Spartan Staff spent the morning in various professional development sessions on topics including trauma responsive instruction, restorative practices, special education strategies for students, elementary science instruction, and regulation strategies for students. Thank you to all our presenters!
The 2023 Spartan Retirees were recognized this morning. Congrats to Dr. Jodlowski, Mrs. Deal, Mrs. McDannald, and Mr. Stine. Thank you all for your dedication to our students and families over the years. You will be missed!
March 13th is a Teacher Institute Day for Olympia. There is NO SCHOOL for students!
Congratulations to one of our Spartan staff members on the birth of her first son! He is showing off his 'Future Spartan' onesie!
We are blessed at Olympia with the best Social Workers!
Due to hazardous weather conditions, all Olympia after school activities have been cancelled and there will be no shuttle. Please be safe!
Elementary families, join us fo Spartan @ the Movies. We will be showing Inside Out at 6:00 in the high school auditorium. This event is free! Bring the whole family. Concession provided by West PTO.
The last Spartan @ the Movies will be this Friday, March 3rd. We will be showing the movie Inside Out. The event is free! Concessions provided by Oly West PTO.
Our brains are great at using past experiences to make quick decisions on the fly, but these shortcuts can also lead to bias. "Confirmation bias" is our brain's tendency to seek out information that confirms things we already think we know. Help your kids learn to recognize this when they encounter news online, as a way to examine competing opinions and ideas and to avoid drawing questionable conclusions.
Elementary Families, are you looking for a fun, free, family event on Sunday? Look no further, showing of the Lego movie at the High School starts at 4:00 PM.
Wikipedia.org is where millions of people stop first for information. Tools like it are what make the internet so valuable. But they also teach an important lesson, one you can start teaching your kids now: don’t believe everything you read. Family Tip Sheet: bit.ly/OlyNMFR2
We had a BLAST tonight at Family Reading Night at Oly North! Thanks to all of the families that came and enjoyed the event! Special thanks to the Peoria Riverfront Museum and Planetarium for bringing the Skylab and to the U of I Extension Office for the great STEM activity!
Tonight! Please join us tonight as we Blast Off into Reading!
5-6:30pm at Olympia North
Enter through Mission Control at the front doors! See you there!
Who's coming to Spartans at the Movies this Sunday? Free to all elementary families! Let Mrs. Maris know if your child is bring a Lego creation. michelle.maris@olympia.org
Check out this list of trustworthy resources to help you learn what's true (and what is not!) on the web. You can even use one of them to look back in time and what was on a website in the past!
Tip #5: Choose a Variety of Sources
Show your children how you get news and information from different places, and explain how you make your choices. Use words like "credible," "trustworthy," "respected," and "fair." Ask them where they get their information, and if they think about those same words when choosing. As kids get older, introduce the ideas of bias, satire, and clickbait.
In observance of Presidents' Day, Olympia will not have school on Monday, February 20, 2023.
If a picture's worth a thousand words, do the words always tell a true story? One way to find out is through a reverse image search. Search with an image instead of a keyword and see what you discover!
Tip #4: Discuss fact vs. opinion
Play around with ideas, deciding which are facts and which are opinions. Ask: How tall are you? What's the best food in the world? Do you like dogs? Point out that both facts and opinions show up in the news, but opinion is usually labeled.
Students in Mrs. Loyer's 2nd grade celebrated Valentine's Day with a fun writing activity. Each student gave a food idea before the activity began. Then they passed a bucket around and drew out one of the foods. After that, they drew out either a full heart or a broken heart.
Students then were told they would be writing either a love letter (full heart) or a break-up letter (broken heart) to the food they drew out.
We've been working on letter writing as well as stating your thoughts and backing it up with evidence! While the evidence was silly, it was a great way to practice!
It's safe to say the students loved this silly activity!
