Welcome to the first blog post from your elementary and middle school principal Mr. Rahlf. Since becoming the principal I have always planned to start an informative letter to send home to parents. When I began to think about this and the advancements that our new website has provided, I figured what better way than to start a blog on the website updating parents and other stakeholders what is taking place throughout the school. I look forward to writing a blog on occasion to inform every one of the wonderful things that Deuel students and staff are doing in the classrooms.

It is hard to believe that we have completed our first nine weeks of school and the fall conferences are underway. Fall conferences are scheduled for October 26th from 8-4. Elementary teachers and high school teachers will be holding conferences in their classrooms while the core four teachers in the middle school will be located on the media side of the library.

Before I go further into this post, I first want to thank all of the staff, students, and parents for a very successful start to the 2018-19 school year. There are some amazing things taking place throughout the school at any given moment of the school day. I look forward to highlighting some of these events in this blog as the year continues. 

Many of you know that the initiative of mass customized learning has been at the forefront at Deuel. The middle school has been implementing MCL for the last two school years and are continuing to grow each year to better meet the needs of all learners. Last year our 4th and 5th-grade teachers jumped on board to the initiative and have given themselves the name The Midway. They have removed the labels of 4th and 5th grade and are meeting the student involved in the midway at their level and creating mastery learning throughout. This year I am happy to announce that the MCL initiative continues to spread through grade levels above the middle school and below the midway. Our Pre-School and Junior Kindergarten classes have teamed together, our Kindergarten and first grade have teamed up and the second and third graders have teamed up. The area that the staff decided to focus on this year was math. There will be some tough times throughout the implementation of this initiative, but I am confident that it will create a higher level of learning and will provide the ability for teachers to reach each student at their level and continue to move them towards mastery learning.   

One of the major focuses of customized learning is center on the mindset of our students and staff. Parents, if you have not heard your child talk about the 16 habits of mind, ask them about it. I am quite certain that they can provide you with some information about what they have learned so far. You might hear words like perseverance, and managing impulsivity, as well as others.

I am excited to start this blog and I would love to hear your feedback, so please don't hesitate to contact me on what types of topics you would like me to discuss throughout the school year. 

Until next time,

I ask that you do something good for someone today.