Semester Tests

We are in the middle of semester tests and I thought I would let you know how its going.  At the beginning of last year we did away with our attendance incentive and told teachers that they would each be responsible for coming up with a culminating activity, project, or assessment to end their semester.  Our teachers have embraced this and all of our students do a variety of assessments, while still getting exposure to large traditional finals that some of their college courses will culminate with.  I really feel it is a good mix of assessments and brings some closure to what the students have been doing all semester.  In one period on Thursday I went around to classes and these were all of the things I saw.


Students in Public Speaking answer essay questions on their semester test.








Students in Mrs. Lang's class test while their "Heavenly Bars" await them. Mrs. Lang treated them to snacks because of their hard work this semester.

A Spanish student presents an oral presentation for her final project.









Mathematics students take a traditional semester final in Geometry.

Foods students cooked an entire meal as a culminating activity for their class.











In CAD class students designed a home for their final project.







In one of Mr. Franics' other classes students had to identify tools as part of their final test in a previous period.







I'm sure your wondering how the attendance is looking now that we are three semesters removed from the incentive.  For the first semester this year we are at 94%. Lat year we were at 93.9%.  The last year we had the incentive we were at 95.76%.  We knew that there would be some drop off, but it has not been significant.  We still have a small number of students who have serious attendance issues. But the majority of our students might miss a day or two per year more than when we had the incentive.  We still call parents if the student is not here and I have knocked on plenty of doors to see what students are up to.  We want students here and if they are absent without a viable excuse there will be consequences to the student and potentially the parent. 

In summary, I am very happy with our current assessment system and I do not miss the trials and tribulations of the old incentive system.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and a happy new year.  All of my bothers will be back home for a few days and we are looking forward to spending some great time together.  We will see all students back on January 4th. 

Happy Holidays from the Reckers!

The Home Stretch!

Parents,

We are officially down to crunch time!  This is the last week of the semester.  Tests will be Thursday and Friday.  The schedule will be included at the bottom of this blog post.  Students need to complete the test, project, presentation or other assessment for each class.  Even though they may not be testing during every period, they need to be here.  If they have a study hall or senior release they either need to be out of the building or in the library.  Please encourage your student to STUDY for their tests.  Almost every teacher will have some sort of review or study guide containing the information that will be covered on the tests.  For students to simply not study or study just a little bit for these tests is basically like throwing in the towel.  These tests are like any test and if a student wants to have a chance of doing well, they need to study. Like assignment completion, it really comes down to effort and the choice to do well. 

Speaking of missing assignments, students really need to work this week to make sure they have everything in.  Choosing not to turn in daily assignments or large projects is essentially choosing to earn a poor grade.  For some of our students who do not test well or are otherwise doing poorly, turning in all assignments completed can be a big boost to their grade.  Please encourage your student to speak with their teachers regarding missing assignments.  They will have the Christmas break to get these assignments completed.  However, I would make sure they speak with their teachers before break and explain their intent in completing these assignments.  Grades will be posted on the website the afternoon of January 3rd.

We now have a peer tutoring program set up during our study halls.  Students can sign up to be tutored by another student during their study hall.  There are schedules all around school and students who are interested should see Mrs. Schoenwetter.  Just a review of all of the academic help we have available for students: 

Teachers available in their classrooms - everyday 7:50-3:30
Success Center - 3:30-4:30 every night after school
Library open for quite study - 8 - 3:30 every day
Peer Tutoring - see Mrs. Schoenwetter

Make plans to attend our winter concert which will be Tuesday evening at 7:00 in the high school gym. This will involve our band and chorus and should be a great show!  The band will have a guest performer in one of their songs.  It should be a great evening!

A big Thank you to Miss T and the NHS for their hard work in collecting the Toys for Tots.  Thanks to their efforts and the generosity of our community many children will have a nice Christmas! These are the toys that were delivered!

The FFA did a good job with their fruit sales this winter.  If anyone is still interested in some fruit for the holidays, please contact Mr. Hauge. 

Congratulations to our winter sports teams.  The girls basketball team has played very well all season.  They boys have done a nice job and finished the first semester with a winning record.  Although our wrestlers do not have the largest of numbers, the boys are having a lot of individual success at tournaments and in duals.  The cheerleaders have also been doing a nice job at all of our games.

There are a lot of positive things going on at West Hancock! It has been a very good semester!  From all of us at West Hancock, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Classes will resume on January 4th 2012.


1^ST  SEMESTER TEST SCHEDULE – DECEMBER 22 &23, 2011:

Thursday, December 22, (ODD # PERIODS):

1^ST PERIOD CLASS            8:30    -   9:45

3^RD PERIOD CLASS           9:55    -  11:10

LUNCH AT HIGH SCHOOL          11:10  -  12:00  (YOU MUST SIGN UP WITH PEG)

5^TH PERIOD CLASS            12:10  -   1:25

7^TH PERIOD CLASS            1:35    -   2:50

Friday, December 23, (EVEN # PERIODS):  due to 1 hour early dismissal

2nd PERIOD CLASS           8:30    -   9:45

4^TH PERIOD CLASS            9:50    -   11:05

LUNCH AT HIGH SCHOOL          11:05 – 11:35  (YOU MUST SIGN UP WITH PEG)

6^TH PERIOD CLASS            11:35  -  12:50

8^TH PERIOD CLASS            12:55  -    2:10

All students are responsible to be at their test classroom on time.

Students must stay the entire testing period.

Students can not take a test before the scheduled time and day.

Students may leave the high school building after their last test of the day, during the normal study hall time or during the lunch break.

Students in the building and not taking a test need to report to the library.

If a student is absent on THURSDAY & FRIDAY, they need to see Mr. Recker.

Dress code will be followed during the testing days.

December is here!

Parents,

It is hard to believe but December is here!  Things continue to go fast this year.  If you have not checked your child's grades lately here is your reminder!  Remember semester tests will be before the Christmas break this year.  We are down to three weeks remaining in the semester.  Please have some conversations with your students as we near the end of the semester.  Here is the link for parent access: http://jmc.whancock.org:8080/scripts/JMChs11-12/JMC_CGI_1112.dll?module=Parent

I have a friend named Tom Burger.  We worked together at my last school and he is currently living in West Branch.  He is a certified official for many sports on many levels.  He wrote a column for his local paper and I thought I would share it with you.  His column talks about officials and how they are sometimes treated by fans.  I do not think we have a problem with fan behavior here, but no one is perfect and we can always improve. Sometimes it is good to have a reminder about some of these things. Please take  a minute to read Tom's column.

http://www.westbranchtimes.com/article.php?id=7628


 If any of you have been watching ESPN this week you know that it is Jimmy V cancer research week on their network. Jim Valvano was a very succesful basketball coach and announcer before dying from cancer at a young age. Before he died he was able to create a foundation to continue research for cancer. In his last months he was awarded the Arthur Ashe courage award at the ESPYs and gave a very motivating speech. Each year I watch the speech duirng this week and I thought I would share it with you.  Here is his speech  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuoVM9nm42E

Here is this weeks schedule. Reminder that we do have a 2 hour early out on Wednesday.

Monday – JV Wrestling tourney @ Central Springs – Manly – 5:00
                     9^th B & G BB – FC – H – 6:15

Tuesday – BB Quad @ Garner – 4:00

Wednesday-In service – 2 hour early out

                       
Thursday – 9^th B & G BB – Garner – H – 6:15
                      WR @ Garner – 6:30

Friday – Quad BB @ Osage – 4:00

                 JV WR @ Algona – 5:00

Saturday – WR @ Algona Tournament – 11:00

                    Quad BB – Ventura – H – 1:00

Have a great weeK!

Mr. Recker 

Parent Advisory

We had our parent advisory meeting lasty night.  We had three people show up and we had some good discussions.  I will include the minutes of the meeting here for all parents. 

http://www.whancock.org/teachers/Recker/Web%20Info/Current%20Parent%20Advisory%20Committee%20Minutes.pdf