schools.

After studying states of matter in Science class the first graders created a graphic organizer showing examples of the three states of matter. They were created using Inspiration, a visual mapping and organizing program that has many applications for class use. Here are a couple of examples:

External Team Visit:  Every five years all schools in Nebraska go through a “School Improvement External Team Visit” conducted by the Department of Education.  On November 19-20 a team of three came to Hay Springs and conducted their visit.

The purpose of the External Visitation is to assist the school in selecting or fulfilling school improvement goals and plans by adding an outside, objective view of the school improvement procedures.  The visit also is meant to increase the depth of understanding for moving forward to achieve school improvement goals.  The team directs the school by way of commending them on their accomplishments and recommending tasks that will enhance or improve the school’s improvement process.

The team’s focus was on gathering evidence.  They toured the school, interviewed students, staff, parents, and community, visited classrooms, and examined the schools test results and academic progress.  At the conclusion of their visit they held an exit conference to review their findings.  The school district also received a written document of findings.

The Visiting Team’s Commendations:

1.  Stakeholders Commitment to the School:  All stakeholders are committed to the success of the school.  The school showed very supportive and quality staff, administration, students, parents, and community.  All stakeholders were aware of the academic and monetary situations the school was dealing with. They noted that the commitment for change and school improvement was highly evident.

2.  Commitment to Academics:  The Visiting Team noted that the school’s curriculum is embedded within the school district.  Staff was committed to the school’s academic goals.  All staff attends common trainings to ensure fidelity of instruction.  Many remediation programs and rules were implemented to ensure student learning.  The Visiting team noted the jump from the PLAS list (persistently lowest achieving school’s list) to the 35^th in reading shows great academic success.

The Visiting Team’s Recommendations:

1.  Enhance Technology Integration within Classroom Instruction:  The team noted that Hay Springs had abundant technology that was being used by instructional staff and students.  They encouraged continued training for staff and students.

2.  Complete a Professional Development Plan Tied to School Improvement.  The Visiting Team noted that our professional development opportunities are tied to school improvement.   They suggested we put the plan it writing.  The plan should also incorporate the training of new staff that are added to the district.

3.  Include Writing Goals/Strategies Within the School Improvement Plan:  Writing was our lowest area in the most recent testing.  The Visiting Team suggested we include writing as one our district goals and develop professional development to address this goal. The district has begun working on this area.

The External Visiting Team praised Hay Springs Public Schools for the accomplishments and improvements that were made from the visit five years ago.  If you would like additional information stop by the office and we will share more details of the final report.

Cookies! Everyone loves cookies! The biology 1 class decorated cookie dough to look like cells. Each student was given a ball of cookie dough. They used sprinkles of different colors and shapes, tiny candies, chocolate pieces, etc. to represent the organelles in cells. Then cookies were refrigerated until Mrs. Raymer baked them.

The cookies were a hands-on activity to reinforce the placement and identity of the organelles. The function of the organelles was reviewed the next day, while everyone enjoyed eating his/her cell cookie. Students said they would like to have edible activities every day and that they enjoyed the treat.

On Monday, Nov. 5, 2012 the Hay Springs art class attended the CSC Art Department’s annual “Art Day” for area high school students. High school students from Alliance, Bridgeport, Chadron, Crawford, Gordon/Rushville, Hay Springs, Hemingford, Mitchell, Morrill, and Sioux County, Nebraska as well as Douglas and Oelrichs, South Dakota came to participate in the workshops.

Art department faculty, along with CSC art student assistants, provided hands-on workshops and demonstrations from nine different categories: mixed media, pastel drawing, watercolor, wire sculpture, graphic design, ceramics, printmaking, glassblowing, and photography. They informed students of art scholarships available at CSC also.

Each student has the opportunity to experience and create art with three different mediums or methods unavailable to them here at Hay Springs, while meeting other art students. During the day students viewed two art galleries, the Marie Sandoz museum, and Cabela’s animal display on campus, also. This year we had time to visit the Earth Science museum plus other exhibits in the CSC Science building.

Students agreed they were glad they were able to attend, learned new things, and will enjoy the “Art- It’s Serious Stuff” T-shirts they received.

Here are pictures of the students “in action”.

This year’s High Ability Learner group has five members, Sam Hindman, Jace Langford, Hunter Letcher, Jake Roberts, and Hannah Wohl.  This group’s goal is to extend, challenge, and apply the things they are learning during the school day as well as work on new things at a higher level of thinking.   In October, the group did the “Diet Coke and Mentos” experiment.  They saw the reaction between the coating on the candy and the contents of a pop bottle.  The students further extended the experiment with different sized bottles and amounts.    Currently the group is researching rare animals and will eventually create a dichotomous key.  Overall, the group is high energy and eager to extend and connect the concepts they are learning!