AWESOME FIRST MARKING PERIOD!!!

I'm so proud of the hard work you've put in to earn great grades for me this marking period. It's been fun working with all freshmen this year. I must admit, I was a bit apprehensive about not having any upperclassmen this year just because in the past 10 years it's been nice to work with freshmen part of the day and upperclassmen the other part. However, it's been very nice being in one classroom throughout the day as opposed to three and the way we've re-designed Keyboarding & Careers has proved extremely worthwhile as the grades for this marking period reflect.

Out of 88 students, 79 passed with a C average or better! AWESOME JOB STUDENTS :) Here's the breakdown:
A's = 26
B's = 32
C's = 21
D's = 6
F's = 3

Averages for each class:
Period 1 = 90.1%
Period 2 = 86.8%
Period 4 = 88.6%
Period 5 = 83.2%
Period 7 = 88.3%

I HOPE YOU DID THIS WELL IN ALL OF YOUR CLASSES...I'LL BE ASKING YOU ABOUT THE OTHER GRADES ON YOUR REPORT CARDS ONCE THEY'RE DISTRIBUTED!!!

Congrats Bo-Sox Fans!

Boston swept the World Series! Congratulations to all their fans, including my good friend Trace....he's a die-hard :) Watch out for my Mets next year!

Hmmmmm......

They won! Wonder if I should stop watching???

Eagles Experiment

OK...it's Sunday morning and the Eagles play at 1:00 today. I'm going to experiment here...let's see if it works! My mom is coming to visit today, so we'll be headed out for some shopping and eating out. Therefore, I'll not be tuning in to today's game. Let's see if it's me jinxing my teams this year...if I don't watch, cheer, and stress out, will the Eagles win???

Ugly Teacher Contest

Our Interact Club is sponsoring an Ugly Teacher Contest this week and boy do we have some ugly ones! I wish I could be creative enough to join in on the fun, but I can barely crawl out of bed and arrive to school on time in the morning. So I'll play the role of photographer and will try to add some more pictures throughout the week of our UGLY TEACHERS! Did you recognize Mr. Speight a.k.a. "Lil Jon" in the picture above? I think his gold teeth need some dental attention :)

OH MY....the close up is scary:

New Teacher?

My cousin Carolyn and her daughter Heather are visiting from Tennessee. Schools there are closed this week for Fall break....how nice would that be? They stopped in after school today on the way to their family's home in Mansfield. Heather, like all of you, just LOVED my cool chair...check her out "playing teacher" in our classroom!

Un"bear"able...

The Eagles are killing me! It is clearly not a good year for my sports teams. Today's game didn't look great, but I was excited with under 2 minutes to go that we'd get a win out of it....or so I thought! Our defense let the Bears go 97 yards quickly and score a touchdown with 9 seconds remaining---GIVING Chicago a 19-16 win. UGHHHHHHHHHHH....what more can I say?!?

"STRAWS? What are we doing with straws?"

That was the question of the day as students entered class and read the chalkboard for the day's game plan. After giving a test of what keys we've learned so far this year, Mrs. Getz and I decided to put in a little teambuilding activity.

Each student was given a straw and then in groups, they formed circles and held the straws around their circle by fingertips. Then, without talking, they had to perform various movements without dropping any straws. I have to say students, you did better than I thought you would! It was a lot of fun to see how students communicated to each other without talking to keep their team in the game. Circles moved left, right, forward, backwards, down on one knee, all the way sitting down, hopping, eyes closed....ALL WITHOUT DROPPING THEIR STRAWS AND NO TALKING! Well...at least for a little while the straws didn't drop!

Most impressive was at the end of the activity, students discussed the adjustments they realized their team had to make in order to overcome problems they encountered and they found ways to work better together. What an excellent life lesson....GOOD JOB TEAMS!

Watch Your TECHNIQUE!

Technique grades are out! Most of you are doing a great job (see pictures below of a few students caught in good technique form). A few of you aren't happy and have asked me to re-grade your technique, which I'm happy to do after reading what you intend to improve. I'll be re-grading technique between now and the end of the month for those of you that requested me to watch you again so please REMEMBER...sit up straight, feet flat on the floor, fingers on home row, eyes on copy, wrists parallel to the keyboard, elbows relaxed at your sides, and practice good ethics throughout class! Check out these good techniques...

Progress Reports

Not much happening on the sports scene for me, the Mets are done and the Eagles had a bye week! Although, my cousin and her 2 sons are attending tonight's Monday night football game in Buffalo so I'll be tuning in to see if I can find them on tv!

Just reminding you that progress reports are out and you should be receiving them in the mail if you haven't already.

PARENTS: if you haven't seen any reports and are wondering how your student is doing, don't hesitate to contact specific teachers or guidance counselors (323-8411). We are more than happy to discuss our students' progress with parents and look forward to hearing from you.

STUDENTS: we have less than 4 weeks to go in the first marking period....19 days to be exact! Get moving and get caught up if you're behind...now's the time to dig in and get yourself off to a good start with your grades for this school year! Talk to your teachers, ask for help, and be willing to put forth the effort....I guarantee good results if you choose to focus on that. HOW ARE YOU DOING IN ALL OF YOUR CLASSES? LET ME KNOW IF I CAN HELP!

NASCAR #25 Visits WAHS

Some WAHS students had the opportunity to see a real NASCAR vehicle up close. Mr. Dixon, automotive teacher, arranged for the National Guard to bring Casey Mears' car #25 to our school yesterday. Mrs. Getz and I took our Keyboarding & Careers students who were passing out to see the car. The National Guard gave us some facts about the car (did you know the fuel they use in these cars costs $9.00 per gallon?) and answered any questions students had about the car and/or the National Guard. Everyone jumped, and some people ran, when they started the car up...now I know why people say being at an actual race is LOUD!