Celtic Courier: Week of March 23- March 27, 2015

"Vision to See, Faith to Believe, Courage to Do"

Dear Staff,

The start of 4th quarter!  We hope you have had a terrific break with your families, whether you traveled far or did a stay-cation.  It is hard to believe that 4th quarter is here.  Many Jerome families I ran into over break always seem to ask about the school year "winding down."  I always answer that this time of year for a high school educator only "winds up."  It is the start of spring sports and all of the senior activities.  Throw in winter banquets, AP, IB, and PARCC testing and it is a busy time.

Boys BB Team crowned District Champs for first time in school history and on to the Sweet 16!

Over break our Boys BB team made it to the Sweet 16 for the first time, losing to Northland.  Our choir traveled to Austria and were featured in a short segment on Good Morning America on a chance meeting in Salzburg.  Wow!

Congrats also to our Science Olympiad teams who competed over break with a team qualifying for the States!  Thanks Barb Hilligoss for providing this opportunity for our students.

A couple of Jerome family members  suffered a loss in their families.  Bob Scott's mother passed away and Dun Zhang's father passed away.  Dun will be out all week as she travels back to China for the funeral.  Please keep Bob and Dun in your thoughts and prayers.

We are very grateful that Lori and her family traveled to Scottsdale and enjoyed spring training, hiking and beautiful scenery.  Much thanks to the entire Social Studies department, especially Pat Murphy, Ben Steele, and Ron Bookmyer for helping with Lori's classes, and to the Jerome staff for being a wonderful family to the Davis family. We are all on Team Davis!

The Davis family enjoying spring break in Arizona!

We have not yet had a staffing meeting with Central Office and so we do not yet know what courses we are offering or our staffing for next year yet.  We have met with some of our chairs on the departmental numbers and will continue to do so.  As soon as we get staffing information, we will let you know.  It looks as though we may have eight portable classrooms behind Jerome next year, though we have not yet confirmed those with Central Office.  We anticipate having close to 1600 students next year.  Again, once we have more information we will let you know.

This week:

Monday-- Grades due at the end of the day on Monday-- by midnight Monday night.

Tuesday--  George will be printing grade cards.  Please do very limited grade changes by Tuesday morning.  Every grade change after that necessitates a new report card being printed.  Thanks, in advance, for helping George by submitting accurate and complete grades.

Dodgeball preliminary tourney after school at 6 PM Tuesday.  Thanks to Lacey and Kelly for their hard work with Student Council who sponsors Dodgeball.

Wednesday-- Working Wednesday Collaboration time and bell schedule.  Please help remind students as we have not had Working Wednesday in a while.  Please focus on the 4 PLC questions and district goals of learning targets, assessment and differentiation (incorporated in 4 questions).

Thursday: Please remind your students of Dodgeball assembly on Friday and to bring money to donate at assembly.

Friday: Adjusted bell schedule for Dodgeball Finals. Afternoon 30-min assembly bell schedule.  We also need to raise money for the wonderful causes the District has designated to receive support.  Please bring $1 to wear blue jeans, $1 to wear a hat, and $1 to wear a T-shirt on Friday.  All goes to support our staff team's entry fee and to support the District Dodgeball causes.

Report cards distributed in Homeroom.

High School Dodgeball Finals event at Scioto will start about 8 PM.  Elementaries and middle schools go first.

Looking ahead:

April 1: Working Wednesday

April 2: Department Chair Meeting 7:15 in media center.  Please send items for the agenda.

April 3: No School; Conference Comp Day

April 6: Visitors from Hong Kong facilitated by Battelle for Kids will be here from about noon-2:30 PM

April 6- April 10: Campaign week for student elections

April 8: Staff Meeting

April 10: IB TOK day

April 13: Election Assembly; adjusted bell schedule for 30-min election speech assembly in PM

April 14: Celebration of Excellence;  Thanks Ashley Finneran and Heather Kearnes!

April 14: Election in Homeroom

April 15: Working Wednesday

April 16: District's Family Night

April 17: Last PAC meeting for this year

April 21: Pre-administration for AP testing in the AM.

April 22: Working Wed

April 23: Take your Child to Work today: School-age children welcome!

April 24: International Day during all three lunch periods!

April 29: Working Wednesday

April 30:  Important Senior Meetings Periods 1-3 by alphabet. All seniors mandated to attend.  A-G Period 1; H-N Period 2 and O-Z Period 3.

Have a terrific week!  It will be great to see all of you tomorrow!

Cathy

Celtic Courier: Week of March 9 - 13, 2015

"Vision to See, Faith to Believe, Courage to Do"

Dear Staff,

We hope you have had a wonderful weekend with your families!  What a terrific weekend to be a Celtic!

Congrats to Jamie Pearson and our Boys BB team's second-round Tourney win over Scioto!  They face Pick Central at Westerville North on Thursday at  7 PM.  The team also finished its home season undefeated!

Our Jerome Jungle turned out in full force Friday night in a great Beach-out!

Congrats to Coach Pat Murphy and our Hockey team for qualifying for the Frozen 4 for the first time in Celtic history.  They defeated UA in sudden death Overtime 4-3 and was a thrilling game! The Frozen 4 starts Thursday at Nationwide Arena.  When we confirm the game time we will let you know.

Our Hockey Team celebrates an Overtime victory over UA to go to the Frozen 4. 

Thursday also starts the State Wrestling Tourney-- Seth Transue qualified!

Thursday will also be a great day to be a Celtic!

Congrats also to Brian Stevens and Micah Abrams whose Wind Symphony and Concert Bands scored Superior ratings in OMEA competition on Friday, and to Jeanne Wohlgamuth whose Chorale scored Superior at OMEA contest on Saturday!  Wow!

What a wonderful IB CAS demonstration night on Thursday.  Congrats to Karen Kendall-Sperry, Magen Beatty and all of our IB teachers for such a successful evening and IB Diploma Program.

Mai Erana, IB Diploma Program candidate, at IB CAS Demonstration Night.

This Week:  The quarter ends at the end of this week.  We continue two days of testing this week mostly affecting sophomores and juniors as well as make-up for OGT/PARCC.  We also have students out on Thursday for Mock Trial and athletics and will mostly likely have students out on Friday leaving for spring break early.

We highly suggest not counting any assessments/projects etc this week on this quarter's grades and count them on quarter 4 instead.  You risk not being able to post grades accurately, as you only have Monday, March 23 for make-up.  We can only do very limited grade changes once grades are posted so that George can print grade cards on March 24.  When you are making grading decisions, please be sure and consider carefully posting all grades accurately at midnight at the end of the day on Monday, March 23.

Please continue to collaborate and communicate with your same-subject team on grading and assessment practices, particularly at the end of the quarter, so that students have similar opportunities no matter what teacher they have in that subject-area.

Photo courtesy of @10MillionMiler via @ToolsTeachers Twitter

Monday: Ohio Performance-Based Assessment in Government starting at 7:55 AM in Aux Gym.  You will have some Juniors missing class, including those students who are currently in second semester Gov and those in AP Gov who did not sign up for the AP test.  This testing group is only about 40 students.

Also IB TOK Day.

Tuesday: Ohio Performance-Based Assessment in US History starting at 7:55 AM in Aux Gym.  About 200 mostly Sophomores will be testing and so please plan accordingly.  Those students affected are in US History and any AP Studies or AP US History students who did not sign up for the AP US History test.

Please work with our students who are missing class due to this required testing with flexibility for make-up work.

Wednesday:  Staff Meeting at 7:15 AM in Band Room.  We welcome Dr. Sharon Murphy as part of the Social Studies presentation.

Try to come to the cafeteria 5th period for a martial arts presentation as a global presentation in honor of Chinese New Year.

The administrators will be attending a two-hour presentation starting at 3:30 at Coffman on Street-Smart, a drug education program.

Thursday: Dr. Murphy presentation in the CPA 3rd and 4th periods on ISIS.  All are welcome.

Hockey States, Wrestling States and BB Tourney game.  Also Mock Trial States.  Again, a great day to be a Celtic!  Please be aware that you may have some students missing class to participate/attend  some of these events depending on the time.

Friday:  End of Third Quarter.  Also Mock Trial States continues.

Saturday: Dublin St. Patrick Day's Parade and day-long celebration.

March 16 - 20.  Spring Break!  Enjoy a well-needed restful and wonderful break with your families.

March 23:  All grades are required to be posted by midnight  at the end of the day Monday.  If you are traveling spring break and risk not posting grades by this date, please post your grades before you leave.

March 25: Working Wednesday returns. Adjusted bell schedule.

March 27: Grade cards home.  Adjusted bell schedule for afternoon Dodgeball assembly.

Also District Dodgeball Tourney at Scioto in the evening.

Have a terrific week!  It is an exciting time to be a Celtic!  Go Celtics!

Cathy

Celtic Courier: March 2 - March 6, 2015

"Vision to See, Faith to Believe, Courage to Do"

The joy of a March 1 snowy day is a flicker visiting our suet feeder. The wonder of nature is everywhere is you take the time to look.

We hope you have had a wonderful winter weekend.  It certainly doesn't look like March but it is good it is here.  It was a wondrous weekend to be a Celtic.  Our State Swimmers performed great at States, setting new records with one of the Boys relays finishing 4th in the State!  Congrats, Coach Williams! In Wrestling we had two Sectional Champions in Seth Transue and Malachi Strickland and other top finishers, and Boys BB triumphed over Central Crossing in a Home Tourney Game. Mason Baich set a new school scoring record and he is only a junior! Way to go, Coach Pearson!

Hockey beat St. X 6-0 and play today at 3:45 PM at the Ice Haus against rival Olentangy Orange in the district semi-final.  Good luck, Coach Murphy! Three of our students, Brad Davis, Carly Davis (proud Mom, Lori) and Alex Jacobs all qualified for the Indoor State Track next weekend!

Our Chamber Orchestra scored straight 1's at OMEA contest on Friday night, and our annual Variety Show was awesome!  Congrats Michelle Adair for orchestra and thanks to Michael Cook and Diane Murphy on a great Friday night show.  Watch the video below for an idea of how special our Chamber Orchestra is!

Mai Erana and DJ Matthews perform at the Variety Show Friday Night.

Did you know that one of our students had a book of essays published?  Kevin Xuan wrote essays in English and Chinese about some of his experiences; the book was published in China.

This Week:

Yes, another week of testing.  As before, please limit homework and assessments for freshmen and sophomores, both of whom have graduation required high-stakes testing this week. We have two-hour delayed schedule Monday-Friday.  Thanks so much for how well you handled PARCC testing last week.  Thanks, in advance, for all of your help this week as we have both PARCC and OGT testing this week.

Photo and quote courtesy of Twitter

Monday: OGT Reading for all sophomores. PARCC Alg I and Geometry for freshmen enrolled in these courses. Adjusted bell schedule for 2-hour delay all week.

Tuesday: OGT Math for all sophomores.  PARCC Alg I and Geometry for freshmen.

Wednesday: OGT Writing for all sophomores. No Working Wednesday due to Testing.

Thursday: OGT Science for all sophomores. Physical Science Ohio end-of-course assessment for all freshmen enrolled in Physical Science.

Also Parent-Teacher Conferences 4 - 7:30 PM.  PTO will provide dinner.  Starting at 6 PM, also IB CAS demonstration night.  Come out and see these wonderful projects.

Friday: OGT Social Studies for all sophomores.

Friday is also the registration deadline for any AP Gov students to register for the AP test in order to exempt testing in the Ohio End-of-Course US Gov on Monday, March 9.  Please try to remind these students.

Monday, March 9: Ohio End-of Course testing in Gov for all students in AP Gov or Gov.  Large group testing in the gym in the AM.

Monday is also the deadline for all students in AP History or AP Studies to register for the AP US exam in order to exempt testing in US History on March 10.  Please remind your students.

Tuesday, March 10: Ohio End-of Course Assessment US History for all students in US History, AP History or AP Studies. Large group testing in the Gym in the AM.

Looking ahead:

March 11: Staff Meeting 7:15 AM

March 12: Presentation by Dr. Murphy on Isis

March 13: End of Third Quarter, Mock Trial at States; PAC Meeting 5th period

March 16 - 20 Spring Break

Thanks for all you do every day in every classroom by every teaching for every student in focusing on student learning.  We get better every day because you work at getting better every day and that is the key to education.  Have a great week!

Cathy