Under Construction, Again!

Mr. Little, our Construction Tech teacher, has sent  pictures to share with you. The first picture shows Tristan Davis checking out the almost completed storage shed the class has been building.

The second photo is a picture of a drop-off cabinet the class built for the Cedar Ridge Raider Locker. The students who built the cabinet are Phillip Patton and Miles Reeves. They are both in the Advanced Construction Tech class.

Great work, Mr. Little and Construction Tech students!

Students Engineering Prosthetics & Dance Class Is At It Again! EOC Around the Corner...

English EOCs:

Monday, March 30, all freshmen (and any upper classmen who have not passed the Eng I EOC) will be taking the English I End of Course (EOC) state assessment. Wednesday, April 1, all sophomores (and any upper classmen who have not passed the Eng II EOC) will be taking the English II End of Course (EOC) state assessment. Please encourage students to get a good night sleep the night before their test(s). They will be reporting to their testing room as soon as the first bell rings, so please be sure they are to school on time in the morning. The state allows students 5 hours to complete the English I and English II  tests. During state assessments, we request that students who are being tested, not be picked up early for appointments. They should be finished around 2:30 pm.

Concepts of Engineering Fun:

Recently, our Concepts of Engineering class, lead by Ms. Gabler, completed their prosthetic projects. The required criteria for the prosthetic was that it had to be able to shake a hand, lift a full can of soda, and stack 10 marshmallows, all under a minute's time from one foot away. Ms. Gabler was awed by her students' creativity and she stated they were totally inspiring!

 The following was submitted by Ms. Karen Searles- a Cedar Ridge Dance teacher, who by the way, was chosen by the district to participate in next year's NextGen Trailblazer Classrooms due to her creativity and innovative inclusion of technology in to her dance classes.

BALLET PEDAGOGY

Students from Ballet 3-4 traveled to Gattis Elementary School to teach a creative movement dance to the students of Ms. Rodriquez's Pre-K class. The ballet students based their lesson around the current PreK curriculum study of bugs and plants. They chose music, made costumes, prepared props, and divided the roles they would play for each section of class. It was a joy to see the faces of everyone in the room as students of all ages had such an amazing experience. Gattis students tapped into their kinesthetic learning and were exposed to dance as an option in their student careers and the Cedar Ridge students had exposure to careers in the dance field working with young children. We hope to make this a long relationship between the two schools!

CRHS ALUMNI GUEST TEACHER

Cedar Ridge alumni Juwan Alston (JayJay) returned to CRHS to teach during his Spring Break. He is currently a ballet major at University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He has trained with professionals from around the world, performed in world premier performances, and even received some potential contract offers.

He brought his new studies to the students of Jazz 3, Jazz 4, and Ballet 3-4 as well as teaching for the Texas Future Dance Educators Spring Event.

So great to see our students giving back to CRHS and pursuing their professional careers.

BROADWAY JAZZ UNIT

Students in all of our Academy Jazz classes finished their Broadway jazz unit before heading off to Spring Break. Each class learned original Broadway/movie choreography and watched clips or movie versions of the dance. We discussed the time periods that each show took place during and what was happening historically in the world including the type of music and costuming.

Enjoy!

Jazz 1 (small group)-All That Jazz/Hot Honey Rag from CHICAGO

Jazz 2-You Can't Stop the Beat-HAIRSPRAY

Jazz 3 and Jazz 4-Seize the Day-NEWSIES

SPRING SHOW

And now preparations are underway for our Spring Show! April 24th and 25th at the RRISD PAC, 7pm. Presale tickets are $5 sold the week of the show during all lunches and are $8 at the door. Features Royalty Dance team, Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Dance 1-4, Ballet Folklorico, as well as special guests from the VPA (choir, band, orchestra)! Hope to see you there!

Have A Great Spring Break!

We hope everyone has a safe and restful Spring Break!

When we return Monday, March 23, we will be working towards a successful end to the school year.

Remember that 9th Graders and any upper classmen (and women) who have not yet met the passing standard on this test, will be taking the state Eng I End of Course (EOC) assessment Monday, March 30.

All sophomores and any upper classmen (and women) who have not yet met the passing standard on this test, will be taking the state Eng II End of Course (EOC) assessment Wednesday, April 1.

Winter Guard Success!

This past Saturday, the Cedar Ridge Winter Guard competed at the Winter Guard International San Antonio Regional and placed high enough in the Preliminaries (13th Place) to advance to the Finals (Top 15 Placing Guards).

They had an amazing run in Finals and moved up 2 spots and finished in 11th place! 

Congratulations to their director, Andrew Barba, and to all of the Winter Guard participants! Great job!

American Sign Language Feature

Mr. Bugh, one of our two ASL teachers, shared a video assignment created by one of his students, Noah McCourry. Mr. Bugh stated, "This student presented an exceptional single classifier story. He chose to do a story revolving around the L classifier." Noah explained to me that a single classifier is a hand shape that describes different objects. As you can see, he uses the shape of an "L" in many different signs.

Mr. Bugh understands that most of us will not understand what is being communicated in the video, however, we can appreciate the hard work that goes into the students' learning and practicing ASL. Our Language Labs are set up with computers that have special equipment that allows students taking a Language Other Than English (LOTE) class to listen to the language via head phones, to record themselves speaking the language, and in the case of ASL, to video tape themselves signing.

Determined Cedar Ridge High School Student Places in Area-wide Science Fair

Asad Kudia, a Cedar Ridge 10th grader, told me early in the year he wanted to do a science fair project for competition. I was thrilled to hear of his interest, but I had to tell him that none of our science teachers require students to participate in local science fairs. So, Asad, being very determined, did not let this stop him. He recruited a sponsor from the CR science teachers, Dr. Govea. He then worked on his own time, researching and putting the project together. His project was about The Arbelos.

Asad competed in the Regional Science Fair at Palmer Auditorium in late February. He placed fourth in his category. The top five candidates from each category were called up to the stage to be presented with their trophies. The picture below shows Asad accepting his award.

I talked to Asad today and he assured me that he was planning on recruiting many more Cedar Ridge students to participate in Science Fair next year. I believe he will be successful in accomplishing this, just as he was in finding a sponsor, doing a project, and placing in the Regional Science Fair this year. Great job, Asad!

Under Construction!

Mr. Little teaches our Construction Tech  academy strand. He does a great job of finding real-life projects for his students to work on, while learning the construction trade and processes.

He shared some pictures of a shed that some students are working on. They are doing a beautiful job. The shed is a replica of the the house where the shed will be placed. They've done amazing work so far.

Thomas Herrera and Matt Sloan are shown in the picture below, as they work on the shed in the Construction Technology Lab.

                                                    Also shown, is a kitchen cabinet project.

National Honor Society Induction Ceremony- 3/3/15

This past Tuesday evening, we shared in a solemn ceremony to induct over 200 students into the Cedar Ridge High School National Honor Society (NHS). Ms. Dang serves as the sponsor for National Honor Society. We had families in attendance who had multi-generations of NHS members- grandmother, mother, and son! The NHS Officers did a wonderful job running and MCing the ceremony. We look forward to the Cedar Ridge NHS chapter growing to encompass many more students.

 Ms. Deaton, the CRHS Associate Principal with
Ms. Dang, the CR NHS Sponsor.

Musical Theater Award Nominations Announced This Morning!

We have so much to celebrate!

This morning the Cedar Ridge HS Musical Theatre Production of Bring it On received 12 nominations at the Greater Austin High School Awards ceremony! The nominations were in the following categories:

Best Production
Best Actress in a Lead Role: Lena Owens
Best Featured Performer: Dainique Jones
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Caroline O’Brien
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Mickey May
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Jordan Tuffentsamer
Best Direction
Best Musical Direction
Best Choreography
Best Costume Design
Best Lighting Design
Best Ensemble

Last year, Cedar Ridge Musical Theatre walked away with several awards, including Best Production for RAGTIME. 

This year's Awards ceremony will be held at the Long Center at 7:00 pm, Tuesday, April 14. It's a formal affair! Good luck to our talented troupe!

Go DECA! Winning Performances and Snow Time!

Last week, our DECA students attended their state competition in Dallas, Texas. The weather wasn't the only force to be reckoned with, as our students performed extremely well! We have several students who are moving on to the International Competition in late April in Orlando, Florida. Fortunately, this time they will be seeing sand, rather than snow.

Thank you, Sara Parriott, the DECA Sponsor, and her fabulous assistant chaperon: Mr. DeLaRosa,

Here are the results, with a collage of all the pictures shared with me from the event.

Advancing to ICDC

ROLE PLAY EVENTS:

· Principles of Business Management and Administration – Caileen Perez

· Business Finance Series – Ryan Pauley

· Marketing Management Series - Uttam Eamani

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP EVENTS –

· Entrepreneurship Written – Sarah Quintero

· Entrepreneurship – Growing Your Business – Devon Dudley

CHAPTER TEAM EVENTS –

· Learn & Earn Project - Ashley Rowe with Zombie Experience

· Public Relations Project – Tayler Moll with Type 1 Diabetes Awareness


Alternates for ICDC

ROLE PLAY EVENTS:

· Principles of Marketing – Ariana Chandler

· Human Resources Management Series – Mackenzie Jones

· Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series – Devon Baker

· Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series –Sarah Klimovitz

TEAM DECISION MAKING EVENTS –

· Sports & Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making Event – Wesley Dickerson & Grant McCartney

CHAPTER TEAM EVENTS –

· Community Service Project - Maddy Smith, Caity Callan, and Ryan Schroder with Bully Awareness Campaign in memory of Megan Meier

Principles of Education Class Collaboration- A Win-Win Opportunity

Here is a wonderful example of the collaboration occurring at Cedar Ridge between two classes-

"Weekly, The Principles of Education classes meet with their FAC buddies (Functional Academic Class), and assist with daily assignments and homework. As future educators, this opportunity allows for rewarding experiences with peers, and possible career options in Special Education.

In the pictures below, students are practicing and applying math skills through food preparation."
-Joye Audrey, The Principles of Education Teacher
-FAC Teachers, Patti Cole and Brenda McCall

Important Senior Information From the Registrar's Office & Course Completion Information for Graduation

Important Senior Information from the Registrar’s Office-

For those seniors taking or who have taken Austin Community Courses:
ACC transcripts must be turned in as soon as possible. Check your CRHS transcript on HAC to see if your credits are entered. Turn in a copy of your Spring ACC transcript to the registrar’s office as soon as the transcript is available but not later than NOON, June 1 st .

For all seniors:
Diploma Pick up will start Thursday, June 11th 12:30 – 4 PM. Bring a photo ID with you. Friends MAY NOT pick up your diploma. If you can’t pick up on this date, you can pick up any time after June 11th during office hours. ALL textbooks and obligations must be cleared before you can receive your diploma or final transcript.

You may order your final transcript during the last week of school. Transcripts are $3 each.

FINAL TRANSCRIPTS WILL NOT BE READY AT DIPLOMA PICK-UP. Grades will be processing. We plan to have final transcripts ready by July 7th.

Students do not need their final transcript for college orientation. Your college or university will need it before you register for SPRING classes.

If you have questions contact your counselor or the registrar’s office:

Ms. Bender or Ms. Poindexter. Paige_Bender@RoundRockisd.org Rosie_Poindexter@RoundRockisd.org



Course Completion Using Credit Recovery (E2020 Lab) Information for Graduation-

For Seniors who are using credit recovery (E2020) to complete a course for credit:

Plan ahead for graduation and be aware that the Credit Recovery classroom will close Thursday, June 4th at 7 pm. There will be no exceptions made at this point, so please be sure to plan ahead and finish course work prior to this time.

All seniors wishing to graduate and attend commencement exercises must have completed & passed all of their required courses by the deadline of Thursday, June 4th at 7 pm.

KLRU Follow-up

Here is a follow-up to our students visit to KLRU last week. The staff at KLRU was so impressed with our students, that they invited them to participate in the following project. -

"The 2nd and 3rd year AV students will be creating videos for the KLRU American Graduate project. This is a national project helping communities keep more students on the path to a high school diploma, college and successful careers.

Our students will be creating videos of American Graduate Champions. These videos will highlight students, teachers, mentors and others who have inspired students to stay in school, graduate and work towards career goals.

These videos will then be sent to KLRU to be used for the American Graduate project.

Here is a link to the website and I will send samples of the videos as they are produced.

http://klru.org/americangraduate/" -Shared by Tish Saliani, Teacher of Audio Visual Courses at CRHS