BPA Rangers Head to National Competition
For the past several years, Mrs. Kara Myers has not only led our business courses, but also our BPA Program. For those who are not familiar with BPA, BPA stands for Business Professionals of America which is a career technical program quoted as, “A student organization dedicated to the preparation of global professionals through the advancement of leadership, citizenship, academic & technological skills.” Students get the chance to compete in various competitions, become officers that lead community events, and advance basic fundamental life skills. Senior Isaiah Bolyard and sophomore U-sa Vayavong have worked vigorously over the course of this school year as BPA competitors and both recently accomplished an outstanding achievement in receiving first place in their presentation categories in order to qualify for the national BPA competition.
Isaiah explained that there are usually a very broad range of topics to choose from, each meeting a person’s skills and interests. Isaiah stated, “I chose ‘Extemporaneous Speech’ which, by definition means ‘spoken or done without preparation.’ You receive two topics on the spot, choose which one you would like to present with, prepare for ten minutes, and give a speech based off of that prompt from two to four minutes total. This requires a student to be witty and work well ‘on their toes,’ a drastic difference from the prepared competitions other students participate in. Fun fact: Extemporaneous Speech is currently the ONLY fully un-prepared event in BPA.”
U-sa stated, “I competed in the ‘Entrepreneurship’ which is where students have to create a business plan for a start-up company. My objective is to present my business to potential investors in hopes of securing a loan or any other investments. If you think about it, it’s a bit like Shark Tank.”
When asked to reflect on their journey to the state BPA competition, U-sa said, “Before I made it to states, I had to make it past regionals. For the first term, I had to develop the foundation for my business plan and then submit my final copy. This was probably the most stressful part for me since I started with a blank slate and had to come up with pages worth of valuable information. Then, I worked on my presentation part and hoped that the judges liked my plan. They did, and I won. So, I then had to revise my business plan, which we ended up submitting an hour before the deadline. Afterward, I worked on my presentation part that didn’t quite pull through until the last minute. I felt a ton of different emotions throughout this journey, but I am happy to have made it this far.” Isaiah reflected, “State was such a great experience. The trip was joined with PENTA Career Center so we were able to make new friends from other schools. Any school-related trip is so much fun because of all the passionate and friendly staff that volunteer their time to make it awesome for us. Also, the location was in Columbus at the Convention Center, so there were many new things for us to see.”
Reminiscing about their reaction to receiving first place at the state competition, Isaiah expressed, “Because I chose a competition that specialized in my areas of strength (talking and wits) I was confident of a ‘Top 10’ placement. When my name was announced as first place, I was so surprised and filled with pride and joy. A huge reason I was so happy is because I wasn’t just winning for me, I was winning for our local area, Northwood specifically, and above all, Mrs. Myers.” U-sa added, “When my name was announced, I glanced back at the board to see if it was actually me who had won it. I was initially shocked that I was able to get first place. I remembered all of the time and effort I put into my project, but I also remembered that there were a lot more people that went into this win which makes me grateful.”
Isaiah and U-sa now must begin preparing for the national competition, which will take place the first week of May in Anaheim, California at Disneyland! U-sa has her mind set on perfecting her presentation. She stated, “There are two parts for my competition, the business plan, and the presentation. I am very excited to say that my business plan, the hardest part, scored almost perfectly meaning I won’t have to spend as much time on that. So I’ll be working on perfecting my presentation until I can say it in my sleep and I will need to prepare to answer the judges’ questions.” Isaiah’s preparation process includes having several mock competitions and presenting them to the Accounting class. When asked what they are most excited about in regards to the national competition, U-sa said, “I am excited to compete and to be in California! I am hoping to win the first place title again at nationals, but I am just glad that I am able to have this experience.” Isaiah added, “I am most excited to spend a week in a completely new part of the country and represent Northwood from so far away. BPA allows you to build lasting relationships with other student and other advisors and the opportunity to travel across the country.”
U-sa concluded by adding, “I could never have done this without the help and long nights working with Mrs. Myers. She dedicated her time because she believed that I could do it, despite the times where I had many mental breakdowns trying to juggle all of my activities and schoolwork. There were also many teachers, friends, and family who have given support and input into my project, which I truly appreciated. I really hope that future students find the business program to be enjoyable and that next year we can take more students!”
Funny Jokes and Puppet Shows in Mrs. Nice’s Classroom
Have you heard a good joke lately? We have in Ms. Nice’s second grade classroom!
Our class has been working hard to improve our writing skills. An important part of answering questions involves restating the question. What better way to do that than writing jokes! After being asked a joke, students had to restate the joke in their answer. Then the fun really started!
After practicing their jokes, each student made a sock puppet video. They recorded their voices with one puppet asking the joke. Then, the other sock puppet restated the joke and added the punchline. They were able to modify their voice for each puppet making it lower or higher in pitch, as they preferred. They also had the fun of selecting their own scene for the puppets to have as their backdrop.
Everyone did a great job and we had a lot of fun creating puppet shows and sharing them with each other.
PROM 2019 INFORMATION:
NORTHWOOD/WCESC PRESCHOOL PRE-REGISTRATION
The Northwood/Wood County Preschool, operated in collaboration with the Wood County Educational Service Center, is pre-registering for the 2019-20 school year.
The preschool programs are developmentally appropriate, play-based preschools supporting the Ohio Department of Education’s model curriculum. The Wood County Preschool Program is an inclusionary preschool program serving children ages 3–5 who have delays in development and children who are typically developing. Tuition, based on a sliding-fee scale, is charged for children without special needs. Children attend preschool two full days per week (either Tues/Thurs or Wed/Fri).
Please contact Naomi at nstickles@wcesc.org or 419-354-9010, ext. 133 to get on the 2019-20 mailing list. Parents who have questions regarding children who may have special needs can also contact Naomi.
KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION:
NES CARNIVAL INFORMATION:
- Fri. March 29th: NES Carnival, 5:30pm -7:30pm
- Mon. – Fri. April 1st – 5th: NES Testing Week
- Tues. April 2nd: NEO Marcos Pizza Night
- Mon. – Fri. April 8th – 12th: NES and NHS Testing Week
- Fri. – Mon. April 19th – 22nd: Spring Break
- Tues. April 23rd: Teacher In-Service Day – No School for Students
- Tues. – Sat. April 23rd – 27th: Junior and Senior NYC Trip
- Sat. May 4th – Prom, 7pm
- Mon. May 6th – HS Academic Awards, 6pm
- Thurs. May 16th – Seniors’ Last Day
- Fri. May 17th – Senior Awards, 1:30pm
- Fri. May 24th – Graduation Practice, 12pm
- Sun. May 26th – Class of 2019 Graduation, 1:30pm
Did you know that this week is National Bus Safety Week? This year’s theme, “My Driver – My Safety Hero,” reminds motorists, students and school bus drivers the important role they each have in ensuring children’s safety.
These students are currently developing a merchandising product mix for the school coffee shop. Students find actual vendors and quotes for the products needed to run the store (cups, equipment, flavoring, baked-goods, napkins, signs, coffee, etc.) as well as costs for merchandise students anticipate selling such as travel mugs, lanyards, and spirit wear. 
Mrs. Myers added that these Ranger Entrepreneurship students have the opportunity to earn college credit through the CTAG program. She concluded, “Students most enjoy being able to design the logos for each product and are amazed at the number of items needed to ‘just sell coffee.’ Students also enjoy creating survey questions to ask students, teachers, and staff that provides valid data to drive their business decisions.”
Mrs. Reiter explained that students are researching, reading, and writing all about spiders. Students started by reading and researching different books on EPIC and using the internet. They picked five amazing facts about spiders and wrote them down on a graphic organizer. They then wrote two opinions 
proper capital letters and punctuation.
Ms. Nice continued, “We have practiced teamwork too, working together to research 14 different kinds of penguins on our iPads and in books so that we could write research reports about their characteristics and habitats. When our research was completed, we wrote books using the facts that we learned about our penguins.” Students had a lot of fun working together, reading books for one another, and finding out lots of new information about these birds! The second graders also loved watching videos of penguins living on the land and swimming underwater in their natural habitats! “Penguins are a big hit in our classroom,” concluded Ms. Nice. 
Mrs. McKanna’s fifth grade ELA students are currently focusing on preparing for the Spring AIR tests. Students are spending time reviewing the skills that they have been working on all year. Mrs. McKanna explained that students have collected notes in their interactive notebooks throughout the year. Now, they are going through the table of contents and reviewing the skills listed. Additionally, students are working on an opinion essay using the OREO format in order to remember all of the aspects required to write an effective opinion essay. The “O” stands for opinion, the “R” for reason, the “E” for explanation, and the final “O” is for restating the opinion. Students have even gotten creative enough to pack two additional “R’s” and “E’s” to make a triple-stuffed OREO! Of course, students have also indulged in a few delicious OREO cookies along the way! 
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Mrs. McKanna added that as the testing days draw near, it is important for each student to remember to get a lot of rest each night, eat a great breakfast, and come to school prepared to focus. Each student will need headphones for the testing weeks, and they will need to have their iPads fully charged every day! Mrs. McKanna concluded, “We have worked so hard all year and soon we will be able to show what we know!”
“Between the Wars.” This project focused on the Great Depression. It is an important focus for students because as Mr. Donegan explains, “through studying the time between the wars, students will understand why twenty years after World War I, another, more deadly, war began.” 
For the “Between the Wars” class project, students had the option to create board games, parody songs, videos, posters, blog/journal entries, and websites about the causes of the Great Depression, life during the Great Depression, and the effects of the Great Depression. Students enjoyed the ability to use their creativity to display their knowledge about the subject. One group made a board game with rules similar to the game of “Life,” however, it typically had a much more bleak ending. Another group made a “Headbands”-style game that provided words or phrases about the Great Depression. The other members of the group had to offer clues to help them solve the problem. Finally, another group made a poster illustrating the causes of the Great Depression!
this, the students collected samples from places and things around the school. Mrs. Geerken explained, “We each inoculated our own nutrient agar petri dishes and labeled the dishes with the areas we collected our samples from. Over the next couple of days, we observed and documented the growth of bacteria (and fungi). We then analyzed our results and compared them to each of our hypotheses and learned that the samples we thought would grow the most bacteria sometimes did not grow the most. We each created our own graphs of the data we collected using the Numbers app. In the end, we came together and compared our results and discussed the reasons why we got the results that we did.” 
want to read and write.” Coming soon, will be a fun unit on maps and globes where students will make their own paper mache globes and highlight features of the globe. Mrs. Susor added, “We will also cover an annual favorite when we do our Kindergarten Market for the goods and services unit.” 
the book, the children were instructed to make a Pilgrim or Native American doll by using a clothespin. Mrs. Hammel assigned her students the exact assignment, and the product can be seen on display in Pod C! Mrs. Hammel stated, “We are in awe at the creativity that many children used when constructing the dolls!”
Mrs. Hammel went on to explain further that 
Students spent the entire month of October planning their novels for NaNoWriMo. Students completed various graphic organizers and writing activities to get them thinking about their protagonist, setting, and major conflicts. They even had a guest speaker, 2017 alumni of the year and published author, Sean DeLauder, who spoke to them about the rules of writing and how to successfully break them! 
are associated with NaNoWriMo. Students use the Schoology discussion board to update word counts and to answer exit slips. Writing assignments involve turning in about 500 to 1,000 words at a time,” said Mrs. Toflinski. She added that students have also been using FlipGrid to record video reflections regarding their NaNoWriMo progress. “It’s fun for the students because the videos only have to be about a minute in length and students can use SnapChat filters while recording the videos. Once the videos are uploaded to the grid, they can see everyone else’s video reflections.” Students were also able to use the Canva app to create their own book covers and back of the book “blurbs.” 
Students have gone through an array of emotions through the first half of the month. “Some students started out very excited and some were very unsure of the entire project, but everyone has been writing!” Mrs. Toflinski added that she is very proud of the progress that students have made in the first half of the month. “It’s great to see their excitement when they reach a mini goal!” Mrs. Toflinski encourages everyone to check out the F Pod where the NaNoWriMo progress chart is located and to continue cheering on the Creative Writing students. A little encouragement goes a long way when taking on such a unique challenge!
Students are working on rereading a story from Journeys in “Read to Someone” and reading an AR book of choice during “Read to Self.” Students are working on vocabulary words in “Word Work” and writing stories that have problems with humorous solutions during, “Work on Writing.” Finally, this week during “Teacher Time,” students are working in small groups learning about decoding words, specifically dividing VCV pattern words into two syllables. 
Mrs. McKanna added that students are using the Daily 5 structure for the very first time this year! Students select the activity that they want to begin with and rotate through the centers over the course of two days. Each student spends 20 minutes in each of the 5 centers. Mrs. McKanna added, “Some weeks we might take part of a third day to finish up any writing that may require additional time or to reteach a concept if needed.” She added that everyone in class enjoys the flexibility of the Daily 5 structure. Mrs. McKanna ended by stating that students have expressed how much they enjoy the independence and choices they have been given. Students also enjoy having small group instruction during “Teacher Time”!
First, it helps build a bank of references for students, as many stories allude to Greek mythology. It can also help with learning terms such as allusion, symbolism, theme, and different word roots. Additionally, it provides students with a chance to compare fact and fiction. Finally, the study of Greek mythology provides students with an opportunity to view life through the lens of the Ancient Greek people. 
So far, students have really enjoyed the Greek Explanation Stations. Mr. Myers explained, “Students are working at three different stations. One focuses on the constellation myths, another contains an article about a supposedly sunken Grecian city, and the final station contains a video that explains why there are volcanoes on Earth. All of these stations are paired with myths that align with each topic!”
Ranger Roundup 