Hawk Highlights

This is the last week for challenge #10. Please take a look at the link below and read the stories of teachers that have already shared. Having new students in your classroom is a new beginning. In an effort to connect with the social-emotional needs and build relationships with your new students its important to listen and talk with them. Challenge #10 is a re-issue of the second challenge. Use the 2x10 strategy which works like this: every day for 10 school days, engage a student that you are just meeting in a two-minute conversation that has nothing to do with academics. Use https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e10zHwgZygBwYT_Nuszfk46kN2yRwMSXELoqtief7m8/edit?usp=sharing to report back what you learned about that student and how that conversation strengthened your relationship with the student and how that relationship will help that student achieve success in your classroom. CTE instructors and support staff, I ask you to conduct this challenge with students you feel you need to reconnect with.

• February is CTE Month: The Association for Career & Technical Education has designated February as Career and Technical Education Month, or CTE Month. It's an annual public awareness campaign that takes place each February to celebrate the value of CTE and the achievements and accomplishments of CTE programs across the country. Our CTE teachers are celebrated for the impact their teaching and knowledge has on our students learning a skill or trade. A special thanks to each of our wonderful CTE instructors for working hard to ensure our students are learning and growing every day. We truly appreciate your continued efforts to prepare our students for post-secondary success. There is nothing more valuable than a hands-on minds-on education!
  

• Professional Learning Day/CTE Site Visits: Monday, February 3rd is PD Day. Please see the district organizer at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uigHy2SQIRNfYpJpZl8p86hzpLc0MMbJFg3K53ZqrLQ/edit?usp=sharing or refer to Michele Marra's Schoology post on Wednesday, January 29th to find what the focus is for your area. If you have any questions, please contact the facilitator that is listed on the organizer. Please bring your fully charged computer to your session and be sure to sign in the morning AND the afternoon. CTE instructors- please use the form sent from Jermaine Williams on Thursday, January 30th to document your visits. Make sure to return the form to Jermaine by February 5th and please see him or Dr. Harrison for any questions.

• Teacher of the Year Nominations: It's that time of year to submit nominations for the St. Georges Technical High School Teacher of the Year 2021. Administrators, staff members, parents, and members of the community are encouraged to submit a nomination at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLWihaOnZ2jRDjaMCJtI68zFT0uXIuSx2KqB7tSWQUt75Mew/viewform?usp=sf_link Candidates for consideration should be the best representatives of the teaching profession, exceptionally dedicated, knowledgeable, and skilled and have the respect and admiration of students, parents, and colleagues. The nomination window for Teacher of the Year is open until Friday, February 14th. If you have any questions, please see Dr. Harrison.

• Career vs Career Dodgeball: The brackets are set and students are excited to participate in the career vs career dodgeball competition on Friday, February 7th. We are following the pep rally schedule although the seating for the event is by career area. Please see the attached image of the seating chart below or see Jamie Williams's Schoology post on Friday, January 24th for seating and additional details. Encourage your students to wear their career gear to represent their CTE program with pride!

• CTSO Competitions: Students participated in HOSA runoffs this past week. Judges could sense the competitive energy as students represented their career area with pride. Runoff judges had difficult decisions to make to determine the students and teams that would represent St. Georges at the State HOSA Competitions. SkillsUSA competitors had their group picture taken and their competitions are starting this week. See picture below. Please encourage our students competing in CTSOs and we wish all of our competitors good luck in their competitions.

• Learning to write includes two sets of skills - composing skills and transcription skills. Writing to learn is used to promote content learning and to improve the retention of the content.

• Writing to learn allows students to think on paper, extend detail, retain information, and acquire content knowledge. Learning to write is about writing skills: (things like grammar, capitalization, punctuation, organization of ideas etc.).

• Learning to write is teaching a student how to compose an item to write using preplanning, drafting and revising skills. Writing to learn is using writing skills and notetaking to better understand a subject matter.

• Writing to learn is a student’s “thinking” on paper, but you need to have learned to write in order to do this effectively.

• Writing to learn is using writing as a tool to promote content area learning; using words to show that you understand a concept.

• Learning to Write is knowing the mechanics and strategies to structure writing.

• More teachers at the secondary level, complete “writing to learn” tasks specifically because of “time” in the curriculum and teachers not understanding HOW to teach writing in the correct way.

• Most classes do more writing to learn and looking for knowledge and content.

• ELA classes are a 60 (Writing to Learn)/40 (Learning to Write) split

• Students don’t want to engage in the later parts of the writing process, especially proofreading and editing

• Getting every content area on board to support the writing crisis

• Students are learning through reading but not writing about it. They would prefer to verbally communicate and protest about writing.

• Various levels of skill within the same class

• They are not interested in the process, just the final grade.

• Being able to correctly and effectively teach the correct writing techniques, especially for those who are not ELA content area teachers.

• Keeping the correct terminology in writing techniques across grade levels and content areas.

• Many times, students just write something down in order to “complete” the assignment. These “completed” answers are often wrong.

The students pictured above were recognized last Thursday for receiving positive office referrals from a staff member. They enjoyed the experience and clapped for each other as their referral was read in front of the group. An administrator will call home and share the referral with a parent. If you have any additional ideas to recognize exceling students, please see a member of the administrative team and share your idea.

Congratulations to Donna Poore, she was approved at the NCCVT Board Meeting on Monday to serve as the ELA/Social Studies Specialist. Donna was hired to teach Social Studies at St. Georges in 2008. In the last twelve years, Donna has been the St. Georges/District teacher of the year, co-lead on the powerful development team, social studies teacher leader, instructional lead/coach and has served on several school, district and state committees. Her passion, dedication, and commitment to students, teachers, and parents at St. Georges will be missed. We know she will have the same impact at the district level.

Donna will be slowly transitioning to the district level. She will continue in the social studies leader position until the end of the school year. Some of her coaching responsibilities will be transferred to the other coaches.

Please congratulate Donna on her new position! ~Shanta Reynolds

"We want to acknowledge Jamie Williams and staff members that served as HOSA runoff judges this past week. Jamie did an outstanding job coordinating the effort throughout the week. The judges did an excellent job providing input to determine students that will represent SG at the State competitions." ~Shanta Reynolds & Chad Harrison

"I want to thank our Nurse Technology instructors for sponsoring the SL24 program Tuesday evening during our boys basketball game. Tammy Stinson and Marty Cunningham rallied students to sell t-shirts and raffle tickets to raise money and awareness about suicide prevention." ~Chad Harrison

National School Counseling (NSCW) Week 2020, "School Counselors: Helping Build Better Humans," will be celebrated from Feb. 3-7, 2020, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems. I would like to thank Justin, Natasha, and Sylvia for all they do to help students achieve school success and plan for a career. They have an unspeakable impact on the students trusted to their care. They go above and beyond ensuring that the social, emotional and logistical needs of our students are met by shaping their perspective and enabling them to perform at a high level in the classroom.

On Thursday, we will have a station set up in the main office for you to fill out the sign below (see the link below) and take a picture to show your appreciation for the great work that our school counselors demonstrate daily: "Thank you _____ (insert school counselor's name) for ____ (share something learned/gained from working with your school counselor)".

The picture below is the proclamation school counselors received from the Carney Administration officially recognizing this week as NSCW. ~Shanta

Monday, February 3rd

• Professional Development (District)
• CTE Site Visits

Tuesday, February 4th

• ACE: A Meeting- 7: 35 am
• Nutrition/Diabetes Workshop in Lecture Hall- 6 pm- 8:30 pm
• SkillsUSA Commercial Baking and Electrical Construction Wiring Competitions
• Twin Tuesday- Spirit Week

Wednesday, February 5th

• Wacky Wednesday- Spirit Week
• SkillsUSA Culinary Arts Competition

Thursday, February 6th

• ACE Tech Day- 7:35 am
• SkillsUSA Industrial Motor Control Competition
• Teacher Student Swap Day- Spirit Week

Friday, February 7th

• Steering Committee Meeting: Discuss Building Equity pgs. 70-85
• Career vs Career Dodgeball (Follow Pep Rally Schedule)
• Wear SG or Career Gear- Spirit Week