The Pulse
Pikes Peak Early College, December Edition
A Note from Rochelle Kolhouse, Principal
Happy Holidays! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break and that you were able to spend some quality time with family and friends. It’s hard to believe we have just three short weeks until we are on break yet again.
With semester one final exams looming in the foreseeable future and the end of the semester hustle and bustle upon us, I wanted to take a moment and address the importance of taking care of yourself during times of stress. The Huffington Post has a great article, “Academic Pressure: 5 Tips From An Expert On Coping With School Stress”, with some tips for teens on managing academic stress. If you have a minute, please read this article and encourage students to take a look at the five suggestions the experts in the article offer. In the end, self-care will ultimately facilitate greater academic achievement.
We have had such an amazing first semester, and I’m looking forward to an even better second semester. The new addition to our campus is underway, and we hope you will all be able to join us for the groundbreaking ceremony on December 12th. A special thank you to everyone who is a part of our amazing school. We appreciate each and everyone of you and are so grateful you chose to make Pikes Peak Early College your high school of choice! Have a wonderful winter break and a Happy New Year!
Science
PPEC Chemistry and Honors Chemistry students are wrapping up the second phase of their science-based job shadow project. The student’s science-based job shadow is a worksite experience during which a student spends time one-on-one with an employee observing daily activities and asking questions about the job and industry. As students explore the career fields that interest them, students are tasked with identifying ways that science impacts those fields on a daily basis. Students will then complete written assignments before, during, and after the job shadow to help them understand and reflect on what they see, hear, and learn at the workplace. When appropriate, students do hands-on tasks at the worksite.
The PPEC Science-based job shadow gives a student a meaningful introduction to the world of work and provides a context for understanding the connection between school (science) and careers. Specifically, a job shadow helps a student accomplish the following:
-Begin to identify career interests.
-Observe the daily routine of adult workers.
-Gain awareness of the academic, technical, and personal skills required by particular jobs.
-Develop and apply communication skills by interacting with and interviewing workers.
-Realize that different jobs are characterized by different work cultures and working environments.
-Begin to understand the connection between school, work, and achieving goals.
After Students complete their job shadow, they will need to process their experience with the intention of obtaining the following learning results:
-Analyze skills and abilities required in a variety of career options and relate them to their own skills and abilities.
-Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the changing nature of work and educational requirements.
-Demonstrate an understanding of the integration and application of academic and occupational skills in school learning, work, and personal lives.
As of December, PPEC Chemistry and Honors Chemistry students are in the second phase of their project, which involves identifying and contacting a job shadow host as well as solidifying the dates and times of their job shadow. In this phase of their project, students should already be clear on the career field they would like to explore, but now is the time for them to further develop their job shadow action plan. What careers are they interested in? What local employers are related to their potential career field (either directly or indirectly)? Using the provided student script (if needed) students then call and/or email potential job shadow hosts to request an opportunity to job shadow.
Our students have some really neat job shadow opportunities already lined up! We have students who will be job shadowing with Physical Therapists, Veterinarians, Web designers, Educators, and the list goes on. We have amazing students doing amazing things!!
Math Fa (La)8
Math is pushing hard for the completion of Aleks at 60% or better by the end of the semester. Most of the College Algebra Prep and Pre-Calculus students that took the Accuplacer qualified for college-level math courses. Algebra II also took the Accuplacer, and many of them qualified for college-level courses, but we are asking that they complete Algebra II and Pre-Calc before they take on this challenge. We attribute this success to how hard our students are working and the high quality of the ALEKS program in helping students attain mastery in mathematics.
The Algebra II students have been studying linear programming, synthetic division, zeroes, and complex numbers. We have had a lot of success in meeting many of the Algebra II lessons. Polynomials are the biggest hurdle we are achieving this last part of the semester. Having taught College Algebra, I am focusing students during class time on the many classical concepts covered in college-level math courses.
Algebra I has been working on “Functions and Lines” and how we make our way from Algebraic notation to function notation while tying what we know about graphing to high-level questioning.
Pre-Calc has been working hard on conceptualizing graphs and their behavior including, even and odd functions and tying this to projects like modeling the cables on the Golden Gate Bridge or designing functions that approximate the cross-section of a skate park “Half-Pipe.” Students also approximated the height of the “Care and Share” building using the tangent formula, a crude protractor, string, washer, and measurements from the building. Three students programmed the TI-84 Calculator to make the answers easily calculated. This semester has been a great success.
English
It is time to brag on our amazing students! This past Monday, PPEC students hosted the 1st Annual Yeti Festival- a time where they came together with Springs Studio middle school students and hosted games and crafts. They also sold snacks and raffle tickets to pie middle school teachers in the face to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
To say that our PPEC kids rocked, it is an understatement! They were joyful, laughed together, helped them succeed at their stations, and set such positive examples for the younger students. I couldn’t be more proud of their hard work and ‘yeti’ attitudes!
On top of that, we raised $332 for St Jude’s! PPEC is impacting those around them- at school and across the country! Ask your student about the station they hosted and their thoughts on working with middle school students.
OUR STUDENTS ARE THE BEST!!!!
World Language - Hello! Hola! Hallo! Salut!
Well! It’s almost the end of our first semester, and we are now getting ready for winter break!
This last week we have devoted ourselves to reviewing everything learned throughout the semester in preparation for the final exam on December 9th. We have also worked on the final project for the semester. Remember that learning other languages allows you to enrich your life, experience new ideas, exercise the mind, benefit from world cultural diversity, obtain scholarships for postgraduate studies, work in a transnational company, as well as the ability to express yourself in a different way. Not to mention, this can improve students’ social relations! This is why we encourage all of our students at PPEC to learn another language.
Have a Happy Holiday Season!
Tech Electives
I hope everyone has a safe and healthy holiday season. This month, students are welcome to participate in our 4th annual 3D Ornament Design Contest!! Submissions are due by Dec 17th, and there will be prizes for the top 3 designs! Students in Coding 1 have started to create animations and drawings with Python coding. Students have been designing and animating their own graphics and learning how to code keyboard and mouse commands to start inventing games and projects. 21st-century learning students have been researching and exploring an individual passion to share with the class with a digital media portfolio. Teen leadership students are finishing vision board presentations to start exploring their college and career pathways and life goals.
If you are interested in 3D printing your own ornament, please stop by the makerspace to start the design process. You can start tinkering on tinkercad.com to build your own 3D design.
Spotlight Yeti of the Month
We are proud to present our Yeti for the month of November, Ilana Sherwood! Congratulations on representing the Yeti traits not only for our school but also for your peers and the PPEC staff. Meet Ilana...
Hi! My name is Ilana Sherwood, and I’m super excited to be YETI of the month! I am a freshman here at PPEC, and I plan on getting my Associate’s degree by the time I graduate high school. I love to dance, sing, and act in my free time. After high school, I plan on going to college in New York to get my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre. I am very proud that my peers nominated me for YETI of the month. Starting at a new school was very stressful, but finding a great group of new friends who are there for me has helped me get through it all. I feel like I really embrace the YETI trait of never quitting. No matter what, I feel like I always work hard to achieve my goals no matter what happens.
Counselor's Corner
Time flies! Final exams are right around the corner for high school courses and college courses. If students are struggling at all, please encourage them to seek out tutoring help from their teachers and go to the college campuses to the Learning labs/tutoring centers. It has been proven that students who attend the learning labs are doing much better in classes when they are struggling. Please encourage students and friends to seek out help.
Speaking of seeking out help-it is the season to take care of YOU. It is a stressful time with finals, holidays and the craziness of the season. Please take a few minutes a day to put yourself in a time out and just breathe! The act of mindfulness can be a minute or 15 minutes, and anyone can do it. Just sit in a quiet space, close your eyes and focus on your breath; that’s it! Notice how you feel afterward and keep practicing.
On the college side of things, our students are doing incredibly well. We have 14 new students taking college courses in the Spring. Concurrent Enrollment is exploding at PPEC and we are so glad to see students taking advantage of the opportunity. If you have not turned in your schedule for the spring or paperwork, the deadline has passed! However, tis the season for kindness and grace---so get it turned in today!
Have a wonderful holiday season!
Family Engagement Council
On September 9th, our new council met and discussed PPEC assessment data as well as zone priorities for this school year. If you are interested in viewing the agenda from our meeting as well as our meeting minutes on our website, please feel free to click on the FEC Additional Information link below. Our next Family Engagement Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 18th on our new campus (6113 Constitution Ave, Colorado Springs) from 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm! Thank you for your time and dedication to our school!
Check out the links below for some great information!
Upcoming Events
Please be sure to check the website calendar for information.
December 6th- English 1 Final Presentations Begin
December 9th - World Language Final Exam
December 11th- Math Winter Aleks Knowledge Check
December 11th- English 2 Final Exam
December 11th- English 3 Final Debate
December 12th-PPEC Groundbreaking Ceremony
December 13th- All Science Final Exams
December 13th -All college schedules due
December 20th- ALL WORK is due by 8:00 AM for final grades
December 23rd - January 6th - Winter Break - No Students
*Reminder, school hours are M, W, F 7:15 am-3:15 pm