Mr. Beckeman's Blog » School Improvement

Financial Aid Workshop Tonight!

Mr. Beckeman — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:58:40 +0000

The financial aid workshop that was canceled due to weather last week has been rescheduled for tonight in the Library Media Center starting at 6:30 p.m. Bruce Wierda, Muskegon Community College’s department chair for financial aid will share his expertise on this very important subject.

There is no cost to attend this workshop where parents will learn more about the FAFSA form and other pertinent information on navigating the challenges of college costs.

ACT Support in English & Reading!

Mr. Beckeman — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:22:02 +0000

Calling all juniors!! In preparation for the upcoming Michigan Merit Exam, we are providing English and Reading support each Wednesday throughout the month of February from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. There is NO COST to you for this additional preparation!

Click on the flyer below to read more about this great opportunity!

ACT Prep

Hockey Team Makes Students Feel Special

Mr. Beckeman — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:36:13 +0000

Each year our varsity hockey team and coach Sikkenga lace up their skates to show a wonderful group of special students how to have fun on ice.

Ms. Adams’ special students class along with the R-PHS varsity hockey team traveled to Lakeshore sports arena to enjoy some time together on ice skates. The hockey players took the time to assist Ms. Adams’ kids with lacing their skates and then helped them improve their skating skills on the ice.

It was truly heart-warming to see all the students interact with one another throughout their time on the ice together (click on the photo to enlarge).

If you would like to see more photos, click on the link below:

Special Skaters!

R-P Grad Setting Records at Indiana Wesleyan University

Mr. Beckeman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:09:33 +0000

Allix Miller, a 2011 R-P grad didn’t waste any time making her mark on the record books at Indiana Wesleyan University’s Varsity Women’s track team. In her first meet of the season, Allix broke two records, one in the 400 m dash and the other in the 200 m dash.

Click on the link below to read a bit more about her early season efforts.

Allix Breaks Records

I’m very proud of Allix! As good as she is as a track athlete, she’s even better person!

Financial Aid Workshop Tonight Postponed!

Mr. Beckeman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:24:48 +0000

Attention Parents!!

The financial aid workshop scheduled for tonight has been postponed due to school cancellation. We will reschedule and post the adjusted date as soon as possible.

Lexile Measures Improving at R-PHS

Mr. Beckeman — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:15:35 +0000

As you read the title of this post, you might wonder what exactly is a Lexile measure. I can help with this!

The Purpose of Lexile Measurements are:

To assess the reading difficulty of texts
To assess student’s ranges of reading comprehension
To predict how well a student is likely to comprehend a particular text

If a student’s Lexile score and a textbook’s Lexile are the same (or very close to the same), you can expect the student to read and comprehend 75% of the material presented.

What is a Lexile and how is it determined?

A Lexile measure is an indicator of how difficult a text is to comprehend based upon:

Word Frequency (not frequency in passage but in English language)
Sentence length (best predictor of the difficulty of a sentence is its length)

What doesn’t a Lexile measure?

Content
Quality
Complexity (syntax, irony, symbolism, etc.)
Jargon
Interest
Design

What comprehension skills are tested?

Paraphrase information in passage
Drawing conclusions from a passage
Making inferences
Identifying supporting details
Making generalizations from passage

The data for the class of 2015, 2014, 2013 are presented in the links below:

9th Grade Proficiency Summary Report

10th Grade Proficiencey Summary Report

11th Grade Proficiencey Summary Report

A quick synopsis of the data informs us that 71% of our students assessed in these cohorts are reading at the proficient of advanced levels based on the Lexile measure. The chart below will provide you with information on the percentile rank of readers by Lexile measure:

Lexile Percentile Table

As we move to the Common Core State Standards, the current Lexile ranges (also called bands) will be “stretched” to align with the associated rigor increases. Grades 9 & 10 have been linked as seen below:

Current Proficiency Lexile Band “Stretch” Lexile Band

9th & 10th: 960-1115 9th & 10th: 1080 – 1305

11th: 1070 – 1220 11th: 1215 – 1355

The Common Core Standards advocate a “staircase” of increasing text complexity, beginning in grade 2, so that students can develop their reading skills and apply them to more difficult texts. At the lowest grade in each band, students focus on reading texts within that text complexity band. In the subsequent grade or grades within a band, students must “stretch” to read a certain proportion of texts from the next higher text complexity band. This pattern repeats itself throughout the grades so that students can both build on earlier literacy gains and challenge themselves with texts at a higher complexity level.

What’s Your Extra?

Mr. Beckeman — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:47:28 +0000

It’s exciting to see the new clubs and groups that are forming on campus this semester! More students are finding a connection to school outside of their class load. Research informs us that the more involved a student is with their school, the better they perform on their school work.

Mr. Schlaff, counselor at R-PHS does a very nice job in capturing “What’s Your Extra?” in video format that’s presented to our students. The videos, part I & II are posted below:

If you’re a student reading this post, and you’re not currently involved in an “Extra”, now’s the time to get involved!

Nuveen Center for the Arts Presents: Ecosystem

Mr. Beckeman — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:34:32 +0000

An ecosystem is the relationship between plants, animals and the habitats in which they live. It’s from this definition that our students were given the artistic challenge to craft organisms from the fish and reptile families as representatives of predators in an ecosystem unique to the environment we live in. Mrs. Harris and Mr. Hellmann guided our students along this artistic path as their students put their own artistic spin on their project.

An exhibition of our students work will be available for community view from December 1st through January 14th at the Nuveen Center for the Arts in downtown Montague. The program listing our students can be accessed from the link below:

Nuveen Presents Ecosystem 2011

Some of the artwork is presented in picture form below so you may see the talents of our art students.

Rocket Scholars Foundation Raffle

Mr. Beckeman — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:01:26 +0000

Most of the high schools in our county have endowments set up through the Muskegon Community Foundation. These endowments are set up with the hope of growing and continuing to provide more and more kids financial assistance for post secondary education. Four years ago, a very passionate group of community members set up the “Rocket Scholars Foundation” through the Community Foundation to support Reeths-Puffer students and graduates.

On January 19^th at the Hilt Building, the Rocket Scholars will host a very fun “fund-raiser”. Light hors d’oeuvres will be served and entertainment will be provided. They will also be engaging in a “reverse” raffle with the top prize being $10,000. Only 350 tickets are being sold to keep the odds strong.

Tickets are $100. Tickets include the evening and the drawing.

Possible Reasons or Ideas to Purchase:

To support RP Graduates with scholarship money
Odds of winning are good (1/350)
Stocking stuffers or Christmas gift
Anniversaries
Birthdays
You get a night out, contribute to R-P kids, and you get much better odds than in a lottery.

Families or co-workers could split the cost of a ticket (1-ticket allows two people into the event)

*In the event that we sell less than 200 tickets the raffle will become a 50/50 drawing.

**There is also an option as the drawing comes to an end, that remaining present ticket holders could split the money, e.g. if the last five (5) ticket holders are present and agree to split the money, each would receive 1/5 or $2000.00 (all must agree).

***The Rocket Scholars Foundation is conducting various fundraisers throughout the year to begin supporting 2011-12 graduates. They are currently looking at reimbursement to seniors who take and “pass” AP exams and providing several additional scholarships.

If you would like to purchase a ticket, I can assist you! Please contact my office at: 719-3107 and I will be glad to sell you a ticket to this grand event!

R-P Marching Band Finishes Runner-Up in State Championships

Mr. Beckeman — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:07:09 +0000

Our Mighty R-PHS Marching Band travelled to Ford Field in Detroit, MI on Saturday to compete in the Flight II state marching band finals. Their performance was exciting and generated a huge applause from the spectators. My amateur seven-minute video of their performance can be accessed by clicking on the link below:

State Performance

Our Rocket Marching Band finishes runner-up to Jenison High School, a fellow OK Conference school who made the marching season a two-horse race in every competition throughout the fall season. The top twelve marching bands competing in Flight II had the following scores:

1st Place: Jenison High School (Score: 91.23)

2nd Place: Reeths-Puffer High School (Score: 90.83)

3rd Place: South Lyon High School (Score: 84.51)

4th Place: Farmington Hills Harrison High School (Score: 83.36)

5th Place: Southgate Aquinas High School (Score: 82.66)

6th Place: Flushing High School (Score: 81.94)

7th Place: Carmen Ainsworth High School (Score: 78.65)

8th Place: Woodhaven High School (Score: 76.77)

9th Place: Farmington High School (Score: 75.07)

10th Place: Wyandotte High School (Score: 74.88)

11th Place: Lakeview High School (Score: 73.55)

12th Place: Milford High School (Score: 69.74)

The three caption awards were earned by the following schools:

Caption: Best General Effect: Jenison

Caption: Best Marching: Jenison

Caption: Best Music: Reeths-Puffer

I took a few photos as the band prepared for their performance: