Full Steam Ahead

Celebrating Success Exciting news for CHS JROTC...last week the National Inspection of JROTC resulted in a score of 577 out of a possible 600 points earning CHS "Honor Unit with Distinction" and "Gold Star Unit". Our 150 JROTC students really shined, congratulations!!!

Spring Sports
Our Lady Softball Panthers went to the first round of the state championships and lost a tough game 8-7 to Peoria. Boys baseball is headed to the second round in the state tournament to play Sabino in Tucson on Tuesday. Our track team has one regular season meet to go this weekend at Cromer stadium, then headed to the state tournament on May 9th and 12th @ Mesa Community College. Tennis players Tera Callan (Singles) and Emily Rathbun and Kendall Hutchings (Doubles) also made to the first round of the state tournament. Way to go panthers!


Intervention/Enrichment Thank you all for your input and ideas for next year's plan. We have three main categories: Mandatory Intervention, Student Selected Intervention and Enrichment with lots of great ideas for each category. There was also an strong desire to build in "advisory" or "home room" time into the schedule. We are working on ways to incorporate this into Thursdays as well.

Attendance and credit students who are currently on attendance probation should have received written notification from our attendance office. Appeal letters must be submitted to an administrator or the attendance office by Friday, May 18th. Please note that all students are eligible to write an appeal letter regardless of whether or not they were on probation last semester.

Registration This is the final week for registration. Our current freshmen (Rising sophomores) will register this week. There are 121 freshmen who we are not permitting to register due to failing three or more classes.  These students will have to come in over the summer with a parent to meet with an administrator before they can register.

May Madness We have a full schedule ahead.  Thank you in advance for helping to keep our students focused and on task as we wind down the school year. A few reminders to help keep the learning environment in place: Limit hall passes, teach bell to bell (no student loitering at the doorways), teachers in the hallways as much as possible etc...

Dates to Remember
5/1 Supreme Ct. Oral Arguments 


Have a great week!

Spring

Celebrating Success: 
I am proud to announce that CHS Students Sam Kumasaka won first place this year in the Jim Simmerman Poetry Contest. This is a tremendous honor for Sam and great for CHS.  Sam, along with two other CHS students, Jessica DuPierre and Demi Schmeider, both finalists, are invited to read their work at the 15th annual Northern Arizona Book Festival. The Festival is May 19th at the Coconino Center for the Arts.  These students already know of their recognition so you are welcome to congratulate them for this accomplishment. 

CHS Awards Selection

Thanks for the feedback, both positive and constructive, about the awards selection process last week. We will take your thoughts, ideas and concerns and continue to refine the process for next year. Please remember our students do not yet know who the recipients are.  This will be announced at the awards assembly on May 30th. (Details to follow soon)

Field trips: I still have a number of teachers asking to go on field trips. If you are planning a trip that has been in your plans since the beginning of the term, this should not be a problem however, if you are trying to plan a "new" end of term trip, it will likely be denied. CHS students in general, are missing a lot of instructional time due to extra events and many of our students are accumulating too many absences and can not afford to miss anymore class time. Please check with your colleagues or the attendance office to be sure your "field trip" students are not academically at risk before pulling them out for a field trip. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

ACTs this week If you teach Juniors,  please remind them that Juniors will take the ACT on Tuesday, April 24.  ACT does not allow late entry into the test room. No food, drink, or electronic devices are permitted in the test room. ACT policy will be strictly followed for any violation of ACT rules. Please come to test rested, nourished, and well hydrated. Also, FYI we will have to silence the bells during testing tim on Tuesday. 

Any and al help in the hallways during passing periods is greatly appreciated!

Have a great week!

Whew! AIMS and Stanford 10 are now truly behind us.  I heard an interesting analogy recently about the difference between formative and summative assessments.  Summative assessments (Assessments of  learning) are like an autopsy and formative assessments (Assessments for leaning) are like a regular check up. So true! As we wind down this year and look ahead to our task of using common assessments and then creating formative assessment over the next few years, I will continue to share some thought provoking research by renowned researchers and scholars such as Bob Marzano, Douglas Reeves and Dylan Williams whose current research highlights the benefits of using assessments formatively.  Their research also indicates the importance of quality feedback, using the information we glean from data, effective “grading” practices, and ways to honestly look at how we monitor and promote student growth. 

PantherReport

Celebrating Success

AIMS is behind us for SY 2011-12 Yay! (With the exception of math make-up 4/17) Thank you for the high-quality education provided to our CHS students everyday. It is powerful to know that we are willing and committed to continue to work together to provide an exceptional education for our students. I know you come to school each day with the task of providing our students the best available education and to help our students each and every day for success in school, success on their exams and most importantly for a successful future-All of which is measured in a variety of ways. I genuinely appreciate your hard work and dedication.  

 ACT Prep Please see the email sent from Donna Lyons tonight 4/15, regarding  JUNIORS who need to be sent to the cafeteria after Monday morning announcements. They all need to complete the ACT Pre Test Registration, this cannot be done the day of the test (April 24). These are students who either did not finish or were absent when counselors were in history classrooms. Any students still needing to complete will be asked back to the cafeteria on Thursday morning. My apologies for such late notice. Also, thank you to English teachers of Rising Juniors as we continue working through the online elective registration process for 2012 -2013. Thank you for your patience as April testing and registration are completed. 

This Wednesday: As we begin the wind down of this School Year, it’s time to begin planning for next. We have some work to do together this week that involves preparing for the conclusion of this SY as well as planning for next. year . We will start our delayed start Wednesday meeting in the mini-theatre. The first half of the morning will be  devoted to selecting student nominations for end of the year awards and recognitions. It is our goal to complete this process during this time so as not to add to your workload when you return to your classrooms. This Meeting should go from 7:30-8:45 AM. Following this meeting we will divide into our large Collaborative Teams to begin the discussion of the new modified six period day, specifically Intervention/Enrichment Thursdays. The modified six period day will provide for more timely and hopefully more effective interventions and enrichment school wide. For students who need extra time and support we will create a structure of interventions and for those students who might benefit from time in school day to work on academic projects, meet in various school clubs, go deeper into a curriculum etc.... Our hope is to develop a more uninterrupted academic school day and provide time more guidance and support for all of our students. .  Our task is to come together as a staff and design a and develop a system of meaningful interventions and enrichment activities. This will  not be completed in one gathering, but we can get a jump on it. 

Calendar
I don't trust my calendar this week. I will update and send a separate note to you all. Stay posted...

You are amazing!!!Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, love and well wishes...they worked. My mom pulled through and is on the path to a long recovery. 


Hugs,
SZ

PantherReport

This week at CHS

AIMS: Tuesday April 10 AIMS Math.  All sophomores as well as juniors and Seniors who have not yet met on the AIMS will be taking the test on Tuesday.  

Wednesday, April 11 is AIMS Science. All sophomores who have not yet taken AIMS Science as well as those freshman students who are currently enrolled in Biology will take AIMS Science on Wednesday. 

Finally on Thursday April 12, all freshmen will take the Stanford 10.

Testing each day will begin promptly at 8:00AM.   Students who are not testing will follow a regular six period day with one combined lunch.

Students who are unsure as to whether or not they have met on Math or Science AIMS can check on Monday in the counseling office.

 Dates to Remember

4/9 Casa Challenge

4/9 S3 Meeting

4/10 AIMS Math

4/11 AIMS Science

4/12 Stanford 10

4/12 PBIS Mtg

For all CHS sporting events go to highschoolsports.net

Go Panthers!

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” ― William Shakespeare

Celebrating Success  Last week in the list of what's right at CHS, I left something out. CONGRATULATIONS to our CHS Special olympics team who took home two gold medals in the recent competition. Go Panthers!


Faculty Meeting  We will have a regular Faculty Meeting this Wednesday, April 4th at 7:30 AM in the Mini-theater. A member of the FUSD Governing Board will be here to share information with us about the end of the cycle of the 2006 Bond and Capital Override and the potential plan for a new Capital Override on the ballot for the November 2012. Following the guest speaker we will have some time to debrief and talk a little about balance of the year events. We will conclude the morning with a focused PLC discussion.

Dress Code Oh yes, spring has sprung. Please help us uphold high standards at CHS. Students who are dressed inappropriately at school should be sent to Mr. Popham's room where they will be required to put on school issued, appropriate clothing.  We have t-shirts and sweats. Donations of both are gladly accepted.

Dress Code

· Clothing should be clean, neat, safe, and modest

· The following are violations: Any type of head covering, halter tops, tube tops, spaghetti straps, bare midriffs, shorts and skirts that are above mid-thigh, visible undergarments, sagging pants, items that advertise sex, nudity, alcohol,drugs, tobacco, or drug paraphernalia, gang related clothing, chains and spikes. 

FYI  It is time once again for Heather Zeigler and Brad Kamradt to make the rounds for Tech Integration walkthroughs. CHS is scheduled for Thursday, April 5th.

Thoughts and Hopes for a speedy recovery for a friend and colleague, Paul Pavlich who had emergency neck surgery last Friday. Get well soon Pablo!

Reminder Due to the number of snow days we have used this year we DO have school this Friday 4/6 and Monday 4/9. All Snow Day Make Up days have been removed for the month of April. We have a full month of 5 day school weeks, no holidays. 


Common Grade Book Thank you all for taking the time to complete the informal survey about the common grade book. I appreciate your honest input. The results of our survey suggests that we could all use some clarification about the definition of each of the categories and what types of tasks belong in the respective categories. Several of you also shared concerns about skewing student's actual grades based on the required percentage weight for certain tasks. The Common grade book is a topic for discussion at the next Secondary Leadership & Curriculum Team meeting this Friday, April 5th. I will share our concerns and questions and report back to you all.

AIMS/ACT testing Please mark your calendars for the upcoming achievement testing. AIMS Math and Science and Stanford 10 take place next week, April 9-13.
April 10 ~ Math     April 11 ~ Science     April 12 ~ Stanford 10
*We will have combined lunch @ 11: 50-12:20 all three days. You will receive a detailed schedule this week. 
ACT Will be administered to all 11th graders on April 24th


Dates to Remember
If you would like to view current Athletic Events at CHS go to http://www.highschoolsports.net/school
4/2 S3 Grant Mtg 3:00 PM
4/4 Delayed Start Faculty Meeting/ PLC 7:30-9:30 AM


"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way."
                                                     -Booker T. Washington