Are You Ready to Take the Challenge?

Rachel's Challenge comes to Celina High School tomorrow, Thursday, December 16th, 2010.  All CHS students will participate in an assembly in the morning, with a smaller number of students participating in a breakout session later in the morning.  At 7 PM, we will be hosting a community event with the presenter from Rachel's Challenge -- all parents, students, and community members are invited to attend.


For more information, check out our Rachel's Challenge page with links to website & pre-event activities.
Our hope is that this event will help transform and shape our culture at Celina High School.  Please consider joining us tomorrow night.

Project 206: Snow Daze

This is the 1st post in a series I intend to make featuring teacher blogs in our school. Teaching 21st Century Skills has become a primary focus for CHS and communicating with students, parents, and the community is a vital component in that process.

Several staff members have started 'blogging' (see my blog roll in the left sidebar). Different teachers have different reasons for blogging... some use it to solicit feedback and writing samples from students, others use it to display student work, and still others post assignments and notes. Here is one post from one of our new English teachers, Mrs. Wenning (formerly Ms. Moorman), fittingly titled 'Snow Daze' on this snow day! Her blog is named 'Project 206'.

Snow Daze

"I'm looking out my classroom window right now and see the snow falling. It makes me wonder, what you would or did do on a snow day?

First, I would jump for joy at having a day off of school and an extra day to do the work that I "forgot" to do the night before. Then, I would proceed to wake up my brothers and let them know that we had a day off of school and that we should build a snow man and have a snowball fight. Most of the time they went along with me. However, I needed to learn that snowball fights were a bad idea...since I was always covered in bruises afterwards. The building of the snowman was the best, though. We always used a carrot for a nose, fly swatters for hands, and my winter hat (if it was a girl) or my brother's (if it was a boy) and our mom's scarf.

Yeah, those were the good days because now my brothers don't get snow days with me, but at least I can sit at home with a nice cup of hot chocolate and watch my favorite holiday movies. Now, if only today we had one...

Rachel's Challenge Parent & Community Event

Looking for meaning amidst the business of the holiday season? Take one night to join us at CHS as we host Rachel's Challenge, which we hope will transform our school. Yes, we have been recognized for our academic excellence but we want more than that: we want to create a place where every student feels welcome and safe, encouraged and empowered. 


You're hoping to give your kids a lot this holiday season... Give them one thing more: attend the Rachel's Challenge session and see how you can help us change the world.


Join us Thursday, December 16th from 7 - 8 PM in the high school Lecture Hall. 


Watch the video below for a little more about Rachel's Challenge. 

Rachel's Challenge

On Thursday, December 16th, CHS will host 'Rachel's Challenge'.

Rachel Scott was the first person killed in the Columbine High School Tragedy on April 20, 1999.  She left behind an amazing legacy and a simple challenge to anyone who will accept it -- treat others with kindness and compassion and you just may change the world you live in.

Rachel's Challenge presents to more than 1 million people each year and will send a powerful message to students, staff, and the community.  On the day of the assembly, there will be a presentation to the middle school students, a separate presentation to the high school students, a breakout session for a small number of students and staff, and a community event in the evening.

All parents, students, and community members are invited and encouraged to attend the community event being held from 7 - 8 PM in the Lecture Hall at Celina High School.  Please consider attending this important event.

Here is a preview of the event:

For more information, visit http://goo.gl/RcvcC.

CHS Band & Cheerleaders Participate in Santa Parade

Saturday morning, our CHS Band and Cheerleaders participated in the annual Santa Parade.  Below is a slideshow of pictures from the event from Jeff Pontsler.

Kiwanis Club Annual Reindog & Elf Parade Celina Ohio on PhotoPeach

A Fresh Start

Today marks the beginning of the 2nd trimester.  Good luck to the staff and students as we start this new term.  Grade cards will be distributed to students on Friday, December 3rd during Advisory period.

After we wrapped up the first trimester, the high school staff spent the next day (Wednesday before Thanksgiving) in professional development.  During a portion of our day, we spent time reflecting on the first trimester ... I asked the teachers to describe the trimester in one word.  Below is a 'Wordle' (www.wordle.net) of a few of their responses.

We also spent a portion of our day preparing for more implementation of technology in the classroom.  We are making great strides toward teaching more 21st Century Skills in the classroom.  We know that our students will be entering a different world today than they did 10 years ago, and we are changing our approach in the classroom to accommodate that shift.  Here is one of our Building Goals for this school year:

"We will address the academic needs of our students through improved instruction and implementation of 21st Century Skills."

We have a great staff of teachers that are working hard to do what is best for our students and we are doing great things in the classroom... Stay tuned for more posts about some of those great classroom activities!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hard to believe, but we have arrived at the end of the 1st trimester -- ALREADY!  Now, students have a 6 day vacation... we return to school on Tuesday, November 30th to begin the 2nd trimester.  

Grade cards will be passed out next Friday (12/3/10) to the students during their advisory period.  If students need a new schedule, they should stop in the office.  

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Here are some of my FAVORITE images from 1st Trimester...

CHS Choir to Perform this Weekend

The CHS Choir Department will be giving two performances of "100 Years of Broadway" this weekend -- Saturday 11/20/10 & Sunday 11/21/10 at 7 PM in the Ed Complex Auditorium.  Tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20 and can be purchased from any choir member or at the door.  Both the Chamber Choir and the A Cappella Choirs will be featured and several Chamber Choir members will perform solos and duets of Broadway favorites throughout history.

Join us for this sure to be entertaining event!

We Love Trimesters...

As we near the end of our first ever TRIMESTER at CHS, I think it is appropriate to discuss how students and staff have adjusted to the change.  The underlying theme here is... "We love trimesters!"
Have we had some bumps in the road?  YES!  Have there been challenges and even some problems to work through?  Of course!  But, the one thing we have tried to do is continue to keep the best interests of the students in mind.  We have tweaked a few things along the way, and the teachers are already discussing how they might change some things for 2nd trimester.  All in all, trimesters has been a positive change because it has allowed teachers more time to get 'in depth' with their lessons, it has lightened the workload for students (only 5 classes instead of 7), and almost everyone will tell you it has made the day go faster!  These are just a few of the positives.
No scheduling system is perfect, but we certainly do 'love the trimesters'.  Watch this short video for more...

American Education Week

This week (November 15 - 19) is American Education Week.  "American Education Week (AEW) spotlights the importance of providing every child in America with a quality public education from kindergarten through college, and the need for everyone to do his or her part in making public schools great." (National Education Association website, 2010).  

From L to R: Kim Lammers (CEA President), Carol Henderson
(OAPSE President), Sharon LaRue (Mayor), Matt Miller
(Superintendent), and Connie Paulus (Board President)

Take some time this week to thank everyone involved in educating the youth in our community -- teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, board members, aides, custodians, bus drivers, secretaries, and cafeteria workers. 


At the school board meeting on Monday night, Celina Mayor Sharon LaRue issued a Proclamation for American Education Week.  

Imagination Library Turkey Trot

The 1st Annual Imagination Library Turkey Trot 5K Run and 1K Elementary Fun Run was a huge success.  Thanks to Kiwanis for sponsoring the event and to all of those Celina Schools staff members that volunteered their time to organize and run the event.

The Imagination Library, founded by Dolly Parton, is an organization that sends free books to young children in the community.  For more information or to sign-up a child, visit: http://imaginationlibrary.com/.

Thanks to Jeff Pontsler of the Grand Lake Independent for the slideshow below.  For more pictures of the 5K run, visit his photo website.

Celina Imagination Library Turkey Trot on PhotoPeach

Art Department Plans Trip to NYC

The CHS Art Department is offering a trip to see the Big Apple in the spring of 2011.  The 4 day 3 night trip is scheduled for March 31 through April 3, 2011.  Students will see the most famous art that New York has to offer.  Plans to visit four different art museums and two Broadway shows are currently in the works.  In addition, students will get to experience New York City at night from the Empire State Building’s top floor.  Ground Zero, Central Park, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, South Street Seaport, the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island are all on the intinerary as well as much more.  If you are interested in experiencing NYC with us, you can contact Ms. Sutter or Mrs. Place for more information, or just stop in the Art Room.

Parents can contact us via email amy.sutter@celinaschools.org or kathy.place@celinaschools.org if they have any questions.