Mrs. Lavinder’s 4th grade students and Mr. Negro’s 1st graders worked together to write original poems: haikus, limericks and autobiography poems. On Friday the two classes came together to share their poems - complete with a microphone & finger snaps😁. They ended their presentation with a snack of donuts and a tasty beverage (root beer or cream soda).
The third grade took a field trip to the Porcupine Mountains. We started with a tour of the Lake of the Clouds and then traveled to the Nonesuch Trail. The amazing park interpreters had hands on activities to engage our students. This was a first time visit for a large portion of our third graders. Thank you to the Friends of the Porkies for providing us with the opportunity to explore the beauty of our area!
It's Throwback Thursday! This week we are featuring our music programs here at Luther L. Wright. There is a proud history of excellent music instruction and high interest in our students through the decades. It was difficult to choose photos because the yearbooks feature pages of musicians in all sorts of groups and levels. The band photo is from 1929, the senior choir was taken in 1964, and did you know our school had an orchestra? This is a photo of the group in 1958. The legacy continues with our current music teachers on staff; Mr. Darin Schmidt with choral instruction and choirs at middle and high school including Accent, and Mr. Kirk McBrayer as our band director including a jazz band and music instruction for the elementary levels. We thank them for their talents and excellent work with our students! If you have a special memory or teacher from our music programs, please share.
Science Class News!
This past fall, the MTU Center for Science and Environmental Outreach (CSEO) was awarded funding from the Michigan Science Teachers Association, the Michigan Association of Environmental Professionals, and the Kellogg Youth Endowment Fund (managed by the Keweenaw Area Community Foundation) to purchase and distribute air quality monitors across the W-UP, to compile standards-aligned lesson plans about air quality and air quality issues, and to provide information to the W-UP communities about how they can easily access the real-time readings from sensors near their location and throughout the region.
During the past couple of years, the summer wildfires that happened across wide areas of northern Canada caused smoke conditions that consequently led to poor air quality for this region. During the summer of 2023, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) issued statewide health alerts due to increased particulate matter in the air, some of which were the first-ever air-quality notifications issued in the Upper Peninsula.
The health alerts from EGLE are intended to inform people to take health precautions such as limiting physical activity, staying inside, or wearing an N95 when outside. However, when those poor air quality conditions were occurring, data for the W-UP were not available. If anyone was interested in knowing the air quality measurements near their own location, other than two sensors in L'Anse (installed by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community) and one on Mt. Horace Greely (installed by the Open Skies Project) , there were no sensors in any of Keweenaw, Houghton, Baraga, Ontonagon, Gogebic or Iron Counties. The best information available was a broadly applied model of conditions based on air quality readings at distant locations and the current prevailing wind conditions.
At Ironwood, our air quality monitor was installed last week. Check out the link at https://map.purpleair.com/1/mAQI/a10/p604800/cC0#6.95/46.364/-89.456 to see our air quality map!
On Friday, May 10, Michigan Technological University hosted their 35th annual Bio-athlon. This is a single-day, hands-on, problem solving competition with a variety of real world based projects. Through these projects students demonstrate organizational skills, critical and creative thinking, knowledge of biological concepts, and laboratory skills.
The four person team from Ironwood placed second! Congratulations to team members Nathan Jaunzems (Junior), Jacinta Lauzon, Mark Jaunzems, and Madelena Braucher (sophomores). Lily Nolan-Couillard (sophomore) prepared as a team alternate. Excellent work, students!
Science Class News!
Check out the link to see real-time earthquake data from our new LL Wright earthquake sensor!
Michigan Tech Professor, Gregory Waite, administers the program which provides schools with a seismometer. This seismometer will detect earthquakes from around the world.
The seismometer is a Raspberry Shake, built on the inexpensive Raspberry Pi computer platform. Each seismometer sends data showing the vertical ground motion to a server so that it can be accessed using web-based (https://dataview.raspberryshake.org/) and mobile phone apps (https://raspberryshake.org/news/the-shakenet-mobile-app-for-apple-and-android/). Built-in filters for 'global', 'regional', and 'local' seismicity make it easy to find earthquakes.
IAS is accepting applications for a Full-Time Elementary SPED Teacher and a Full-Time Kindergarten Teacher. Detailed Job Descriptions are available at: https://www.ironwoodschools.org/page/employment-opportunities
Mrs. Boyd’s class celebrated their book The Pencil Thief with a donut party. Each student wrote and illustrated a page in the book.
Chaneille Ruotsala, a teacher cadet for the CTE Teacher Academy, taught Mrs. Boyd’s 2nd graders a lesson on plants. She introduced the lesson by explaining the life cycle and then took the students outside to plant seeds. The students enjoyed the mini lesson!
The Senior class went to Wildman Adventure Resort on Sunday! They enjoyed white water rafting and zip lining. The weather was perfect!
If you missed Accent's concert Saturday night, you missed a great one! With an incredible wide range of styles and excellent individual student performances, it was a fantastic show!
Mother's Day Tea!
Accent continued its remarkable year with a first division rating in the show choir category at the WSMA State Solo and Ensemble Festival. The group scored eight points, which is only two points from a perfect score (6 is perfect, 36 is the worst possible score). John Moos and Aidan Bach were featured soloists. Please attend our concert at the HIT (5/11, 7 pm) to see the latest edition of Accent live and in person.
It's Throwback Thursday! In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week we have two photos for Throwback Thursday. Did you know that Luther L. Wright once had a Future Teachers of America Club? FTA was created in 1937 to support young people interested in becoming teachers. This photo is of the members of the club in 1994. The additional photo is the staff of LLW in 1963. Our thanks to all the teachers past and present that dedicate their lives to the education of our children. If you have a photo or story of a favorite teacher, please share!
The Ironwood Sixth Grade had a wonderful field trip, Tuesday May 7th, to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. The weather was great, no rain and a stiff breeze to keep the black flies at bay. We were greeted and guided by two excellent park interpreters. They were passionate, extremely knowledgeable, and very engaging. The students were interested and excited to learn. We saw the Lake of the Clouds overlook and learned about some of the geology of the area. We were able to eat lunch at the Porcupine Mountain ski hill lodge. Some of the students even hiked part of the way up the ski hill and ate their lunches in the grass looking out over Lake Superior. We had a 'hands on' lesson in which the kids searched a stream and collected any animals they could find with minnow nets. They then had a chart that helped them to figure out what each animal was that they captured. At the end of the day we took a hike on the Union Mine Interpretive Trail and saw remnants of the earliest 'modern' copper mines. We also learned a bit about the hearty people that mapped the area and found the copper deposits in 1884. Aside from a few soakers in the creek and a few bumps and bruises on the hikes, we had a very enjoyable day and learned much about the past and present of our local area. Thank you to the Porkies Park staff and the Friends of the Porkies nonprofit for enabling us to have a GREAT day!
Thank you to Ms. Rosemurgy for all her hard work student teaching in Mrs. Clausen’s 2nd grade. The whole class will certainly miss her. Congratulations on Ms. Rosemurgy’s well-deserved graduation!! It will be exciting to see all the young lives she will touch in the years ahead. ❤️
Thank you!
On behalf of the Board of Education, Administration, Staff, and especially the students of Ironwood Area Schools, we would like to thank the citizens of the district for their positive support in the operating millage renewal process.
Today is the day!
It's election time for Ironwood Area Schools! Every 4 years in Ironwood voters have the opportunity to reaffirm their support of the District by voting on the Operating Millage, and today is election day. If you would like to learn more about this important election, please visit the District's website or call (906) 932-0200.
https://www.ironwoodschools.org/page/opmill
Want to thank your favorite teacher? Tell a teacher your favorite thing about them. Not only is it free, it's extra special for the teacher! An iced latte or chocolate might not hurt, though. Thank you, teachers, for your tireless efforts in educating the young people of Ironwood!
We have some of the best people working in our cafeteria. Give everyone a big thank you for the work they do!
