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.
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.
Art Club is Back
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.
