TPO

Throughout the classrooms of Genoa-Kingston schools, students and parents will find "TPO" posters.  If we're doing our jobs well, our parents may have even heard their student discussing a TPO.  One of the most basic instructional practices going back decades is to begin each class with an objective.  In GK schools, this objective is often referred to a TPO, which stands for a Three Part Objective.  Our approach towards our objectives begins with "We Will" and has 3 parts:

1. A cognitive verb that matches the level of the task (Infer, Generate, Determine, Classify, Explain, List)
2. 6-12 words of descriptive content with connections to standards.
3. A specific product created by student

Some examples:

Parents and students can find these posters in each of our classrooms at GKMS. Students often read these out loud and they refer to them during the lesson   If you want to get really crazy, ask your kids about their TPO from a particular class, it's a great conversation starter!

Progress Reports and ISAT Scores

At the end of this week, our students will be bringing home Progress Reports.  Please look over the Progress Report with your student.  This is about the half-way point for the 1st quarter; the Progress Report is a great opportunity to discuss progress at school with your student.

Also included in the Progress Report will be your student's ISAT scores from the spring of 2012.  All of our students are tested in Math and Reading during ISATs.  Our 7th graders are also tested in Science.  Students are placed in 3 categories for ISAT: Below Standards, Meets Standards & Exceeds Standards. Our hope is that all our students are in the Meets or Exceeds categories.  Below are a few pictures with helpful hints on how to read the ISAT report.  If you click on each picture, you can get a bigger version. As always, if you have any questions, please contact Mr. McPherson at 815-784-5222, ext. 15.

Also, thanks to everyone who came to our Open House.  Please be sure to fill out our Open House Survey!

GKMS Facebook!

As we try to create new ways for GKMS to communicate with it's parents and students, we have stepped into the social media outlets to do so.  GKMS is now on Twitter (@gkmscogs) and Facebook.  Please follow us on Twitter and "like" our Facebook page to receive updates.  We will be conducting an Open House Survey on Facebook this coming week.  

Open House is Coming!

On September 17th, GKMS will host our Open House from 6:30-7:45.  This is a great opportunity for parents and community members to come check out our school and meet staff.  A very important reminder about Open House; please keep in mind that our teachers have 120 students in which they see on a daily basis.  Our Open House is not a time for conferences; if you have specific questions regarding your student, we can set up a separate time for that.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Also, please remember to follow us on Twitter, @gkmscogs.  This is a great way to keep current on events and happenings at GKMS.  For a quick tutorial on how to use Twitter, please click here.