CHS Cougar News
December, 2019
#BeCougarProud
Hey Cougar Fans!!!
Thank you for your role in making Clinton Cougar Basketball something to be proud of; our efforts don't go unnoticed! The following is a message we received after the McFarland game from one of our officials. Please continue your efforts in making our program one to be respected!
"Congratulations on a great win! I want you to know that I referee in a lot of conferences...Your kids are so awesome, they're nice, respectful, and fun to be around...No one ever says, "thanks or thank you" when you hand them the ball - but your kids do EVERY TIME! It makes it so much fun. As you noticed, I have new partners and on the way home, one of them said, "what a nice girls basketball program at Clinton." You & your coaches should be really proud of what you have accomplished, believe me I know it's not easy. While I am out reffing other schools, the athletic directors, parents, coaches really admire the hard work you have done at Clinton. Take care, I wish you the best of luck this year. A conference championship would be a great celebration for you!!"
Go Cougars!!
#BeCougarProud
Academic & Career Planning
At Clinton High School we take pride in preparing students for college and careers after graduation. Each month we highlight a career pathway to explore as a district. Academic & Career Planning (ACP) is a Wisconsin DPI Mandate intended to guide students toward College and Career Readiness (PI 26 Compliance). ACP equips students and their families with the tools necessary to make more informed choices about postsecondary education and training that leads to careers. Click this link to watch a short video about ACP.
We celebrated National Apprenticeship Week November 11-15. National Apprenticeship Week is a nationwide celebration established by the U.S. Department of Labor to bring together leading business, labor, education, and other critical partners to showcase the impact apprenticeship programs have on closing the U.S. skills gap for the American workforce. We hosted our 3rd Annual Apprenticeship Panel and lunch resource tables. Each panelist introduced themselves and described their apprenticeship program. Recent Clinton High School graduate, Zach Wynstra, was on the panel and shared great insight about being a first year apprentice. Zach started working at Jake’s Electric as a Youth Apprenticeship student his senior year. After graduation, he bridged into an apprenticeship student. Thank to all our panelists!
As part of our PI 26 Plan, our students complete monthly activities in an online platform called Xello. Xello provides interactive career, personality, and learning style assessments to help students better understand their unique interests, skills, and strengths. Each assessment encourages reflection, helping students connect who they are with relevant career options. Pictured below are students who recently attended the Madison Area Training Center Open House. They received a training center tour and visited interactive informative booths. Using the Xello platform, our staff were able to identify students with specific career interests, and subsequently put them in touch with real world experiences, taking learning beyond the classroom.
Do you have expertise in a career pathway that you feel students can benefit from learning about? We welcome parents/community members to join our ACP action team. For more information email labenisch@clintonwis.com.
CURRICULUM CORNER
Power Hour Tech Time
Freshman Biology's Organelle Speed Dating
Mrs. Beals' Health Class Update
Mrs. Beals’ health classes were busy analyzing nutrition labels. Building upon their knowledge of food preservatives, students were able to compare quantities of artificial sweeteners, sodium, and nutrients to ultimately evaluate which products were healthier choices.
Macronutrients are foods that contain carbohydrates, fats (healthy) and proteins. Micronutrients work in tandem with macronutrients to keep the body functioning and are crucial in order to maintain energy levels, metabolism, cellular function, and physical and mental wellbeing. Feel free to reach out to ANY of Mrs. Beals' students to help YOU make healthier choices for the next time you shop.What Going On in Spanish Class?
Life is busy in Spanish Class, as all of Ms. Patterson-Rivera's students enjoy conversing, presenting, writing and interpreting in the target language! Our Spanish 2 students have just completed their Health Unit. Using key vocabulary and novice grammar structures, they have successfully prepared and presented dialogues pertinent to discussing one's health and well-being. Spanish 3 students are currently studying the Clothing Unit. Using regular and irregular preterite verbs and thematic vocabulary, they have created fashion show videos describing the outfits and fashion preferences of "models" (each other.) Spanish 4 students have been working with the imperfect and preterite tenses, demonstrating their understanding through a series of activities and Powtoon presentations. Lastly, Spanish 5 students have reviewed regular and irregular verbs in multiple tenses through several activities, such as readings, comics, and short stories.
All Spanish classes have honed in on interpreting the Spanish language in oral and written form. They are reading and discussing authentic documents and Spanish novels, such as Pobre Ana (Spanish II) for example. They have also explored various cultural topics, most recently participating in the making of ‘calavera masks’ and ‘flor de día de los muertos’ as part of the ‘Día de los muertos’ festivities, and attending a field trip to watch authentic cultural dances from around the world.
Science Update
Anatomy Class continues their study of the skeletal system. They have just finished the bones and are learning the types of joints and their motions. To date, they dissected long bones and identified the bones using both articulated and disarticulated skeletons. They also utilized Xrays to identify various types of fractures and made inferences as to how the injury may have occurred.
Applied Physics students have just completed their study of Thermodynamics and the transfer of heat energy. They performed several labs in order to gain insight about heat transfer.
General and Honors Physics students have spent much effort learning about momentum and collisions. They performed several experiments using carts, tracks, motion detectors, force sensors, and labquests to develop an understanding of impulse, elastic and inelastic collisions.
The Hour of Code
Last month in the CHS LMC Makerspace, students participated in the Hour of Code. The Hour of Code is a global movement introducing students to computer science. The Hour of Code began as a one-hour coding challenge about four years ago. Students were given access to the website, Code.org, where they worked on coding activities based on their level of experience, interest, or resources. Coding activities include themes from Star Wars to Flappy Bird to Frozen. Many of our students chose Dance Party to begin their coding adventure.
The goal of the Hour of Code is not to teach everybody to become and expert computer scientist in one hour, but to inspire, empower and expose students to computer science in a fun and creative way. It may also help break some of the stereotypes that surround computer science. The Hour of Code takes place every year during Computer Science Education Week.