2-24-15 Gryphon Mission Briefing

GRYPHON MISSION BRIEFING

For Tuesday, February 24, 2015

“L” Day Classes

ONE HOUR DELAY SCHEDULE – see bottom of briefing

School Ops:

·      For our first days back to school please take extra caution walking outside – there are a lot of icy patches in the parking lot.  Use rails when coming down stairs and inside doors – the tile floors will be slick!  Also, dress in layers – the heat around the building is very uneven!

·      Freshmen – its your turn to show us what you know about writing!  Wednesday and Thursday we will be administering the MIST Writing Assessment to all Freshmen.  See schedule at bottom of announcements.

·      Gryphon Aquatics finished 7th place at The Tennessee High School State Swim Meet (TISCA)on February 13 - 14th. L& N STEM was the second highest finishing Knox County school!  There were 43 high school teams from all over Tennessee.  L&N STEM had 4 individual State Champions!!!! - James Bretscher was a double winner winning 100 fly and 100 back.  L&N STEM won both the men’s and women’s diving titles -Emily Bretscher won 1 meter diving and Jacob Siler won 1 meter diving.  Other top finalists were Alli Lapps 2nd in 100 back,  Paul Bretscher 4th in 1 meter diving, Cole Patrick 8th in 1 meter diving.  Way to go team!!

·      Attention juniors and seniors: there's only two weeks to purchase prom tickets. They are $50 for singles, and $90 for couples. The tickets can be purchased during all lunches on Wednesday and on early release Fridays. You only have until March 6 to buy both your prom ticket and pay your senior dues! 

·      Who?  2015 Senior Class

What?  Pick-Up Jostens Graduation Orders (cap, gown, other purchased items)

When?  Friday, February 27, 2015

Where?  2:30 p.m. (Early Release Day) L&N Commons

·      Help the Seniors leave a great gift to our school!  Eat at Jason’s Deli on Cumberland Ave this Saturday, Feb 28, from 5:00 – 10:00 p.m. and drop your receipt in the collection box.  We get a portion of all receipts as a donation!

Community Ops: 

·      Please bring in peanut butter – any kind – to contribute to the annual Knox County PTA peanut butter drive for Second harvest food bank.  You can also bring in money – Mr. Powell has an envelope to collect at the front office.

·      High school summer abroad programs available with scholarships to offset the costs.  Go to www.ciee.org/high-school-summer-abroad  for info.

Quote of the day from Langston Hughes:

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.

Practice L&N Habits every day: Collaboration, Critical thinking, Design, Innovation, Inquiry, & Professionalism

L&N STEM Academy – TN’s First Apple School of Distinction, 2-time TN Reward School for Performance (2012 – 2014)

TODAY’S SCHEDULE – NO GENIUS HOUR

1st block            10:30 – 11:45             

2nd block          11:50 – 1:50 (lunch embedded)

         * Stanish’s 2^nd block will meet in room 104

1st lunch            12:20 – 12:50

2nd lunch          12:50 – 1:20

3rd lunch           1:20 – 1:50

3rd block           1:55 – 3:10

4th block           3:15 – 4:30

Here’s the lunch schedule:

1st lunch: 12:20– 12:50

Blevins, Brown, Fannon, Jones, Cartwright, Norton, Jorgenson, Napier

2nd lunch:  12:50– 1:20

Robbins, Griggs, Stanish, Smith, Crattie, Mangone, LaFollette

3rd lunch: 1:20– 1:50

Webb, Knox, Orrick, Elliott, Hawkins, Ogden

9^th grade writing assessment schedule:

Wednesday, Feb. 25th--1st block (students report directly to testing rooms)

Jones' N1 to Media Center


Cartwright's N1 to Media Center

Cartwright's N2 to 104

Displaced Classes: 
Webb's N1 to Room 202

Norton's N2 to Room 213

Wednesday, Feb. 25th--3rd block (students report directly to testing rooms after Genius Hour)

Norton's N3 to Media Center

Jones' N4 to 104

Displaced Classes:
Sera's N3 Digital Music class to Room 213

Wilsey's N4 Astronomy to Room 207

Thursday, Feb. 16th--1st block (students report directly to testing rooms)

Jones' L1 to Media Center

Jones' L2 (Last Names: Sutton-Yeatts) to Media Center

Jones' L2 (Last Names: Archer-Spiller) to 10

2-11-15 Gryphon Mission Briefing

GRYPHON MISSION BRIEFING

For Tuesday, February 10, 2015

“L” Day Classes

School Ops:

·      Sophomore writing test continues today– see schedule at bottom.

·      Seniors – you received an email last night about the senior gift.  If you wish to contribute by check you can make them payable to “L&N STEM Academy, Class of 2015 Statue”

·      Help seniors raise funds for their gift to the school – purchase an “Abraham Hat Pass” to wear your hat this Thursday, Feb 12, all day long in the building in honor of Lincoln’s actual birthday.  Purchase your pass for $1 and all funds go towards the senior gift.

·      Thank you for your participation in yesterday’s college fair at Genius Hour.  Here are some comments we received from the recruiters here: “The reps gave a glowing report about our students. They all gushed that they would be happy to come back to stem anytime and were really impressed with the caliber of students we are producing. Many of the reps mentioned that our sophomores were especially exceptional and said that nearly all of our students asked engaging and intelligent questions.”  Way to go Gryphons!

·      In case you didn’t see it live last night – look for the Twitter chatter from the 1^st ever STEMinar event hosted by our English Dept.  Just look for #STEMinar15.  Great job done by all!

·      SECME (SouthEastern Consortium for Minorities in Engineering) club is selling heart shaped balloons for delivery on Friday.  $2 per balloon.  You can buy them during lunch all week long.

·      Freshman Noah Smith is raising money to attend the National Leadership Conference this summer.  You can buy a World’s Finest Chocolate bar from him when you see him – look for him rolling his cart through the hallways and help him get to D.C. this summer!

·      Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the media center will be offering a match-making service! From Monday, February 9th to Friday, February 13th, come to the media center and let us set you up on a blind date—with a good book! We’re wrapping up some of our books so that you can’t judge them by their covers (or their titles or blurbs). You’ll pick a book based on hints in its personal ad, and you won’t know what book you’ve chosen until you check it out and unwrap it. If you’re willing to take a chance on something new and different, you might just fall in love! (And even if the book you pick isn’t a good match for you, at least you’ll get to unwrap a present; and who doesn’t like finding out what the surprise is under wrapping paper?)

Community Ops: 

·      Until Feb 15^th there will be a collection container in the front office where you are encouraged to bring in any clean, wearable, used jeans.  The retail company Aéropostale is sponsoring a competition among high schools to bring in jeans for distribution at homeless shelters locally and around the country.  There is a grand prize of $5000 for the top four schools’ donations – plan now to contribute – all sizes!

·      Please bring in peanut butter – any kind – to contribute to the annual Knox County PTA peanut butter drive for Second harvest food bank.  You can also bring in money – Mr. Powell has an envelope to collect at the front office.

·      High school summer abroad programs available with scholarships to offset the costs.  Go to www.ciee.org/high-school-summer-abroad  for info.

Quote of the day from Paul Bryant:

Show class, have pride, and display character.  If you do, winning takes care of itself.

Practice L&N Habits every day: Collaboration, Critical thinking, Design, Innovation, Inquiry, & Professionalism

L&N STEM Academy – TN’s First Apple School of Distinction, 2-time TN Reward School for Performance (2012 – 2014)

WRITING ASSESSMENT TESTING FOR 10^TH GRADERS TODAY!

Wed, Feb. 11th during N1 and N2: Report directly to testing location at 9:30

Fannon N2 class to Media Center

Blevins N1 class to 104

Blevins N3 to Mezzanine Lab (M052)

Blevins N4 class - Students with Last Names Abead-Holden to Room 104

                     Students with Last Names James-Poveda to Media Center

Displaced classes: Webb's N1 class to 207 and LaFollette's N1 to G002; Norton's N2 to 202 and LaFollette's N2 to 213

2-4-15 Gryphon Mission Briefing

GRYPHON MISSION BRIEFING

For Wednesday, February 4, 2015

“N” Day Classes

School Ops:

·      Be sure to check out today’s testing schedule below.  Juniors are the ones testing but your class may be displaced. 

·      Class rings are coming!  Josten’s will be here Friday, Feb 6 during lunch in the cafeteria to deliver class rings ordered last fall.  You will receive a collection envelope in the mail and you must pay any remaining balance before you can pick up your ring.  Any sophomore, junior, or senior still wishing to order a class ring may do so on Friday, too.

·      Lost and Found - Please check for clothing and lunch boxes in the commons on the black wire racks or in the Depot between the two sets of entry doors on the main level. Small items or items of value (electronics, jewelry, wallets) are turned in at the front desk in the main office.  We will be donating uncollected items in the next couple weeks – don’t lose your stuff completely!

·      Driver's Permit Requirements - A full list of Driver's Permit requirements can be found on our website under announcements. Remember, state law requires a proof of attendance form (SF 1010 Form). To obtain a SF-1010 Form, email our school social worker, Hillary Keith at least 3 days prior to your test date. She is only in our school Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Her email address is hillary.keith@knoxschools.org

·      The AP Statistics classes are in need of data and input from the student body. Please see the survey opportunities below if you'd like to help in their data collection. 

o   Help out a student's research about high school student's attitudes about feminism! Take the survey here. Email s739155@student.knoxschools.org if you have questions.

o   Here is another short survey, about young adult fiction! Email s728759@student.knoxschools.org or s028925@student.knoxschools.org for more information or if you have questions.

·      We will be having tennis tryouts TODAY immediately after school at Tyson Park tennis complex. Everything should get going by 5:00pm

Please be sure to bring your physical along with proper clothing & tennis racquet. We will have plenty of tennis balls. The length of the tryout will be determined by how many students show up. We will be taking 8 boys & 8 girls on the tennis team.  Direct questions to Coach Orrick at Joshua.orrick@knoxschools.org

·      Do you have cardboard boxes you want to get rid of? Do you have old(clean) T-shirts you don't need? Design Thinking III is in need of build materials. Specifically, they need cardboard and T-shirts. Please deliver materials to Mr. Jones. 

·      HUGE CONGRATS to our swimming and diving Gryphons!  They really shook things up this weekend at the KISL Championships when they won BOTH Boys and Girls Diving Titles and took Third place overall Swimming, beating out traditional powerhouses and coming in only behind two established giants (HVA and Farragut).  Alli Lapps set a new meet record for one of her events, and our boys’ diving took 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, AND 4^th place– way to dominate the competition guys!  The state swim meet is here in Knoxville next weekend.  Plan now to come out and support our swimmers and divers Friday night and Saturday!!

·      Congratulations to L&N’s Ethics Bows team consisting of Kaitlyn Armstrong, Chase Compton, Justin Cross, Madeline Lonas, and Bailey Morgan for taking 2^nd place in the 6^th annual Ethics Bowl this past Saturday! The UT Center For The Humanities and Department of Philosophy hosted the event at the University Center where 15 teams from the East Tennessee area competed. In addition to professors from the University, judges included state Senator Becky Massey and Police Chief David Rausch. The L&N team made up of Mattie Collins, Taylor Flores, Jentry Jones, Hayden Marshall, and Taylor Smith only narrowly missed also making the 3 team final championship round. Mr. Webb would like to commend all these students for representing our school extremely well and bravely presenting their views and convictions in this challenging forum for exchanging ideas. 

·      Walk into a winter wonderland on THIS SATURDAY, February 7th to enjoy one of the best nights of the year. Join SGA for the first annual L&N STEM Academy winter formal.  Tickets are $10 for an individual, and $18 for a couple. They will be sold this week! Suggested attire is semi formal (which usually means a nice dress for girls and a shirt and tie or suit for guys). You won't want to miss the chocolate fountain and a fun night of dancing.

Research Ops:

·      Rising Student and parent Night (9th, 10th, and 11^th grades) + Dual Enrollment Information Session: February 5th 5:30-6:15. Dual Enrollment 6:15-7p General overview of high school expectations and course catalog review to make informed schedule requests for next year, followed by an informational session regarding Dual Enrollment from the Pellissippi representative .

Community Ops: 

·      Until Feb 15^th there will be a collection container in the front office where you are encouraged to bring in any clean, wearable, used jeans.  The retail company Aéropostale is sponsoring a competition among high schools to bring in jeans for distribution at homeless shelters locally and around the country.  There is a grand prize of $5000 for the top four schools’ donations – plan now to contribute – all sizes!

·      Please bring in peanut butter – any kind – to contribute to the annual Knox County PTA peanut butter drive for Second harvest food bank.  You can also bring in money – Mr. Powell has an envelope to collect at the front office.

·      High school summer abroad programs available with scholarships to offset the costs.  Go to www.ciee.org/high-school-summer-abroad  for info.

Quote of the day from Vince Lombardi:

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.

Practice L&N Habits every day: Collaboration, Critical thinking, Design, Innovation, Inquiry, & Professionalism

L&N STEM Academy – TN’s First Apple School of Distinction, 2-time TN Reward School for Performance (2012 – 2014)

TODAY’S TESTING SCHEDULE

Blended Learning or any other classes that meet in the Commons need to move elsewhere or work SILENTLY during testing times!!!

11^th Grade:

Wednesday, February 4^th: N1 and N2

Make-ups: Thursday, February 5^th: L1 and L2 in Media Center

Wednesday, February 4^th: N Day Classes during N1 and N2

English Class	Testing Room	Displaced
Norton’s N2 (24)	Media Center	None
Brown’s N4 (26)	104	Webb’s N1 to 213
Norton’s N1 (14)	2 students in 104; 11 in Media Center on laptops/desks	N/A
Accommodations Testing**: Ext Time (3)	Conference Room (3 laptops)