Tutoring help available through the Wilkenson Library

Brought to you by our totally cool Wilkinson Public Library.
Check it out, and tell your kids, students, friends, frenemies, etc….. This is an amazing resource.
Free Homework Help
Now Students can connect to Expert Tutors Online!

Free Help in Core Subjects
This free service allows students to connect to an expert tutor either from their home PC or Mac with a library card, every day 2pm - 9pm
Service En Español is available Sunday through Thursday 2pm - 8pm Live Homework Help is easy to use. Children and teens simply go to the library’s Web site, click on the Live Homework Help link and then enter their grade level and the subject in which they need help.
In just a few minutes, students are connected to a tutor in an Online Classroom for one-to-one help in math (elementary, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus), science (elementary, earth science, biology, chemistry, physics), social studies (American history, world history, political science), and English (spelling, grammar, essay writing, book reports).
Learn from Expert Tutors in an Online Classroom
Students and tutors can review specific homework questions, as well as subject-specific concepts using features such as controlled chat, an interactive white board and shared Web browsing in the Online Classroom. Tutors can type math equations using a special math tool, share educational Web sites and much more for a rewarding learning experience. All tutors are certified teachers, college professors, professional tutors, graduate, or under graduate school students from across the country. Tutor.com has more than 1,800 tutors available to work with kids when they need help most. Every tutor is certified by Tutor.com and has completed a third party background check.

http://www.telluridelibrary.org/livetutor.html

Back to School 2009-2010

August 14, 2009

Dear Telluride High School Community,

I hope this message finds each and every one of you enjoying the final weeks of the summer. I have enjoyed seeing many of our students back at school on the soccer pitch or in the gym practicing digs, spikes, and blocks for the fall Volleyball season. I have even heard rumor that our cheerleaders are once again honing another outstanding routine that will help us reclaim the state title in Competition Cheer. I have talked with students who have returned from educational and inspiring internships in Central and South America, not to mention far away parts of our own nation. I know heralding in the end of summer is not always the most popular message to send, but let’s face it –Telluride High School is an incredible school and, deep down, you really are getting excited to come back for another great year of growth, learning, and fun at THS.

I want to take this opportunity to introduce a few people who you might already know, but now you will see more often in class. Firstly, I am excited to welcome Ms. Jennifer Manhoff, who will be taking over as our Spanish teacher for the coming year. Ms. Manhoff has taught Spanish the last four years at the Telluride Mountain School and comes to us with a great reputation and with great ideas to make our already excellent Spanish program even better. Second, I am happy to welcome Ms. Mariah Checketts officially to the THS faculty. You’ll remember Ms. Checketts as the teacher who worked closely with Ms. Moore in Health and Ms. Nelson in Spanish in the fall semester, 2008. She is coming on staff to work with our English language learners this year. Finally, for those of you who have been around for a while, we are happy to welcome Ms. Erica Heltner back to the THS faculty. This veteran teacher will be teaching our English 11 class and two Language Arts electives this year at THS. Please graciously welcome each of these new faculty to our community in the coming weeks.

The first day of school is, as you know, Monday, August 31st , 2009. Our teachers are going to “hit the ground running” that day – so come ready to learn. As we have in the past, we will have the Telluride Film Festival organizers in our building preparing for the festival that weekend. Please note that we will have a half-day on Friday, September 4th. High School students will be dismissed at 12:05 PM that day and there will be no lunch served. As a special treat for our students and faculty, the Telluride Film Festival organizers have offered to screen one of their best selections on Wednesday, September 2nd in an after-school show. The movie will begin promptly at 3:30 PM.

Posted on my page on the school website are several memos that I would like you to take a look at. The first is a memo reviewing our attendance policy for this school year. Although this policy is very similar to the one we used last year, I would like everyone to know that we have committed to be more vigilant and focused on this issue this year. The second memo explains our new policy regarding the Advanced Placement program at THS this year. Please review both of these memos, and if you have any questions please contact me directly to discuss them.

Again, I hope everyone is safe, happy, healthy, and re-energized. I can’t wait to see all of you as you return to THS for another great school year.

Best regards,
ABCarter
Alex Carter, Principal

Senior Survey Class of 2009

Class of 2009 - Please take a few minutes to complete this survey.

Thanks for your time!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=MICWrt7Yq5Zc4_2bj4HC8Mzw_3d_3d

An Important Message from Principal Carter- PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

Dear Parents;


One of the reasons so many of us think of Telluride High School as a special and different place (and better, too!) is because of the incredible opportunities presented to our students. Our school year is bookended by two special events – the Telluride Film Festival on Labor Day Weekend in September, and MountainFilm on Memorial Day Weekend in May. Because of the generosity of the festival planners and the great relationships that have been developed between these organizers and the school district, our students are offered exclusive opportunities to view great works and programs brought to our town for these events.


At the end of the school year, there are also many other important events that, although fun and important, can interrupt the instructional day. We decided that this year, we would combine these events into a single, active, exciting, and spirited day of recognition, special presentations, and celebration.


Tomorrow, Friday May 21, 2009, will be a busy and important day at THS. Students will report to school at the regular time (8:15 AM) and will go to their 2nd period classes for attendance. After that, we will all go to the gymnasium for the presentation of the Class Awards, where students will be celebrated for their excellence and hard work all year long. Following the Class Awards, our student council hopefuls will deliver their speeches to convince their peers that they are the best candidate for Student Council and Class leadership. Next, we head to the Palm Theater for an exclusive screening presented by MountainFilm. Finally, the day will conclude with a school picnic and field day, where we will all celebrate another great year of learning and development at THS.


I want you to know that I value this day of school. Each of these events has been deemed so important by our school’s faculty and students that we committed to sacrificing class time so they can be experienced. This is an experiment for our school - and I’ll admit that I am a little bit nervous about it. Some have suggested that students will convince their parents that it would be “okay” for them not to attend this day’s program. I want to disabuse you of that notion entirely. Not only would any frivolous absence be counted as unexcused, but I can assure you that if our students “vote with their feet” and don’t attend these programs en masse, special opportunities such as this will go away – not to be offered during the school day again. I value these unique opportunities and think that removing them from our program would be a shame. I assure you, however, that I will do just that if the students make it clear that they do not value these programs as well.


Please support the school and this special programming by insisting that your child attend school tomorrow and participate fully in all planned activities. It promises to be an exciting and fulfilling day for all of us, and I would hate to see your son or daughter miss out.

Best regards,

Alex Carter
Principal
Telluride High School
725 W. Colorado Ave.
Telluride, CO 81435
(970) 369-1211

ISP3 EXPO - Video

Enjoy this quick look at what students have been working on in their 3rd ISP. The Cuisine ISP catered the EXPO, the Music ISP provided entertainment by performing, and the Sports Medicine ISP, the Architecture and Design ISP, and the Sustainability ISP demonstrated static display of their topic of study. Overall, it was a great day for all involved!

The 3rd ISP ~ April 20th - May 1st

As we returned from our wonderful two-week respite, we launched directly into our 3rd ISP period. We began with a short pep talk in the Palm Theatre where I spoke to our students and framed the ISP period once again. Here are some of the highlights of that talk:

1) I wanted our students to realize how special and lucky they are to be in this school. Of all the schools in the USA, only very few are doing anything as innovative and as progressive as the ISP program. This program is completely student-centered and learner-focused. We are giving them access to local and regional experts int the field they have chosen to study. Whether it is sports medicine, architecture and design, cuisine, music theory and production, or sustainability, our students will be intensely immersed into this field of study. I hope they consider themselves fortunate to have this opportunity and take full advantage of the ISP program. I want them to "suck the marrow" out of life!

2) I wanted to remind them what an ISP should be:
a) It is designed to be a hands-on, interactive, real-world, engaging, student centered learning experience. They MUST be actively involved in the program to get the most out of it. Passive learning is frowned upon in the ISPs, and they will enjoy and benefit more if they participate fully in the offerings.
b) These ISPs are a vehicle for THS to help students have opportunities to learn and master the "21st Century Survival Skills" that they will need to be successful in their futures. These skills are (as defined by Tony Wagner in The Global Achievement Gap):
* Critical thinking and problem solving
* Collaboration (teamwork) and leadership
* Effective oral and written communication skills
* Agility and adaptability
* Initiative and entrepreneurialism
* Accessing and analyzing information
* Curiosity and imagination
Because these skills are not content and/or curriculum specific, we have found that the ISPs create a perfect "laboratory" for students to practice and master these 21st century skills. In fact, these lessons could easily be more important to their future success than any of the course content we teach in the regular classroom setting.

It is also important to note that our Advanced Placement students are taking this time to intensively prepare for their AP end-of-course exams with two weeks of review and preparation. We hope that this creates an opportunity for our students to succeed at very high levels on these very important and weighty tests.

If you have any questions or concerns about our program, don't hesitate to contact me.

Have a great spring!

Homecoming Week ~ Recapped!

Week 2 of our new show, the THS sports wrap-up with Katie Mallard. Great job, Katie!

The New Grading and Reporting Model - Explained!

Dear THS Community,

Several parents have called with questions about the new grading and reporting system. They asked questions like: “What is a hexter?”; “What is an “MNA?”; “What happened to D’s?; or “Why did we change anyway?” These are all great questions and I realized that while I covered these ideas at the information night, Back-to-School 2008, and in several newsletters and blog entries, I have never written down these ideas in one document that deals only with THS’ new grading and reporting system.

Let’s start with the question, “Why did we change?” This is a really good and valid question, and I totally understand why some are asking it. The system that we abandoned had been used by decades of US schools and did just fine, right? Well, in fact, that is very debatable. The system we are all used to (teachers award each student one grade to represent achievement in class, usually an A,B,C,D, or F) was created during the industrial age (1920s) and was designed to “sort and select” our students for their futures. “A” students, maybe the top 10% of the total, were those students that teachers decided were “university” material. These were the lucky few who were designated to become “professionals”. “B” students, maybe the next 20% of each class, were expected to become the “white collar” workers (factory managers, shop keepers, bank tellers, etc.) who would probably require some post-secondary training. Students below this line (the other 70%!) were not expected to pursue any further educational training and were designated to become the “blue collar” workers that would be the engine of our industrial economy. As you can see, the educators of our nation were expected to “sort and select” the best and brightest from the rest and it was perfectly acceptable for the majority of our nation’s students to either drop out of school before graduation to begin work, or at best to complete their schooling with a weak and incomplete education.

We no longer live in this industrial age. We are now in the information age, and there are fewer and fewer jobs available that require no post-secondary education. In fact, those of us in the educational field are being told by our state and national governments, as well as the leaders of the private sector, that we must strive to prepare each and every student (not just the top 30%) for post-secondary education or training. In other words, we have to strive to help every one of our pupils meet at least the level of basic mastery in each of his or her subjects. In order to achieve this, we are trying to use every weapon in our arsenal – including a new and improved grading and reporting system.

Research shows that grade reports are one of the most powerful tools a school can use to communicate individual learning and progress to students and parents. Unfortunately, the grades we have been issuing (in the traditional “A,B,C,D,F” model) sometimes gave a skewed picture of what was really going on in school. There were so many factors that teachers considered when compiling these grades (including things like test scores, participation, work completion, attitude, behavior, attendance, etc.) that the sum total really didn’t give any clear picture to the student or parent how much the student knew or how proficient the student was at the skills being taught. A student with poor knowledge, but a great work ethic and attitude might be awarded a “B”, while a student who know everything (as demonstrated on tests), but refused to turn in work and had a bad attitude might get a “D” or even an “F”. I’m not sure about you, but this isn’t what we call clear communication.

What we’ve decided to do at THS is divide the grade into two parts:

1) The Academic Grade, which reports the level of academic knowledge and skills, is designed to reflect the level of mastery the student has reached on each of the course content and skill standards assessed during that grading period. There are four levels of mastery that a student can earn. They are:

• A – Advanced Mastery = This student has shown that he or she understands both the content of the course and the skills being taught at advanced levels.
• B – Mastery = This student can demonstrate a solid understanding of the content of the course and the skills being taught as expected for their specific grade level.
• C – Basic Mastery = This student can demonstrate a basic understanding of the content of the course and has basic mastery of the skills being taught.
• MNA - Mastery Not Achieved = This student has not reached the basic level of understanding and skill development yet. He or she should continue to work on this material in order to be able to prove that he or she has indeed reached proficiency, and thus can be awarded credit for this class.

2) The Affective Grade, which reports how well the student is mastering those behaviors and attributes that lead to successful study, work habits, character, and civic responsibility, is the teacher’s way of communicating student mastery in these non-academic, yet very important, scholastic arenas. At THS, we use the 6 P’s as a model for assessing students’ affective skills. Following the same format as the academic evaluation, there are four levels of mastery that a student can earn. They are:

• A – Advanced Mastery = This student demonstrates mastery of this skill or attribute always.
• B – Mastery = This student demonstrates mastery of this skill or attribute most of the time.
• C – Basic Mastery = This student demonstrates mastery of this skill or attribute some of the time.
• MNA - Mastery Not Achieved = This student rarely demonstrates mastery of this skill or attribute.

You will notice that we have eliminated the “D” from our evaluations. The reason for that is that students who performed at the “D” level in the past generally fell below the level that would be considered “proficient” and had not yet reached “basic mastery”. It goes against the basic philosophy of a standards-based system to allow students to receive credit in a class and advance to the next class before they have at least reached “basic mastery” in the proceeding class. In essence, those D’s are an “educational lie” and a form of social promotion. We aren’t giving “D’s” anymore at THS.

It is important to understand that in high school, grades only “count” twice a year. That is to say, colleges and universities never see hexter grades on the transcript – they only see the semester summative grade. Therefore, the hexter reports are really just “progress reports” – a formalized communication between the teacher and the student & parent to communicate how the student stands at with relation to achieving credit at the end of the semester in that course. If you child receives an “A” at the end of the 1st hexter, for instance, the teacher is telling you that so far your child has demonstrated advanced mastery in the content and skills goals student are expected to learn in that course during that semester. If your child receives an MNA, the teacher is sending you a strong message that your child has not currently demonstrating that he or she is on track to achieve at least basic mastery in this course. This is the time to contact the teacher and set up a plan to get your student back on track – schedule help during tutorial periods, after school appointments – this is the time to do whatever it takes to get back on track towards earning credit in the class.

Finally, we have moved to a “hexter” model simply to increase the number of times that teachers formally communicate achievement and progress to students and their parents/guardians. Instead of the old “quarter” system, where students are provided with formal evaluation and feedback four times a year, we have moved to a “hexter” system where the students are evaluated and provided with feedback six times per year. This has been a great burden to our teachers, but many have expressed that the added feedback has given their student and their parents more time to react if things aren’t going well. I will say that the number of students who didn’t receive credit in the first semester has been greatly reduced.

I know this document was long, but I hoped to answer many of your questions in one effort. I hope that you now feel even more comfortable with the new grading and reporting model at THS. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call me (369-1211) or contact me by email (acarter@telluride.k12.co.us) anytime.

Best regards,
Alex Carter

Winter ISP Video - Check It Out!

This video is a brief look at the exciting, hands-on, learner-centered instruction that is taking place at THS during this ISP period.

What you'll see: The Snow Science ISP is building igloos and working with the ski patrol to study avalanche. The Voc. Ed/Engineering ISP are building Go-Carts and learning about engines and vehicle design. The Performance Arts ISP are writing, planning, and rehearsing thier production (which will be open to the public on Friday, Jan. 16th at 10 AM in the Palm - BE THERE!). The Honors ISP students are focused, directed, and intensively researching topics of their choice in the hopes of earning a "honors" credit for their academic courses. Finally, the AP students are hard at work studying with their AP teachers in the mornings and taking advantage of the "mini-ISPs" in the afternoons.

The music you hear in the background is a bluegrass rendition of "Chalkdust Torture" by Phish. The song writer, Trey Anastasio, wrote this song about how boring his high school experience was with him feeling trapped in his chair as the world passed him by all the while tasting the tortuous "chalk dust on his tongue". I don't think any of our students would write a song like this after their recent experiences at THS.

Enjoy!

Alex Carter