Update ~ October 26-30, 2015

Celebrating Success (hopefully)

Current Academic Interventions at CHS SY 2015-16

·      Block Algebra Class (For 9^th grade students coming from middle school with an F in math)

·      Success 101 (For 9^th grade students coming from middle school with three or more Fs)

·      Administration and counseling (Cris and Barrett) have developed and are teaching a series of lessons designed to promote academic success.  Lessons are taught 1 x per month in the block algebra class.

·      Follow up w/ current 10^th grade students who were in Success 101 the previous year. Thursday intervention group with these students.

·      Math and ELA interventions during Thursday Pathways and Wednesday early release.

·      Math Opportunities during lunch every day (Students are hand picked to attend based on academic progress. )

·      Hired ELA and Math Interventionists to help analyze student performance data, design and deliver interventions. Current focus is Algebra 1 and 10 grade English.

·      Development of the academic intervention team comprised of admin, teachers and interventionists. Meets weekly.

·      Intervention team participating in professional development to learn about successful intervention systems and ways to implement effective interventions. 

·      Intervention team visiting schools around the state with successful intervention systems in place.

·      Department Chairs participating in a book study on the book Rigor is not a Four Letter Word. By Barbara Blackburn

·      10^th grade ELA teacher and intervention team have developed a system for promoting concept mastery.  Formative Assessment results are used to group students for targeted intervention.

·      Admin review of three-week progress reports.  All freshmen students with two or more Fs have are called for individual conference with a CHS administrator.  (Same for seniors following 9 first quarter grades)

·      Student Skill vs. Will analysis by teachers of core classes. Intervention team s designs appropriate interventions based on whether the student’s low grades are a result of Skill vs. Will.

·      Following first quarter grades, adjustments have been made with student schedules.

·      Counselors are examining student academic progress and in the process of designing group counseling interventions to support student success. (Coming soon)

·      P.E. Department working to incorporate academic study hall for struggling students.

·      Link Crew: Upper classmen form connections with Freshmen students to help with the transition from middle to high school.

·      Although the Tier 3 behavior intervention (ISS) is intended as a behavioral intervention students are required to use their time in ISS to make up missing work.

These are the interventions we know about.  Knowing that there are more, we would like to hear from you.  What interventions or remediations do you as individual teachers, and/or Collaborative Teams employ?  Inquiring minds want to know:)

 Informal Observations 

As I mentioned in the Panther Report back in August, we are using the The Thoughtful Classroom Teacher Effectiveness framework to guide our informal walk-through observations.  Our focus for the next nine weeks will be  Presenting New Learning. The question, "How does the teacher present new learning and provide opportunities for students to actively engage in content?" will guide our walk-through observations for November and December.  We look forward to spending time in your classrooms as the semester continues. 

Halloween 
The good news is that Halloween falls on a Saturday this year. The additional good news is that it is spirit week at CHS and Friday is School Spirit day.  In spite of the good news,  we will inevitably have students who want to express their inner child and come dressed in their Halloween costumes on Friday. School dress code still applies; no full face paint, masks or head coverings of any kind will be permitted.  Thank you!

End of Fall Pep Assembly
In keeping with the CHS tradition, we will have a fall pep assembly this Friday, October 30. The schedule for classes will be as follows: 

1st hour:  7:50-8:35

2nd hour:  8:40-9:25

3rd hour:  9:30-10:15

4th/5th hour:  10:20-11:05

Combined Lunch:  11:05-11:35

6th hour:  11:40-12:25

7th hour:  12:30-1:15

Assembly:  1:20-2:20

*Please accompany your classes to the gym and 7th period prep teachers please be in the hallways at 1:15 to help direct students to the gym.  THANK YOU!

College Application Campaign
The halls are alive with all kinds of College, Community College, University and other post high school learning institutions.  The pennants, banners, posters and decorations look great. Thank you Laura Locke and the interior design class students for all your work.  We are looking forward to the door displays in the next few weeks.  The college Application campaign is a national campaign to encourage all seniors to complete a college application. The dates for this event at CHS are November 4 and 5. Doors will be judged on November 5. 

Have a great week!

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Update ~ October 19-23, 2015

Celebratng Success
Congratualtions to Ken Link and Gina Keugler!  Ken and Gina will reperesent CHS on the newly formed FUSD Voice committee.  
More good news...The Wireless and Network upgrades at CHS are complete. This will help a bunch during testing season.  Thank you to the FUSD Technology department for starting with CHS. 

This week

10/20 ~ Master Board Committee Meeting 2:45pm Cris' Office
10/21 ~ Faculty Meeting this Wednesday, 10 at 2:30pm in the mini-theater.
10/22 ~ Link Crew will meet with Freshmen groups during Pathways
10/23 ~ Grant Search Committee Meeting 2:45pm Back Conference room

Hope you all enjoyed the mini fall break and hats off to a spectacular second quarter!

Update ~ October 12-14, 2015

Celebrating Success

It was great to return back to CHS after the RTI conference to lots of questions about what we learned about secondary interventions.  The strong message from the conference was about why the most effective form of intervention is prevention and what systems should be in place to ensure all students are learning at high levels. While at the conference, we had a chance to reflect on what we do have in place at CHS and look closely at areas that require us all to give more attention. There are questions we were asked to ponder and questions we will need to answer together about our school’s current reality, questions like; Does every adult who works in your building truly, sincerely and whole heartedly, believe that all students can learn at high levels, and if so, what are we doing in each and every classroom to ensure learning for all?  We were challenged not only to examine our Tier 2 and Tier 3 academic interventions but to also look closely and carefully at what we are doing in Tier 1.  Over the past few years we have spent a great deal of time developing a system of interventions for behavior and pieces of our academic intervention are beginning to fall into place too.  The key is to work together collectively to unite the attention to academic behaviors and social behaviors to ensure all students are learning at high levels.  I am very proud of what we have accomplished together and look forward to the next steps. Thank you for your passion and commitment to our students.  Stay tuned for more details soon…

Hope the LipDub brought a smile, click here to view the 2015 CHS Lip Dub  
Congratulations to the CHS digital Media crew for this exceptional production!

Special Guests

On Tuesday, October 13^th  CHS will have the honor of hosting another group of distinguished guests. Brent Neilson, the CAVIAT Superintendent, and Christine Meyer, the CAVIAT Regional Program Coordinator, several state legislators, our Flagstaff Mayor, along with FUSD dignitaries (about thirty people total) will be here to visit our Career and Technical Education Programs (CTE).

The group is expected to arrive at CHS around 12:15pm on Tuesday, October 14.  Please share a warm welcome should you see them on campus on Tuesday.

Faculty Meeting

Due to numerous conflicts, the scheduled faculty meeting for this Tuesday, October 13 has been changed to Wednesday, October 21 at 2:45pm. Please mark your calendars

Declaration

From this point on, we have lifted the ban on ear buds in the hallways.  We will no longer be asking students to remove their earbuds during transition times in the hallways. The original purpose for this rule was in response to a safety concern, however, after much reflection and conversation we do not believe that earbuds in the hallways pose a safety concern, therefore we have decided to make this change. This change does not affect the classroom electronic device policy, this revision is strictly regarding the wearing of earbuds, or headphones in the hallways. We will change our hallway expectation signs to reflect this revision. 

Wednesday

October 15 is an adjusted schedule:

1    7:50-8:35

2    8:40-9:20

3    9:25-10:05

4/5 10:10--10:50

Lunch 10:50-11:20

6    11:25-12:05

7    12:10-12:50 

Also, please note, 96 students will be taking the PSATs in the small gym beginning at 8:00am on Wednesday.  Students should come directly to the small gym when they arrive to school.  We will also make a reminder announcement. 

Enjoy the short week and fall break ahead!

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October 5-9, 2015

Celebrating Success
Thank you all for making the third annual College & Career Fair a huge success. A special thank you to Denise VanWoerkam and CHS Counselors for all the behind the scenes work to make this our best fair yet.  Over 50 colleges attended and our students were engaged and excited about the information they received. 

United Way
It is time for the annual United Way fundraising Campaign. Becky Gonzales has graciously agreed to chair the campaign at CHS, once again.  United Way contributes a great deal of financial support for educational endeavors. You will find a donation form in your box this week and collections will take place through the month of October. 

CHS Admin this week
Along with Mike Vogler and Ted Lyons, Cris and I will be attending a Secondary Intervention conference this week.  We are excited to bring back information to help guide interventions at CHS. We will be out of the building Monday through Thursday, back on Friday. Tadd will help Steve steer the ship and Greg Rieff will be in the RTR each period.

Counseling Corner 
This week, counselors are going back into the classroom to start ECAP lessons with Heilman's 10th graders and Klovenas' 11th graders.  Our lessons will include determining career pathways, exploring programs of study and writing a resume.  

Have a great week!