Bonner Springs High School

Principal's Newsletter for Parents


	Classroom Highlights

Carollyn Welliver

Social networking for schools, edmodo, was on display in Mrs. Welliver's English class. After the presentation by our Tech Integration Committee, Mrs. Welliver was inspired to try something new. Each of her students registered for accounts and she started doing activities on the website. During the class I visited she posted a document they could all access, and then as a class they completed the activity. As a way of checking in, the students were able to send her a message about how they liked the activity, and eventually turned the assignment in online. Pictured below are some of the students logging on, and a screen shot of some of their feedback to her. Mrs. Welliver was so excited about this technology and wanted to make sure the Tech Integration Committee knew their efforts made a difference in her classroom. Great work by both the committee for finding ways to meaningfully integrate technology, and Mrs. Welliver for being brave enough to try it.

Andrew Addington

One of the keys to running an effective classroom was on display in my recent visit to his classroom, having established routines and expectations for success. Each month Mr. Addington, in an effort to increase social awareness, goes over the different designations. In this class period he showed a 45 second video over National Aids Awareness Month, and talked about how December 1^st was Rosa Parks Day, as a way of beginning class. It was clear this is a regular occurrence in his classroom, and several students asked questions about each prior to him transitioning to his lesson on the four major battles of WWII. Pictured below is a sign, that is updated periodically, on display in his classroom to serve as a visual reminder to students what is going on each month.

Marsha Nelson

French IV students were touring the chateaus of France. As a culminating project the students were required to research a chateau's history and culture to provide a virtual tour of the facility. Students used photographs, models, and videos to provide a clear picture of chateau life. As a requirement of the project, Mrs. Nelson required a portion of presentation presented in French as well as a physical model. This hands on activity provided students with an opportunity experience a chateau, without the hassle of international travel. Enclosed are a few pictures of students with their models and presenting to the class.

Donna Sharpnack

Calculus students were writing equations to represent pictures. As part of her semester project students were given the task of drawing a picture on a graph, and then determining what equations would be necessary to reproduce the drawing if graphed. Several ambitious students chose to draw more complicated images. This project, like many others in math, have provided an opportunity for students to show their creativity and apply the math they have learned. Enclosed are some photographs of student work.

Casey Seirer

One of the goals of Career and Technical Education is to increase the number of nontraditional students enrolled in the courses. For example, how many boys take cooking classes, girls that take woods and metals courses, etc… The focus of these efforts in the past has been primarily recruiting and information about the program, however the emphasis is shifting to incorporating activities within the class that nontraditional students would find appealing. As a result, Mr. Seirer requested, and we purchased, a piece of machinery that allows students to use the skills necessary for a lathe on a much smaller scale to manufacture pens and other jewelry sized items. Enclosed is a picture of a student making a pen, and a gift I recently received made from acrylic.

Lucas Aslin

When the semester started we did not have one student in the 1000 Pound Club. A typical measure of strength and motivation used is the club concept. A student-athlete combines a one repetition max from three core lifts; bench press, squat press, and power clean to determine what group they are in. Typical clubs include 500 pound, 750 pound, and 1000 pound clubs. Student-athletes are motivated to join the next club and work like crazy to get into the next group. At the start of the semester, we did not have one member of the 1000 Pound Club. However, during his semester assessment of growth, JJ Jackson became the first member. Coach Aslin has incorporated a comprehensive strength program into his classes and the results are evident by what students are able to do at the end of one semester.


	Not in Our House Campaign

In 2007, the Kansas Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free unveiled a new campaign called "Not In Our House," aimed at educating parents, the public and key leaders about reducing access to alcohol by Kansas youth in our homes and our communities. Kansas Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free tied their campaign to materials that The International Institute for Alcohol Awareness, Scholastic and The Century Council had published in 2006. This presented an even greater partnership to distribute awareness materials regarding social hosting and underage drinking.

You may have heard the term, "social hosting," but were unsure of it's meaning. Social hosting or unlawfully hosting is generally defined as providing and/or serving alcohol to a young person who is under the minimum legal drinking age. It can take place in a party-like atmosphere or by any adult simply providing alcohol to young people and their peers for them to drink. It can even extend to parents and homeowners who are not on the premises and/or did not provide the alcohol.

Social host liability refers to laws that hold non-commercial individuals responsible for underage drinking events on property that they own, lease or otherwise control.
You may not need to actually serve or provide alcohol to underage guests to violate these laws.
The penalties for breaking this law include possible jail time, and the potential for criminal or civil lawsuits, as well as public humiliation for breaking the law.
By violating the law, you are sending every child you know a message that can have risky consequences.

History of the Kansas Social Host Law - (Social Hosting)

Kansas passed a social host law in 2004, a.k.a. Paul's Law, named for Paul Riggs, a Lenexa teen who was killed while driving home from a friend's party, where he and other teenagers had been drinking. The friend's parents were home during the party while the teens drank alcohol. After Paul's death, his mother, Debbie Riggs, attempted to have a social host law passed in the Kansas legislature to protect the youth of the state.

The social host law established a new crime of "unlawfully hosting" where persons under the age of *18 consume alcoholic beverages or cereal malt beverages. Unlawfully hosting minors consuming alcoholic liquor or cereal malt beverage is now a Class A person misdemeanor, for which there is a minimum fine of $1,000.

During the 2007 Legislative session, the law was changed to define a minor as "under the age of 21" instead of *18. A minor in Kansas is defined as under the age of 21.

During the 2009 Legislative session, a bill was passed to add the words "or recklessly" to the phrasing 'Unlawfully hosting minors consuming alcoholic liquor or cereal malt beverage is intentionally or recklessly permitting a person's residence or any land, building, structure or room owned, occupied or procured by such person to be used by an invitee of such person or an invitee of such person's child or ward, in a manner that results in the possession or consumption therein of alcoholic liquor or cereal malt beverages by a minor.'


	Booster Club

Booster Club has rescheduled its January meeting to Thursday 1/12. This change was made to accommodate several parents that had requested a meeting night other than Wednesday. The meeting will still start at 6:30pm in the BSHS Cafeteria. Please join us! We will be discussing the Silent Auction held during February's Court warming and other upcoming events of interest.

Date to Remember - January 13! All Booster Club athletes that are taking a dual credit course and are interested in the $100 scholarship offered by Booster Club for the Spring Semester need to have their application turned in to Lisa Terrell or Kelly Ragan by Friday, 1/13. Applications are available through Lisa, Kelly, or the Booster Club website.

BSHS Courtwarming - Booster Club will hold its 4th annual Courtwarming Silent Auction / Chris Cakes Event on Friday, February 10, from 4:30-8:00pm. Chris Cakes is a great way to feed your family during the afternoon & evening basketball games, and there will be multiple vendors in attendance at the Silent Auction, including a "Cash for Gold" vendor. This also presents another opportunity to support your BSHS Athletes - if you know of a business, group or individual that would like to donate items, a gift basket, or a gift certificate, please contact: Laurie.steuart@ftnfinancial.com or Robin Harris at bshsbooster@gmail.com

Membership - Winter sports are in full swing. If your student is a wrestler, basketball player or a swimmer and you haven't signed up for Booster Club yet, please contact us. This includes spring sport athletes as well! We would love to have you join us in supporting our school athletic programs and our athletes. We will be looking for volunteers to help with selling spiritwear during basketball games and the Spring season, help with the Silent Auction, help during the Car Show in April, and help with the Senior/Varsity Awards Presentation in May - so be looking forward to those opportunities to encourage and support your athlete and all BSHS sports!

Booster Club awards money to the Athletic Department and to individual coaches of every single sport at BSHS at the end of the year, based on our proceeds from these fundraising events and from the active support and participation in Booster Club by its members. We appreciate your joining with us to make a supportive contribution to BSHS Athletics.

Attachments:

	Bonner_Braves_Program_Ad_Size_Chart.pdf
	Calendar-Program_Letter_1_BSHS.doc

Student Centered...Skill Driven...Post-Secondary Minded