Cindy Hayes
Nothing signals spring at Bonner Springs High School like the smell of formaldehyde.The anatomy and physiology students conclude third quarter by applying what they have learned on paper by examining cats.This multiday lab examines each system of the cat through the thorough examination.By pairing two students to each feline, it allows everyone an opportunity to participate fully.The buzz of excitement as the lab began was obvious.Seeing seniors excited, at a time when senioritis usually starts to set in, was a great example of how to keep them engaged all the way to graduation.

Bill Downing
Cynics of education have long said, "those who can't…teach."Never before has that myth been busted than during my recent visit to Mr. Downing's class, because Mr. Downing can write.Sharing a story he recently wrote, he had students on the edge of their seats as he spun a yarn of a teacher in Bonner Springs who wins the lottery.Using the story to illustrate the power of a first person narrative he established himself as an expert that students could rely on for advice.Hopefully it is captured in the photographs, but the first one is of him building the story, and the second is as he revealed the twist at the end.Afterwards, the young man seated closest to him approached him in the hallway and said, "Mr. Downing, when you finish that story can you send it to me, I really want to see what happens."I guess those who can, do teach…



Adie DeLeon
All semester, her entrepreneurship students have been building pieces of a business plan to create their own "fast casual" restaurants. Today their brands came to life! The students had a photo shoot to become the face of their restaurants.  They shot "brand photos", where they dressed and brought props to help increase brand recognition for their restaurant. After spring break, the students will be editing their photos and adding in their restaurant names, logos, and slogan to their photos.  We could be seeing the next great thing right here at Bonner Springs High School.

Donna Sharpnack

"In the land of Sharpnackia the Queen has become tired of her outdated treasure boxes.  Your job is to design 3 new treasure boxes that have the maximum volume possible.  All three boxes are open, they have no lid.  You will have to prove yourself to the Queen using calculus, she trusts nothing else."  This was the introductory paragraph of Mrs. Sharpnack's semester project, and her students were off and running.  Her use of humor and a "real world" problem had the calculus kids chomping at the bit, and oddly searching for pictures of her, all in an effort to please the Queen.  Enclosed is a picture of one of the final products. 

Dan Burns

One day before spring break as I was doing bus duty a young man walked by with a welded coat hanger that was very impressive. The student told me how he designed it, used the plasma cutter in the metal shop, and with the help of Mr. Burns he was bringing it home as a gift to a friend. On March 19, as we heard from our guest speaker, Tonnie Martinez, I was reminded of this conversation when she talked about the importance of having an artifact that demonstrates learning. When I visited Mr. Burns small engine repair class this week students were doing valve adjustments, and he showed me some cars that students were building in his welding classes. These all serve as great artifacts of what students can now do as a result of his instruction and their learning.

Marsha Nelson

In her French II class students were setting the table.With a full set of dishes and utensils Mrs. Nelson asked students to raise, sort, and stack different items as she introduced new vocabulary to allow them to communicate at the dinner table.After some direct instruction the students were paired to practice individually the new vocabulary they had developed.I enjoyed the use of actual items, as opposed to simply having something pictured on the LCD, and the use of manipulatives provided more meaning to the activity.See if you can tell from the pictures the question students got right and the one several of them missed.

Susan Swabb
Spanish for Native Speakers are spreading culture, history and geography throughout our district.  This year for Cinco de Mayo Mrs. Swabb's second hour class, Spanish for Native Speakers will visit Edwardsville Elementary and Bonner Springs Elementary to provide a program about this holiday to students in grades K-5.  Each small group was assigned a category to present and charged with creating an activity that will engage and teach the younger students.  One group will present the geography of Mexico, another on history of the battle between the French and Mexican soldiers that is commemorated on this date, another group on Mexican food, and a final group that will tie it all together with a scavenger hunt of Cinco de Mayo facts.  As we know, teaching is the highest form of learning, and her students will have an opportunity to become an expert on their culture to share with the younger students.  Pictured below are two students presenting their idea on how to create a Twister game to use the vocabulary of color and body parts they are teaching.

Justin Pickens

Enlightenment can be engaging.  In Mr. Pickens' World History class he was leading a small group interactive discussion on the period of enlightenment.  He began each mini-topic by providing a discussion question, he allowed about two minutes for the group to discus, then he randomly selected a student to share out to the group.  After a quick share out, he provided some direct instruction over the topic, and then transitioned to the next question.  His technique was subtle and extremely effective.  As I've shared before in this space, student engagement is difficult to describe, critical to effective teaching, and obvious when it's present.  When he gave his discussion question, students discussed it; when he asked a person to share, they did; when he provided his direct instruction, the student's took notes; it was obvious he had established classroom procedures and expectations to ensure student engagement.  While enlightenment happened to be the topic on this day, the highlight was how engaged students were in their learning.

Braves Wrestle to Third at State!
Congratulations to Coach Jobe, his staff, and our wrestlers on a great wrestling season.  The team's third place finish is the highest finish by any BSHS wrestling team since 1976.  Great work!

Lady Braves Make History!
Congratulations to Coach Oakes, his staff, and our Lady Braves team for a wonderful girls basketball season. This team made history as the first girls squad to qualify for the state tournament. In addition, Coach Oakes was named KCK Preps Coach of the Year.  Great Work!

BSHS Faculty Scholarship
Thank you to all the faculty members that contributed to the Faculty Scholarship. This year's recipients, Melissa Cisneros and Jairo Diaz, will each receive $500 towards their college expenses next year. 

Graduation Commencement Speaker Selected by Class of 2012
Congratulations to Chris Wood for being chosen by the Class of 2012 to provide the commencement speech at graduation. This year in an effort to include our graduates in the planning, as well as recognize our outstanding faculty, we asked the Class of 2012 to select a faculty member they would like to give the commencement speech. As a way to honor her commitment to our students, and recognize her efforts, they chose Chris Wood.

Faculty Selected for Graduation Honor by Class of 2012
Congratulations to Donna Sharpnack and Ryan Hull for being chosen by the Class of 2012 to distribute diplomas at graduation. We began this tradition last year as a way to honor two faculty members by asking our graduates who they would like to hand them their diploma at graduation, the symbol of four years of hard work and commitment. Congratulations to Mr. Hull and Mrs. Sharpnack!

NCAA Initial Eligibility Change
Last month we received information about the NCAA initial Eligibility requirement changes that will affect the incoming class or freshman next fall. The NCAA will still require 16 core credits for initial Eligibility, but they have added a requirement that 10 of those be completed prior to enrollment in their 7th semester of high school. In addition, the minimum GPA to participate as a freshman has be raised from 2.0 to 2.3. This is a HUGE shift.  The Kansas Association of Secondary Principals notified it's members that if this was currently in place, last fall 40% of all DI football players would not have been ineligible.  If you are the parent of a student-athlete interested in playing college athletics, please make sure you are familiar with the linked document.  

http://www.kshsaa.org/Public/PDF/EligibilityBrochure.pdf

The Gift of Time and Attention
The linked video was shared with me by a colleague and serves as a powerful reminder of the one thing our children need the most, our attention.  As the father of four, this reminded me to slow down, take a breath, and enjoy my kids.  I hope it does the same for each of you.
 

In order to better communicate, and facilitate a healthy relationship between school and home, we will have four parent meetings this year. Enclosed are the topics and schedule for each meeting. Please note the meetings are different for each grade level, and specific to the time of year the meeting is held. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Over the summer, USD 204 converted our student data managment system from PowerSchool to Skyward.  This new integrated system will allow us to better coordinate all the services our district provides from grades, attendance, food service, fee payment, and student activities.  Enclosed is an instruction sheet on how to access Skyward.  We will also provide training sessions for parents at Back to School Night, Fall Parent-Teacher Conferences, Spring Parent-Teacher Conferences, and by appointment by contacting our Registrar, Linda Francis. 

Some new features available in Skyward that were not in PowerSchool:

Student information - Confirm all of your contact information is correct, if changes need to be made, click in the upper right hand "Request Change" to electronically submit a request to have your demographic information updated.

Message center - Teachers and staff will be able to send messages to parents about upcoming and assignments and other school events.

Attendance - In addition to being able to view your son/daughter's attendance, you can also excuse your student absences, eliminating the need to call the student in to the nurse or secretary.

Schedule - Review your student's current class schedule.

Food Service - This feature allows you to track your student cafeteria purchases and add money to their account on-line.

Fee Management - Pay and track any fees your student has accrued throughout the school year.

Activities - View a list of activities your student is involved in, with a link to send an email to the staff member in charge, to help create a resume of their high school activities.

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 will have our regular monthly meeting on Wednesday April 4^th, at 6:30 pm in the BSHS Cafeteria. Please join us as we finish preparations for a big month! Volunteer events in April include the Car, Motorcycle, and Truck Show on April 14^th at BSHS. Our Kansas Speedway volunteer opportunity will be passing out flyers from 8am to 12 or 1pm on Saturday, April 21^st , and 7am to 11am or noon on Sunday, April 22^nd.  We are also getting ready for the Varsity Awards Ceremony in May, and we will continue to sell Roberts GMC Car Give-Away tickets until May 22. Please join us and help us close out the 2011-2012 year in grand fashion!