Tag Archives: Kettle Moraine

Oasis Project growing at Kettle Moraine schools

Stand Up for Public Ed,

Lake Country Now: At the age of 66 (going on 40 as she says) Jan Frans is pumped. The retired Kettle Moraine Middle School teacher’s Oasis Project took off faster than she could have imagined and now the project is reaching under-resourced students in two additional Kettle Moraine elementary schools this year.

Starting the tutoring project in September 2015 at Cushing Elementary School, about 30 Oasis Project tutors, all retired or working teachers, now work with under-resourced students at Dousman Elementary and Wales Elementary schools as well.

Some may think the Lake Country area doesn’t need services for under-resourced children, but Frans said the most shocking thing is that about 13 percent of children in the Cushing Elementary area are living at or below the poverty level and about 18 percent in Dousman and Wales.

Under-resourced children may also come from single parent homes where a child doesn’t have someone at home to support their work, Frans added.

The idea of the project was “like something I couldn’t shake,” said Frans.

“I couldn’t not do it,” Frans said. “I couldn’t get to the end of my life and wonder what it would have been like if I had tried.”

Frans spent a year visiting non profit organizations thinking “I would see I can’t do this,” and discovered “no one knew what they were doing when they started.”

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Kettle Moraine schools featured in national Future Ready videos

Stand Up for Public Ed,

Lake Country Now: The Kettle Moraine School District (KMSD) is one of eight Future Ready school districts in the country featured in a set of professional learning resources recently released by the U.S. Department of Education. The resources are designed to expand the capacity of district superintendents and their leadership teams to effectively lead the transition to digital learning.

Over the course of 18 months, the Department’s Office of Educational Technology (OET) rigorously evaluated school districts against 27 key policies and practices characteristic of strong Future Ready leadership. As a result of that screening process, OET selected Kettle Moraine as an exemplary Future Ready district.

“When I learned of the Future Ready initiative and examined the commitments contained in the Future Ready pledge, I was delighted to see a very tight alignment between what Kettle Moraine is doing and the focus of the U.S. Department of Education,” said KMSD Superintendent Dr. Patricia Deklotz. “It’s an extreme honor to be able to share the good work of our district with educators across the nation in an effort to better meet the needs of all students and prepare them for their future.”

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Kettle Moraine High School students learn from experiences in community

Stand Up for Public Ed,

Thirteen High School of Health Science seniors are working with the fire and rescue staff from Lake Country Fire and Rescue on the first level of emergency medical technician training. Students have learned how to take vitals, transport injured people and clear airways. Senior Becca Grubb enjoys how hands-on it is, and the application it has to real life and her work as a CNA at Aurora Medical Center Summit. Once the course is completed, seniors will be able to take the State of Wisconsin EMT test that will allow them to work as a professional in the field.

Is there anything better than learning about research from a primary investigator who works at the Medical College of Wisconsin? Jess Olsen and Tim Sobotka, the college’s educational outreach liaison, created a Research and Design Course that allows KM’s High School of Health Science students to work in a true research environment.

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