January 2024

This newsletter is to provide an insight to what is happening in our High School classes each month. To introduce staff and to provide their background as well in hopes to become more familiar with everyone in our Panther Family!

*Any/All Athletic Information can be found at https://www.mndcty.k12.mo.us/documents/athletics/257158

or on our APP under Athletic Newsletter

FOODS:

We will be watching a few baking shows. I plan to do a cupcake wars project, where students will be given time to choose their flavor, design and presentation of their cupcake. This will be timed and “judged”.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS:

This is a new class being offered this semester. I’m anxious to have great open discussion with this small group of sophomores. This first unit, we will learn about Your Life Plan. Students will learn how to prepare for life changes, how the environment and their hereditary influence growth and development.

HOUSING:

This month we will be looking at landscaping and learning how to plan and design what kind of landscaping you may want. They will learn how the location, style of home, climate, soil and many other factors may affect their decisions when choosing what to plant.

HEALTH:

I have a new group of a mixture of sophomores and juniors this semester. We will start on Unit 1 about Understanding Health and Wellness and the Risk Factors, including Genes, Behavior and Environment.

NUTRITION AND WELLNESS:

We are learning about kitchen safety. This can include the safety of cutlery, spills, fires, leaks, etc. The students will know how to prevent these accidents from occurring. God forbid these accidents still happen, the students will know what actions to take to control the situation they are in. I’m excited to continue our partnership with the elementary classes every Friday 8th hour. It is my goal that through that collaboration with these classes, we can form a great bond and possibly a mentorship with the elementary/high school students! We are looking at utilizing book buddies, flash cards math facts, sight words, crafting, games and many more useful activities!

CHILD DEVELOPMENT:

We will go into depth this unit with the stages of pregnancy and end with the birthing stage. Students will learn how the baby forms during pregnancy and what affects the baby during pregnancy. They will learn the possible problems babies may have during prenatal development and how to avoid the dangers to the baby.

FCCLA:

We have two officers interviewing this month for Regional officer. I have 12 students who are taking a STAR event to Maryville Regionals this month.

Freshmen: Our anchor text is The Best of O'Henry. We will be focusing on theme, point of view, and irony. Our writing focus is on the editing process.

Sophomores/Juniors: Our anchor text is Life of Pi. We will be focusing on theme, complex character development, symbolism/text structure and how these advance/develop themes. Our writing focus is on literary analysis.

Seniors: Our anchor text is Impact: Short Stories. We are looking at short stories to review irony, setting, point of view, tone, and theme. Our writing focus is literary analysis.

Elementary - Basketball Skills Unit

Middle School - GaGa Ball / Basketball

9th Grade P.E. - Basketball Unit / Bowling

Lifetime Sports - Wiffle Ball / Volleyball

Elementary classes: Kindergarteners are using simple shapes to draw castles. First graders are drawing rockets and using different types of lines to add details. Second graders read the book grumpy monkey and are currently working on a monkey project related to it. Third graders learned about the artist James Rizzi and are making a cityscape drawing based on his work. Fourth graders are using clay to create a dragon eye.

Middle school classes: Fifth graders learned about the artist Wayne Thiebaud and are making texture sandwiches based on his work. Sixth graders learned about the artist Ken Done and are creating drawings based on his paintings of the sydney harbour and the sydney opera house. Eighth graders are doing a project that incorporates 3 styles of art (abstract, non-objective, realism).

High school: Art design students are doing a realistic drawing of a hand. Visual design classes are doing an optical illusion piece with different color values.

Integrated Science: Students will finish up learning about the relationships of force, pressure and area. Then we will move into our Work and Machines unit.

Biology: Students will be learning about cellular structures and functions, cellular transport, and the processes that help move materials into and out of the cell.

Human Anatomy: Students will finish learning about the skeletal system and then we will move onto the circulatory system.

Chemistry: Students will be learning about anions, cations, and how to properly write the correct chemical formulas and name ionic compounds.

Ag 1- Freshmen will be starting their animal Science unit. Student will start with Beef breeds and identification.

Ag 2- Students will start learning about shop safety and proper tool use.

Greenhouse- Students will learn about how to identify 100+ greenhouse plants along with how to identify different leaf margins and stem types.

Animal Science- We will be starting our animal science Unit. During the semester we will talk about reproduction, diseases, and other animal topics.

Construction- Students will continue to work on independent projects.

As we return from the break, we will be quickly back to work in the Social Studies department. The Freshman Government class will be continuing their study of the Constitution, its foundations, and the compromises that were necessary to its ratification. In Sophomore World History we have begun our discussion on 19th century political revolutions around the globe which will help us establish an understanding for global politics and relations preceding World War I. A new group of sophomores have begun Sophomore Leadership this semester and we have discussed what leadership truly is and what quality leadership looks like. Finally, Current Events has picked up where they left off; analyzing news stories and sources to gain an understanding of various news topics at home and abroad.

Business skills is a semester-long course in which students will learn various business skills. In January, students will be learning communication, leadership, networking, problem solving and critical thinking skills. Students will engage in many activities to improve their skills.

Accounting is a semester-long course designed to prepare students for further business study, or for introductory accounting and bookkeeping positions. Students will begin the semester learning the business cycle, how to make a profit, how to handle company expenses, and make rational decisions by using numbers.

Personal Finance is a semester-long course. Students will be introduced to chapter one: Introduction to Personal Finance. This chapter introduces the topic of personal finance, explores the evolution of credit and consumerism in America, and highlights the importance of both knowledge and behavior when it comes to managing your money.

FBLA members are preparing for district contest. Preliminaries will be held on January 31, 2024 at Missouri Western State University and finals will be held on February 8, 2024 at Northwest Missouri State University. Eight members are participating.

Algebra 1 - We will start factoring quadratic expressions which will lead into solving quadratic equations.

Geometry - We are working on finding all of our centers of triangles and finding what special characteristics each one gives us.

Pre/Calc-Trig - We will be solving trigonometric identities. We will use some problem solving skills to find different ways to solve trigonometric equations.

Criminal Justice- Policing originals & early US police

Psychology- Perception and sensation

Stats/Research- Testing methods & scientific research

Composition- Compare/contrast essay

English Presentation- Getting ready to begin speech unit

Good Morning! I hope everyone had a great holiday break! Our family put a lot of miles on our car but was spent with extended family. January is a busy month for us here in the High school. Our organizations are starting to get busy with contests and events. FCCLA has officer interviews and STAR events coming up. Along with FFA and FBLA are preparing for contests as well. Due to the recent snow days many schedule events have been rescheduled, postponed, or even cancelled. I ask for patience with us to get these dates solidified and communicated out to public as soon as possible. If weather continues to permit us from being in session, we will be using AMI (Alternative Methods of Instruction) where teachers will be providing instruction through online google classroom platform. Students will be sent home with their Chromebooks the day before any possibly concerning weather forecasts. We will be collecting information from our students on the ability to access the internet. By doing this we will better be able to provide instruction to all students whether that be using google classroom or sending home hardcopy packets. Though missing school is not ideal, student and staff safety is always our top priority. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to reach out or set up a meeting. My email is jake.shipman@mndcty.org and our HS office phone number is 660.442.5429. I hope everyone has a great month!