Sweeter's Tiger Tracks

Trickle Down Affect

I read an article today that really hit at my heart strings.  If you don't know by now that we are in a recession than you need to come out of your cave.  That being said all you hear about on the news is the big bankers, real estate markets, Wall Street, or the "Big 3."  This article brought it all into focus.  Not only are we punishing big business or adults, but children are also being affected.  Imagine the psychological harm a student would go through after having to eat a cheese sandwich everyday.  No matter how you hide it people or other students are going to know you are down and out, and that can be extremely embarrassing.  All because your parents messed up.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090225/ap_on_re_us/cheese_sandwich_flap

Student Facts

I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of our own young men is leading the state in scoring.  It would appear that Gabe is scoring at will.  You cannot stop him; you can only hope to contain him.

http://www.maxpreps.com/national/basketball/leaderboard_list.aspx?gendersport=boys,basketball&urpath=,list&page=1&state=SD

GHS Students shine at Black Hills Stock Show - the Brown County Senior Hippology team placed first at the BHSS. Groton students on this team included Kendyl Hanson - 5th individual and Bailey Ringgenberg- 8th individual. Competing on the Brown County Junior Hippology team was Joellen Gonsoir- 14th individual. Teams from SD and MN competed at this regional event.

 

State Bound

We had 7 wrestlers place in the top 4 at regions, which means they will be going to state.  The state wrestling tournament is being held this Friday and Saturday in Aberdeen.

Sam Thorson was our only region champion, but his little brother Matt and Charlie Pray placed 2nd in their respective weight classes.  Derrick Lone and Brook Anderson both placed 3rd, and Ryan Dlezer and Kris Oleson round out our qualifiers with 4th place finishes.

Congratulations men!!! 

Reminder:  Jenna Dennert will be singing the Nation Anthem for the first session.

I learned something

I thought that corporal punishment or paddling of students was a thing of the past.  WRONG!!!  I read an article at lunch today that explained that not only is it legal, but it is also still widely used.  According to the article 250,000 kids were paddled last year.  Now I remember students getting spanked when I was in elementary, but somewhere along the line that all disappeared.  Well at least it disappeared in SD. 

Facts:  Texas punished 49,197 students and Mississippi punished 7.5% of its students.  78% of students paddled are boys, and 2/3 thirds of students are African-American.

Irony, in many states children are the only group that may legally be punished by force.  Interesting, you can be paddled for budging line, but if you rape someone you cannot.  Where is the logic in that?

21 states still allow corporal punishment.

Like I said all of this amazes me.  A quote from the article, "We would have classes next to the office, and we could hear licks through the wall."  Is this a positive learning environment? Is it an effective deterrent?  If you hear Johnny getting whupped, are you concerned about the Math lesson?

Click on the following link for the article.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3751247

Musical Domination

The Groton music department recently took approximately 60 students to the Region IV Solo and Ensemble Contest at Northern State University. The students prepared instrumental and vocal solos and ensembles during their respective classes and put in many hours before and after school as well. Each solo and ensemble performed their event for a judge who evaluated their playing and assigned a rating to the performance. The ratings that could be assigned are: I (Superior), II (Excellent), III (Good), IV (Fair), V (Poor). "+" and "–" are also used occasionally to specify "slightly better than" or "slightly less than" the given rating.

We had 6 students score Superior+, 24 students scored Superior, 18 scored Excellent, and 1 scored Good.

In addition to this news we also found out who our All-State represenatives are:  Nickollette Larson, senior, bass clarinet; Leah Davis, junior, clarinet; and Annie Hockhalter, sophomore, clarinet.

This is a great honor for these young ladies as they were selected based on a statewide audition that included performing a solo, a chromatic scale, major and minor scales, sight-reading, and taking a written test. No school is guaranteed representation in the band so it is a true statewide competition with no distinction between AA, A, and B schools.

This year the event will be held in Rapid City on March 26-28 at the Rushmore Plaza CIvic Center.

Way to go!!!  You literally ROCK!!!

It's official I'm getting old

Proof one:  Yesterday I received an email from a former student/athlete that was inquiring about our currently opened social studies position. 

Proof two:  My baby boy is talking about his friends that are texting their girlfriends.  This is wrong on many levels.

First, and perhaps most troubling is shouldn't boys still think girls have cooties at his age.

Second, my son will never know a world without texting as an option.  I remember and lived a world where you mailed letters, and people actually talked on phones.

Third, at 5 I think my reading consisted of:  See Spot run.  See Jan swim.   Today's kids are texting, "Will U be my BFF?"

If I start complaining about loud music slap me.  I may be going down, but I'm not going without a fight.

Tech Facts

1) A school district in Texas is going to implement 1-to-1 with a twist.  Instead of issuing laptops they are beginning a pilot program, where they are issuing 55 smart phones.  This is actually not the first time I have heard of this.  There are some universities on the coasts that are issuing smart phones to all students.  The schools pay for the phones, but students are responsible for the usage plans.

2) TeacherTube boasts 220,000 regular users and more than 54,000 videos and is averaging 800,000 visitors every month.

The tech or 21st century learning skills revolution is continuing.  Stay tuned to see GHS next step.  I for one am excited to see/live the transition.

Awesome

Today we got some exciting news about one of our stellar vocalists.  Jenna Dennert was picked to sing the National Anthem at the State Wrestling tournament, at 10:00,on Friday the 27th.  Just another example of the talent our students possess.  Way to go!!!!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good:

It is no big secret that I am supporter of technology.  There is no denying the fact that all of our lives are easier because of it.  It is because of this usefulness that I not only try to stay on the cutting edge, but also why I continually promote it within the school.

The Bad:

I am sure most of you have seen this, but it further demonstrates the fish bowl that is our modern technological world.  Imagine on Monday you are a National icon.  On Tuesday, you are a goat.  Millions of dollars will be taken from your pocket, you will be potentially cited for criminal activity, and your life's goals stripped from you for months.  All because of a picture taken while chill'n with your friends.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/05/national/main4778936.shtml

The Ugly:

As Yoda might say the dark side is also strong in technology.  Facebook can be a scary thing.  The following story from the Early Show, is proof of that.  Imagine an on-line tool that that many if not most of our students use results in sexual assault, child pornography, and rape.  The kicker is that this all happened in suburban Wisconsin, in a high school, and the accused is an 18 year old kid.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4779496n

All of this is further proof that we need to educate our children to be responsible technological users. 

Have a Great Weekend!!!

Honor Roll

Below is the list of students who qualified for honor roll.  Way to go, and keep up the good work.

SENIOR CLASS HONOR ROLL: 2^nd 9 weeks, School Year 2008-09

3.99-3.50: Bethany Abeln, Nickollette Larson, Holly Carlson, Sarah Finnesand, Megan Weber, Andrew Kappes, Jenna Dennert, Heath Giedt, Desiree Cyr, Mariah Woods, Sara Raap, Evan Erickson, Samantha Larson, Kemari Blumhardt, Scott Vedvei

3.49-3.00: Megan Knecht, Sarah Harms, Cody Hanson, Mallory Anderson, Jessica Claussen, Colin Herron, Jade Albrecht, Ellie Howard

JUNIOR CLASS HONOR ROLL: 2^nd 9 weeks, School Year 2008-09

3.99-3.50 Brooke Lesher, Katharina Tinglund, Leah Davis, Gatlin Johnson, Tanner Johnson, Kristopher Oleson, Gabriel Kjellsen, Caitlin Siefkes, Kristin Hagen, Garrett Harms, Allison McNamara

3.49-3.00: Brand Bahr, Kayla Raap, Katelyn Harry, Charles Pray, Samuel Thorson

SOPHOMORE HONOR ROLL: 2^nd 9 weeks, School Year 2008-09

3.99-3.50: Spenser Kavanaugh, Tyler Kolb, Jenna LaMee, Allerie Loeschke, Emily Kern, Annie Hockhalter, Jackson Waage, Stephanie Fey, Shawn Locke, Alex Hughes, Jordan Miller, Tom Sternhagen, Heidi Westby

3.49-3.00: Shanna Geist, Kalen Kjellsen, Kelsie Lemmon, Erin Wanner, Narissa Weifenbach, Zachary Herron, Greyson Cutler, Cody Wright, Derek Taylor

FRESHMEN GRADE HONOR ROLL: 2^nd 9 weeks, School Year 2008-09

3.99-3.50: Marah Smith, Madison Cutler, Ryland Strom, Nora Bunn, Erin Sternhagen, Hannah Luecke, Michaela Oleson, Andrew Dohman, Alexandra Schuring, Maycee Albrecht, Madelyn Anderson, Austin Fordham, Josey Helmer, Meghan Dohman, Katelyn Hawkins, Clay Wattier, Matthew Thorson

3.49-3.00: Taylor Leonhardt, Eric May, Courtney Smith, Cheyenne Leonhardt, Ashley Stene, Baily Ringgenberg, Emily Larson, Jamie Jorgensen, Kendyl Hanson, Bryce Raap, Sydney Erickson

EIGHTH GRADE HONOR ROLL: 2^nd 9 weeks, School Year 2008-09

3.99-3.50: Erica Schuster, Andee Geist, Ellen Harms, Savanna Larson, Tobias Carda, Mikaela Kavanaugh, Kelsey Wieseler

3.49-3.00: Stephen Simon, Kaitlyn Sattler, Laurie Gardner, Dalton Locke, Ashley Taylor, Jordyn Opsahl

SEVENTH GRADE HONOR ROLL: 2^nd 9 weeks, School Year 2008-09

3.99-3.50: Camille Sippel, Caitlyn Fluke, Alec Oleson, Gabriela Tinglund, Halle Dohman, Joellen Gonsoir, Schyler Sattler, Reilly Ell, Wyatt Sombke, Nathan Wright

3.49-3.00: Darac Harry, Nicole Koehler, Regan Lewandowski, Jeric Albrecht, Kylie Hawkins, Kasey Kurtz, Braden Miller, Sadie Rogers, Skyler Bonn, Sadie Hanna, Mason Madsen, Tyler Wagner, Sydney Hanna, Madison Profeta, Cheyenne Schaller