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STAFF NEWS AND NOTES

Nuts & Bolts

24 EDITION 24, ISSUE 14 Mar. 26 30 Apr. 2 5 Apr. 16 20 Apr. 23 27 Apr. 30 May 4 May 7 11 May 14 18 May 21 25 Social Studies Science Math Art/Tech/H&C Foreign Language PE/Health/Music English Social Studies

December 9, 2011

KUDOS - To our colleagues who attended Wednesday evenings PTA/PAC meeting. As is mentioned regularly attending a PTA/PAC meeting to show our appreciation for all that the PTA does for our school sends a very positive message to our parents who work to support our program. It is always appreciated by our PTA members when they see teachers attend the meetings. Our thanks go to Rob Spring, Chris Myer and Will Salvi!! Everyone should consider attending a PTA meeting; it takes about an hour or so of your time. Our next PTA/PAC meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 2 at 7:00 pm. Mark your calendars! - To Mr. V. and his chorus members for two recent performances that they gave. On Saturday night, December 3, select chorus sang the National Anthem at the Sienna Saints basketball game at the Times Union Center. Although their singing was good it did not spur the Saints on to winning unfortunately. All but three of the Select Chorus approximate 60 members were in attendance to sing. Great opportunity not only for our students but also to highlight SJHS! Then on Sunday afternoon Choral members attended the Elks Annual Holiday Dinner to sing for all in attendance. This has become an annual traditional as well for our Choral students and many students were there once again as a great opportunity for themselves but also to highlight SJHS and our community! Great job, Mr. V.!

Generous Cheerful Loyal Sympathetic Patriotic Trustworthy Fair Cooperative

SET DESIGNER NEEDED We still have an opening in our musical personnel list for a set designer. If you are interested in either or both of these position please contact Mr. V. and/or Dianne Hobden for information and let R. Moore know. ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT TO VISIT As part of the SINI improvement process Kathy Skeals, our Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, will be spending a significant amount of time in our building. Kathy is visiting to refamiliarize herself with our school structure, practices, programs, instructional approaches, etc. She will be visiting a variety of classes during each one of her visits to our school. Yesterday Kathy spent 2 hours plus in our school dropping in on various classrooms. Her future visits are: Date Tuesday, December 13 Tuesday, December 20 Time 8:00 am 11:30 am 8:00 am 11:30 am

PM BUS SUPERVISION ZONE #1 ZONE #2 ZONE #3 ZONE #4 CAF D. Taylor F. Gunn C. Uline D. Vasilakis D. Wallingford People are reminded to be on duty on a daily basis to make sure that supervision is provided.
ALL STAFF MEMBERS ARE REMINDED THAT THE BUS SUPERVISION IS AN ASSIGNED DUTY AND IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR ALL STAFF MEMBERS TO BE WHERE ASSIGNED DUTY; IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ARRANGE FOR REPLACEMENT PERHAPS BY SWAPPING WITH A COLLEAGUE.

ADOPT A FAMILY UP AND RUNNING SJHS has officially adopted 3 families to provide a more positive holiday season for these families. We need to reach out to all of our faculty and staff; as we have done in the past, many people need to stepp up and purchase one or more items for our adopted families. You can help this year, as well. Stop by the faculty room, you will see the needed items listed on the wall. Feel free to take as many as you would like. When you purchase the items please attach the ornament to the items so we will know which family and which member of the family it will be provided to. Thanks in advance to everyone for helping out. Thanks especially to Dawn Savery, Phil Coughlin and Erin Mailloux (and her son, Cameron), who organizes this on an annual basis. CONCERT SCHEDULES Our Holiday Concert season is here!! We hope you will mark these dates on your calendar and plan to join us at 7:30 PM on the following evenings. All concerts will be held at Shaker Junior High except the December 8th concert, which will be held at Shaker High School. DATE Dec. 13 GROUPS Jazz Ensemble 7th Grade Orchestra 7th Grade Band (B day) Treble Makers 7th Grade Band (A day) Select Chorus Scherzo TIME 7:30 p.m.

LONG-TERM CALENDAR OF EVENTS Fri. Dec. 9 Newsletter Posted Tues. Dec. 13 7:30 PM Concert #3 Thurs. Dec. 15 7:00 PM Art Show 7:30 PM Concert #4 Fri. Dec. 16 5-Week Interim Point Performing Groups Gr. 8 Field Trip to Colonie Center 7:00 pm Dodge Ball Tournament Mon. Dec. 19 7:30 PM BOE Meeting @ SJSH Library Tues. Dec. 20 Hall Geography Bees Select Chorus to Our Lady of Hope Thurs. Dec. 22 2:30 pm Annual Staff Holiday Party Fri. Dec. 23 Annual Holiday Concerts Mon. Dec. 26 Mon. Jan. 2 No School Holiday Break Wed. Jan. 4 Ski Club Week #1 Tues. Jan. 10 2:30 pm Building Geography Bee Wed. Jan. 11 Ski Club Week #2 Mon. Jan. 16 No School Martin Luther King Day Wed. Jan. 18 Ski Club Week #3 Wed. Jan. 25 Ski Club Week #4 Fri. Jan. 27 End of the 1st Semester Quiz Bowl Competition DODGE BALL TOURNAMENT!!! Next Friday, December 16, the Student Council will be holding the 1st Inaugural Dodge Ball Tournament for both faculty and students!! The evening should prove to be a very fun time. Come out and see various colleagues and students get smacked about the head and shoulders with a dodge ball it should be fun for the entire family! CALENDAR OF EVENTS Mon. Dec. 12 2:30 pm

Dec. 15

7:30 p.m.

MID-YAR EXAM SCHEDULE DRAFT #4 Fourth draft..suggestions?

JANUARY 2012 MON. 2 NO SCHOOL 9 Foreign Lang. Speaking Assess. Contd 16 NO SCHOOL (MLK Day) 23 Foreign Lang. 7/8 In Class 30 TUES. 3 Foreign 10 11 WED. 4 THURS. 5 Language 12 Science 8 Part 2 (In Class) 19 Social Studies (1 hrs) 26 FRI. 6 Assessment 13 Studio Art 11 am-2 pm 20

Tues. Dec. 13 Wed. Dec. 14 Thurs. Dec. 15 Fri. Dec. 16

English Department Meeting Science Department Meeting Math Department Meeting Special Ed Department Meeting 2:30 pm Guidance Department Meeting 7:30 pm SJHS Concert #3 2:30 pm PST 7:00 pm Art Show 7:30 pm SJHS Concert #4 5-week Interim Point Grade 8 Performing Groups to Colonie Center 7:00 pm Student Council Dodge Ball Tournament Courageous Resourceful Joyful Kind Patient Tolerant Honest Thankful Polite Considerate

17 Foreign Lang. 7/8 In Class 24 Math 7/8 (2 hrs)

18 Eng 7/8 (2 hrs) 25

Earth Science (2 hrs) Science 7/8

End of 2nd Quarter

27

(1 hrs.) 31
QUIZ BOWL (Fri, Feb 17)

CHARACTER TRAIT ASSIGNMENT Dec. 12 16 Foreign Language Jan. 3 6 PE/Health/Music Jan. 9 13 English Jan. 23 27 Social Studies Feb. 6 10 Science Feb. 13 17 Math Feb. 27 Mar. 2 Art/Tech/H&C Mar. 5 9 Foreign Language Mar. 12 16 PE/Health/Music Mar. 19 23 English

SUNSHINE FUND DONATION TO MELISSAS FAMILY Holly L. and I wanted to let you all know that by Friday, we had collected almost $500.00! for Melissa's family from the wonderful people who work here and also from the H.S. Foreign Language Department. Thanks to all of you for your support and generosity. We presented Melissa with her cards and gift earlier today, and it was obvious she was quite moved....... :)

MUSIC PERFORMANCE & DRESS REHEARSAL SCHEDULE DATE GROUPS TIME/PERIOD Dec. 12 7th Grade B-day Band Period 4 th Period 4 Dec. 13 7 Grade Orchestra Dec. 15 7th Grade Band A-day Period 4 Dec. 16 8th Grade Perf. Groups to Colonie Ctr Per. 2-8 Dec. 20 Select Chorus Our Lady of Hope FT Per. 5-8 Dec. 23 In-School Assemblies Per. 2,3,4,8
*All dress rehearsals are during each groups regularly scheduled class time. *Attendance is mandatory for all members of the ensemble. *All dress rehearsals will take place in the assembly room.

The next colors we will be doing for T-shirt day are red and white. We need some cool slogans to go with these colors. Any ideas? TAKE ACTIONS STEPS: Wear a black top on Wednesday December 14th. Think of a good slogan to go with the colors white or red. The movie, Bullied Originally, our idea was to show the film, Bullied before the December Holiday break. Due to the amount of work that will be involved with this activity, we are now looking at having this activity the Monday after February break. MUCH needs to be discussed about this, so we decided to hold this off until our next meeting. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Tracy H. Also, if you want to be more involved, look at the RED items to see what you can help out with!! **OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD DECEMBER 21ST!! Thanks to everyone on the committee for the continued hard work!! We are AWESOME!!!! EDUCATION IN THE NEWS The following were taken from the December 7, 2011 edition of Education Week. StateEyes Longer Year After District Takeover The state takeover of the Lawrence public school system in Massachusetts could mean longer school days and fewer days off for the citys 13,000 students.

ZIP IT PLEDGE PLEASE EVERYONE NEEDS TO DO THIS!!!!! WE CAN WIN $500! You can do this ONCE for EVERY email address you have!!!! Most of us have school and a personal account! Do Both! Encourage spouses and family members-it does not matter where we live! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Go to this website: http://www.adirondackextreme.com/zipit Scroll down to TO PLEDGE Fill in all pertinent information-choose Shaker Jr. High School and submit. Log onto your emailand click the link to activate your pledge. Adirondack extreme website will pop up indicating that your pledge has been activated.

STAND UP MEETING MINUTES- WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 30TH ** I put TAKE ACTION STEPS in these minutes. Anything that is in RED needs a person to volunteer for that activity. If you want to get involved, please e-mail me and I will let everyone know once all the items are taken. Thank-you!!!** Zip-It Pledge Update: Unfortunately, there is no way to tell how many pledges have been signed for our district. There are many schools competing with us, though. Due to this fact, PLEASE SIGN THE PLEDGE IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO ALREADY! Also, get your family and friends to sign it for SJHS too! Steve King will be sending out notifications (through Facebook, the school web-page, etc.) so that parents are informed and can sign the pledge as well. THE DEADLINE TO SIGN THE PLEDGE IS JANUARY 15TH!!! TAKE ACTIONS STEPS: SIGN THE PLEDGE AND ENCOURAGE EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO DO SO!! Mike Donahue update: The overall response to Mike Donahues presentation was great! The students said there were lots of Facebook posts about it that night. Yet, they also expressed concern that the message is being lost already. Due to this fact: -We are interested in putting together a book. We will have an interest meeting for all students and staff who want to be involved. A note will be sent home saying that students who want to be involved will need a copy of the book. Then, we can order the books through Mike so they are cheaper. Dates/times and details will be discussed at our next meeting. -Also, we will be printing out templates of shoes, boots, etc. Then, the kids will be coloring them in and writing their own stand up message, or even their own personal story about bullying. We will then laminate them and place them throughout the entire building! Details of how this will work will be discussed at our next meeting. TAKE ACTION STEPS: - We need templates of shoes, boots, sandals, etc. for our next meeting -We need someone to write directions to the teachers who will be administering this activity in their class. We will then review the directions at the next meeting. Student Members: Unnus, Meghan, and John were all present at this meeting. They have GREAT insight into how the student body behaves. The students expressed a concern that the Take a Stand Tuesday announcements are not being heard in all homerooms. This will be addressed at our next faculty meeting. John shared that he saw a girl on Anderson Coopers talk show who had created a music video about bullying. He will bring more information to our next meeting. Take a Stand Tuesdays We discussed how many students and staff are unaware of what Take a Stand Tuesday is. Tracy Henry will explain to this concept to the staff at our next faculty meeting. How do we spread the word to students?? Student government members will be reading the Take a Stand Tuesday announcements. We may read them over the PA so they are heard well. Finally, there have been issues getting the clips, etc. out effectively on the announcements. Judi needs more advanced notice. We would like to get Take a Stand Tuesday planned out in advance (perhaps month by month?) Then, we can submit them in advance to Judi and also assign students to read on specific dates. TAKE ACTIONS STEPS: We need each Take a Stand Tuesday for December printed out and sent to Judi. We also need to assign students to read them. T-shirt Days: Wednesday December 14th will be our next T-shirt day. EVERYONE in the building should wear a black top. (can we send the message to bus drivers, cafeteria staff and custodians too??) The message will be to black out bullying. This will count towards the interhall competitions and the tally will occur in homeroom as it did last time. Advertisements will be through the announcements and posters in the hallway.

State Commissioner of Education Mitchell D. Chester said last week that, under receivership, there will be rethinking of the school day to help turn around the citys chronically underperforming schools. Mr. Chester plans to appoint a receiver within two weeks, and the state officially takes over the system Jan. 1. Anythings up for grabs here because I dont think that business as usual is going to get us a substantially different result for the children of Lawrence, he said. Class-size Waivers Triple For Texas Districts State figures show a more than threefold increase in just one year in the number of elementary schools allowed to exceed class-size limits in Texas, one of the most visible signs of the big education funding cuts that the legislature passed to balance the budget, a newspaper reports. Figures obtained by The Dallas Morning News show that state officials allowed cash-strapped public school districts to exceed the 22-student limit in 6,988 classrooms from kindergarten through fourth grade, up from 2,238 a year ago. "We are clearly seeing the impact of the budget cuts this year," said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, which approved the vast majority of class size waivers sought. "School districts can save some money in the short term by increasing their class sizes, and that is what many have felt compelled to do." Most Calif. Students Fail To Meet Fitness Goals Adding more fuel to arguments that California children need to ditch the TV in favor of more athletic pursuits, a report released last week shows that fewer than one-third of students meet state fitness goals. Todays results are clear, said schools chief Tom Torlakson in a news release. When only 31 percent of children are physically fit, thats a publichealth challenge we cant wait to address. The state tests students in grades 5, 7 and 9 in six areas: aerobic capacity, abdominal strength, trunk strength, flexibility, and body-fat composition. The goal is for students to meet fitness standards in all six areas to prevent against diseases that can result from inactivity. N.Y. Students Surrender In Cheating Scandal The last of 20 students accused in an alleged college-entrance-exam cheating ring in an affluent New York suburb surrendered to authorities last week. Michael Pomerantz, 18, and an unidentified teenager turned themselves into Nassau County prosecutors before being taken to district court for arraignment. Mr. Pomerantz is one of five current or former students at Great Neck-area public and private high schools charged with accepting payments of between $500 and $3,600 to impersonate other students on SAT and ACT exams. To Save Money, Schools In Pittsburgh to Close The Pittsburgh school board has voted to close seven schools, including two high schools, to save money but still faces a $21.7 million deficit for the next year. The board voted 8-1 at a meeting last month to make the changes, which also include ending an experiment with single-gender classes at its 6th through 12th grade Westinghouse School by February. The plans include closing Oliver and Langley high schools and five elementary, intermediate, and primary schools in the 25,000-student district.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK I can write better than anyone who can write faster, and I can write faster than anyone who can write better. A. J. Liebling