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By Denny Morrison

Nominations for the 2017 Class of the Xenia Schools Hall of Honor are being accepted until Friday, Feb. 3. Nominees should be graduates of XHS who have achieved remarkable success in their career or anyone who has made a significant contribution to education in Xenia. The Hall of Honor Banquet will be held Saturday, April 22 at Tecumseh Elementary School.

Xenia Preschool: The PTO food drive brought in enough food that it was able to supply staples to three families to help supplement food for their families. Great job.

Arrowood: Arrowood students participated in a PBIS Jingle Jam before the winter break. Students made ornaments and cards, played minute to win it games, danced, and had hot chocolate and cookies. Student participation level was based upon the number of Buccaneer Best tickets earned by being respectful, being responsible, being a problem solver, and doing their best.

Cox: During December, the Cox Little Library passed out more than 400 books to students. The children enjoyed the stories with Mrs. Claus, visits from elves, and the bookmark craft. Thank you to the local bookstores and community members who supported their efforts to provide a “forever book” to each child and to Lynn Engle for making this happen. In Jillian Arrow’s room, all of the students have been working on writing their goals for the New Year. Each student reflected back on what they did last year and what they wanted to accomplish this year. The fifth-grade students are beginning DARE.

McKinley: McKinley’s Service Club visited Greenwood Manor before the winter break. The students had stayed after school and made blankets. During their visit, the students presented the residents with these blankets and entertained them by singing Christmas carols. The service club also collected many food items and were able to make a huge donation to help many people in need.

Shawnee: School counselor Natasha Grimsley has been teaching a monthly lesson to each classroom. For each lesson, she reads a story, facilitates a class discussion, and leads an activity focusing on a particular character trait. This month’s lesson focused on “practicing good manners.” In Mary Kelly’s fifth-grade class, students have worked hard and completed their biome research projects. In order for students to complete these research projects, they had to understand the purpose of the major biomes and how the populations interact with the communities.

Tecumseh: It was a very busy and productive week for the Tecumseh staff. The staff reviewed their common expectations with the PBIS matrix. Then they worked together to share successful engagement strategies for their students. The third-grade teachers dug into the Ohio state testing data and their MAP scores to identify students who will need additional intervention and support.

Warner: Thanks to the Warner National Junior Honor Society and advisors Amberly Winegar and Lauren Schafer for the service project to raise money and create 30 holiday stockings that were passed out to elementary students. Each elementary received six stockings to give out to students who were in need of support. Congratulations to Dezaree Webster in seventh grade. She completed a three-semester hour online math course through the College Credit Plus program. She is enrolled now to take English during the second semester.

XTAR: The X Group completed the All About Me surveys, Learning Style, Leadership Style and Personality Type. Donna Shaw reviewed the areas of giftedness (superior cognitive, mathematics, reading, science, social studies and creative thinking) and she reviewed and discussed their MAP scores. They will be learning about author/illustrator Eric Carle. They listened to a clip from NPR about him. Later this month they will be going to the Dayton Art Institute. The T Group began its Stem Technology Unit of Robotics with Leah Pham’s fifth-grade math class. They will be working with Recon 6 Programmable Rover, Robot Mouse Coding, Zoob Builderz and Motorblox Robot Lab. The class also discussed the difference between an inventor and an engineer and watched a video to better understand the engineering process.

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Denny Morrison is superintendent of Xenia Community Schools.