"One Book, One Community" Summer Reading at CHS

This short video explains the reasoning behind the new summer reading initiative at CHS as well as how it will work when we come back to school in Fall 2013. Thanks to all the students who were interviewed specially Reanna Penn who spent a lot of time and effort editing, re-editing, rendering, and listening to Courtney say "jazz" during the making of this video!
 

HTHS Freshmen Participate in #coverflip!

In English class the HTHS freshmen read Maureen Johnson’s awesome essay, “The Gender Coverup“, wherein she takes a look at gendered book covers and calls to task those who think there are  ”boy” books and “girl” books.

After reading the article and viewing the slideshow, the students were challenged to attempt their own #coverflip.

From Maureen Johnson's Tumblr.   

1. Take a well-known book. (It’s up to you to define well-known.)

2. Imagine that book was written by an author of the OPPOSITE GENDER. Or a genderqueer author. Imagine all the things you think of when you think GIRL book or BOY book or GENDERLESS book (do they EXIST?). And I’m not saying that these categorizations are RIGHT—but make no mistake, they’re there.

3. Now, COVERFLIP! Make the new cover and put it online. Tweet or Tumbl it with the tag #coverflip. 

In groups, the students decided on a book that they felt had a cover that appealed more to one gender than necessary.  Then, they searched for Creative Commons images that they could use to create a new cover.  In photoshop, they designed their new book cover with either a more neutral cover or one that appealed to gender stereotypes.  Take a look at what they came up with!

National History Day

Please spend the next nine minutes watching BTHS junior Grace Huang's documentary about the impact that Snow White and the Seven Dwarves had on the animation industry. Grace made this documentary as part of National History Day. She participates in this competition on her own, with no supervision from teachers; it is a true independent project. What's even more impressive is that even without an official school sponsorship, Grace moved on to states with this video! This is just one more example of how awesome MCVSD students are!

Promoting Safety in the Workplace While Highlighting MCVSD Vocational Programs

The SkillsUSA club at Communications High School recently submitted the video below  to CareerSafe's National Youth Safety Video Contest.  The PSA video conveys their message related to youth safety in the workplace while showcasing the vocational programs in our district.  Now that the judges have chosen our submission as one of the 15 finalists, the public needs to vote. Please help us win $5,000 and vote for video #6 at the following website: https://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/cwlru

CHS Literary Magazine - Spring Issue

Click on the image below to see the newest issue of the Literary Magazine from Communications High School! (Check out submissions from one of our faculty members, Mrs. Harmon.)

6-word memoirs en español

As part of Sra. Olsen's Spanish unit on family structure and relationships, students watched Francis Ford Coppola’s My Family.  The film also tied into their previous unit:  immigration.  The assignment was to write a 6-word memoir as one of the characters from the movie and make a web page using basic HTML.  Here is the link to the Mozilla Thimble page (courtesy of the National Writing Project) we used as a guide.

Click here to take a look at some samples of the beautiful work that Biotech students completed!

CHS New Media Podcasts

Students in the New Media class must produce a podcast during the 8 week course.  The following 2 podcasts discuss life in high school and at CHS from the students' perspectives.

Things You Do in Class That Aren't Class - Billie & Caroline
Fact or Fiction: Do High School Stereotypes Transfer to an Academy - Muggsy & Abby