Upcoming Happenings at GKMS!

Track Season:  Track practice begins on Wednesday, March 20th at GKMS.  The parent meeting will be Wednesday, March 20th at 7pm here at GKMS.  The track schedule is posted on our website.  All 7th and 8th grade boys and girls are eligible to come out for Track.

HS Dance Team Tryouts:  For any 8th grade girls interested in the High School Dance team, tryouts will be on April 15, 17 & 18 at GKHS.  Tryouts will begin at 3 and end around 4:30 ont he 4-15 and 4-17, and at 5:00 on 4-18.

GKMS Pride Dance:  On April 12th from 3:00-5:00, GKMS will host the "GKMS Pride Dance."  This will be an after school dance for all students in grades 6th-8th.  Cost will be $3 and DJ Toxic will DJ the dance.  DJ Toxic did our ISAT Celebration Dance and students seem to enjoy it.

Drama Performance:  Our Drama Club will have their performances on April 26 and 27th, both at 7pm.

8th Grade Dance:  The 8th grade dance will be from 7-9pm at GKMS on May, 10th, 2013.

8th Grade Promotion:  8th grade promotion will be at 7pm on May 20th, 2013.

5-Essentials Survey

Schools in the state of Illinois are conducting the 5-Essentials Survey this month. This is a survey for students, teachers and parents.  The purpose of this survey is to gather data and information on schools to be used to design school improvement plans.

Students at GKMS will take this survey on-line Feb. 20th and Feb. 21st.  A informational letter is posted on the "Parents" tab of our school website.  This letter contains information about the survey, a link to the questions that are asked for your review, and a form to fill out if you do not want your child to participate. Please send this completed form back with your student if you DO NOT want him/her to take the survey.  All students who do not have a filled out form will take the survey.

Parents are welcome to take this survey as well.  Please click here and follow the steps under the parents tab.

If you have any questions, please contact me at 815-784-5222 ext 15.

GKMS Educational Lingo

The older I get, the more easily confused I am.  I have 3 kids at home and I can barely keep their names straight.  The lingo we use in schools can be confusing for anyone.  Below is  list of terms we use often here at GKMS:

PBIS-

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports.  Our PBIS program is a set of expectations for behaviors for our students.  When we see proper behaviors, we reward our students with Cogs Cards.  Students can then use Cogs Cards to purchase items from our Cogs Store.  Expectations are posted throughout the school, as well as in our handbook.

RTI-

Response To Intervention.  We have several data points for reading and math with all of our students (ISAT, MAP, RCBM, MCAP).  If we find students to have deficiencies in math or reading through our data, we can schedule those students in RTI math and reading programs.  These programs are designed to boost our students with additional support in math and/or reading.  These interventions are often done during AR or Study Hall.

ISAT-

Illinois Standard Achievement Test.  Every student in a public school in Illinois is required to take the ISAT test in 6-8 grades.  The ISAT test is typically administered during the 1st week of March.  These scores are then used to determine if schools are meeting the expectations (AYP) of federal legislation (NCLB).  Our students take Reading and Math for ISATs, and 7th graders take Science.  Students are placed in 3 classifications for Reading, Math and Science (7th grade): Exceeds expectations, Meets expectations, and Below expectations.  Schools are expected to meet a certain percentage (92.5% for 12-13) of students in the Meets and Exceeds range. This past school year, we had 89% of students Meeting and Exceeding in ISAT.  This information can be found on the school report card.

Assignment Connection-

All homework assignments are posted everyday on the GKMS webpage.  Click on the assignment connection tab on the left-hand side for daily assignments.  Assignment Connection is usually posted by 1pm each day.

PowerSchool-

PowerSchool is a student management system used by our school to organize attendance, contact information, grades etc. One nice feature of PowerSchool is the "parent-student portal." This portal allows parents to log in and view grades, email teachers, check attendance etc.  The portal can be found on the right hand side of our webpage.  Check this old blog post for a visual tutorial of how to use PowerSchool.

MAP Testing-

All students at GKMS currently participate in MAP testing in September, January and April.  We test all students in Math and Reading.  The MAP tests are correlated with both the new Common Core Standards, as well as ISAT.  The scores from these tests help us determine the best approach to help students excel in the areas of math and reading.

MCP-

Models Classroom Project.  MCP is a district-wide curriculum initiative   Basically, MCP is a systems approach to using best teaching practices in our classrooms. It gives our teachers and students a common language and a common approach to lessons.  Our staff has been trained extensively on MCP and we work very hard to give our students the best opportunity to learn.

We hope this list helps our parents get a better understanding of how our school functions.  If you have any questions, please call me anytime at 815-784-5222.

Freshman Orientation at GKHS

On Jan. 16, 2013 in the GKHS auditorium there will be a Freshman Orientation for all students who will be a freshman during the 13-14 school year. This is a great opportunity for families and students to get a perspective of high school life. The orientation will begin at 7pm. Please see the guidance tab on the GKHS website for a course book for all classes at GKHS.  If you have any questions, please call us at 815-784-5222.  Thanks!

Lunches at GKMS

As you may have heard.....we have a change in lunches at GKMS.  In hopes of making sure all of our parents and students understand our lunch process, the following bullet points can explain many of the changes:

• There is new federal legislation regarding school lunches.  This legislation deals mostly with portion size, as well as fruit and vegetables.   The change in the main entree's we are offering is more related to the change in our food provider, Aramark.  
• Aramark is our food provided, as well as the manager of food services for our district.  Some differences in lunches at GKMS with Aramark:
• There will be on hot lunch item that will change each day.
• There will be cold lunch options each day of the week.
• Ala Carte is still available, however ala carte sandwiches are now in the hot lunch each line.
• In the Ala Carte line, chips, soup and drinks will be available.
• For the month of January, Ala Carte sandwich options will be PBJ, Chicken, Cheeseburger and Pizza.  These will be available every day.
• We no longer have a salad bar, but a "side salad" will be a vegetable option many days.
• Our daily hot lunch count that we take in the morning will only be for the hot lunch item of the day.  Please encourage our students to be accurate in this count.  If they do not want the hot lunch item listed on the daily menu, they should not raise their hands during lunch count.
• Students can get charged the hot lunch price ($2.75) and still get an Ala Carte sandwich, here's how it works:
• As defined by the state of Illinois, a hot lunch must be a main entree, a fruit, a vegetable and a milk.  
• Any student at GKMS can get charged a hot lunch price for getting any entree (Hot lunch choice, cold lunch choice, PBJ, Cheeseburger, Chicken sandwich or pizza) IF they also get a fruit, a vegetable and a milk.  
• If a student goes through the line and only grabs an Ala Carte sandwich, they will be charged the price of that sandwich, which in many cases is more than a hot lunch.  
• It seems strange, but if our students get more food (all of the items that make it a lunch), parents can get charged less.

Please help us out by encouraging your student to be accurate during morning lunch counts, as well as encouraging them to get all of the necessary items to make their meal a hot lunch.  This will keep costs down for the school, as well as for our parents.  If you have questions regarding this, please call me at 815-784-5222.  

Toys For Tots and Clothing Drive

GKMS is currently running two community service projects during the month of December. Our Student Council is sponsoring the "Giving Tree" clothing collection. We are collecting new and gently used scarfs, hats, gloves and socks. These items will be donated to families in need.

The Community Impact Club is running Toys For Tots this month. We are looking for new $5 toys to be donated. These toys will then be donated to families in need during the holiday season. GKMS was the #1 contributor for Toys For Tots in Dekalb County last year, we hope to continue that support for this year.

We hope all of our families enjoy a fantastic holiday season!

Technology upgrades at GKMS

In the last year, GKMS has gone through several technology upgrades. We hope our new technology helps students stay engaged and increases the opportunities for learning. Some examples of the upgrades:

*Each classroom is equipped with a computer projector and either an Elmo or a Document Camera.

*Our two computer labs have received 60 new computers this school year.

*We have purchased a few iPads for a mobile classroom set. We hope to purchase more for each grade level to have a mobile lab.

*We have a mobile lab of 15 chrome books on the way. These will be used for research, google docs and for our new math intervention.

With these new upgrades, we hope our teachers and students will find new and exciting ways to teach and to learn.