What is Rachel's Challenge?

Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her acts of kindness and compassion coupled with the contents of her six diaries have become the foundation for one of the most life-changing school programs in America.

Powerful video/audio footage of Rachel's life and the Columbine tragedy holds students spell-bound during a one hour school presentation that motivates them to positive change in the way they treat others.

This is followed by an interactive 45-minute training session involving both adult and student leaders that shows how to sustain the momentum created by the assembly. The assembly creates the "want to" or desire for positive change. The training session teaches the "how to" and ensures that the positive impact will continue.

That evening the Rachel's Challenge speaker conducts a powerful session with parents and community leaders. This session is similar to the assembly program and ends with a specific challenge to parents and community leaders, showing them how they can reinforce the decisions their youth are making.

Entertainers, politicians, sports celebrities, educators, and even two Presidents of the United States have been impacted by Rachel's Challenge. However, students are the target audience and they have proven that they will respond with positive words, attitudes, and actions.

(From Rachel's Challenge website- click to Learn More )

Hello readers and fellow fans of hubbubs and hullabaloos. Perspectives (click to download a printable copy) is a magazine that showcases the interesting, creative, and sometimes bizarre writing from our class. This issue collects some samples of recent assignments including: Jack and Jill-O-Lantern; Random Thoughts of the Taciturn; and an assignment which is our focus this issue called "Would You Rather?" It's a game where players choose a card and are forced to make a choice between two ridiculous options and in their article defend their choices.

link to Mr. Andree's website and Perspectives: http://www.andreeinstitute.com/archivespages/wouldyourather2008.html

As a culminating project in rhetorical strategies each of Mr. Andree's classes produced a public service announcement to address issues in their communities. Topics ranged across the curriculum from the arts and health, to math, science, and dealing with peer issues. Working together classes broke into teams to reach their goal scripting, storyboarding, writing taglines, builting sets, making props, creating special effects, performing music, creating costumes, choreographing, acting, dancing, etc. The result is a series of commercials designed to change the way people think and act. Project site for videos: http://www.andreeinstitute.com/archivespages/psa2008.html

The ORRJHS Community Service Club is sponsoring a drive to collect items for our troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are asking students, faculty, and the general public to donate items to let the troops know they are in our hearts and minds all year round. Special thanks to ORR and West Point graduate, Lieutenant Owen Fogarty, who is currently serving in Iraq. Owen spoke with the JHS students recently during his mid-tour R&R and gave us the following suggestions:

What to send? 
Health and Hygiene Items
Razor Blades
Lip balm, sunscreen, wet wipes, etc.
Shaving Cream
Shampoo/Soap
Candy/Treats (In original packaging)
Energy Bars
Coffee (Dunkin Donuts will donate)
Energy Drinks, powdered drink mixes
DVDs/Movies (season episodes of TV shows are especially appreciated!)
Beanie Babies
Sports Equipment
Good Books
Letters- Personalize the Package
Games, cards, toys, (and other fun stuff like water pistols!)

Remember: Male and Female Soldiers

What not to send?
Anything illegal or inappropriate
Homemade Food
Tactical Gear
Phone Calling Cards 

More ideas and suggestions can be found on anysoldier.com.

Donation boxes will be available in homerooms and other places throughout the building. Please help us make this community service activity a success! 

The mission of ORCTV's Channel 18 is threefold:

• To provide the youth, parents, teachers, and members of the greater community of Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester with the technology and resources to produce their own television programming.
• To showcase educational endeavors/interests of schools within or available to students of the Tri-town area.
• To provide educational programming to learners of all ages within its viewing audience.
  

Click here for more information on ORCTV's ETV Channel 18 

The League of Women Voters of Massachusetts Citizen Education Fund is proud to send you the 2007-08 edition of theDirectory of Civic Engagement & Leadership Development Programs for Massachusetts Youth. No other directory of this kind is currently available in the state. It gives young people essential information in order to become more involved in their communities and in the democratic process. This unique publication lists local, state and national programs that offer young people, primarily in middle and high schools, opportunities to learn about government and the electoral process, to develop leadership skills, and to become community activists. Though each program is different, each provides young people the tools, training and motivation to participate in the democratic process later in their lives. The Directory's listings include information about the mission and purpose of the sponsoring organization, details about the program and eligibility, fees or stipends if applicable, and all contact information necessary to get involved. Many of the programs listed could be used as models for communities and for youth groups that are looking for ways to encourage young people to become involved in their communities and to participate in their government. The Directory is also available on the League's website at www.lwvma.org/mayouthdirectory.htm.  For additional copies of the Directory, please contact the League office :

•TEL: 617-523-2999 •FAX: 617-248-0881 •E-MAIL: Iwvma@lwvma.org •Website: www.lwvma.org •VOTER INFORMATION: 617-723-1421 & 800-882-1649

Dr. Conway has sent the TriTown schools some very important information regarding Influenza (an update for Southeastern Massachusetts) and Pertussis Protection. To download the documents click on the links below.

Influenza Update - Information  for Parents and Students in Southeastern Massachusetts

Pertussis Protection 

Would you like to learn more about ORRJHS? 

Click on the links below to view the ORRJHS video produced by Greg Andree and his students. (If the video does start to play after a couple of seconds, click on the little black triangle/play button in the lower left corner of the video window)

ORRJHS Video Part 1 (QuickTime)

ORRJHS Video Part 2 (QuickTime) 

AwesomeStories is a gathering place of primary-source information. Its purpose - since the site was first launched in 1999 - is to help educators and individuals find original sources, located at national archives, libraries, universities, and government web sites.

AwesomeStories is about primary sources. The stories exist as a way to place original materials in context and to hold those links together in an interesting, cohesive way (thereby encouraging people to look at them). It is a totally different kind of web site in that its purpose is to place primary sources at the forefront - not the opinions of a writer. Its objective is to take a site's users to places where those primary sources are found, and to which the site's users may otherwise not go. The author of each story is listed on the "chapters" page of the story. A link to the author provides more detailed information.

This educational learning tool also is designed to support state and national standards. Each story on the site links to online primary source materials which are selected and positioned in context to enhance reading comprehension, understanding and enjoyment.

Click HERE to go to the site. Enter the password orr in the Academic Members Box (NOT Individual members) to start reading some awesome stories!

In the next couple of weeks, user information (login & passwords) will be distributed to teachers and students for NetTrekker.di (differentiated instruction version) and ExploreLearning (home of Gizmos!). In the meantime, if you would like to take a tour of these sites, click on the links below:

Here are some links to FREE online tools, that allow you to create documents using word processing (like MS Word), Spreadsheets (like Excel), and presentations (like PowerPoint). These tools will enable you to work on files anywhere & anytime that you can connect to the internet - school, home, a friend or relative's house, etc. If you want, files can be shared so multiple users can collaborate on the same files. No need for floppy disks to tranfer files to and from school. This is especially useful if you do not have MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, etc.) on your home computer and want to work on files at home and in school. MS Works and Word Perfect, are not completely compatible with the software we have in school.

Word Processing:

Google Docs & Spreadsheets : http://docs.google.com/ (formerly Writely.com)

Zoho Writer : http://www.zohowriter.com 

Presentations:

Zoho Show : http://zohoshow.com

Spreadsheets:

Google Docs & Spreadsheets : http://docs.google.com/

Zoho Sheet : http://www.zohosheet.com