Friday, May 2, 2014

5 Stars to County Honor Band

This past Saturday, many enjoyed an outstanding performance by our County Honor Band students. With a mere 14 hours of work, the 62 member ensemble magnificently performed 5 never-before played pieces.  Ms. Debbie Baker,  Associate Director of Bands at Hilcrest High School in Tuscaloosa was the guest conductor.  Ms. Baker was most impressed by our students!  Great job Mr. Chance, Mr. Turner, and Mr. Mabry.    Thank you BHS for hosting the event. 

4-H Public Speaking Contest

The 4-H County Public Speaking Contest was held on, April 21, at the Crenshaw County Courthouse.  Below are the county winners.

Austin Herring Skypes in For Lessons

Austin Herring, a second grader at Highland Home School, had hip surgery on March 31st. After great discussion and planning for his lessons, it was decided that Austin would skype in daily for his lessons. With the help of Mrs. Sherry Sport, Austin's family and teachers were able to Skype.  Mrs. Tara Bailey-Day skypes with Austin in the mornings for reading.  Mrs. Kim Best skypes him in the afternoons for Math.  Austin's friends think it is very exciting to see their classmate on the iPad each day.  Austin seems to be healing nicely.  He still has a long road to recovery and is taking it in stride with a smile on his face.  Keep up the good work Austin.  

(Blog posting per parents permission)
Mrs. Tara Bailey-Day and Austin
Mrs. Kim Best and Austin

Amanda Fang Wins Smiths Scholarship

Congratulations to Amanda Fang!  She is the recipient of the prestigious Smith Scholarship.  Amanda was selected as 1 of 26 state recipients based on her interests, needs, and academic accomplishments. The scholarship will provide for her tuition, on-campus room, board, and books, up to $15,000 per school year. She is required to attend a study abroad or study away program that is subject to Foundation guidelines.  Amanda will be assigned a Foundation Mentor to help navigate through institutional and administrative requirements. She must continue to maintain good grades, attend tutoring, perform volunteer work, attend seminars and submit extensive re-applications and Foundation administrative paperwork. She must select a college major and complete her education within the four years  to maintain this scholarship.
  
On May 10, 2014, Amanda will attend an awards ceremony at the Southside Church in Birmingham at 2:00 PM.  Upon arrival, she will receive a black robe and be photographed with other recipients.

Amanda plans to attend Auburn University.  

Congratulations Amanda!  You are most deserving!
Amanda Fang

Coach Claude Giddens Returns to HHS

After being gone for nearly 15 years, Coach Claude Giddens returned to the helm of HHS football. Coach Giddens coached the Flying Squadron from 1996-2000.  He coached the Fly Boys in their first ever play-off appearance and led them to the semi-finals. Coach Giddens and Mrs. Denise Giddens attended a warm welcome ceremony this past Saturday.  Preliminary reports are that there are more than 75 young men out for spring training.  For more, see The Luverne Journal.

Booster Scott Thierfelder, Coach Giddens, and Mrs. Denise Giddens

Teacher Technology Resolution

So your desktop is antiquated?  Are you tired of the slowness, the lack of reliability, have you shut down and started over your last time?  Perhaps....

Your IT Department has been working tirelessly, locating a doable device to meet all of your needs.

We are taking your Windows 98 computers and replacing them with the all new ASUS ChromeBox. (For those of you unwilling to give up the dinosaur, too bad,  it is no longer virus protected and is a danger to all that we have on the network...please put the contents on a thumb drive and say your good-byes.)

What's in the box?  -a wireless ChromeBox, wireless keyboard with numeric keypad and mouse, and 21.5" screen.  The only necessary wires are the HDMI cable and two electrical chords.

Who is receiving?  -all certified staff

When are we receiving them?  Soon and very soon...

ChromeBox with 4 USB Ports, HDMI Port,
CAT Five Port, and SV Video Card Port

ChromeBox- 16 GB of Space
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

For All of Us Who Are 39 Years of Age-  A 21.5" Screen

Students, Get this Free App!

Students, your IT Department highly recommends that you download this free app.  It is free this week only.

Click the link:  Notability



Welcome to Notability, a powerful note-taker on iPad and iPhone: sketch ideas, annotate documents, sign contracts, complete worksheets, keep a journal, record a lecture, jot travel notes, or teach a class. With iCloud support, your notes always travel with you! 

Write, illustrate and annotate using gorgeous ink. Notability's zoom window helps you quickly and clearly draw every detail, while the palm rest protects your notes from unwanted marks. Choose the right pen and paper for any project. 

Import forms, contracts, worksheets, documents, presentations, and even books; then use the same tools that help you take beautiful notes in Notability to mark up PDFs. Do you have files in other formats such as doc or ppt? Notability can import these too thanks to Google Drive. 

Type an essay, create an outline, fill out an application, or make a list with Notability's advanced word processor. Choose a font, style, color, and size that enhances your work. Even place text exactly where you want using text boxes. 

Replay your notes! Everything you type, write or add to your note is linked to the audio recording, giving you more context than ever when reviewing. Just tap play and watch your note unfold. Want to jump to a specific point in the recording? Tap a word with the navigation tool and you’ll go to that point in the recording.

Finding information quickly is an important part of note-taking. Use search to quickly locate notes by title or content. On iPad, bookmark pages of a note, filter a PDF by annotated pages, or search your note for a keyword in the page navigator. 

Organize your notes by subject in the library and automatically backup all of your work to Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, or webDAV. Also, use these services, plus email, Airdrop, and twitter, to share your Notability files with colleagues, classmates, students or teachers. iCloud will ensure that all of your notes are automatically up to date on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. 

Notability gives life to your ideas, stores your notes, and improves your memory and organization. We hope you enjoy using it as much as we do.