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SCHOOL NEWS FOR
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2001
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NOTES FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL |
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by Terry Howell, McKenzie High School Principal
Our teachers began the school year last week with a series
of in-services designed to assist them for 2001/02.
Actually, many teachers had already completed some
professional growth by attending workshops on the Gateway
Testing initiative which will affect this year's freshmen
class in regard to graduation standards. Teachers in
English, math, and science had workshops in Union City and
West Carroll by state-trained presenters to discuss
standards, strategies, and techniques to insure students
do well on this extremely important series of exams.
Several of our physical education teachers attended the
annual U.T.M. Wellness and physical education workshop
with new state standards. This workshop acquainted these
specialty teachers with the new objectives to be taught.
Five of our teachers added a new teacher endorsement in a
two-day service-based learning workshop at Humboldt High
School last week. These teachers each earned approximately
$400 in notebooks and supplies to use as an augmentation
in their class or club/organization. Ideally, I would like
to add this as a distinct class in the future so that
teachers can teach the students the curriculum and co-op
students in 30 hours of service-based work. The rest of
the teachers began work on the bi-annual School
Improvement Plan due December 15, 2001. This required plan
provides for teachers to re-examine their mission
statement and set of beliefs; look at survey data for
students, teachers, parents, and the community; analyze
the Report Card for our district; and select 2-3 goals to
address in the School Improvement Plan. With the 2-3
goals, we will invite community members to serve and
create strategies to improve instruction during the next
two years. This is always an exciting process as we can
improve that which we do. Last week we also had Sergeant
Tim Hardy of the Tennessee National Guard who presented
new programs that the Guard can provide our schools. These
programs include anger management, conflict resolution,
and character education. Our teachers also attended a tour
of the Tennessee Technology Center at McKenzie to see
first hand the skills a high school graduate needs to do
well in post-secondary technical schools. This week we had
a session on curricular mapping in grades 5-12. The intent
of mapping is to insure all state standards are met with a
minimum number of redundancies and with no gaps in meeting
the standards. Sessions such as this are designed to serve
also as a time to reflect on accountability testing.
Teachers focused on the writing assessment and their own
departmental/curriculum test as they mapped their
individual courses for grades 5-12. Eventually, we will
map and align the curriculum for K through 12.
We received our second semester math exit exams recently
with generally good results. In Algebra I, our students
averaged 35.1 correct answers out of the 50 questions test
for a 70.2% correct average. The state average correct
answers was 32.9 or 65.8%. In Algebra II our average
percent correct was 49.4% while the state was 51.4%. In
geometry we averaged 40.6 correct answers out of 50
questions (81.2%) while the state averaged 30.7 answers
(61.3%). In the writing assessment at the 11th grade
level, we averaged 3.6 out of a 6.0 score. Approximately
50% scored at the competency lever or higher. This figure
compares to 68% for the previous year. We plan to address
this shortcoming by incorporating writing skills across
the curriculum mapping exercises.
The football team began its pre-season scrimmages with a
three-way meet against Martin Westview and Crockett
County. We generally held our own against these two
powerhouse schools. Westview boasts one of the biggest and
strongest teams in AA while Crockett County advanced to
the third round in the state playoffs last year in the AAA
division. This week the Rebels play at Henry County on
Tuesday at 5:00 P.M. They complete the pre-season
scrimmages on August 10 at home against Jackson Southside
at 6:00 P.M. We will charge $2.00 for this final scrimmage
of the season. The Rebels will return to the Huntingdon
Jamboree on Friday, August 17. Please buy advanced tickets
from the office or any football player for $4.00. All
advance ticket sales will benefit our football program
directly.
As we begin this school year, I ask parents to remind
their young people who drive to school to drive safely and
defensively. We have been fortunate in not having any
major accidents in front of the building before or after
school. A large part of this is the service provided by
the McKenzie Police Department. Certainly, students need
to adhere strictly to the 30 MPH speed limit in front of
the school when the flashing lights are activated. Also,
student drivers need to follow the seat belt law to avoid
being ticketed. The new graduated driver's license law
places some minor boundaries to the number of passengers
and the time of operation for those who received this
license after July 1. I particularly warn all parents and
students who come to school via Shiloh Road to exercise
caution in turning toward school. Finally in exiting
school, students and parents should turn right onto
Highway 22. Crossing over directly is a traffic violation.
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