Welcome December! We wrapped up the month of giving thanks with a productive week of school activities. We identified our Teacher and Educational Service Professional of the Year (to be recognized on December 10), held freshmen lunch academies, engaged in our first Sophomore Field Day, met with our winter sports captains, conducted our annual Blood Drive, met as a Safety Team to evaluate HIB data and activities to promote pro-social behavior, concluded our Selfie Challenge, and put our best foot forward to move towards our mission! I would say a good week!

The weekend was ok. I watched college football on Saturday, helped my mother-in-law put up her Holiday decorations, and did some work in preparation for this week. Don't ask me how my Vikings did.

The Smile Factory is taking orders for holiday pretzels! These colorful and delicious treats make wonderful stocking stuffers, party favors, housewarming gifts, etc!

The Girls Space Group has been in the holiday spirit as they have made seasonal ornaments as part of their scholarship fundraiser. Girls Space at High School East offers workshops that are female-adolescent focused and range in topics from Self-Esteem Building to Navigating Peer Relationships to using tools to becoming a Student Leader. Each ornament represents a girl with a message from Girls Space and is symbolically a heart of gold. Proceeds will support the "Creating Me" Scholarship and holiday gifts for Jana and Marek. Ornaments are $5 and can be purchased in the Guidance or Main Offices.

Please reach out to your daughter’s school counselor or Ms. Bush in the Guidance Department for further details if interested in Girls Space.

For 26 years, WOBM and Gateway Toyota have honored Ocean County's top high school seniors. They highlight a different Ocean County senior and all of his or her accomplishments on their radio program as well as on their website every Monday. There are only two East seniors given this honor during the 2021-2022 school year. We are proud to announce that our first recipient of the WOBM Student of the Week award is Hannah Fuschetto.

Hannah was chosen because of her involvement in a multitude of sports, clubs, and activities at East. She is a member of the National Honor Society, East Ambassadors, Character Club, History Club, Medical Club, Math League, Writing Center, Yearbook, Eastside Theatre Company, Raider Tennis, and Raider Golf. She is also our Student Body President and one of the voices of your morning announcements. That's quite an impressive resume! Hannah does it all and does it well, and is truly committed to making East a better place.

Hannah will be announced on 92.7 WOBM on Monday, December 13th several times during the day, including 6:10am, 2:50pm, 6:50pm, 8:50pm, and between 10pm and midnight. Please listen as they honor one of our own! Congratulations, Hannah!

Great job to our Interact Club members for their efforts to support our annual Blood Drive on December 2, 2021!

1) TRRS is providing a free virtual workshop: SAT/ACT Overview presented by Solution Prep on Wednesday, December 15 at 6pm. See attached flyer for more information. Registration is required.@tinyurl.com/WNLSATACT. WNL SAT ACT.png. 2) Students in Precalculus Honors who are interested in earning dual enrollment credit in Spring 2022 should see their guidance counselor for Accuplacer testing information. 3) The ACT is on February 12, 2022. Registration deadline is 1/7/2022. Register at www.act.org. 4) The New Jersey COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program offers relief to low- and moderate-income households that are unable to pay rent and utilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://njdca.onlinepha.com/. 5) PSAT score reports are now exclusively online. Scores from the October 2021 PSAT/NMSQT will be released online to students on December 7, 2021. Paper score reports will no longer be mailed to schools. With online reporting, students are seamlessly connected to other College Board opportunities, Official SAT® Practice on Khan Academy®, college readiness resources, and a path to find scholarships. Students who shared their email address on their PSAT/NMSQT answer sheet will receive an email from College Board with an access code explaining where and how to view their scores. https://studentscores.collegeboard.org. Please see attached flyer on how to create a College Board account and view PSAT/SAT scores.

On Thursday, December 2, 2021, District Athletic Director, Mr. Ted Gillen, and Assistant Principal, Mrs. Anders, met with captains to discuss their role as a leader of their respective organization. Students were informed of their responsibility to lead their team in a positive direction on and off the field. Students discussed different types of leadership and were asked to self reflect on the type of leader they would like to be. Great job kids!

Mathematics: to some music to their ears; to others a source of angst and discomfort. Educators are working hard to motivate and inspire all students with a plethora of resources and activities in math. Working through and persevering when “problem” solving is one of the best lessons we can teach. We are putting forth our best efforts to achieve this and bring joy to mathematics where we can say “music to our ears” and “discomfort” have a positive relationship (no pun intended). To support this at home, encourage students to realize that if they persevere they can obtain this objective.

Our mission is to work together to provide learning experiences in mathematics that empower learners to practice critical thinking and problem solving and, consequently, prepare young people to become confident adults who recognize the beauty and wonder of patterns in the world.

Getting back into the swing of things here at school has been a challenge for both teachers and students alike. We are noticing the impact virtual learning has had on students in many ways both socially and academically, especially in mathematics. We continue to have collegial conversations and are brainstorming ways to integrate our best practices with adjustments to provide the best and most effective educational experience to our students as possible. In our research and discussions, we know this is not a unique issue to Toms River but is being felt across the nation if not the world. We are consulting with organizations and colleagues to determine the best course of action which includes but is not limited to pre-assessment, teaching skills needed for current level content directly prior to or during the course of grade level content, focusing on major topics and possibly spiraling back to peripheral ones later, etc.

We will continue to explore ways to help students relate our content to meaningful topics by relating systems of equations, deducing the number of different colored candies in a bag with clues, using geometric figures with unknown side lengths to write inequalities, and writing functions based on area patterns of figures are just a small sample of the exciting experiences students have with mathematics at the secondary level. While it is well-known that practice makes perfect, teachers are blending discovery-based activities with practice problems and examples.

We will be promoting school involvement this month as our school initiative. We hope to build on our positive relationship building from our Selfie Challenge to encourage all Raiders to engage in a school activity/club/organization of interest. We know that students who are involved in extracurricular activities are more likely to attend school, develop pro-social behavior, and achieve academically in comparison to students who are not actively engaged. Please encourage your child to GET INVOLVED! Check out what is available.

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iOuh_tHm4IjkBQlb2yQdQ-Xhidlmkjf463BBMnwTTiM/edit?usp=sharing
  

Congratulations to Justin Veltri, and Kyle Glabicki for placing Runner's Up in the Congressional App Challenge! Great job Justin and Kyle, we are so proud of you!

• https://kim.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-kim-congratulates-winner-congressional-app-challenge-nj-03
  

Congratulations to our girls soccer team for winning the Selfie Team Challenge! Lizzy Gillen won the prize for the most overall Selfie's! The girls soccer team and Lizzy both were awarded prizes for their great work! Special thanks to all of the kids who participated in making personal connections with their peers! I enjoyed the activity and the school spirit!