Green Lane Gazette

• 4/6-4/10 - Spring Break
• 4/11 - End of 3rd Marking Period
• 4/14 - Sophomore/Junior Prom
• 4/20 - District STEM Night
• 4/21 - PD Day - No School for students

In our commitment to student learning and success, we are implementing a shift to our weekly schedule and planning here at Truman. To support students who are struggling academically, we are implementing Tier 2 Thursdays. Tier 2 is a MTSS term for an increase in targeted intervention for students who are not being fully successful in their normal scheduling.

On a Tier 2 Thursday, we are going to direct students to a class/teacher in which they are struggling academically, as opposed to their normal schedule for one full period that day. (For example, if a student was failing Algebra 1 on their progress reports, we're going to schedule an extra Algebra 1 period , in a smaller group, with their normal teacher, on a Tier 2 Thursday) We're providing more help, for students who have shown that need.

Students not assigned to a Tier 2 class will have choice of time in the gym, cafeteria, or the quiet of the library.

The second round of Tier 2 Thursdays will be scheduled as follows:

• 4/20
• 4/27
• 5/11
• 5/25

One of our largest behavior issues here at Truman is centered around class avoidance and tardiness. I'm proud to announce that our SWPBIS team has looked at our data here at Truman and developed a plan to address this issue. Punctuality and consistent attendance in class is important here at Truman and has a direct correlation with student success.

Starting this week we will begin unannounced hall sweeps for all students not getting to class on time. Any students caught in the hall sweep will be brought to the main lobby where we will track their lateness, and reteach our expectations. Repeat offenders will receive escalated discipline if their pattern of behavior continues.

Punctuality and consistency are highly desirable traits for employees, college students, and those who serve. We need to send that message to our students and we look forward to your support in this process.

• Senior Assembly/Caps & Gowns Distributed = May 11th
  
• Senior Prom = Thursday, May 18th - Last day to purchase tickets is 5/2/2023 Reminder: Students must have 0 detention hours to purchase
• Senior Final Exams = June 5th - June 9th
• Graduation = June 14th

The Counseling Office continues to be busy with Course Selection. We are eternally grateful to the English and Social Studies Departments for allowing us to invade for a couple of weeks so we could get Naviance tasks done as well! While Ann has been busy working with our future Dual Enrollment students, Rebecca and Karen have been working to prepare some of our Juniors for the college process by running a "College Boot Camp" during Tier 2 Thursdays.

The Engineering department has been hard at work working on resiliency skills.

In Intro to Engineering the students have been reverse engineering a pen (see photos). They had to work in groups, each person completing a specific part and then assembling it. Often the program would glitch but everyone worked through the issues and managed to create the final product. I could not be more proud of their hard work. In CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) students just finished working on G-code and were able to see their initials cut using the CNC machine. Digital Electronics has spent the last couple of weeks manipulating numbers, everything from K mapping to converting base 10 to hexadecimal and Octal number systems. We are also preparing our battlebot team for another run in the Liberty Bots competition scheduled for May 6. This includes an amazing visit from some “real engineers” from a local manufacturing company EKL Manufacturing.

Freshman in English 9 courses are wrapping up a unit focusing on propaganda, and working on identifying the techniques used in its creation. The freshmen students will then begin looking at the use of symbolism in literature, while beginning the reading of the novel Night, by Elie Weisel. There will also be a continued focus on utilizing the R.A.C.E.S. strategy for writing constructed responses. Students will continue making progress on their personalized Reading Exact Path.

Sophomores in English 10 courses are continuing in the unit focused on the different types of irony used in literature. The sophomore students will then move into a unit which closely examines symbolism, delving into its relationship with the theme of a story, and the applications of symbolism outside of the English classroom. Students will also be examining numerous reading and writing strategies in preparation for the Keystone Exams. Students will continue making progress on their personalized Reading Exact Path.

Juniors in English 11 courses are continuing to examine literature from the time period surrounding the Civil War, which includes many realistic stories based upon real events. Some short stories that they will possibly read are “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Pierce and “The Lowest Animal” by Mark Twain.

Seniors in English 12 courses are continuing to examine the time period known as “The Restoration” and the 18th century. This period includes the well-known piece “A Modest Proposal,” written by Jonathon Swift, with which the students will examine satire and rhetoric. The students will then begin to study the British Romantic period, which includes poetry by such famous British poets as Blake and Keats.

The PE department currently has two student teachers. Ms. Julia Trimble and Mr. Mark Huett have been working with the students during PE, health, and driver ed classes. They will begin to expand their teaching roles in the coming weeks. Both teachers are Neshaminy HS graduates and currently attend West Chester University. Julia and Mark will be graduating in the spring.

Driver Education: Driver education students have been learning many basic driving skills. The focus has been on indicator and warning lights, basic controls, and mirrors. The students have been taught to properly set their mirrors to minimize blind spots. The students have also learned about buying a vehicle. They learned about researching automobiles, financing and interest rates, and the “true” cost of a vehicle due to interest rates and the time period of the loan. Students also were introduced to insurance deductibles, torts and state required minimums.

Adapted PE: Students are enjoying the pool on Monday’s with Mr. Bachman. They have been working on tossing skills, motor skills through relay races, basketball and volleyball. The students have been rocking to Disney soundtracks during the activities. Miss. Hoffman has stopped by to see her former students, they were SUPER excited to see her!!!!

Physical Education: We are hoping to feel the effects of spring soon. Students should begin bringing their sweatshirts and sweatpants as we will be heading outside more often. They love to be on the beautiful turf field enjoying fresh air while playing soccer, volleyball, football, and frisbee after a nice warmup.

Since the beginning of the school year, Sean Taggart’s Statistics class has morphed from an academic study class into a project-based learning environment. Recently, students completed a project that asked them to create their own experiment gauging the effect of bias in surveys. This was a culmination of a unit that focused on, among other topics, the ethics of experimentation and surveying, data interpretation, and the manipulation of statistics to generate bias for a particular goal.

For the project, Mr. Taggart’s students surveyed their peers on a range of topics that included people’s opinions on climate change, women’s rights, and even the social media wars between Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez. The data from these surveys was collected, analyzed, and then presented to their classmates over the course of two days. Student feedback was positive - almost as positive as their recent blind taste tests of popular cereals (conclusion - the average person can’t tell the difference between General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios and the Sam’s Club generic version). Stay tuned for more of Mr. Taggart’s exploits and encourage interested students to sign up for Statistics in the coming school year.

Teacher Spotlight - Mrs. Christina Rago and Mr. Tom Drazek

Mrs. Rago teaches Honors Anatomy and Physiology and Honors Biology. In Anatomy, students finished up a Cardiac Unit by dissecting and examining pig hearts. Students then moved on to discuss the Respiratory System. They conducted two activities involving Vaping and Cigarettes. In Biology, students continued studying material in preparation for the Keystone exams. Students completed a unit on Genetics and then moved on to cover Evolution.

Mr. Drazek teaches Forensic Science and Academic Biology. His biology students learned about the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. They were able to see changes in the characteristics of populations of animals which eventually leads to evolution over the course of millions of years. His Forensic Science students learned about Blood, DNA, and Autopsies. They got to see first-hand how blood spatter patterns form and helped to solve a crime using virtual DNA fingerprinting.

Students in Mrs. Welsh's classes studied propaganda and nationalism in mobilizing the civilian population in support of "total war" by analyzing propaganda posters. Students then showed their creativity by making their own propaganda artwork and slogans.

Ms. Wright’s Honors Civics classes organized their own presidential campaigns in a group project. Students took on various roles to generate campaign trails, speeches, approval polls, and ads in an attempt to get their party‘s candidate elected.

Hola, Ciao, and Hello! We have heard that many students, completed course selection and have chosen to continue their language studies in 2023-2024. We couldn’t be more thrilled to see lots of familiar faces in our classrooms next year!

Travel News:

Recently, just over 60 of our students stepped out of the classroom to put their Italian skills to good use in Italy. This amazing trip was chock full of art, culture, food, and lots of exploration in a foreign country. Students traveled to 6 different cities. Site seeing included: a gondola ride in Venice, visiting the ruins of Pompei, and much, much more.

Teacher Spotlight - Señor Miguel Maldonado, Spanish

Señor Maldonado teaches Spanish and is originally from Guatemala City, Guatemala. He has a Masters degree in Secondary Education as well as Educational Technology from Grand Canyon University and a BS in Special Education and Elementary Education from Holy Family University. He enjoys reading and spending time with his family. His favorite places to vacation are Disney World and Disneyland.

Please pull ALL the way up in the drop-off zone in the mornings to help us keep traffic off Green Lane. Thank you.

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