By Tom McKinney Insights is a very close group of people. We have two facilitators, Joanne Storlie and Eileen O’Connell. There are 11 people in Insights. The members are Chris Bagdons, Jesse Carlson, Josh Hendrickson, Brandon Petron, Matt Richard, Josh Stinson, Terry Vincent, Justin Weitnauer, Al Wright, Chad Zaback, and myself. To start the meeting … [Read more…]
By Ronilyn Rasmussen This year Dawn and Lester decided to offer a computer class first hour for the Mini-School students. The first week was a little crazy with setting up the computers and getting everyone a disk and a computer to work on, but soon they got into the swing of things. Our class started … [Read more…]
By Jessica Boerboom and Melissa Stahl As you may already know, Ramona is Mini-School’s new math teacher. Jessica and I take her second hour class which is a full-year class. Ramona lets each student work at a level in math that is comfortable for them. We can also basically work at our own pace, which … [Read more…]
By Chris Glowaski One of the class options for Mini-Schoolers last month was a block called Reading, supervised by Doug Berg. This class turned out to be pretty successful, with everyone reading at least one book. Some of the books people read included titles such as Milton’s Paradise Lost, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Brave New … [Read more…]
By Chris Bagdons Well, I guess you could say that I messed up big time. I abused “Com-Mini-Cations” to seek revenge on a person. With the style of my writing I install a lot of double meanings, and I stepped over the line from humor to cruelty, and thus I tampered with someone’s feelings. I … [Read more…]
By Raeann Rasmussen What do you see when you look at a Mini-School student? If you don’t see something, look a little bit deeper. Now what do you see—talent, maybe? Well, if not, I’ll help you. Jason Paulson has been drawing ever since he can remember. He has taken one quarter of commercial art at … [Read more…]
By Aaron Burns WANTED: Donations of 10 speeds (road bikes) in working condition to the Mini-School program. Call ***-****. WANTED: a few musicians for a rhythm and blues/ folk band. We are in dire need of a piano player, bass player, guitar player, drummer, brass (trombone, sax, trumpet, etc.) backup vocals and possibly 2nd lead … [Read more…]
By Karen Evans Ten years! I cannot believe I have been here that long. I was only going to work a few weeks until I could find something else, at least something that didn’t include teenagers. Many things have changed during this time, one being how I feel about Mini-School. When I first started working … [Read more…]
By Tom McKinney Without Doug and Randy, Mini-School would not be the same program. Doug and Randy, over 23 years, have been able to handle the troubled kids in Mini-School, help them graduate, and send them on their way to meaningful lives. The Mini-School students have a lot of respect for Doug and Randy. The … [Read more…]
By Melissa Stahl The students in Mini-School are lucky. We get something that we couldn’t get in mainstream! At the end of each grade period during the year, every student has a one-on-one conference with the Mini staff. These are very important to the students because we find out not only how we are doing … [Read more…]