September 2007
SCHOOL DISTRICT
CONNECTION
Serving Enumclaw And Black Diamond
2929 McDougall Avenue, Enumclaw
•
360-802-7100
Teaching for Understanding
A principal’s reflections of the first three days of school
Over the last several years Enumclaw
schools have been faced with the
challenge of preparing students for
high stakes assessments such as the
WASL, more rigorous graduation
requirements and preparing students
to be competitive in a changing job
market. Though core knowledge in
subject matter will always be a part
of our children’s education, we
recognize that they need the ability
to utilize that knowledge beyond the
test at the end of the unit. They must
be able to use this core knowledge as
a foundation to construct new
learning. They must be able to not
just explain what they know but to
make connections to other things
they’ve learned, show its importance,
apply it, experience it as others do
and explain the limits of their own
understanding.
This is the fundamental difference
between knowing and
understanding. To do this we must
teach for understanding. This
requires a fundamental shift from
being only content with the correct
answer to building a classroom
culture that expects more from both
teachers and students. We asked the
question of our teachers, “At the
end of the first three days of
school, what do you
really want kids to know
about what it means to
be a learner in your
class?” To frame this we borrowed
the phrase, “Setting an Agenda of
Understanding” with all of our
students. Every EMS teacher took
the challenge and I had the genuine
pleasure of spending the first three
days of classes with your students to
see what this looked like. Come with
me now to see what I saw and hear
what I heard.
We see kids all over campus with
clipboards. Some are conducting
scientific investigations and some are
capturing their observations as a
record of things to eventually write
about in Language Arts. We see
wide-eyed kids discover the chemical
reaction that occurs when combining
a bottle of Diet Coke with a Mento
candy and then list their wonderings
as to “why”, “how” and “what if
you…”. I could continue to present
many more
exciting
observations. Over the course of
three days we see kids go back to
what they learned in day 1 and
revisit, reflect and revise their
thinking with what they are learning
now.
As we listen, we hear the language
of teaching for understanding with
questions such as, “what would you
like to understand about what you
observed… what do you wonder
about this…what would happen
if…why is that important… etc.
At the end of three days we’re
exhausted and I’m humbled. We
have a lot to learn about teaching for
understanding but this is the best
start I’ve seen in my 16 years in this
school. The credit goes to an
exquisite group of teachers whom as
you saw have taken to heart the
critical importance of preparing kids
in such a way that they have choices
in their future. They understand that
simply knowing isn’t enough and
therefore are committed learn
together how to teach for
understanding. They are a snapshot
of a K-12 system of teachers who
understand the same thing and
committed the first days of
school to setting that agenda.
This is what it looked like.
What a great start to the
school year.
•
Fax 360-802-7123
It’s what
we did as
a family. I
can
remember
going to
the play
“You’re a
Good
Mike Nelson,
Enumclaw School
Friend,
District Superintendent
Charlie
Brown” in the EHS auditorium and
watching the 1977 baseball team win
the state championship in Cheney
stadium and listening to the “Swing
Choir” (as it was called a long time
ago) perform. I so admired and
looked up to the talented high school
students and wondered what I might
be involved in when I was in high
school.
If you have attended an EHS
sporting event in other districts, you
often find that our visitor’s side has as
many, if not more, fans than the home
team. I love that our community
supports our students and coaches in
such a wonderful way. I can tell you
that it is very much appreciated by
our athletes!
If you have not attended an EHS
•
www.enumclaw.wednet.edu
Rekindle School and
Community Spirit
As a young child growing up in Enumclaw, my
parents took me to as many of the high school events
as possible.
Enumclaw High
School Athletics
2007-2008
event during the past couple of years,
I would encourage you to do so. We
have many talented students and
coaches. A complete list of
games/matches/races, as well as plays
Swim, 26
and concerts can be found at the
Football, 97
Girl’s
following website:
Cross
http://www.highschoolsports.net.
Country, 26
Our middle schools and elementary
Boy’s
schools also have incredible athletic Cross
events and concerts. We will put Country,
27
those events on school reader boards
Girl’s
and in newsletters.
Golf, 14
Let’s rekindle our support for the
Boy’s
vast array of extra curricular and co- Golf, 17
Volleyball, 32
Boy’s
curricular programs in the Enumclaw
Tennis, 28
Soccer, 37
School District. I can guarantee that
you will have a great time and feel
such pride when watching our
Total students: 304 (21% of
amazing students. Come see for
high school students
yourself!
Go Hornets!
EHS Band
The Enumclaw High School Hornet Band is shown at left
in their award winning performance in the 2007 Black
Diamond Labor Day Parade. The band began competition in the fall of 2003 winning the Novice Division at
the Auburn Marching Band Championships and have
won awards every year since, including third place in
Washington in their division in Auburn in 2006. Their
first major competition of this year will be the Peninsula
Classic in Bremerton on September 29.
The Hornet Band is led by Drum Major Chance Nolin,
assisted by Josh Jirava. The Color Guard Captain is
Rachel Moen.
ALL DISTRICT DAY - August 27, 2007
A day of coming together - our school system and the communities of Enumclaw and Black Diamond.
Mrs. Emerson’s Third/Fourth Grade
Southwood Elementary
Contact Us
Enumclaw School District #216
2929 McDougall Avenue
Enumclaw, WA 98022
(360) 802-7100
Enumclaw High School, (Grades 9-12)
226 Semanski Street
Enumclaw, WA 98022
David Dorn, Principal
david_dorn@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Paul Iacobazzi, Assistant Principal
paul_iacobazzi@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Jill Burnes, Assistant Principal
jill_burnes@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Kevin Smith, Assistant Principal
kevin_smith@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Tim Tubbs, Athletic Director
tim_tubbs@enumclaw.wednet.edu
(360) 802-7669
Fax: (360) 802-7676
058876
Enumclaw Middle School, (Grades 6-7-8)
550 Semanski Street South
Enumclaw, WA 98022
Steve Rabb, Principal
steve_rabb@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Ed Hatzenbeler, Assistant Principal
ed_hatzenbeler@enumclaw.wednet.edu
(360) 802-7150
Fax: (360) 802-7224
Thunder Mountain Middle School, (Grades 6-7-8)
42018 264th Ave. SE
Enumclaw, WA 98022
Darin Adams, Principal
darin_adams@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Virginia Callison, Assistant Principal
virginia_callison@enumclaw.wednet.edu
(360) 802-7492
Fax: (360) 802-7500
Black Diamond Elementary, (Grades K-5)
25314 Baker Street
Black Diamond, WA 98010
Randy Stocker, Principal
randy_stocker@enumclaw.wednet.edu
(360) 802-7570
Fax: (360) 802-7610
Byron Kibler Elementary, (Grades K-5)
2057 Kibler Avenue
Enumclaw, WA 98022
Julene Miller, Principal
julene_miller@enumclaw.wednet.edu
(360) 802-7263
Fax: (360) 802-7300
Southwood Elementary, (Grades K-5)
3240 McDougall Avenue
Enumclaw, WA 98022
Susan Arbury, Principal
susan_arbury@enumclaw.wednet.edu
(360) 802-7370
Fax: (360) 802-7374
Sunrise Elementary, (Grades K-5)
899 Osceola Street
Enumclaw, WA 98022
Chris Beals, Principal, (Grades K-5)
chris_beals@enumclaw.wednet.edu
(360) 802-7425
Fax: (360) 802-7427
Westwood Elementary, (Grades K-5)
21200 SE 416th
Enumclaw, WA 98022
Keri Marquand, Principal
keri_marquand@enumclaw.wednet.edu
(360) 802-7620
Fax: (360 802-7622
Administration Office
2929 McDougall Avenue
Enumclaw, WA 98022
Mike Nelson, Superintendent
mike_nelson@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Tim Madden, Business Manager
tim_madden@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Gerrie Garton, Professional Development
gerrie_garton@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Terry Parker, Dir. Curriculum, Instruction &
Assessment
terry_parker@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Aaron Stanton, Student Support Services
aaron_stanton@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Kathleen Lockyer, Dir. Human Resources
kathleen_lockyer@enumclaw.wednet.edu
Terry Huizenga, Network System Coordinator
terry_huizenga@enumclaw.wednet.edu
(360) 802-7100
Fax: (360) 802-7123
Transportation
450 Semanski Street
Enumclaw, WA 98022
Everett Cunningham, Supervisor
everett_cunningham@enumclaw.wednet.edu
(360) 802-7232
Fax: (360) 802-7243
The purpose of our writing was to take an ordinary sentence from
their own writing and make it an extraordinary sentence. We talked
about entertaining our readers and through extraordinary sentences
writers hook their readers and leave them wanting to read more. My
hope for my student writers is for them to make every sentence
extraordinary. The process began with the teacher modeling many
ordinary to extraordinary sentences. Then as a class of writers we
created our own extraordinary sentences. The last step was for the
writers to practice on their own.
Mrs. Emerson’s 3/4th grade writers:
Ordinary Sentence: One day I was playing with my dog.
Extraordinary Sentence: One hot summer day I was playing and
playing and playing fetch with my brown dog Rover.
(Jadyn Gibbs- 3rd grader)
Ordinary Sentence: My favorite game was a motorcycle game.
Extraordinary Sentence: An awesome motorcycle racing game
became my favorite arcade game on the gigantic cruise ship.
(Kylie Rademacher – 4th grade)
Ordinary Sentence: My Dad fixed my quad.
Extraordinary Sentence: My Dad attached a new exhaust pipe on
my yellow LT80 quad. (Michael Dover 4th grade)
Ordinary Sentence: If we let it out it will be easy to put it back in
its cage.
Extraordinary Sentence: If our class let the turtle out it will be
easy to put back in the cage because turtles are super slow.
(Lauren Green 3rd grade)
Upcoming Events September & October
When
September 20 – 7:00 p.m.
September 21
September 25 – 6:30 p.m.
September 27 – 7:00 p.m.
September 27 – 7:00 p.m.
October 1-5
October 4
October 5
October 12
October 15 – 7:00 p.m.
October 15-19
What
EHS Open House
K-8 Early Release
Black Diamond Open House
TMMS Open House
Sunrise Curriculum Night
6th Grade Camp
Homecoming Coronation
Homecoming Parade and Game
No School – Learning Improvement Day
Board Meeting
6th Grade Camp
Frequently Asked
Questions
Q: What is Family Access?
A: Family Access is a web-based tool
designed to enhance parent/guardian and
school communication. It is a voluntary
and free service provided by the district.
With just a “point and click” from your
home or office, you can review your child’s
attendance, grades, student schedules,
discipline, food service balance and
history.
To sign up for Family Access, the parent or
legal guardian must show photo identification at the district office. The application
can be submitted online in advance at
http://www/enumclaw.wednet.edu/School
s/family access/fa_app.shtml. For further
information, contact the Help Desk at
360.802.7129.
Q: How do I enroll my child in the
school district?
A:
Call the school directly for more
information about the enrollment process.
You may find the school phone number on
the Schools page of the website, or by
calling the district office at 360-802-7100.
What is the procedure when parents want
to home school their children?
Parents need to fill out an Intent to
Home school form which you may find on
our website or by coming into the district
office to see RuthAnn Vanassa. This form
needs to be filled out every year, and either
brought to RuthAnn or mailed to her at
2929 McDougall Avenue. For more information, please call RuthAnn Vanassa at
360.802.7109, or email her at
ruthann_vanassa@enumclaw.wednet.edu.
What if we want our child(ren) to attend
Enumclaw district schools, but we live out
of the district?
You must obtain a Release of
Attendance form from the out-of-district
school signed by that Superintendent.
Once this is completed, you may then
obtain an Acceptance Waiver. You may
find that form on our website or from
Diana Aaby in the Enumclaw School
District office. The Waiver will need to be
approved and signed by our
Superintendent. A new waiver form must
be completed every year. For additional
information, please call Diana Aaby at
360.802.7102, or email her at
diana_aaby@enumclaw.wednet.edu