Week Ending 11/18 and 11/23

Giving Thanks

Last Tuesday, I was fortunate to attend a program hosted by Chariho Regional School System. Once there, I worked alongside other educators, teachers, principals and administration to learn how Chariho has utilized a grant from the RI Foundation to leverage one to one technology as a tool to create personalized learning environments for their students at all grade levels. As a requirement of the grant they were expected to share how the year evolved, some highlights include using station rotation in the classroom and creating playlists where students create links to an assignment on their teacher’s Google Sheet instead of uploading/sharing multiple assignments with that teacher. They discussed how they were able to build teacher capacity to support personalized learning, what they have learned in their time creating these personalized opportunities for their students, recommendations for us, and what to avoid. It was a great opportunity to learn as we embark on our first full year with devices in our classrooms. The amount of work these educators put into this effort makes me so grateful to be on the receiving end of many wonderful resources. They shared their website with all of us who attended.  I invite anyone interested in the website who may have questions to feel free to follow up with me.

Additionally, I am thankful for the many students we have each day that make us want to come to school. Adam Laliberte shared a video with me one day after we had had a great conversation on culture. He and I believe many teachers would be up for this and if we put our minds to it NKHS could create a video that puts smiles on students’ faces and tears to those who watch. To see the video example from ABC, be sure to scroll down.

Health and Wellness

From Karen D’Abrosca:

Happy Thanksgiving!  Giving Thanks  …..  In an article titled  ”A Healthy Serving of Gratitude” (R. Findley), he points to scientific evidence that when the body is positively stimulated – such as expressing gratitude -  it releases a powerful peptide called oxytocin.  This is the bonding hormone and may help with pain relief, depression and social anxiety.  Ways you can practice gratitude:  Say Thank You throughout your day, Write Thank You notes, Keep a Gratitude Journal or Jar, Appreciate those around you.  Enjoy your holiday and Thanks for reading!!

Enjoy the long weekend.    

As part of our Healthy Schools Initiative, Karen D’Abrosca, Julie Maguire, and Jonathan Quinn work with me to ensure the North Kingstown Healthy Schools Policy is being followed. Additionally, ideas are executed that we think the greater population may enjoy. You may notice on the second floor and other spots in the school there is a sign for all of the walkers to indicate how many times around equals one mile. Have a healthy idea...send it my way. Thank you.

Upcoming Events/Important Dates

November

21 Faculty Meeting, 2 pm, meeting by department or focus group

22 Dodgeball Tournament

24 No School Thanksgiving; Thanksgiving Day Football Game, 10 am at NK

25 No School

28 9th grade assembly, 8:45 am

29 10th grade assembly, 8:45 am

30 11th grade assembly, 8:45 am

December

1 12th grade assembly, 8:45 am

3 NKHS 5th Annual Arts and Craft Show, cafeteria 9 am - 3 pm

9-11 Christmas Carol

Teaching and Learning

ESSA--Every Student Succeeds Act which will replace NCLB was passed on Dec 10, 2015. Some of you may be very familiar, others may not. I have included an article from NEA below if you would like to read more about it.

If anyone would like to spend some time shaping the future of teaching, the first draft of the ISTE Standards for teachers is available and they are looking for feedback. Go to their site to receive the toolkit, host a feedback forum, and take the survey. http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-teachers-refresh-2016-lp

School Culture

Twenty-seven students were inducted this past Wednesday evening into the National Honor Society. Students were welcomed by the current members of the Society and were led through the program by the Mistress of Ceremony, Maddie Maguire.

D’Ellen Roye was invited by the NHS students to present the keynote this year. Her speech on passion and courage and how she found hers at a young age in Colorado was truly inspiring. After the certificates were awarded by Kris Graham and Mia Toro, NHS advisors, there was a small reception for the students and their parents in our cafeteria. The cupcake tower was made especially for the celebration by our cafeteria staff. Thank you to all who made this an exceptional evening.

Community

Last Tuesday, our NKHS Band participated in the North Kingstown Veteran’s Day Parade. It is a wonderful day to honor our veterans and the town is always so appreciative to see our high school and middle school ensembles in the parade. Our own Joy Tavano was in front of the band. Perhaps she was representing NK’s Community Chorus. The annual Winter Concert featuring the Community Chorus is on December 3rd and 4th. Photo provided by Lisa Garcia.

From Toni Silveira:

The SELAC group (Special Education Local Advisory Committee) has been reshaped and reignited with new membership. The group is reaching out to teachers (of all subject areas and grades) to join them in bringing more voices to the table. SELAC is committed to ensuring that the needs of all special education learners are being met. The committee is hosting guest speakers and  workshops as well as working on special education policy issues.

The meetings alternate between lunch time meetings and dinner time meetings to help support families who may have child care concerns.  The next meeting is January 4th at noon and then Feb. 13 at 6:30 PM at Davisville Academy.  Amy Messerlian-Magadin and Carol West are presenting at the April meeting. This date to follow.

I am a member as a parent and a teacher. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Here is a link to their page:  http://www.nksd.net/pages/North_Kingstown_School_Dept/Community/SELAC

Articles Worth Reading

5 Reasons Why Competency Education Can Lead Us to Improved Quality and More Equity

Why Educators Support the Every Student Succeeds Act

Videos Worth Watching

The Real Reason We Do What We Do.

Food for Thought

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual”~Henry David Thoreau

Until next time, Think, Create, Innovate...Denise

Week Ending November 11, 2016

Reflection and Creativity

Short week for students and staff. PD on Tuesday began with a community meeting. Consensus--though it was corny (the lightning bolt did keep order) we need more of this. I couldn’t agree more. Contemplation ensued over a number of discussion points; perhaps the same occurred in departments among groups of teachers back in the classrooms. Out of these conversations, often creative ideas and solutions may emerge.

We should always remember, too, although we may disagree on a professional level, we cannot allow these disagreements to affect us personally. We are a team first, helping students be the best they can be.

And along that line of treating others the way we would like to be treated, there will be endless opportunities to show kindness as the country comes together after our election. People may need to talk about what is on their mind. On Wednesday, first period, in the PE Department, an example of this behavior transpired. Their guest speaker, Kira Manser, learned she could not engage the students in her lessons until she gave the students room to talk about the election this past Tuesday. No matter the age, one cannot move forward and create without reflection.

Good News

North Kingstown played Middletown on October 30, 2016 for the Division II Unified Volleyball Championship at Johnson & Wales University. North Kingstown defeated Middletown in the 3rd set.

25-14    14-25    25-21  

The great news from Jerry Dandeneau, “The crowds were fantastic getting into each point scored with loud cheers and applause.  It was nice to see and hear.”

Two other teams to be highlighted for their post-season play.

• Girls Volleyball sailed through the quarterfinals against Prout. North Kingstown 3 Prout 0. Looking towards next Thursday, 7:30 pm, for the semis at RIC.  
• North Kingstown Football: Skippers will move onto the next round of the playoffs with a 30 - 14 victory over W. Warwick. We wish them well in the semi-finals on the 18th against Shea HS in Pawtucket.

Health and Wellness

From Karen D’Abrosca:

Four Pillars of Health

November, in contrast to the quiet and darkness nature is demonstrating, ushers in the holiday season with its busy-ness and activity. While the festivities are enjoyable they can be overwhelming at times.  This month, try staying balanced with the “Four Pillars of Health”.  All That Matters Wellness Center co-founder Joan Dwyer explains that to stay healthy we must include all four in our lives regularly.

They are:  1. Move your body (exercise)  2. Eat good “real” food   3. Quiet your mind  and  4.  Be in community with like-minded friends.

If these are new concepts, start small .. with one or two ideas!!

Enjoy the long weekend.    

Students as Learners

Students in Mr. Wright’s class discovering Wednesday morning what happens when you add “sea coal” to water. Before this point in the lab, students had read brief excerpts from newspapers about coal mining in RI and on shipwrecks in our area. Additionally, points were made about the importance of becoming educated adults and educated voters.  Also, books on pollution in Narragansett Bay were available in "Wright's Free Library." The sea coal had been in the viles in the sun for 5 days.

Students continued this day in peers to note and record observations, sharing them out as a class and then together with their partner used what they learned to write a conclusion for this lab. A few “a ha” moments and one student, in particular, feeling very validated by her “olive oil” comment.

Steam, November 9, 2016

Second annual STEAM night at North Kingstown High School was a success. Thanks to Janice Strain and her team of volunteers the night was organized and Special appreciation to Toni Silveira and her Fine Arts Team who stepped up once news arrived that Janice had an emergency and could not attend. Students first heard from Keynote Speaker Congressman James Langevin followed by two workshops of their choice. Workshops included Pen Turning, Squid Communication, Biomedical Illustration, Coding with Electronics, Boat Building, Raspberry Pi Universe, Cannibalizing Technology, Robot Picasso, Lego Mindstorms, to name a few.!

November 9 and 10

All PE students had the opportunity to participate in RI Department of Health grant funded workshop for our continued efforts in creating a safe, secure environment for all our students to learn. The physical, mental and emotional health of our students is of the utmost importance.  

This experiential and interactive session helped students to build more nuanced knowledge and awareness of the wide diversity of gender and sexuality identities. Learners were challenged to think about their subconscious assumptions, and understand how their choices and actions impacts their world. Specifically, this session built upon previous conversations and introduced students to different forms of discrimination, including the idea of micro aggressions. Students were challenged to think critically about the ways discrimination can impact sexual health, safety, and overall health and wellness. The goal of this session was to build student investment to create a school-based culture that supports safety through inclusivity and acceptance. As interesting as this workshop was, there were no pictures taken or posted as the nature of this topic can be sensitive.

Tech Collective (from Providence Business News Website)

MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS participated in the high school student-produced workshop, “Heating

Your House – Helping Our Home,” at Tech Collective’s sixth annual STEM in the Middle Girls’ Career Expo. Students brainstormed more energy efficient ways to power their homes and constructed a solar water heater; they also tested its efficiency by recording its temperature and time. This was led by North Kingstown High School students Sophie Girard, shown on left, and Carolyn George. Sophie was last year’s GRRL Tech scholarship winner.

Students attended three interactive STEM workshops throughout the morning that were designed and facilitated by female industry professionals, RIC faculty and students from William M. Davies Jr. Career and Tech Center in Lincoln and North Kingstown High School.

Viviana Barrientos from Davies Career and Tech Center and Sophie Girard from North Kingstown High School facilitated two of the engineering session workshops. Last year, they won a Tech Collective/URI Scholarship essay contest at GRRL Tech – the essay topic was designing a hands-on STEM-related workshop for middle school girls.

Upcoming Events/Important Dates

November

15 School Committee Meeting, 7 pm

15 PTSO

16 National Honor Society Induction

17 Jazz Concert, 7 pm

18 Blood Drive, Gym 2, 7:45 am - 1 pm

24 No School Thanksgiving; Thanksgiving Day Football Game, 10 am at NK

25 No School

December

3 NKHS 5th Annual Arts and Craft Show, cafeteria 9 am - 3 pm

9-11 Christmas Carol

Teaching and Learning

For anyone on Twitter. Sunday evening, at 8 pm, there are Twitter Chats lead by Cumberland High School’s Principal, Alan Tenreiro and Don Miller, Vice President of Education Innovation for GoEnnounce and former Principal of Shea High School. Together they cofounded #EdChatRI and this year they are leading the conversation on Creative Schools, a book written by Ken Robinson. Ken Robinson’s TEDTalk in 2006 is the most viewed on the topic in the organization's history. You can read more from Don Miller’s Blog or watch the TEDTalk. Definitely gets you thinking.

School Culture

This past Monday, November 7, our 9th and 10th graders were the audience for the I am Dirt special presentation sponsored by North Kingstown Prevention Coalition. I am Dirt is a one-man show that presents the many challenges, and choices that high school students make. Students were captivated by the show. You could hear a pin drop and/or laughs in the audience at all the right times.

The Whole Child is one of our four goals on our School Improvement Plan. (The School Improvement Team meets the second Wednesday of the month, after school, in the Media Center) The Prevention Coalition works with our school to provide multiple resources to support the social emotional needs of our 1400 students. We do not know everyone’s story and make no assumptions. For those students who self identify as needing extra help, services, or resources, we connect them with direct services. For others, we expose them to presentations, workshops and lessons that could give them the skills and tools to help themselves make good choices or get the help they need.

Looking forward, AM Finlay will be showing the abridged version of "Chasing the Dragon" a powerful documentary style film on how one can become addicted to opiates to 11th and 12th grade advisories who have signed up ahead of time this Tuesday, with a follow up in advisory on Wednesday, the 16th.  

In the coming months (January and February) NKHS will be working with RI Student Assistance Services (RISAS) and the NK Prevention Coalition to bring community forums to the district around these topics. Stay tuned.

Articles Worth Reading

Why Creativity in the Classroom Matters More Than Ever

Interestingly, colleges are also talking about creativity and their students.

“Learning to Think Outside the Box: Creativity Becomes an Academic Discipline”

Videos Worth Watching

Sir Ken Robinson

Do Schools Kill Creativity? | TED Talk | TED.com

While we were in PD on Tuesday, some NK students (Sarah Fiore, Rachel Petrone and Athena Murray) and students from across the state were attending their own conference. The First Annual Elect To Be Real 2016 youth conference hosted by the Ocean State Prevention Alliance. This conference focused on the mental health and wellbeing of young people today, built skills around resilience, mindfulness as well as the skills and resources to create informative PSA's.

Food for Thought

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”~Erich Fromm

Until next time, Think, Create, Innovate...Denise

Week Ending November 4, 2016

Mistakes

Making a mistake is part of life. Growing up, children watch their siblings and often learn what to do or not to do. It is not only human beings that do this, watch any animal show and often the narrator will explain that the older dog takes the puppy under his wing to teach him how to act in the pack.

If we grow from our mistakes, why then, do we lose the ability to admit when we fail? We should be rejoicing in our failures if it helps us to grow. Instead, we live in a culture where judgment and ego may prevent us from reaching farther than the safety of what we know.

I would like to shake this up. This school year is the ideal time to do it. We have many people working on professional growth goals, new student ideas in the classroom, technology apps for productivity and there are numerous opportunities to grow through failure. We know the saying, “If first you don’t succeed, try, try again”. It can be called many things, growth mindset, grit, tenacity but in the end, let us move the needle. It begins with failing forward. We shall celebrate both successes and failures at NKHS; reflecting on our mistakes and how we have learned. I will do my part and publish/celebrate your failures and mine in this blog or we can share before our morning meetings. This Tuesday would be a great first step. Let me know if you have a failing forward to highlight.  

Health and Wellness

Karen was on a fieldtrip this week. I am taking the liberty of filling in for her.

Last week RI hosted a teacher professional development: Elevating and celebrating effective teachers (ECET). Alison Bologna was one of the presenters and a teacher was tweeting out how great it was to learn how yoga can be part of everyday wellness. It took me a moment to realize what the teacher was saying because we have had a wellness class at NKHS for years now. I hope I do not take it for granted that this class is the norm here.

Karen D’Abrosca has taken wellness to the next level. She is a certified yoga instructor and our students are fortunate to learn before college and careers how to deal and live with stress. Karen does not stop there, she has created community relationships and shared these relationships with her students on fieldtrips to local small businesses. Visits to the school, by professionals, to expand wellness and healthy living through drawing and nature journaling and finally, over the past two years she has committed her own time and resources to improving her craft, attending PD internationally.

Thank you, Karen, for taking care of our students and teachers’ souls during stressful times.  

Students as Learners

From Matt Blaser:

Today, November 3, 2016, Milena Seemann, one of the GAPP students, offered an observation during a discussion of a musical rendition of the medieval ballad "The Demon Lover."  I had asked the class how the music supported the ballad's tone and theme, and her response was basically this:  The banjo sounds happy and carefree, which goes along with the character's expectations, while the fiddle sounds darker, almost melancholic, to match the dark nature of what is happening to the character.  It wasn't that she mentioned the banjo (she kind of had to, based on the song), but it was the clear, analytically keen nature of her response; her willingness to speak up in a high-level class; and her rich use of vocabulary on the spot that earned her a superstar prize in my class and a Skipper Pride Buck.  (Interestingly, her last name means "sailor" in English, which you could probably guess!)  It is a pleasure to have this caliber of student join us for these few class sessions every other year during GAPP season.

From Ms. Mason:

On October 28th, it was a busy day in The Bunker. We were busy protesting taxation without representation forced upon us by those pony Brits and nasty King George III. After the Sugar Act, Tea Act, and the Quartering Act we'd about had enough. Then we endured a Massacre on Boston Commons. Well that was the straw that broke the monarch's back. We did however feel slightly better after dumping 243 boxes of his majesty's tea in the harbor. And there was that little affair in RI w/the Gaspee. Our class then mustered and formed the Warren Federal Blues. We grabbed our muskets, bayonets, lanterns, and canteens and prepared to take on "the lobsters..." Luckily our path was brightened by lanterns powered by candles from those Brown Brothers John, Jo, Nick, and Mo. We then loaded our frisson pan with gun powder, placed our musket tongue down to catch the flint spark, then dove into battle with The Crowns' troops. We had to be careful as we only are issued 16-17 shots each and then we have to run away, to fight again another day. Luckily our troops in D1P3 are experienced and can get off 4 shots a minute. Below is picture of the unit and their supporters wearing their best bonnets and waving their flags of support.  We are confident that in the end, it will be the Upset of the 18th Century!

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Upcoming Events/Important Dates

November

8 No School - PD Day for staff  

9 STEAM Night, 5-9 pm

11 No School - Veteran’s Day

15 School Committee Meeting, 7 pm

15 PTSO

16 National Honor Society Induction

December

Save the Date

Christmas Carol

Student Services Office

From Donna:

Keeping Students Responsible.

The Month of November’s theme is Accountability. This article from National Education Association’s Website is a great read. Offers strategies to keep students accountable.

From the Deans:

Just as a reminder, to avoid a disruption during period 3, students are allowed to visit the lavatory and lockers during advisory with a pass.  Underclassmen are only allowed in the cafeteria with their full advisory; free and reduced lunch students should be getting breakfast before school.  Students visiting another advisory for extra help should be provided a pass to present to the receiving teacher.  Students who choose to not attend advisory, please put a cut in ASPEN for those students. Over the last two weeks there have been two fights in the hallway during advisory, which involved underclassmen that were out of advisory without passes.  Please help us to keep the hallways safe and manageable. Thank you for your support.

School Culture

From Janice Strain:

2nd Annual STEAMing Ahead Evening

Hands-On Free Workshops

Open to All Students & Parents in Grades 6-12

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

5:00pm - 9:00pm

Hosted by North Kingstown High School

_________________________________________________________

Keynote Speaker: Congressman James Langevin

Join us for an evening of hands-on workshops, topics include:

Pen Turning, Squid Communication, Biomedical Illustration, Coding with Electronics, Boat Building, Raspberry Pi Universe, Cannibalizing Technology, Robot Picasso, Lego Mindstorms, and much more!!

Workshop Listing:   bit.ly/nk_STEAM2016

Student Registration Form:  bit.ly/nk_STEAM_ST2016  

Articles Worth Reading

On Tuesday the Scheduling group will be meeting. The following web article could aid the conversation:
Making a Flexible Schedule a Reality
This report, by Hanover Research, for the Eugene, OR school system is 2 years old. However, there is information that could inform our meeting.
Optimal Scheduling for Secondary School Students-

Videos Worth Watching

High School Social Studies Teacher, Diana Laufenberg, presenting at TED MidAtlantic. How to learn? From mistakes.

Food for Thought

“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” -James Joyce

Until next time, Think, Create, Innovate...Denise