Week Ending March 31, 2017

Diversity Rocks

No one showcased diversity better than the new Doodle 4 Google winner. Today, Sarah Harrison’s illustration on how she sees the future was showcased on the Google Website. I am sure many of you saw it due to the amount of time that we spend on the Internet. She is a 10th grader from Bunnell HIgh School in Connecticut. She said she had looked at the past drawings and many were technical innovations or along that line and she wanted to go in a different direction. Her best line for me was when she said she was going to have a label maker and spell out Google with the label scraps but then she thought, “We aren’t labels, we’re people…” and that is what inspired her. It is nice to be reminded that we are more alike, than not alike. Great way to end the week...

Health and Wellness

From Karen D’Abrosca

MAR 31, 2017

Bye, Bye March!! Possibly April by the time you read this!  Since we have been indoors for much of the chilly, wet month, let’s take a look at Boosting the Immune System.  Our immune system functions as an intricate machine – if  tuned to top form we are healthy, if mismanaged, we are sick!!

Things that sabotage our health are stress, lack of sleep, poor diet and even the overuse of disinfecting hand gels and cleaners.  Things that boost our health include vaccinations, positive emotions and food.  Be sure to eat meals including carrots, sweet potatoes, salmon, blueberries and avocados to name a few.  Listen to Bobby McFerrin "Don't Worry, Be Happy"!!

The upcoming April Spring Break will help too as we spend time away from our closed quarters and hopefully spend time outdoors.  Here's to our health!!

Upcoming Events/Important Dates

April - Community

2   Cupcake Wars

4   All Town Chorus

5   SAT - In school testing for Juniors through 4th period

6   All Town Strings, 7 pm

11 PTSO Meeting, 7 pm

    School Committee Meeting, 7 pm

14 No school - Good Friday

17-21 Spring Recess

Good News!

The Skipper Pride winner is Emily Bell, who was chosen from the last winner, Joy Tavano. This is Emily’s second time receiving the award from a colleague. Way to go Emily.

From Joy to Emily:

"This week I am passing the Skipper Pride Award to you. I choose you because I admire how hard you work to give all students every available opportunity to succeed. Your compassion, patience, and professionalism inspire me to work harder."

Emily is always on her game, thinking ahead of what students need. She treats her colleagues with respect and values our input in the decisions she makes for her students.

Rotary Nominations

NKHS will be highlighted for the April Rotary Teacher and Student of the Month. We have a diverse faculty and many teachers go out of their way everyday to make a difference. Same goes for our student body. Feel free to nominate a colleague/student and write a paragraph supporting his or her nomination in your email to me. Please nominate your colleague/student by April 7 to give me time to go through them. Thank you.

 

Tech Tip

From Mark DeLucia:

Week Ending March 31, 2017

Have difficulty scheduling meetings, conferences, and more?  Let Doodle find the best day and time for you!  Head over to Doodle.com or download the free app onto your phone.  Click “log-in” and log-in with Google.  Once you’re in, schedule your event.

Then, add date and time proposals.  You can choose multiple days and times.

If this is a quick, basic poll, then simply click NEXT and FINISH.  Otherwise, adjust your settings.  Some of the options include confidentiality, so that only you can see the participants.

E-mail the poll to recipients or grab the link and text it / post it somewhere.  Participants will be alerted to the poll and check the dates and times they are available.  You will receive updates.  Once everyone has participated, Doodle will alert you with the best day and time for your event.  

I can attest, I’ve used it often both at work and personally.  It really is a great solution to those back-and-forth group e-mails or texts that say, “I can’t do this day/time, but I can do this one or this one... no wait...”

Keep your Chromebooks updated!

Just a reminder that the arrow in the bottom right of your Chromebook (near the time) indicates that the Chromebook needs to be updated!  Click the arrow and restart to update it.  Often, if you or a student are having issues, it can be resolved by updating.

Teaching and Learning

Scheduling Update:

Dave Avedisian and I presented the 8 period schedule proposal to the School Committee this past Tuesday evening. They received our collaborative efforts well and noted the time we have spent to create this opportunity for our students. If all goes well with the MOA the schedule will go back onto to an upcoming School Committee Agenda for a vote for approval. I will keep you posted.

Student Services

From Donna Sweet:
Phone Lines-This Friday starting at 2pm, Cox Communications will be transitioning our phone lines.  If your phone line will be affected, you will have already received an e-mail from Cox.  There may be some messaging loss as we transition over the weekend, parents have been notified.

Media Center-Last week the Media Center implemented a Pass System during lunches so we could better monitor students accessing the Media Center. Judy and Pam made laminated, numbered passes.  As with all good things, a few students might have kept one as a favor.  Should you see a Media Center laminated pass with the numbers, 3, 4, 5, 8, 11, 15 or 21-They are runaways~

A students should NEVER being using this pass for your class, this is strictly a Cafeteria to Media Center Pass.

School Themes:  April is Community!  Last year we started a team on Rally for the Red Sox

Advisory Challenge submissions

and we placed a modest 32nd place for K-12 organizations.  We once again have a team Called NK Skippers!  The link is here if you wish to donate to the The Jimmy Find: Rally for the Red Sox

Senior Sara Barker combined her Senior Project to this initiative as she was looking to work with a pediatric oncology organization.  To date, the team has raised $425 and we are in 20th place!  Teams that raise $1000.00 are put into a raffle to have a Red Sox player visit their school.  Currently, there are only 7 teams eligible.  Also, the team will earn 36 Red Sox hats, so if you join our team and reach that goal, we will hopefully have a hat for you!

In conjunction with this, April 3rd Monday is Wear your Gear in honor of Red Sox Opening Day.  So make it a Red Sox Monday!

Another Minute to Win It Team--
To close to call at press time

March Madness-Thank you to Brian McDonald and the PTSO for embarking on an ambitious collaboration and creating the March Madness event!  Watch the Final Four this week to see which class takes home the prize!

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Videos Worth Watching

Speaking of Diversity our own Lillian Steinweh-Adler, a student in Ruthann's German class and Aaron's COM 3 class produced a video that showcases the importance of learning a language.  It will now be used at the state level to advocate for language learning and features some of NK's best and brightest.

Too big to upload Lillian's video to Blogger so I have included it in your email.

Cindy Zito is in the process of overseeing a NKHS "Upstander" video; it will probably be completed by late May. In the meantime, she would like to stream this national video during announcements. I thought you may like to see it first in the event your advisory discusses these important topics, you will have already seen it.

Food for Thought

"We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community - and this nation." ~Cesar Chavez

From Wikipedia

Cesar Chavez Day is a federal commemorative holiday in the U.S. by proclamation of President Obama in 2014.[1][2] On March 31 of each year, it celebrates the birth and legacy of the civil rights and labor movement activist Cesar Chavez.

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