Hello HS Learning Coaches!
It is November, and for at least today, it feels like it outside, too! Our November Vision of a Graduate is being a contributor. There are many avenues in life that we can contribute to. In school, some keyways to contribute are to the classroom in sharing learning, questions, and perspectives. One unique aspect of our school is that we have students from all over the state with a variety of cultural backgrounds and locations - some in inner-city and others very rural, which brings many perspectives into one classroom. We can learn so much from one another. When students are not attending CCs they are missing out on not only being able to practice their communication and contribution skills, but also are missing out on learning from others. About a week ago I sent out an update to LCs about student attendance and grades. We do not ask learning coaches to teach the subject matter but rather please ensure your students are coming to class, showing their learning by engaging and completing work, and helping to support their time management.
Please read through this newsletter for a variety of updates as well as attendance and LC Advisory recordings at the end.
Vision of a Graduate Focus
This month's focus for staff as part of our Vision of a Graduate is being a contributor. Teachers support students in this goal by encouraging student feedback and engagement in class, allowing students to share their perspectives, and facilitating open ended discussions and projects.
Where students can practice this skill
ClassConnects are one example that students have access to each day. This could be in class, homeroom, or clubs. Asynchronously, in communications to teachers or in work they do at home or in their communities. Students can contribute ideas, time, skills, and/or material items in reaching a common goal.
How this applies to the real world after HS graduation
In any job, employers are looking for staff who contribute. It could be as complex as coming up with new ideas or processes or as easy as looking for a staff member to contributes to a positive work environment. We also have many students who are passionate about various causes. They can contribute time to volunteer, ideas to bring awareness to communities, or material goods to support others.
Science
Biology is in the big unit of the semester, cells and how they work like little ecosystems all on their own. We learn the fascinating ways in which our own cells have check points to fix mistakes and work like well-oiled machines. Students learn about cell organelles and make an analogy of them all in a make-believe city. Hand-drawn work is a fun way to break up our use of online tools.
ELA
Mrs. Allen's English 9 class continues their yearlong exploration of the human experience through The Poetry Project. This week's poem, "How Did You Die?" by Edmund Vance Cooke confronts readers with a series of questions about how they will face adversity and death. At the end of the week, students shared some of their takeaways from the poem, and a few commented that this has been their favorite poem so far.
Social Studies
Recently in Developmental World History students have been exploring the nature of revolutions, why they happen, what they do, and their consequences. Students have been planning out a revolution of their own in a fictional society. There are multiple parts to this thought experiment:
Revolution Plan/Outline – How the revolution will take place
Propaganda Piece – A way to recruit people to join your revolution
Contingency Plan – for when things inevitably go wrong
We will eventually be comparing the student revolution plans to the French Revolution. See a sample of a Student’s Plan.
k12 Zone is a virtual world where students can take part in activities and connect with other students via mic, camera, and/or chat. K12 National Zone is not run by WIVA staff. The zone is monitored by Stride and AI chat bots send alerts for concerning conversations in the chat. Students are expected to follow school appropriate behavior and expectations while in the Zone as outlined in our student handbook. See the link at the bottom for the Digital Citizenship Guide.
Why K12 Zone? Over the years students and LCs have advocated to have more social opportunities outside of class where there is not a planned agenda, but rather gives times for students to chat and make friends. While WIVA offers clubs and connections in classrooms, the Zone can support student's social needs.
K12 National Zone is turned on throughout the day. This is an opportunity for students to connect to other k12 school students from WIVA and across the U.S. While this is a great opportunity to learn about students in other states, students do need to attend their required CC sessions. If you find this becomes a distraction or would not like your student to partake, you can request to have them banned from the zone through your student's counselor.
K12 Zone Digital Citizenship guidelines: K12 Zone Digital Citizenship Guidelines.pptx
Each month our high school student of the month will be posted on our website. Congratulations to this month's winner and other nominees!
Call: 866-512-2273
Online: https://www.help.k12.com/s/ and you will see on the bottom right a "chat with us" option
Casey Twanow
High School Associate Principal
Quote of the Month: “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” ~Dr. Jane Goodall
What is Ms. Twanow reading? Ms. Twanow is reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: MinaLima Edition with her daughters; this edition has gorgeous illustrations and paper pop-ups that add to the experience.
Carrie Cherney
High School Principal
Quote of the month
"From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life." ~ Arthur Ashe
What is Ms. Cherney reading?
A few years ago I cut my subscription to National Geographic Magazine. As much as I loved the publication, I could not keep up. Thus, I have a stack of magazines from years back that I haven't gotten through. In place of a book at night, I have been reading various articles. I find myself drawn to the scientific topics and perspectives it brings. I also love the images. I know we have many students to love art and photography. I would love some day to see a name I recognize as a photographer in that magazine!
Email: ccherney@wivcs.org
Website: wiva.k12.com
Location: 4721 Dale Curtin Drive, McFarland, WI, USA
Phone: 608-838-9482