CHS Newsletter
News You Can Use -- February 2018
Clinton High School
Email: thduszynski@clintonwis.com
Website: http://www.clinton.k12.wi.us/
Location: 112 Milwaukee Street, Clinton, WI, United States
Phone: 608-676-2223
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clintoncommunityschooldistrict
Twitter: @clintonwischool
Important Dates!
February 16: Midterm 3 ends
February 19: Parent-Teacher Conferences (4-8 p.m.)
- Choosing High School Classes Wisely Presentation - Room 311 (5-6 p.m.)
- Laude/Modified Block Parent Presentation & Listening Session - Room 311 (6-7 p.m.)
February 21: Parent-Teacher Conferences (4-8 p.m.)
- Laude/Modified Block Parent Presentation & Listening Session - Room 311 (4-5 p.m.)
February 23: NO SCHOOL
February 27-28: Junior ACT + Writing & WorkKeys Test
March 13: Social Media: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly Presentation (Commons 7-8 p.m.)
March 20: Make up day for ACT with Writing
March 21: Make up day for ACT WorkKeys
March 23: Term 3 ends
March 26-30: Spring Break
Principal's Shoutout!
Social Media & Kindness
February is often a month that focuses on kindness and caring. While high school students may not have classroom Valentine’s Day parties, they do have numerous service and fundraiser activities going on this month that are centered on those themes. Students even got involved in showing teachers some caring and recognition by reflecting on staff that has shown them the Power of Kindness, Power of Caring, Power of Listening, and the Power of Believing in You. I recommend that during parent-teacher conferences next week that you stop and see the display that is in the commons related to this recognition. A big thank you to Mrs. Werfelmann and Mrs. Barker for putting all the work into this student/staff activity and display.
Unfortunately, as great as I think our students are (and they seriously are!!), conflicts and reports of bullying happen at CHS more often than the office would like. There are difficulties that adolescents face today that earlier generations haven’t had to deal with at all or on a much smaller level and many of these difficulties are centered around social media. There are benefits to the internet and social media use, but there are drawbacks as well. Adolescence is a time to try out new skills and experience some successes and some failures that students will learn and grow from. One of the big things they are learning at this time is communication. Currently, friendship communication (or not friendly communication) is often happening online which means that students can’t see the effect their words are having on another student. This makes it difficult to know if their intended message was received correctly and it also makes it easier to make, or respond, with cruel words.
Take this month to talk to your teen about their social media use. Here are 10 Social Media Tips All Parents Should Teach Their Children from the website, Today Parenting Team. Encouraging adolescents to be kind themselves and to encourage their friends to be kind is important. A simple self-check of, “If I was having a face to face conversation with this person, would I say this?” Also, reporting when conflict occurs and/or crosses the line is important as well. While not all unkind interactions are bullying, conflict resolution can often occur if both parties have only minimally engaged in that negative communication.
Also, put March 13th on your calendar for a presentation by Stateline Mental Health on “Social Media Use: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (see below for more information on this presentation).
Parent Teacher Conferences
Department & Extracurricular Updates
Ag
Pictured above, right: Trey Mac Cormack, Joshua Lenz, & Derek Hagler displaying their plant cell model for Plant Science.
Art
Graphic Design: Students are getting a feel for the design process using thumbnails, roughs and comps. Our focus has been on Line, Shape Texture and soon Color for Elements of design. In Painting, we are working on our first acrylic unit in color mixing using only primaries and black and white. In 3D Art, we are nearly finished with our 3D letters that represent students characteristics. Advanced Art 1 class is working on an acrylic stylistic painting. Finally, Advanced Art 2 is finishing up self-portraits in a choice of media.
Photo Above Right: Kayla Michaelson doing an acrylic on canvas painting. Photo Below: Grayson Johanson, Dylan Wurzel, Isaac Roach and Kolten Ellwanger are building and stretching canvases for paintings.
Band
The CHS BAND has an extremely busy next couple of months. We have been working extremely hard preparing for our Local Solo & Ensemble festival scheduled for Saturday, February 17, 2018. Many band students that perform well at Local S&E will then have the opportunity to advance and perform at District Solo & Ensembles which will be held at Big Foot High School on Saturday, March 10, 2018.
CHS BAND students are also working on marching basics and memorizing their marching music for Florida. The piece that will be performed at the Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios in parades is an arrangement of On Wisconsin and Semper Fidelis. The CHS BAND will leave for Florida on Friday, March 23 and will return on Friday, March 30!
Please put Tuesday, March 20, 2018 on your calendar. That night at 7 pm in the high school gymnasium, the CHS BAND will be performing our annual Music In Our School Month Concert (MIOSM). This will also be the Florida Trip Preview concert. It is one of the most exciting performances of the year that has always received great reviews! Come listen to the CHS MARCHING BAND perform many favorites like, “Sweet Caroline,” “YMCA,” “HEY BABY,” and some new favorites like “Shut Up and Dance” and “Shipping Up To Boston.” We can’t wait to see you on March 20th!
As always, you can catch the CHS PEP BAND at all home conference basketball games!
GO BAND!
Business & Marketing
Second-semester classes are off to a great start. Looking forward to celebrating Career and Technical Education month with our students.
State DECA qualifiers are busy preparing for competition in March. Looking for judges to help out March 6 at Grand Geneva. If interested please click on the link below.
We are looking for volunteers for the annual CHS Reality Check event on March 12th from 7:30 am to Noon. It’s a great opportunity to help students practice Financial Literacy. If you are interested in volunteering, please click here: https://tinyurl.com/y8ad5trr or visit www.clinton.k12.wi.us and click the Reality Check form on the home page or you can call Elisa Shoemaker at 608-676-2223 x2308 to register over the phone. In the past, the event has run successfully with 80 volunteers. If you can possibly help out, we promise breakfast, lunch and a great time with our Juniors and Seniors!
Choir
The Blenders: The Honors Choir is performing at the ICHSA competition on February 10 in DeKalb Illinois. This is a quarter-final round where they have a chance to move on to semi. This is an a cappella competition similar to the movie “Pitch Perfect”
The local solo/ensemble festival will be Saturday, February from 8-3;00 at the High School. All choir students grade 7-12 will be involved.
The High School Play “the Odd Couple, female version” written by Neil Simon, has started practices and will be presented on March 15, 16 & 17 on the CMS stage.
Counseling-Academic & Career Planning
Course Planning for 2017-18 begins! The Course Offering Presentation will be given to each grade level 9 through 11. After the course offering presentation, students will bring home a COURSE REQUEST SHEET. This form needs to be returned by the due date with a parent/guardian signature. Please discuss and consider the course requests carefully. Course requests are used to develop the master schedule for next year. Careful, thoughtful request planning by all students increases our ability to create a schedule to meet those requests.
"Choosing High School Classes Wisely" on Monday, February 19th @ 5:00 pm. will be held in Room 311 at the high school. This presentation will discuss the importance of rigorous academics in high school and the impact that class choice has on college and career success.
English
This school year, the English department has had the opportunity to participate in UW Madison’s Great World Texts program. The program allows some of our students (Honors 10, AP English Literature and AP English Language) to read iconic novels, such as this year’s novel, Silent Spring, that have influenced our world in a significant way. Such a unique opportunity allows our students to not only explore iconic texts but come together with students from all over the state to collaborate and show connections that go beyond the classroom.Through discussion of the text and outside sources, students have created questions to explore their local impact on the environment. In fact, our students will use these questions to guide a discussion with a few speakers from the DeLong Company who will present and inform students of their role in environmental awareness on Friday, February 9, 2018. While the students have been busy exploring topics related to environmentalism, the impact of technology, and the use of rhetoric to enhance the purpose of the piece, the program will not culminate until April. At this time, students participating in the event will meet, collaborate, and hear keynote speaker, Sandra Steingraber, who is known as the predecessor to Rachel Carson, herself. This program is an amazing opportunity for our students, and we can’t wait to bring them to the college campus to experience so much more than a book.
Family & Consumer Science
Foods 2 classes were busy making and iced sugar cookies for DECA students to sell for
the Polar Plunge fundraiser which supports Special Olympics. We used a flower-shaped cookie cutter and “painted” the iced cookies to match the Polar Plunge theme. After the cookies, we will be making, frosting, and decorating cupcakes for the Someone Special and Me dance.
Child Development took on the task of peeling crayons and breaking them to fit into various silicone molds. It started out fun and therapeutic, but soon took on a life of its own.
The crayons are going to elementary school teachers who sent them to Mrs. Enright last year. Students are currently making Valentines to accompany the crayons.
Asharia Dubois & Sophia Curtis
Isaac Roach & Tristan Loback
Mikayla Perring
FFA
We are in the heart of our Leadership Development Event and Career Development Event season. FFA members participated in the district Leadership Development Event hosted at Edgerton High School in Quiz Bowl Contest, Parliamentary Procedure Team, Extemporaneous contest, Discussion Meet, and Employability Skills contest. Congratulations to Sam D for advancing onto the Sectional Leadership Development Event in March!
We are preparing for our Career Development season where students will focus on various areas of interest including livestock evaluation, agriculture mechanics, veterinary science, wildlife, and many more. FFA members compete amongst one another from all over the state and have the opportunity to qualify for the state contest hosted in April at UW Madison. Our members are preparing for National FFA Week (February 17-24) with a variety of events throughout the week--including Teacher Appreciation, Ag Trivia, and different awareness days.
We have members attending the Farm Forum conference in Wisconsin Rapids to learn more about leadership, agricultural career opportunities, and network with other FFA members.
Sign up for the fair is now available for FFA members interested in exhibiting at the Rock County 4-H Fair. Forms must be completed and returned by February 27th.
Pictured Below: Zach Wynstra, Kenny Ballmer, Clay Ward, Connor Mullooly, Rachel Burno, and Olivia Gunnink; Parli Pro participants
Destiny Heinrich & Natalee Lynd
Santara Jones
Sam Duggan & Maddie Rankin
Library
The library makerspace is becoming more and more popular. Students are taking the time to engage their brains in a variety of activities. Teen Book Club members will be reading The Boys of Summer by Richard Cox and meeting to discuss on April 5th.
Kayla Hart & John Brandl
Allison Carter, Steve Espinoza, Tyler Halsted & Tyler Dominy
Logan Runnells & Jacob Merimon
Math
To begin the 2nd Semester Algebra 1 students are studying Linear and Exponential Functions. They are learning how to write formulas to summarize patterns and their features. Some fun activities in this unit explore the amazing effect of exponential growth, for example, thinking about how many times it might take to fold a piece of paper before it’s thickness would reach the moon.
Geometry students are currently working with the Pythagorean Theorem, one of the 10 most important equations in the world. They are using the theorem to decipher similar triangles.
Algebra 2 is beginning their study into Logarithms and Exponentials.
As always, we are working diligently getting the Junior students ready for the ACT that is coming up at the end of February.
Phy Ed / Health
Students in physical education class recently began their unit of badminton. Much of the focus has been on skill development. Students have practiced various drills to develop the racket skills necessary to play a game of badminton. The serve, the clear, the drive, the drop, the smash and the hairpin are all shots necessary to play a successful game of badminton. Whether played competitively or recreationally, badminton provides a workout that is both fun and unique. In the coming weeks, students will be competing in both singles and doubles tournaments. Stop by the gym to watch all the talent on display.
Pictured Above Right: Gabriell Brown & Chelsea Beaumont
Pupil Services
Clinton Community School District is excited to announce that there will be a presentation titled, "Social Media: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly" The presentation will take place at Clinton High School on March 13, 2018, with doors opening at 6:30 P.M., the presentation will be from 7:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. There will be snacks and childcare provided by CHS students. If there are questions please feel free to reach out to Janae Gile, CHS Principal and/or Shannon Werfelman, CHS Counselor. More information will follow in the next couple weeks.
Science
Boom-Boom, Boom-boom. Through the stethoscope, the heartbeat booms in the ears of Mrs. Gander’s Anatomy and Physiology students as they explore the features of the cardiovascular system. Students have determined the effect of exercise, body position, temperature, and caffeine on resting, active, and recovery heart rates.
While the Solar System may be a quiet place, as mechanical waves such as sound waves will not propagate through the emptiness of space, the physics students are discussing the Biggest of the Bangs, the Big Bang Theory in their physics class. Early Astronomers Johannes Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton and Galileo have provided the basis for understanding planetary motion and forces involved in our universe.
While in chemistry, Mr. Johnson’s students oohed and aahed as they watched methane reaction with oxygen in a combustion reaction. While not quite a boom, the bubbles of methane burst in a very satisfactorily fashion, creating a fiery flash as the candle flame met the methane bubble. Just as satisfying was how the students demonstrated understanding the reaction by calculating the mass of the water that would be generated by a given amount of methane in a stoichiometric reaction.
In biology, the students’ minds were blown when they were introduced to the processes of protein production and how DNA is the chemical code guiding cellular development and cellular activity. Ms. Ehlert’s students worked with modeling to manipulate the chemical code of a DNA molecule; the transfer RNA, the codons, and amino acids through the processes of translation and transcription in the production of a protein molecule.
Boom! Science!
Service Learning Opportunities Reminder
While it is recommended that all students have some service learning or volunteer hours, the Class of 2021 and beyond have 30 required hours. Different opportunities are promoted on the daily announcements throughout the year and posted in the Work-Based Learning area of the Commons as well.
At this time, here are the opportunities that we are aware of:
Clinton PTO is requesting assistance providing daycare during Parent-Teacher Conferences on February 19th & 21st from 4-8 p.m. Students do NOT have to volunteer the whole time or both dates--a couple of hours would be helpful! Students can leave their name and number in the office if interested.
March 13th is a Social Media presentation that is being promoted district and community-wide. Daycare assistance is needed from 6:30-8:00 p.m.
There are plenty of other places around town and/or in the Rock County area that are always looking for volunteers as well. Feel free to reach out to other places. If you need the form to track your hours, you can click here or stop by the Counseling office or the main high school office. Don’t forget to turn the forms into the office once completed!!
Social Studies
A new month and a new unit for Global Studies! Students have started their study of the Middle East in Mr. Manske’s class. That also means that it is time for a simulation! Students will be trying their hand at negotiating peace in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians. It will be challenging but it will also be a fun hands-on way of gaining a deeper understanding of one of the crucial issues of our time. Students will also spend time researching, talking about, and answering prompts about Iran, Iraq, the Gulf War, the Iraq War, ISIS, Syria, and Afghanistan as we progress through the unit.
Ms. Tierney’s classes have been using PearDeck, an interactive online tool to facilitate engagement, and they are loving it!
Tech Ed
Technology Education students are busy kicking off the new semester learning the basics of what skills need to be demonstrated throughout the semester. These skills range from tape measure and blueprint reading to soldering and framing. While most of the classes started over at the semester, capstone classes, like Welding and Construction, are a continuation of honing students’ abilities in a field that they enjoy.
Congratulations go out to Sami Rosillo who took 3rd place in First Aid/CPR at the SkillsUSA Regional Competition, hosted by South West Technical College in Fennimore, WI. The last SkillsUSA competition will be State, held on April 24th & 25th in Madison, WI. If a student places 1st or 2nd in their event at State, they will move on to Nationals. Thank you to all of those who purchased popcorn from our members at the beginning of the year, along with our other fundraisers. Tim Thieding, high school and middle school Technology Education teacher and member of the SkillsUSA State Advisory Board, met with other board members to discuss the State’s upcoming budget in late January.
Work Based Learning
We have seen an increase in student interest in work-based learning opportunities. We currently have 25 Youth Apprenticeship students, registered in six of the eleven different program areas including Agriculture, Health, Hospitality, Architecture and Construction, Manufacturing, and Transportation. We also have ten students enrolled in a variety of different Internships.
The second round of job visits have been completed as well as the initial visits for new adds this semester. It is amazing what our students are learning on the job. Students are excited to show off what they are learning and the love they have for their jobs really shows.
Emily Maroon is currently working towards earning her CNA at Blackhawk Technical College. She is halfway done with the six-week class and will start clinicals next week. At the completion of the course, Emily will take the Pearson Vue Exam to get her certification. Having this license will open up different opportunities for her in the nursing field and any medical field in her future.
Hunter Harrington @ Jake's Electric
Zach Stupey @ Cougar Lanes
Clay Ward @ Hildebrandt Farms
World Languages
Spanish II students are working on a project about Hispanic foods recipes, they are creating a PowerPoint with different recipes, instructions and ingredients and they will be presenting it to the class shortly.
Spanish III students are working on a tourist guide to a Spanish speaking country, having to research for trips in the country and also pointing out cultural remarks, landmarks to visit as well as prices and itineraries.
Spanish IV students started a movie in Spanish and they are currently watching it so they can work on their movie critic review. They also started a project for a short film, 4 to 7 minutes, that they have to create with a Spanish script and subtitles in English that would be screened in front of the class.
Spanish V students are working in their movies Script and short film in Spanish as well as Spanish IV students, expectations are higher and both fluency and vocabulary used are expected to be at a Spanish V World Language Class level. They are also working on AP Spanish tests to improve and check their mastering of the language.
Choosing High School Classes Wisely
Monday, Feb 19, 2018, 05:00 PM
CHS Room 311
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Laude & Bell Schedule Presentation & Listening Session
Monday, Feb 19, 2018, 06:00 PM
CHS Room 311
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Laude & Bell Schedule Presentation & Listening Session
Wednesday, Feb 21, 2018, 05:00 PM
CHS Room 311
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Social Media: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly Presentation
Tuesday, Mar 13, 2018, 07:00 PM
CHS Commons
RSVPs are enabled for this event.