USD 232 De Soto Visit

1st Graders putting on a program- just for us!

Wow! We have had a 'whirl-wind' of activities this month. Today's visit (February 9, 2009) completes our fifth district visit out of eight.

We visited Jennifer Hartman's district; De Soto; on Monday, February 9, 2009. Jennifer picked us up at 7:00 a.m. and we traveled to her building, Clear Creek Elementary, where we visited with Dr. Sharon Zoellner; Superintendent, and Alvie Carter; PR Director, and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with our new friends. Later we had the privilege to visit with the Clear Creek Principal; Mike Stithem and their building instructional coach Carrie Handy on several topics including;
1)The Basic School: A Community for Learning by Ernest L. Boyer
2)PLC (Professional Learning Communities)
3)MTSS (Multi Tiered System of Support) and
4)the Learning Coach model for their district.
We hurried down to the gym to watch Jennifer's first graders present their Kansas Day program for us. The program was around the book; S is for Sunflower; A Kansas Alphabet by Devin Scillian. Jennifer divided the book into student speaking parts and added music to accompany the book. HOW CUTE!

Then we were off to the fifth grade music class. Jennifer is trained in ORFF, as well as other music teachers in her district. The students demonstrated several musical numbers on the drums and the xylophones. According to the ORFF philosophy; musical numbers are first learned orally, before they are put to music. What a talented group of musicians! The students then took us on a quick tour of their building. (left: 5th graders drumming it out)

The next stop on our district tour was at Monticello Trails Middle School. Again we were welcomed by a wonderful group of five 8th grade student ambassadors and their building counselor; Dave Anderson. A quick building tour, and question answer session with the ambassadors was followed by a UNIQUE opportunity to have lunch with Mr. Keil Hileman (2004 KTOY) who teaches an elective class called; Museum Connections, in his museum/classroom. All I can say is you have to see it to believe it! Oh to be a student again!

After lunch we walked to Mill Valley High School, and visited with Joe Novak; Principal, and sat in on a science lab with Eric Thomas; teacher, as well as USD 232 Secondary nominee for 2009 KTOY.

We then had the unique privilege to listen to Cheryn Swanson of Monticello Historical Society tell us some brief history about a one room school house, that sits on district property. Boy, it would have been chilly to have been in attendance on a day like today!

A look into our educational history - a one room school house.

Finally, we were able to visit with Linda McPherson; USD 232 KTOY coordinator.

WHAT a DAY! WHAT a GREAT DISTRICT!
Posted by: Cindy Venard