Happy New Year!I hope this email finds you well, recharged and refreshed for 2011. It’s been an incredibly busy vacation for the staff and we are excited for the months ahead! The administration had the opportunity to meet with every 9th and 10th grader yesterday and I know I speak for all the staff when I say “our students rock!” It was so inspiring to hear about the students plans for semester two, listen to them advocate for themselves and each other and witness how motivated they are to get back into their studies! It’s fantastic to be surrounded every day by students who enjoy the challenges in front of them and have such a positive commitment to their school. Thank you all for the honor and privilege of working with your student!
Please take a moment to review the following updates:
Report Cards
Spanish Program Change
New Math/Science Instructor
New Spanish Instructor
10th Graders
2011 Enrollment Opens
Humanities Exhibition
Report Cards
Student report cards were mailed home over the holiday recess. If your student did not receive their report card or there are questions about their report card, please contact our Assistant Head of School via email at: jake.lauer@animashighschool.com
As a reminder to those who may not have had as strong of a first semester as they would have liked. From Animas High School’s Colorado State Charter:
AHS will require each student to earn a grade of C or higher in all academic courses. Students who do not achieve this minimum grade requirement in two or fewer courses will be given options of attending summer school or repeating the grade to achieve these minimum grade requirements. Students who do not achieve the minimum grade requirement in greater than two classes must repeat the grade.
Spanish Program Change
In order to best serve our students, the AHS Board of Directors has adopted a new four-year Spanish program format. Based on overwhelming student and parent feedback and educational best practices, AHS has decided to offer Spanish as a full-year class, rather than a one semester class. AHS students are required to complete two years of Spanish study. The school has determined it fits our model and our students’ interests best to follow this format:
Beginning next year, students at AHS will complete their two-year Spanish requirement during their sophomore and junior years. Students are also encouraged to participate in one or more summer Spanish Jam opportunities/summer Immersion trips that will begin this summer! If an AHS student was to pursue all of the foreign language opportunities offered by the school, that student has the opportunity to earn 6 years of Spanish credit. By starting our foreign language journey in the sophomore year, it allows our ninth graders to earn a full year of Digital Arts credit as freshman. Additionally, with the importance our school places on digital portfolios and the employment of technology for research, production and presentation, our 9th graders will now have a full year to gain, practice and refine digital skills that are essential for success in all classes here at AHS.
AHS administrators have met with the student body to discuss these changes. Since the students have advocated for more focused instructional time in all their classes, this change has been very well received! Our current tenth graders are excited to have their basic Spanish requirements completed by the end of this semester. Our ninth graders are enthusiastic that they will be able to achieve mastery of the complete CS4 Adobe Suite. (They’ve got flash animation up next!) We appreciate all the great conversations, related to this change, that have taken place at PAC meetings, board meetings, curriculum subcommittee meetings and through personal dialogue with the school’s staff over the past two months. We look forward to our first, on-campus Spanish Jam this summer and our first foreign language trips abroad next year.
New Math/Science Instructor
It is with great excitement that AHS announces the hiring of Erin Zarko as a Math/Science Instructor at AHS. Equally at home in a Physics or Algebra classes, Erin recently completed her student teaching here at Animas High first semester. (Erin co-taught 9th grade Physics with Dave Heershcap and taught Algebra1 and 2 at school semester one) Her strong performance semester one, both as an instructor and as an advisor has impressed us all. Likewise, Will Camp from Fort Lewis College’s Dept of Education and teacher training program has said, “Erin is the one of best students to come out of our program in many years!”
Erin will be taking on the lead instructor role in our Algebra classes. Cathy Eagan continues to instruct our advanced math classes and serve as the Math Dept. chair. Josh Dalley, continues in his role as math specialist and student advisor. Adding Erin to the mix now gives our students more contact time with instructors, allows us to maintain small numbers in our math classes and results in AHS having more time for math and science extra help periods, math/science SIGs and more faculty office hours. Welcome aboard Erin, we are excited to have you as part of the AHS team!
New Spanish Instructor
It is with great disappointment that AHS announces the resignation of AHS Spanish teacher Maria Goodin. Since this past summer, Maria had been instrumental in developing our foreign language program and instructing our Spanish classes. Unfortunately, Maria will be unable to continue her strong work here at AHS and we are truly going to miss her talents and positive energy.
Although a change like this is never a good thing, AHS is fully prepared to continue our foreign language instruction this year. We will introduce our new Spanish instructor in the next weekly update. Stay tuned!
10th Graders
Winter NWEA testing, CSAPs, SATs/ACTs, college counseling appointments, internship assignments, not to mention a full line up of classes, project week, extracurricular activities, SLCs, exhibitions, tPOLs, summer jobs; I’m tired just listing all these demands!
This is a friendly reminder to all our 10th grade families concerning the robust and challenging agenda for sophomores in semester two. There is a tremendous amount of work the class of 2013 needs to accomplish and it’s going to take every minute available this semester to complete it all. Teachers and staff have been reviewing these objectives with students and we hope you can too! Now is the time to be checking in with your student about their scholastic plans and asking them how you can best support them this spring! Please know that our faculty advisors are on stand-by, ready to speak with you and your student about their progress and plans for AHS and beyond!
Yes, we understand we are asking a tremendous amount of all of our students but with your support and encouragement, we are confident that they will achieve tremendous success. Thank you for helping us keep the bar high!
2011 Enrollment Opens
Enrollment for the 2011-2012 school year opened Monday, January 3rd at 12:00 AM and the action has been steady! If AHS receives more enrollment forms than student capacity, then AHS will conduct an admissions lottery on March 1st. If the classes of 2014 and 2015 are not over enrolled on 3/1, then the school will accept enrollments until capacity is reached.
Humanities Exhibition
Save the Date- 10th grade Humanities students will be putting on their first exhibition of semester two entitled: Genocide and Imperialism. The exhibition will take place on Thursday, January 20th, from 5 to 6:30 PM. Location TBD. Look for more on this event in next week’s update.
