April 1, 2018

Happy Easter and Passover to those who celebrate!  I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend.

Thank you to all of you who supported MCAS this week.  Your patience and flexibility is so appreciated.  Next up, the MCAS 2.0 Field Test starting on April 24.

Just a reminder that Term 3 will now end April 12. Please share this with your classes.  The grading window will open at 3pm on April 12 and will close on Tuesday, April 24.  Report cards will be issued on Thursday, April 26.

I hope you consider attending the student-led Courageous Conversation scheduled for Monday, April 2 at 7pm in the AHS cafeteria. It will be a great discussion, all planned by AHS students! If you are concerned about about a student or have information about their safety, please seek out an administrator.  

Wednesday, April 4 is the Blood Drive to support Jake Silver.  The drive will take place from 2-7pm and it appears most donations slots are filled!  I will send the list of students and their time slots later this week.

On April 13 we will administer the Positive Community Norms Survey to all students.  Time will be built in to 3rd period and all students should be given 20 minutes at the beginning of the period to complete the survey.  We administer this survey every other year during the opposite year of the MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey.  This survey looks at students perceptions about substance use and helps drive some of our Wellness instruction as well as the STAND campaign.  For the first time the survey will be administered online and students will be asked to use their own devices.  We will also have the Chromebook and iPad carts available for anyone that needs a device.
Students will also complete a brief Wellness survey developed by the District Wellness Committee at this time. More instructions and the revised April 13 schedule will be available soon. 

As you saw in Jim's email, we will end our PD day on April 13 early.  You will be done by 1:40pm that afternoon.  Your exit ticket that afternoon will be signing everything in TeachPoint-starting working on that now and you'll be all set come Friday.

Finally, I ask that you all take this brief survey which will provide input for our NEASC Self-Reflection. Please answer the questions prior to April 13.  Thank you!

Interested in an adviser position?

Massachusetts Youth & Government is a unique values-based leadership and civic engagement program for high school teens. Teens form a delegation of their peers that are interested in government or debate and hold weekly meetings to prepare for upcoming events. Members of each delegation choose to actively participate in either the legislative, judicial, executive, or press corps branches and take on specific responsibilities depending on their decision. Delegations attend at least three leadership conferences throughout the year (usually held in a college) to work and bond with other delegations across Massachusetts. In the spring, Youth & Government runs a three day program at the State House in Boston which has all the delegations in the state present pieces of legislation, debate cases, and make executive decisions on the actual floor of the State House. The program consists of around twenty delegations across the state each with at least ten or more members.

Time Commitment

·         Willing to stay after school at least once a week to help facilitate meetings and projects (1 hour min - 2 hours max)

·         Attend three out of the four Pre-Ledge conferences

o   Pre-Ledge 1: October (9-5 on a Sat.)

o   Pre-Ledge 2: November (9-5 on a Sat.)

o   Pre-Ledge 3: January (9-5 on a Sat.)

o   Pre-Ledge 4: March - State House in Boston (3-4 days)

MA Youth & Government Link: http://www.mayouthandgov.com/

Ashland Raises Healthy & Happy Kids: Questions to Ask Your Kids After School Instead of, “How was your day?”

In his presentation to parents on Monday night, John Trautwein suggested that instead of asking your teens “How was your day?” after school (which usually elicits a grunt or, at best, a “fine” in response) ask them, ”What pissed you off today?”. I love that suggestion since it allows kids to get their anger or sadness or frustration out and it shows that we, as parents, know that school is not always “fine”. Below are some other good after school questions:

1. What made you laugh today?
2. Can you tell me an example of kindness you saw/showed?
3. Was there an example of unkindness? How did you respond?
4. What did you do that was creative?
5. What was the best thing that happened today?
6. Did you help anyone today?
7. Did you tell anyone “thank you?”
8. Who did you sit with at lunch?
9. Did you learn something you didn’t understand?
10. What was your least favorite part of the day?
11. Tell me something you know today that you didn’t know yesterday.
12. How did someone fill your bucket today? Whose bucket did you fill?
13. Rate your day on a scale from 1-10.
14. Tell us your top two things from the day.
15. What are you looking forward to tomorrow?
16. What was the hardest rule to follow today?
17. If you could change one thing about your day, what would it be?
18. What made your teacher smile? What made him/her frown?
19. What made you feel happy?
20. What made you feel proud?
21. What made you feel loved?
22. Did you learn any new words today?
23. If you could switch seats with anyone in class, who would it be? And why?
24. What is your least favorite part of the school building? And favorite?
25. If you switched places with your teacher tomorrow, what would you teach the class?