Parent-Teacher Conference Feedback Fall 2014 - we need your appraisal!

Hi Parents and Guardians!

Please give us your feedback about our parent-teacher conferences by clicking the link below:

https://docs.google.com/a/mexico.k12.mo.us/forms/d/1_XUjreFLhztZXt5u30f7iFymcQyYAxmFuMTQiIYUbdw/viewform

We appreciate your support of MHS and we are always seeking to improve - We improve by listening to you.

Dr. Terry Robinson

September 2014: MHS loves kids! Send us more! :)

This month's post includes our MHS Board Report. This is a collaborative monthly piece I ask our faculty and staff to contribute to so your school board has an update on work being done at the high school, but I've always thought it is also helpful to everyone. A lot happens in a month in high school and we are limited to just a few pages for the report, but it should give you a good overview as well. If you ever want to see all the documents the school board reviews about schools in our district you can access them by downloading the AP called "EBoards". All documents can been seen by the public electronically.

Just a reminder: Homecoming Week! We hope everyone will be a part of the festivities October 3! We'll have an all school assembly on Friday October 3 and I'd love to hear from parents if they'd like to attend -- you are invited! no worries we can figure out the seating! More details to come!

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!
MexicoMoHS

:)

T.

Board report for September follows:

Month/Year: September  2014

Current Enrollment: 656

Free/Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 265/43

Student Services Listing: 74

Students of the Month: Karen Baker and Chance Harper

Teacher of the Month: Will Announce on Sept. 18th @ Faculty Meeting

Bronze Bulldog Peer-to-Peer Award for Making A Difference at MHS: Ms. Patty Swisher

Academics - What have we learned?

Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal

We have had a “Making a Difference” M.A.D. slip given from one teacher to another teacher for a few years. We used this to model what we do with student “M” tickets - promoting positive behavior. We now have a bronze bulldog “traveling trophy”. The first award comes from the principal and the winner must take notice and pass it on to the next recipient. Patty Swisher was named for her consistent dedication to help our building achieve two Bronze PBIS recognition awards and her commitment to students. She retains the bronze bulldog this month and will recognize another faculty or staff member for next month.

Collaborative department teams met these past few weeks to develop team norms and begin identifying areas for academic improvement to develop/inform their department S.M.A.R.T. goals. The math team has begun using learning targets with the expectation all students will achieve those targets at 70% or above. Students failing to meet the intended learning target are provided with additional tutoring before school, after school, during class or during seminar then retested. The math team presented their strategy to all MHS faculty on September 10.

The ASVAB test, one of several assessments that can be used under MSIP 5 to gauge college and career readiness will be provided on October 7 by the counseling department. In addition, the department is exploring additional Compass testing for students.

The PLAN and EXPLORE assessments, provided in the past by ACT and modeled after the ACT have been replaced by the ASPIRE assessment. 10th grade students will take the new ASPIRE assessment.

The faculty and administration team developed a building plan for MHS. The plan included action steps for state and national assessments, PBIS, PLC development, and targeted professional development supported at the district and building level. All members of the faculty signed on to the document signifying their commitment to continuous improvement after sufficient time to read, review and offer input. The plan will be placed on display in the main hall of MHS

Mrs. Bridget Bingham - Special Services Teacher

After the Home Management students read an article in a Scholastic magazine about Body Bullies, they decided to accepted one of the challenges the magazine explained.  It is called Operation Beautiful.  This was started to help people feel good about themselves, bring smiles to strangers and stop body bullying .  Anonymous sticky notes are put on public restroom mirrors and stalls with feel good statements, such as “ being fabulous is not what matters….what does matter is that you care about yourself.”  The students will be spreading thoughtful messages throughout the school year within the high school.

Mrs. Sara Given - Speech and Theater

In June, Sara Given was invited to the Jellybean Conspiracy Foundation (JBC) Board meeting at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City to share the Fine Arts program she created for our Special Needs students.  The "Jellybean Speech Olympics" was the first of its kind anywhere. The Foundation commended Sara and her team of high school students on their creativity and hard work and have offered to fun and manage a website for "Jellybean Speech Olympics" for a year and link it to their Internationally known Foundation site. They have also invited Sara and her Jellybeans to speak at the JBC annual fundraiser Golf Tournament October 3. The overall goal of the foundation is to help Mrs. Given make her "Speech Olympics" a Nationwide event and get Jellybeans all across the country performing in similar festivals.

The Theatre and Vocal Music Departments will be collaborating again this fall on another Musical.  "When in Rome" an upbeat, comedic play with zany characters, an unlikely love story, gladiator games, and catchy toe-tapping music. Auditions are open to all students September 8-10 and production dates are November 21-23.

Sara Given will be presenting a workshop at the Speech & Theatre Association of Missouri conference on Friday, September 26 on her work with the Special Needs Students at the Jellybean Speech Olympics.  Students Katie Lauer, Kelsay Hobbs and Nicholas Cook will be performing along with their peer coaches Sidny Groves, Delanie Jones and Riley Given. Sara will present with the help of Assistant Speech & Debate Coach Laura Loudenslager.

The Colorful World of Jellybeans

(Speech & Theatre; all levels)

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." - Henry David Thoreau

Welcome to the World of Jellybeans! Formed in 2001, the Jellybean Conspiracy (JBC) is a non-for-profit organization that sponsors theatre shows designed to include the talents of students with and without disabilities. Our Jellybean experience began with a performance of the first JBC script in 2013 for MSHSAA District Readers Theatre Competition. This was the start of a remarkable journey that impacted the lives of our regular education students, our students with special needs and our community as a whole. In May of 2014, with permission of JBC founder Dr. Howard Martin and Executive Director, Gabriella Lucas we hosted the first ever "Jellybean Speech Olympics", a Speech "tournament" for students with disabilities.

Come hear about our journey, meet and watch performances by some of our Jellybeans, and learn how you can get your school signed up to participate in the "Jellybean Speech Olympics" hosted by Mexico High School. We guarantee getting involved with the Jellybeans in your school will have a positive impact on your life, and the lives of your students, professionally, and personally.

MHS Social Studies

AP World History students are working on a large project using Time-Maps.  Students will follow an AP theme through 8000 years of history across over 1100+ interactive history maps, then create a presentation to their classmates explaining the Key Developments and Continuity & Change of their respective Themes.  

AP American Government & Core American Government students are exploring fundamental concepts, including land-mark court cases, of American Government.  In addition, 4 person teams will be creating Presentations and Concept Maps of the Eight Principles of the Constitution for presentation to their peers and select staff.  

Exploring and Creating rules !!!

Multiple Social Studies Teachers will be attending an educator conference at the National Churchill Museum on Wednesday September 10th in Fulton, MO.

MHS Social Studies will be participating in Mexico's Walk Back in Time, their program TBD.

Mrs. Jami Williams - Media and Journalism

The journalism class is implementing the Maestro approach to journalism this year. Each student is responsible for one aspect of a story making the entire project a team effort based in authentic collaboration. The 2013-2014 yearbook was once again, for the third year in a row, selected for Gallery of Excellence by Walsworth publishing; this book will also be entered into JEA/NSPA competition. Advanced Production is planning the first film festival with a target date of late April to be held at the high school and will be coordinating not only a lip dub for the high school again this year, but will also be approaching Ms. Haag about coordinating and filming one for the middle school. Ms. Williams' classroom was selected as one of the pilot classrooms to test the full Google Classroom system.

Mrs. Christine Beshears - Key Club

Key Club will be sponsoring the Fall Blood Drive in the Sports Lobby on September 17th, 10 am - 2 pm. The public is invited to donate.

Mr. Brad Ellebracht - Assistant Principal and Mrs. Patty Swisher - PBiS Coordinator

We are engaging in several strategies to influence student attendance.  These include:

• a push to communicate attendance as being important, spearheaded by the counseling team
• revisiting current attendance practices  and incentive programs, to ensure implementation with fidelity
• increasing communication with families regarding student absences
• meeting weekly (administration, attendance secretary, counselors and SRO) regarding attendance and identifying and intervening with students that have attendance issues
• weekly monitoring and discussion of individual student attendance in seminar

Guidance and Counseling Team

We would like to welcome our new sophomore and junior Guidance Counselor - Kaitlin Hopke.

Counselors have been busy helping student adjust schedules, assigning TA hours and working on tutoring schedules for A+.

We have hosted 2 military visits in August

Four agency visits.

Miss Hopke has been administering the Compass Test.

All counselors have been visiting classrooms providing student information.

Upcoming Events:

MACC Dual Credit enrollment and payment due before September 16th.

We have 11 college/university and 4 military visits scheduled for September.

On September 24th, several Juniors and Seniors will be traveling to Columbia to a College Fair at the Hearnes Center.

Activities & Athletics

Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director

Activities Highlights:

Girls Softball Team finished 3rd in the Battle HS Tournament.  Karen Baker & D.J. Aaron-Holman were named to the All Tournament Team

Girls Golf Team finished 3rd place as a Team in the Paris Golf Tournament.

Malik Holman won the Mexico Invitational Cross Country Meet with a time of 17:11 & Michael Hamilton finished 11th.

Mexico Boys Cross Country Team finished 2nd as a team in the Mexico Invitational

Mexico Football Team is presently 2-1 with wins over North Callaway & Marshall.

Mexico High School Cheer Team qualified this summer at Regional Competition and will perform on Sunday October 5th at the State Cheer Championships @ the Hearnes Center in Columbia.

Mexico Girls Softball Team will host the District Softball Tournament on October 8,9, & 11 @ Gallop Field in Mexico.

The HS Volleyball Team will host the Annual Dig Pink Game on  October 7th vs. Brookfield.  This game raises money for Cancer Research.

Homecoming Activities will be the week of September 29th-October 3rd.

The Annual PowderPuff game will be Wednesday October 1st @ 7:30 PM @ Hawthorne Heights Stadium.

Parent-teacher Conferences Sept. 23 and 24, 2014

Hi Everyone,

We've only been in school for about one month, but things seem to be at full swing at MHS. Probably the one thing foremost in my mind right now is our upcoming parent-teacher conferences. We will have two nights available for parents to meet with teachers this year: September 23 and 24, 2014 from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm. Teachers from your son or daughter's seminar class will contact you to set up an appointment. If you haven't been contacted yet, you can call the school at 573-581-4296 and set your own appointment with our secretarial staff - we're glad to help you. All conferences will be in the sports complex and the Gary Filbert gym.

It has been a great start to our school year and we're looking forward to seeing the families we serve on Parent-teacher conference nights.

I've attached a short video here if you need more details: (it might take a minute or two to download depending on your network speed)

Preview attachment Parent Teacher Conf..m4vParent Teacher Conf..m4vNot virus scanned

Dr. Terry Robinson