Superintendent’s Weekly Wrap-up: Sept. 5-12, 2014
Director of Public Relations, Vince Payne, Credited with Building District’s Extensive Web Presence - Over the past five years, we have grown our district web structure, from a few hundred individual pages, to more than 1,000 unique pages. Our users and page views have grown right along with it. We put a focus on teachers creating websites to make their content available on-demand for students and parents, which extends their classrooms beyond the brick and mortar building. Outside of our district, building, and department home pages, our teacher websites receive the most traffic.
Our district is in a unique situation given the size and scope of the Central Ohio media market given that we don't have publications like This Week News or Southeast/Southwest Messenger newspapers to share our information/stories on a regular basis. Our district boundary is blacked out by those kinds of media opportunities. We have to compete for space in The Columbus Dispatch, which is a very difficult task considering central Ohio’s size and scope.
That's what makes www.HamiltonRangers.org and our social media accounts that much more important to our district communications strategy.
- Over the past 12 months, our district website had nearly 1,000,000 pages viewed.
- Our district website visitor demographics are 54% male and 46% female with the primary age ranges between 18-34 (60% of our visitors).
Social Media is an outstanding tool for district communications as well. It is no additional cost and allows us to quickly feed information to our followers and subscribers.
FACEBOOK: www.Facebook.com/HamiltonRangers - Our Facebook page was seeing steady growth until we published our first photo album and "Likes" began to quickly come in. Two years ago, we began duplicating our live football Twitter reports to our Facebook page and our "Likes" grew exponentially. We began the season with 446 "Likes", and by the end of the season, we had nearly 1,000 "Likes". By the end of the school year, we were over 1,200 "Likes" on our Facebook page. Since then, we have grown our audience to 2,312 "Likes", including a 10% increase since mid-August, thanks to our district's recent participation in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The ice bucket challenge video campaign was our best social media effort to date. The program set a record for reach by one post (10,468 - Hamilton Elementary’s Video) and total campaign reach (40,018 people).
Our Facebook demographics are a little different than our district website.
- 70% Women and 30% Men
- Women ages 25-44 (39% of all women) and Men ages 18-34 (18% of all men) are our largest audience segments.
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/HamiltonLocalSD - We launched our Twitter account as another means to reach our stakeholders, primarily our younger student population that prefers it over Facebook. We planned on using it as a way to notify of school closings, delays, etc. Within the first week we went from having nothing to having 238 "Followers". It had gradual growth, finishing the first 12-month cycle with 395 "Followers", but keep in mind that we had a very mild winter that year. Last school year, we went from the 395 up to more than 750 "Followers", and we attribute that to the many snow days that we had due to the bad winter. Our audience grew by more than 200 "Followers" over that winter quarter alone.
Our Twitter demographics skew much younger in age:
Mr. Payne is currently exploring the use of Instagram and LinkedIn as a means to expand our communications reach. Instagram will target more of our student audience and LinkedIn would be used to help recruit candidates for district job openings.
New Early Literacy "Back to School Bags" now available - Four new Back to School Bags supporting early literacy as well as science, math and social studies standards are now available at no charge through INFOhio and the Ohio Department of Education.
Each Back to School Bag focuses on a specific theme:
- Kindergarten-Firemen and Fire Safety;
- Grade 1-Autumn and Johnny Appleseed;
- Grade 2-Habitats; and
- Grade 3-Geography.
Each bag contains:
- A unit lesson plan clearly linked to Ohio's New Learning Standards using INFOhio's online resources;
- Ideas for matching teaching to the learning needs of students and for improving students' tech skills for online testing;
- Ideas for assessment along with ready-made rubrics and graphic organizers; and
- Suggested activities and picture books for further reading and study.
Find them all at http://www.infohio.org/educators/library/toolkit/flyers.
OFFICE OF TEACHING & LEARNING
Art Achievement Awards – On September 8, which falls in National Arts in Education week, the Hamilton Local Board recognized and congratulated the young artists whose works were selected to become part of the district’s permanent art collection. The following students received an “academic achievement in the arts” certificate and their artwork will hang in the halls of the education center: Mia Barrett, Lealand Throckmorton, Evie Young, Trinity Paddy, Gavin Green, Brittney Tackett, Cael Shaw, Maggie Cromer, Teagan Littrell, Breanna Rhodes, Hailey Sewell, Ashley Shiflet, Sydney Duty, and Kiera Flaherty. The collection, which was started in 2009, now includes 83 pieces that exemplify student achievement in visual art. The Board also thanked district art teachers Katie Nunn, Elizabeth Enright, Beth Lutz, Casey Linkinhoker, Theresa Dreiling and preschool teacher Emily King for providing our students with the high quality instruction that results in student success.
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL
College Prep 101 - As part of our HS Postsecondary Action Planning to: Help more students pursue postsecondary education through local college access programs, financial aid advising, scholarship and grant availability advising, career guidance, and other services, the guidance office embarked on teaching a new course for high school seniors, College Prep 101, in which high school counselors Meghann Steele and Jan White, and guidance office assistant (and high school staff member of the year) Caley Stevens work with college bound seniors during 3rd period to explore college options, research college majors, understand the application process for scholarships, grants, and loans, learn time management and decision making skills, and prepare for the ACT and SAT. The class is offered during 1st semester as an elective option for high school seniors who are planning to pursue post-secondary education. Throughout the course, students will be completing college and scholarship applications, take an ACT/SAT, fill out the FAFSA4caster to determine eligibility for federal student aid, embark on college visits, and submit a formal resume along with preparing for a professional interview. The goal throughout this course is for students to acquire the skills to investigate the world of work in relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions, to employ strategies to achieve future career goals with success and satisfaction, and to understand the relationship between personal qualities, education, training and the world of work. College Prep 101 is currently enrolling 75 students.
Ohio Army National Guard Addresses Finances - On Wednesday, Sgt. Mullen, Ohio Army National Guard presented to all HTHS Personal Finances classes. Sgt. Mullen focused on Planning and Money Management, Financial Responsibility, and Decision Making competencies. His expertise is in credit and mortgages however he had students focus on personal budgets throughout several activities. Thank you Sgt. Mullen.
Observe Patriot Day 2014 - Patriot Day is an annual required observance to remember those who died or were injured during the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
The HTHS Social Studies Department has collaborated between grade levels so that on each observed Patriot Day, each grade level and student will receive information and material on varying topics as it pertains to the appropriate grade level. This allows the department to cover more material without being repetitive.
At the 9th grade level: A historical foundation and background of 9/11 will be established. This includes describing the events of 9/11and its groundwork.
At the 10th grade level: Students will build upon prior knowledge regarding the historical background of the events leading up to 9/11. We will be exploring primary and secondary sources from people that lived through and lost family members during the attack. Also providing video clips to enhance understanding of content.
At the 11th/12th grade level: Student lesson will explore the political decision-making process that took place at the city, state, and national levels during and after the attacks in order to analyze the effectiveness and ability to the intended goal of pertinent policy.
As ordered by Ohio Governor John R. Kasich, HTHS flew their flags at half-staff and at 8:46 a.m., all staff and students had a moment of silence to honor the innocent Americans and people from around the world who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
HAMILTON MIDDLE SCHOOL
Congratulations! - The Middle School would like to congratulate Daniel Hayner and Mrs. Kate Mayhew for being chosen as the Ohio Lottery Student and Teacher of the Month from HMS. Daniel, an 8th grader, was actually nominated by Mrs. Mayhew for the award and Mrs. Mayhew was nominated by the administrative team. Congratulations to these two very deserving honorees!
Getting to Zero makes me the winner! - In Mrs. Wills’ and Mrs. Vincent's Math classes this week, students worked the new Ohio Learning Standards by putting different positive and negative numbers together to try to make zero. They played an integer game that had them pick up and discard different numbers until one person was able to make zero with the 4 cards in their hand. The students referenced the game throughout the week in their class notes and practice work. They were able to play the game multiple times throughout the week as well.
HAMILTON INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL
Remembering 9/11 - At Hamilton Intermediate School, a number of things were accomplished throughout the building to celebrate the Heroes of 9/11. For our Day of Service project the students had a Hat Day. Students gave a $1 donation to wear a hat to school. The collection will be given to the Hamilton Township Fire Department
The 6th grade students discussed the history of 9/11 and created a timeline over terrorist attacks affecting America. Classes watched a video describing how to take positive action in remembrance of 9/11. They also wrote positive actions they will take to make a difference in their community on note cards. Some positive actions mentioned by students volunteering to clean up a park, and donating movies for the community service project this month. Once students complete their positive actions, the note cards will be displayed in the classrooms.
In 5th grade, the students read books and discussed the events of the day and watched a short video commemorating the13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
In 4th grade, students discussed the events of 9/11 and showed a video to help better understand what happened on that day. They then wrote letters to servicemen and women who are now serving in the military.
Method To The Science - Do you know how many drops of water will fit on the surface of a penny? Do you know if an expensive paper towel will absorb more water than a cheaper brand? Our 4th graders have been experimenting using the Scientific Method to find out the answers to these questions.
HAMILTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
HES to Add Additional Staff – Due to an increase in enrollment, the Elementary school will be adding one additional teacher to Kindergarten and 2nd grade. Mr. Tyler, Dr. Witten and Mr. Lester have been working a staffing plan and interviewing candidates. The goal is to have highly qualified teachers in place in the near future. Look for more to come on this topic next week!
Elementary Students Receive Training on Bus Safety – Hamilton Local Transportation Director Barbara Haughn worked with Elementary School Technology Technician Teresa Mershon to streamline our Bus Safety program. This year, instead of calling students down for an assembly, which can often be time consuming, the Elementary teachers were able to show students the Bus Safety Video in their classrooms. Teachers were able to discuss the importance of bus safety in a more meaningful and smaller classroom environment v/s an assembly format. In addition to our Bus Safety presentation, every bus practiced a rear door evacuation drill. Teaching our students safety procedures such as staying seated and waiting at the designated safety spot are a vital part of their education. Our staff did an excellent job with the presentation and our students are safer as a result. Mr. Tyler and Dr. Conley received many positive emails from staff regarding this years’ bus safety presentation.
HAMILTON PRESCHOOL
Fall Fundraiser - Our annual fall fundraiser will run from September 15, 2014 through Friday, September 31, 2014. Money raised will go directly to the preschool students. We are planning on purchasing center activities, outdoor recess equipment, and books for our Library. Flyers will be coming home soon! Thanks to all the families who are willing to help with this fundraising activity.
Fire and Safety Drills - Students participated in the first all school fire drill on Friday 12, 2014. The students did an outstanding job listening and following in line during this practice drill. All staff members are trained on any needed safety drills at the Preschool. Safety and the well being of all students is always our first priority.
DEPARTMENT OF ATHLETICS
Varsity Football Defeats Licking Heights 56-21, Receives Multiple Recognitions - The Rangers traveled Licking Heights to avenge one of their 2013 losses Licking Heights Friday night. The Rangers rolled to a 56-21 win lead by senior running back Aaron Williams 6 touchdowns. The Rangers defense only allowed 6 first downs on the night. The Rangers move to 2-0 and host Worthington Kilbourne on September 12th. This game will mark Hamilton Township Department of Athletics Annual Military Appreciation Night.
The Rangers were selected as the NBC4/National Guard Team of the Week for their performance against Licking Heights. Additionally Senior Aaron Williams will be recognized this week as an Athlete of the Week by the Columbus Dispatch for his performance last week. Aaron has accumulated 11 TDs in the first two weeks of action. This will be published in the Dispatch on Saturday September 13th. The Rangers are also ranked 2nd in the JJHuddle/NBC4 Central Ohio Power Poll and 16th in the National Guard Division II Ohio statewide poll.
Varsity Volleyball Improves Overall Record to 9-2 - The Lady Rangers Varsity Volleyball team improved to 9-2 on the season with wins against Utica and Amanda-Clearcreek this week. The Rangers are ranked 18th in the Division II Ohio High School School Volleyball Coaches’ Association poll. The Rangers are also ranked in the Top 10 for the Central Ohio poll.
HS and MS Cross Country Travels to Westfall - The HS and MS Boys’ and Girls’ Cross Country teams competed at the Adam Carter Invitational Tuesday at Westfall High School. The boys team placed third overall. Jake Rollins and Khari Berger led the boys team with top ten finishes. Jake ran a PR of 19:22. Khari ran a PR of 19:27. They were followed by Garrick Napier, Austin Mylar with a PR of 23:24, and Donny Rakes with a PR of 23:25. The girls team was led by Madi Rollins who finished in 12th. Madi was followed by Shanelle Hayes, Sophie Little with a PR of 26:46, and Ali Belcher. The boys and girls varsity teams return to action on September 17 at the Whestone Braves Invitational.
The middle school cross country team raced at the Adam Carter invitational at Westfall on Tuesday. The girls' team was led by Christine Shaw who finished 7th overall. Chloe Davis also had a strong performance finishing 9th place and Stefani Dillion finished 26th. On the boys' side, Dain Phillips ran a tough race finishing 42nd overall. Catch the running rangers in action next Saturday when they head to Pickerington Central.
Girls' Tennis Defeats Fisher Catholic - Girls' Tennis defeated Fisher Catholic Thursday evening 5-0. Wins came from senior Danielle Rodriguez at first singles 6-1, 6-1, junior Khloee Rowe at second singles 6-3, 6-2 and the third singles court was won by default. At first doubles senior Alisa Askew and junior Brandy Garrett won 6-2, 6-4 and at second doubles juniors Heather Boyer and Destiny Grandstaff won 6-4, 6-0. The Lady Rangers are now 5-2 in league play and 7-6 overall.
UPCOMING EVENTS
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