Update ~ September 29-October 3, 2014

This week at CHS
College and Career Readiness at CHS is in full swing. This Thursday, October 2nd starting at 1:00pm we will hold our first CHS College and Career Readiness Fair in the large gym.  We are looking forward to a successful inaugural event and hope to continue the tradition for years to come. Please accompany and remain with your students for this exciting event and follow the schedule provided: 

• 1:00-1:20pm ~ All senior classes. (Senior junior mixed cohorts are invited at this time as well)

• 1:20-1:40pm ~ All junior classes

• 1:40-2:00pm ~ All sophomore classes

• 2:00-2:20pm ~ All freshmen classes

If we all do our best to stick to this schedule the event will be a success!  We hope you will help promote this important event for CHS students and the visiting college and career representatives who will be here to share information.  Don't forget to wear your college attire on Thursday too!

Balfour
Also on October 2, there will be a brief meeting with Balfour to share important graduation information with our CHS Seniors. This assembly will be in the large auditorium from 9:00-9:35am for ALL seniors. 

Looking ahead
Just a reminder that homecoming week is around the corner, October 6-10.  I will post a special Panther Report mid week, this week, with a schedule of events and any changes to the bell schedule to help with your planning.

Celebrating Success
Thank you teachers for honoring the need to provide students with hallway passes when students are moving about.  The teachers in the hallways during pathways noted that last Thursday all of the students heading to math intervention had their red passes and were released when called. Other students in the hallways graciously showed their passes when asked. Nice!

Have a great week!

Update ~ September 22-26, 2014

What's happening at CHS? 

CHS is participating in an innovative campaign known as the Arizona College Application Campaign, which we have fondly abbreviated into yet another acronym ACAC.  The overall goal is to get every senior at CHS to apply to college on November 19 and 20. As we move toward these dates we hope to generate some interest and excitement around school.  Please consider helping this effort by participating as described below:

• T-Shirt Thursdays:  Wear your alma mater t-shirts or t-shirts from any college on Thursdays

• Door decorating:  It’s not just for Christmas anymore!  Begin collecting pennants, pictures, or anything from your chosen college or colleges that you could use to decorate your door.  We’ll shoot for having our doors decorated in early November to coincide with our accreditation (ECap?) visit on November 5 & 6.

• Talk about your college experience and engage students in conversations about what they might hope for in college. 

Group Data Meetings (GDMs)

Each wednesday at 2:15pm we hold GDMs in room 200. Anyone interested in attending is welcome.  The purpose of the meeting is to discuss and decide on appropriate academic and or behavioral interventions for students who have been identified as at risk (or at promise as the case may be).  Next meeting is Wednesday, September 24. 

Looking Ahead

• On October 2nd, from 1pm to 3pm in the Large Gym there will be a College and Career Readiness Fair. Please spread the word and allow all students the opportunity to attend.
• October 6-11 is homecoming week.  We will conclude the HC school week with a parade, pep assembly and filming of our second CHS LipDub. 

Mark Your Calendars

• 9/25 PantherPaw Raffle during home room

Celebrating Success

• College and Career Readiness Parent Night was a great success, thank you CHS Counselors!
• I have received some positive feedback about the Rachel's Challenge Kick off event from last week, thank you Joyce Daoust and students in the Legion of Kindness for organizing this event. 
• AdvancedEd 6000 word narratives are looking good.  CHS admin greatly appreciates everyone's input, time and effort to help complete this work. 

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Update ~ September 15-19, 2014

Celebrating Success
 A special thank you to the Friday Duty Team. It may sound like a little thing, but having a full force of teachers on duty makes a big difference. Friday duty teachers rock!
Speaking of duty, many have asked if an IEP meeting trumps duty?...It is really important for general education teachers to attend IEPs.  If you have a conflict and cannot be on duty during your assigned day, it would be very helpful to try to switch with someone and/or let Cris, Steve or I know so we can find coverage. 
Thank you!

Hot Topics
PBIS will be the topic for the optional meeting on Wednesday, September 17 at 2:30pm in room 204. Anyone interested in discussing and sharing suggestions about our CHS Three Tiered Discipline Flowchart (In the handbook), RTR, Minor Infraction Forms(MIFs), Group Data Meetings (GDMs) etc, is invited to attend. 
From the Panther Tracks Team: A colossal thank you to teachers who have been especially mindful about reminding students of the earbuds in the hallway expectations. 

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, AKA AZVAB 
Due to the AZVAB testing next Thursday's (9/18)  bell schedule will be a slightly different than usual:

3rd- 7:50-9:15

4/5- 9:20-10:45

Combined lunch 10:45-11:20 

7 - 11:25-12:50 

12:55-1:15 20 minute home room

Please note that the usual 20 minutes for home room is not included for 3rd period, but has been added to Pathway time. 

Remember last year when we did school wide activities to encourage kindness and compassion? We are starting up again this year in earnest. The kick off plan is to utilize the extra 20 min on 9/18 to increase student compassion towards others, thereby limiting the incidences of bullying and harassment on campus. The classroom activities have been adapted from Rachel’s Challenge. Classroom activities will be rolled out approximately twice a month to share during homeroom time. This is the first of several lessons, future lessons will be provided to you in the form of a small gift. Please begin this lesson at 12:55 and end at 1:15 on Thursday September 18th. 

Click here  for the Legion of Kindness intro video. Please see the copy of the presentation below, also in the email sent Friday, 9/12. 

Steps to follow:

1. Open attachment

2. Make sure your computer is connected to your overhead projector

3. Open power point.

4. Select Slide show, if  the first slide seems blank be sure to slide your mouse over the slide and press the play    symbol

5. First slide is a video

6. Second slide is the classroom activity

Contact Joyce Daoust if you need help accessing the video. 

Mark you Calendar

9/18 College and Career Readiness Parent Night 6:00pm South Commons

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Update ~ September 8 - 12, 2014

Celebrating Success
I had a chance to sit in on a few CTs last week. It was inspiring to hear you all sharing ideas, solutions to problems, refinements to essential learning outcomes and instruction, benchmark assessment development and basically collectively exploring ways to improve student learning...That's what I'm talking about :). Thank you everyone!

Student Success
It is time to complete the Student Risk Screening Scales for our students. The goal is to identify students in need of intervention as early as possible in the school year. We are asking third hour teachers to complete the forms and submit to Krista Dobosh.   The RSSS should take about ten minutes to complete and the hope is to have these completed by September 18. Please be on the look out for an email from Krista Dobosh with details.   Thank you in advance for your help and support for our students. 

Prep Hour Meetings
This Tuesday 9/9 we have prep hour meetings. With the exception of second hour we will be meeting in room 204.  2nd period will meet in the back lab in the library.  We'll be learning about an online tool available to FUSD secondary schools for professional development through Edivation ( Formerly PD 360). We will also spend a few minutes on IEP information through Synergy. I encourage you to bring your laptops to the prep hour meetings. 

Mark your calendars
9/9 Prep hour mtgs
9/11 First home Volleyball game
9/12 First home V Football game 

You can access our school's schedule star for all CHS sports and activities.  Go to our CHS website-on the left of the page under shortcuts-click schedule star.  The Username is chs@fusd1.org and Password is panthers.  

Press on! Panther Strong!

Update ~ Sept 2-5, 2014

Celebrating Success

Lots of freshmen parents and a sprinkling of other CHS families came out for open house last week. Thanks for putting your best foot forward and helping to welcome our new families to Coconino High school.

Observations and Evaluations

Formal observations and performance evaluations will begin after September 9.  In the meantime Cris, Steve and I will continue popping in and out of classrooms. A teacher asked me the other day if we are looking for anything in particular. We are always hoping to see students engaged in learning and some sign of a visible content objective. These walkthroughs are not evaluative and we really are just visiting and observing to see what’s happening around CHS.  As a side note we have seen a lot of what appears to be students engaged and posted objectives. Thank you!

CSAs

Please bring all completed CSAs and booklets to the back conference room.

PBIS

The Responsible Thinking room (RTR) team is actively working to decrease student absences.  Many phone calls home, student conferences and lunch detention have taken place. The goal is to send a strong message that attendance is critical for student success.  A homeroom reminder would help to support these efforts as well.

Please continue to recognize exemplary student behavior with Pawsitive Panthers.  See Krista Dobosh if you need more cards.  Teachers in the hallways during passing periods is imperative to maintain a positive climate and help keep the halls safe. 

Senior Sunrise

The class of 2015 is starting a new tradition; Senior Sunrise.  Please join our senior class for the first annual Senior Sunrise this Friday, September 5 at 5:00am.  Exact location TBA.

Mark Your Calendars

Looks like a quiet week this week J

Looking ahead…

9/9 Prep hour meetings

9/12 First home Varsity Football Game v. Peoria 7:00pm

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