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.
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.
I’m very proud of Allix! As good as she is as a track athlete, she’s even better person!
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.
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:
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:
What doesn’t a Lexile measure?
What comprehension skills are tested?
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:
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.
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!
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:
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:
Our National Honor Society is currently running a Pennies for Patients drive to raise money in the fight against Leukemia and Lymphoma. This is the second year that NHS has engaged in this activity to support those afflicted with one of these challenges diseases.
(Megan Bremer & Alyssa Perel pose with a Penny Box)
The name of the drive makes it sound like only pennies can be donated but money in any denomination will be accepted! It is a 5th hour class competition but if you (the reader) would like to make a contribution, your check can be made out to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Last year, Mr. Krispin’s class won the pasta lunch provided by Olive Garden of Muskegon. The pasta lunch was the prize for bringing in the most money in our class competition. Mr. Krispin’s 5th hour class will be given a challenge by many classes as they’ve heard how delicious the pasta lunch was from Olive Garden.
Last year, NHS rasied over $1,500.00 to support this great cause. They have great hope that this amount will be far exceeded with this year’s competition. A big thanks goes out to Mrs. Milder, our NHS advisor for providing wonderful leadership to this dynamic group of students.
For those of you that have already graduated from High School, think back to your glory days when you were a student and make a mental list of the clubs, sports and other organizations that you were involved with.
As I took a walk down memory lane, I listed the clubs, organizations and sports that I took part in while attending Whitehall High School.
A long time has passed since I looked so youthful but my memories of being a part of the groups listed are ingrained in my memory as experiences that helped shape my interpersonal skills, work ethic and my understanding of what it meant to be part of something greater than myself.
One of our goals at R-PHS is to connect every student to a group, ensemble, club, sport or other school-related organization to broaden their connection to R-PHS beyond their coursework.
We’re asking students to get involved. We’re asking students: ”What might be an area of interest that we can support you through the formation of a club or support group. ” What’s great is our students are responding with multiple ideas which are quickly turning into newly founded student groups. Since the start of the school year, we’ve added a chess club, GSA, two Bible study groups and our IMPACT student leadership team.
Our Positive Behavior Supports Team has been very busy assisting students with the communications relative to connecting an EXTRA with their current lifestyle. Our most recent video is linked below to give you a glimpse into what our plan is to expand student opportunities at R-PHS.
Great things are happening at R-PHS!
This goes out to all parents and guardians of our high school students….COME TO CONFERENCES!
We have two evenings set aside next week for parents and guardians to come to campus and meet with your student’s teachers. This is the perfect time to listen to our teachers as they identify strengths and growth areas in your student in the courses they’re enrolled in.
In recent years, our percentages of parents coming to conferences has declined. Is it parent-internet-viewer? Is a busy schedule? Is it a lack of communication? Is it a lack of incentive?
There are a few things that we can build on from the questions listed above. We will follow this blog post with a call home to all families regarding parent/teacher conferences as well as place the dates and times in our daily announcements starting today for all students to hear.
We are also placing an incentive for you to come! As they say, “If you always do what you’ve always done, expect to get what you’ve always gotten.” We haven’t had a give-away in a long time, so we’ve put a prize drawing in the conference mix. We have three prizes that will be drawn at the conclusion of Thursday evening’s conferences and the winning tickets will be posted on this blog!
Tickets you ask? What tickets? Well, here’s the answer on the tickets! Each teacher that you meet with will give you one ticket. The more teachers you meet with on your student’s schedule the greater your odds become of being a winner.
What do you win? I have that answer too!
First ticket drawn: $50.00 Wesco Gas Card
Second Ticket Drawn: $50.00 Gift Certificate to Rocket Express (Our Re-designed School Store)
Third Ticket Drawn: 1 Winter Sports Pass to all R-PHS Athletic Events
All you have to do is show up and meet with your student’s teachers! We want you, we need you as our active partner in your student’s education. It doesn’t matter the grade, we need you. It doesn’t matter if they’re a freshmen or a senior, we need you.
When are conferences? Here’s the information:
Tuesday, November 8th: 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. in Rocket Arena
Thursday, November 10th: 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. in Rocket Arena
Rocket Express will be open for you to look around and possibly make a purchase. Tammy Whynot, Rocket Express manager has done a marvelous job in providing a delightful inventory to surely meet your school spirit wants and needs.
We hope to see you next week at conferences!
The goal of the IMPACT team will be to aid in fostering a school culture where both students and staff demonstrate respect and support for one another at R-P. As members of the team, their primary function will be to act as a role model in fostering a positive school culture. IMPACT team members have to attended a series of leadership training sessions centered around small group discussions and activities focused on learning the key principles and skills necessary to become strong leaders in both the school and community settings. The leadership seminars take place during the school day on the second Tuesday of every month and include , but not limited to topics such as : Integrity, Self-Confidence, Optimism, Risk-Taking and Listening.
The students recently engaged in Free Hug Fridaywhich they first heard about in one of our seminars (view video from link below) with the goal of freely giving simple, safe and genuine “hugs” to other students wiith the intent of helping them feel cared for.
Recently, the students processed their top five leadership characteristics that they are committing themselves to during the school year.
After processing through over fifty leadership qualities, the IMPACT students voted on the following five leadership qualities:
Respectful (The Golden Rule)
Selfless/Servant
Trustworthy
Positive
Initiator
The IMPACT team, through their words and actions will work to demonstrate these qualities everyday to maximize their IMPACT on the culture at R-PHS.
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