North Kingstown High School Weekly Focus: Week Ending January 15, 2016

Happy Birthday Dr. King

Teachers as Learners

The 2016 Rhode Island Financial Capability Conference will be held on Saturday, January 23, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at Rhode Island College, Alger Hall.

Joy Tavano will present in two sessions. One on How to Promote Business Education in your school along with some other RI Business Educator board members, and another with Pat Page from East Greenwich on Tech Tools for your Classroom - namely Google Forms and Shared Calendars. For a link to register or learn more about it https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-ri-financial-capability-conference-tickets-20101807046

Students as Learners

From Emily Zilly:

Suzanne Mancini (mother of Juliana and Griffin) is a fashion design professor at RISD, who uses a version of CAD in her classes. She came and presented to both CAD classes, discussing various projects she has worked on for clothing companies (Nike, Levi, Burton, etc). She went over the process it takes to get an idea into a design, with collaboration from a drawing to a computer design, then into a prototype and eventually into the stores. Suzanne then fielded an unbelievable amount of questions from the classes and even stayed later to talk with some of them individually...she was amazing!

From Ruthann Baker:

NKHS German students worked hard, on 21 different committees, as well as on their own presentations, to make our Semester Karneval Celebration fun for everyone. Class performances were energized, well executed, and very well received.

Photos feature our 2 Gebäcklauf (cake walk) winners, Maddi Holden and Elsa (Liz) Rodriguez-pictured right, as well as our crowned Prinzenpaar, (2016 Karneval Prince and Princess), chosen for their spirit, Nachtigal (Ashley) Baierlein and (Billy) Wilhelm Cross-pictured below.

Health and Wellness

I am sharing this email from Deb Gardiner if you have not seen it because it includes three of our colleagues from the high school--Karen, Leah, and Patty, who will be teaching the first session of the yoga and zumba classes. If you are thinking about switching it up for your new year’s exercise routine here is a perfect way to do it while supporting our teachers.

From Debbie Gardiner:

I am really excited to tell you that a wellness committee has been formed by North Kingstown School Department Employees and The Trust (our insurance consultant). This committee has been working on and will continue to work on wellness classes that we will offer to all NKSD staff because your Health Matters. We have used the recent wellness survey results to create classes that staff said they would be interested in, i.e. exercise, healthy meals, stress management and stretching. I would like to say a big thank you to Patti Kirwan, Leah Laporte and Karen D’Abrosca (teachers in the system) who are volunteering their time to teach the 1st classes. All classes are free. Reserve your spot online at

http://goo.gl/2oXmON

Upcoming Events/Important Dates

January 18th – No classes – MLK Day

January 20th – Dialogue & Democracy Night 6:30

January 26th – School Committee Meeting (Business) 7pm

January 26th – 29th Midterm Exams

January 28th – 8th grade night, Finance, Pre-engineering/Robotics CTE Open House 6 pm

February 10th – Semester 1 Report Cards

February 12th -- Professional Development Day, no school for students

February 15th -- Presidents’ Day, no school

Student Services Office

Congratulations to Linda Andrew, she was nominated for this week's Skipper Pride for Excellence Award. Nominated by Heather Lebel, Linda was chosen because of her diligent efforts with helping the class advisors. If you have ever been a class advisor, there are lots of moving parts and come junior and senior year, Linda is your savior. I am sure many of us share in Heather's appreciation of Linda's dedication and endless passion to our school community. We look forward to hearing who Linda will choose as next week's recipient.

Community

The Jazz Combo will be performing at the Grand Opening of the new Job Lot at 11 AM on Feb. 6th.

Please set that morning aside as it will be great publicity for our music program. There will be members of the town council there as well as other town officials.

Members of the Fiddler cast will also be there singing between 10:30 and 11 AM. We will have a table set up and advertise our musical and our music department.

Martin Luther King Day of Service - Sunday Soup Kitchen event. Students from the Interact Club and Leadership Academy Sunday, January 17, 2016

On January 28th, from 6:00 - 7:30 pm NKHS will open it’s doors to welcome all 8th grade students and their parents from public, private and parochial schools to see our school and learn about our programs. New this year will be the opportunity for students, who would like to transfer from their home district to North Kingstown, to study Pre-engineering/Robotics or Business/Finance. There will be tours of the building highlighting these programs and our fantastic comprehensive high school programs. If you are interested in being a part of this night, meeting parents, touring students, or attending with your children if you live in another district, please email me.

School Culture

For the Friday of exam week, the school culture committee has been behind the scenes planning a great luncheon break for anyone from the school who would like to be a part of it. Amy and Sherri sent out a one question form (Yes or No) to see if you will be attending. This will help with ordering food. Take a moment to enjoy your colleagues before correcting your exam. #adult_PBIS!

From Ms. Mason's recommendation letter:

Matthew has been a student of mine in two different courses to include Advanced Honors United States History II and History Through Film here at North Kingstown High School during his junior year of studies. He has also been the president of my Junior States of America (JSA) Club since 2013. During the course of the past several years, Matthew has more than made a distinct impression on me. Matthew was an absolute dream student from day one and one that teachers relish working with over the course of an entire school year and also career. When teachers say there are certain students in their all-time top ten list that they will remember not five but twenty five years from now, Matthew falls into that category. Matthew possesses all the wonderful qualities teachers hope will be embodied in each of their students when they first walk in the door in September.

From Ms. Mason after the award:

Thank you for visiting The Bunker today to

deliver student Matthew Vergun's Shining Star Award. He was very surprised and most appreciative.

The rest of the 34 Junior States of America (JSA) students were also thrilled to see so many of their Administrators here and visiting them during our club meeting. They all heartily congratulated Matthew after you all left. It is so important to support our students and acknowledge them. This award is an excellent idea and as I told Matthew this afternoon, the bar has now been set high for the next recipient.

As Winston Churchill once said, "We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give." I am so proud to be a product of Forest Park, DMS, & NKHS, and now am lucky enough to teach History here to future generations. Matthew has spoken to me about his desire to become perhaps a high school English teacher. Perhaps one day we will see him in these very halls.

Videos Worth Watching

Cindy Zito sent this link to me last March with this message:

With all of the crazy stuff, as educators, we have to deal with, it would be so nice to try and adopt this philosophy --- from the book The Nurture Effect....

the theme of this piece --- to tell our students that we care about them, even when they are making us crazy...

At his time of year sometimes we need a boost. Perhaps this video from Cindy will give you just that. We are not promoting purchasing this book. The trailer is a nice reminder.