things to look forward to (alma heights students only)
One of the goals for next year is to keep everyone up-to-date and connected with what's going on, so I've decided to do my part and tell you everything I know about next year. I had a meeting the other day with Mr. Gross, and we discussed some of the things that I will now describe in detail. For those of you who care, you'll enjoy knowing some new things about next year. Since this is such a huge post, I've divided it up into sections, so that you can skim through it however you like, depending on what topics grab your interest.
TEACHERS
We have new teachers! For those of you who might not know, Mr. Davies has moved to Eureka, where he's taken the position as headmaster at another school, and Mr. Gross is once again the high school principal. We have a new Spanish teacher, and apparently he really knows his stuff. English is his second language, which is very reassuring. We also have a couple of other additions to the staff who, according to Mr. Gross, are highly qualified and experienced. They'll be teaching Physics, Calculus, and some other courses as well. The bottom line is this: we won't be understaffed. Mr. Gross is extremely pleased with this year's lineup, and says that teachers definitely will not be stretched too thin like last year, enabling them each to stick with their areas of expertise, and to teach them well. This is a HUGE answer to prayer, as lots of the frustration that occurred last year was centered around this problem.
FUNDRAISING AND SENIOR CLASS
Fundraising will be different next year. The official system has not yet been decided, but here's what we do know: it will NOT be a shared, communist system like last year.
There are some issues revolving around the question of Fundraising. In previous years, Senior classes have raised enough money for many of the students to go, but often others were left out (some of their own will, others out of inability to afford whatever couldn't be fundraised). Mr. Gross said that he would also like to see more service involved in Senior trips (less "centered around selfishness", as he described it). This might be true--and I'm not saying I agree 100%--but I don't think it hurts to consider the good that could be accomplished after four years of preparation and work. He emphasized that Senior trips are really about being with each other, hanging out with other people in our class. And when we're having fun with friends, it doesn't matter that we're picking up garbage or sorting cans at a food bank--we'll still have a blast, because we're doing it together. Sure, it's fun to go somewhere "exotic" or "luxurious", there's nothing wrong with that. But the fun level is the same in both cases, as long as good attitudes are included. Fortunately, that's something that seems to be pretty easy for you guys to pull off :) Mr. Gross just happens to be the Senior class advisor this year, so this issue will probably come up in the first few weeks of school as we try to figure out what we want to do.
Each class next year will have 15 min. per day of class time, where the reps will have the opportunity to plan things with the class, have class discussions or votes, etc. Personally, I'd rather be given 20-30 minutes once or twice a week, because there's only so much that can be accomplished in 15 minutes. And you can't really start discussions in that short period of time, because there are many people with different opinions and even more distractions. Mr. Gross was with me on this one, but the schedule next year is tight as it is, so it's unlikely that this will change. However, if it proves to be enough of a need, the faculty may be able to adjust our schedules to accommodate a different approach to class meetings. If this is something you feel strongly about (reps, I'm talking primarily to you), let me know what you think and I'll pass it on. The academic council is primarily responsible for scheduling these kinds of things, so speaking to any member about your concerns is a good idea (off the top of my head: Miss Herber, Mr. Boyd, Mrs. Travis, Mr. Quiring? There are other teachers as well.)
The Senior class will have around 3 weeks after the start of school to get their act together and plan a course of action for the rest of the year (trip location, committee for planning the trip including parents, fundraising, etc). Obviously, every detail doesn't have to be planned out by then, but a general idea of trip type/location and a definite set of committed individuals who will be involved in planning will be necessary. If not, the administration will be forced to intervene. This seems fair to me, as long as we have advance warning and are allowed to do as we please (within reason) for the alloted time. A month is plenty of time to get the ball rolling (and it should be done by then, even if we're not on a time limit).
There are other details about fundraising that I will save for a later post, because they're more ideas than anything else, and this post is already lengthy after only the first topic.
STAYING INFORMED
A change that will definitely occur next year will be the level of secrecy. Committees will report to the Student Council with their latest decisions, but it will be up to the Student Council to nullify or confirm the decisions. In other words, the Student Council will have veto power over all committee decisions. Why are we doing this? Because the Student Council last year hardly knew what was happening in any of the committees (especially banquet committee), and many questionable decisions could have been prevented or at least contested if they were brought before the Student Council for consideration. In turn, the Student Council will be able to notify the student body of committee happenings, keeping us all on the same page. Gone will be the days of rumors being the primary method of communication. The biggest change will come with the banquet committee. You won't be kept completely in the dark until a month before like last year. It's not going to be a huge surprise anymore, unlike previous years. The reason the location has been such a closely-guarded secret in the past is because the committee was concerned that students would complain about it prematurely. But if the students are strongly opposed to having it at a certain location (e.g. our own gym), then it's important for the committee to know so that they don't plan it there! Makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, isn't the whole point of having a committee to plan banquet to make it someplace we want to go?
Last year, toward the end of the year, we started posting meeting notes on the bulletin board as a way of keeping people up-to-date on what was happening at our meetings. Did anyone read them? I didn't read them. Heck, I was having trouble staying awake during most of those meetings. So what I'd like to do is tell people ahead of time the main topics of upcoming meetings, so that if people are interested, they can come to the meeting and share their opinions on the matter.
The main focus of next year will be to eliminate secrets. There's no need for them--they start rumors, cause frustration, and are always to blame for misunderstandings. Out of respect for intellectual property, I will say that this issue was first brought to my attention by my friend Chris Knight last year, when the whole banquet fiasco was unfolding. He was right!
SCHOOL SPIRIT/SPORTS
We're going to try to make next year funner. One of the complaints I heard a lot last year was regarding the boring, monotonous school schedule. While we did have some fun surprises every now and then, it seemed that most of the time, things were pretty normal. First off, let's face it, school is school. There's only so much fun you can expect to get from it, aside from being with your friends all the time. However, there are some things we can do to make school life a little less miserable :) One area that Mr. Gross saw as extremely important was that of school spirit, particularly in sports. Providing incentives and jazzing up sports games with entertaining half-time shows are just a few steps we can take to really get the gym loud and crazy during home games. Also, some random surprises would be fun, perhaps during chapels every few weeks. This is an area that you can be a huge part of by giving us some ideas! And speaking of which...
SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS
We're going to have easier ways of giving the Student Council a piece of your oversized noggin by having a suggestion box, and perhaps other methods of easily submitting your ideas. Ideas on how to submit ideas are also welcome. Many people like to be anonymous in their suggestions, and we'd like to cater to that preference as much as possible.
I hope this information has been reassuring and helpful to you. Mr. Gross is extremely pleased with the potential we have in several areas next year, as am I. As always, if any of you have comments on ANY issue discussed above (whether or not I specified that it was open to discussion), don't hesitate to do so by replying to this post or sending me a personal message. I won't post my email address on here for obvious reasons, but if any of you would like it, I'm happy to give it to you. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're all enjoying what's left of your summer. Ciao!
TEACHERS
We have new teachers! For those of you who might not know, Mr. Davies has moved to Eureka, where he's taken the position as headmaster at another school, and Mr. Gross is once again the high school principal. We have a new Spanish teacher, and apparently he really knows his stuff. English is his second language, which is very reassuring. We also have a couple of other additions to the staff who, according to Mr. Gross, are highly qualified and experienced. They'll be teaching Physics, Calculus, and some other courses as well. The bottom line is this: we won't be understaffed. Mr. Gross is extremely pleased with this year's lineup, and says that teachers definitely will not be stretched too thin like last year, enabling them each to stick with their areas of expertise, and to teach them well. This is a HUGE answer to prayer, as lots of the frustration that occurred last year was centered around this problem.
FUNDRAISING AND SENIOR CLASS
Fundraising will be different next year. The official system has not yet been decided, but here's what we do know: it will NOT be a shared, communist system like last year.
There are some issues revolving around the question of Fundraising. In previous years, Senior classes have raised enough money for many of the students to go, but often others were left out (some of their own will, others out of inability to afford whatever couldn't be fundraised). Mr. Gross said that he would also like to see more service involved in Senior trips (less "centered around selfishness", as he described it). This might be true--and I'm not saying I agree 100%--but I don't think it hurts to consider the good that could be accomplished after four years of preparation and work. He emphasized that Senior trips are really about being with each other, hanging out with other people in our class. And when we're having fun with friends, it doesn't matter that we're picking up garbage or sorting cans at a food bank--we'll still have a blast, because we're doing it together. Sure, it's fun to go somewhere "exotic" or "luxurious", there's nothing wrong with that. But the fun level is the same in both cases, as long as good attitudes are included. Fortunately, that's something that seems to be pretty easy for you guys to pull off :) Mr. Gross just happens to be the Senior class advisor this year, so this issue will probably come up in the first few weeks of school as we try to figure out what we want to do.
Each class next year will have 15 min. per day of class time, where the reps will have the opportunity to plan things with the class, have class discussions or votes, etc. Personally, I'd rather be given 20-30 minutes once or twice a week, because there's only so much that can be accomplished in 15 minutes. And you can't really start discussions in that short period of time, because there are many people with different opinions and even more distractions. Mr. Gross was with me on this one, but the schedule next year is tight as it is, so it's unlikely that this will change. However, if it proves to be enough of a need, the faculty may be able to adjust our schedules to accommodate a different approach to class meetings. If this is something you feel strongly about (reps, I'm talking primarily to you), let me know what you think and I'll pass it on. The academic council is primarily responsible for scheduling these kinds of things, so speaking to any member about your concerns is a good idea (off the top of my head: Miss Herber, Mr. Boyd, Mrs. Travis, Mr. Quiring? There are other teachers as well.)
The Senior class will have around 3 weeks after the start of school to get their act together and plan a course of action for the rest of the year (trip location, committee for planning the trip including parents, fundraising, etc). Obviously, every detail doesn't have to be planned out by then, but a general idea of trip type/location and a definite set of committed individuals who will be involved in planning will be necessary. If not, the administration will be forced to intervene. This seems fair to me, as long as we have advance warning and are allowed to do as we please (within reason) for the alloted time. A month is plenty of time to get the ball rolling (and it should be done by then, even if we're not on a time limit).
There are other details about fundraising that I will save for a later post, because they're more ideas than anything else, and this post is already lengthy after only the first topic.
STAYING INFORMED
A change that will definitely occur next year will be the level of secrecy. Committees will report to the Student Council with their latest decisions, but it will be up to the Student Council to nullify or confirm the decisions. In other words, the Student Council will have veto power over all committee decisions. Why are we doing this? Because the Student Council last year hardly knew what was happening in any of the committees (especially banquet committee), and many questionable decisions could have been prevented or at least contested if they were brought before the Student Council for consideration. In turn, the Student Council will be able to notify the student body of committee happenings, keeping us all on the same page. Gone will be the days of rumors being the primary method of communication. The biggest change will come with the banquet committee. You won't be kept completely in the dark until a month before like last year. It's not going to be a huge surprise anymore, unlike previous years. The reason the location has been such a closely-guarded secret in the past is because the committee was concerned that students would complain about it prematurely. But if the students are strongly opposed to having it at a certain location (e.g. our own gym), then it's important for the committee to know so that they don't plan it there! Makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, isn't the whole point of having a committee to plan banquet to make it someplace we want to go?
Last year, toward the end of the year, we started posting meeting notes on the bulletin board as a way of keeping people up-to-date on what was happening at our meetings. Did anyone read them? I didn't read them. Heck, I was having trouble staying awake during most of those meetings. So what I'd like to do is tell people ahead of time the main topics of upcoming meetings, so that if people are interested, they can come to the meeting and share their opinions on the matter.
The main focus of next year will be to eliminate secrets. There's no need for them--they start rumors, cause frustration, and are always to blame for misunderstandings. Out of respect for intellectual property, I will say that this issue was first brought to my attention by my friend Chris Knight last year, when the whole banquet fiasco was unfolding. He was right!
SCHOOL SPIRIT/SPORTS
We're going to try to make next year funner. One of the complaints I heard a lot last year was regarding the boring, monotonous school schedule. While we did have some fun surprises every now and then, it seemed that most of the time, things were pretty normal. First off, let's face it, school is school. There's only so much fun you can expect to get from it, aside from being with your friends all the time. However, there are some things we can do to make school life a little less miserable :) One area that Mr. Gross saw as extremely important was that of school spirit, particularly in sports. Providing incentives and jazzing up sports games with entertaining half-time shows are just a few steps we can take to really get the gym loud and crazy during home games. Also, some random surprises would be fun, perhaps during chapels every few weeks. This is an area that you can be a huge part of by giving us some ideas! And speaking of which...
SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS
We're going to have easier ways of giving the Student Council a piece of your oversized noggin by having a suggestion box, and perhaps other methods of easily submitting your ideas. Ideas on how to submit ideas are also welcome. Many people like to be anonymous in their suggestions, and we'd like to cater to that preference as much as possible.
I hope this information has been reassuring and helpful to you. Mr. Gross is extremely pleased with the potential we have in several areas next year, as am I. As always, if any of you have comments on ANY issue discussed above (whether or not I specified that it was open to discussion), don't hesitate to do so by replying to this post or sending me a personal message. I won't post my email address on here for obvious reasons, but if any of you would like it, I'm happy to give it to you. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're all enjoying what's left of your summer. Ciao!
posted by John Mark at 10:03 PM
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