Hi Everyone,
Did you ever wonder about what's happening in the classrooms of MHS? Maybe you wonder what students are thinking about current topics, homecoming, activities...we'll take a look at this link with several videos created this school year from Mrs.Jamie Williams Media and Broadcasting class.
In particular, I asked students to create a "This is MHS" video with the classroom as focus. I hope you enjoy taking a look as some of what is happening at MHS.
HERE's THE LINK:
http://www.schooltube.com/organization/164887/
Dr. Robinson
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Reflecting on a Positive 2012-13
Hello Everyone,
It has been a quick school year and it is hard to believe we only have a few weeks remaining! At this time of year I begin to notice all the great seniors around our building and realize they won't be with us next year. Senior leadership makes a difference at MHS and the class of 2013 has made their mark in a positive way at MHS. Their school spirit, their leadership in sports, student council and many other activities along with their academic prowess has helped improve the atmosphere at MHS.
In general this time of year we start to look back on what we can improve and be an even better service to our students and their families. At this time of year I hope you remember our teachers and all support staff as we wind down the year and offer them a kind word of thanks. We are all reflecting on what we were able to accomplish and what we plan to improve for the coming 2013-14 school year.
Thank you for your trust in us to lead your young person to success.
T.
REPORT TO OUR SCHOOL BOARD FOLLOWS:
Month/Year: April 2013
Current Enrollment: 656
Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 273
Student Services Listing: 69 IEP / 9 LEP
Students of the Month: Kamden Ekern and Danielle Blair
Academics
Katrina Dukes - P.E.
We have incorporated new activities in our Girls Strength and conditioning classes: zumba, P90X, insanity, and Pilates (just to name a few).. Many of the students enjoy the different workouts and are investing in these programs on their own.
Mrs. Lindsey Yancey/ Librarian and Student Council Sponsor:
Mrs. Yancey, Jacob Lauer, DayNeisha Shivers, Victoria Shaw and Gabe Jones attended the State Student Council Convention in Washington, MO over spring break. Jacob and DayNeisha were group leaders of discussion rooms for students from schools throughout the state! We were able to share many of the great things we do at MHS as well as pick up new ideas where we can improve!
The MHS Student Council was awarded the Gold Level Honor Council award. To meet the qualifications for this award we had to meet standards for community service, student and teacher appreciation, involvement with Special Olympics, attendance and involvement at the district and state level of Student Council and many other things. The MHS Student Council sponsors are very proud of the work our students have done!
MHS Speech and Theatre and Student Council are partnering for a very special community event. The Jellybean Conspiracy is a Reader's Theatre piece performed by regular as well as special services students and carries a very moving message of tolerance and the value of all people. This will be performed on April 17 at 7:30 in Emmons Hall. Please consider attending this event, see how talented and amazing our students really are! Cost is $5 at the door, doors open at 6:30.
Mrs. Bridget Bingham - Special Services
The Home Management Class is tickled pink! We went to the library today to check our pencil machine. (this was an additional project for students in Mrs. Bingham’s class this year) We had some money! The students counted $27.50!! The students are excited to see the deposit ticket. We are also having a guest speaker from the United Credit Union come talk with my math class about banking this April.
Mrs. Linda Rice - FACS and FCCLA
Eight Mexico HS students will be attending the FCCLA State Leadership Conference April 7-9 in Columbia. They have been preparing all year for the conference.
FCCLA will hold an officers election on April 24. The event will be a formal dress-up affair. Students interested in running for office for 2013-14 will give speeches and have a friend give a speech. Elections will be held April 25.
FCCLA will sponsor a banquet on May 11 at 4 PM for members and parents. Dress will be formal. A candlelight induction ceremony will be held.
The Life On Your Own classes learned how to plan menus based on the meal planning principles of variety in color, texture, taste, temperature, size and shape of food. The meal had to be nutritious, representing all the food groups on the USDA MyPlate, and not cost more than $1.50 per person. In one class, Brent Hildebrand brought an electric smoker and his group smoked ribs, while another group made homemade rolls, fruit salad and chocolate torte. Lyssa Smith brought her family recipe for Cajun chicken which was served with homemade mac and cheese and tie-dyed cupcakes. Emri Kerr showed off his cake decorating skills by teaching students to decorate cupcakes using homemade frosting and decorating tools.
The Advanced child Development class is designing a day care. They named it "Da Crib". They decided on what centers to offer, what toys and equipment to put in the centers, and planned a daily schedule to begin at 6 AM and close at 7 PM. They are publishing an activities booklet containing children's games, crafts, recipes and their favorite story books. They made hand puppets and are planning to invite in some small guests to play with us.
There's never a dull moment in FACS. Stop in sometime for a visit. We will make you smile!!!
Administration Team:
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:
Our Career Path Night for incoming Freshmen and their parents was held on April 4. We changed the format of this meeting to include an informational video created by Mrs. Williams and I and invited teachers from HCC and MHS representing our college and career pathways to meet with parents and students. The counselors also provided information about scheduling and planning to take courses focusing on a career path. The event was well attended with approximately 200 parents and students in attendance.
All departments are focused on final preparations for the End of Course tests. Teachers have had the added advantage to examine student progress with the addition of a SCANTRON machine. In addition, departments have met to review their curriculum scope and sequence. Our focus has been on developing an answer to two essential professional learning community questions: 1)What do we want our students to learn? 2) How do we know they have learned?. For 2012-13 teachers were directed to measure their results regularly so they could know if students were learning. In addition, I’ve collected survey data from our faculty to better inform our building plan for 2013-14 as we continue to address professional development needs and overall building needs. Almost all teachers provided valuable feedback and the Instructional Leadership Team made up of building teacher-leaders and administration will be reviewing the feedback to plan well for 2013-14.
I attended an AdvancED review of Vashon High School in St. Louis. MO on April 2-4. This review was a new enhanced version of the review of Mexico High School last school year. It offered some new tools to measure school success and systems for students. Vashon High School faces many of the challenges of MHS that are coupled with students from a disadvantaged background. It was a valuable learning experience.
PBiS - Positive Behavior Intervention and Support
Since our last review went well, we have decided to submit our application for Bronze status. We believe we have a very good chance of being certified ahead of schedule. If not, we will have the benefit of being reviewed again and receive quality feedback about where we can improve to achieve Bronze status.
Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:
Activities/Athletics
Spring Sports have begun. Many reschedules due to the wonderful winter weather sticking around longer than we would like. Track will be hosting the Ron Whittaker Classic on the 20th with many teams attending. Baseball will host a Freshman Tournament on the 27th and Varsity will play in the Marshall & Fulton Tournaments. Boys Tennis & Boys Golf are both well into their seasons. Tennis has an upcoming Tournament in Hannibal. Girls Soccer will be competing in the Camdenton Tournament the 26th & 27th.
Mr. Robert Cortez - Band and Orchestra
The Dixie Gray Band will be performing the National Anthem at Busch Stadium on Wednesday, May 1.
Here's the update from Music Festival . The Annual MSHSAA Music Festival was held March 21-22-23 at Mexico High School. Ten students qualified for the State Music Festival in Columbia.
Results from Mexico High School are as follows:
State Music Festival - Large Groups
Mexico High School Band - Robert Cortez, Director - 1 (Superior)
Mexico High School Choir - Julie Dreier, Director - 2 (Excellent)
District Music Festival - Solos and Small Ensembles
SUPERIOR (1) RATINGS - Advance to State Music Festival in Columbia (April 25)
Lillian Rotte, Vocal Solo
Jared Melton, Piano Solo
Saxophone Quartet (Jacob Lauer, Madeleine Prince, Chelsea McCord, and Haley Barnes)
Trombone Quartet (Austin Weber, Cassandra Schmidt, Lucas Handlin, and Caleb Quinlan)
Guidance and Counseling Team:
Guidance Office hosted 4 college visits, 6 agency visits, 6 military visits
Guidance Office hosted the ZAPS-ACT workshop on March 26th.
Local Scholarship deadline was March 15th, with 68 Seniors turning in 2064 scholarship applications. In addition, 24 current college students turned in 55 scholarship applications.
The 2013-2014 course Catalog was finalized and enrollment will begin the week of April 1st.
The CHECS program hosted four community volunteers within the Career Paths of Business, Management, & Technology & Human Services. Juniors, based upon their selection of possible career paths, attended the Career Path Breakout Sessions. Mr. Neely, Mrs. Turlington and Mr. Louder facilitated the sessions.
Mr. Holman organized the 8th grade high school tour on March 5th.
Upcoming MHS Events and Activities:
4/17 & 7/18 - Jellybean Conspiracy Performance in Emmons @ 7:30p.m.
4/19 & 4/20 - State Speech & Debate in Columbia
4/20 - Ron Whittaker Bulldog Track Classic
4/23 - ACT Free Testing for all Juniors and Seniors
5/4 - Prom “A Roaring Night Under the Lights”
5/7 - Parade of Bands
5/8 - Band Banquet
5/9 - Spring Choir Concert in Emmons
5/10 - Noteworthy Dinner Theatre in Emmons
5/14, 5/15 & 5/16 - Senior’s Finals and Grades Due
5/16 - Last Day for Seniors
5/17 - Senior Awards Assembly @ Sports Complex 9:00a.m.-11:00a.m.
- Graduation Practice & Senior Class Panoramic Picture @ 1:00p.m.
5/19 - Baccalaureate in Emmons @ 6:00p.m.
5/20 - 2013 Commencement Ceremony @ Hawthorne Heights 8:00p.m.
5/22 - 5/24 - Finals and Grades Due
5/24 - Last Day of School
It has been a quick school year and it is hard to believe we only have a few weeks remaining! At this time of year I begin to notice all the great seniors around our building and realize they won't be with us next year. Senior leadership makes a difference at MHS and the class of 2013 has made their mark in a positive way at MHS. Their school spirit, their leadership in sports, student council and many other activities along with their academic prowess has helped improve the atmosphere at MHS.
In general this time of year we start to look back on what we can improve and be an even better service to our students and their families. At this time of year I hope you remember our teachers and all support staff as we wind down the year and offer them a kind word of thanks. We are all reflecting on what we were able to accomplish and what we plan to improve for the coming 2013-14 school year.
Thank you for your trust in us to lead your young person to success.
T.
REPORT TO OUR SCHOOL BOARD FOLLOWS:
Month/Year: April 2013
Current Enrollment: 656
Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 273
Student Services Listing: 69 IEP / 9 LEP
Students of the Month: Kamden Ekern and Danielle Blair
Academics
Katrina Dukes - P.E.
We have incorporated new activities in our Girls Strength and conditioning classes: zumba, P90X, insanity, and Pilates (just to name a few).. Many of the students enjoy the different workouts and are investing in these programs on their own.
Mrs. Lindsey Yancey/ Librarian and Student Council Sponsor:
Mrs. Yancey, Jacob Lauer, DayNeisha Shivers, Victoria Shaw and Gabe Jones attended the State Student Council Convention in Washington, MO over spring break. Jacob and DayNeisha were group leaders of discussion rooms for students from schools throughout the state! We were able to share many of the great things we do at MHS as well as pick up new ideas where we can improve!
The MHS Student Council was awarded the Gold Level Honor Council award. To meet the qualifications for this award we had to meet standards for community service, student and teacher appreciation, involvement with Special Olympics, attendance and involvement at the district and state level of Student Council and many other things. The MHS Student Council sponsors are very proud of the work our students have done!
MHS Speech and Theatre and Student Council are partnering for a very special community event. The Jellybean Conspiracy is a Reader's Theatre piece performed by regular as well as special services students and carries a very moving message of tolerance and the value of all people. This will be performed on April 17 at 7:30 in Emmons Hall. Please consider attending this event, see how talented and amazing our students really are! Cost is $5 at the door, doors open at 6:30.
Mrs. Bridget Bingham - Special Services
The Home Management Class is tickled pink! We went to the library today to check our pencil machine. (this was an additional project for students in Mrs. Bingham’s class this year) We had some money! The students counted $27.50!! The students are excited to see the deposit ticket. We are also having a guest speaker from the United Credit Union come talk with my math class about banking this April.
Mrs. Linda Rice - FACS and FCCLA
Eight Mexico HS students will be attending the FCCLA State Leadership Conference April 7-9 in Columbia. They have been preparing all year for the conference.
FCCLA will hold an officers election on April 24. The event will be a formal dress-up affair. Students interested in running for office for 2013-14 will give speeches and have a friend give a speech. Elections will be held April 25.
FCCLA will sponsor a banquet on May 11 at 4 PM for members and parents. Dress will be formal. A candlelight induction ceremony will be held.
The Life On Your Own classes learned how to plan menus based on the meal planning principles of variety in color, texture, taste, temperature, size and shape of food. The meal had to be nutritious, representing all the food groups on the USDA MyPlate, and not cost more than $1.50 per person. In one class, Brent Hildebrand brought an electric smoker and his group smoked ribs, while another group made homemade rolls, fruit salad and chocolate torte. Lyssa Smith brought her family recipe for Cajun chicken which was served with homemade mac and cheese and tie-dyed cupcakes. Emri Kerr showed off his cake decorating skills by teaching students to decorate cupcakes using homemade frosting and decorating tools.
The Advanced child Development class is designing a day care. They named it "Da Crib". They decided on what centers to offer, what toys and equipment to put in the centers, and planned a daily schedule to begin at 6 AM and close at 7 PM. They are publishing an activities booklet containing children's games, crafts, recipes and their favorite story books. They made hand puppets and are planning to invite in some small guests to play with us.
There's never a dull moment in FACS. Stop in sometime for a visit. We will make you smile!!!
Administration Team:
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:
Our Career Path Night for incoming Freshmen and their parents was held on April 4. We changed the format of this meeting to include an informational video created by Mrs. Williams and I and invited teachers from HCC and MHS representing our college and career pathways to meet with parents and students. The counselors also provided information about scheduling and planning to take courses focusing on a career path. The event was well attended with approximately 200 parents and students in attendance.
All departments are focused on final preparations for the End of Course tests. Teachers have had the added advantage to examine student progress with the addition of a SCANTRON machine. In addition, departments have met to review their curriculum scope and sequence. Our focus has been on developing an answer to two essential professional learning community questions: 1)What do we want our students to learn? 2) How do we know they have learned?. For 2012-13 teachers were directed to measure their results regularly so they could know if students were learning. In addition, I’ve collected survey data from our faculty to better inform our building plan for 2013-14 as we continue to address professional development needs and overall building needs. Almost all teachers provided valuable feedback and the Instructional Leadership Team made up of building teacher-leaders and administration will be reviewing the feedback to plan well for 2013-14.
I attended an AdvancED review of Vashon High School in St. Louis. MO on April 2-4. This review was a new enhanced version of the review of Mexico High School last school year. It offered some new tools to measure school success and systems for students. Vashon High School faces many of the challenges of MHS that are coupled with students from a disadvantaged background. It was a valuable learning experience.
PBiS - Positive Behavior Intervention and Support
Since our last review went well, we have decided to submit our application for Bronze status. We believe we have a very good chance of being certified ahead of schedule. If not, we will have the benefit of being reviewed again and receive quality feedback about where we can improve to achieve Bronze status.
Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:
Activities/Athletics
Spring Sports have begun. Many reschedules due to the wonderful winter weather sticking around longer than we would like. Track will be hosting the Ron Whittaker Classic on the 20th with many teams attending. Baseball will host a Freshman Tournament on the 27th and Varsity will play in the Marshall & Fulton Tournaments. Boys Tennis & Boys Golf are both well into their seasons. Tennis has an upcoming Tournament in Hannibal. Girls Soccer will be competing in the Camdenton Tournament the 26th & 27th.
Mr. Robert Cortez - Band and Orchestra
The Dixie Gray Band will be performing the National Anthem at Busch Stadium on Wednesday, May 1.
Here's the update from Music Festival . The Annual MSHSAA Music Festival was held March 21-22-23 at Mexico High School. Ten students qualified for the State Music Festival in Columbia.
Results from Mexico High School are as follows:
State Music Festival - Large Groups
Mexico High School Band - Robert Cortez, Director - 1 (Superior)
Mexico High School Choir - Julie Dreier, Director - 2 (Excellent)
District Music Festival - Solos and Small Ensembles
SUPERIOR (1) RATINGS - Advance to State Music Festival in Columbia (April 25)
Lillian Rotte, Vocal Solo
Jared Melton, Piano Solo
Saxophone Quartet (Jacob Lauer, Madeleine Prince, Chelsea McCord, and Haley Barnes)
Trombone Quartet (Austin Weber, Cassandra Schmidt, Lucas Handlin, and Caleb Quinlan)
Guidance and Counseling Team:
Guidance Office hosted 4 college visits, 6 agency visits, 6 military visits
Guidance Office hosted the ZAPS-ACT workshop on March 26th.
Local Scholarship deadline was March 15th, with 68 Seniors turning in 2064 scholarship applications. In addition, 24 current college students turned in 55 scholarship applications.
The 2013-2014 course Catalog was finalized and enrollment will begin the week of April 1st.
The CHECS program hosted four community volunteers within the Career Paths of Business, Management, & Technology & Human Services. Juniors, based upon their selection of possible career paths, attended the Career Path Breakout Sessions. Mr. Neely, Mrs. Turlington and Mr. Louder facilitated the sessions.
Mr. Holman organized the 8th grade high school tour on March 5th.
Upcoming MHS Events and Activities:
4/17 & 7/18 - Jellybean Conspiracy Performance in Emmons @ 7:30p.m.
4/19 & 4/20 - State Speech & Debate in Columbia
4/20 - Ron Whittaker Bulldog Track Classic
4/23 - ACT Free Testing for all Juniors and Seniors
5/4 - Prom “A Roaring Night Under the Lights”
5/7 - Parade of Bands
5/8 - Band Banquet
5/9 - Spring Choir Concert in Emmons
5/10 - Noteworthy Dinner Theatre in Emmons
5/14, 5/15 & 5/16 - Senior’s Finals and Grades Due
5/16 - Last Day for Seniors
5/17 - Senior Awards Assembly @ Sports Complex 9:00a.m.-11:00a.m.
- Graduation Practice & Senior Class Panoramic Picture @ 1:00p.m.
5/19 - Baccalaureate in Emmons @ 6:00p.m.
5/20 - 2013 Commencement Ceremony @ Hawthorne Heights 8:00p.m.
5/22 - 5/24 - Finals and Grades Due
5/24 - Last Day of School
Monday, March 11, 2013
March 2013 Report
Hello Everyone!
Snow and more snow...then reboot and get back to work! Bad weather can put a damper on all we do in a school system. Fortunately, teamwork and flexibility are attributes which help MHS move forward with our mission to increase college and career readiness with our students. We continue to try and find ways to improve the service we provide to students. I've included the March board report for a look into what is happening and what will be happening in the near future. As I reflect, I'm so appreciative of the turn out of seniors and their parents at our academic recognition banquet and the parents that attended for our recognition assembly on March 4. We need your support! When you take the time to honor your son or daughter, I believe it makes a difference in their mind - you believe what they are doing is important. Thanks to our community, faculty and staff helping make all the events you can read about below possible.
In addition I encourage all parents to take advantage of our online resources to prepare their young person for the rigors of the ACT. See our counseling department for login information. This is a free service to all students we added at district cost for this school year.
In addition, I've noticed I've neglected this blog the past few months. My apologies to those who follow from time to time. :)
Dr. Terry Robinson
BOARD REPORT FOR MARCH FOLLOWS:
Month/Year: March 2013
Current Enrollment: 661
Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 234/43
Student Services Listing: 60
Students of the Month: Kaylee Stone and Alex Shaw
Academics
Ms. Laura Haynes/ Art Teacher: Art Club and Global Service Club participated in the True/False Festival 2/28 - 3/3 by decorating the Forrest Theatre with paper mache leaves.
Mrs. Sara Given/ Speech & Theatre Teacher: Congratulations to the MHS Speech, Debate & Theatre teams on a record breaking weekend 3/1 and 3/2 at MSHSAA Districts! There are 10 Individual Events. Of the 10, we advanced 8 to finals. In finals, we qualified
6 events to State! (and we compete with 1A to 5A Schools all together); Loralee Hays 3rd place Storytelling- State Qualifier and 3rd Place Prose- State Qualifier; Jordan Henry 2nd Place Oratory- State Qualifier and 2nd Place Radio Speaking- State Qualifier; Alex Shaw- 2nd Place Humorous- State Qualifier; Austin Weber and Kirby Weber- 3rd place Duet Acting- State Qualifier; Austin Weber 4th place Dramatic; James Clampitt 3rd Place International Extemp also competing were Aaliyah Shivers United States Extemp and Ryan Spargo- Poetry. The One Act Play "Rinse The Blood Off My Toga" was the Champion One Act and qualified for State!
The cast includes: Kirby Weber, Alex Shaw, Austin Weber, Noah Duncan, Loralee Hays, Ryan Spargo, Austin Bulson, Miah Case, Marisa Dennison, Dylan Goodman with tech crew Tex Alexander, Brandon Oligschlaeger, Emily Polacek and Riley Given.
The “Jellybean Conspiracy” won 3rd place and missed state by 2 points! Congrats to Alex Shaw who placed 3rd in Humorous at The National Forensic League District Tournament and is the 1st alternate for Nationals and to Lauren Ralls placing 7th in Humorous. Our semi-finalists were Jordan Henry in Oratory, Loralee Hays in dramatic and Austin Weber in Dramatic 3/9/13.
Mrs. Lindsey Yancey/ Librarian and Student Council Sponsor: Reported the new Class Representatives for 2013-14 school year;
Student Council Officers for 2013-2014, Executive Officers: Jacob Lauer- President, DayNeisha Shivers- Vice President, Abby Dick- Secretary, Keagan Riddick- Treasurer
Class of 2014: Shannen Maxwell- President, Kamden Ekern- Vice President, Victoria Shaw- Secretary, Brooke Tessman- Treasurer
Class of 2015: Maddie Prince- President, Mariah Miller- Vice President, Whitney Fecht- Secretary, James Perll- Treasurer Class of 2016: Lauren Ralls- President, Allison Smiley- Vice President, Kaylee Hutcheson- Secretary, Rachel Owings- Treasurer
Administration Team:
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:
MHS will be administering the ACT on April 23rd during school to all Junior and Senior students for free - no cost to students or the school district. This test is part of the ACT Scaling Study and for our participation our students receive a free test and a reportable score to colleges and universities. All student registration paperwork will take place at MHS and all Juniors and Seniors are expected to take the exam.
The ACT practice day for juniors was held on February 15. Teachers worked to host this event to prepare students for the rigor of the ACT. The test is given under ACT requirements and scores are analyzed by teachers. In addition we continue to offer online preparation for the ACT through their online test prep and our math department will be adopting ACT’s Quality Core to assist them with alignment to the rigors of the ACT. ACT’s Quality core is a product produced by ACT which provides summer training and test banks teachers can use in their classes. In addition Quality core identifies instructional units and objectives teachers should be teaching and measuring to better prepare our students for college and career readiness.
Graduation Speech try outs were 3/4/13. Jordan Henry, Jose Hernandez, Gabby Keller and Aaliyah Shivers were chosen to speak at graduation.
Seniors submitted nominations for teacher of the year; this teacher will be honored at graduation.
Academic Boosters: Continue to volunteer to tutor students after school. They have been involved in assisting students in our academic intervention study hall.
Students will be attending Leadership in Practice on March 25-27 at the Elks Lodge sponsored by MHS and the Chamber of Commerce. The 3 day conference includes local leaders and training to help freshmen and sophomores problem solve and consider leadership in their high school. Community leaders Dave Lankford and Dana Keller have been instrumental in continuing this program into the 4th consecutive year.
Students earning academic letters were honored. Sophomores and Juniors were honored for 3 or 5 semesters of maintaining a 3.5 GPA or above. Seniors were honored with a recognition banquet for earning a 3.5 GPA for 7 semesters. Seniors were further honored with a video produced by Mrs. Jamie Williams and their thoughts on success were included.
JROTC will be First Presbyterian Church Food Bank on Thursday March 14 as part of their service learning project. Previous volunteer effort was located at the Missouri Veterans Home. 2 MHS students are currently participating in Raiders
Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:
Activities/Athletics
Spring Sports practices started February 25th with approximately 175 student athletes participating. Spring will see Baseball, Boys Tennis & Golf, Girls Soccer & Track competing. Most seasons will start by the 19th.
We recently hosted Districts for Basketball and for Speech & Theatre. We also hosted a Sectional Basketball game for Class 3.
Our Boys Basketball team earned 1st at Districts, won Sectionals and lost in the Quarterfinal game. The Girls Basketball team had a big win over Helias, but lost to Kirksville to take 2nd at Districts.
The One Act Theatre group placed 1st and will be advancing along with 6 individual events.
The Readers Theatre “Jellybean Conspiracy” placed 3rd. They will be performing again on March 17th for the community @ Emmons Hall, 7:00 pm. The messsage of this play is powerful. The play addresses bullying and the need for tolerance of those with individual differences.
PBIS – Positive Behavior Intervention – Coordinator Patty Swisher
Our school received the following message from our Regional Professional Development evaluators. MHS has implemented Tier 1 ahead of the expected schedule. We have been successful because of our PBiS teamwork at the high school and will be applying for Bronze certification.
EMAIL BELOW:
From: Holloway, Amanda L.
Date: Monday, March 4, 2013
Subject: SET Results!
To: "Terry Robinson (trobinson@mexico.k12.mo.us)" <trobinson@mexico.k12.mo.us>, "Brad Ellebracht (bellebracht@mexico.k12.mo.us)" <bellebracht@mexico.k12.mo.us>, "Patricia Swisher (pswisher@mexico.k12.mo.us)" <pswisher@mexico.k12.mo.us>
Cc: "Starkey, Danielle Nicole" <StarkeyD@missouri.edu>
Dear Dr. Robinson and Mr. Ellebracht,
Thank you again for allowing me to visit your building today to conduct the Schoolwide Evaluation Tool (SET)! Please see attached for the results. Congratulations on your high level of Tier 1 SW-PBS implementation! This is especially great considering this is your first year of implementation! I have attached an Action Plan template for your team’s use.
Please let me know if you have any questions on the results.
Amanda
Amanda Holloway
Regional Schoolwide PBS Consultant
Heart of Missouri RPDC
University of Missouri-Columbia, College of Education
2 London Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
Phone: 882-5763
Fax: (573) 884-5622
Guidance and Counseling Team:
Mark Holman worked on the Job Shadowing Project for Sophomores and Special Services students.
Mark attended Inter- Agency Meeting with local agency leaders
All counselors worked on the ACT Junior Practice Day and our upcoming Junior Free ACT Day on April 23, 2013.
Phil Long and Kris Turlington along with financial aid workers from local colleges hosted the FAFSA Frenzy
Guidance Office hosted 4 college/university visits, 2 Military visits and 3 agency visits.
Amy Auwarter brought members of elementary m & M's to eat lunch with high school members of m & M's.
Participated in EOC Planning meetings with Administration, Technology Department, Teaching Staff
Upcoming MHS Events and Activities:
3/18 - Spring Sports Pictures
3/19- Ned Miller meeting with select teachers
3/20 - Senior Graduation meeting
3/21 - 3/23 - Music Festival
3/21 - University of Michigan, Monitoring the Future Survey w/ Seniors
3/22 - No School
3/25 - 3/27 - Leadership in Practice @ Elks
3/26 - ZAPS, Act Prep test for Sophomores
4/1 - No School
4/5 - 4/7 Choir Trip, St. Louis
4/12 - Foreign Film Festival
4/13 - ACT Test
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
November 2012
Hi Everyone,
We continue to work to improve the high school. We are committed to continuous improvement. I appreciate everyone responding to our last survey about parent-teacher conferences. The data we collected was insightful and helped us gauge our efforts and the event. In response to some of the data, we will be advocating for a second parent-teacher conference for Spring 2014 - so next school year will likely have two parent teacher conferences. In addtion, in collaboration with our academic boosters we are pushing for students to attend our academic intervention study hall and for our teachers to support this after school study hall by providing assignments students can complete to earn credit in their courses. I've appreciated the continued support of our academic boosters to help us shore up our graduation rate. In addition I encourage you to check out the following website created by Jamie Williams our media and broadcasting teacher and her students - take an inside look at MHS and the learning opportunities we provide for our students:
at http://worklikeadog.weebly.com/
I apologize for being a bit behind in my posts; I'm going to attempt to catch up this month, the October board report is below for your information.
OCTOBER BOARD REPORTS FOLLOW:
Month/Year: October, 2012
Current Enrollment: 719
Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 320; 42%
Student Services Listing: IEP-84, LEP-10
Students of the Month: Jake Anderson and Sarah Smith
Academics
Administration Team:
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:
Using Data to Inform Instruction
Department chairs will have four collaborative department meetings during the month of October to complete their Plan Do Check Act continuous improvement cycles. Tentatively these plans will be presented in November by each department so all faculty will be aware of and consider plans in the building. These cycles of improvement are team level efforts by MHS departments to improve EOC scores by 10% in the top two levels - advanced and proficient and to meet at least the state-level annual performance review requirement for the ACT. Ms. Gina Gilman, Mr. Michael Auer and I have facilitated department chair meetings and attended department level meetings when available to support his effort. In addition, Mr. Auer, from our Columbia, Missouri Regional Professional Development Committee will be assisting department chairs and attending some department meetings to assist in building teamwork within departments and embedding professional learning community and quality improvement practices. Overall, the goal of the high school is to grow teacher-leadership capacity and teamwork to achieve results
Our first practice ACT was held for seniors on September 27. This date was moved forward to gain data sooner about areas teachers could address with our seniors and possible affect final ACT scores. We are also attempting to enhance the data processing in the high school of the results via a computer program using scanned answer cards. Mr. Neely and Ms. Gilman have been instrumental in working toward implementing the new scanning machine and working with our vendor and Jenn Kraft and Dana Hunt.
In classroom walkthroughs I have observed more use of PLAN, EXPLORE and ACT test items to prepare students. We are still planning to enhance our finals for December 2012 by better reflecting the rigor of the ACT and EOC assessments.
JROTC Continued Growth
Over 40 students are currently participating in JROTC with support from the Missouri Military Academy. This program has nearly doubled in growth. Our homecoming parade featured the first Mexico High School JROTC color guard.
Parent-teacher conferences measured in post-conference online surveys
Our parent teacher conferences were measured as part of our continued improvement in this area at the high school. Parents participated in their conferences with teachers, then parents privately responded to a survey online which tabulated the results.
I’ve included the results below from an email memo sent to our teachers. The items we measured consider respect and communication, as well as the overall experience at parent-teacher conferences. 202 parents completed the survey. Our goal is to continue to improve these areas in our communication with our parents. We have collected these results which now allows us to chart our progress and monitor our performance each year. (see email memo next page).
Summary from an Email to our teachers follows:
September 28, 2012
Congrats to everyone on Parent-Teacher conferences!
Here are our overall approval ratings from Parent-Teacher Conferences Sept. 2012:
Total responses: ranged between 196-202 parents for each one below; some items were answered, while others were not
Overall rating of experience: 95% Positive or Very Positive - A
Communication on child's progress was helpful: 87.3% Agree or Strongly Agree - B+
Communication about grading: 85.5% Agree or Strongly Agree (parents understand how
grades being determined) - B
Communicating respect to parents (Teachers): 92.5% Agree or Strongly Agree - A minus
Communicating respect to parents (Administrators): 84.9% Agree or Strongly Agree - B
Child feels safe at school: 82.8% Agree or Strongly Agree - B
**note: a few items not calculated here for the "other" category in the question asked would push a percentage up or down by 1%
More to come, but good grades all around with some room for improvement
Our next goal will be to have all As in every category.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:
Mexico High School hosted softball districts this past week as an addition to our homecoming festivities. We will be meeting this week to determine the location of district competition for basketball. Due to some district reassignments being made by MSHSAA, Mexico was not the top choice by voting schools in the new district for wrestling districts competition for 2012-13. St. Charles West will host district wrestling for the 2012-13 school year. However, the wrestling district tournament will be held in Mexico for
2013-14.
PBIS – Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Team – Coordinator Patty Swisher
The team has continued to attend trainings and is meeting requirements for PBiS with guidance from the Columbia, Missouri RPDC. The next meeting will be in Columbia on October 11, 2012. An informational video on proper assembly behavior was shown to seminar classes just prior to the homecoming assembly. In addition, students continue to be frequently recognized with bulldog respect, responsibility and safety tickets each week. A drawing has been held each week for dinner and food coupons to local Mexico restaurants. We have also expanded the collaboration and idea sharing at the district level by attending a district level meeting for PBiS. We recently completed our first set of discipline data to review. This data provides areas to improve with our students by category of offense, area and time of day.
Bridget Bingham – Special Education Teacher
The Home Management students will be walking to Westlake's next week to purchase mums. We will be planting them in the flowerbed adjacent to the MHS circle drive. This is an annual project for the students and a welcome addition to enhancing our school environment.
Sara Given – Speech, Drama and Theatre Teacher
On Friday, September 28 Sara Given presented a workshop at the Speech & Theatre Association of Missouri Conference at their annual conference. Sara was asked to present about her Advanced Children's Theatre program. She specifically addressed the current script writing unit the students are completing and their original anti-drug program they will perform at our elementary schools October 9-11.
The Advanced Children's Theatre class will present their anti-drug program at St. Brendan's Tuesday, October 9 at 2:00, Eugene Field Wednesday, October 10 at 2:00 and McMillan Thursday, October 11 at 2:00. All are welcome to attend.
Jami Williams – Media, Technology, Yearbook and Publications Teacher
The Mexico High School broadcast journalism program debut their first video newsmagazine, The Bark, on the MHS student broadcasting network, The Bite, on October 4, 2012. The network is currently an online channel and is currently housed at www.thebitemhs.weebly.com. The show, which was student-generated, student-written and student-produced, is the first broadcast since the program moved to Mexico High School from Hart Career Center this year. There are 21 students enrolled in the class and each student had a hand in one of the six stories that aired. The Bark will be produced every two weeks with the next show going up on the site on October 18, 2012 at 9 p.m. The October 18 show will feature digital profiles of each students' "hero" or a character in their life that has had an impact on them. The Bite has recently been invited to become a Midwest affiliate of STN (Student Television Network), which is a division of the Academy of Scholastic Broadcasting. Ms. Williams, the instructor/adviser, has also received an invitation to present her student work at the ASB Vid-Con held in Springfield, MO, at the end of the month.
The Bite, the overarching student broadcast network, will also begin working with KWWR/KXEO within the next month to bring a student presence to the local airwaves. One possibility that has been discussed is a morning drive-time show "Drive with a Dog" which will be pre-taped by members of the class and submitted to KXEO and run one day each week during the morning drive to school.
Stay tuned for GREAT things from the Broadcast Journalism students!
Guidance and Counseling Team:
Guidance Office activities during the past month of September:
• ACT practice day Sept. 27
• ACT meeting with senior seminar groups
• Mr. Neely attended the Articulation/CTE Advisory at MACC in Moberly
• Parent/Teacher Conferences
• College Career Fair
• Counselors meeting at HCC
• Mr. Holman administrated Explore and Plan Tests for 9th and 10th graders
• All counselors proctored small group testing for Explore and Plan
• MACC visited concerning DC Classes
• Senior Parent Night
• Scantron integration
• Mrs. Turlington and Mr. Neely attended the MU Counselor Meeting
• Mr. Holman attended our local Interagency Meeting
• New Scholarship opportunities have been downloaded on our website
• 8 College/university visits during September
• MHS/HCC College Fair
• 1 Army presentation
• 8 Army lunch room visits
• 104 transcripts requests mailed
MHS Events and Activities:
We concluded District Softball on the 6th. We hosted this event with 2 games on Wednesday, 2 games on Thursday and the championship game on Saturday.
Girls Golf is competing in sectionals on October 8th. They and tennis both finished up district competitions earlier this month.
School House Rock practices are well under way. Our students will perform this wonderful musical on November 16th & 17th at 7:00 pm and again on Sunday the 18th at 2:00 pm.
Football, Cross Country, Volleyball & Boys soccer will all wrap up regular seasons this month with districts to follow at the end of the month.
The MMS & MHS Student Councils will be bringing “Rachel’s Challenge” to our district on the 23rd of October with an assembly at both the Middle School & the High School.
Winter sports will have practices starting on October 29th. Schedules are posted on the MHS Athletics page.
We continue to work to improve the high school. We are committed to continuous improvement. I appreciate everyone responding to our last survey about parent-teacher conferences. The data we collected was insightful and helped us gauge our efforts and the event. In response to some of the data, we will be advocating for a second parent-teacher conference for Spring 2014 - so next school year will likely have two parent teacher conferences. In addtion, in collaboration with our academic boosters we are pushing for students to attend our academic intervention study hall and for our teachers to support this after school study hall by providing assignments students can complete to earn credit in their courses. I've appreciated the continued support of our academic boosters to help us shore up our graduation rate. In addition I encourage you to check out the following website created by Jamie Williams our media and broadcasting teacher and her students - take an inside look at MHS and the learning opportunities we provide for our students:
at http://worklikeadog.weebly.com/
I apologize for being a bit behind in my posts; I'm going to attempt to catch up this month, the October board report is below for your information.
OCTOBER BOARD REPORTS FOLLOW:
Month/Year: October, 2012
Current Enrollment: 719
Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 320; 42%
Student Services Listing: IEP-84, LEP-10
Students of the Month: Jake Anderson and Sarah Smith
Academics
Administration Team:
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:
Using Data to Inform Instruction
Department chairs will have four collaborative department meetings during the month of October to complete their Plan Do Check Act continuous improvement cycles. Tentatively these plans will be presented in November by each department so all faculty will be aware of and consider plans in the building. These cycles of improvement are team level efforts by MHS departments to improve EOC scores by 10% in the top two levels - advanced and proficient and to meet at least the state-level annual performance review requirement for the ACT. Ms. Gina Gilman, Mr. Michael Auer and I have facilitated department chair meetings and attended department level meetings when available to support his effort. In addition, Mr. Auer, from our Columbia, Missouri Regional Professional Development Committee will be assisting department chairs and attending some department meetings to assist in building teamwork within departments and embedding professional learning community and quality improvement practices. Overall, the goal of the high school is to grow teacher-leadership capacity and teamwork to achieve results
Our first practice ACT was held for seniors on September 27. This date was moved forward to gain data sooner about areas teachers could address with our seniors and possible affect final ACT scores. We are also attempting to enhance the data processing in the high school of the results via a computer program using scanned answer cards. Mr. Neely and Ms. Gilman have been instrumental in working toward implementing the new scanning machine and working with our vendor and Jenn Kraft and Dana Hunt.
In classroom walkthroughs I have observed more use of PLAN, EXPLORE and ACT test items to prepare students. We are still planning to enhance our finals for December 2012 by better reflecting the rigor of the ACT and EOC assessments.
JROTC Continued Growth
Over 40 students are currently participating in JROTC with support from the Missouri Military Academy. This program has nearly doubled in growth. Our homecoming parade featured the first Mexico High School JROTC color guard.
Parent-teacher conferences measured in post-conference online surveys
Our parent teacher conferences were measured as part of our continued improvement in this area at the high school. Parents participated in their conferences with teachers, then parents privately responded to a survey online which tabulated the results.
I’ve included the results below from an email memo sent to our teachers. The items we measured consider respect and communication, as well as the overall experience at parent-teacher conferences. 202 parents completed the survey. Our goal is to continue to improve these areas in our communication with our parents. We have collected these results which now allows us to chart our progress and monitor our performance each year. (see email memo next page).
Summary from an Email to our teachers follows:
September 28, 2012
Congrats to everyone on Parent-Teacher conferences!
Here are our overall approval ratings from Parent-Teacher Conferences Sept. 2012:
Total responses: ranged between 196-202 parents for each one below; some items were answered, while others were not
Overall rating of experience: 95% Positive or Very Positive - A
Communication on child's progress was helpful: 87.3% Agree or Strongly Agree - B+
Communication about grading: 85.5% Agree or Strongly Agree (parents understand how
grades being determined) - B
Communicating respect to parents (Teachers): 92.5% Agree or Strongly Agree - A minus
Communicating respect to parents (Administrators): 84.9% Agree or Strongly Agree - B
Child feels safe at school: 82.8% Agree or Strongly Agree - B
**note: a few items not calculated here for the "other" category in the question asked would push a percentage up or down by 1%
More to come, but good grades all around with some room for improvement
Our next goal will be to have all As in every category.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:
Mexico High School hosted softball districts this past week as an addition to our homecoming festivities. We will be meeting this week to determine the location of district competition for basketball. Due to some district reassignments being made by MSHSAA, Mexico was not the top choice by voting schools in the new district for wrestling districts competition for 2012-13. St. Charles West will host district wrestling for the 2012-13 school year. However, the wrestling district tournament will be held in Mexico for
2013-14.
PBIS – Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Team – Coordinator Patty Swisher
The team has continued to attend trainings and is meeting requirements for PBiS with guidance from the Columbia, Missouri RPDC. The next meeting will be in Columbia on October 11, 2012. An informational video on proper assembly behavior was shown to seminar classes just prior to the homecoming assembly. In addition, students continue to be frequently recognized with bulldog respect, responsibility and safety tickets each week. A drawing has been held each week for dinner and food coupons to local Mexico restaurants. We have also expanded the collaboration and idea sharing at the district level by attending a district level meeting for PBiS. We recently completed our first set of discipline data to review. This data provides areas to improve with our students by category of offense, area and time of day.
Bridget Bingham – Special Education Teacher
The Home Management students will be walking to Westlake's next week to purchase mums. We will be planting them in the flowerbed adjacent to the MHS circle drive. This is an annual project for the students and a welcome addition to enhancing our school environment.
Sara Given – Speech, Drama and Theatre Teacher
On Friday, September 28 Sara Given presented a workshop at the Speech & Theatre Association of Missouri Conference at their annual conference. Sara was asked to present about her Advanced Children's Theatre program. She specifically addressed the current script writing unit the students are completing and their original anti-drug program they will perform at our elementary schools October 9-11.
The Advanced Children's Theatre class will present their anti-drug program at St. Brendan's Tuesday, October 9 at 2:00, Eugene Field Wednesday, October 10 at 2:00 and McMillan Thursday, October 11 at 2:00. All are welcome to attend.
Jami Williams – Media, Technology, Yearbook and Publications Teacher
The Mexico High School broadcast journalism program debut their first video newsmagazine, The Bark, on the MHS student broadcasting network, The Bite, on October 4, 2012. The network is currently an online channel and is currently housed at www.thebitemhs.weebly.com. The show, which was student-generated, student-written and student-produced, is the first broadcast since the program moved to Mexico High School from Hart Career Center this year. There are 21 students enrolled in the class and each student had a hand in one of the six stories that aired. The Bark will be produced every two weeks with the next show going up on the site on October 18, 2012 at 9 p.m. The October 18 show will feature digital profiles of each students' "hero" or a character in their life that has had an impact on them. The Bite has recently been invited to become a Midwest affiliate of STN (Student Television Network), which is a division of the Academy of Scholastic Broadcasting. Ms. Williams, the instructor/adviser, has also received an invitation to present her student work at the ASB Vid-Con held in Springfield, MO, at the end of the month.
The Bite, the overarching student broadcast network, will also begin working with KWWR/KXEO within the next month to bring a student presence to the local airwaves. One possibility that has been discussed is a morning drive-time show "Drive with a Dog" which will be pre-taped by members of the class and submitted to KXEO and run one day each week during the morning drive to school.
Stay tuned for GREAT things from the Broadcast Journalism students!
Guidance and Counseling Team:
Guidance Office activities during the past month of September:
• ACT practice day Sept. 27
• ACT meeting with senior seminar groups
• Mr. Neely attended the Articulation/CTE Advisory at MACC in Moberly
• Parent/Teacher Conferences
• College Career Fair
• Counselors meeting at HCC
• Mr. Holman administrated Explore and Plan Tests for 9th and 10th graders
• All counselors proctored small group testing for Explore and Plan
• MACC visited concerning DC Classes
• Senior Parent Night
• Scantron integration
• Mrs. Turlington and Mr. Neely attended the MU Counselor Meeting
• Mr. Holman attended our local Interagency Meeting
• New Scholarship opportunities have been downloaded on our website
• 8 College/university visits during September
• MHS/HCC College Fair
• 1 Army presentation
• 8 Army lunch room visits
• 104 transcripts requests mailed
MHS Events and Activities:
We concluded District Softball on the 6th. We hosted this event with 2 games on Wednesday, 2 games on Thursday and the championship game on Saturday.
Girls Golf is competing in sectionals on October 8th. They and tennis both finished up district competitions earlier this month.
School House Rock practices are well under way. Our students will perform this wonderful musical on November 16th & 17th at 7:00 pm and again on Sunday the 18th at 2:00 pm.
Football, Cross Country, Volleyball & Boys soccer will all wrap up regular seasons this month with districts to follow at the end of the month.
The MMS & MHS Student Councils will be bringing “Rachel’s Challenge” to our district on the 23rd of October with an assembly at both the Middle School & the High School.
Winter sports will have practices starting on October 29th. Schedules are posted on the MHS Athletics page.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Parents and Guardians,
We will hold parent-teacher conferences this week on Thursday, Sept. 27, 1:00 - 8 pm and Friday, 8 am to 11 am.
If you haven't made an appointment with a teacher yet, they may have difficulty reaching you.
Please call the main office and we can set an appointment for you.
573-581-4296
We'll also be collecting feedback on our parent=-teacher conferences. This is the link:
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=dg7w6psinlgre5p1045645
After parent teacher conferences we encourage you to visit our feedback table and inform us about your experience and how we can improve. The table will have several laptops you can use to reach the survey website above, but if you're pressed for time, feel free to use the link above following your conference from home.
T.
We will hold parent-teacher conferences this week on Thursday, Sept. 27, 1:00 - 8 pm and Friday, 8 am to 11 am.
If you haven't made an appointment with a teacher yet, they may have difficulty reaching you.
Please call the main office and we can set an appointment for you.
573-581-4296
We'll also be collecting feedback on our parent=-teacher conferences. This is the link:
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=dg7w6psinlgre5p1045645
After parent teacher conferences we encourage you to visit our feedback table and inform us about your experience and how we can improve. The table will have several laptops you can use to reach the survey website above, but if you're pressed for time, feel free to use the link above following your conference from home.
T.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Welcome BACK! Aug. 28, 2012
Hi Everyone,
If you know someone that wants to receive information about happenings at the high school; point them in this direction. I use this, our local Ledger, our automated phone message system, email, old snail mail, personal phone calls, our website, a faculty-only website for internal messages, email and most recently our Athletic Director - Mr. Jeff Anderson has added twitter to his own skill set about activities and athletics at MHS. He now regularly posts game scores and events for everyone connected to twitter. If you need information on how to add him, call his secretary in our office, Mrs. Kris Fecht. Right now, it's a little beyond my skill set (ha).
We're always working to improve communication and we realize we can never have enough. Over the past two years we've been growing areas of our school academically, culturally, and socially. This school needs to always be a beacon in our community and we aim to continue to polish the gem it is in Central Missouri.
This year we hired several new teachers and I'm proud of the hires we were able to add to our faculty. Many come with years of seasoning in education and our first year teachers appear to be the top of their class. Our administration team believes they will bring a boost of commitment and knowledge to our community of learners leading student learners. I met with them just prior to the school year beginning and I'll paraphrase my thoughts for them here:
"You were all hired because you have the spark, the attitude, the care and concern for students we're looking for in teachers. Your references talked about your ability to connect and your hard working attitude. If you're just beginning teaching; we think you're a standout. We hired you for this drive and attitude to improve yourself along with your enthusiasm for kids."
If you know you have a new teacher to MHS teaching your son or daughter, be sure to take the time to let them know you appreciate their efforts and their commitment to us this school year. As an inside note: our MHS administration team was focused on finding the best available teachers and personally I even used Skype (video conferencing online) to talk to several across our nation (yes, I learned another technology communication tool). We didn't hire anyone just based on a Skype interview, but it allowed us to network and connect with a few dsireing to be in mid-Missouri due to past connections to the region; we also took the time to check references well. Some of the conversations we had with references were the most helpful in choosing the best candidates for MHS.
I've shared our last August board report below for your information. This is the report given to the board each month. I hope everyone continues to feel welcome at the high school whenever you have a concern! We are here for your son or daughter and to succeed.
AUGUST 2012 BOARD REPORT:
Students of the Month: To be determined in Sept. 2012
Administration Team
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:
The building department chairs met on July 24 to review the building focus plan for 2012-13. This plan is based on the input of the superintendent, principals and department chairs. Additionally it reflects areas we will focus for the school year – Positive Behavior Intervention and Support to address discipline and the learning environment, Professional Learning Communities – to continue to improve practices and academic achievement, ACT and EOCs– test preparation and curriculum alignment and Whole Faculty Study Groups (WFSG) – this is a learners creating learners focus tied to a building-wide professional development plan. Our first WFSG will be on the book “Mindset” by Carol Dweck; small groups of teachers will participate in a book study on the principles found there and their application to our high school efforts. Mrs. Gina Gilman has will provide guidance and reflection activities for the WFSGs.
Department chairs and other subject area teachers participated in E2020 training (online course software). Early feedback from these teachers indicated the program is rigorous and might be a possible support for classroom curriculum in addition to regular courses.
Truman State University will offer up to 5 credit hours to students able to pass their college level competency exams in Algebra and Trigonometry. Mr. Keith Louder was appointed the liaison for facilitation of this program by Dr. Robinson. In essence, students can learn from their regular MHS math instructors then take up to 5 tests to earn Truman State Credit after the student has registered for the Truman State courses at a reduced rate. These credits are readily accepted at almost all Missouri Universities because they are endorsed by Truman State. A representative from Truman State will visit MHS to coordinate registration after Mr. Louder has disseminated pertinent information and total student interest is known.
PBIS – Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Team – Coordinator Patty Swisher
The PBIS team met over the summer and new members were added. Plans for incentives for students and improving data collection efforts have been completed for 2012-13. PBiS continues to be in conjunction with training and consulting from the Columbia Regional Professional Development trainers. Training for new faculty members was completed and all faculty will participate in a training session during our annual building “Genesis Day”.
Activities/Athletics;
From Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:
On August 7th Mr. Freeman & Mr. Anderson trained 40 new & Fall sport coaches on philosophy and policy pertaining to extra-curricular activities.
Fall Sports parent meeting will be Monday August 13th @ 7:30 PM in Sports Complex Lobby.
*Trained parents on Concussion Education
*Trained parents on Communication and proper order of Chain of Command.
Fall Sports Participation:
Boys & Girls Cross Country: 25
Boys Soccer: 26
Volleyball: 16
Girls Softball: 24
Football: 60
Girls Golf: 10
Girls Tennis: 8
Band: 80
Cheerleading: 26
Dance: 12
Total: 287
If you know someone that wants to receive information about happenings at the high school; point them in this direction. I use this, our local Ledger, our automated phone message system, email, old snail mail, personal phone calls, our website, a faculty-only website for internal messages, email and most recently our Athletic Director - Mr. Jeff Anderson has added twitter to his own skill set about activities and athletics at MHS. He now regularly posts game scores and events for everyone connected to twitter. If you need information on how to add him, call his secretary in our office, Mrs. Kris Fecht. Right now, it's a little beyond my skill set (ha).
We're always working to improve communication and we realize we can never have enough. Over the past two years we've been growing areas of our school academically, culturally, and socially. This school needs to always be a beacon in our community and we aim to continue to polish the gem it is in Central Missouri.
This year we hired several new teachers and I'm proud of the hires we were able to add to our faculty. Many come with years of seasoning in education and our first year teachers appear to be the top of their class. Our administration team believes they will bring a boost of commitment and knowledge to our community of learners leading student learners. I met with them just prior to the school year beginning and I'll paraphrase my thoughts for them here:
"You were all hired because you have the spark, the attitude, the care and concern for students we're looking for in teachers. Your references talked about your ability to connect and your hard working attitude. If you're just beginning teaching; we think you're a standout. We hired you for this drive and attitude to improve yourself along with your enthusiasm for kids."
If you know you have a new teacher to MHS teaching your son or daughter, be sure to take the time to let them know you appreciate their efforts and their commitment to us this school year. As an inside note: our MHS administration team was focused on finding the best available teachers and personally I even used Skype (video conferencing online) to talk to several across our nation (yes, I learned another technology communication tool). We didn't hire anyone just based on a Skype interview, but it allowed us to network and connect with a few dsireing to be in mid-Missouri due to past connections to the region; we also took the time to check references well. Some of the conversations we had with references were the most helpful in choosing the best candidates for MHS.
I've shared our last August board report below for your information. This is the report given to the board each month. I hope everyone continues to feel welcome at the high school whenever you have a concern! We are here for your son or daughter and to succeed.
AUGUST 2012 BOARD REPORT:
Students of the Month: To be determined in Sept. 2012
Administration Team
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:
The building department chairs met on July 24 to review the building focus plan for 2012-13. This plan is based on the input of the superintendent, principals and department chairs. Additionally it reflects areas we will focus for the school year – Positive Behavior Intervention and Support to address discipline and the learning environment, Professional Learning Communities – to continue to improve practices and academic achievement, ACT and EOCs– test preparation and curriculum alignment and Whole Faculty Study Groups (WFSG) – this is a learners creating learners focus tied to a building-wide professional development plan. Our first WFSG will be on the book “Mindset” by Carol Dweck; small groups of teachers will participate in a book study on the principles found there and their application to our high school efforts. Mrs. Gina Gilman has will provide guidance and reflection activities for the WFSGs.
Department chairs and other subject area teachers participated in E2020 training (online course software). Early feedback from these teachers indicated the program is rigorous and might be a possible support for classroom curriculum in addition to regular courses.
Truman State University will offer up to 5 credit hours to students able to pass their college level competency exams in Algebra and Trigonometry. Mr. Keith Louder was appointed the liaison for facilitation of this program by Dr. Robinson. In essence, students can learn from their regular MHS math instructors then take up to 5 tests to earn Truman State Credit after the student has registered for the Truman State courses at a reduced rate. These credits are readily accepted at almost all Missouri Universities because they are endorsed by Truman State. A representative from Truman State will visit MHS to coordinate registration after Mr. Louder has disseminated pertinent information and total student interest is known.
PBIS – Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Team – Coordinator Patty Swisher
The PBIS team met over the summer and new members were added. Plans for incentives for students and improving data collection efforts have been completed for 2012-13. PBiS continues to be in conjunction with training and consulting from the Columbia Regional Professional Development trainers. Training for new faculty members was completed and all faculty will participate in a training session during our annual building “Genesis Day”.
Activities/Athletics;
From Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:
On August 7th Mr. Freeman & Mr. Anderson trained 40 new & Fall sport coaches on philosophy and policy pertaining to extra-curricular activities.
Fall Sports parent meeting will be Monday August 13th @ 7:30 PM in Sports Complex Lobby.
*Trained parents on Concussion Education
*Trained parents on Communication and proper order of Chain of Command.
Fall Sports Participation:
Boys & Girls Cross Country: 25
Boys Soccer: 26
Volleyball: 16
Girls Softball: 24
Football: 60
Girls Golf: 10
Girls Tennis: 8
Band: 80
Cheerleading: 26
Dance: 12
Total: 287
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
April 2012: The Year is Winding Down
Hi Everyone,
School is winding down and it has to be the fastest school year in my memory. There have been so many great memories from this school year. As our building continues to look for areas to improve, communication is at the top of my list -- you can never seem to have enough. Our academic boosters are continuing to look for ways to allow our community and parents to have a part in the business of serving students and supporting the efforts of teachers. Right now, we are considering changing our meeting time for academic boosters to possibly include more parents. Additionally, the academic boosters are working to improve communication and recruit new members. Personally, I'd love to at least double the members of this blog next year and reach more parents and community members. For this entry, I've included the report for the school board for your review. Look here in coming weeks for a few surveys about our communication with the community and ways we can improve for 2012-13. High on the list of our faculty and staff is keeping students on track to graduate on time. We want our school to be an engaging place students want to be and students to find the help they need to succeed.
We recently voluntarily participated in an AdvancED review. AdvancED is an international certification program. It provides feedback to schools participating for our improvement. School districts are not required to submit to a review of the AdvancED team made up of trained evaluators (administrators and leaders from other school districts usually from Missouri). They conducted interviews with students, parents, teachers and school leaders to review our high school. Also, they review documentation supporting our claims of what we do in our school. Finally, they observe classrooms and processes over a two-day period and compile a report. What is important about this process is this: We submit to the certification process because we want to improve and glean data they provide to guide our efforts. Our review is an unbiased viewpoint from an outside team of evaluators and they provide the valuable "fresh set of eyes" we need.
I hope everyone in our community feels welcome to provide feedback to our school leaders and teachers.
Our latest board report follows.
Sincerely,
Dr. Terry Robinson
Month/Year: April 2012
Current Enrollment: 681
Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 253/51
Student Services Listing: 68
Students of the Month: March
Academics
Congratulations to the Class Officers for 2012-13 school year:
Class of 2013: President – Haley Auwater, Vice President – Megan Brandow,
Secretary – Danielle Bohr, Treasurer – Samantha Spurling
Class of 2014: President – DayNeisha Shivers, Vice President – Shannen Maxwell,
Secretary – Victoria Shaw, Treasurer – Keagan Riddick
Class of 2015: President – Abby Dick, Vice President – Sydney Schutte,
Secretary – Maddie Prince, Treasurer – Gabe Jones
From Mrs. Stephanie Gutshall, Ag Teacher: Please congratulate the following students for competing at Area 4 FFA Contest in Centralia during spring break:
FFA Knowledge Team- 2nd place, advancing to Districts; Abigail Hoer, Lauren Ransom, Sonny Roberts and Mackenzie Stumpee
FFA Creed--4th place alternate; Lauren Ransom
Division 1 Public Speaking- 1st place, advancing to Districts; Abigail Hoer
From Mrs. Julie Exendine, Foreign Language Teacher: Please congratulate our French and Spanish level 3 and 4 students. We attended the Foreign Film Festival at the University of Central Missouri and they represented our school well and brought home many awards! We competed against many Kansas City Schools!
Spanish III:
2nd Place Best Level 2 Comedy: La batalla épica
3rd Place Best Level 2 Mystery: El gato
Spanish IV:
1st Place Best Level 3 Comedy: Chicas antipaticas
3rd Place Best Level 3 Spanish Film: Chicas antipaticas
Best Actor Overall of Spanish Films: Michael Perll
French III:
Best Level 2 French Film: Mec Logique
Best Use of Language Level 2 French Film: Mec Logique
2nd Place Best Level 2 Comedy: Mec Logique
Best Actor Overall of French Films: Jordan Henry
French IV:
Best Use of Language Level 3 French Film: Assassiner, je t'aime
2nd Place Best Actress: Kaitlin Harlow
From the Administration Team
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:
The academic boosters are working to enhance volunteer efforts at MHS. Specifically, they are working on a plan to foster growth of volunteers to assist students in the academic intervention study hall. The boosters are considering communication and recruitment efforts to support our intervention efforts. In addition, expansion of the academic intervention study hall is being considered to include more students.
Interviews have begun for open positions in the district and some recommendations should be ready by the next board meeting. Candidates for open positions in social studies were interviewed this week and last week and English will begin this coming Monday. Department chairs and members are participating in reviewing applications and making recommendations for candidates to interview. Additionally, interview committees will include department chairs and other department members by request of the chair.
The Senior Planning committee met (composed of senior students) and reviewed recommendations from students for the senior’s choice teacher of the year nominees. The winner will be named at graduation. In addition the class of 2012 will be honoring the support staff member of the year by establishing the Lori Mealy award, the award will be named in her honor and there are plans for the award to be accepted by her family. The class of 2012 hopes this will become a yearly award by senior classes for the support staff member of the year.
PBIS – Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Team – Coordinator Mr. Brad Ellebracht:
The PBIS team continues to meet and review data regarding disruptions to class. Plans for incentives for students and improving data collection efforts have been discussed for 2012-13. In addition, the team has presented to faculty and solicited input from a variety of sources. The effort continues to be in conjunction with training and consulting from the Columbia Regional Professional Development trainers.
Mrs. Deb Haag, Assistant Principal over Instruction:
EOC testing will be held during most of the month of May. Teachers were provided information and training to assist them in transitioning to a block schedule to facilitate testing.
On March 28th and 29th AdvancED (formerly NCA) was here to evaluate MHS as a part of voluntary accreditation process. AdvancED is an international accreditation process. Mexico Senior High School has be accredited with this organization since 1908. At this time, a written report is being finalized by the chair of the Quality Assurance Review Chair. That report will be submitted to the state AdvancED office for approval within the next 30 days. The state will then approve or assign the rating and send MHS the written report.
At this time, the recommended outcomes from the Quality Assurance Review Team from this process are below (please note that all schools going through this process receive both commendations and required actions):
Overall Recommended Rating: Accreditation on Advisement
Commendations:
•Mexico High School has a great sense of tradition and history. There is great pride in the school and many faculty and staff members are graduates who have chosen to return to work in the school, speaking to strong community bonds.
•There is a strong tradition of teacher leadership, as Mexico High School recognizes and values the importance of developing leadership capacity within its instructional staff.
•There has been deliberate work to establish systemic structures and strategies to serve as vehicles for school improvement (i.e., ACT seminars, Building Leadership Team, School Planning Institute).
Required Actions:
–Choose and implement one or two instructional strategies across all classrooms in the school for both consistency and to leverage student learning.
–Utilize one or two of the current cadre structures to focus on meaningful data analysis, to improve all levels of communication, and to increase stakeholder involvement in the school improvement process.
–Create a building-level School Improvement Plan to focus the work, professional development planning, and implementation accountability for improvement goals, with a focus on one or two building goals per year.
Leadership in Practice:
On April 3rd, 4th, and 5th, thirty--eight freshmen and sophomores attended the 3rd annual Leadership in Practice Program held at the Elk's Lodge. The event was a success due to the support of the local community leaders/organizations and superb table facilitators. Students are recommended by their teachers, who are requested to consider all students that lead, not just those in common leadership positions. The students participate in many activities including: examining leadership styles, studying characteristics of leaders,practicing ethical decision making as well as designing and promoting a needed product. Their culminating activity is to present three ideas/processes/ways to improve MHS. Students left the on the third day empowered.
Guidance and Counseling Team:
The team is working on course requests, and supporting EOC testing for the month of May.
Activities/Athletics
From Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:
Random drug tests were conducted on April 11. Recommendations for coaching during the 2012-13 school year are also being considered. Academic intervention study hall for athletes has approximately 8 students meeting for additional help with their classes.
MHS Events and Activities:
April 5: ZAPS testing, Jrs. Act prep
April 12-15: Choir Trip to Nashville
April 20-22: State Speech & Debate Tournament in Columbia
April 26: State Music Festival
May 3: End of Course exams begin
May 4: Dinner Theater
May 5: Prom (at Elks Lodge)
May 16: Last day for Seniors
May 18: Awards assembly
School is winding down and it has to be the fastest school year in my memory. There have been so many great memories from this school year. As our building continues to look for areas to improve, communication is at the top of my list -- you can never seem to have enough. Our academic boosters are continuing to look for ways to allow our community and parents to have a part in the business of serving students and supporting the efforts of teachers. Right now, we are considering changing our meeting time for academic boosters to possibly include more parents. Additionally, the academic boosters are working to improve communication and recruit new members. Personally, I'd love to at least double the members of this blog next year and reach more parents and community members. For this entry, I've included the report for the school board for your review. Look here in coming weeks for a few surveys about our communication with the community and ways we can improve for 2012-13. High on the list of our faculty and staff is keeping students on track to graduate on time. We want our school to be an engaging place students want to be and students to find the help they need to succeed.
We recently voluntarily participated in an AdvancED review. AdvancED is an international certification program. It provides feedback to schools participating for our improvement. School districts are not required to submit to a review of the AdvancED team made up of trained evaluators (administrators and leaders from other school districts usually from Missouri). They conducted interviews with students, parents, teachers and school leaders to review our high school. Also, they review documentation supporting our claims of what we do in our school. Finally, they observe classrooms and processes over a two-day period and compile a report. What is important about this process is this: We submit to the certification process because we want to improve and glean data they provide to guide our efforts. Our review is an unbiased viewpoint from an outside team of evaluators and they provide the valuable "fresh set of eyes" we need.
I hope everyone in our community feels welcome to provide feedback to our school leaders and teachers.
Our latest board report follows.
Sincerely,
Dr. Terry Robinson
Month/Year: April 2012
Current Enrollment: 681
Free / Reduced Lunch Enrollment: 253/51
Student Services Listing: 68
Students of the Month: March
Academics
Congratulations to the Class Officers for 2012-13 school year:
Class of 2013: President – Haley Auwater, Vice President – Megan Brandow,
Secretary – Danielle Bohr, Treasurer – Samantha Spurling
Class of 2014: President – DayNeisha Shivers, Vice President – Shannen Maxwell,
Secretary – Victoria Shaw, Treasurer – Keagan Riddick
Class of 2015: President – Abby Dick, Vice President – Sydney Schutte,
Secretary – Maddie Prince, Treasurer – Gabe Jones
From Mrs. Stephanie Gutshall, Ag Teacher: Please congratulate the following students for competing at Area 4 FFA Contest in Centralia during spring break:
FFA Knowledge Team- 2nd place, advancing to Districts; Abigail Hoer, Lauren Ransom, Sonny Roberts and Mackenzie Stumpee
FFA Creed--4th place alternate; Lauren Ransom
Division 1 Public Speaking- 1st place, advancing to Districts; Abigail Hoer
From Mrs. Julie Exendine, Foreign Language Teacher: Please congratulate our French and Spanish level 3 and 4 students. We attended the Foreign Film Festival at the University of Central Missouri and they represented our school well and brought home many awards! We competed against many Kansas City Schools!
Spanish III:
2nd Place Best Level 2 Comedy: La batalla épica
3rd Place Best Level 2 Mystery: El gato
Spanish IV:
1st Place Best Level 3 Comedy: Chicas antipaticas
3rd Place Best Level 3 Spanish Film: Chicas antipaticas
Best Actor Overall of Spanish Films: Michael Perll
French III:
Best Level 2 French Film: Mec Logique
Best Use of Language Level 2 French Film: Mec Logique
2nd Place Best Level 2 Comedy: Mec Logique
Best Actor Overall of French Films: Jordan Henry
French IV:
Best Use of Language Level 3 French Film: Assassiner, je t'aime
2nd Place Best Actress: Kaitlin Harlow
From the Administration Team
Dr. Terry Robinson, Principal:
The academic boosters are working to enhance volunteer efforts at MHS. Specifically, they are working on a plan to foster growth of volunteers to assist students in the academic intervention study hall. The boosters are considering communication and recruitment efforts to support our intervention efforts. In addition, expansion of the academic intervention study hall is being considered to include more students.
Interviews have begun for open positions in the district and some recommendations should be ready by the next board meeting. Candidates for open positions in social studies were interviewed this week and last week and English will begin this coming Monday. Department chairs and members are participating in reviewing applications and making recommendations for candidates to interview. Additionally, interview committees will include department chairs and other department members by request of the chair.
The Senior Planning committee met (composed of senior students) and reviewed recommendations from students for the senior’s choice teacher of the year nominees. The winner will be named at graduation. In addition the class of 2012 will be honoring the support staff member of the year by establishing the Lori Mealy award, the award will be named in her honor and there are plans for the award to be accepted by her family. The class of 2012 hopes this will become a yearly award by senior classes for the support staff member of the year.
PBIS – Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Team – Coordinator Mr. Brad Ellebracht:
The PBIS team continues to meet and review data regarding disruptions to class. Plans for incentives for students and improving data collection efforts have been discussed for 2012-13. In addition, the team has presented to faculty and solicited input from a variety of sources. The effort continues to be in conjunction with training and consulting from the Columbia Regional Professional Development trainers.
Mrs. Deb Haag, Assistant Principal over Instruction:
EOC testing will be held during most of the month of May. Teachers were provided information and training to assist them in transitioning to a block schedule to facilitate testing.
On March 28th and 29th AdvancED (formerly NCA) was here to evaluate MHS as a part of voluntary accreditation process. AdvancED is an international accreditation process. Mexico Senior High School has be accredited with this organization since 1908. At this time, a written report is being finalized by the chair of the Quality Assurance Review Chair. That report will be submitted to the state AdvancED office for approval within the next 30 days. The state will then approve or assign the rating and send MHS the written report.
At this time, the recommended outcomes from the Quality Assurance Review Team from this process are below (please note that all schools going through this process receive both commendations and required actions):
Overall Recommended Rating: Accreditation on Advisement
Commendations:
•Mexico High School has a great sense of tradition and history. There is great pride in the school and many faculty and staff members are graduates who have chosen to return to work in the school, speaking to strong community bonds.
•There is a strong tradition of teacher leadership, as Mexico High School recognizes and values the importance of developing leadership capacity within its instructional staff.
•There has been deliberate work to establish systemic structures and strategies to serve as vehicles for school improvement (i.e., ACT seminars, Building Leadership Team, School Planning Institute).
Required Actions:
–Choose and implement one or two instructional strategies across all classrooms in the school for both consistency and to leverage student learning.
–Utilize one or two of the current cadre structures to focus on meaningful data analysis, to improve all levels of communication, and to increase stakeholder involvement in the school improvement process.
–Create a building-level School Improvement Plan to focus the work, professional development planning, and implementation accountability for improvement goals, with a focus on one or two building goals per year.
Leadership in Practice:
On April 3rd, 4th, and 5th, thirty--eight freshmen and sophomores attended the 3rd annual Leadership in Practice Program held at the Elk's Lodge. The event was a success due to the support of the local community leaders/organizations and superb table facilitators. Students are recommended by their teachers, who are requested to consider all students that lead, not just those in common leadership positions. The students participate in many activities including: examining leadership styles, studying characteristics of leaders,practicing ethical decision making as well as designing and promoting a needed product. Their culminating activity is to present three ideas/processes/ways to improve MHS. Students left the on the third day empowered.
Guidance and Counseling Team:
The team is working on course requests, and supporting EOC testing for the month of May.
Activities/Athletics
From Mr. Jeff Anderson – Vice Principal/Activities Director:
Random drug tests were conducted on April 11. Recommendations for coaching during the 2012-13 school year are also being considered. Academic intervention study hall for athletes has approximately 8 students meeting for additional help with their classes.
MHS Events and Activities:
April 5: ZAPS testing, Jrs. Act prep
April 12-15: Choir Trip to Nashville
April 20-22: State Speech & Debate Tournament in Columbia
April 26: State Music Festival
May 3: End of Course exams begin
May 4: Dinner Theater
May 5: Prom (at Elks Lodge)
May 16: Last day for Seniors
May 18: Awards assembly
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)