Jumping Jacks for Math

The best part of my job is when I get to be in the classroom. On Tuesday I got to go into lots of classrooms and observe a ton of really cool lessons. One of those lessons was being done by Mrs. Hargrove's 7th grade math class.

For this lesson she took the students to the cafeteria. She had them working in teams. While one student did jumping jacks for 2 minutes, another student recorded how many were done every ten seconds. The students then took the information and graphed it, showing how the number of jumping jacks done every ten seconds got less and less as time passed.

One group of students had made the mistake of stopping after a minute and a half, and then restarted for the last 30 seconds after a break. I mentioned what happened to Mrs. Hargrove, and, master teacher that she is, she replied that it would be fine since the graph would spike at that time instead of steadily sloping down. She finished with, "the data always tells the story."

Her flexibility and skill is very typical of the outstanding staff we have here at Cassopolis High School. We have more students here this year than last, by unofficial count over 50 more. Some of that happened because a small class left and and large one entered, but students are also being drawn here by our new Agricultural Science program and 6 other opportunities, a very high number for a school our size, to get college credit without ever leaving the building. The outstanding reputation our teachers and our district continues to build. As it does, we will only see the number of students grow and I am truly humbeled to play my part in it. Before we get to the announcements, here are a few more pictures.

Calendar of Events

• We are holding the second annual Ranger Roll-Out Fun Fair on Sept. 14th, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM before the first Varsity Football game. There will be games, prizes, hot dogs, chips, and veggies, and it's all free! All the parents should be have received a flyer in the mail about it, but we could still use some volunteers to run the booths and games. If anyone is interested in doing so, please contact Michelle Anderson at 445-0541.


• The first Principal Advisory Committee, which will be on September 17th at 5:30 PM in the high school conference room. We still have some spaces, so if you are interested in being a part of it, please contact Mrs. Anderson at 445-0541 or email her at manders1@remc11.k12.mi.us.


• Monday the 17th of September is also Constitution Day. We will be celebrating our Constitution throughout the building!


• The week of the 17th is our first week for tutorials and enrichment, on Wednesday the 19 and Thursday the 20th.


• The first process check for the PDCA model is September 21st. Brooke Hari, Kelly Hargrove and I will bring back what we have learned to the staff.


• September 26th is count day. It is very important that all our students be in school on that day as all our funding for the year is based on how many students are here in the school. Thank you for making every effort to be in the building.


• The University of Michigan representative will be here to talk to interested Junior and Seniors on the 26th and Adrian College will be here on the 27th.

Quote of the Week: "Individual commitment to a group effort-that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, and a civilization work." -Vince Lombardi