FYI: Please check out the school website at http://www.mcclusky.k12.nd.us/

THE MISSION… … Of the McClusky Public School and community is to empower all students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to meet the challenges of our changing world. Our vision is… WE EXPECT

SUCCESS

Music News Miss Hoffman

On March 11th the High School Band and Choir went to Large Group Festival in Washburn and received excellent ratings. Now we are preparing for Small Group Festival which is held on April 10th in Steele. If students receive a star rating at small groups they are able to go on to state contest. The Elementary Spring Concert will be held on Tuesday, April 29th at 7:00PM in the elementary school gym. The program will be themed around spring and summer! The High School Concert will be held on Tuesday May 6th at 7:00PM in the high school gym. Immediately after the concert the school will hold its annual Awards Ceremony.

MSN McClusky School News

Robert Tollefson-Superintendent Dan Klemisch-Principal Andrea Voegele-Business Manager

Volume 4, Issue 9 April, 2014

219 Ave D West P.O. Box 499 McClusky, ND 58463 701-363-2470

PUBLIC NOTICE SCHOOL ELECTION COMING

Voters in the McClusky School District #19 will elect two directors from the rural area at large and one director from the city of McClusky each to serve a four-year term. The annual election will be held jointly with the Sheridan County primary election on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 at the McClusky City Hall. Any qualified elector who wishes to be a candidate must file his or her name and a financial disclosure statement with the Business Manager, Andrea Voegele, no later than 4:00 P.M. on April 7, 2014. These statements are available from Miss Voegele at the school business office. They must be notarized. Currently serving on the Board are Phyllis Dieterle, Brian Larson, Stacy Sease, Heidi Strobel and Roberta Hunt. The four-year term of Dieterle and the three-year terms of Strobel and Hunt will expire this year.

Book Fair

Submitted by Mrs. Klemisch

The Scholastic Book Fair will be held in conjunction with our April Reading month activities. During this book fair, you can buy one book and get one free. This is a good time to stock up on books for the summer.

What: Buy one - Get one Free Date: Tuesday, April 22 - Friday, April 25

Time: 8:05 AM - 8:30 AM and 3:10 PM - 4:00 PM Place: McClusky Elementary School Computer Lab

Continue to support your child's reading endeavors. Come and check out the selection of items at the book fair.

EARLY OUT School will dismiss at 1:10 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16. NO SCHOOL April 18, Good Friday or April 21, Easter Monday. Enjoy your break.

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Reading is “Magically Delicious” by Mr. Lauer

We started March off with our "Reading, It's Magically Delicious" theme, of course derived from Lucky the Leprechaun and his magical charms of goodness. You're welcome for the endorsement, General Mills :) We are now into week 2 of 4 and have managed to gather 11,670 minutes thus far. Each class is striving to fill each of the marshmallow shapes assigned to their specific room. I am hoping for a huge week 3 and week 4 gathering of charms to help us kick off the upcoming April reading month event.

The school still collects and recycles laser and ink jet cartridges. If you have any they can be dropped off at the High School Office.

Don’t forget to save your Labels for Education and Box Tops. These can be dropped off at the elementary school, high school office or Holen’s Super Valu. Thank you

Driver's Ed Students interested in taking drivers ed when school is out should sign up at the office. Students must be 14 by June 1st of 2014 and must have their permit to take the class. Cost is $100 for McClusky students

April is Reading Month Elementary Staff

In April, the Elementary will kick off Reading Month. We will be sending more information home with the students. This will include the Reading month theme, special activities, and other information. Be watching for the information! Let’s have a great month of reading. To help us out for a project we are asking you to save 29 oz cans or larger and bring them to the school for our

use.

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Mark your calendar! Picture Day is coming Tuesday, April 1st.

Our school was chosen by LifeTouch for a Picture-Trading Party where your child gets to experience the fun of trading pictures with all of his or her friends! As a parent, you're welcome to order a new set of pictures, but you are under no obligation. Order forms will be sent home with your child and can also be picked up at the High School Office. The LifeTouch-sponsored pictures will be kept at the school until the party, which will be determined at a later date.

REMINDER:

When making or changing your child's after-school plans, please notify the office as soon as you're aware of the change. Messages taken after 2:30pm may not be able to be routed to your child's teacher in time for the end of the school day. Also, please remember that when calling your child's teacher, you will be asked to leave a voicemail message during class time. They will only be interrupted in emergent situations. Otherwise, please leave a message and they will get back to you as soon as they have a chance. Thank you! McClusky Public School Office and Staff

Grades 5 and 6 By Mrs. Netzloff

The Fifth and Sixth Graders have finished Western Europe in Social Studies. The students have discovered that is where most of their ancestors came from. The students are now preparing for their Middle Ages Day at school. Each student has a topic from that time in history and will spend a day learning more from each other. The students are studying plant and animal cells in science and are learning the difference between the cells. Math has the Fifth Graders focusing in on fractions-adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing, while the Sixth Graders are working with fractions, decimals, and percents and how they relate. The Sixth Graders are also finding out that the lessons are being stretched as we add in the new items from the new common core standards. Both grades are finishing up with punctuation and capitalization in English and will soon be studying pronouns. The students are looking forward to the math meets and academic competition in April.

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Science in the Classroom Submitted by Ms. Potts

The biology class recently finished a chapter about the fundamentals of genetics. One assignment was to research Dr. Barbara McClintock, an important geneticist. Arika Werth did an excellent job in this writing assignment and agreed to share it with you.

Barbara McClintock went through her early stages of school and career with many difficulties such as being told she would never be hired as a professor because of her gender, could not major in the profession she wanted in college, and having a hard time finding suitable work. She was hired at the University of Missouri but quit after such a short time. The biology chairperson told her she would never be hired as a full professor because she was a female, so she quit. When she attended college at Cornell University, she was not able to go into the field of plant breeding, because she was a woman. So instead she studied plant genetics and got her Ph.D. while working on her doctorate. Barbara had a hard time finding work after she graduated college because nobody wanted to hire a woman. But after the mishap with University of Missouri, Carnegie Institute offered her a research position in their Department of Genetics in 1942. These difficulties proved just how difficult it was for woman to go to college and get jobs in their field of study in that time.

Barbara McClintock's remarkable life spanned the history of genetics in the twentieth century for two

main reasons, developing cytological techniques that allowed her to identify each of the ten maize chromosomes, and also investigating chromosome breakage. By developing her cytological techniques, she was able to conduct an experiment that identified maize linkage groups with individual chromosomes, the well-known cytological proof of genetic crossing-over, evidence of chromatid crossing-over, cytological determination of the physical location of genes within chromosomes, the genetic consequences of nonhomologous pairing, the establishment of the causal relationship between the instability of ring-shaped chromosomes and phenotypic variegation, discovered that the centromere is divisible, and identify a chromosomal site essential for the formation of the nucleolus. Her early experiments laid the groundwork for many more cytogenetic discoveries. When she investigated chromosome breakage, she made important observations on the behavior of chromosomes lacking telomeres, which initially started her intensive investigation of the chromosome breaking locus. Within several years she had learned enough to reach the conclusion: that the chromosome-breaking locus did something up until then unknown for any genetic locus: it moved from one chromosomal location to another, a phenomenon she called transposition. The study of transposable genetic elements and transposition became the central theme of her genetic experiments from the mid-1940s until the end of her active research career. Another great period of her life was in 1983, when she won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. She was awarded this for her successful discovery and research on mobile genetic elements. These three major points in her life were just few of the many, but were the most significant to her studies of genetics.

Junior High and Senior High Academic Teams By Mrs. Netzloff

Academic Team competition has begun. The Junior High Team members are Carson Hourser, Lucas Rath, Shelby Faul, Alexandra Naser, Skyler Simes, and Tyler Jerkovich.. The Senior High Team members are Levi Larson, Kody Faul, Jewel Faul, Arika Werth, Kady Rath, and Kaytlin Werth. Our Junior High and Senior High teams have both attended two meets. The first meet was in Carrington on March 6. It was a good first meet for both teams. Our second meet was in Wing on March 17. The Junior High team had a fantastic lightning round and came home with second place. The Senior High team achieved a fourth place at this meet.

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3rd and 4th Grade

By Mr. Krebs

Spring is almost here, and the 3rd and 4th graders are working really hard so that they will be ready to become 4th and 5th graders. We have been working hard on improving our writing skills by writing about something we don’t get to talk about much in school and that is their favorite video games, or TV shows. The students have worked really hard and are turning in some great papers. In science we are going all over the world learning about different ecosystems. In Social Studies we are staying a little closer to home as we start our North Dakota History lessons. The third and fourth graders also had our classroom contests to see who qualified for the regional competition in Washburn. All the students worked hard unfortunately only one student from each class gets to go; Congratulations to Karleigh Baker 4th grade and Jazmyn Iron Shield in 3rd grade.

McClusky High School Quarter 3

Honor Roll

Grade 12 Grade 11 Grade 10 Levi Grade Chasely Houser Trista Crimmins Weston Grade Jewel Faul Kady Rath Kody Faul Kaleb Sease Levi Larson Kaytlin Werth Lance Pellman Arika Werth Grade 9 Grade 8 Grade 7 Alex Naser Shelby Faul Kaitlyn Haux Stefon Scheurer Madison Houser Carson Houser Skylar Simes Lucas Rath Jacob Strobel Rose Rippee

Elementary Spelling Bee

Congratulations to all of our Spelling Bee Qualifiers. They will be travelling to Washburn on April 2 to compete in the McLean County Spelling Bee. These students are Lilly Bobbins in 1st Grade, Karter Baker in 2nd Grade, Jazmyn IronShield in 3rd Grade, Karleigh Baker in 4th Grade and Kaleigh Naser in 5th Grade. Good luck to each of these students.

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Tips for Getting Your Kids to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables Submitted by Shari and Brandi, School Cooks

Let’s face it: many kids are picky eaters. Fortunately, it's possible to get even the pickiest eaters to eat their fruits and veggies! Here are some tips to help get children to eat healthier foods:

Talk with your child about the meals served at school. Ask what they had for lunch, what they liked,

and how it could be better. Share constructive feedback with your school food service.

Serve more fruits, veggies, and whole grains at home to help reinforce the changes at school.

Adopt appealing ways to present fruits and vegetables. Try putting them on attractive plates, serving them with a low-fat dip, cutting fruit rather than serving it whole, adding an interesting, low-calorie sauce, or sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese.

Find interesting vegetable recipes online to add flavor and appeal. Too often we put more time and effort into the entrée than the side dishes.

Talk to your child about the importance of a healthy diet to grow up healthy and strong and avoid health problems in the future.

Bring your child to the grocery store or farmers’ market. Point out different fruits and vegetables. Discuss your favorites. Talk about the different colors and textures. Let your child pick out something new.

Put out cut fruits or veggies for kids to snack on while you're cooking dinner. Get the fruits and veggies in when they're hungry!

Be a positive role model. Let your child see you enjoying fruits, vegetables, and whole grains at meals and snacks.

Give healthy meals and dishes fun and appealing names. Instead of "Eat your zucchini!" it might be, "It's time for Zippin’ Zucchini!”

Cook with your child. Let your child help pick out a healthy recipe and prepare it together. Kids are more likely to try a new food or meal if they are involved in the process.

Keep fruit in a bowl in a prominent place in the kitchen or on a shelf at eye-level in the refrigerator so it is readily visible. The bottom crisper drawer is out of sight—and out of mind.

Don’t be discouraged if your child doesn’t immediately like a new food. Children are naturally resistant to new foods. Just because they don’t like it the first time, doesn’t mean they won’t eat it ever again. Reintroduce foods every once in a while and try preparing them different ways.

Surround your child with healthy choices. If you give a child the option between an apple or a cookie, most will choose a cookie. But if you give them a choice between an apple and grapes, they will choose an apple or grapes—and both are great options!

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Junior High Students Interview Residents at Memorial Home

The McClusky Junior High students were afforded the opportunity to visit with some of the residents of our local nursing home. Thanks to Missy Axt and Mrs. Froehlich, the students were given a series of questions and paired up with residents to find out about their lives. Hats off to the students for their sincere courtesy and interest in our advanced residents. We will publish a couple of interviews each month.

By: Jacob Strobel I interviewed Allen Faul

Allen was born in Minnesota in 1930 and didn’t have many toys but made his own when he was young. Allen graduated from school in 1947 but didn’t continue onto college. He sometimes liked school and sometimes didn’t. When he was younger, he played Annie I Over and Follow the Trail or as he called it Ring Around the Rosie. He also lived on a farm and worked as an underground coal miner as his first job. Allen said his dad was stricter than his mom and said that he accomplished what he wanted to in life.

By: Jacob Strobel

I also interviewed Marie Arndt Marie was born in Kief ND, on May 17 and said she had a fair amount of toys. She did not continue onto college but liked school so much that she just hated to miss a day of it. She also liked to watch basketball, her kids liked sports and were in just about everything for school activities. Marie lived on a farm and had a job to help her husband on the farm with whatever he had for her to do such as baling or raking hay. Her dad was stricter than her mom and says she accomplished what she wanted to in life.

By: Carson Houser I interviewed Sidney Zingg

He was born in 1919 near Underwood, ND. He was in the military during World War II on the coast of the Pacific Islands. When he was twenty-five years old he was married. His first job was as a farmhand on his father’s ranch. His house, barn, and fence posts were whitewashed and the house and barn are still standing on the land where he grew up. Sidney worked as a farmhand, a truck driver, a steer rider, and is a war veteran. I enjoyed visiting with Sidney and he has had an interesting life. Kaley Sease was absent the day the students went to the Home so she interviewed her Grandmother over the phone.

By: Kaley Sease Elaine Sease

Elaine Sease was born north of McClusky in 1945. When she was growing up she had many chores to do. Elaine had to rake hay, cultivate, feed calves, get eggs, and milk cows. Her house had electricity when she was growing up. She never got an allowance and said her mom was more strict than her dad. When she was a teenager she had to be home at midnight on only the weekends. Elaine’s family never had any family traditions, they just worked. When she was in elementary school she didn’t like it but as she moved up to high school she liked it way better.

When she was in elementary school she said her favorite games were horse, anti-over, and drop the hanky. Elaine was only on the honor roll when she was a junior and senior. She said she got good grades mostly A’s and B’s. When she was out of high school she never had a real job that paid, only working on the farm. She got married ten days before she turned eighteen and she and her husband had a farm of their own so she never got away from the farm life.

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PACESETTER BASKETBALL AND VOLLEYBALL CAMPS AND TOURNAMENTS

Pacesetter Sports provides camps and tournaments for about 12,000 young athletes every year…and have been doing so for 22 years. Their Volleyball and/or Basketball Camps will be held May through August. Costs range from $45-$85 per person. (Grades 2-12). “Midwest Madness”, the North Dakota Youth Basketball State Championship will be held April 12-13th, 2014. Team Entry forms are available in the office. Team Entry Fee is $140 per team. (Grades 5-9) If interested in detailed information, contact the office at 363-2470. Or you can check out their website at www.pacesetternet.com.

McClusky Spring Sports Update By Mr. Klemisch

Track We have 3 students out for track at this time in grades 7-12. They are Kady Rath, Lucas Rath, and Carson Houser. The first track meets are scheduled for April 4th.

Softball Trista Crimmins is the only girl out for softball. Trista played softball last year and did quite well. The softball team has their first game on March 28th, at DLB. Elementary Boys Basketball We have 3 sixth grade boys (Baylee Parsons, Jon Strobel, & Bryton Werth) and 2 fifth grade boys (Cole Felchle & Jaxston Hausauer) planning to go out for Elementary basketball. The season starts on March 31st and runs for about six weeks. Baseball & Golf There are no students currently out for baseball or golf this spring. Let’s hope for some nice weather so all these students can get out and play this spring.

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Social Studies By Mr. Fylling

It doesn’t seem possible we are almost done with this school year. The juniors and seniors in POD are gearing up for their long awaited term paper assignments. They will be writing about regulations of their choice. We are doing this in cooperation with the English department. They will get an opportunity to debate their paper. Sounds like fun. In World History, we have finished the Great War and are moving into World War II. We will be watching Schindler’s List. Usually this movie has a huge impact on young people and their perspectives. The Social Studies that the junior high students are working on is quite interesting. We have been really digging into the Islamic impact on the world. They really are listening and thinking about how this fits into Crimea and Russia today. High School Physical Education has been absolutely great so far this year. We have been doing a bunch of activities so far such as the weight room, volleyball and bocker. (You can ask one of them what that is.) Junior High is enjoying Health class this semester. Why is everything so icky at this age? (Oh, my gosh!) Sociology class is looking at the individual at this point. We are learning about why we are the way we are. PACE students have figured out it is time, but it just doesn’t make any sense. (They are seniors!) They have senior privileges so they are gone most of the time. My, how time flies!

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Title I Math Submitted by Mr. Klemisch

Research Confirms Parent, Community Collaborations Are Key to Student Success

Studies show that school practices to encourage parents to participate in their children's education are more important than family characteristics such as parental education, family size, marital status, socioeconomic level, or student grade level in determining whether or not parents get involved.

For partnerships to work, there must be mutual trust and respect, an ongoing exchange of information, agreement on goals and strategies, and a sharing of rights and responsibilities.

The role of parents in the education of their children cannot be overestimated. By becoming involved in their local school community, parents can provide essential leadership; which will lead to improvements in educational opportunities for their children.

Research also shows that when parents are involved, students have:

Higher grades, test scores, and graduation rates

Better school attendance

Increased motivation

Better self-esteem

Lower rates of suspension

Decreased use of drugs and alcohol

Fewer instances of violent behavior What Parents Can Do:

When parents and families get personally involved in education, their children do better in school and grow up to be more successful in life.

Tips for Parents:

Be a model. Let your children see you doing/using math. Take an interest in your children while they are doing their math and offer to help them if they need it.

Provide a quiet place for homework and monitor progress.

Establish a daily family routine with scheduled homework time.

Foster accountability by insisting that children do chores and complete homework assignments.

Keep in touch with the school. Regularly visit the school or talk with teachers on the phone. Five questions that can help your child learn math:

1.How many are there? To develop an understanding of the meaning of numbers. 2. How many of each kind? Your child develops classification and counting skills. 3. How are these the same/different? Your child will observe, compare, analyze, and then reach a conclusion - the basic skills of mathematical and scientific exploration. 4. Which has more/fewer? Comparing quantities is one important key to setting the stage for children's later thinking about subtraction. 5. Which is taller/longer/shorter? Your child develops measuring skills.

Parent Math Strategies

Talk to your child about the relevance of mathematics to future success.

Be sure that your child pursues high-quality mathematics courses.

Find out about after-school and summer mathematics enrichment programs and encourage your child to participate.

Encourage your child's interest in mathematics and let them know they can succeed.

Have high expectations and check on your child's progress.

Make sure that your child attends school regularly.

Get to know your child’s teachers.

A+ Math www.aplusmath.com The Math Forum – Ask Dr. Math http://mathforum.org/dr.math Math Cats www.mathcats.com

AAA Math www.aaamath.com Math League www.mathleague.com Fun Brain www.funbrain.com

Recommended Websites: Figure This www.figurethis.org PBS Kids – Math http://pbskids.org/games/math.htm

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5 Myths About Teens and Technology Every Parent Should Ignore

Article submitted by Roberta Froehlich

As the editor of HuffPost Teen, I spend a good part of my day talking to Snapchat-sending, Facebook-hating, selfie-taking, iPhone-obsessed teens that many adults love to judge. I also talk to their parents.

This week, I received a fairly typical email from the concerned mom of one of our bloggers asking questions like: Is having an Internet profile safe? How many people will see it? Will strangers try to communicate with my kid? What about online predators?

The note surprised me, however, because of who her teen is: a prolific writer with a huge social media following. (To protect the teen's privacy I am not identifying them by gender.) Though the teen uses the name of a fictional character across social accounts, they use a real photo and regularly share personal anecdotes with an audience of thousands. Given the mom's questions, I assume she has no idea her kid has such an active, public presence.

It's not unusual for teens to be deeply involved in large, online communities that their families know nothing about, and this makes me sad. I want all parents to know how amazing, eloquent and popular their teenagers are in a world they're often too scared to be a part of.

But I'm not writing this article to convince that one mom to face her fears and get on Instagram. I'm writing it because she is part of a chorus of adult voices -- online and off -- who seem frightened by teenagers' daily use of technology, in its various forms. I'm writing this article because I see too many parents willfully alienate themselves from teens due to fear-mongering, technophobic myths that inundate them in mainstream media.

Here are a few of the misconceptions about teens, technology and the Internet I see come up again and again in articles and in my own conversations with "experts" -- and all the reasons why parents should not believe them.

1. "Teens are addicted to technology."

Most of the time, when I hear this, it's referring to teenagers' constant need to be online. But here's the thing: the Internet is not (just) technology -- it's people. Teens are obsessively engaging with friends, not screens. Youth researcher danah boyd discusses this idea in her insightful new book, It's Complicated. "Teens aren't addicted to social media," she says. "They're addicted to each other." boyd also points to teens' increasingly monitored and over-scheduled lives, which may have resulted in childhoods that had less in-person connection than previous generations. Meaning: Teens are not developing strange, worrisome relationships with technology. They just want to hang out with their friends, and behind a screen is their easiest -- or sometimes only -- option.

2. "All their 'text-speak' is making them stupid."

In fact, the opposite is happening: their reading and writing skills are being strengthened by the hundreds of "textisms" (OMG LOL SMH) they are sending every day. Studies show that teens' obsession with texting and tweeting is actually improving literacy rates, because they are spending so much time creating and responding to words. Who would want to discourage young people from engaging with something that's making them read even more -- and by choice?

3. "The Internet is giving teens a two-second attention span."

Here's what the Internet is actually doing: making them less passive. Teens are interacting with their entertainment directly, consuming communally using social media, producing alternative narratives and content and interrogating their media. They are engaging so deeply with stories and ideas that they are forming their own online communities around them, and even creating their own, unique dialects. This is far from "thrill-of-the-moment" interactions with technology; it's persistent, obsessive engagement with information.

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4. "The more time teens spend behind screens, the more antisocial they become."

Communicating online is an important part of most adults' daily personal and work lives. Having strong online social skills will continue to be similarly -- if not more -- important for this generation of teens as they grow up. It troubles me to see adults dismiss online communication as less meaningful or worthy of our attention, and to read articles encouraging parents to limit or ban their teen's access to technology in the name of "healthier" relationships. Ask yourself this: Would you be worried if one of your close friends stopped communicating with you for a few weeks? When parents prohibit screen time, their teen is often cut off from peers in a similar way. If parents want to help teens develop rich, healthy relationships as adults, they need to teach them complete social etiquette -- which means acknowledging the importance of both their online and offline friendships.

5. "Teens are careless about online privacy."

Admittedly, this is a complicated topic that warrants its own separate article, but let me just say this: most teens grew up using social media, and because of this they understand extraordinarily well how to be private in a very public space. On Twitter, for example, many HuffPost Teen bloggers have joint handles with friends using made-up names, they "subtweet" each other using coded personal messages... the list of their creative, privacy-conscious communication strategies goes on and on. Sidneyeve Matrix, associate professor of media at Queen's University in Ontario, echoed this idea when she spoke to The Toronto Star about millennials and online privacy this week:

Over the past three years, the amazingly loud message from my students is that young people are very conscious of their privacy... They understand data privacy; they partition all their uses of social networks. Some are for professional, some are for personal and some are for school, some are for friends only.

Youth researcher danah boyd agrees:

Just because teens are trying to help shape public culture doesn't mean that they want their dirty laundry exposed. The notion that today's youth don't care about privacy is foolish. Sure, there are some teenagers who are exhibitionists, just as there are some adults who are. But most teens are very conscious about privacy, just as they're very conscious about their public self-expressions.

In my eyes, it's careless of parents to create rules around online privacy if they do not understand how social media platforms work. From the parent perspective, HuffPost's Lisa Belkin, wrote about why not "getting it" isn't an option.

Don't do it because you have specific fears that your daughter has fallen down the Tumblr rabbit hole looking for "thinspiration." Do it so that if you ever have those fears you won't dismiss them because you don't know where to begin to look. Parenting is about leading and teaching them, yes. But sometimes we help them most when we learn, and follow.

So, parents: don't be frightened by your teen's love for technology. Let them teach you how and why they're using it -- and maybe you'll get a glimpse into the engaged, energetic and complex teenage online world I have the privilege of seeing every day.

Follow Elizabeth Perle on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lizperle