Thursday, April 28, 2011

April 27, 2011

As many of you know after 25 years of faithful and dedicated service to MHS, Mrs. Marilynne Burnside has announced her retirement at the end of the school year. Over the past few months we have been soliciting and accepting applications for her position as well as completing interviews.
I am pleased to announce that Mrs. Allyson Mitchell will assume those duties for the 2011-12 school year. Mrs. Mitchell has been with Magnolia Heights for the past 15 years as a classroom teacher, guidance counselor, and admissions director. She has a total of 23 years in education with her first three years in the Desoto County public schools. She then served five years at Woodland Presbyterian School in Memphis prior to her employment at Magnolia Heights in 1995 as a 4 year old kindergarten teacher.
She received her B.A. and her Masters in Educational Administration from The University of Mississippi. She also received an endorsement in counseling from Ole Miss in 1996.
I am excited about Allyson coming onboard as our new Elementary Principal. I know that she brings a wealth of experience to the position and as a Magnolia Heights faculty member and parent, knows our story, our legacy, and our promise to be the best we can be as we continue to provide the best education available in our region.

Congratulations Allyson!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

April 21, 2011

I want to congratulate our State Science Fair students and those who participated in the Mississippi Economic Summit.
For the 14th consecutive year (and 19 out of the last 20 years) MHS was selected by the MAIS State Science Fair as a School of Excellence, just falling a few points short of the overall championship this year. Congratulations to Mr. Bob Dees, Mrs. Martha Goodwin, Coach Carrie Dever-Boaz and Mrs. Jennifer Williams on a job well done. There were 33 projects entered and MHS students earned 15 wins. There were 7 first place winners, 5 second place winners, and 3 third place winners. MHS also won Best of Fair in Class V.
At the Mississippi Economic Council Economic Summit, Barry Coleman’s MHS teams gave an outstanding account of themselves as well.
The International Economics Summit was an interactive convention of high school teams that assume the role of a specific nation's economic advisers. This is a learning experience for high school and university students on globalization, international relations and economics. At the Summit, student teams, representing the nations of today's complex world, competed for scarce resources, formed strategic country alliances, debated global issues, invested in long term development projects, interacted with global economic institutions, and to stabilize and advance the global economy.
There were over 80 teams at the summit divided into 3 categories: Developed Nations, Developing Nations and Less Developed Nations. Each school was given 3 countries, one in each category. The countries given to MHS were Israel (Developed Nation), Hungry (Developing Nation), and Peru (Less Developed Nation). Israel and Hungary finished 3rd in their categories and Peru finished 2nd (one point out of first). Hungary and Peru were two of only 4 teams to score 100% on the geography quiz and Israel was one of 6 finalists in the debate as well as winning the costume judging for the entire summit. For more information please go to the link on the MHS website.
We are being told that to succeed in the future, in a global economy, students will need to think creatively, work in teams, and solve complex problems. They may be solving problems for jobs that don’t even exist today. MHS is developing these skills in our students not only through science fairs and economic summits, but also in many other areas as well. It is, and always has been, our mission and purpose to prepare our students for college and the world to come.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

April 14, 2011

There are several curriculum changes being planned for next year that have me very excited. I think it goes without saying how important it is that as a school we continue to evaluate our curriculum and programs on an annual basis. This process includes being guided by mandates from accreditation agencies (SACS, SAIS, and MAIS), assessments from colleges and universities, along with insights of parents and alumni, as to the preparedness of our graduates, as well as making sure that MHS stays at the forefront on any educational or technological advances.
As an example, this past year our sixth-grade math program was replaced with the new Prentice-Hall math curriculum. Because of its rigor and content, with more algebra and geometry, as well as more critical thinking skills, we are now looking at moving it to grades four and five next year. This will help bridge any gap that might exist between elementary math and pre-algebra in the seventh grade.
At the secondary level next year we will begin requiring our tenth-grade students to take a personal finance class. Called Principles of Personal Finance, this will be a blended class with much of the work done online. There will be some class time each week devoted to face-to-face contact with the teacher, as well as guest speakers from the area of personal finance from time to time. Mr. Barry Coleman will teach the class and will focus on making sure our students have an understanding of budgets, spending, saving, planning for retirement, as well as many other principles that seem to be lost on the upcoming generation. The online component will help prepare our students for online courses in college. Many colleges are now moving some of their freshman-level courses to an online educational delivery system.
In technology we are moving keyboarding from ninth grade to the fifth and sixth grades. Presently, by the time our current ninth graders take keyboarding, many of them have already acquired poor typing habits that are difficult to break. By moving keyboarding skills into the elementary grades, not only will we help prevent the development of bad habits, but we will also provide additional computer time to teach our students project-based learning as well.
We are hopeful that in the not-too-distant future that we will have a cart of laptop computers for grades 5-8 and a cart of i-pads for pre-kindergarten and lower elementary that can be used in those areas. Have you ever watched a kindergarten student on an i-pad, i-phone or i-touch? It is unbelievable how skilled they are and the things they can make them do!
As I said earlier, at the secondary level, keyboarding will be dropped and one credit of computer will be added. The first class, taken in the ninth grade, will be Computer Applications I. This class will center on the application of popular word processing, spreadsheet, and PowerPoint presentation programs. A new class, Computer Applications II, will then be required in the tenth grade. It will be a project-based learning class where students will create projects utilizing technology. There will be individual project assignments as well as group projects. Students will not only be graded on the technology content, but also on communications skills, both written and oral, presentation, and teamwork. This is consistent with what many college classes are requiring of students enrolled in their courses.
In the seventh grade, block will be replaced by a semester of Intro to Foreign Language. Students will study Spanish and other languages to prepare them for the languages they will be taking in grades 9-12.
Much research has been done on what kind of mind will be required in the workforces of the future – a workforce that will compete in a global economy, a workforce that must be prepared to speak a language other than English, a workforce that must be able to work in teams, a workforce that must be on the cutting edge using technology, a workforce that is creative, and, finally, a workforce that includes being good stewards of the resources that God gives us.
It is our intention to continue to augment our basic “reading, writing, and arithmetic,” with knowledge and skills that will put MHS students in a position to succeed. Alan Williams, of Teammates Matter, told our students a few weeks back that “success is preparation meeting opportunity.” It is our mission to prepare our students for the opportunities they will indeed face in the world of tomorrow.