M.C.L.Summer Options

Virtual Summer School optionsCourse Teacher # of students

Creative Writing Mr. Bennett 5

Digital Literacy Mr. Hundermark 4

* Conceptual Physics Mr. Webb 3

* Biology Mrs. Wolfgang 4

Honors Geometry Mrs. Houck 22

Math Connections Mrs. Houck 8

Personal Finance Mr. Fiora 30

Drivers Ed. Mr. Amspacher 30

T.R.I.B.E. Mr. Trovato/Ms. Brooks/Mr. Myers

12

9 courses Total 118

Notes: Provides options Only focus (1) course Required 3 face visits Free

AP CoursesCourse Teacher # of students

Statistics Mr. Burkholder 23

Calculus Mr. McHugh 8

History Mr. Wentzel 15

English Mr. Bennett 17

Biology Mr. Wolfgang 5

5 courses Total 68

Yearbook Workshop• The Jostens workshop was a great resource for us.

They held an awards assembly at the end of the day and we cleaned up! Awards were given based upon various categories and for different sections. In total we won five awards. Malia Waltman and Eirene Hoover were extremely hardworking and dedicated the entire three days and it paid off. We have a great start to what is already an award-winning yearbook. – Awards:

• Gettysburg Excellence Award for the Red Section

• Best Theme- 1st place! • Best Content- 2nd place• Best Visual – 2nd place• Best Section- 3rd place

• We are so excited and are looking forward to this year. We have two great editors that will make great leaders!

Marching Band

Marching band members at Pequea Valley High School practice on the first day of band camp Monday.As August kicks off this week, so does band camp for many Lancaster County high schools.At Pequea Valley, camp runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for four days. The goal is to “get the whole show in most people’s feet,” Ackerman said.http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/heat-beats-and-bonding-band-camps-kick-off-at-lancaster/article_353c352e-3a19-11e5-9e0b-6f2acb3b91c3.html

The trip began in Great Falls, Montana as the history part of the course investigated the Lewis and Clark Expedition and specifically the “portage” section of the Missouri River. This included hiking many Lewis and Clark trails which was highlighted by hiking sulfur springs where Sacajawea was nursed back to health. The group next moved into Glacier National Park where they participated in a service project planting and restoring native plants and trees, five days of hiking in Glacier National Park with professional guides, as well as rafting a 40 mile stretch of the Flathead River and camping.

T.R.I.B.ETRIBE stands for Teaching Resiliency to Individuals By Experiences. This program will give students an opportunity to learn in the fields of physical education, health, biology, and history through experiences outside the classroom.

The financial crisis that began in 2007 essentially as a result of reckless borrowing, which subsequently led to the Great Recession of 2009, truly revealed the low levels of financial literacy across the nation. Numerous studies have further indicated that a very significant amount of adults have inadequate or even no savings for retirement let alone any savings at all.

In order to prevent another financial debacle and improve our economic outcome, our country must be educated.

Several years ago, a one-semester financial literacy course was mandated as a graduation requirement for Pequea Valley High School students. Ironically, as of today, there are only four states (none of which is Pennsylvania) where this is the case.

This could lead one to describe Pequea Valley as a “financial literacy island within the educational ocean” of the Commonwealth and the nation.

In an effort to better accommodate the needs of the student body, the high school’s “Per$onal Finance” course became a virtual offering that includes in-person meetings and is continuously available to students each semester and over the summer break.

Since its inception, roughly 300 students in both the high and middle school buildings have participated. From data comparing initial and final assessments, these students, as a whole, have enriched their financial competence by over 70%. Approximately 30 students just completed this summer’s offering and demonstrated an increase that was measurably higher than the norm.

In addition, given the nature of the course’s virtual format, much of the required assignments and assessments are in written form. This has led students, on average, to improve their writing mechanics by over 30% according to criteria set by the Pequea Valley English department. Those who participated in the most recent offering, on average, when initially assessed, exhibited writing skills that were approximately 20% higher than the initial assessment’s norm. Upon the course’s completion, this group demonstrated measurable improvement, although not as great as the norm.

- Jim Fiora

Virtual course –Per$onal Finance

Pequea Valley FFA members competed in the 86th Pennsylvania FFA State Convention on June 14-16 at Penn State University. The PV team of 4 members took 5th place in in the Agricultural Mechanics Event. The rigorous, two day event required students to showcase their mechanics skills by completing a 50 question math exam, 3 team problem solving events, and produce a greenhouse watering table, which required the students to demonstrate their plumbing, welding, woodworking, and electrical skills. The students are already excited to perfect their skills this school year and compete again next year in hopes of winning the state event! - Douglas Masser

FFA State Convention

Twenty-six girls entering 4th, 6th, and 7th grade participated in the camp. It was a lot of fun to see how much their field hockey skills improved over the week. Not only did their skills improve tremendously, but also many of them found a true love for the sport, with a promise to be the next generation of field hockey at Pequea Valley. This will benefit our team and program for many years to come! In addition to the campers, many of our current Pequea Valley field hockey players voluntarily participated in the camp by acting as student-coaches. This was done intentionally as a way to connect current players with the next generation in an effort to foster a sense of ‘family,’ which is a core value of our program under the current coaching staff. Plans to continue to incorporate the campers into our program, such as by honoring them on senior night, selecting them as ball girls for games, and organizing a youth scrimmage during half-time, are under way. Beyond developing relationships, current players also further-developed their own skills through teaching the next generation. All of this was made possible because of the grant we received from the PV Education Foundation. Thank you for supporting the future of our program, as well as the future of our players, current and next-generation. – Kati Pusey

Field Hockey Camp

John McKay and Rob King at PULSE training. Partnership to Understand and Lead STEM Education. We are planning a project to have students understand solar energy. John and I are also learning numerous ways to tie science technology engineering and math together. IU13 is running the 10 day workshop. Then, throughout the school year we are expected to use our newly gained knowledge by leading the group to solve a global problem (we chose renewable energy). We have chosen solar energy for our project.

Partnership to Understandand Lead STEM

Rob Dorshimer and Tim Hess traveled to Baltimore, Maryland to attend PLTW training at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The training began on Monday, July 20th and continued until the 31st of July. The class consists of a curriculum review for the Project Lead the Way Introduction to Engineering Design curriculum. During the two weeks, teachers are exposed to an accelerated version of the national engineering curriculum that includes nine-hour, daily classes accompanied by homework. At the conclusion of the class, teachers have been exposed to the main STEM topics and are certified to teach the class. Rob and Tim are excited to share the curriculum with the PV students as a fall course offering.

Project Lead the Way

Dale Amspacher - Safe Driving Seminar to be held at the LCCTC

Safe Driving Seminar