Weekly Bulletin for April 13, 2015

Congratulations to our newly inducted NHS students.
See photos from the ceremony here.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. - Maya Angelou

Important Dates

April 16 - Senior Show

April 21 - Staff Meeting

April 22 - Freshmen Mentoring

April 23 - Academic Awards Ceremony - 7:30-9:00am

April 25 - RC Lindsey 50th Anniversary Family Celebration

April 27 - EOY Assessments Begin

April 28 - Your Life, Your Choice Rally for Senior Class - 9:00-12:30

May 4 - Department Head Meeting

Important Information

Final Exams - The final exam schedule has been created and is posted here.  All seniors leaving for their internships need to be finished with their exams prior to May 11.   

Lockdowns - Thank you to all of you for the part you played in the lockdown drill this past week. If you have not done so already, please review the presentation provided at the beginning of the year. You can find the presentation in your opening day folder or by clicking here. There will be at least one more A.L.I.C.E. drill prior to the end of the year.

Students in Mrs. Coopers Physics class
use a PBL activity to demonstrate effective
"air bag" designs.

3rd Q. Grades - Sean Whelan sent out a gradebook fix on Friday for anyone struggling to enter grades.  Please review his email and have grades entered by the end of the day Tuesday.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Project Based Learning- Deeper learning is a result from Project Based Learning (PBL).  Personal observation, experience and research studies demonstrate that well planned PBL activities lead to highly engaged and self directed learners.  According to Edutopia, there are five core elements of a successful PBL and they are:

1. Real-World Connections
2. Core to Learning
3. Structured Collaboration
4. Student Driven
5. Multifaceted Assessment

Please take six minutes to watch this video from Edutopia and reflect how some of your traditional lessons could be more engaging using the PBL approach.  Invite me in to see your lesson in action!!

Library Website - Mrs. Brunner has been busy updated and making our website more accessbile for our teachers and students.  The new site contains college and career prep, teacher and student resources, book awards and reviews and databases in Science, U.S. Hsitory and World History.  You can view the website here.

New Superintendent Open House

Dr. Markwardt Open House - Thank you to Jason Branch and the WGHS Jazz Band for performing at the welcoming ceremony for our new superintendent, Dr. Markwardt.  Also, thank you to Paul Stewardt and Class Act for their outstanding performance during the ceremony.  It was great to see so many of you welcome our new district leader.  You can find more photographs here.


SLO's - Please take time over the next few PLC meetings to collaborate with your peers regarding your SLO data. Share the student results with your department and/or PLC members. Use the time to determine the effectiveness of your class strategies used to teach the standards. What worked and what didn't work? Use this information and peer collaboration to grow from the data. When meeting in your PLC groups to discuss these common assessments, reflect on these questions by Richard DuFour:

• What will we do when the students to not learn?
• What will we do when the students learn? 

These standards will be assessed at the end of the school year in the form of a final exam. What will you do to address the students that did not learn? What can you do to see that the accomplished learner remains challenged in your course? Use your PLC time to identify possible intervention strategies to reach the struggling learners and identify approaches to push the proficient student even further.

Good Professional Reading (or Watching)

How to Create Effective Homework
Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning
Asking Questions to Improve Learning