On Wednesday, the Iowa Hall of Pride came to our building. They held three separate 1 1/2 hour presentations/activities for students. The 9th & 10th grades went first, then the 6-8th grades, and finally the 11th and 12 grades. I sat in each session and was very pleased and proud of the way that our students listened and participated. Chad and Shelly, the speakers, introduced themselves. They set the expectations for the day.
The focus was on developing leadership. As students arrived in the gym they were each given a playing card. This card determined the group that they would be in. The first activity that they were asked to do was a nonverbal activity. They were given a rope and had to get in order of their birthday month and year without talking. This was very interesting to watch! Our students are so creative with the ways they come up with to find out the information they needed in order to complete this activity. One of the points of the activity was that a leader had to emerge to direct how they would find the information they needed.
The next activity involved dancing. Each member of the group had to lead a dance move. Chad and Shelley would play different clips of songs. This was very entertaining to watch.
The students watched a short video clip of Bernie Saggau speaking about leadership. They also watched another video of a Cedar Rapids Kennedy graduate, Salvatore Giunta, the first living Medal of Honor recipient.
To conclude the assembly, Chad and Shelly had each student write how they would be a leader on a card. The students gave their cards to Chad and Shelly who would read these and then send them to me. Students signed a poster designating us an "Iowa Hall of Pride High School 2013".
Congratulations to Allison Hewitt! She qualified for the State Cross Country meet! We are very proud of her~
We are very proud of our junior high and high school athletic teams as the fall sports season comes to a close~
On Friday we held our Achievement Assembly in place of our Spirit Assembly. We honored members of clubs/organizations in the school and those who were on the A & B Honor Roll list. Each student was given a certificate. Those in 9-12th grades were given honor roll pins. One of my goals this year is seeing that each student makes the honor roll at least one time. The honor roll lists were sent to the area newspapers. I have many pictures available from this event. We did not have time to give the "Golden Grizzly" medals. These will be announced before Miss Iowa speaks this upcoming Tuesday. For this award, a student had to be chosen based on the content area. For junior high these areas are: Math, Science, Social Studies, and English. For high school these areas are: Math, Science, Social Studies, English, Art, Music, Spanish, CTE- Agriculture, CTE- Industrial Arts, CTE- Business, CTE- Family and Consumer Science. Students were chosen based on exceptional hard work and diligence within the classroom. These medals will be given on a quarterly basis. I am so very proud of all of our students...
As we rushed to end the assembly, it is tradition that students do not leave until we sing the school song. It was unbeknownst to me that the Student Council had the entire student body and staff sign a banner that said "Thank you Mrs. Lightfoot". I was overcome with emotion at this. There are no words to describe how I felt receiving this... it is the students and staff that I have to thank for making this a wonderful place to be a principal...
I believe that we are going to accomplish great things at English Valleys Junior/Senior High School. I am working with the staff on ways to increase student involvement and achievement. Everything that we do must center on these things. I will continue to inform you of how we plan to do this. I ask for your continued support as we continue on our journey to instill pride in each and every one of our students. Thank you so much for all of your support...
Go EV Bears!
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