Reading
How I love to read. I wasn’t always a voracious reader but after college it clicked and I enjoy all types: literature, nonfiction, newspapers, journals and research of all kind. I have shared only one article worth reading this week because it is relevant and I do not want it to get lost among many articles. It is a mere 8 pages but you can read the first paragraph and decide if you want to go any further; you will be glad you did. There is something for everyone. The title indicates it is about math but as soon as I started reading it I thought about the “Mindset” work we have talked about in meetings. In addition, I thought about my own learning, my children’s learning and students I have had in class. It may pique your interest. You can replace “math” in this article with any subject. Time can still be the variable to learning that subject well. We all have a weeks vacation coming up where we can contemplate how this fits into our practice.

Oh, and for those of you who would like a book recommendation for the holiday week, I purchased Salman Rushdie’s, Midnight’s Children for all of my book club girlfriends.

Peace.

Health and Wellness

From Karen D’Abrosca (PE/Wellness):

It is a very busy time of year and with that comes stress. I am sharing Karen’s recommendations from the last blog as it is still relevant for the next couple of weeks.

TIPS FOR THE HOLIDAY

Set Reasonable Expectations
Do your best to stick to your regular schedule
Try to keep bedtime and mealtime the same
Let people know of your expectations
You can’t do everything – choose the celebrations and activities you enjoy the most
Keep things in perspective. Is the "perfect gift" really that important?

Good News

From Michele Humbyrd (Assistant Superintendent):

The district has nominated Rich Garland (Business/Careers)for the National Life Group Life Changer of the Year award.

Please consider leaving a supportive comment for Rich on the profile page at the following link:

https://lifechangeroftheyear.com/?p=19705

The selection committee reads all the comments and takes them into consideration when reviewing nominees.There is a cash award for Rich and for the school if he wins!

Toni Silveira (Fine Arts) was chosen as the RI music teacher for the annual “50 Directors Who Make a Difference” in School Band and Orchestra magazine. One director is chosen from each state.

Please click on the link to see others in her industry. I read a bunch of the bios and it is an honor to be chosen to be among such kind and philanthropic individuals. Way to go, Toni.

Meghann Maguire was selected to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association High School All American 3rd Team.

(This is only the second time in twenty eight years a Field Hockey North Kingstown Player has received this national recognition.)

Students as Learners

From Christine Lyons (Reading Specialist):

Emily with Idalys

Success Academy Students in Grades 9 and 10 greatly enjoyed a recent visit from alumni NK student Emily Baily, who graduated last year. As part of a unit on careers, Emily shared her story. Emily spoke about having an IEP throughout her educational career and the sense of accomplishment she experienced in grade 11 when her goals were achieved and the IEP was dismissed. She spoke of her long term dream of a career in health services and how it was thwarted due a latex allergy. Life had other plans for her. She became a cargo specialist operating forklifts and cranes, the last thing she might have imagined. Emily loves it! She shared obstacles such as having to take the ASVAB test three times before achieving an acceptable score and passing out during physical training. She mentioned how important it was to her to have found a way to go to college without incurring significant debt. SA students were impressed with her poise and self confidence as she addressed many questions. They felt that her visit was inspiring as she shared having challenges similar to theirs. We are so proud of Emily and grateful for her spirit and competence!

This entry is from last month when our alumni visited. So many happy alum in the building visiting with teachers and students.

From Ms. Mason (Social Studies)

Here are some college Minions that returned to The Bunker to visit and catch me up on all their plans and plots for world domination.

It was great to catch up with all.

Have a wonderful day and weekend.

PS: The last picture below shows my students taking their Roaring 20s test yesterday, as there is no downtime in History!

From Toni Silveira (Fine Arts):

We had 25 students accepted to All-State with 7 ranking as #1 in the state.

Maia Ashley, Will Ashley, Elizabeth Baierlein (#1 Jr. Soprano), Kelsey Browne, Cooper Cardone, Kalista Cimini, Trevor Cirillo, Kaitlyn Kramer, Harrison Dewhurst, Angelina Downey, Cassandra Dubois, Sam Fuller, Sarah Jager (#1 Sr. Oboe), Blake Land (#1 Jr Mallets), Stephen Landry, Stephen Landy (#1 Jazz Trombone), Genevieve Laprade, Laura McIntosh, Benjamin Sabourin (#1 Sr. Tuba), Isabella Scapira, Delaney Schwarzer, Alisa Smith (#1 Sr. Flute), Erica Smith (#1 Sr. Clarinet), Natalie Spitalnic, Laura Weick

We had 15 students accepted to Southern New England Honors band. That occurs on January 27 which is a period 5 exam day. The students and I always find a way to work it out with the teachers. Those students are:

Will Andrews, Will Ashley, Trevor Cirillo, Marissa Cogswell, Maia Correll, Sam Fuller, Alyssa Gibbs, Sarah Jager, Conor Kennedy, David Lawless, Mackenzie Montoya, Josh Neronha, Jordan Scott, Noah Tellier, Evan Urban

From Rich Garland (Business/Careers):

Congratulations goes out to students from Rich’s finance class who came in second place in the SIFMA Stock Market Game out of 300 teams in RI. David Murray, Nolan Barry and Benjamin Schapira were on the winning team and will be going to The Stock Market Game Program Awards Ceremony at Johnson & Wales to be recognized this May along with the Spring 2017 winners. Well done.

Upcoming Events/Important Dates

December

19 Faculty Meeting, 2-3 pm

21 Band Concert, 7 pm

22 In school Holiday Concert

22 No late bus, no ARC

23 Holiday Recess through January 2, 2017

January

12 Screenagers documentary screening for students, families, target 5th -9th grade. 6:30 pm auditorium

Community

DECA students led interested families on a tour last Wednesday at the NK CTE Open House. All faculty from both programs attended. Kevin Gormley opened the night in the auditorium, Mike and Tom Abbood, from Edward Jones, were present as members of the Advisory Board to answer parent questions, students from our Jazz Ensemble entertained the parents upon entry into the high school and NKSD photographer and photography teacher, Rob Silveira, was in the house documenting the night. Thank you all for the assistance. It was a success and families have followed up with Kevin Gormley. If you know of anyone who was unable to attend but is interested in our CTE programs in Engineering/Robotics or Business/Finance please have them contact Kevin_Gormley@nksd.net for more information and/or go to the North Kingstown High School Website.

Thank you to Cindy Normand in Guidance for her assistance with the consistent presence of both our CTE Programs on our webpage.

AM Finlay (Student Assistance Counselor) working with our SRO, Dan Silva, the NK Coalition, and VAASA members honored 3 local businesses for not serving minors alcohol.

From Kathy Yeager (NK Coalition Coordinator):

I would like to thank all for participating today (December 15, 2016) in the field trip to thank three businesses in NK that did not sell alcohol to minors in this years alcohol compliance checks done by the NK police. I would also like to thank all that helped make this event happen.

The students were great! Each took a turn presenting to a business owner with a speech thanking them for doing the right thing. They presented the framed certificates on behalf of the NK Coalition, NKSD and NKPD. It was very well recieved. I commend all the VAASA students for making healthy choices in their lives. I praise Chloe Koehr, Annabelle Lee and Andrew Pariseault for their upstanding representation of VAASA at today's event.

Articles Worth Reading

Unlocking Children’s Math Potential: 5 Research Results to Transform Math Learning.

Videos Worth Watching

Evolution of Dance

Fun

Christian the Lion--It never gets old...Love knows no limits.

Food for Thought

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

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

Are Our Students Overworked?

It has been almost a month since our professional development day in November. A large chunk of our morning meeting was spent on students. Are they cheating? Do they know what cheating is? How can we foster a culture where that is not acceptable? How can we be sure letters of recommendation are for students true to their character? The topics went on. Our colleague, Mark Delucia, shared a link to an article in the Projo that further explored another district and how they looked into their own school culture.

Our Instructional Leadership Team discussed this topic on Wednesday, November 30th, and another colleague bravely offered the following, (I am paraphrasing here) Until we stop offering APs to freshman... and pull back on what we do that creates this mountain of pressure for students, the culture of stress and cheating will not change. We need to change.

Another department chair said he thought it was interesting that the students cheat on homework but never on a test. What does that say about what students think is important? I have included the article below and it is also here. On a positive note, others brought up how the guidance department in this article worked with students when they were choosing classes based on the number of hours of homework expected in each class. That may be something we can look at at NK during scheduling season. Additionally, Paula Calitri shared a link to a Ted Talk from Julie Lythcott Haims, the former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford, who, like many of us, feels that parents are doing their children a disservice by loading them up with high expectations and micro-managing them. Scroll to the video section to take a look. Have a great week everyone.

Health and Wellness

From Karen D’Abrosca:

December and the holiday season is upon us! Having just picked up my colorful "Diversity & Equity" sheet from my mailbox, taking a closer look reveals many useful words for this time of year! PERSPECTIVE ~ CELEBRATE ~ SHARE. So I will SHARE some ...

TIPS FOR THE HOLIDAY

Set Reasonable Expectations
Do your best to stick to your regular schedule
Try to keep bedtime and mealtime the same
Let people know of your expectations
You can’t do everything – choose the celebrations and activities you enjoy the most
Keep things in perspective. Is the "perfect gift" really that important?

Students as Learners

On Friday, as I walked around the building, I couldn’t help but notice all of the action going on in the art rooms. Natalie O’Neill, who is in for Janice Strain, has given her students the freedom to create whatever object they would like out of paper mache. Take a look at a few of the students and their creations.

Then, next door in Tara Harrington’s room, students were using

charcoal to work on their still life skills. Two students were trying their best to be still as I walked in. It was a joyful Friday morning with all of the creativity emanating into the hallways.

From Rick Powell:

I am happy to announce that for the 3rd year in a row, North Robotics has won the Inspire Award, the top overall award given, at the qualifying tournament that they entered. We entered 3 teams this year, with a total of 28 students, and had two of the teams qualify for the state tournament, which will take place on Saturday, February 4th.

In addition to winning the Inspire Award, our team that represented RI at the Eastern Super Regionals also was the captain of the winning alliance during the robot play portion of the competition. In addition, our freshman team was one of the other two finalists for the Inspire Award and won the Design Award. They also made it to the semi-finals of the Robot Play portion of the competition.

Upcoming Events/Important Dates

December

5 Freshmen Advisory Assembly (Honor Roll and Student Services Office Update)

5 Scheduling Sub-committee meeting, 2-3 pm

5 School Committee Meeting, 7 pm

6 Sophomore Advisory Assembly

6 PTSO Meeting, 7 pm

7 Junior Advisory Assembly

7 CTE Open House, 6:30 pm

8 Senior Advisory Assembly

9-11 Christmas Carol, 7 pm Friday and Sat; 1 pm Sunday

15 No late bus, no ARC

15 Holiday gathering, Sonoma

15 Choir and Orchestra Concert, 7 pm

16 Q2, Posting by 12 noon

19 Faculty Meeting, 2-3 pm

21 Band Concert, 7 pm

22 In school Holiday Concert

22 No late bus, no ARC

23 Holiday Recess through January 2, 2017

Community

From Brian McDonald:

Thank you to all of the Advisories that generously supported the Pasta Sauce Challenge. The NK Food Pantry was overwhelmed by the support on such short notice and wanted me to extend their gratitude to you. It was pretty cool walking in with nearly 300 jars the day before they were putting the baskets together. The NK Food Pantry delivered nearly 400 baskets to families in need for the Thanksgiving holiday.

From Matthew Healey (NKHS student)

I wanted to let you know that the drive was an overwhelming success and I received more supplies than I could have ever imagined. I am very appreciative of the entire school for their incredible generosity and also, a big thanks to you for your help with putting the drive together. We were able to donate three giant boxes full of supplies to the High School and Davisville Middle School with plenty of leftover supplies that the Food Pantry will be able to make use of.

Also, many advisories brought lots of supplies, but the winner of the doughnut cake was Mr. Garland's advisory who on top of filling the paper bag I distributed, brought an entire plastic tub worth of supplies. I dropped the treat off to them today and I believe they really enjoyed it.

Thank you for your help with this project, which I hope will benefit anyone who is struggling with the issue,

Articles Worth Reading

From Mark Delucia

Life in high school:Stress, sleep deprivation, homework overload and cheating. Is this the price of performance?

Videos Worth Watching