September 12, 2016

School District News

From Superintendent

Robert Vian

Commendation

Tama Naden took on a community service project entitled the Summer Foods Backpack Program for the summer.  The program enabled Tama and her crew of volunteers to provide a much needed food supply for the students that need them the most.  During the school year the Idaho Food bank offers backpacks of food but those cease when summer arrives.  

The program served 12 families, 22 children and 20 adults. Every Friday, families received 2 bags full of food that would help supplement the meals needed for that weekend.  Every featured meal consisted of cost effective foods that were nutritious and easy to prepare.  Fresh produce from the Orofino Elementary Garden was also given as available. The program lasted for 10 weeks, June through August.  Many organizations and private individuals shared their money and time to be a part of this effort.  On average 2-3 hours of time was donated every Friday to distribute and deliver the food bags each Friday.  This amounts to 30 hours of accumulated donated time to the needs of our students.  Our community cares about its kids!

This fall the Orofino Elementary School will be starting a new program that features a school pantry.  This pantry will be available to students as well as the Backpack Foods program all supported by the Idaho Food Bank.

Our vision for our district is to provide the best education to our students possible.  The Backpack Foods program is an essential part of the process. Tama stated that, “It has been my personal experience that nothing is wasted when we invest in our kids.”  She continued, “The grateful kids and adults that I served this summer will always provide a special memory for me.”  “I look forward to continuing the program this next summer!”  Great job taking care of our kids Tama!!

Classroom Visit 2

During my visits to classrooms on the 29^th of September, I stop by to visit Mr. Bretz’s classroom at OJSHS.  He was teaching a seventh grade math class and I became so interested in his lesson that I sat in his room for quite a while. 

Mr. Bretz asked students to hold up one finger when they had a method to solve the problem 19 + 37.  I quickly thought of how I would solve the problem.  He then asked when you have a second method hold up two fingers.  After a few seconds he started calling on students.  After 9 students had given him perfectly sound ways to solve the problem, one student said, “I would write down 19 then place 37 under it.  Then I would add 9 and 7 to get 16, write down the 6 and carry the 1.  Then I would add 1 plus 1 plus 3 and get a 5 and the answer is 56.  He knew the method that Mr. Kosbud taught me, but the other 9 students also had the right answer.  (I took one off the 37 making it 36, added 1 to the 19 making it 20 and added 20 and 36 in my head to get 56, Mr. Kosbud my 7th grade math teacher would not have been happy)

When I was in school we were taught one way of solving a problem, those of us who could memorize the “correct” method of doing the problem were successful and those who could not became school administrators. 

In today’s math classes, students first learn number sense, then learn process.  Then when you forget how to solve an equation with two unknowns you can still rely on number sense.

In a world where the Chinese have 19% of the population and come up with 1% of the patents while the U.S. produces by far the greatest number of patents thinking is still a valued talent.  Our cell phones can do all the memorization for us.