Sioux Falls School District - Educate and prepare each student to succeed in a changing world

A little "birdie" sent a few pictures of the new after-school Whittier Golf "Club" at their first "tee-time" at Kuehn Golf Course. It's no "bogey" that our Attendance Liaison, some teachers and volunteers are "putting" time into teaching 8th graders this game "fore" fun and exercise! Danny "Sink"sen of First Tee is assisting with the "Par-Tee." This promises to be a w"hole" lot of fun for Whittier students! Thanks to all who are making it possible!

Our female athletes continue to inspire! Taking advantage of everything high school athletics have to offer leads to leadership ability, incomparable teamwork skills, & networking expertise. Chloe can explain it better than we can: https://youtu.be/NcS1MpG4PG0

Thank you to Sioux Falls Fire Rescue for this amazing partnership! SFFR recently approached SFSD to ask how they might be able to partner with schools. A program was started with attendance liaisons at some schools to reward the classrooms with the best attendance with a special recess with firefighters! Students LOVE seeing SFFR pull up in the firetruck, and getting to play soccer and tag with them is an added bonus for great attendance!

The Challenge Center at Robert Frost provides qualifying students immersive, hands-on, advanced, in-depth, and challenging education that will prepare them for the middle school honors program and the ability to complete high school classes in middle school. That paves the way for accelerated, dual-credit, Advanced Placement, and other higher-level classes in any Sioux Falls School District high school and the advantages those will bring far beyond the high school years. Learn about the top 10 things you should know about the SFSD Challenge Center! https://youtu.be/nQfjChfhdwA

Yesterday we shared a video with information about the One-Way Spanish Immersion Program at Sonia Sotomayor Elementary. Please enjoy this video with information on the Two-Way Spanish Immersion Programs offered at Rosa Parks and Hayward Elementary Schools. In brief: Two-Way Spanish Immersion has a 50-50 split of native English and Spanish speaking students. Instruction throughout the day is delivered in equal parts English and Spanish. Learn more here! https://youtu.be/zO3fSxA0mo0

The Sioux Falls School District Spanish Immersion Program has options for students to become more fluent speakers in both English and Spanish. Multiple programs, one goal: fully bilingual students! Learn more about One-Way Spanish Immersion at Sonia Sotomayor Elementary in this video, and stay tuned for an upcoming video on Two-Way Immersion at Hayward and Rosa Parks Elementary. https://youtu.be/7DANjp3gCo0

Here's our end of week update for the 'Barbie Blog!' The baby piglets have been getting along so well! In fact, both piglets and mama (Barbie) are doing just fine. Students have been making sure that Barbie is stocked up with food and water, and making sure all the piglets get a spot with mama to get their fill of food. Earlier in the week veterinarians stopped by to assist with the normal piglet care, and the students and staff have been carrying things on from there. More from Barbie and her babies next week!

It was a big morning at CTE Academy as Dakota State University held their 'signing day'! Seniors graduating this spring sat down to formally commit to attending DSU to study cyber security and other computer science majors there next year. Good luck future Trojans! More photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBmVei

Time for a 🐽 Barbie Blog 🐖 update! There is now a livestream camera set up at CTE Academy where Barbie and her piglets are living. As you can see, momma and the babies are doing well. Barbie has more babies than she has spots at the dinner table to feed all her babies. Some of them that get enough food are put in a small basket to nap while the other smaller ones have a chance to eat. This is to make sure everyone's belly is full!! Make sure to turn the sound up to hear the occasional cute squeals! 🐷 https://www.youtube.com/live/rdyexhITAzc?feature=shared

Jefferson High School is still very new, and therefore, so is its band program. However, JHS has been able to accomplish some impressive firsts already: they have the only HS steel drum group in the region and they currently are the only school with a competitive winter indoor drumline. That drumline has already seen tremendous success in the first year, which bodes well for the future of this growing program overall. Learn more. https://youtu.be/8EvQZUsWQtM

April 15-19 is National Public School Volunteer Week! 🌟 Big THANK YOU to all the incredible community volunteers making a difference in Sioux Falls schools every single day! 🌟 The presence of school volunteers positively impacts the learning environment and builds a strong connection with our community. There are lots of ways to get involved with your local schools! Find more information here: https://www.sf.k12.sd.us/page/volunteering-mentoring

In case you missed it, or would like to experience it again, here is a video recap of the 2024 Recognition Banquet. Tune in as we celebrate 25-year employees and 2024 retirees at the highly anticipated annual event! https://youtu.be/2DZevTCbabc

Congratulations to our newest🌟 SFSD All-Star 🤩, Becky Whitlock! One of only two instructional coaches who support RISE programming across Sioux Falls, Becky goes above and beyond each and every day. Not only is she supporting the teachers who support our students, she is working behind the scenes to help choose curriculum, supports and interventions for students of all abilities. Find out why her coworkers feel lucky to have her. https://youtu.be/MYQjupFmBOg

She works around 20 hours per week at her job, somehow manages a full load of classes, is in color guard for marching band and winter guard, she's in Roosevelt's top concert choir and show choir, and is the Cadet Commander for the relatively new Air Force JROTC program. Emma Day came to Roosevelt High School right when they needed her, and she instantly fit in to various programs she was already familiar with. Learn how she does it and where she's headed next. https://youtu.be/HHkK26H_AgE

We can officially 'close the book' on our third annual Everybody Reads community reading initiative! With our partners at Siouxland Libraries we met our goal of collectively reading over 300,000 books, and that means we were able to make a donation of $1,500 to REACH Literacy! Supporting reading and literacy in the community BY reading and practicing literacy in the community - it doesn't get much better than that! Thank you to our sponsors at Sora, Follet Learning and Bound To Stay Bound Books for helping to make this donation possible!

Welcome to a special feature we will be following over the next two weeks that we are affectionately referring to as "The Barbie Blog"! The ag program at CTE Academy recently received a sow from Pipestone to learn all about the farrowing process. Yesterday, Barbie gave birth to a batch of babies! Students got to be there for the birthing process and helped things along the way. It doesn't get much more hands on than that! This is the perfect example of how special and exciting our programing at CTE is and how important it is for students. Stay tuned to SFSD social media to follow along with The Barbie Blog!

A few weeks ago the SFSD eSports team made history and won the first-ever high school eSports Championships in South Dakota in the online games "Rocket League" AND "League of Legends." Tune in to our podcast "Spotlight: Conversations from the Sioux Falls School District" to hear them discuss this accomplishment and why eSports is here to stay. Find it on Spotify or tune in here: https://youtu.be/7e8hir6k9oQ

It’s the last day of #SDWeekOfWork and today we’ll once again put our focus on elementary-level exposure to possible career paths. Fifth grade students at Laura B. Anderson and Discovery Elementary recently got to participate in a Career Cafe day. Experts from various fields came into the classroom to give fun and engaging interactive presentations on their areas of expertise. From banking to coding cybersecurity, students got an introduction to a variety of professions and an idea of what a career in that field might look like. Students enjoyed getting to play games and interact in hands-on activities that also give them a great introduction to a potential career path. That’s the ongoing theme with career lessons at the elementary level - when we make it fun and engaging, students are more likely to retain what they learn and use that information to make future decisions. South Dakota Week of Work may be coming to a close today, but the focus on college and career readiness is something that is ever-present in the Sioux Falls School District! Our school counselors, success coordinators, teachers and staff are always on the lookout for ways to help our students prepare for life after high school.

Here we are at Day four of #SDWeekOfWork! The ability to one day own and operate their own business is an aspiration for many students. How do we help students understand the important concepts and commitment it takes? George McGovern Middle School students could tell you all about it! Once a semester, a group of eighth graders at GMMS hosts Market Day where their fellow peers are able to purchase items and experiences offered by the student entrepreneurs. The program is supported by Empowered (formerly known as Youth Entrepreneurs) where students apply to learn the process of developing and launching a business. Students create and present a business plan, apply for a business loan provided by Empowered, gather their products, market and bring their business to life. Other students get to enjoy finding the best deal and making their purchases. Jaime Cota, a teacher advisor, says that so much of the learning happens in the aftermath of this exciting event. Students then document their gross income, profit, and repay their loan. They also reflect on what they would have done differently. These critical lessons are echoed by guest local business owners who share their entrepreneurial experiences with the students. Market Day is a BIG deal at GMMS, with students and staff looking forward to it for weeks prior to the event. When we make learning about business and career paths fun and exciting for students, they engage whole-heartedly and process the lesson in a very thoughtful and meaningful way. These are the lessons students remember, and it helps prepare them for the decisions they’ll make in the very-near future.

There is so much to talk about on day three of #SDWeekOfWork! Today we’re looking at our Career and Technical Students Organizations! (CTSOs). There are a LOT of CTSO options for SFSD students. DECA (focused on business and entrepreneurship), HOSA (focused on healthcare), ProStart (focused on food industry), FFA (focused on agriculture), VEX Robotics (focused on tech and robots), Skills USA (focused on connecting students with industry experts), and more! At this moment, students in DECA at Lincoln High School are planning their trip to Anaheim, California for the DECA International Conference. Graci, a senior with the group loves the opportunity it provides to travel, talk to adults in a business environment, and how it will set her up for life after high school. They recently won their regional competition, giving them the chance to compete in the internationals, but they aren’t the only group making waves! ProStart recently won their statewide competition focused on the dining industry, and now they’re getting ready to head to Baltimore for the national competition! ProStart focuses on all aspects of the food industry from culinary and baking up to restaurant management. FFA (Future Farmers of America) focuses on agriculture, and they’re always up to something exciting at the CTE Academy. Just last week the FFA program welcomed Barbie, a sow who is set to farrow sometime in the not-too-distant-future. For students participating in FFA at the CTE Academy, learning doesn’t get much more hands on than this! Agriculture is one of South Dakota's largest industries, and the experience these high school students are receiving now will set them up for success in just a few years. These are just a few examples of the amazing opportunities CTSO’s provide to students every day.