Thursday,  April 4, 2013 • Vol. 14--No. 259 • 11 of 38 •  Other Editions

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Seussical the Musical, Peter Pan, The Music Man, The Wizard of Oz and more!!
• Have a wonderful Spring! See you April 30!

Guidance - Eric Hamiel
Our elementary students have been busy during class guidance in the months of February and March.  The Character Counts program focuses on teaching students about Kindness during the months of February and March.   Over the past two months, grades K-5 have continued to work with the Auto-B-Good Character Building Series to learn about Kindness, Self Discipline, Sportsmanship, and Motivation.  Also, Grades 3-5 have continued their work with the Life Skills Training curriculum during the months of February and March.   Students have focused on Resolving Conflicts, Social Skills, and identifying tricky techniques of Advertising.
• Elementary Student Council has remained active the past two months.  The new student council members for second semester are:  Emily Thompson, Shannon Wiedrick, Kayde Stange, Riley, Thurston, Isaac Smith, and Chandler Larson.  Our student council members recently did two Blow Pop sucker sale fundraisers during Valentine's Day & just before Spring Break.  The proceeds from the sucker sales go the cost of purchasing DSTEP prizes for our students.
• The middle school students have also been busy in class guidance the last two months.  The 6th & 7th grade classes have continued their work on Drug Education & Awareness.  In the last two class guidance sessions, we have focused on identifying different types of drugs and learning about the health hazards & risks of each type of drug.   The 8th grade class has begun the Career Cruising program this past month.  Students worked with the online with the "Career Matchmaker" assessment tool.  Students were able to research careers that fit their interest areas. 

Groton Area Middle School/High School Principal--Joe Schwan
• Greetings from Groton Area Middle/High School.  We're still anxiously waiting the spring that the calendar promises.
• As we move into April, I'd like to bring Dakota STEP testing back to your attention.  This is tentatively the final year that South Dakota will use a paper-pencil standardized test form.  The DOE is planning to move forward with an online version of the Dakota STEP to be administered in the 2013-2014 school year provided that they can clear a recent hurdle with the test manufacturer.  Regardless of what occurs down the road, I'd like to remind you the importance of the exam scores for our district.  We've historically scored very well on these exams which have provided some nice positive attention and well-deserved accolades for our students, teach

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