Woodridge Local Schools

November 2018 | Volume 5, Issue 3

In This IssuePage 2

WES Students Of The Month

WMS Students Of The Month

Kent State University Research Center for Educational Technology (“RCET”)

Page 3

WHS and WES Students Knit Winter Hats to Donate to Those in Need

WES Media Center Expanding the Use of Technology

Szalay’s Farm

Things are Buzzing in Business Class at Woodridge Middle School this Fall

Page 4

Senior Yearbook Portraits

Woodridge Local Schools Support Staff Substitutes Needed

Acme Receipts: Community Cash Back

Calendar of Events

www.woodridge.k12.oh.usPlease visit www.woodridge.k12.oh.us/campus for the latest Campus Construction Project information.

Woodridge Advocacy Network to Meet Wednesday, Dec. 12An excerpt from Superintendent Davis’ State of the Schools Address given on Wednesday, Nov. 14, before the Cuyahoga Falls Chamber of Commerce:

“The state of Ohio is not kind to our school district. School district funding is based on the total property value of the district – per pupil. When that calculation is made, the result is not good for our Woodridge community. As you likely know, our school district receives only a fraction of our revenue from the state of Ohio. We receive less state support than Hudson, Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, Tallmadge, Kent and just about every other school district in the region. Because of the state’s antiquated and inequitable funding formu-la, we are forced to rely on local property tax payers to provide what is needed to keep our district whole. While the passage of Issue 6 is HUGE for our district for the near term, it alone does not solve our fund-ing problem. Issue 6 will allow us to move forward. But it does not fix the bigger issue. Only the Ohio General Assembly can remedy the root causes of our ongoing funding dilemma. But the Ohio General Assembly WON’T fix the bigger issue if mine is the lone voice requesting their action. The Ohio General Assembly will not fix the bigger issue if our Board of Education is alone in making the plea. The Ohio General Assembly will not fix the problem if our treasurer, our teachers and our staff are the only ones making noise. No. If the past few years are any indication – they EXPECT us to complain. They can’t miss our noise – as we are very persistent. But I question whether or not they are actually hearing us. You see, the Ohio General Assembly WILL act, I’m convinced, if they hear from YOU. The legislature WILL act if business owners, leaders, parents, and community members demand it. We know it’s true. History shows us that it is. The power of the electorate is unmistakable. I am convinced that a school funding fix is pos-sible – but only if we can engage and empower the electorate to demand it. That’s why we’ve formed the Woodridge Advocacy Network. Our Network is made up of community members. We meet periodically to learn what can be done to spread the message. Our network is part of a larger state-wide initiative with similar grass roots groups in all corners of our state. The Ohio Public School Advocacy Network is the coalition of these groups and together, we are working for common sense reforms in school funding, accountability, testing, and other key educational issues. Now that Issue 6 has passed, we have applied a Band Aid to hold us until Columbus figures out how to permanently fix the problem. With persistent, po-lite – yet loud – advocacy we can push the Ohio General Assembly to scrap the current funding method in favor of a new formula that works for all of Ohio’s communities.”

Join us for the next discussion! We will meet on Wednesday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. in the Woodridge Middle School library. Come and learn what we are doing to push for reform. Join us to see how YOU can be a part of the Network!

THANK YOU!Woodridge community, for passing Issue 6!

Woodridge Local Schools

www.woodridge.k12.oh.us2

Woodridge Students Attend Classes at Kent State University Research Center for Educational Technology (“RCET”)

Thanks to Dr. Annette Kratcoski and Mr. Thomas McNeal for inviting fifth-grade morning session ELA/social studies stu-dents to Kent’s RCET! The RCET is Kent’s flagship for research, policy, and practice related to cutting-edge technologies in teaching and learning, including 3D, on-line/blended learning, games and simula-tions, and virtual reality (VR). Studies began two weeks ago with the use of Nearpod, an online platform for cre-ating and sharing interactive lessons and assessments. Students started the first of their three weeks at RCET working with

informational text to support their under-standing as they read texts on ancient civili-zations. To prepare for their work, students completed an informational text pre-assess-ment created entirely within Nearpod.To explore the influence of geography on the Maya civilization, students proceeded with Google Maps to plot the initial mi-gration of the Maya as well as plan a mod-ern-day tour of ancient Maya sacred sites. Students applied what they’d learned about the Maya civilization by creating 20+ entry multimedia timelines using Sutori, a free web-based platform.A highlight of the first two weeks included students’ engagement with Google Expedi-tions, an immersive education app through which students explored the geography, culture, and history of the Maya through virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) tours. Oculus Go, a standalone headset, and Google Cardboard viewers facilitated fur-ther exploration in anticipation of learning soon about other ancient civilizations - the Inca and Aztec. Excitement continued with the introduc-tion of Ozobot Bits - small “smart” toy ro-bots for a project integrating social studies, language arts, and STEM (science, technol-ogy, engineering, mathematics). Students programmed the bots to follow black, red, blue, and green paths that control the bot’s movement, speed, and direction. Once colored sensor programming was mas-tered, students began learning OzoBlockly, a web-based tool that uses a block-based programming language. Students applied their programming knowledge to create and code the Ozobot travel maps they cre-ated that represented the important Maya geographic locations (including origin and permanent settlement sites). These students have approached this expe-rience and all the new learning with open minds and GRIT! They continue to repre-sent Woodridge well with their manners and enthusiasm.

Please visit www.woodridge.k12.oh.us/campus for the latest Campus Construction Project information.

WES Students Of The Month

WMS Students Of The Month

Woodridge Elementary School teaches stu-dents about the importance of having a growth mindset. Each month, students in kindergarten through second grade will have a new message that promotes a growth mindset. The message for October was, “I keep focused on my goal!” Congratulations to our October Mindset winners:Allison Leipold, Arya Reynolds, River Pruchnicki, Avery Reed, Zachary Swisher, Shondrea Cain, Emily Ellison, Kamiya Campbell, Leiana Squires, Kayla Robbins, Jose Phillips, Logan Guernsey, Maria Welsh, Ja’Leah Weddle, Bianca Biagiotti and Liilian Hukill.

The WMS Students of the Month for Octo-ber were:Kayla Kester, Maddie Thompson, Lilly Sterling, Curtis Tate, Fisher McLaughlin, Jay WhitelyOctober’s theme was Involvement.

OCTOBER

OCTOBER

November 2018 | Volume 5, Issue 3

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WHS and WES Students Knit Winter Hats to Donate to Those in Need

Thinking of others, helping other people and knowing that we are all here for one another is the message Woodridge students received as they worked across grade lev-els during late October. For the third year in a row, Woodridge High School students, led by Mrs. Vineyard, taught fifth-grade students how to knit. The WHS students were able to walk to Woodridge Elementary School since we are now lucky enough to be on one campus. Once they were there, all of the participating students took advantage of the open concept classrooms and halls to form knitting circles where the WHS stu-dents taught the basics of knitting to the ea-ger fifth graders. The students were engaged with each other and very relaxed as they knitted throughout the day. The completed winter hats will be donated to those in need throughout our community. Thank you to all who donated thick yarn to the cause as our students learn how good it feels inside to help other people!

WES Media Center Expanding the Use of TechnologyThank you to everyone who supported the WES library during our Scholastic Book Fair. It was a huge success. If you missed out, look for our BOGO Book Fair in the spring!

Students in the Media Lab have been ex-panding their knowledge of technology using great websites like Nearpod to learn about digital citizenship, Bookflix to prac-tice reading fiction and nonfiction texts, and Book Creator to try out being an author and illustrator. Some kindergarten students are even learning the importance of problem solving through coding. Be sure to ask your students about what they are doing on their iPads and Chromebooks in their classroom. Our goal in the Media Lab is to have stu-dents move beyond using technology for entertainment. We practice using technolo-gy for accessing information, collaborating with others and creating useful products. Many of our resources are found on the Woodridge Academic Portal, which you can find on the Woodridge website. Be sure to bookmark these pages at home on your de-vices to encourage your students to practice their skills.

Szalay’s FarmWritten by Adam B.

On Oct. 30, 2018, Mrs. Novak’s and Mrs. Zimmerman’s classes went to Szalay’s, where Mrs. Novak works in the Summer. Szalay’s is a farmer’s market that mostly sells corn. It was established in 1931.Our class went through the corn maze. Sza-lay’s started having a corn maze every fall in 2003, the year I was born. We also went through the “Spinning Barn,” which has a suspension bridge with lights that spin over-head, making you feel dizzy. The Spinning Barn is dark like a haunted house, and has sound effects that make it creepier and scar-ier. We all got to pick out a pumpkin to dec-orate later in class. Then, our class met Mr.

Szalay, the owner, who told us some inter-esting facts about Szalay’s. My grandpa Tom and grandma Vonda met us there, too.We all had spooky Halloween fun at Szalay’s!

Things are Buzzing in Business Class at Woodridge Middle School this Fall

Sixth-Grade Selling Bee ContestStudents in the sixth-grade Introduction to Business class have recently submitted vid-eos to the Selling Bee Contest. Students are learning the basics of business by develop-ing an idea for a new product or service, or a twist on an existing one. They then worked to write a pitch for their invention and the video pitches were filmed and edited using a green screen and editing software. Com-pleted pitch videos were submitted to the Selling Bee contest for judging. Twenty fi-nalists will be selected and posted at Selling-Bee.buzz from Dec. 5-9 for public voting. Be sure to visit SellingBee.buzz to vote for our Woodridge finalists. Winners will be announced on Dec. 13. Young Entrepreneurs Abound in Seventh GradeFrom concept to launch, students in the

Woodridge Local Schools

4 November 2018 | Volume 5, Issue 3 // www.woodridge.k12.oh.us

seventh-grade Business Foundations pro-gram are busy becoming real entrepreneurs as they have each created their own busi-ness this semester. Each individual student began by designing and planning a prod-uct using materials available to them in the Thinkspace - the school’s Makerspace workshop. Following that, the students used class time, over four weeks, to create their product and packaging for it. Simul-taneously, students have also developed a plan to price, promote, and take their prod-ucts to market in the coming weeks. Just in time for the holidays, students have created custom designed shirts, bags and apparel, movies, note cards, games, gift items, jew-elry, stickers, and much more. The project has given students hands-on experience in business, problem solving, communication, time management, and the satisfaction of seeing their hard work pay off! For more information about any of these projects, contact Mrs. Knight at: eknight@woodridge.k12.oh.us

Senior Yearbook PortraitsThe yearbook staff at Woodridge High School has some very important news for the graduating Class of 2019. In order for seniors to appear in the 2019 Woodridge High School Yearbook, they must be pho-tographed by Prestige Portraits. There is no charge for the photograph. There are two options. First, seniors can call Prestige Portraits at 1-800-686-5951 or go to https://prestigeportraits.com/ and schedule a free sitting. The deadline for seniors to get their picture taken at Prestige Portraits Studio is Feb. 15, 2019. If seniors do not want to go to the studio to have their picture taken, they can have it taken at Woodridge High School on Jan. 8, 2019. A photographer will be at the high school that day to take senior portraits. Again, there is no charge. Do not wait un-til the last minute. Mark your calendar, call Prestige Portraits, or go to their website to-day to make your appointment. If there is a question, please call Mr. Rodkey at WHS.

Woodridge Local Schools Support Staff Substitutes NeededThe Woodridge Local School District is in need of food service helpers, monitors, and instructional assistants. A current back-ground check is required. The substitute rate is $9 per hour. To apply, please visit www.woodridge.k12.oh.us/jobs.

Acme Receipts: Community Cash BackPlease send in your Acme receipts to sup-port students at Woodridge High School. Last year we were able to pay for field trips and items needed for the classroom. Please send in care of Megan Zimmerman- Wo-odridge High School. Receipts should be dated from August 2018-December 31, 2018.

12/01 Woodridge Arts & Crafts Show @WHS, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Girls Varsity Basketball vs. Firestone, 1:30 p.m.

12/06 COSI (K, 1st, 2nd Grades) @WES Choir Concert @WHS, 7-8 p.m.

12/07 COSI (3rd, 4th, 5th Grades) @WES Boys Varsity Basketball vs. Ravenna, 7 p.m.

12/10 Boys and Girls Varsity Bowling vs. Streetsboro, 4 p.m. Choir Sweet Sounds @WHS, 7-8 p.m.

12/11 Band Concert @WHS, 7-8 p.m.

12/12 Girls Varsity Basketball vs. Field, 7 p.m.

12/13 Girls Varsity Bowling vs. Southeast, 4 p.m. Choir Concert @WMS, 7-8 p.m. Boys Varsity Wrestling vs. Field, 7 p.m.

12/17 Girls Varsity Basketball vs. Ellet, 7 p.m.

12/18 End of Second Nine Weeks Holiday Party @WES, 2:15-3:15 p.m. Board of Education Meeting @WHS Library, 6-7 p.m. Band Concert @WMS, 7-8 p.m. Boys Varsity Basketball vs. Field, 7 p.m.

12/19 - 01/01 Winter Break - NO SCHOOL

12/22 Girls Varsity Basketball vs. Chagrin, 2:30 p.m.

12/29 Girls Varsity Basketball vs. Rootstown, 1:30 p.m.

Calendar of Events