Nebraska Public School Advantage News

Nebraska Public School Advantage News

Grand Island's Airfield of Dreams: Students take pioneering aviation pathway to the sky

Grand Island's Airfield of Dreams: Students take pioneering aviation pathway to the sky

April 8, 2021
By Tyler Dahlgren The front doors of Trego-Dugan Aviation swing open, letting in a gust of a pleasant, early-spring Grand Island wind before closing behind a man wearing khaki slacks, a black and red Cornhuskers leather jacket and at least two forms of identification swinging from the lanyard around his neck. T.J. Norris juggles a fascinating combination of job titles. Part teacher, part flight...Read More

Half a Million Questions and Counting: With IXL, Plainview Elementary students thrive at their own pace

Half a Million Questions and Counting: With IXL, Plainview Elementary students thrive at their own pace

March 29, 2021
By Tyler Dahlgren If Sir Francis Bacon’s famous 400-year-old proverb that “Knowledge is Power” is, in fact, accurate, then Plainview Elementary is becoming one mighty place. Since purchasing the IXL program and implementing individualized skill plans at the beginning of this school year, Plainview Elementary students have answered more than half a million questions correctly. That’s not a typo...Read More

Silver Linings Series, Howells-Dodge's Mark Ernst: Conversations around COVID-19

Silver Linings Series, Howells-Dodge's Mark Ernst: Conversations around COVID-19

March 5, 2021
*This is the third installment in the three-part "Silver Linings Series". This discussion occurred on November 9 for an article titled “Silver Linings (Without the Playbook),” which ran in the winter edition of the NCSA Today Magazine. Q: Think back to March 2020, when the pandemic broke and schools were forced to close overnight. Walk me through that initial experience. What did you learn about...Read More

On Rare Air: Shoemaker Elementary fifth-graders bring Eagle Eye News to life

On Rare Air: Shoemaker Elementary fifth-graders bring Eagle Eye News to life

March 2, 2021
By Tyler Dahlgren The Eagle Eye News production team sat still, focused on their respective tasks when the countdown started at five and, among growing excitement, worked its way towards one. As silence swept the Shoemaker Elementary library, anchors Julissa Ramos and Dimitri Kerkman took simultaneous deep breaths, stared calmly into the cameras and, when given the signal by the directors,...Read More

Candy Bars, Cold Sodas and 103 Streams: Milford's Striv broadcast crew pulls double shifts to keep community connected

Candy Bars, Cold Sodas and 103 Streams: Milford's Striv broadcast crew pulls double shifts to keep community connected

February 26, 2021
By Tyler Dahlgren The play was zany enough to leave any spectator speechless, involving a missed shot, a fortuitous bounce off an opponent’s head, and the unlikeliest pair of points a basketball team will ever come by. Luckily for those tuning in on the Milford Striv channel, the broadcast team of eighth-grader Braden Soester and sixth-grader Zephyr Mowinkel aren’t known to mince words while in...Read More

Mindfulness Matters: Aurora's day devoted to mental health helps seniors recharge, find balance

Mindfulness Matters: Aurora's day devoted to mental health helps seniors recharge, find balance

February 23, 2021
By Tyler Dahlgren In typical years, Aurora holds a career day in October, sending its seniors off on college visits and job shadows while inviting representatives from area industries into the high school to talk with the underclassmen. With this year being far from typical, and with the career day bumped to the back of the pandemic’s long line of postponements, high school principal Doug Kittle...Read More

The Hope Squad: Chadron Middle School's 31 Keepers of Kindness

The Hope Squad: Chadron Middle School's 31 Keepers of Kindness

February 18, 2021
By Tyler Dahlgren Rebecca Dubs learned everything she needed to know about the character of the first-ever Chadron MIddle School Hope Squad by observing one intentionally impracticable group activity. In their hands, 31 students heldcards containing 31 different pictures, from pieces of furniture to colors to articles of clothing. Anything and everything. Categorically, some made sense. Others...Read More

The Mind Inside: Episode Three introduces viewers to levels of support that live beyond the surface and the heroes who stop at nothing to provide it

The Mind Inside: Episode Three introduces viewers to levels of support that live beyond the surface and the heroes who stop at nothing to provide it

February 15, 2021
By Tyler Dahlgren From the opening scene, the filmmakers at I Love Public Schools lift the audience from the comforts of wherever they’re viewing The Mind Inside: Episode Three and drop them into the middle of a different world. For educators, this world will feel heartbreakingly familiar. The film focuses on North Platte Public Schools, where more than half of the students in the district live...Read More

Silver Linings Series, Chadron's Jerry Mack: Conversations around COVID-19

Silver Linings Series, Chadron's Jerry Mack: Conversations around COVID-19

February 5, 2021
By Tyler Dahlgren *This is the second installment in the three-part “Conversations Around COVID”. This discussion occurred on November 16 for an article titled “Silver Linings (Without the Playbook),” which ran in the winter edition of the NCSA Today Magazine. Jerry Mack is principal at Chadron High School, and his podcast “Chadron Cardinal Cast”, which he records with school counselor Loni...Read More

Why Data Matters: Deep digging paves direct path to deeper needs

Why Data Matters: Deep digging paves direct path to deeper needs

February 3, 2021
By Tyler Dahlgren For school leaders, a deep examination of data can be a revealing and downright daunting experience. In the midst of a global pandemic, you’re safe to underline the latter part of that statement--maybe even twice. Immersing one’s self in data is exhausting yet worthwhile. Intimidating yet necessary. Participants in ESU 17’s Data Dig last Monday are certain the proof will come in...Read More

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