Highlights since our last board meeting:

·     One last reminder… you still have time to purchase tickets for the Mercedes Car Raffle sponsored by the Holmdel Foundation for Educational Excellence. The drawing will take place on March 10, 2009. Remember, the proceeds benefit all students of the Holmdel Township Public Schools.

·     Congratulations to Village School students and staff – they raised $23,851.93 for Jump Rope for Heart this year!
 

·     Tomorrow morning, the students and staff of Indian Hill School will celebrate the reopening of their Reading Room, a place where best practices in literacy instruction will flourish. The event will kick-off with a media attended ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by an open house for teachers, students, and community representatives. With the generous support and financial contribution from the Holmdel Foundation for Educational Excellence, Indian Hill’s students will be able to participate in a wide array of literacy based learning centers, take part in small group guided reading, and engage in various writing activities designed to reinforce and extend the district’s curriculum objectives. Mrs. Atkinson, a teacher at Indian Hill School and one of the grant recipients, says, “It’s going to be wonderful to have a room that teachers can bring their classes to; a place where research-based, literacy learning stations are already established and ready to use.” 
 

·     Several sixth grade classes at Indian Hill had the opportunity to show off their science skills during a recent Science Fair. Parents and students from other classes were invited to join in on the festivities.
 

·     Indian Hill also had their second round visit for “Heroes and Cool Kids.” The high school students met with sixth grade students to discuss issues revolving around bullying and sportsmanship. The teachers and students learned a lot and had a great time working together.
 

·     The Indian Hill Talent Show was the best yet! Our talented children, directed by Ms. Watts and Mrs. Judd, put on an amazing show for a packed house. Congratulations to all of the children who participated in making this a wonderful event.
 

·     Kudos to a group of students from the Satz Musical, Into the Woods, -- they will be performing for residents at an area nursing home on March 18 and 19.
 

·     The February meet of the New Jersey Science League was held February 12 at the new BioTechnology High School in Freehold. Holmdel High School took first place in all six categories. Congratulations to all and specially their teachers!

Dr. Blaha made an interesting observation - in Chem I, Chem II, and Physics II, our lowest score was higher than the highest non-Holmdel score! Pretty awesome!
 

·     The Physics Olympiad is a national competition held by the AAPT (American Association of Physics Teachers) to determine the four students that will represent the United States in the International Physics Olympiad, this year to be held in Mexico. The first stage was held two weeks ago and, of the 3,500 students who competed, approximately 350 students made it to the second round. We had eight students compete in this first round, and two of them qualified for the second round.

Activities towards meeting district goals:

Character Education

·     Teachers at Village School continue to implement exciting new strategies for Morning Meetings that they learned at the Responsive Classroom training in January.

Differentiated Instruction

·     Ms. Giacobbe continues to discuss differentiating instruction at grade-level meetings, turn-keying information she obtained at a workshop she attended.

·     Students from Mr. Tetreault’s English class at Satz School are participating in a project called, “make your world a better place.” Some of the project ideas include recycling and raising money for the ASPCA and the Ronald McDonald House.

Technology

·     Mr. Schillaci and Mr. Gattini have been collaborating on the needs for Indian Hill and have outlined an initial plan for discussion with the staff at the next faculty meeting.  Additionally, a tie-in between technology and differentiated instruction has been Learnia. All teachers have completed the first test with their students, and they will be discussing results and where they are headed at the next round of grade-level meetings in March.

·     Ms. Giacobbe is also meeting with Mr. Gattini to discuss further implementation of the Technology Literacy goal at Village School.