Multicultural Club Continues to Honor Diversity

Mr. Polk (advisor) and students of the Multicultural Club show off their cultural garb during Multicultural Week

     The Multicultural Club works tirelessly to promote one of the tenets of the ELHS mission statement, "Honor Diversity."  Since its inception, the MC club has hosted numerous events to bring awareness to  cultures and cultural issues from around the world.  They kicked off the year with a symposium and art gallery starring prominent, local African American artists.  They have also hosted movie nights that promote cultural understanding.
     This week,  they have sponsored Multicultural Week, providing all of ELHS interesting facts from around the world.  On Wednesday, they encouraged ELHS to wear an article of clothing that expressed their own cultural background.  From dashikis (Africa) to shalwar kameez (Pakistan) to other traditional clothing representing South America and Europe, students expressed pride in their cultural backgrounds and learned something in the process.
     Many thanks to Mr. Polk and the entire Multicultural Club for all their efforts in helping ELHS honor diversity.  It is much admired and appreciated.

Gay Straight Alliance Helps to Promote a Safe & Tolerant ELHS

   

Ali Phillips, Joe Piemonte and other GSA members
are recognized by Channel 40 

     Last year, ELHS introduced a new Gay Straight Alliance Club.  This club was initiated to help promote a safe and tolerant school environment for all students through various youth leadership activities.  These students and their advisor, Ms. Jennifer Faulker,  have worked to educate our students and staff about ways they can help eliminate bias and prejudice related to homophobia and other gender related issues.
      There has been much research that shows that students who are harassed due to issues of sexual orientation are twice more likely to report depression or suicide.  They are also more likely to receive low grades and engage in drug and alcohol use.  Additionally, these students are also more likely to become victims of violence.
     I am very proud of the work of our students in GSA.  They have truly exemplified qualities of positive student leadership.   They have sponsored "Give a Compliment Day," brought awareness to name calling at ELHS, hosted an educational workshop on LGBTQ issues for parents and most recently organized our "Day of Silence" in support of LGBTQ students.  These students are very passionate about their work and have made a real difference in changing the way people think about and treat LGBTQ students.  If it means one less student who is bullied or treated disrespectfully- their efforts have been worth it.  They are currently gearing up to present more workshops for staff and students.  Thank you GSA!

NEASC Update: Strengths and Needs of ELHS

For the past 2 ½ years, ELHS has been immersed in the NEASC accreditation process.  During this time, we have collaborated as a community to evaluate all the programs, services and resources that are in place for our students.  Last month, our staff finalized our findings and will be presenting this to the NEASC visiting committee in October of 2014.   We had many things to celebrate and many things we felt we need to improve in order to provide our students the most effective and positive learning experience possible.   Listed below are the strengths and needs that were identified by our staff: 

Strengths of ELHS:  dedicated, hardworking staff; working to improve technology instruction and resources; a focus on best practices related to the instructional block; expansive professional development opportunities for staff, a focus on aligning courses to the Common Core Standards; use of Edline to provide students and parents easy access to what is happening in the classrooms; data driven instruction; common assessment development to ensure consistency and rigor in our courses; focus on data analysis to improve instruction; individualized approached to meeting the needs of students; school wide rubrics that focus on 21^st century learning skills; five year curriculum review cycle to ensure that all courses are relevant, engaging and adequately supported through various resources; a focus on maintaining a safe, positive and respectful place of learning; research based staff evaluations that focus on improved student learning; instructional leadership of the principal working with other building leaders that is rooted in our school's core values, beliefs and learning expectations; the maintenance of acceptable student load and class sizes which enable teachers to meet the learning needs of individual students; an equitable and inclusive learning environment; community and parent communication and collaboration

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Needs of ELHS- increase collaboration time for staff members developing best practices of teaching and learning; update technology hardware and access to technology for all students; renovation of the  library and classrooms to meet 21^st century learning expectations; advisor/advisee program for students; ensure that school budget keeps pace with changing curriculum standards; update/replace older equipment to minimize maintenance and energy costs and ensure that our students are able to be exposed to the latest teaching tools;  increase Special Education staff necessary to accommodate IEP caseload; review school wide grading practices; communicate more effectively to student the 21^st century learning expectations,