Welcome to the 2018-19 school year!  

We are excited that you are part of our school and we had a fantastic first day.  The teachers are ready to challenge you and we are all here to help you have a great school year.

At Lake Harriet Upper, our 4^th and 5^th grade classes are taught in blocks.  That means each student will have one teacher for math/science and one teacher for language arts/social studies.  Full schedules will be available after the first week of school (if not sooner).  Grades 4/5 students will notice a few new teachers at Lake Harriet Upper. We would like to welcome Mr. John Murphy (replacing Ms. Natalie Peterson) to our 5^th grade team.  Mr. Murphy has taught fifth grade at Jefferson Community School and will be teaching language arts/social studies.  Ms. Teah Bibuka (replacing Ms. Diane Jorde) will move into the 4th grade language arts/social studies and continue her work at Lake Harriet.  Ms. Nicole Zeltinger (former STEM teacher) will be returning to work with our 4^th and 5^th grade team in math and reading support.  All students will have Art, Music, PE and a second PE/Movement class for specialists. The second PE/Movement class is taught by Ms. Frantz, our middle school health teacher. If your student is interested in Band or Orchestra, please contact Mr. Corey Needleman to learn more.

Middle school students; we have worked hard to ensure that you will have classes with a variety of your peers.  The scheduling program randomly selects students for classes, which increases the chances that students will see different faces throughout the day.  This year, our 6^th graders will have fifth hour specialist, our 7^th graders will have first hour specialist and our 8^th graders will have second hour specialist.  Advisory will start promptly at 9:40 – please be on time for important announcements and team-building activities.  Lunch happens during period 4, so make sure to eat a big breakfast before school.  We would like to welcome Mr. Greg Mantras to our middle school team.  He will be teaching 7^th grade math and 6^th grade accelerated math.  Ms. Abir Ismail will be teaching the 8^th grade math and 7^th grade accelerated math this year.

6^th Grade families: new this year are three classes (replacing Read, Write and Create) all students are taking.  One is a semester-long class called Design Topics.  It is primarily a STEM-oriented class (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).  The other two are quarter-long classes.  One is called Academic Extensions, but it is actually a Social-Emotional Learning class that will use the Second Step Social curriculum.  The other quarter-long class is Math Extensions. In that class, students will improve their math abilities through engaging games, puzzles and challenges.  Because these are three discreet classes, we had to create separate schedules for first and second semester.  That means all 6^th grade students will have a different schedule second semester.  To the degree possible the computer tried to keep students with the same Core (English, Social Studies, Math, Science) teachers, but this was not possible in all circumstances.  We will print out 2^nd semester schedules in January.

As always, thank you for the tremendous community support.  We are all grateful to be working in a community that truly cares about education and shows it through your support of students and teachers.

Walter Schleisman

Principal

Lake Harriet Upper Campus

612-668-3310 (office)

612-668-3320 (fax)