Drama Gives Back to the Community

On Wednesday, January 29th, East Greenwich High School students previewed their upcoming musical Footloose.  
This was a free community performance held in the high school auditorium.  Over 100 students performed for students of Meeting Street School and residents from The Trudeau Center and West Bay Residential.  Over 100 people were in attendance.  Mrs. Healy's Life Skills class provided refreshments during intermission.  A great time was had by all.

Choose2Matter at EGHS 2/13-2/14

Post from Email sent to EGHS Community on Wednesday 1/8/2014.

It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I am emailing you today to announce a very exciting learning experience called Choose2Matter that will be happening at EGHS on February 13th and 14th.  

I will borrow from Mr. Chace’s blog, located at http://mrchaceeghs.blogspot.com/2014/01/were-choosing-to-matter.html to help explain the scope and intent of the program. (Please read it for a comprehensive overview of the program’s goals and outcomes.)

One of the most frequent questions that schools ask is, how can we provide meaning to the work that our students do in school?  How can we make the work engaging and personally meaningful? How do we tap into our student's passions and creativity? How can we have kids solving "real world" problems?

Students at East Greenwich High School will find out on February 13th and 14th when Angela Maiers will come to the school with her Choose2Matter team and we will change the world while simultaneously demonstrating all of the East Greenwich High School's Core Values of Teaching and Learning in this process:

Respect: Be considerate of others' ideas and opinions while maintaining personal integrity and self- confidence.

Creativity and Innovation: Embrace flexibility and individuality when explaining and demonstrating knowledge and skills.

Relevance: Link concepts across subjects and make connections to today's global society.

Enthusiasm: Generate excitement and curiosity about learning.

Achievement: Work vigorously to obtain knowledge and skills measured against the highest standards.

Choose2Matter is an educational opportunity that challenges and inspires students to work collaboratively to develop empathetic and innovative solutions to social problems. Students tackle real world problems and learn the skills needed in today’s world with a team of facilitators and leaders in an international social-entrepreneurship experience. For two days, the entire study body will work in tandem with national, state and local industry and civic leaders to develop innovative solutions to bring about social change--on a local, national and/or global level.

Choose2Matter demands and builds upon a set of 21st Century success skills that are stoked by what students are passionate about. Skills, habits, and traits that will be exercised and developed include:

Leadership

Critical Thinking

Problem Solving

Persistence

Team building and management

Time management

Entrepreneurial Know-how

Collaboration

Open Mindset

Local/Global Awareness

Media Literacy

Financial Literacy

Communication Skills

Students will also benefit from an online library of content resources and “live” experts as they solve problems individually and in working groups. Moreover, students will present their ideas to worldwide audiences, and will be recognized by international and business leaders, civic and industry partners.

As part of the goal to sustain this project venture, the Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship program of Brown University will mentor our students, an arrangement we expect to replicate with additional partners, including the nationally-renowned Business Innovation Factory.

Five-hundred-million young people, including our students, will enter the workforce over the next decade. We need to begin now to nurture this next generation of entrepreneurs and social-change agents through relevant work that is not typically integrated in traditional school experiences and curriculum.

When students believe that they matter, they see the world in a different light, and behave differently. They approach life and work in a manner that understands that their actions can have a positive impact on the world.

The first Choose2Matter experience began at Downingtown (PA) STEM Academy. A class of 300 sophomores participated, on the final days of school before summer break.The students created this video on their own after summer vacation began in which they spoke of how the event changed them, for good. (In the video the students refer to "Angela" repeatedly, because she was the one directly working with them. As mentioned above, and as you will read below, this is not the case for EGHS on February 13th & 14th.)

Obviously, an event of this magnitude will require a great deal of mentorship and facilitation, and as a community, we are asking for your assistance in making this as successful as possible.  If you or someone you know has expertise or experience in the following areas and would like to volunteer, we would love to have more mentors to work alongside other national, state and local experts and facilitators who will be working with our students on their projects:

The areas of expertise include:

• Human Rights/Social Justice
• Laws and Politics
• Education
• Economics & Business
• Environmental/Animal/Ecosystem Concerns
• Medical & Scientific Issues

If you would like to volunteer for one or both days, please use this form to sign up and we will contact you with more details as the event is planned. 

We recognize that this kind of life changing opportunity is “out of the box” learning for most schools and that you are sure to have questions.  To help facilitate the answering of those questions, we have set up this Google Form that will allow you to ask any questions about the process.  The most frequently asked/most compelling questions will be answered directly by Angela Maiers and/or Mr. Podraza/Mr. Chace in a live and recorded video chat that will be shared with you when completed.

In closing, I would like to express my gratitude to all members of the East Greenwich High School Community who have worked, and continue to work, so hard to build our school's culture to the point that this opportunity is now not only viable, but a reality. Thank you for your support of our students, our educators, and our community as we work to achieve and live up to the Mission and Core Values of East Greenwich High School.

-Go Avengers!

EGHS School Counseling Office Mid-Year Update

Hello to all parents and students of EGHS,

It has been a busy fall it is hard to believe we are nearing the halfway mark of the school year!  To keep you informed of what has been happening in the guidance office some updates are listed below:

All freshmen students attended a presentation by the Warwick Technical and Career Center during Advisory in December.   Every year several students opt to continue their education at the career center.  Any student wishing to visit for a day to determine if this is something of interest is welcome to do so and only needs to stop by guidance to pick up a parental permission form so arrangements can be made.

All but a remaining few sophomore students have participated in a guidance led online career lesson.  Emphasis on this lesson was to investigate a career of interest that would have potential job stability and/or growth in the next ten years.  Most all students felt comfortable enough with the website to go back on their own to continue investigating careers and job growth both in RI and in the US.  The website is www. mynextmove.org and includes an interest inventory along with career information.

During vacation while all of us were enjoying some down time, Mrs. Mong was busy scheduling the yearly Junior Post High School Planning meetings that will start later this month.  All junior year parents and students will be mailed an invitation to a pre-scheduled (during elective or PE/Health period) meeting with the student’s counselor to discuss post high school options.  The mailings for these will be staggered so that you receive your invitation two weeks prior to the actual meeting date.  Counselors look forward to meeting with both the student and the parent to discuss future plans.

Prior to the meetings above all juniors will have a group meeting with counselors to review transcripts and discuss some basic post high school planning information that will help jump start this process.

All parents and students are invited to our yearly College Planning Night which will be held on February 6th starting at 6:30 pm in the high school auditorium.   Nancy Eagan, Sr. Associate Dean of Admissions for Providence College will be the speaker.  She offers a very engaging and informative look at the process from the admissions standpoint that is relative to any school to which a student might be applying and not just Providence College.  She is a tremendous speaker!

Seniors do not forget to let Mrs. Mong know of any decisions that you hear from schools to which you applied.  Those decisions help us keep our valuable and useful data book from year to year.  Your decisions are confidential and not reported with your name attached so please help us keep up to date with this information.

College bound seniors will want to encourage parents to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA as soon as possible and it is suggested this be done by early February.  The form is online and colleges use this information to determine amounts of financial aid offered to families to offset college costs.  The website is: https://fafsa.ed.gov/

Seniors this is the time of year that almost every college to which you have applied will be requesting your mid-year grades.  Since we will have close to 1000 transcripts that will be processed and sent out it is imperative that you let us know if there is a school for which you do not want your mid-year grades sent.  However, you would have to know for sure that they are not required and this would most likely be an exception and not the rule.  If this is the case, please let Mrs. McCowan or Mrs. Mong know this immediately if you choose not to send this information.

We have a celebrity among us!  Anne Marie Flaherty was a guest speaker on Rhode Island PBS along with a panel of professionals addressing the college application process.  Stay tuned for the date and time that the program will be aired.

As always, we are here to support students as they navigate the high school years!   

EGHS Drama to Perform "Footloose"

EGHS Drama is pleased to announce the performance of "Footloose" on Thursday 1/30/14 at 7pm, Friday 1/31/14 at 7pm, Saturday 2/1/14 at 1pm and 7pm.

For a listing and head shots of the EGHS cast, please click here.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Drama-icon.svg

We look forward to seeing you!

Break-a-leg Avengers!