This Week at GHS: November 4

November 04, 2011 | Posted by Steve Lodes

Dear Greendale High School Families:

After a four-day weekend, our students came back to a 4.5 day week to finish the first quarter. The picture above shows one of our ninth grade English classrooms hard at work, squeezing every last bit of learning into the quarter. Teachers will work on grades over the weekend and report cards should be in your mailboxes by next week Friday or Saturday. Of course, you can view final quarter one grades sooner on PowerSchool and “official” grades will be posted on Tuesday, November 8 at 1:00 p.m.

Fall sports are winding down and last night our Athletic Director, Shane Hansen, and the coaches held the Winter Sports meeting. The meeting covered athletic eligibility, transportation information, physical requirements and other pertinent information. After the general portion of the meeting, each sport broke-off into their own meeting where the coaches discussed the upcoming season and the expectations associated with being a part of their program. Winter sports include: basketball, wrestling, bowling, boys swimming, and hockey. More information on these offering can be found on our Athletic website at: http://www.greendale.k12.wi.us/GHS/athletics.html

Mark your calendars for a few things for November and December:

November 7 is Junior Parent Information Night at 6:30 p.m. in Room 103/105.
November 8-10 is WKCE/EXPLORE testing. Info below.
November 17-19 is the Fall play, Once in a Lifetime.
November 22 (3:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) and November 23 (7:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.) are the night/day Parent Teacher Conferences. There is no student attendance on November 23.
November 30 is the Honors Pancake Breakfast for students eligible via their first quarter grades. This is a date change from November 15.
December 2 and 3 are the Advanced Theater Production.
December 7 is a delayed start day for our Freshmen and Seniors as the Sophomores will be taking the PLAN test and the Juniors will be taking a practice ACT test. Times and details are below.
December 21 is the GHS Holiday Concert

Thank you to our parents and families for your continued collaboration, support, and high expectations. Have a great weekend with your families. Now, in no particular order…

College and Career Readiness Survey
Thank you to the over 100 parents who took the time to complete our survey. From the data, we discerned the following ideas regarding services and communication parents would value as we work together to increase the college/post-secondary readiness in our children.

Want to see more in-school opportunities and activities for their children to explore careers and post-secondary opportunities.
Want more “how-to” opportunities for their children (writing college application essays, filling in FAFSE, filling out applications, creating a student profile/resume).
Want more information on two-year technical degrees and certification, linked to job forecasting.
Would like to see more of this information warehoused on a webpage or in a PDF Parent Handbook, and doled-out in manageable, timely chunks through the Weekly.

The same questions were posed to a 30-student advisory group and they almost paralleled the parent thoughts with one additional interesting insight: they feel that their current classes can do a better job at infusing college and career readiness information into the content -- showing the relevancy of their studies and of the content.

Every student deserves an opportunity to further their schooling beyond high school and explore future career possibilities. Greendale High School appreciates your feedback.

Standardized Testing News
More detailed information will be released through future Weekly updates, but please adjust your calendars for the following dates. Some of these were not on the original school calendar you received.

November
Tuesday, November 8th

Sophomores report at regular start time to take the WKCE test.
Breakfast served 6:45 – 7:20 a.m. for sophomores. Freshmen, Juniors, Seniors: First hour begins at 10:17 a.m. There will be an altered bus service, times TBD.

Wednesday, November 9th

Freshman report at regular start time to take the EXPLORE test.
Sophomores report at regular start time to take the WKCE test.
Breakfast served 6:45 – 7:20 a.m. for freshmen and sophomores.
Juniors, Seniors: First hour begins at 10:17 a.m. There will be an altered bus service, times TBD.

Thursday, November 10th

Sophomores report at regular start time to take the WKCE test.
Breakfast served 6:45 – 7:20 a.m. for sophomores.
Freshmen, Juniors, Seniors: First hour begins at 10:17 a.m. There will be an altered bus service, times TBD.

December
Wednesday, December 7th

Sophomores report at regular start time to take the PLAN test.
Juniors report at regular start time to take a full-length, free ACT practice test.
Freshmen, Seniors: First hour begins at 11:05 a.m. There will be an altered bus service, times TBD.

For more information on the WKCE, please visit: http://dpi.wi.gov/oea/pdf/stprntbrochure.pdf

For more information on the EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT tests, please visit: http://www.act.org/readiness/index.html

This year’s addition of the EXPLORE test at the ninth grade aligns the high school’s goal of college and career readiness. We will now provide the EXPLORE (9th), PLAN (10th) and ACT (11th) tests for all students. Using this suite of tests, very common in high performing districts, enables the school to better identify student progress, readiness and post-secondary opportunities. With this increased data, administration and guidance can better prepare our students for success.

Freshman and Sophomore students received a memo on Friday giving them more information about next week's tests. To read the memo, please click here.

Friends of Music Spirit Wear
This year, Friends of Music is selling Greendale music spirit wear - t-shirts (both short- and long-sleeve) and hooded sweatshirts, in both child and adult sizes. Submit your order by November 28, to receive the items by mid-December. For an order form, please click here.

Friends of Music Fruit Sale Underway
The annual Friends of Music fruit sale is underway through November 14. This healthy, nutritious fundraiser is a great way to support high school music students. Profits for the sale support their various music trips. Contact a high school music student to place your order for navel oranges, ruby red grapefruit, apples, and various gift boxes. Or, contact Ann Jensen (421-8216) or Linda Thomas (421-1653) to place your order. Pick up is December 3. See the attached packet for additional information regarding this sale.

Photos from October Needed for the Yearbook
If you have any good photos from October, Band, or Fall Sports for the yearbook, please email them to Kate Wagner (kate.wagner@greendale.k12.wi.us)

Boy’s Basketball Fundraiser
For more information on the boy’s basketball mattress fundraiser, click here.

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