Wednesday, February 24, 2016

February 24, 2016

A note from Mr. Houseknecht
Thanks for taking a look at our latest newsletter.  Our students are doing a great job, and I continue to be impressed with their manners and enthusiasm.

This is a very important time for 9th through 11th graders concerning next year's classes.  If you're a parent, please encourage your students to take scheduling of classes very seriously. I recently told the students that now could very well be the last time in their lives they will get classes free of charge, courtesy of our tax dollars.  They should take challenging courses that not only fill their minds, but their schedules as well.  Performance in high school means a lot to their future, not only in how they view the world of work, but in how others (college admissions officers and employers) view their work habits.  It's obviously very important for seniors to finish up strong by fine tuning their work habits for the reality of college or the workplace.



Students of the Quarter-


These students have been recognized for their dedication and hard work. 

Back Row: Seth Denmark, Marris Eck, John Zajac, Anthony Reff, Cole Acker, Andre Elmore

Middle Row: Hunter Denmark, Avrielle Fletcher, Skylar Howard, Skylar Shaulis, Caleb Covert, Jade Parsons, Melissa Swinehart
Front Row: Madelyn Houck, Elysha Smith




Students not shown: Julia Hubbard, Tyler Huff, Nikole Herndon, Kiersten Weaver, Erick Webster, Michael Wilkins, Annabelle MacIntosh, Jeremy Faulkner, Albino Pascual-Pascual, Hannah Porter, Thomas Lapp, Cameron Cupp, Madison Welch, Ben Snyder, Kazandra Jones, Zeb Alvarado, Heidi Langley, John Moore, Jordan Albrecht, Julia Diamond 


From My Perspective--
By Braeden Bierwiler, 10th Grade English and Global student
Research Project 8.JPG
Research Project 7.JPG

The Global and English classes of tenth grade are currently spent in the library working very studiously on a research project. The students are quiet and determined to spend the time they have getting work done. The research project is when students get to select a topic in Global History to explore and analyze the foundations and actions of these people or events. The students are picking their topic, in an array of Global History subjects. Mrs. Dunlap and Mrs. Remick as well as the librarians do a productive job in keeping the students focused and on task. 

The library includes several quiet places to study and gather facts and ideas on the topics. This includes a litany of books on many of the topics. This research project includes citations, notecards, an outline, and an essay. The schedule is planned out and small achievements are quietly celebrated by lollipops or other treats. This project is the main focus for both classes and will help the students learn multiple things in both Global History and English as well as analyzing data and searching for appropriate tools to help them. These students will have the project completed in early April including complete work cited, graphic, and cover page, first draft with the editing sheet, and all research materials. I, as well as others have complete confidence that the hard-working students in 10th grade will succeed and exceed all expectations.




Wrestlers Luke Macintosh and Adam Wagner are going to states this week!! 


Great job guys!







Basking in the Glory-
    
Our girls Varsity Basketball Team and Coach Heather Mott were invited to a Sectional Seeding Luncheon.  The girls were invited because they were ranked #1 in Class C2, a recognition they
earned with talent and dedication. The team will advance to C2 Sectional Finals after an impressive win on Saturday.






Wood Production Class in Full Swing

Pictured here is Mr. Barkee with Ryan Sweeney.  Mr. Barkee does a lot of demonstration, which helps his students to understand how to accomplish tasks. 

We are lucky to have the our tech team of Mr. Barkee and Mr. Gilfus. 




Mrs. Copp's Art News 

Click here for two articles about our wonderful art program.   








Chorus Highlights:

All-County Chorus Students traveled to Newfield on January 15th and 16th to participate in this year's All-County Choral Festival.   Participating districts include, Dryden, Groton, Ithaca, Lansing, Newfield, South Seneca, and Trumansburg.  The students who were selected to attend this year's festival worked with guest conductor, Dr. Todd Ranney.  Dr. Ranney is currently on faculty at Mansfield University and has appeared in over 100 opera productions throughout the Midwest.  Students' experiences culminated in a concert on the afternoon of Saturday, January 16th.


All-County picture:

Back Row: Sarah Corning (9), Sarah Albro (11), Nathaniel Bauder (12), Krystofer Mosher (11), Julia Diamond (10), Kathryn Hubbard (12)
Front Row: Emma Seamon (9), Aden VanCleef (9), Marlea Jones (12), Gemini Zajac (12)




Singers selected to Sr. High Area All-State are chosen based on their NYSSMA scores from Solo Festival the previous year.  They are picked from all the applicants in NYSSMA's Zone 3, one of the largest in the state.  All of the South Seneca students who participated contribute much to the Choral Music Department and all participate in High School Chorus and the award-winning, select ensemble, Vocal Jazz.  

Sr. High Area All-State Photo:
Nathaniel Bauder (12th Grade), Kathryn Hubbard (12th Grade), Krystofer Mosher (11th Grade), Gemini Zajac (12th Grade), Marlea Jones (12th Grade), Sarah Albro (11th Grade)

These students were presented a concert with guest conductors at Ithaca College  Saturday, February 6th.




It's No Gamble - Plays at SS are a Safe Bet Every Time-





Smile for No-cost Community Dental Clinic
March 4 and 5 sponsored by Finger Lakes Community Health and New York State Dental Association at the Ovid (Seneca County) Community Health Center. No-cost dental, please call to make an appointment.
It's That Time of Year...-
   
Often this time of year brings changes in weather that are an issue for our students. Because we all want what's best for our students please be mindful of the weather for the day and encourage your SS student to dress appropriately. We know how important it is for students to express themselves through their style and appreciate how important it is to be comfortable. With that said, there are some guidelines to help you navigate the conversation.  
  
According to Jennifer Powell-Lunder, Psy.D., there are some basic rules to live by when preparing your teens to dress for the weather and be true to their sense of style.  Help them plan in advance. Avoiding the conversation in the morning will allay several contentious points. If they can plan ahead, they can choose to dress appropriately for themselves. Understand what objections kids have to wearing certain clothes. Often it is more than superficial. Kids choose clothes based on convenience and comfort. Children may be convinced to wear layers over the "real" outfit if it works. Will the extra clothes fit in their locker or backpack? Will they have time to change at school? etc. are genuine concerns for kids.  Think about their comfort. Beyond the concern of being self-conscious is the comfort of changing class environments and tasks  that require clothes that are versatile, comfortable and appropriate. Each class is different in terms of activity required, proximity of a student's seat to the heat or windows, group or independent work etc. All of these factors may play into the reasons teens choose an outfit. Helping your teen plan ahead can prevent unnecessary exposure to extreme weather.  (How to Handle Cold-Weather Battles with Teens.)

Signing Out Sick Students-
Every minute a student spends learning is an investment in his or her future. Unnecessary absences are a real detriment to the growth of our students.  Inevitably sickness happens. When kids are sick, our school nurse, Emilee Broadwell, is available to help them. If a child is sent home sick from school, the nurse-not the student, will contact the parent or guardian to come pick them up.  Should you need to sign out a student for an appointment please send in  a note in advance so we can ensure his or her safety. 



Thanks for taking a look!  Go Falcons!!



















Monday, February 1, 2016

February 1

Hello Parents and Community Members:

Welcome to our initial Falcon High School Newsletter.  We will share a new edition every month with you.  We are using a blog format, which will help you to access it easily and clearly on a computer or a smart phone. If you ever have an idea for an article, please email your teacher, me, or Mrs. Butler, our assistant principal.  I hope you enjoy this new method of communicating with you concerning some of the great things happening here.

We want to make this very accessible.  If you'd like to receive updates on your cell phone, please complete the survey linked here.  Thanks for taking a look.

Mr. Tim Houseknecht,  thouseknecht@southseneca.org
Mrs. Melissa Butler, mbutler@southseneca.org



Say Hola to Technology in Our Classes
Spanish 3 kids have been using their Chromebooks to access a video Ms. Sanchez posted to Google Classroom. The video was edited using a program called Zaption where she can insert questions into various parts of the video, keeping students engaged. 



Technology for our Tech Students
     Some new equipment has been acquired by the Tech Department. One being a new large format printer, which will be primarily utilized by the CAD (computer aided drafting) class, and a new “Saw Stop” table saw in the woodshop.
     Another exciting acquisition is a piece of surveying equipment called a “Total Station”, which was donated by the SUNY Alfred surveying/civil engineering dept. This is easily an $8000 piece of equipment, and will be used by the surveying/land measurement students this coming spring.
     Students also made a trip to the Rodman Lott farm earlier in the year for the “Careers in Construction Day”. At this event students were able to operate heavy equipment, try their hand at welding, cut sheet metal with a plasma cutter and solder copper pipe to name a few. Local skilled trade organizations, SUNY and local community college programs represented included electrical, advanced manufacturing and grape/ wine production programs. It was a very informative and fun day for the kids. 

Leaving Their Mark   
This year starts a new tradition for the Earth Science classroom.  The students who earn the two highest grades on the Earth Science Regents Exam in June will be able to sign the wall of the Classroom in the Fall.  For 2015, the highest grade was earned by Charlie VanNess and the second highest grade was earned by Justin Carmona.  Please congratulate these two boys for an excellent job on a difficult exam.




Art Club is Back
After a three year absence, due to necessary budget cuts, South Seneca’s High School Art Club is back! The club’s first project is a colorful wall mural, which will feature the saying, “Earth without art is just ‘eh’.” Club members are looking forward to working on various art projects for the school and the community, as well as the upcoming holiday party gift exchange, and other fun events! Art Club President Gemini Zajac says, “I’m proud to be the official leader of the club and look forward to getting to know other artists. It will be fun bringing our student artists together and watching everyone’s creativity meld together.”







From Our Perspective- By Briana McCoy & Julia Hubbard

This year we all had the opportunity to take Beyond Our Borders (or BOB). BOB helps us to learn more about the world around us so that we will be better prepared for Global next year. It also helps us to be able to write essays on history. Before BOB I didn’t know that their was a difference between history and English essays and thanks to Mr. Brewer, I know that their is a distinct difference between the two. BOB is an important class to helping prepare us for Global.

This year, the freshman class is learning about maps, globes, and all things geography. We have independently made presentations, each about a different country in Asia. In our presentations we had to talk about absolute location, relative location, and political & physical maps. We also had to mention the culture and history in the specific country, as well as tourist attractions and natural resources. After we worked on our Asia presentations, Mr.Brewer taught us about the Arab Spring, the civil war in Syria and how it evolved into the current crisis with ISIS (Daesh) and how it is related to today's news. We found out how important it was to know this topic, so we used our knowledge on it to write an essay about it. The essay was about the four countries that it had first affected; Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria. We had fun with these projects and we are so glad we had the chance to learn everything thing that we have so far.

As noted, BOB is an important class to making sure that we are prepared for Global. Thanks to BOB, our class has learned more about current events. In BOB, we are able to learn new things about different countries through essays, PowerPoints, and fun videos. We wish that we had been given the chance to take this class more than a half year because we feel that it has helped tremendously and will help us out even more in the future. We are happy we were able to take BOB and am thankful for the opportunity to learn more.

MasterMinds and Academic Challenge Bowl 
Competitors in competition in Clyde-Savannah last month...winning  3 out of  4 competitions against Varsity level Masterminds. These competitions are essentially the modern-day versions of the School Quiz Bowl competitions form the 70’s and 80’s. MM are geared toward high school students and ACB are middle level grades 7-8. The competitions are played like rounds of jeopardy with buzzers and bonuses and the like. It is very exciting and the students do extremely well with the procedures for answering the questions when properly addressed by the spokesperson. They are having a great time and the student interest is rising as we get the word out!

Striking Up Some Fun for Our Honor Roll Students
Students on the honor roll had the opportunity to celebrate their successes by  bowling at Sunset Bowl. In all, 126 students enjoyed a day filled with bowling and camaraderie.  Our students and staff are dedicated to achievement and honoring the work it takes to become the best we can. 

Thanks for taking a look!  We will make this newsletter a regular part of our high school.