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

Hall of Pride Scrimmage

West Hancock hosted the Iowa Hall of Pride Scrimmage with Algona on Saturday November 19th.  Proceeds from the event were donated to The Iowa Hall of Pride, The Britt Food Bank and The Britt Community Holiday Dinner.  In conjunction with the event a cothing drive was held and the clothes were donated to the Kossuth County Care Team. Thank you to all of the participants and patrons for making this a great event!

Students of the Month!

This year we have changed our student of the month program to be more focused on two individual students who are doing great things in and out of the classroom.  I would like to announce the winnners for the months of September and October.

September

Junior - Nathan Aitchison and Freshman - Thomas Nelson

October - Senior Marcy Mayland and Junior - Kevin Tlach

Congratulations!



Happy Thanksgiving!

It is Thanksgiving week! We will have an early dismissal on Wednesday and no school on Thursday and Friday.


We are into the second week of Hex 3. Report cards on line should be updated and if there were any incomplete grades, they should be updated by the end of today. As a reminder, the semester ends before Christmas break and semester tests will be on December 22nd and 23rd.


Congratulations to the football team on a great season. Getting to the state finals was an awesome accomplishment and the boys did great! Congratulations to coach Sanger on his 300th victory. He has had a wonderful career here at West Hancock. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get to 300 wins. But I'm sure coach would tell you he couldn't have done it without the support of the community and the efforts of many individuals over the years.


We will be having our High School parent advisory meeting on Wednesday November 30th at 5:15 in the high school library. If you have not attended one of these in the past do not be afraid to stop in. We usually have around 5-7 parents but I would be happy to have more. I usually have an update on things going on in the high school and we have time for parent questions and concerns. I will post the minutes from our meeting on one of my blog posts.


This week is the week to give thanks and I would like to share a few things I am thankful for as we continue through the school year:


 I am thankful.....


- we have a large percenatge of our students who are hard working and dedicated to their success in  academics and extra curricular activities


- that we have a good number of students taking classes trhough our academies, on line courses and other means to challenge themselves and earn college credit


- that the one to one computer initiative has been a success at the high school
- we have teachers trying new and different things every day to engage students in the classroom


 - we have such a supportive community at West Hancock for all of our academic and extra curricular activities


 - that our new new staff have transitioned well into our school
- that those peopled who have changed positions in our district have found success in their new positions


- that we will have air conditioning this spring


- that so many people have been happy with our new bathrooms


- and most of all - That the students, staff, parents and community members continue to work very hard to sustain and build an excellent "Learning Community" for resdidents of the West Hancock Community School District!


I could go on and on, but I just wanted to share some of the great things that are happening in our district! Have a great holiday and enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend!

West Hancock vs. Lisbon for the State Championship

Good luck to the Eagle football team as they head to the UNI Dome to play in the state championship game!  Go Eagles!

We hope to have a "Sea of Red" today at the dome.

Eagles are Soaring!

What a week to be an Eagle!  The football team defeated Madrid 48-38 to reach the state finals. The drama department presented Grease on Saturday and Sunday and it was a great show.  We had almost 400 people attend the show.  It was a very exciting weekend!

Thursday was the end of Hex 2.  Report cards will be available on line on Wednesday.  Please remember that the hex grade is just a progress report.  Hex 1 rolls into hex 2 and so on.  Students do have until Thursday to turn in any late work from Hex 2.  Please remind your students of this.  If your son or daughter has an incomplete it is bercause of missing assignments. 

We will be doing an advisory scavenger hunt on Thursday.  Students will be working in groups to find clues and send picture messages back to the facilitators.  This will be agreat chance to build team work, higher order thinking skills, and good rapport in our advisory groups.

We will be having a pep rally at 2:50 for the football team in the high school gym.  That night the football team will eat in the high school lunch room at 5:00.  There will be a community pep rally after the supper at 7:00 in the high school gym.

Good luck to our football team on Friday.  Kick off is at 2:05.