When the transition to the new Tahoma High School begins next fall, students will be getting some assistance as they adjust to the many changes that are expected in opening a new school. One of those changes is adding ninth-graders to the high school as the district moves to middle schools for grades 6-8. School administrators want to ensure that freshmen get extra support to help them adjust to a new school and new expectations.
 

Ninth grade is a critical year for students as they begin earning credit toward high school graduation. Studies show that for many students, ninth grade is often the most challenging of all four grades of high school.

"We recognize ninth grade is such a pivotal year for school success," said Martin Barber, associate principal at Tahoma High School.

Freshmen will be grouped into learning academies called LAUNCH (Learning Academies Using Ninth-grade Core Humanities), combining English language arts and social studies. The students and their English and social studies teachers remain together the entire year, creating a sort of home base where teachers and students get to know each other and can rely on each other to navigate the transition to high school more smoothly.

"We want our ninth-graders to come in with a little bit of a safety net; we want them to have a solid start in high school. That solid start will provide the students with the skills to be successful not only in the ninth grade but also for their entire high school experience," Barber said.

Along with their core subjects, students also will learn about strategies and tools that will help them adjust to changes as they move through high school and prepare for further education and careers, using the school district's Future Ready skills.

Barber and Chris Feist, Tahoma Junior High School assistant principal, explained the ninth-grade learning academy concept to the Tahoma School Board recently. The program is still being developed, but the clear intention is to support freshmen and provide them with a solid beginning to their high school career.

"This is an intentional effort to make that ninth-grade year meaningful and set our kids up for success," Barber said.

 

Do you tickle your child in patterns? Count buttons or the number of people ahead of you in line at the grocery store?

These ideas for "counting all day" with your younger children are examples of ways to help them learn through play that parents will experience in the district's new "Ready! for Kindergarten" workshops. The workshops will be offered for the first time starting in January and are part of Tahoma's focus on helping students succeed in kindergarten.

Along with the Kindergarten Camp offered in partnership with the Tahoma Schools Foundation for the first time in August, the "Ready! for Kindergarten program" will help bring Tahoma students in with the skills they need to be prepared to learn. Developed in 2002 by the Children's Reading Foundation and the Kennewick School District, the program provides trainings, toolkits and ideas for parents to use with their children from birth through age 5.

"This is the natural next step in our Future Ready Initiative," Superintendent Rob Morrow said. "We examined the high school level, and what it takes to prepare middle school students to be ready for ninth grade. Then we looked at middle school and how our elementary curriculum was getting students ready to enter sixth grade."

"This is the logical progression to make sure every student in Tahoma is ready to enter kindergarten and elementary school able to learn." Morrow continued. "If they enter already behind, it is very difficult to help them catch up."

Staff in Tahoma's Teaching and Learning Department heard about the program last year and were immediately interested, said Christine Thurston, an elementary instructional coach in the department.

"The program's goal is to empower parents as their child's first and most influential teacher," Thurston said. "It gives parents the tools and training they need to support their child's learning and play with a purpose."

This year, Tahoma will offer the workshop for parents of students who are ages 3, 4 and 5 (entering kindergarten in 2017 or 2018). The three, 90-minute sessions will focus on language and literacy, math and reasoning, and social and emotional skills. Workshops are scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 25, March 15 and April 26 at Shadow Lake Elementary and Lake Wilderness Elementary. Childcare will be provided, and space will be limited to 60 participants districtwide.

The cost of the workshops and materials is significant, so the district is asking families to pay a materials fee of $150 (a value of more than $200). Partial and full scholarships are available to families that qualify for free or reduced price meals. Materials parents will go home with include a binder of age-appropriate learning targets, resources and materials/toys such as special puzzles and games to help parents teach their children through play-based activities.

All told, the cost to the district is estimated at about $25,000; staff are seeking grants to help cover the budget, now and in the future. Eventually, administrators would like to add workshops for parents of younger students so that the program can serve families with children from birth through age 5.

To learn more about the program, click here or, to check out another video from the Ready! for Kindergarten YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6IgCVj7PbU&t=6s 

 

To register for Tahoma's workshops, click here: https://goo.gl/cux2TK

For the free and reduced meals application, click here.

For many years, Tahoma High School student Dakota Huffman has been interested in radio, communications and television. Beyond that, the 16-year-old is a huge fan of KNKX-FM and jazz. So when Huffman had the opportunity to step into the studio recently as a guest DJ, he jumped at the chance.

"It allowed me to do something very unique," he said. "It was interesting to see the way they create things -- the magic of radio."

Now a junior at THS, Huffman said he started listening to the radio more seriously in seventh grade and began thinking about it as a career option. He's still keeping his options open, though, and says he may be interested in real estate or going to school to major in performance music. Huffman is considering the University of Washington or Central Washington University, among other choices.

He started off in band playing tenor sax, then moved to alto sax; if he ended up choosing music as a career, Huffman said he can see himself playing gigs or in studios someday.

Tahoma Band Director Matthew Cole nominated Huffman for the experience; he was selected and pre-recorded an hour-long show with Host Abe Beeson that aired last month. Beeson went over the questions with him once beforehand, and then they started recording.

Asked if he would repeat the experience again if he had the chance, he replied: "Absolutely, in a heartbeat. ... Being able to talk to someone who is as passionate about jazz as I am was nice. With certain players or in some songs, there's a point where you feel -- 'This is good!'"

As an example, Huffman pointed to "You Don't Know What Love Is," by Sonny Rollins. "There's a lead-up to a note at the end and the player pauses, then hits the note. It's sublime -- it's beautiful."

To listen to Huffman's guest DJ appearance, click here: http://knkx.org/post/knkx-guest-student-dj-dakota-huffman

Here's his playlist:

Field show wins second place

• K-2: Students are served in the general education classroom through extension activities.
• 3-5: Students are served through a continuum of services from the Cougar Classrooms (general education) to the Discovery Program (self-contained).
• 6-7: Students are served through accelerated math and extension activities.
• 8-12: Students self-select into a variety of accelerated, pre-Advanced Placement, Advanced Placement, or college-level classes.
• All students in second grade will be screened/tested for possible highly capable identification and service for next school year, so there is no nomination process for current second grade students.

• To be better able to provide additional services to the students
• To remove barriers to educational success imposed on children of military families because of frequent moves and deployment of their parents
• To give a closer look at the test scores for these students, possibly showing the need for increased services to keep them on track for on-time graduation
• To reduce the paperwork parents face at the beginning of each school year, we have created a survey in Skyward Family Access. Please take a moment to log into your Family Access Account to complete the survey. All families must complete the survey. There will be a "no affiliation" option for those to whom it applies.