On Friday, October 30th, the juniors had the day off of school to do their job shadowing. Job shadowing is when you pick a career you are interested in and you get to “shadow” a person in that career for a day and see what they do. In order to do this, there was much planning and hard work to set this up. They calling that person to set up a time, asking what they should wear, and asking what to do for lunch is just some of what has to be done in order to set up job shadowing. Even after all the planning, the juniors still had to interview them when they got there. After their job shadowing experience, they each had to give an eight minute speech in English class about their day and if they are still interested in that career.
0 Comments
Have you met Ms. Annes yet? She is Mrs. Barnes’s student teacher. After high school, Ms. Annes came to Bradley University. She is currently teaching math with Mrs. Barnes, but is wanting to teach middle school math soon. She has always liked school, even since when she was little. Ms. Annes also wants to be able to have her own classroom where her students feel like they can learn. I am sure that Ms. Annes will become a great teacher, whether that is here at Peoria Heights or at another school.
We’re getting ready to start up with the yearbook! We’re still organizing the order that all the pages in the yearbook will go in, and we still have to decide a theme, but we’re almost ready. We went to a yearbook convention a few weeks ago to get some fresh ideas. At the convention, we learned about ad sales, captions, themes, and many other aspects of how to make a good yearbook. The cost for a yearbook is $50 again this year. You can get one by bringing your money to Mrs. Hendricks anytime. Closer to the end of the year, we’ll bring a look book around to all the advisors so you have an idea of what it’ll look like. If your parent would like to purchase a half or whole page in the yearbook, make sure to talk Mrs. Gibbons. The cost for a half page is $90 and the cost for a whole page is $170. Your page will include a few paragraphs of whatever your parents want to say and any pictures of yourself that you want us to include on the page. Yearbooks cherish your high school memories, so make sure you buy one!
Did you like last year’s yearbook? The administrators of Walsworth seemed to love it! They had given the last year’s staff with an award and inducted the yearbook into the “Walsworth Yearbooks’ Gallery of Excellence”. Yearbooks are selected based on the high quality of their design, coverage, copy, and photography. The yearbooks chosen are used as examples at regional, state, or even national conventions, as examples to help aid other designers. Congratulations to last year’s committee on the outstanding work!
Mr. Alex Sulek is a new science teacher here at PHHS. A couple interesting facts about Mr. Sulek are that his favorite book series is the Harry Potter series and his favorite show is Scrubs. Growing up in Lombard, Illinois, Mr. Sulek had several influential teachers that made him know he wanted to teach. After high school, Mr. Sulek attended Illinois State University in Normal, IL. He was immediately drawn to high school teaching, because of the more advanced labs and projects that older kids can do. When asked about his teaching style, Mr. Sulek stated that he gives students the material to succeed. It is then their responsibility to use it. He further went on to describe how he always has an open-door policy, and that students should always feel free to ask questions. Mr. Sulek would like students here at Peoria Heights to view him as not only a teacher, but also as someone who is there for them when needed. Overall, Mr. Sulek is very excited to be a teacher here at PHHS!
This year we are bringing some new and creative details to the yearbooks. We’re going to be starting up on yearbook design very soon. Part of this will be seniors receiving a packet with some questions for the yearbook.
Last year’s yearbooks are finally here as well! If you didn’t order a yearbook last year, but you want one, talk to Mrs. Hendricks or Mrs. Gibbons to be put on the list. Yearbooks cost $50, so when you sign up, make sure to have your money with you. But don’t wait! They will be going fast and there won’t be many available for long! Mr. Evan Moore, a native of Peoria Heights, is a new student teacher here at PHHS. A fan of all things History Channel, Mr. Moore grew up in a teacher family. Mr. Moore told me that though he attended Peoria Notre Dame for high school, he always loved the feel of the close-knit Peoria Heights community. After high school, Mr. Moore stayed in Peoria to attend Bradley University, which he is currently still attending. As a student teacher, Mr. Moore loves that, while teaching, he is also learning. He told me that his short-term goals are to start learning the students’ names, become a part of the school culture, and finish his college schooling. Long-term, Mr. Moore would like to use what he learns student teaching to help him become a great teacher in the future, whether that be at PHHS or at another school. Mr. Moore stressed the community aspect of Peoria Heights, and how that community is a great environment for learning and teaching. Mr. Moore is ready and excited to help start teaching at PHHS!
Technology is all around us. Its in our pockets, in the computer lab, even in our cars, and now it is appearing more and more in our school.
For the last few years, we have had many new additions to our school technology department. Two years ago, we acquired some Microsoft Surfaces for use in any class, but many of us remember using them in Ms. Markovich’s class. Last year, we more than doubled our Surfaces and had a mobile cart for them that would move around from class to class all over the school for whichever teacher needed it. This year though, you may have noticed another one of these carts in Mr. Sulek’s room. This cart houses our new Chromebooks for our digital colassrooms. Chrome books are laptops that are running on Google’s operating system and these are great for schools since they already come with google’s office suite on them. There’s also the old red cart in Mrs. Smallwood’s room with all the Microsoft surfaces that are still available for use to use. Technology is a huge part of our lives and its finally making its way into our education. Who knows, maybe one of these days we could be one of the schools that has a laptop for every student. Stay tuned to the Town Crier for any other updates. This year on the Town Crier’s weekly review we’ll be mixing things up. We won’t necessarily have a set duo (or even group) of on-screen talent students, and we have further advanced our editing and writing knowledge compared to the previous year. Expect a lot of new things and new people from the Journalism class’s video segments. We will be interviewing frequently and requesting input from students on certain topics around the school. Sadly, I can’t reveal all of what we have planned because then nothing would come as a surprise. So, make sure you keep watching to keep yourself up to date!
Have you heard the chirping throughout the school the past couple days? Take a stroll by Mrs. Tallon’s room and you will. The eggs have hatched! Mrs. Tallon’s science classes have been in the process of hatching baby chickens over the past month. They checked on the eggs each day by making sure the temperature and humidity levels in the incubator were stable. The classes also got to candle the eggs every few days. Candling is the process of holding a source of light, like a flashlight, up to an egg in order to see its contents and measure the baby chick’s progress. Unfortunately, some of the eggs were green or brown, depending on the kind of chicken they came from, so those were much harder to see into. In addition to these steps, they also kept track of the eggs’ mass over the incubation period. Some students were very surprised and worried when they noticed that the eggs were weighing less and less with each weighing. As it turns out, this is completely normal and meant that the chicks were developing properly.
Unfortunately, there were two eggs that were damaged throughout the process, and one did not survive. Despite this loss, it was an overall good hatching. There were 21 eggs that hatched, altogether, out of the 27. Of these 21, there were three or four different kinds of chicks hatched. The few that did not hatch were labeled as “quitters”, and the class performed egg-topsies to determine what may have caused issues with development and approximately what day development of the chick stopped. The first egg to hatch, number 24, gave a lot of encouragement to the others. It hatched on Monday, May 11, during seventh hour. By first hour the next day, the incubator was full of fluffy little baby chicks. The chicks are now settled into a confined area by Mrs. Tallon’s desk where they are running around and chirping like crazy. If you have not gotten a chance to see them, stop by her room before the end of the year. It is definitely a sight to see. Thank you to Mrs. Smallwood who brought in the eggs for the science classes to use and for taking the baby chicks under her wing when they leave the high school. |