Cougar Campus News

Important Dates:

v      April 25/26              PSAE (Grade 11)

v      April 28                  Prom (Ashton Place)

v      May 7                     NHS Induction

v      May 9                     Honors Night

v      May 25                   Seniors Last Day of Attendance

v      May 28                   Memorial Day (no school)

v      May 31/June 1        Semester Exams

v      June 2                     Graduation

v      June 4                     Tentative Last Day of School (1/2 day)

 

 

From the Desk of Dan Goggins:

Over the past couple of weeks we have witnessed some extraordinary things here at PSHS.  First and foremost, the final analysis of second semester midterms shows improved student achievement results across the board.  Teachers will use the information to better understand student strengths and weaknesses and devise strategies to eliminate deficiencies before final exams.  Also at this time, I am extremely happy to report that you now have access, via the Internet, to view your student’s grades, attendance, and conduct.  I encourage you to review this information frequently and contact us for any questions or concerns.  And how about the spring musical, “High School Musical?”  I am so proud of the performance the kids put on and to sell out four shows is completely unheard of.  Without question, we are gearing up for the fast pace of activity beginning now until the end of the year.  From PSAE, Prom, honors nights, to graduation, there are lots of things yet to do.  We can do it.  Throughout time, cougars have exhibited the ability to adapt and adjust.  They thrive on mountainsides, swamps, and deserts.  Today they thrive in the halls of Plainfield South. 

It’s Good to be a Cougar!

Have a great finish to the school year.

 

 

Special Ed. Department:

v      What’s New in Service Learning?

The Service Learning classes are planning a landscape project at Charles Reed School.  The students will be working with Ms. Brown and Ms. Cruz to plant in mid-spring.  This team will also be cleaning up and caring for the Marquee plants as well as the beds in front of the Visitors’ Parking Lot at Plainfield South High School.

They have just completed the following projects:  mentoring the students at Wesmere Elementary School to assist with fund raising projects, serving lunch at the Morning Star Mission in Joliet, cleaning and organizing the athletic department storage room at Plainfield South High School and making posters for the Special Olympic WALK-A-THON.

We want to applaud these students’ efforts to contribute positively to the community of District 202.   Cougars make a difference!

 

v      Special Olympics

The District 202 Cougars will participate in the Special Olympics Track and Field Events.  The events will take place in South Holland on Saturday, May 5, 2007.  We have 18 athletes preparing to participate.  Ms. Nackovic’s Key Club members will be supporting the athletes by attending to cheer on the athletes.  We would like to thank Coach Morrey and Coach Cherveny for all of their coaching and training with the athletes.  A special thanks to Kathy Thomason for coordinating efforts and Special Olympic Committee members Colleen Goldenberg, Karen Young, Colleen Harvey, Carol Floros, Josh Bloodgood and Melissa Cassady.  



v      18-21 Year Old program

The preparation has begun to open a new program in fall 2007 to address the needs of our students with disabilities who are 18-21 years old and would benefit from a learning environment that would provide transition services, basic life skills, recreational skills and vocational training from high school to adult life.   We would like to thank the committee members Kathy Thomason, Melissa Cassady, and Colleen Harvey who have volunteered their efforts to write curriculum and present the program for approval!

 

v   Staff News:

Congratulations to Janet Nackovic who has been asked to be a member of The College of Education Advisory Board at the University of St. Francis.

 

Kathy Thomason has represented Plainfield South High School as a member of the Transition Planning Committee and attended Chamber of Commerce Committee meetings.

 

v   Vocational and Transitional News:

The Work Internship Banquet is scheduled for May 1 at Tamarack Golf Club.  This banquet is to honor and thank employers of our work internship students.  Students and their supervisors are invited. 

 

The Services INC. staff was at PSHS March 3 to meet with parents of students who would be eligible for adult services after high school.  The parents attended to register their children with the Prioritization of Urgent Needs list for the State of Illinois.  These names will assist Services INC. to obtain necessary funding for future services.

 

Captain Formhals spoke to our students regarding careers with the Joliet Fire Department.  Sgt. Perona and Detective Kneller have been guest speakers for the Vocational Education class.  We would to thank the Joliet Police and Fire Departments for their willingness to support our career education classes.

 

Sgt. Chipman from the United States Army, who has just returned from Iraq, spoke to our students about military careers.

 

Mr. Kevin Schaeffer will be visiting the Vocational education classes to address interviewing skills.  This will assist our students in practicing and developing skills to obtain employment.

 

All sophomores receiving Special Education services have the opportunity to explore future careers through training on Career Cruising.  This is an Internet Career Exploration and Interest Inventory Program.

 

Through the Vocational Education Program, we have students employed at CICI’s Pizza, Jewel Food Stores, Dominick’s Food Stores, BP Gas, K-mart, Caputo’s, Petland, Best Buy, Old Country Buffet, Good Will, and Bob Evans.  We want to thank the community employers for their support and willingness to work with our school for the students’ training and education.

 

v   Do Not Forget: Transition Fair for students and families at Joliet Junior College, Saturday, April 21 from 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.  This is an excellent opportunity to gather information for transition services, future education and employment opportunities. 

There will also be workshops for vocational coordinators and teachers on Friday, April 20.  See the PDA website to sign up.

 

v   Freshman Reading Classes:

The staff is developing curriculum and resources to teach reading as a freshman elective course beginning in the fall of 2007.  Participation will be determined through the IEP recommendation of English 9 courses, testing results and teacher recommendations.

Science Department:

v      In the Science Department, students are applying those skills learned through hard work over the past two semesters as they investigate the world around them through labs, projects, and field trips this spring.  Classes have begun with such activities as dissections, building of models to demonstrate a scientific law or system, student driven inquiries, observations at the Body Worlds 2 exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, participation in the Raptor Talks at Pilcher Park, and soon Physics Day at Great America.  It is an exciting time as students not only see and do fun things, but also begin to understand the world around them in greater depth.

 

English Department:

v      Plainfield South senior Christine Veverka's poem "Sugar Step Waltz" won first place in the literary festival conference.  Sophomore Sarah Strickland's narrative "A Nightmare Come True" won an honorable mention. Senior Danny Bruce's poem "Lithium Dreams" won an honorable mention, as did senior Brandon Barrera's poem "The Stranger", and senior Katie Dupree's haiku "Buddhism" won an honorable mention.

 

The literary magazine club is working hard designing pages for the spring issue. We intend to have it ready for distribution in mid May. So far it looks wonderful and we have excellent original poems, stories, photography, and artwork from students.

 

 

Social Studies Department:

v      With the end of the year fast approaching, we feel that the Social Studies Department has many accomplishments to be proud of.  The two new AP courses being offered in 2007-2008 (AP Government and AP Microeconomics) have submitted their course syllabi to the AP audit and completed selection of materials.  Initial numbers show that a large number of students have requested these courses.  Midterm exams went well for our department.  Staff members are currently looking at teaching strategies and techniques in order help all students meet school/departmental goals.  We look forward to finishing the school year on a high note.

 

 

FAML Department:

v      Band:

The PSHS Band program recently returned from a trip to New York City over spring break.  Students performed at the IBM building in Manhattan and also received two clinics while on the trip with professional musicians.  The band spent time visiting various areas on and around Manhattan including the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Ground Zero, 5th Avenue, and Central Park.  Musically, the students watched a musical on Broadway and attended a gospel church service in Harlem in addition to their performances.  The trip went very well and the students had a great time.

 

v      Foreign Language:

Spanish 3 classes will be taking a field trip on Wednesday, April 11th to visit the Mexican Fine Arts Museum.  While at the museum, students will take a tour of an exhibit called "Mexicanidad" that encompasses a variety of works by Mexican artists about what it means to be Mexican.  After our visit to the museum, students will have the opportunity to practice their Spanish as they explore the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.  Among other things, students will explore local shops, view murals painted in the community, and eat at a Mexican restaurant.

 

The Modern Language department celebrated their annual Foreign Language Week during the week of March 19th through the 23rd.  All language students participated in a poster contest developing this year's theme:  Language: the Key to Common Understanding.  Winners were: 3rd place, Kayla Zagorski; 2nd place, Lauren Walker; and 1st place, Mariella Hernandez.  Students were rewarded with stickers for speaking the language being celebrated that day.  The week culminated in a performance by La Perla de Mexico Mariachi group in the cafeteria during each of the lunch periods.

 

In honor of Foreign Language Week, the foreign language clubs prepared and presented skits for foreign language students after school on Thursday of that week.  In addition to creating and practicing for the presentations for weeks in advance, the students brought treats to share.  They did a great job and we are very proud of their hard work.

 

v      Art:

Congratulations to the Art students, who led PSHS to an overall second place conference finish in the annual SPC Art competition.  Placing for the Cougars were: Trevor Dean and Leah Guadagnoli receiving 3rd in their categories; placing second were Cody Valdez, Lauren Bonano, and Andrea Smith.  Finally taking 1st place in photo was Jennifer Marquez. This has been Plainfield South’s highest finish ever.

 

The annual Senior Art show runs from April 13th -20th at the District office on Howard Street; the reception will be Friday, April 20th from 7-9 pm.  Refreshments and music will be provided.

 

The second PSHS student art auction was a huge success.  More than 90 works were on display and for sale and over 50 works were sold.  Proceeds went to the artists and Art club.

 

Dan Wozniak received a Gold Key in the National Scholastic Art competition for his computer art work.  Only 250 students across the nation receive this honor.  Dan’s work advanced from the regional competition held in January.

 

 

Math Department:

v      Mrs. Rendon’s classes are busy preparing for their college entrance exams (seniors) and juniors are preparing for PSAE.  For her juniors in Precalculus, Mrs. Rendon will be offering a refresher of Algebra II skills on Thursday mornings at 7:30 in Room 220.

 

Play Doh – Students in Calculus, Precalculus, and Algebra 2 have been playing with Play-Doh.  They have been creating solids and slicing them with string to calculate volume.  They have also sliced cones to see physical models of conic sections.

 

In Geometry, students are getting ready to build a tin-man or tin-animal using basic shapes such as prisms, cylinders, pyramids, cones, spheres, and/or hemispheres. Students then calculate the surface area of their creation and “order” tin foil.  If their calculations are correct, they will be able to cover them with tin foil!

 

Tom Hernandez, the Director of Community Relations for District 202, visited Mr. Erickson's Honors Algebra II class as a guest speaker on March 23rd.  The class had recently begun a unit covering the topic of exponential growth, so Mr. Hernandez came to talk about the rapid growth within the boundaries of our school district and what actions are being taken by the district to handle this growth.  His insights gave the students a tangible application of the concepts being taught in class since they have seen first hand the effects of the growth on their surrounding community, their school, and even their neighborhoods.

 

 

v      Congratulations to the PSHS Math Team for qualifying for the Illinois State Math Competition on April 28th.  Taking a first place as a team, and qualifying as a team in the Algebra I competition are:  Jorge Barrios, Chris Albert, Brian Amelio, and Kariana Weis.  Jorge Barrios finished 2nd as an individual in the Algebra Competition; Chris Albert and Brian Amelio finished tied for 3rd in the Algebra I competition.  These three also qualified as individuals.

 

 

Applied Arts Department:

v      Industrial Technology:

In Mr. Davis’s 2nd hour Intro to industrial tech. class, we were given a team building activity that stated that we must build a tower a minimum for four feet tall using only ten sheets of paper and tape. The tower must be free standing and must stand for at least 20 seconds. This was a team building activity to get all five of us to work together to complete this tower, because this was our first time working together.  We constructed a tower standing 87’’ tall, a new Plainfield South Intro to Ind. Tech record. We could have actually gone higher but we hit the ceiling.

(Picture Left to Right, First Row: CJ Harris, Alex Martinez. Top Row: Paul Silva, Billy Mackenzie  [Head Only], Chris Myers)

 

 

v      Tech CAD 1

Mr. Davis’s Tech CAD 1 classes have been learning about architecture by building a 3/4 “ scale house.  Working in teams, they learned hands-on about the house building experience to construct a modest ranch house with a hip or truss roof.  They used many actual construction methods and Mr. Davis added many personal stories from his thirteen years as a carpenter.  (Melissa Maher, Tony Sanchez, Amber Burzynski, Jason Huber)

v      Child Development:

The child development students have completed the “Ready or Not Tot” project.  The students each brought home a mannequin baby for one night.  The tot baby looks much like a real newborn baby.  The students came after school to pick up their baby complete with a set of keys, blanket, and carrier.  They were responsible for taking the baby home safely and caring for it throughout the rest of the day and night. 

The baby cries just like a real newborn.  Each time the baby cried the student had to figure out the reason for the cry.  They did this by inserting a key labeled feed, burp, diaper, and attention.  The baby would “coo” when the right key is inserted.  If only real newborns were quieted by inserting a key!  Each student had to keep a log telling what time the child cried and which key they had to insert.  They also wrote a journal telling about their experience.  All of the students learned a great deal about the demands of a newborn from this assignment as well as many other important lessons. 

 

v      Work Internship Program:

On May 1, the Work Internship class will be hosting its employer appreciation banquet at the Tamarack Golf Club.  The students will be presenting certificates of appreciation to their employers.

 

Applications are now being accepted for the 2007-2008 Work Internship class.  Work Internship is a cooperative work-training program that is designed to provide vocational training and technology preparation for an occupation on a part-time basis.  Students are enrolled in four academic classes, including one Work Internship related class.  Each student receives three high school credits towards graduation.  After period four, students are released to go to their work site.  Students must be a senior for next year, have good attendance, have your own transportation, and have an interest in career education.  The Work Internship program can be used to meet the consumer education requirement for graduation. 

 

Students may obtain an application from their counselors or from Mrs. Boyd and Mr. Dye in Room 124.  Students must be interviewed and accepted into the program.  This is a great opportunity to develop good work habits and job attitudes as well as earn money.

 

v      ACCOUNTING 1 - ZENITH GLOBAL IMPORTS - A BUSINESS SIMULATION:

The Accounting 1 students are currently in the middle of the Zenith Global Imports accounting simulation.  This project has the students acting as the accountant for this corporation, which provides the students with a more realistic view of the work some accountants do on a daily basis.

 

There are many activities required of the students over the course of the simulation.  Some of these activities include:

1.       Recording transactions from source documents

2.       Recording payroll in a payroll register and updating employee earnings records

3.       Preparing a worksheet

4.       Preparing financial statements

5.       Journalizing and posting adjusting and closing entries

6.       Preparing a post-closing trial balance

 

These activities allow the students to complete the accounting work for an entire month for the company as well as complete the end-of-fiscal period work.  In the end they have gone through the entire accounting cycle for this business.  The simulation requires the students to be organized and efficient on a daily basis and hopefully provides a sense of accomplishment and pride when they are finished.

 

 

 

 

v   Orientation to Business:

Mr. Clark's student teacher Mr. Warren will be finishing his experience at Plainfield South Friday, April 13th.  The students and faculty that he has come into contact with throughout his experience will miss him.  From the entire Applied Arts department and myself we wish him the best of luck.

 

Just around the corner for Mr. Clark's Orientation to Business and Consumer Economics class is our stock market project.  This is a project where the kids become investors and try to make as much money as they can by investing in stocks of their choice.

 

v   Desktop Publishing:

Miss Steinke’s Desktop Publishing class is in the process of completing a class cookbook.  Students chose ten of their favorite recipes to submit to the cookbook.  The cookbook is broken up into five categories:  Appetizers, Main Dishes, Side Dishes, Desserts and Drinks.  The students were then required to break up into groups according to a specific category.  Students are then assigned a job such as editor, manager, copy producer, table of contents producer, and cover producer.  Each student is responsible for his or her job during class time.   The students are working very hard to publish this professional style cookbook.

 

 

Social Workers:

v      District social worker, Kevin Mueller and PSHS social worker, Cheryl Ricciardi, along with school psychologist, Darcie Kubinski have been accepted for a presentation at the Illinois Association of School Social Workers annual conference at the Arlington Heights Sheraton in October.  They will be presenting the Catalyst program.

 

 

Students of the Month: (February)

English: Tyler Cutro, Amber Harris, Justin Heredia, Luis Mota, Jessica Rangel, Alec Spencer; Family and Consumer Science: Kaly Zak, Krista Aparicio, Caitlin Montgomery, Sharina Hughes; FAML: Phoenix Harris, Cassie Villa, Kyleigh Carie, Lauren Britt; Math: Abbey Flamand, Christian Castaneda, Jason Huber, Rachael Anderson; Science: Chris Lamarca, Falguni Patel, Mavra Jariullah, Brendan Minardi; P.E./Health/Dr. Ed: Brittany Medwid, Samantha Stephen, Johnny Crow; Social Studies: Kariana Weiss, Nicole Egizio, Jennifer Cho, Lauren Filak

 

 

Cougar Boosters:

Dear Cougar Families,

As mentioned in the last newsletter, the Bowling Bash on February 24th was a great success!  We raised $3500, which will be used to support all types of activities here at PSHS!  Thanks again to Town & Country Lanes and all the parents, staff, coaches and community members who made the Bowling Bash such a wonderful event! 

 

Warm weather is headed our way (hopefully), so get out your golf clubs and be ready for the 6th Annual Cougar Booster Golf Outing!  The outing is June 22nd at Prairie Bluff Golf Course.  Cost is $100 per golfer and includes 18 holes along with a cart.  There’s also more than just golf…you can look forward to great food, contests, raffles, prizes, and fun!  Last year’s outing was fantastic, so make plans now to join us!  If you’d rather not golf, but would still like to join us for dinner, prizes and fun, the cost is $30 per person.  To register yourself or a foursome, donate items or help organize the event, please contact Tim Boe (tboe@learningcommunity202.org) or call 815.577.5587.  See you on the course!