I hope everyone enjoyed a glimpse of summer-like weather this week. I sure did!
This week I found out that we will be hosting a young lady from Brazil in our Rotary Inbound Exchange Student Program. More details will be forthcoming.
Thank you to everyone who is supporting the American Lung Association by pledging for the Mequon Fire Department Team and for Mark Hauschel. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.
Last, but not least - thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for supporting Mark H in his efforts to get a handle on the Clubs books and finances. He and his wife have committed many hours of their family time in this effort. He and Sue deserve acknowledgement and our appreciation. Please continue to work with him, things will be running smooth again soon. And please get your 1st quarter dues in ASAP.
Upcoming Events:
Sat Mar 21 - American Lung Association Fight for Air Climb
Sat March 21 - Casino Night at Elite Fitness - benefit to support Gathering on the Green and Performing Arts Education Programs
Friday March 27 - BBBS Bowling for Kids 6:30 - 10:00 pm
Monday March 30 - Oconomowoc Rotary’s “Rotary Pheasant Hunt Lunch” (we will post details on the website)
This week’s at MTSR:
This week we are meeting again at the Logeman Center. (If you are the greeter and want to have the lockbox combo for your arrival, contact me. Elisabeth is out of town this week)
Connie Pukaite will be speaking, re-introducing herself a bit for the benefit of some of our newer members and refreshing us on the history of Rotary and Mequon’s Rotary Park. You’ll definitely want to be there.
As always, the schedule for Greeter, Thought of the Day and Rotary Minute are accessible (click here). Please be prepared when it is your turn and find a replacement if you are unable to attend when you are scheduled.
Homestead High School reverses decision to restructure final exams
By Jeff Rumage
Mequon - Homestead High School officials are reversing a new final exam policy due to concerns from the community.
Homestead High School Principal Brett Bowers first announced changes to the school's final exams in a letter to parents on March 10. In that letter, Bowers said the school's leadership team wanted to improve final exams by increasing the amount of feedback a student receives from their teacher.
To allow time for that feedback, the leadership team suggested final exams be spaced out over time instead of lumped together in a two-day period.
"There is no need for all culminating assessments across the school to be done on the same two days," Bowers said. "In fact, this system encourages cramming and puts artificial stress and pressure on students, which can impede learning and retention."
Additionally, Bowers said paper-and-pencil tests — while still allowable under the proposed restructuring — would not be the expected norm at Homestead. He proposed that final exams need not occur in an "on-demand format" and could instead be better served by a research paper or another form of assessment completed outside of class.
Those changes to the final exam structure raised eyebrows in the community, causing some to believe Homestead was lowering its academic expectations. Some parents also expressed concerns Homestead was going too far to reduce student stress.
On Monday, March 16 — six days after announcing the new final exam policy — Bowers said he and other district officials have decided to drop the proposed exam changes and keep the existing exam structure for the 2015-2016 school year.
In another letter to parents, Bowers said he regrets "the unproductive attention this topic received in the community this week.
"Please know that improved student learning within a system of high expectations was the exclusive objective for the proposed changes — adjusting the calendar to give students the opportunity for feedback from their teachers after completing a final exam, giving a final presentation or submitting a final paper. I applaud the Homestead faculty for their willingness to adjust our internal systems with the intention of reaching that outcome."
On the third-largest island in Fiji, 17-year-old Asenaca Sepa dreams of becoming a nurse. Her classmate, Laisenia Kidia, wants to study marine biology. The teens are students at Bucalevu Secondary School on Taveuni Island. Its rich soil and abundant flora have earned it the nickname “the garden island.” Waterfalls and breathtaking sunsets make Taveuni a travel destination, yet besides encounters with tourists, the islanders live in relative isolation. The government is the main employer; most other jobs involve unskilled agricultural labor. Only about 30 percent of students graduate from high school. About 10 percent go to university. Poverty and poor infrastructure limit access to advanced technology.
This lack of technology in schools worried members of the Rotary Club of Taveuni Island, who want to ensure students find employment or go on to college, says club member Geoffrey Amos. “We want them to go into the market with computer skills.”
Working with Auckland University of Technology and the Rotary clubs of Newmarket, Botany East Tamaki, and Ellerslie Sunrise, New Zealand, Taveuni Island Rotarians launched a project to provide 70 computer tablets to Bucalevu Secondary School and nearby Niusawa Methodist High School. They received matching funds from districts 9920 and 9970, and partial funding from a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant. (Matching Grants have since been phased out; learn more about Foundation grants at www.rotary.org/grants.)
Rotary scholar Kelsi Cox, a Canadian studying in New Zealand, led a team that trained teachers and students how to use the tablets. “These small things hold a world of information, and can take these young people to places far beyond the classroom,” she says.
The teens took to the devices immediately. “It’s like having 100 textbooks,” Sepa says. During the training, the group used a science app to study cell structure. “After looking at the pictures today, and at all the cells and definitions, I get a clear picture of what a cell really is,” she notes. Kidia adds that what he’s learning on the tablet will help prepare him for university.
The devices are preloaded with an array of educational apps, as well as tools for students to record songs and take video, allowing them to document their lives and culture outside the classroom.
“It’s what they need to empower their community so they can create positive changes for the future,” Cox says. Those changes are already occurring: Amos reports that on 2014 achievement tests, students had higher pass rates than before. They also showed improved computer skills, which will help them continue their education or find jobs. - Stuart Cleland
As you may have heard, I am participating in the Fight for Air Climb on March 21 at the US Bank building downtown Milwaukee.
This is an awesome fund raiser. Would you like to help me reach my goal of $300 in pledges? It can be as easy as pledging 1 cent per step. To climb the tower there are slightly over 1000 steps so you commitment would be just over $10. I want to make this easy so I will bring a pledge sheet to our meeting Friday.
If you want you can also go to the website www.lung.org or Google Fight for Air Climb Milwaukee and search for my name and donate there.
It is time to register for Tri-Con, the multi-district Rotary conference for the State of Wisconsin! We are planning two full days (Friday, May 15 and Saturday, May 16) of Rotary fun and fellowship, with a closing breakfast on Sunday, May 17. More Information …
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