It's been a great start to the school year, and it was great to meet and reconnect with so many families at Back-to-School Night. The blog format for my newsletter will allow us to upload photos more easily and update you more regularly.
Other ways to stay connected with North on social media:
Twitter
@nnhsprincipal--Overall school handle
@turnerhj--Principal Turner's professional handle
@nnhstigers--NNHS athletics handle
@tigersloft115--Tiger's Loft handle
@newton_ps--Newton Public Schools handle
@newtonnorthtv--Newton North TV handle
@thenewtonite--Newtonite handle
@NewtonNHSCandCC--NNHS College and Career Center
#nnhstigers
Facebook
@TigersLoft115
@NNHSTigers
@thenewtonite
YouTube
Newton North TV https://www.youtube.com/user/NewtonNorthTV
For the past year, a committee of Newton North and South (South and North) faculty members, as well as leaders from the Newton Public Schools, has been meeting to redesign our school’s class schedule. This work is a part of NPS’ effort to shift to later high school start times, which based on research, would provide students with the opportunity for sleep at more developmentally appropriate times. Based on extensive feedback from faculty, students, and families during the 2016-17 school year, the district determined that updating our high school class schedules would facilitate the shift in start times while minimizing the impact on student, family, and community life.
During the 2017-18 school year, a joint working group from both high schools began the process of reviewing the current high school class schedules and gathering input from students. The current class schedules at NNHS and NSHS were designed more than 20 years ago. Since that time, many new models for scheduling have emerged that reflect the needs of today’s students and support best practice in teaching and learning. Key elements of those new models include: more embedded time for social and emotional learning as well as academic support, fewer transitions, more flexible times, and more student choice.
We spent time visiting peer districts and comparing their schedules to ours. Interestingly, we found that our current schedules are on the low end of our peer districts for creating flexible times for academic interventions, student choice periods, and social and emotional learning. When reviewing possible new schedules, we also saw the potential to consider increasing our longer instruction blocks during the week to allow for more in-depth learning and student-centered, interactive teaching. Rather than emphasizing total time on learning, optimal schedules focus on meaningful chunks of time in the right frequency to support student learning and engagement.
Now, we would like to hear from you about how the current class schedule works for you and your student. What do you like? What could be improved? We encourage you to provide your thoughts and opinions via this survey. Our next step is to take your feedback, as well as that of our students, and consider it together with the work done by our high school administrators, faculty, and staff. You will hear from us within the next few months as we prepare and share with you a proposed new schedule.
We are committed to developing schedules that maintain the academic excellence and breadth at both high schools while acknowledging the social and emotional needs of our students, as well as staff. Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts and opinions.
This month we placed cafe-style tables and chairs outside the main entrance. This furniture is a part of our work from last year of opening up Main Street as a hangout space for juniors and seniors who have open campus privileges. In the spring, the hangout space will be open to students and in addition to the chairs and tables outside of the main entrance and the cafeteria, benches are being built by our carpentry students which will be placed along the wall by the International Cafe. Other ways to stay connected with North on social media:
@nnhsprincipal--Overall school handle
@turnerhj--Principal Turner's professional handle
@nnhstigers--NNHS athletics handle
@tigersloft115--Tiger's Loft handle
@newton_ps--Newton Public Schools handle
@newtonnorthtv--Newton North TV handle
@thenewtonite--Newtonite handle
@NewtonNHSCandCC--NNHS College and Career Center
#nnhstigers
@TigersLoft115
@NNHSTigers
@thenewtonite
YouTube
Newton North TV https://www.youtube.com/user/NewtonNorthTV
High School Schedule Survey
For the past year, a committee of Newton North and South (South and North) faculty members, as well as leaders from the Newton Public Schools, has been meeting to redesign our school’s class schedule. This work is a part of NPS’ effort to shift to later high school start times, which based on research, would provide students with the opportunity for sleep at more developmentally appropriate times. Based on extensive feedback from faculty, students, and families during the 2016-17 school year, the district determined that updating our high school class schedules would facilitate the shift in start times while minimizing the impact on student, family, and community life.
During the 2017-18 school year, a joint working group from both high schools began the process of reviewing the current high school class schedules and gathering input from students. The current class schedules at NNHS and NSHS were designed more than 20 years ago. Since that time, many new models for scheduling have emerged that reflect the needs of today’s students and support best practice in teaching and learning. Key elements of those new models include: more embedded time for social and emotional learning as well as academic support, fewer transitions, more flexible times, and more student choice.
We spent time visiting peer districts and comparing their schedules to ours. Interestingly, we found that our current schedules are on the low end of our peer districts for creating flexible times for academic interventions, student choice periods, and social and emotional learning. When reviewing possible new schedules, we also saw the potential to consider increasing our longer instruction blocks during the week to allow for more in-depth learning and student-centered, interactive teaching. Rather than emphasizing total time on learning, optimal schedules focus on meaningful chunks of time in the right frequency to support student learning and engagement.
Now, we would like to hear from you about how the current class schedule works for you and your student. What do you like? What could be improved? We encourage you to provide your thoughts and opinions via this survey. Our next step is to take your feedback, as well as that of our students, and consider it together with the work done by our high school administrators, faculty, and staff. You will hear from us within the next few months as we prepare and share with you a proposed new schedule.
We are committed to developing schedules that maintain the academic excellence and breadth at both high schools while acknowledging the social and emotional needs of our students, as well as staff. Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts and opinions.
Main St
Planning for this furniture began last fall when faculty and students worked together to plan an opening of Main Street. Since the opening of this building, Main Street was designed to be the center for our community--our “Town Square”. Students and faculty to raise money for fundraisers, sell tickets for events and sometimes perform concerts. The project to open Main Street as a hangout space emerged because of increased crowding pressure in the Library and requests from students for an additional hangout space beyond the cafeteria.
All of this work is part of helping students further develop their social and civic skills such as
All of this work is part of helping students further develop their social and civic skills such as
take responsibility for their own actions and contribute positively to the school and larger community. This work is similar to the conversations that we had last fall with students and faculty to re-shape the culture of the Library as a positive learning space for students. Below are the norms for Main Street:
- Be mindful of volume
- Respect: nearby classrooms, offices and studying students
- Remember: with freedom comes responsibility
- Clean up after yourself
- If one of your friends behaves inappropriately, respectfully address them
- Respect people's personal space and physical boundaries
E-Cigs/"vapes"/"juuls"
The continued use of students using e-cigarettes/"vapes"/"juuls" continues to be a problem for some Newton North students. Scientists are still learning how e-cigarettes affect health. However, there is already enough evidence to justify efforts to prevent e-cigarette use by young people, including recent studies that suggest e-cigarettes are the latest “gateway” to harder drug use.
Electronic cigarettes are devices that utilize stored electricity to heat a liquid into vapors, which are then inhaled by the user. The liquid can be anything from a flavored water-type mixture to liquid nicotine to THC, the principal active element of marijuana. These devices are relatively easy to conceal and very easy to disguise. Furthermore, these companies market to teenagers.
The article below can provide more information about the dangers of e-cigarettes. Please have a conversation with your student regarding the dangers of e-cigarettes and that students will be suspended if they are found in possession of any of these devices.
Center for Civic Engagement and Service and Athletics
Team Up to Give Back
In partnership with the NNHS Center for Civic Engagement and Service and NNHS Athletics, Newton athletic teams will participate in some act of service. On Tuesday, September 4th Newton city officials presented several options to team captains including registering people to vote, raising money and goods for Newton Food Pantry and registering citizen's cellphones for the Newton emergency response system. Teams will choose one of these options or find another cause.
Welcome Newton Jingshan Students
Newton has the nation's oldest China-US High School exchange program. In September we welcomed our exchange students from Beijing Jingshan School. They will be with us through December. This winter there will be more information about applying for traveling to China during the 19-20 school year. Please find more information about our Jingshan exchange and other travel opportunities. https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Page/2029
Ongoings at North
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| BBQ at Ms. Leong's House for Dover Legacy Scholars and Mentors |
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| Excellent attendance at Friday Night Lights |
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| Annual Retreat to Thompson Island for Leadership for a Diverse Society |
Upcoming Calendar Events
Tuesday, 10/9, FORJ (Families Organizing for Racial Justice), 7pm
Saturday, 10/13, PSAT
Tuesday, 10/16 Safety Day at NNHS
Saturday, 10/20, Pre-ACT @ 7:50 am
Saturday, 10/20, PTSO Northside Dining
Thursday, 10/25, PTSO Principal Coffee @ 7:30 am
Thursday, 11/1, Flu clinic and early release day
For all our calendar events please see the NNHS School Calendar
