Regina Jr Sr High Newsletter
October 2023
From the Principal
The weather sure turned quickly to let us know that fall is here. With the cooler temperatures it causes me to think of those without adequate shelter and utilities. Please keep them in your prayers as we enter the cold months of our year.
The month of November starts with All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Our prayers are with those close to us who have passed away, especially those we lost in this past year. We also send prayers to those who have lost loved ones and friends. The past 3 months have been especially difficult for many in the Regina community after the passing of Aidan O'Neil. We ask for your continued prayers as many of us still grieve over the loss of Aidan. I hope the following prayer can help you as you remember those we have lost.
Loving God, we remember now in prayer our dearly departed.
May they rest in peace with you and experience the eternal joy of heaven.
Heal our grief, merciful Lord, strengthen our hope that we, too,
will one day share in the resurrection of your Son
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.
This month's newsletter includes:
- Fall Play Information
- Home and School Note
- Gala Baskets
- Spirit Store Christmas Ornaments
- InQUIZition
- Department Updates
Yours in Christ,
Glenn Plummer
Upcoming Events
Our Activities Calendar can be found at https://www.rivervalleyconference.org/public/genie/628/school/9/.
Monthly Adoration
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F054DAFA72CA75-eucharistic
Home and School - Staff Appreciation Week
Staff Appreciation Week is coming up November 6-10. Home and School has lots of things planned for our Regina staff that week like lunches, a traveling snack cart, gift baskets they can win, spirit wear, and more. There are also opportunities for families to play a part in “showering” the staff with appreciation that week—click the attached pdf's below for Home and School’s S.A.W. 5-Day Guide and the list of supplies donation suggestions for JH/HS (the supplies drive is Wednesday of S.A.W.—see the 5 Day Guide!).
Of course these are all optional! Your family can choose to participate in one, some, or all of the 5 days of surprises on Staff Appreciation Week; it’s up to you. For more details, see the email that was sent out recently from Home & School, or ask the S.A.W. co-chairs, Sofia Livorsi (slivorsi@gmail.com) and Itzel Wiewel (itzelwiewel@gmail.com).
InQuizition
17. On which island did St. John the Apostle spend his final years in exile?
- Patmos
- Crete
- Capri
- Malta
18. The Catechism describes actual grace as:
- a stable disposition of the will
- God's interventions
- a supernatural disposition
- a permanent indwelling of grace
- prayer before actual meals
Christmas Basket Project
Silver Cord
The Regina Silver Cord Program was created to encourage and recognize students for their service activities. These service activities, while helping the local community, also develop responsibility, citizenship, and leadership skills in the students involved with the program.
For students interested in receiving a silver cord at graduation they will need to collect at least 200 hours of volunteer service. Students should read the informational sheet on what the Silver Cord Program is. Once they have completed a volunteer service they can submit those hours on the Silver Cord Verification of Hours form.
Silver Cord Program Description
NHS Thanksgiving Dinner Donations
This year, the Nutrition and Food Prep 1 classes are hoping to help the National Honor Society students by supplying and preparing all of the desserts for their annual Thanksgiving Dinner. The annual dinner is held on Tuesday, November 14th this year. The Monday prior, (November 13th) is when all of the preparation will take place in Foods classes.
We are asking for any donations you may have to help cut down on costs. If you're able, could you send your student to school with any of the ingredients above? They can be dropped off at Mrs. Helm's room (the Foods Room--313). We are hoping to have all ingredients donated by Friday, November 10th, so that any additional purchases can be made before the food preparation begins.
Thank you for considering a donation. Below is a SignUpGenius Link to help. Please email me with any questions!
Missie Helm
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Gala Baskets
Please consider donating to your class basket for the Regina Gala, click the link for your grade to learn more.
7th Grade – But, I’m a Teenager Basket – Click HERE
8th Grade – In Our Eras Basket – Click HERE
9th Grade - Teen Night In Basket -Click HERE
10th Grade – New Driver Basket -Click HERE
11th Grade – Teen Night Out Basket -Click HERE
12th Grade – Life’s Next Step Basket – Click HERE
General Baskets/Donation Items - https://regina.org/apparel-merch-sales/
Regina Ornament Sale
https://regina-spirit-store.shoplightspeed.com/regina-christmas-ornaments-pre-sale.html
Pre-sales will close on Nov. 5th, so to guarantee the ornament you want, please order before then.
Smart Cookies
Pre-cut package of 36 cookies for $16. Checks payable to Regina NHS sent to the High School office.
Please email pickup instructions to beth.hill@regina.org or lisa.moore@regina.org.
Department Updates
School Counselors
"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” -Wayne Dyer
Recent Highlights:
Job Shadows: Sophomores and Seniors have begun participating in job shadows. 100% are registered for an in-person experience this fall.
AP School Honor Roll: Regina earned a place on the 2023 AP School Honor Roll, Platinum Level! This distinction is the most prestigious of the four awarded and is based on a school’s college-going culture, opportunities for students to earn college credit, and maximizing college readiness. 86% of Regina seniors took at least one AP exam during high school, 49% of seniors scored a three or higher on at least one AP exam, and 61% of seniors took five or more AP exams. Regina currently offers 16 AP courses taught by 7 teachers.
PSAT: On October 13th, 50 interested Sophomores and Juniors took the PSAT. The PSAT exam allows students a chance to practice their test taking skills and for Juniors, is also the National Merit Scholarship qualifying test. Those who have earned semi-finalist standing will find out next fall.
Career Inspire Field Trip: Freshmen participated in a Career Inspire Field Trip on October 24th in Cedar Rapids. Junior Achievement facilitated the opportunity for students to explore careers within seven high-opportunity career clusters; pictures available here. As part of their preparation, students spent time in class assessing their interests, using career exploration resources and identifying possible good-fit careers.
Post-Secondary Opportunities: Cornell, Truman State, and Central colleges were each available to provide information and answer questions from high school students in October.
Upcoming things to note:
Scholarship Opportunities: Now is the time for seniors to explore and apply for scholarships. Thanksgiving and Christmas break are great opportunities for this. Students can find a list of scholarships by alphabetical order here and by deadline here.
AP Exam Registration: If students would like to take an extra AP exam (other than those already registered), they should see Mrs. Zoulek for the join code to register by Nov. 10th. This includes classes they plan to take only in Spring semester (i.e. AP Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Psychology) or want to test independently from taking a course (i.e. AP Spanish, Statistics). The cost of each exam is $98. See this link for the full list of AP Exams.
Spring Internships: Juniors and Seniors are eligible to apply for a spring 2024 internship via Workplace Learning Connection. All parts of the application are due by 3 PM on Friday, Nov. 3rd.
Spring Kirkwood Course Options: Students with a K# can view courses at kirkwood.dualenroll.com. Those without a K# can look for courses at
https://selfservice.kirkwood.edu/Student/Courses. Registration is open now, but Kirkwood reps will also be here Wednesday, Nov. 8th to help students register.
Mock Interviews for Juniors: On Wednesday, Nov. 15th, Workplace Learning Connection will facilitate a mock interview experience for Juniors. In-class preparation beforehand will focus on interview prep and resume prep.
7th Grade STEAM Institute Field Trip: On Monday, Nov. 20th, Workplace Learning Connection and UI Health Care are partnering to host STEAM Institute at the Kirkwood Regional Center in Coralville. Students will get to explore careers and enjoy interactive experiences with a focus on STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and/or Math.
College/Career Representatives Visiting Regina During High School Lunch
Nov. 9–St. Johns University
Upcoming ACT and SAT registration deadlines:
Career Inspire Event
Career Inspire Event
Career Inspire Event
Art
Business
Personal Finance
Students just completed their second unit in personal finance. We went back in time to look at income and expenses statements. Then tied in how those affect our Net Worth statements and then ultimately how we can use our future goals to create Budgets. Students are now looking at and learning about banking. As a reminder, an email will be coming home shortly for those wishing to earn college credit for the course.
Senior Seminar
We had the pleasure of talking with Officer Hayes and Officer Max with the Iowa City Police Department this month to learn about careers in law enforcement as well as see a k-9 unit in action. We are wrapping up our discussion on applications and essays and spending time working on our Christmas Basket Project. Students are still participating in one on one advisory sessions to help students make their next decisions in life.
Computer Applications
It is all about the presentation this month. We have moved past google docs and are now looking at google slides and how to create effective, neat and organized presentations. We are also still working on improving our typing skills through both accuracy, speed and efficiency.
English
English 7 & ELA :
In English 7, are working out of their Literature books at this time. This first unit is on plot, conflict and setting. We like to call them Expositions. We will go into depth of how to pick out plot, conflict in the stories and settings in those areas.Seventh Language Arts is still setting their considerations on "Commas." They're muddling through some of the more difficult ones as in nonessential and essential appositives and clauses-making the choice of setting these off or not. We'll get there. Then, we move into learning Subjects and Predicates (complete and simple). Personal Note: I signed my contract today to be a “Real Teacher” (like Pinocchio). LOL
ELA 8:
ELA 8 has finished our folktale unit and our capitalization unit. We are using our new knowledge about folk tales and literary elements to create our own superhero folktale in language arts. In grammar, we are currently working on identifying subjects and objects in preparation for studying punctuation next year. In English, we are also currently reading mystery and suspense short stories such as “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Monkey’s Paw.” As we head into November, we will read some science fiction stories by Bradbury and Asimov before beginning our first novel unit, The Hobbit.
English 9:
English 9 has completed the Effective Writing Unit. The next unit that the students will embark upon is the Listening and Reading Comprehension Unit. Students will be analyzing the audiobook of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, and the written text of The Most Dangerous Game to complete this unit. It is hoped that we will complete the month of November with the first Literary Analysis Unit focusing on Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
English 10:
English 10 will begin the month of November by starting the Effective Writing Unit. The goal is to review prior knowledge of academic writing, and to expand upon the basics to learn advanced essay skills. We should move into the Listening and Reading Comprehension Unit before the end of the month. The students will be working with the short story “Searching for Summer”, the Cold War era public service announcement “Duck and Cover”, and the TED Talk of “Nuclear Winter.”
English 11:
We’re enjoying short stories of the American Romanticism movement, including some Poe. And, we’re using albert.io as a test prep for ACT practice.
English 12:
We’ll finish up Hamlet and move to poetry, in particular, we will spend a bit of time on “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Students usually enjoy this tale as it includes glowing zombie pirates!
AP English Lang & Comp: We’re still perfecting our rhetorical analysis and our composition skills. Allusions help readers make deeper connections, so our first allusions quiz is over mythological allusions on 11/8.
AP English Lit & Comp: We’re reviewing elements of good AP literary analysis through examining past AP prompts and writing essay responses. We’ll dive into Frankenstein, which is always a favorite.
Math Club
Oct. 28 Results
We had a very full weekend of math contests with the high school contest on Saturday and the middle school contest on Sunday. I think everyone had a lot of fun and enjoyed the snacks.
We had 11 qualifiers for State this weekend.
High School Qualifiers: Ben Bian, Isaac DeGroot, Sara Gong, Raphy Policeni, Riordan Smith, and Kevin Wang
Middle School Qualifiers: Matthew Dockery Jackson, Davi Donato, Nate Parizek, Raphy Policeni, and Kevin Wang
Mondays 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm - Mrs. Carmichael's room (610) - 6th through 8th grade students
Wednesdays 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm - Mrs. Hill's room (609) - high school students
Fridays 7:30 am - 8:30 am - Mrs. Hill's room (609) - 6th through 12th grade students
Science
8th Grade Integrated Science - Mrs. Goldsmith
In studying Energy and Matter, which is foundational to our entire universe, students had the opportunity to do many activities in October including: Ice Cream Lab, House of Entropy (Cards) Engineering Lab, and Don’t Melt The Ice Engineering Project!
Chemistry - Mrs. Goldsmith
Chemistry students spent much of October covering the topic of Chemical Reactions. This unit culminated with a Qualitative Analysis Lab where students were given an assortment of chemicals and they had to determine which one was in which test tube based on how they reacted. This was a great lab to really make them think!
AP Chemistry Online (Labs with Mrs. Goldsmith)
AP Chemistry students might be working online to cover much of their material this year, but Jack and Abby are having a great time doing labs!
Metric Monsters
Stars & Earth Diagram
8th Grade Ice Cream Lab
AP Chemistry Lab
Chemistry Lab
Chemistry Lab
Science is fun!
Science is strange!
House of (Entropy) Cards Lab
Don't Melt the Ice Engineering Lab
Don't Melt the Ice Engineering Lab
House of (Entropy) Cards Lab
Social Studies
Osweiler Classes
World History: Students participated in a Silk Road Simulation where they learned about the items, dangers, knowledge, and religions that were a part of the Silk Road. They were also merchants who won and lost money throughout the game. Some even died from the Black Death. (2 pictures of two groups playing the game)
AP World History: Students put Genghis Khan on trial to determine if the Mongols were civilized or uncivilized. Students used this trial and other resources to write a Long Essay(part of their AP exam practice) about whether the Mongols made more of a positive or negative impact on Afro-Eurasia.
Government and AP Government: Students researched some bureaucratic aspects of a Taco Truck and a Burger Palace. Students learned about how much regulations the bureaucracy has over food, small businesses, and drinks.
Osweiler Class History Pumpkins: Students had the opportunity to further their learning about something that interested them in the history realm. Some Government examples showcased the 3 branches of government and the Iowa caucus. Some World History showcased Champa Rice and World Religions. (4 pumpkin pictures)
Moeller Class
Economics
Students are just wrapping up own unit on Supply and Demand. Our big focus has been on how and why we make the decisions we do every day. We try to tie all the material to the concept of the concession stand. They have also just learned their first couple of important graphs that are essential to economics.
Wallace Classes
AP US History:Students are just finishing up Period 3 in which the major unit topics included the Articles of Confederation, the Constitutional Convention, and the presidencies of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson.
7th Global Studies: The 7th graders have started their unit over Latin America. They are studying the political goegraphy of Latin America while also studying contemporary issues in the country of Brazil. The 7th graders played a game in which they had to make decisions regarding the conservation/deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Through assigned roles, the 7th graders will also participate in a townhall simulation on the Amazon rainforest.
AP Human Geography: In AP Human Geography, we have just started our new unit over culture. We will discuss the major components of culture including major world religions and languages.
Kahler Class
8th U.S. History: We are doing our 2nd Biography. Starting to break away from the British, and starting a new country.
Spanish II
Spanish I
Spanish III
Theology
VIA
We have finished units 1-3 in the church history book which focused on the beginning of the church, Pentecost, the apostles and first deacons. We followed up watching the movie, Paul The Apostle. We will continue the weekly gospels on Friday’s and start the mental health unit of the Via curriculum which will take us to Thanksgiving break.
Theo 9
Freshmen completed the first unit of study on the book, Bible Basics. To culminate, students were placed into small groups and presented one of the covenants from the book that we studied. Their next unit will be “God’s Revelation to the World.” The freshmen also will have their day long retreat on Tuesday, Nov 7!
Theo 10
The Soph’s did a great job on service day! We are progressing on the Old Testament timeline. Looking at Judges, Kings, Prophets.
Theo 11
The Juniors have completed Chapter 3 about Law and Morality. They also researched a law and created a presentation to relate it to Catholic teachings and St. Thomas Aquinas’ four requirements for a moral law. These include: for the common good, reasonable, made by competent authority, and promulgated. We also continue to read the Gospel for each Sunday.
Theo 12
Seniors completed the first unit of study on the Catholic Mass. For a final project they created one pagers that included quotes, images and vocabulary from the book that led to a deeper understanding. They participated in their final service day by helping in yards around the community and on the grounds at Regina. On Sunday, Oct 29, the seniors hosted 17 families for a soup dinner at Regina as part of the Christmas Basket Project. It was a great night of fellowship as they met some amazing people who they will have the opportunity to walk alongside this Christmas season.
Regina Junior Senior High School
Email: glenn.plummer@regina.org
Website: www.regina.org
Location: 2150 Rochester Avenue, Iowa City, IA, United States
Phone: (319)-338-5436