Office Corner:

Fees: 1st semester service fees are now due. Service fees are $27 each semester ($54 per year). For those of you that have reduced fees, the cost is $17.40 per semester. In order to waive fees, you must have a new signed waiver on file every year. If you have any questions regarding fees, please call and ask for Vivian.

Also various fines from all previous years and this year need to be taken care of at this time. This will include library fines, gym locks, textbook damage or loss, delinquent service fees, sewing fees and fundraiser balances.

Student absences: It is the parent/guardian’s responsibility to call our office to report their student’s absence by 10:00 a.m. or they will be recorded as truant. You will be asked to provide their name, grade, symptoms or reason for absence and which parent is calling. Please read your child’s handbook located in the front of the planner to see the definition of an excused absence. You may address any questions regarding absences to Judy.

Lost & Found: Student’s will be called to the office to pick up labeled items, after attempting to get students to do this twice, items will be displayed on a table next to the main office for one week. Items will be donated to Goodwill on Tuesdays. Please take only items that belong to you.

Student Info: It is imperative that we have correct address and telephone numbers for each student at all times. The school district will be mailing information to parents at various times of the year and must have correct mailing addresses listed in their system. We are only as accurate as the information we receive from parents.

Secretary Office hours are 7:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and phone calls will be answered during these times. Please be aware that we do not have voice mail or an answering machine so there will not be anyone available to take messages after 4:30p.m.

Students are reminded to make arrangements ahead of time for after school rides or plans. The office telephone may be used for emergencies only. Students should leave the building immediately after school unless they are supervised by a staff member and have parental permission given directly to the teacher or adult involved with a program. During inclement weather they may wait quietly in the Pit for their ride. We have had several students hanging around the building at night after school with no supervision.

Vivian, Judy and JaneOffice Staff

It has been an incredibly busy 1^st semester for both students and faculty at Wood. Teams of Teacher’s have worked diligently towards supporting students’ success in the classroom. As the previous newsletter indicated, we are piloting a strategy to ensure students complete all required work. Many teachers are using an ABCI grading system. To reiterate, it requires students complete all homework assignments in order to receive a grade. We welcome continual Parental support with work completion. Counselors and Teacher’s both would welcome your questions and or concerns as we move through the initial stages of implementation.

Preparation for the Iowa Test of Basic Skills has been underway since the very beginning of the year. 6^th, 7^th & 8^th grade students alike have been exposed to FOCUS lessons in the areas of Math and Reading during their AP on designated days. We hope this exposure and experience reviewing concepts and answering tests questions will better prepare them for the ITBS test. All students will have had an opportunity to sit down with one of their teacher’s individually to review their scores from last year. This allows the student to set goals for improvement and see that their score is important to us and that their individual improvement is beneficial to them. Please help support our testing effort by encouraging your children to do their very best effort on all tests.. We do want their scores to be an accurate reflection of what they know as compared to other students throughout the nation at their grade level.

Registration for next year will be underway for our current 8^th grade students during January and Febuary. The 8^th grade students and families can look forward to a Parent Night at their prospective High Schools. North has scheduled their informative evening for incoming Parents and Students for Wednesday Jan 11^th at 6:30, West is Tuesday January 17^th at 7:00 & Central on Wednesday January 18^th at 7:00. Please make arrangements to attend these important sessions with your children. Parents have indicated to us in the past that these meetings provide an important transitional support to the High School Level. The High School Guidance Departments would welcome calls from Parents who might have questions prior to the scheduled event.

The 8^th graders will be registering for High School classes during a sequence of classroom sessions at Wood. The registration process will take place on January 18 & 19^th with Wood counselors and 8^th grade teachers. We will request they take a copy of teacher recommendations for coursework and elective decisions home to Parents for review. The final step in this process is scheduled for Febuary 16^th. On that day North Counselors will be in classes with students to answer questions. At the end of that day all decisions regarding registration are to be finalized. North counselors will take all registration cards with them at the end of the day. We will also send registration cards directly to Central and West. After that date any deletions or modifications should be communicated directly to the respective guidance departments.

Registration for our current 6^th & 7^th grade students is scheduled for Febuary 22 & 23 respectively. On that day Counselors will work in the classroom with students on decisions to be made for the following year. We will ask students to take a copy of materials home to Parents for discussion. Please look for registration materials to come home with your children on those days. We will ask for all decisions on coursework to be finalized by Friday Febuary 24^th. We would welcome calls from parents with questions or concerns.

Until next time, Ann McNamara & Judy Kendall

Golden Geckos

7th Grade Golden Spartans

January 2006

8th Grade Nebulas

Captain Jason Meriwether Lewis-Humphries- American Studies

Hello my fellow frontiersmen and women. President Jefferson has bestowed a great honor upon me and my companion and fellow captain, Brandi Clark. It has been a year and a half since we started our Humphries and Clark expedition and to be blunt, it has not been easy.

On our first leg of the journey Sergeant Maggie Walton and Corporal Sara Hafner, or as the Cheyenne like to call her, "Belches Like a Bear", were showing off their spear throwing skills while trying to catch fish on the Missouri River. Instead of spearing a fish, they speared Private Scott Bosco. Lets just say that I will not have to get on Private Bosco for sitting down on the job any time soon.

In our last camp, the natives challenged us to a competition. They called it "Fear Olfactory". The objective was to pass each stage on my way to win the grand prize of 50 bearskins. I was going strong until the last round. In this round, we had to eat 5 pounds of fresh Grizzly Bear intestine. I was going head to head against Chief Billy Goat York. Chief Billy Goat went first. Man he truly lived up to his name. That dude can eat anything. He finished off his pile in about 1 minute and 31 seconds. Then it was my turn, but I was down for the challenge. I was about 3 pounds into it when I had a flashback of what Private Cassie Schultz cooked the previous night for dinner. That was all it took. The next thing I know I started doing what the Paiute like to call "wood-chucking". Man I sure do hope that I get the chance to redeem myself on our way back. Well, I really must be going now. I think that we will finally break through the mountains today. I’ll update you more on our journeys later on.

Yours truly,
Captain Jason Meriwether Lewis-Humphries

Ms. "Wacky Professor" Gersdorf- Science

Hello! I am the 8^th grade science teacher and I see that my last newspaper article was from a couple years ago. It was NOT supposed to be in there so let me tell you a bit about myself. This is my 3^rd year of teaching science, I graduated from UNI, I enjoy watching and collecting movies.

In Science, we are learning about the invention of flight. Ask your kids about pitch, yaw, and roll, and hopefully they can teach you something new today! We will continue this curriculum until Christmas. When we come back from Christmas, it will be a new unit and we will be discussing waves, sound, and light. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at my NEW ADDRESS!!! Hayeker@davenportschools.org or call me at school 391-6350.

Mr. "Sub-Total" Proctor- Mathematics

We are getting to the part of the year that some students start to slip on their daily work. Please talk to your son/daughter to see if they are keeping up in class. I stay after school on Tuesday and Thursday nights for extra help or to complete missing work (unless there is a meeting or a parent coming in). You can call the school (391-6350) between 1:15 and 1:45 to talk to me or any of the core teachers, to check on your son/daughters work. In Algebra and Algebraic Thinking we will be working on the slope – intercept form and graphing in the coordinate plane. In Transitions class, we will be working with percent and story problems with percent. We have some great students that are doing very well and I want to thank the parents that have called and are helping these students achieve in Algebra. The students will be signing up for classes for high school, if you have any questions please let me know

Mr. "Pulitzer Prize" Butikofer- Language Arts

We have been reading about Rip Van Winkle, a man who "Rested In Peace" through the entire Revolutionary War. Unfortunately, when he awoke, he was older than Mr. Butikoper,...but not nearly as "ripped"....as he was before. Next we will be reading a story set in Japan in the late 1500's. In this story, we will see how civil rights in Japan were severely violated, in contrast to the Bill of Rights in our own Constitution. The students are currently working on a career paper that will count as both a math and language assignment. They will soon be writing a persuasive letter defending the views of a loyalist or a patriot during the Revolutionary War. This letter will count as both a language arts writing assignment and a history assessment.

Congratulations to the Nebula 1^st Quarter Honor Roll Students (GPA of 3.0 or Higher)

Quinn Adams Kristine Andresen Brian Aurthur Chasity Ballew Owen Bell Brandi Bitterman Scott Bosco Kathryn Brown Tabitha Brown Kelly Burke Taylor Moellenbeck

Brandi Clark Rachel Costas Shannon Fisher Arielle Followwill Stephanie Franklin Bradley Frick Ramsha Ghauri Elizabeth Goecke Jacob Hansen Andrew Hoggard Chelsea Wilhelm

Lorenzo Hubert Joel Johnson Arnisha Joseph Chelsea Kingsley Selina Khounlo Megan Lafrenz Jessica Logsdon Alex Martens Rebecca Martinez Kathryn McDonough

Jacob Rentfro Jacob Ringsdorf Brian Schaaf Jordan Setser Kristine Smith Marisa Spennicchia Brittany Staack Cody Thorington Verdell Wallace Tiffany Waterman

 
 

8^th Grade Super Novas

helping all students find the star within themselves

1st Quarter Super Nova Award Winners

The SUPER NOVA award is presented to outstanding students that are positive role models both in and out of the classroom.  These students have been selected by their teachers to receive this award for first quarter.  Keep up the good work!! Back Row:  Flint R, Litsy C, Dakota F, Nick K Front Row:  Suzie B, Megan G Cody P Not Pictured:  Luke D

Mr. Tadlock, Vocal Music
Mrs. Kendell, 6^th Grade Orchestra, Mr. Henry, 7^th/8^th Grade Orchestra
Mrs. Reiter, 6^th Grade Band, Ms. McMillen, 7^th/8^th Band

Vocal Music Notes:
Singers Are Chosen For Opus 2005
Congratulations to Isaak Sund; 8^th grader, and Ben Knapper; 7^th grader, for being selected to participate in the prestigious 2005 Opus All-State Honor choir. These young men were chosen out of nearly 3,000 other middle school singers to become a part of a 180 voiced 7-8 boys chorus.

Opus was held on Thursday, November 17 on the campus of Iowa State University. The yearly festival is sponsored by the Iowa Choral Directors Association in conjunction with the Iowa High School All State Festival and the Iowa Music Educators Association.

Mr. Tadlock wishes to make this a yearly event for upcoming Wood students. The auditions for this event is always during the first week of school in August. See Mr. Tadlock for details.

Winter Choral Concert Set for Jan. 12
The 2006 Wood Winter Choral concert is slated for Thursday, January 12 beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Wood gymnasium. A wide variety of music will be presented by the 6^th grade 2^nd quarter general music classes as well as the 8^th grade Concert and Mixed Choruses. Admission is free and we hope you can join us for a night of Motown nostalgia and great entertainment!

Wood Is Well Represented At The 2006 Eastern Iowa Honor Choir Festival
On Friday, February 3, 16 singers will represent Wood Intermediate by participating in the annual Eastern Iowa Honors Choir held at Muscatine Middle School in Muscatine, Iowa. The morning and afternoon is filled with rehearsals capped by a 7:00 p.m. concert in the auditorium. The admission is $3/adults and $2/students.

Chosen through an audition process in December were 6^th graders: Deion Caudill, Ravon Green, Brittany Grosskropf, Alyssa Kendell, Gary Mayfield, Becca Meumann, Chelsey Braun and Chelsea Hamerlinck. Also, 8^th graders: Jacob Feterman, Heather Gajeski, Jessie Logsdon, Cassie Schultz, Isaak Sund and Tiffany Waterman.

6^th Grade Band & 6^th Grade Orchestra
In case of inclement weather and potential late starts, these groups will meet as follows:
Rehearsal at 9:30 with a 1 hour late start
Rehearsal at 10:30 with a 2 hour late start

Iowa Junior Honors All State Orchestra
The following Orchestra students were selected to participate in the prestigious Iowa Junior Honors All State Orchestra held in Ames, Iowa on Friday, November 18^th: Nicholas Kendell, violin, Isaak Sund, viola, Luke Duley, cello, and Steven Walsh, bass. Congratulations to these outstanding musicians!

Chamber Music at Wood
The following students have been participating and performing in Chamber Ensembles at Donuts for Dad, Fillmore, Truman, Harrison, and Ridgecrest Retirement Village:

Caroling Clarinets:
Scott Bosco, Setara Byrd, Jessica Wakefield

Holiday Brass:
Liz Goecke, Josh Johnston, Nick Moellers, Alex Frye, Shelby Perkins, Jordan Setser, Erin Toohey, Kyle Defauw, Jacob Wentworth, Chelsea Kingsley

Holiday String Chamber Ensemble:
Nicholas Kendell, Aaron Dostart, Alyssa Kendell, Ben Knapper, Nathan Thiessen, Isaak Sund, Jessica Yackley, Luke Duley, Kelci Toliver, Steven Walsh, Scott Bosco, and Zach Wundram.

Wood Intermediate Symphony Orchestra
This performing group is open to all Wood Orchestra students and select 7^th/8^th Band students. Rehearsals will take place Tuesdays after school beginning Feb. 7. Interested students should contact instructors immediately for more information.

Sixth Grade District Honor Band
The following Band students represented Wood in this Honor Band at North High School on November 17^th:
Cydney Brasher, Cierra Klatt, McKayla Farnsworth, Brittany Grosskopf, Chelsey Braun, Bryan Beutel, Garrett Rowley, Matt Dutton, Jonathan Moore, Jenna Stinson, Jayson Delvichio, Derrick Tatum-Walker.

Band Contest
The 7^th/8^th grade band has been selected to participate in the Adventureland /Drake Relays Band Contest on Saturday, April 29^th. We will have a fundraiser to help the students defray some of the travel costs for this trip. More information will follow. Parents should mark their calendars now for this great event