March
Principal Notes for 3/2/15
A few weeks ago I mentioned that students in our junior/senior English course were using a website to assist in repairing broken electronic devices. Last week I had a young man from the class show me the phone he had repaired. The last time I saw the phone, the screen was completely shattered. Now the phone looks almost new. He had a final fix on the power button to make the phone useable!
Research has shown that asking students to compare and contrast topics increases the chance of them understanding the topic. Last week I had the opportunity to watch a type of debate in the government class where students were debating the pros and cons of compulsory voting. Students did a great job of identifying the pros and cons of each side of the debate!
Shakesperience will be here Monday, March 9 at 1:00. Students from Cambridge and Midvale High Schools will view a performance of one of Shakespeare’s plays in the high school gym. The public is welcome to attend.
I would like to thank the PTSA and the Upper Country Education Foundation for partnering to write a grant to fund the Discover Technology bus coming to Cambridge. The grant was funded by Micron, and the bus will be coming on Tuesday, March 10 for all students in grades K-12!
Principal Notes for 3/17/14
A few years ago I tried my hand at making mozzarella cheese. I had read an article in a magazine about the process, and the author made it sound very easy. In a phrase, it wasn’t. A friend stopped by in the middle of my project, and I had a real mess on my hands. A year or so later Mrs. Mink shared with me that she planned to have her food science class make mozzarella cheese. I told her of my experience and wished her the best of luck. When I asked how the process had gone with the kids, I learned their experience had been much like mine – a disaster. Mrs. Mink thought their rennet may have been bad, so she purchased some new and had the kids try again with the same result. She needed to go on with her class, so the kids never tried again. After the experience, we wondered what else could be changed to make the process work and decided perhaps the chlorine in the city water could be the problem. A week or two ago Mrs. Mink had her food science class try making the cheese again. This time they used distilled water and the process worked! Nice to see science at work in the process of teaching science!
In our speech class, students were learning to use sign language to communicate. Each student was asked to pick a song then recite it to the class using sign. I happened to be in the room when two students were doing their recitals, what great fun!
The University of Idaho Endowed Scholarship Fund sponsors the Kindschy-Lawrence scholarship for students interested in pursuing agriculture education as a major. Of five scholarships awarded this year, two of the recipients are from Cambridge and one is from Midvale. Bret Kindall, Ryan Kindall and Molly Roberts have all received the scholarship, and we wish them the best of luck!
Once again, we would like to thank the PTSA and the Upper Country Education Foundation for securing funds through a grant from Micron to bring the Discover Science bus to our school. I am sorry to report that I was out of town the day the bus was here, but in seeing pictures of the events, it looked like the kids had a great time!
As a reminder, we will have no classes next week due to spring break. Classes will resume Monday, March 30.
Principal Notes for 3/31/14
We are back from spring break and on the long home stretch to the end of the year. As usual our calendar is full up until the time we finish.
Next week we will have a large number of students gone to Twin Falls for the FFA State Leadership Conference. Best of luck to all students competing while in Twin Falls!
Our track team is busy. We will travel to Parma on Thursday of this week and Emmett on Friday, April 11.
If your child is behind or wanting to get ahead on work, teachers will be available to assist students from 8:00 until noon on Friday. The next scheduled work day is Friday, April 18 from 8:00 until 10:00.