Today and Future Possibilities - Simply Amazing!!

I have found Twitter to be a tremendous Personal Learning Network (PLN). The amount of information available is unlimited, the ability to connect, review and share is fantastic. One of my main goals for the upcoming school year is to help our teachers develop their own PLN. Here is one of the new bits of information I discovered today...The Future of Touchscreens

Have a great day! Feel free to connect with me on Twitter @CoachLoom

 GHS Prom Promise - Mock Crash and The Parachute Project


 The GHS Prom is this Saturday, April 28th at the Pemberville American Legion and the after-prom is at the BGSU Student Recreation Center. We will be taking all the students going to after-prom over to BGSU on school buses to ensure student safety.

On Wednesday, April 25th we hosted the Sandusky County Prevention Partnership's Mock Crash Program. The juniors and seniors from Lakota High School joined us for the program. Please check the following link for more details, photos and video.  Mock Crash

I wish all the students who are attending Prom and After-Prom a fun and safe weekend! Thanks to Mrs. King, Ms. Smathers, all the juniors and parents who have worked so hard on all the prom activities!

Today Mr. Stewart's classes are conducting their parachute project research. Please check out this brief video of the students in action.

21st Century Learning at GHS

21^st Century Learning at GHS

We hear about the topic called 21^st Century Learning quite often these days. But what does it really mean? It is much more than just adding hardware and software to our classrooms. The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (P21) defines it as:

“teaching and learning that combines a discrete focus on 21st century student outcomes(a blending of specific skills, content knowledge, expertise and literacies) with innovative support systems to help students master the multi-dimensional abilities required of them in the 21st century”

P21 has designed a framework around which 21^st Century skills can be taught and developed by the students. At Gibsonburg High School we are using all of the technology hardware and software that has been installed in our buildings to continue to provide an excellent education for our students. We now have short throw projectors, audio enhancement systems, Mimio Studio, Turning Point Student Response Systems and we are now a Google Apps for Education School.

Schools throughout our state and nation are continually being challenged to prepare our students for college and career readiness. In addition to Information, Media and Technology skills, our high school students are being asked to complete a course of study that requires more rigor and relevance than any student in previous generations has ever been asked to complete.

We continue to focus on the “three R’s” in our core subjects, and in addition we are also including the ”four C’s”>> critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. New 21st Century technology is vital to assist our students and teachers to think critically, be more creative, as well as to communicate and collaborate to solve problems.

While our teachers are “digital immigrants,” our students are “digital natives”. We are now tasked to prepare our students for careers that do not exist today. How do we do this? We are working hard to continue to provide positive learning environments, based upon a foundation of standards and assessments aligned to the new models for curriculum and instruction. Gibsonburg Schools have a strong program of job embedded professional development for our teachers including summer academies, two-hour delays and after school work sessions to assist our teachers with their continued migration into the “digital world.”

Gibsonburg High School is in the second year of implementation of our five year technology plan. While our initial plan was for five years, we will annually continue to add another year to keep our building with a vision to the future. Current tools like student response systems (Turning Point clickers), Mimio, Google Apps for education all allow us to help our students continue to master the “three R’s” as well as enhance their abilities with the “four C’s.”

If you would ever like to see a demonstration of any of our technologies or discuss our 21^st Century Curriculum and Instruction please feel free to contact me at Gibsonburg High School at tloomis@gibsonburgschools.org

Ticket Pre-sale for Boys Varsity Basketball at Toledo Christian

Toledo Christian will be opening their new gym on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 and GHS will be their first opponent. Pre-sale tickets are on sale in the GHS office during school hours on Monday, February 6, 2012 and Tuesday, February 7th. There win NOT be any tickets available at the door.

Welcome to 2012!

Welcome back to all GHS students and staff! The last two weeks of the first semester are upon us. Semester exams will take place on Thursday and Friday, January 12 and 13, 2012. Semester exams for periods 1,3,5 and 7 will be given on Thursday, January 12 and semester exams for periods 2, 4, 6 and 8 will be given on Friday, January 13, 2012. There will be no school for students on Monday, January 16th as this is a teacher workday.