WHS Staff News - 9/29/14

Looking Back
Goodell Jean Day - Thank you to everyone that donated on Friday and to those who purchased a T-Shirt.  We collected over $2,000 for the Christopher Goodell Scholarship Fund.  Another great example of how WarriorNation comes together! 

Looking Forward 

Learning and Collaborating Time - Wednesday 10/1 
We will be meeting this week in the little theater at 3:10.  The meeting will be brief, so you will have time on your own.

Safe School Online Training - Deadline to complete all courses is this Friday (10/3)   

AP Teachers - Please start collecting AP registration money from your students.  Ms. Cassidy sent an email out on Friday with details.  Any questions, please see Penny Gastman.   AP Registration Form  

This week we have an away football game on Thursday at 2pm in Glen Rock.  Members of the football team and cheerleaders will have an early release.   Football players will be released at 11:20 am and the cheerleaders at 11:53 am.  

HSPA Testing 10/7 - 10/9 - See email from Penny for more details

Week of Respect:  October 6-10
On Monday 10/6 Creative Interventions will perform for the HS in the Little Theater. 
9am (Period 2) Grades 10 & 12
9:40am (Period 3) Grades 9 & 11 

Spirit Week is coming up during the week of 10/13 (Spirit Days will be announced later this week)
The Fall Pep Rally will be held on Friday, 10/17, starting at 2pm.  We will not be moving to Period 9.  Classes will be called down to the gym during 8th period.  

Professional Development Day - Wednesday 10/15 

Recent Blog Posts 

• National Merit Scholarship Program - Andrew Fucarino
• The College Board National Recognition Program Award - Armando Gonzalez
• NJ Department of Education News (Parent Resource)
• Common Core - What it Really Means (Parent Resource)

How Bout them Warriors! Fall teams R a combined 28-7 #ownit @VballWaldwick @WHSGS @whs_boys_soccer @coachgruz @WHSGTennis2014 #WarriorNation
— Kevin Carroll (@WHS_Principal) September 28, 2014

PD Resources
10 ways to remain relevant in education  via Justin Tarte
Ensure success this school year via Steven Anderson 

WHS Staff News 9/22/14

Photo credit https://www.flickr.com/people/eschipul/

Fall is in the air, which means school is in full swing.  The fall sports teams are off to a great start.  If you have time, consider attending an upcoming game.  The students love seeing their teachers at their games!  Advisors have started meeting with their clubs and planning out events and activities.  If you are not an official advisor and want to get involved, see me and I can try to point you in the right direction.  

I know the beginning of the school year is VERY hectic, but hopefully you have established routines and things are calming down.   In talking with staff members and the supervisors, the early SGO deadline did not help.  It is something we will look at for next year.   

Last week the individual student passes were handed out.  Students should not be leaving your class without their pass.  The blue "room log" sheets will be left in your mailboxes later today which students will also need to sign before leaving the class.  The logs are room specific and help in cases when something happens during a specific period we can determine who was out of the room.   In addition to the students passes, we created special "Pink" passes for Study Hall, Media Center and Academic Support, which will be used for students in those particular classes.  If an administrator or hall duty teacher (really, any teacher) sees a student walking around without a pass, they should be stopped and asked where they are going and whose class they are coming from.  We need to be consistent and the students will follow.  

Lets have a great (Short) week!!  #Ownit

Looking Back
Back to School Night went very well last week.  I received a lot of positive feedback from parents on how great the teacher presentations were and how happy their children are with their teachers.

Thank You to the amazing staff of @WaldwickWHS for a great back to school night! Also a big shout-out to the NHS Students!! #OwnIt
— Kevin Carroll (@WHS_Principal) September 18, 2014

Looking Forward
Honeywell Test for staff will be on Tuesday, 9/23, @ approximately 7pm.  Please make sure you review your profile prior to the 23.  Letter & Honeywell Directions from Dr. Casarico

All of the required Safe School Online Training's, need to be completed by 10/3/14

Learning and Collaborating Time - Wednesday 9/24 (More info on this to follow)

Expect an Emergency Drill sometime this month. Make sure you have a key for any room you are assigned to and have reviewed lock down & evacuation procedures with all your classes.

No School - Thursday 9/25

Goodell Jean Day - Friday 9/26

Recent Blog Posts 
New Staff @ WHS

• Kris Ann Minichetti - Mathematics
• Stephanie Scheck - Language Arts
• Christine Osborn - World Languages
• Ericka O'Hara - Science
• Michael Mayer - Supervisor of Athletics and Social Studies 
• Sean Cosgrove - Social Studies 

PD Resources 
Six ways to Be a Lifelong Learner via Jordan Collier  (@JCollierAR )
Why We Don't Truly Embrace Failure via George Couros ( @gcouros ) 

WHS Staff News 9/5/14

Great start to the school year!  A little hot but hopefully things will cool down next week.  A few items to think about over the weekend. 

Lesson plans:  Plans should be up and posted by 8am on Monday.  Supervisors discussed the new format at your department meeting so please keep that in mind.

SGO - Q & A Session:  On Tuesday during periods 2 and 3 supervisors will be available to answer any question that might still be out there related to the process.   All forms and resources are available on The Source@ WHS.   

Webpages:  Staff webpages should have been updated already but please make sure they are up to date and include - Scoop and Sequence, Syllabus, Contact Info, Extra Help Time/location, Courses, Resources  and marking period 1 topics. 

80/20 Time:  14-15 Professional Growth Time (PGT)  If your interested in taking advantage of the 80/20 time please fill out the PGT form by Thursday, 9/11.  

Grade Level Meetings 

9th Grade Tuesday, 9/9 Period 9

12th Grade Tuesday, 9/9 Period 2

11th Grade Wednesday, 9/10 Period 4

10th Grade Wednesday, 9/10 Period 2

Period Attendance: Starting Monday I will be emailing or speaking with teachers that don't submit their period attendance in Genesis.  Please make sure attendance is taken at the beginning of each period.  

Safe School Online Training: Deadline for completion is 10/3/14 

Awesome #teachervoice session today w/ staff. Great ideas & thoughts on making WHS a better place for students, parents, teachers & admins.
— Kevin Carroll (@WHS_Principal) September 3, 2014

Welcome Back 14-15 SY (Opening Day Info)

My opening day presentation to the WHS staff.  Have a great school year!! #Ownit

Link to Welcome Back 14-15 PowerPoint

SGO Documents/Resources

SGO Documents/Resources:

Welcome Back Info 2014

I don't know about you, but I really enjoyed this summer more than others.  Maybe it was the great weather.  It could be that I took more time away and "Disconnected" from work. Whatever the reason, I had a blast.  I hope all of you had a chance to enjoy it as well and are recharged for the 14-15 school year.  We still have a few days left of summer, but I'm excited about getting back to school in September. 

What will the 2014-2015 school year bring us?  Over the last few years we all have experienced changes in many areas of education:  Testing, Evaluations, SGO's, AchieveNJ, PARCC, Common Core and on and on.  I want our focus at WHS this year to be all about the students.  Let's take a step back and center on them. Mandates are out of our control and it's part of the job.  But each and every one of you can control the environment in your classes, the interactions you have with students, the expectations you set and most importantly, the relationships you build over the 182 days you are with our students.  


Don't let high school SUCK! Make the learning fun, relevant, interesting, meaningful and share with them why.  Make your students love the books you read with them, teach them history in a way that blows their mind.  In the arts, let students dream and imagine where their talents may take them.  Teach science units that will inspire future scientists, engineers or doctors.  Develop math lessons that will create great thinkers and problem solvers.  Show them how far a second or third language can take them in the world we live in now and in the future.   If you do this, the students will come back looking for more and they will have an amazing high school experience.  That's our job!  That is what should be mandated of all of us!  That is how you #OwnIt!

*The inspiration for my comment above "Don't let High School Suck", was inspired by a blog post by Dr. Spike Cook (Elementary Principal, in southern NJ)  and a Ted Talk by Chris Lehman  (Principal of Science Leadership Academy, in Philadelphia PA).   


We have six New Staff members joining us this year @ WHS.  I know they are excited about joining us and I am confident they will be great additions:  

Sean Cosgrove - Social Studies
Kris Ann Minichetti - Math
Erica O'Hara - Science
Christine Osborn - World Languages
Stephanie Scheck - Language Arts

Michael Mayer - Supervisor of Instruction  
Rob Rolling - Supervisor of Instruction (New Role)

Summer Updates:

• HS Gym Transformation - The gym looks GREAT 
• Infrastructure Upgrade - As of this post, all cabling and fiber has been run throughout most of the HS.  The project is moving along, and it looks good for completion before September, but no guarantees.   As I know more I will keep everyone updated.   

Below are two links you will need to click on and fill out the information required.  Each form should take you less than two minutes to fill out.  This needs to be done prior to the start of school.

The first link asks for your automobile information and the second link is for your personal information.  Once you fill out the form make sure you hit the submit button.

Registration of Automobile                 Personnel Records

Important Links/Resources

WHS Faculty Manual - It is also available on Google Drive under the WHS Staff Resources Folder.  (For new staff, I will show/explain the Google Drive Folder when I see you on August 26)

Laptop Cart Sign-out sheet  - This Google form will be used to signup for the laptops throughout the school year. 

Parent/Student Handbook 2014-2015 

Agenda for 9/2 & 9/3

Please have your staff webpages updated by September 4 for the first day of class. 

Genesis Gradebook is open. Class lists are available and assignments can be created.  

Dates to Note
Back to School Night - Wednesday, September 17 
September Learning and Collaborating Time - Wednesday, September 24 


You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.  ~Clay P. Bedford

                     

WHS Summer News (July 2014)

Summer day flying kites 

I hope everyone is enjoying their time away from WHS.  I wanted to share a few things with all of you as July comes to an end.

• This summer I will be writing a blog series titled, “Before School Starts – To Do List” for students and parents.  The series will have 8 - 10 blog posts associated with it. The first post was published on 7/28.  

Before School Starts TO DO LIST #1 Fall Athletes get your paperwork IN

• All classrooms at the HS have been cleaned and put back together.  The custodians really did a great job.
• The technology infrastructure project is moving along at a good pace.  At the HS/MS complex, the MS wiring is almost complete and work on the HS should begin later this week.  
• The HS Gym renovation is complete.  You can see before and after pictures here: http://whsprincipal.blogspot.com/2014/07/hs-gym-transformation.html
• Supply orders, equipment, textbooks, etc. have all been coming in throughout the summer.
• All of the open teaching positions have been filled.  We will have five new teachers on staff with us in September.

 Summer Reading Suggestions 

Top 12 Summer Tips for Teachers 

5 ways to Provide Parents a Window Into Your Classroom 


Thoughts and prayers for the family of fallen Waldwick Police Officer Chris Goodell.  Thanks to all the staff members that were able to come by WHS for the procession.  

“@NJSPBA: Please remember our Brother Police Officer Christopher Goodell http://t.co/AZlsVS0qnO” pic.twitter.com/dBRc5iVJuD
— Waldwick High School (@WaldwickWHS) July 23, 2014

WHS News - 4/3/14

It's almost Spring Break ...... Marking Period 3 ends today...... I just finished the Final Exam Schedule..... where did this year go?  Its been a very busy year for all of us but a lot has been accomplished and there is so much for us to be proud of.  I still feel the energy and passion when talking to staff members who are still creating and trying new ideas within their lessons.  Don't lose that!!   

April is Autism Awareness Month - On Friday, April 4, there will be a "Light It Up Blue Jean Day"  

Student Council has put together a "Spring Kickoff Week"
Monday - Disney Day
Tuesday - Twin Day
Wednesday - Switch it up Day
Thursday - Warrior Day (Pep Rally @ 2pm)
Friday - Beach Day


Congratulations to Danielle Kish and her husband Andor on the birth of their son, Brooks Parker.  Welcome to #warriornation

Better picture of his full head of hair!! pic.twitter.com/CvblwdcnvX
— Danielle Kish (@DanielleKish) April 3, 2014

The Echo recently posted some new articles.  Check them out on the Echo Blog.  

Final Exam Schedule - Draft 13-14 Exam Schedule 

PD Resources 

Great post on the differences between engagement and empowerment within your classroom.  Highly recommend you read this!  
The Myths of Technology - Technology equals Engagement via George Couros   

Looking to do more online quizzes or interactions with your students during class or at home. Here are two blogs posts with great resources via - Freetech4teachers.com

Quizbean Opens quiz bank for sharing

Seven-good-student-response-systems