Week beginning October 1, 2007
What’s up, friends? Did you look at your calendar today? Can you believe that it’s OCTOBER already? It seems like the first day of school was just yesterday, and here we are preparing for MID-TERM EXAMS! It has been a good year thus far, with a general observation being that our students seem to understand and accept some expectations and changes that we have made in our school to help keep us moving in the right direction.
The biggest goal for our school this year is centered on academic excellence and improvement. Sure, our school was recognized for making academic growth goals for the 2006-2007 school year, but we believe that we are capable of so much more. We have set forth the following goals:
A minimum proficiency of 50% proficiency on the North Carolina Writing Test for Grade 10
A minimum proficiency of 70% proficiency on the North Carolina EOC’s
The fulfillment of Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind
How do we intend to do this?
First, the writing test.
During our September School Leadership/Improvement Team Meeting, the leadership team agreed that our school needed to dedicate one day per month to an aggressive and ambitious writing program entitled “Drop Everything and Write!” Each month, our English department will help to develop a writing prompt that our students will respond to that will allow them to display their creative, expository, or persuasive writing skills. A suggestion on the table for the prompts is for our students to write about our monthly Character Education traits, which are:
October: Responsibility
November: Integrity
December: Selflessness
January: Honesty
February: Perseverance
March: Commitment
April: Courage
May: Self-discipline
Each time I walk into a classroom, I try to engage the students in some debate/dialogue about something that they’re learning. I am very impressed with their verbalization of their feelings, so I’ve challenged some of them to put their feelings, ideas, and opinions on paper. We may even find a journalist, lawyer, or lobbyist among our student body if we keep this up!
Next, the EOC proficiency.
The core (English, Math, Social Studies, and Science) academic areas worked very diligently and effectively over the summer and thus far this year in developing pacing guides and dynamite lesson plans that are 100% aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Now, the thinking is this: If teachers are teaching material that test data tell us will be covered on the “Big 11,” which are English 1, NC Writing, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Biology, Chemistry, Physical Science, Physics, Civics and Economics, and United States History in a manner that encourages higher order thinking and problem solving skills, then our students should perform well. To take it a step further, there is a periodic assessment strategy that we’ll use in the form of common assessments for each subject, the Mid-Term Examinations (October 25 and 26 which count for TWO TEST GRADES), and preliminary final assessments to be given one week prior to the actual final exams.
Finally, AYP.
We have missed our AYP targets in certain subgroups because of proficiency and in others because fewer than the required 95 percent tested requirement was met in some subgroups. To lessen the likelihood of this error from occurring, frequent “test builds,” or rosters of enrolled students at Southern Lee High School will be generated for us to cross-reference to identify students who are on test rosters against students who are actually enrolled in our school. It is possible for a student’s name to appear on a test roster, but who no longer is in our school. Such is the case in a transfer between SLHS and LCHS, or in the case of a long-term suspension.
We have had lots of achievement at Southern Lee during the past few weeks, with the most notable coming from two groups who have earned quite a reputation for themselves. First, the Southern Lee Sound Machine Did Their Thing AGAIN, as we participated as a 1A class band along with North Stanly and Hopewell at the Albemarle Band Competition.
At the awards ceremony,
Drum Majors Doris Clark and Jamal Gardner
Senior Band Members – Jennifer Nance, Mary Stevens, Adam Akers, Tiffany Hudson,
Jordan Carter, Staci Love, Bhumi Patel and Kellan Overton
were there to accept the awards with Band Director Matt Miller.
Southern Lee walked away with 8 trophies:
First place in Flags
First place in Percussion
First place in General Effect
First place in Marching and Maneuvers
First place in Music
Second place in Drum Majors
First place in Class 1A overall
Also a trophy for an excellent rating
There was a great crowd of happy and excited parents to celebrate with The Sound Machine from Southern Lee High School!
It was a super day for all that made the trip.
Cav PRIDE…YOU KNOW!
Then, Our JROTC Raider Team also gets some love! They took 14 to Raider Competition at Western Harnett; we won 2d place overall and 1st in Physical training! For those who do not know who these youngsters are, they are the ones you see running around campus/Southern Lee County after the school day ends. They have a sincere interest in the military as a career, and they’ve done a good job with this Raider program since we’ve been here!
This week in Cavalier Athletics features our soccer team at home MONDAY vs. Union Pines, Tennis at home MONDAY vs. Harnett Central, Volleyball at home THURSDAY vs. Harnett Central, and Varsity Football at home FRIDAY vs. South Johnston. Come out and support YOUR Cavaliers!
The Cavalier Word for the Week is: TERSE. There are occasions when I issue some very terse statements to our student body when they fail to meet the academic, behavioral, and social standards of excellence expected and required of all students in our school!
Well, that’s it for this edition. Thanks for your support thus far this year, and DON’T FORGET that we’re getting back together for another PTSO chat in November! Watch for specific dates and topics of discussion coming SOON in another Lassiter’s Liberator!
HDL
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