Did everyone have a good Spring Break last week? Mine was extremely relaxing, which was much needed. This week has definitely been a "hit the ground running" week. Yesterday, the GHS Navy Junior ROTC had their Annual Military Inspection Pass & Review and it was impressive. Our NJROTC students are truly so inspiring! They are so disciplined and controlled and it wow's me every time I see them. GHS NJROTC in formation. At the School Board Meeting on Tuesday night, the 6th grade and Middle School UIL winners were honored and the GMS 8th grade class was recognized for their UIL 1st place win for most cumulative points in the competition! Way to go guys!! UIL winners at Tuesday's board meeting. With testing coming up (yes, it's almost here!), the staff at Crockett Elementary decided to help the odds be in their students' favor for the STAAR test. Fourth grade students have been participating in a week long competition, THE STAAR GAMES, in preparation for the writing test. Today marks the final game and the victors will be crowned! In honor of the games, fourth grade teachers are dressed as characters from the book, The Hunger Games. How awesome is that?! The encouraging banner hung in the Fourth grade hall. Tonight is the Elementary P.E. Showcase at 6 p.m. in the Greenville High School gym! Each elementary school has selected their own fitness routine to perform with music and tons of fun! The picture below is from last year and it is just a taste of what's to come! On Monday and Tuesday, GHS had some special visitors from China! Remember this past summer when the Robowranglers went to China to help the students learn robotics principals and teach them to run their own competitions? Well, this week some students from China and their mentors came to GHS to shadow robotics, engineering and other STEM classes to help further their robotics knowledge. Can we talk about how cool it is that students from China wanted to come visit lil' ole Greenville, Texas (pronounced in full blown country twang of course!)?!?! Just one more way that our robotics program is forging and maintaining a global reach. Students from China work with GHS students on engineering skills. So what's coming up next? Saturday, April 9th, will be the next of ACE's "STEM Saturdays" studying Science for Space Survival (based on The Martian) where students will produce inventions designed to withstand the harsh elements of Mars while taking advantage of the planet's resources to create a plan to escape! From 9 a.m.-12 p.m. at GHS, Saturday, April 9th! Still image from The Martian. Also, The Greenville Educational Enrichment Foundation has released the 2016 grant application! If you're not familiar with GEEF, they're a non-profit organization that helps raise money for teacher grants that supply our staff with any number of things that wouldn't ordinarily be covered in their funding. You can access the application here.
That's all for now! See you for next week's update :) Hello everyone! Like I said earlier this week, there has been too much awesome for one post around here! I think it's fair to say that everyone around here has earned a nice little break next week (can you tell I'm excited for Spring Break yet?) Speaking of breaks, on Monday, teachers at Lamar Elementary were treated to massages during their conference period. Principal Tharp hired two massage therapists to set up in the teacher lounge and every teacher was able to swing by for a pick-me-up. Not bad for a Monday! The GHS powerlifting team won their first regional powerlifting championship since 2001 last Saturday. Three lifters qualified for the state meet next month in Abilene and Carandal Hale received two outstanding lifter awards for his squat and deadlift. He also set a new regional record for total weight lifted with a 1,580 lb. total. Y'all let's just take a moment to appreciate the fact that TWO programs, that hadn't won a regional championship in some time (GHS Band's Sweepstakes award and Powerlifting's Regional win), brought home wins in the SAME WEEK. That's just cool. NJROTC had their annual Chili Cook-Off and Silent Auction on Tuesday night, hosted by the NJROTC Parent Booster Club. The smell of homemade chili, side dishes, and desserts filled the air as the silent auction kicked off. In all, the event raised over $1,500 to support the unit’s Navy Ball that will be held next month! Last week, we started filming for our second Career/Tech video with Joe Hudson Collision in Greenville. The basic premise of these videos is to film a 2-3 minute summation of that industry (in this case auto-body repair), then show that video to our students to let them see what the Career/Tech classes at the High School can prepare them for. I'm so excited for the final product! Holly Rice Films shot and is editing this video for us and she did such an amazing job with our last video that I am DYING to see this one! Kenneth Fifield shooting with Body Technician, Emanuel Pearson, for the upcoming video.
The members of Greenville ISD’s Destination Imagination team, Donuts Inc., received the prestigious Spirit of Discovery & Imagination Award for outstanding spirit, teamwork, volunteerism, and sportsmanship. This team ran into technical difficulties during their performance, but never lost their outstanding spirit and even created a hover-board that carried a member back and forth across the stage. Team managers Michael and Samantha Phillips and their 2nd grade team Keira Clayton, Avery Phillips, Emma Shepherd, Diego Olguin, Logan Green, Urban Casper and Josh Perkins. And last, but not least, former Carver teacher, Jinger Surles, accepted a position as the new Assistant Principal at Travis Elementary! Obviously, Painting with a Twist was the appropriate way to celebrate! Congrats Jinger!! How's that for a pre-Spring Break catch up?! I hope everyone has a safe and fun/relaxing time next week! When we get back, I'm sure I'll have plenty more to share!
Well, it's the last week before we all head off on Spring Break (insert long sigh). It has been so busy the last few weeks and there are some MAJOR accomplishments that need some bragging! So, if you're not into seriously awesome news, go ahead and look away now. First, our GHS Lion Pride Band competed last weekend at the Region 4 UIL Concert and Sight Reading Contest and, for the FIRST TIME IN 30 YEARS, brought home a Sweepstakes honor! Earning Sweepstakes is essentially the trifecta. It requires earning a Division I rating, the highest score, in three categories: concert performance, marching and sight reading. Click here for the full article (which I highly recommend reading). Next, our Robotics programs have had some big wins in the last week! Both the GHS and GMS VEX Robotics teams competed in the State Competition and qualified for the National Competition as well as the World Competition! The GMS Gigabots won first place! You can read all about their win here. The GHS Iron Cowboys won the Design Award! You can read about their victories here. Our GHS German class students also competed in the German State Competition in San Marcos, Tex. The students competed in Folk Dancing, Polka Band, Level 2 skit and Level 3 skit. Every entry placed within the Top 10 of their event. Check out the full story here.
This week is also Texas Public Schools Week! Tonight, Greenville Middle School will have Open House at 5:30 p.m. and Greenville High School will have Open House at 6 p.m. You can find the full schedule here.
Due to an overwhelming amount of program victories over the last 2 weeks (not a bad problem to have, eh?), I'll be doing another post later this week to recap some other wins and goings on around campus. Stay tuned! Last week was pretty exciting. We had several administrators, teachers and students attend the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) mid-winter conference and present on some of our STEM activities. It's pretty cool that a small town like Greenville gets state-wide recognition for its STEM programs. I mean, Texas is a pretty big state! Can we all just take a moment of silence to soak that in....
Did it sink in? It never ceases to amaze me that Greenville, TX is on the map for science and technology initiatives. I've invited GISD's Chief Business/Communications Officer, Kelli Tharp, to blog this week and tell everyone a little more about TASA. Well hello! It's been forever since I've done an update but what better time than the new year! It's safe to say it's already been a very busy year. Robotics season is in full swing and all of our teams are hard at work getting ready for the new year! I just got back from talking to Adrienne Emerson, GHS Robotics Director, about some really cool stuff going on with the Robowranglers, so stay tuned for that article here in the next few days! In other news, several of our staff are presenting at the TASA (Texas Association of School Administrators) Mid-Winter Conference next week on our STEM programs. I'll post pictures of that as soon as I get them! They'll be highlighting some of our key organizations like Robotics and Solar Car. Tomorrow night, the GHS Prom Booster Club is putting on a "Promedy Comedy" night at the GHS Auditorium at 7 p.m. to benefit the class of 2016's prom. The comedy night will feature Sherry Etzel, Keegan Hines and Stacy Foley. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased through Mary Mulkey, Christine Weeks or Kris Koger or at the door tomorrow!
That's all for now! Everyone have a relaxing (and safe) weekend!! So yesterday was Veterans Day and, as usual, we had our annual Veterans Day program and luncheon at the Greenville High School gym. We do this every year, but believe me when I say that it gets better every year. Y'all, this event always causes waterworks (a.k.a. LOTS of tears). It's beautiful, honestly, to see all of the veterans and their families in the crowd, eyes full of tears of pride and joy. The music is always awesome. Our choirs and bands do an amazing job putting together pieces and rising to the occasion! But, personally, my favorite part is when Mr. Gish calls down each branch of the military and their [hymn?] is played. When those WWII vets walk (or wheel actually) their way down to the middle of the gym floor, it melts my heart! This year was special because Congressman John Ratcliffe presented WWII veteran, Grady E. Jones, with several awards and honors that he earned, but never received, while serving as a Technician 5th Grade for the United States Army. Mr. Jones received the Good Conduct Medal, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Asiatic Campaign Medal, World War II, Victory Medal and the Philippian Liberation Ribbon. Representative Dan Flynn was our keynote speaker and he gave an outstanding speech. He shared a great story about Audie Murphy, which any Greenville native can appreciate! The lunch was delicious (as always) Chef Kiowski and his culinary arts students made a delicious barbeque lunch for the veterans and their families. I'm always impressed by their customer service skills and food presentation. Soooo yummy (especially that pie!)!! The pictures really don't do this event justice, but without further ado, prepare for a bombardment of pictures. I can't wait for next Veterans Day!
HAPPY FRIDAY!! Did anyone else feel like Friday took particularly long to get here? As promised, here is post number two for this week. It has been a week full of competitions, trainings and some looking towards the future. I know, I know, "we do that most weeks!" says our staff. But trust me, this week it was a little different. Let's start with the competitions. The GHS VEX Robotics teams competed in their first tournaments of the season this week. The Iron Cowboys VEX Robotics Team had a fantastic showing at their first competition this year at the Greenville “Nothing But Net” League Event. All five GHS teams made it to eliminations with Team 4148c and Team 4148a selected as alliance captains. Team 4148a won the Design Award for the design and presentation of their design for their robot as well as the Programming Award for their 106 point, one-minute autonomous program. The team’s success earned them the #26 ranking in the world and qualified them for nationals in Omaha. What an awesome start to the season! I can't say enough how endlessly impressed I am by our Robotics programs at all grade levels. Those students blow my mind with their work ethic and tenacity. Yesterday, Crockett Elementary held their annual Career Fair on their campus. The Career Fair is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for the students to get an up close and personal look at some organizations and clubs available to them in high school as well as some potential jobs and careers for them. The students saw demonstrations from the GHS Solar Car team (always a treat, seriously their cars are amazing), GHS Robotics, and FFA. They also got meet police officers, healthcare workers, veterinarians and much more! They even got to watch an Evac helicopter landing and get a look at the cockpit! Moving onto trainings. This is where it gets interesting (as if the rest were boring). The Texas Literacy Grant funds all kinds of reading/literacy initiatives in Greenville ISD. Under the grant, we have the Director, Davia Madariaga, and Literacy Coaches that each focus on separate campuses. Yesterday, the Greenville Literacy Initiative Team hosted their first of the year vertical meeting. Como-Pickton ISD Literacy Initiative team members attended as well as representatives of the Institute for Public School Initiatives. Now let's go TO THE FUTURE! No, not really. But, on Monday and Tuesday, we held a Future Forecasting training along with community leaders and business representatives. Dr. Clement Bezold and Mr. Willis Goldbeck, two international futurist experts, developed the foresight training over three decades to train education, government and corporate executives. the Futurists presented a two-day training that tasked the group with developing educational scenarios projected out to 2030. The group discussed where the future of education is going and what effects it may have on education on a global level. You can read the full story here. October truly came and went in a blur. But even with all of that excitement, I'm sure November won't leave us bored ;)
Check back next week as we prep for Veterans Day and reflect on being thankful! Hey everyone! Well, a week has come and (nearly) gone and there's quite a bit to tell. Major Updates: 1) The GHS Lion Pride Band had an outstanding competitive season! On Saturday, October 3rd, the band went to Commerce for the NETEX Invitational Marching Contest. They earned straight division 1 ratings and received superior judges comments in preparation for UIL Contest. On Saturday, October 10th, the band went to NEXT Invitational Marching Competition in Mt. Pleasant - at this competition our Drum Majors (Emma Anderson and Andrew Walker) received a division 1 rating, our band received straight division 1 ratings, our drumline received a division 1 rating, and our color guard received a 2. Our band made the Finals, and placed 6th overall for the competition. On October 13th, they competed at the Region 4 UIL Marching Contest in Mt. Pleasant. Our band received division 1 ratings across the board and earned the honor of representing our Region at the Area C Marching Contest on Saturday, October 24th, which is one contest away from the Texas UIL State Marching Contest. Please congratulate all band and color guard members when you see them, as well as our directors Joel Weisberg and Richard Burt! 2) The GHS Tennis team won 3rd place overall in district competition!! Tennis is coached by Mary Mulkey and Kayci Shellinger. This team has worked so hard all year long and perfectly exemplifies what it means to have "Lion Pride". Awesome job! 3) Last week, the ACE program put on their annual Lights On! For Afterschool rally on the steps of the Hunt County Courthouse. Mayor Pro Tempore and Principal at the Sixth Grade Center, spoke about the benefits of the ACE program. 4) Also last week, the GHS Homecoming game! Even though the weather could have been better, the traditional Homecoming activities carried on undetered. Congratulations to Homecoming King and Queen, Carandal Hale and Brittany Smith! So much happened this week that I'm going to do another post tomorrow! Check back then :)
Good morning! Thanks for checking out our very first Greenville ISD blog! There's so much happening this year that we, as a district, wanted a faster (more fun) way to share what's going on with everyone. October is an extremely busy month. Most people know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, but it is also DrugFree Greenville's Red Ribbon month, Principal Appreciation month, the season for Fall Festivals and, of course, Homecoming. So far this month, we've had several Red Ribbon events at our schools with plenty more coming up. Tomorrow is Parent Power with Jay Johnson at the Wesley Martin Administration Building at 7 p.m. (no kids please, adults only). Next Friday is also the annual kite fly at the Sixth Grade Center, which is always a lot of fun! At the beginning of October, I had the opportunity to take photos for a plaque ceremony at New Horizons Learning Center. They received a very cool donation last May from Pud Kearns in honor of the late Jack Horton, Sr. I won't go into full detail because you can read that story here! Something new we did this month was the "Support Blue" steak lunchto show appreciation and support for our local law enforcement. I couldn't believe how many officers showed up. The cafeteria at GMS was packed! I showed up to take some pictures and was overwhelmed by the gratitude that every officer present expressed. All I heard for the next two hours was "thank you so much for doing this!" or "this is so nice! Thank you!" It was awesome seeing how happy such a simple gesture made them. We will definitely be doing that event again next year! Last Thursday, Crockett Elementary gathered the entire campus for their annual Breast Cancer Awareness Day group photo. The entire campus wore different shades of pink to create a big picture from an aerial view. The local fire department came out to the school so that we could take the picture from the top of their truck ladder. Unfortunately, the fire fighters wouldn't let me go up on the ladder to take the picture (huge disappointment!), so I handed one of them the camera to take the photo. He did a pretty good job! The rest of the month is sure to have even more fun (and crazy) activities and events! Look out for next week's post to stay up to date on what's going on!
|
AuthorSydney Hanner is the Director of Community Relations for Greenville ISD in Greenville, TX. Archives
January 2017
Categories |