Welcome Valley Grads and Friends of the Akron / Mentone Communities

Two thirds of 8000 alumni of Tippecanoe Valley -- and the schools that created it -- no longer live in the school district. This blog is intended to keep us all connected, to news of our hometowns and of each other.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Distinguished Alumni Dinner

             Tippecanoe Valley High School hosted the Distinguished Alumni Dinner! For those of you who don’t know, the Distinguished Alumni Association is a group of outstanding graduates that have succeeded greatly in their life. They have great jobs and help out great in the community. They also come to our schools and promote and motivate kids to be successful by telling them their stories. They do great stuff for Students and the dinner is just one way we appreciate them!
 It was held on Thursday, September 12, at 6:30 pm at the Tippecanoe Valley Middle School.  
The dinner included many delectable foods including baked chicken breast, mashed potatoes & gravy, green beans, salad, dinner roll, cheese cake, and a drink. After the dinner the Rita Price from the local radio station held interviews for all seven inductees.  The seven members they honored were Dr. Cameron Vanlaningham, Kenia Rosas, Chuck Howard, Orville Haney, Dr. Marilyn Kindig Stahl, Ron Newlin, and Brandon Miller. 
          Please come to further events we will have for our Distinguished Alumni! 
        

1-to-1 device

                Starting this year, Tippecanoe Valley High School is upgrading its technology department by purchasing Acer tablets for all high school students. The TVHS board has approved the high school to acquire $132K to buy the tablets. The school is going to be a 1-to-1 school starting this school year and lasting until the 2016-2017 school year. After that four year period the school corporation is able to choose to purchase the tablets or get rid of them. The students are very excited to receive the new tablets in September.
            For those people that want to know its design, it has silver aluminum finish with neatly curving edges. The tablet weighs less than the iPad 2. It has a good line-up of connections, including a micro HDMI, a micro USB (with a full-size one on the keyboard), a micro SD memory card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack that fits most headphones. Also there is two cameras, one eight-megapixel camera with an LED flash that is on the back, and a two-megapixel version on the front for video chat.
            “I can’t wait to get the new tablets this year; I think it will give the high school students a chance to have some responsibility. I think it will be cool to do homework at home without carrying big heavy books with me,” says senior Casey Laycock. Many students have that same outlook. Books are heavy, and having tablets makes it easier for students to bring their homework home. 
The tablets are planned to make students more enthused to do their homework and bring it outside of school. Students are fast at typing and don’t like to take notes so one advantage of the tablets will be for students to type notes out instead of writing them, this is expected to boost studying which will lead to improved grades.  The school is hoping the tablets bring everything they expect them to.
                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                            

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Literacy at TVHS

 According to the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation’s hedgehog concept, student success can be achieved through character education, leadership, and literacy.  However, what many parents don’t know is that at the high school, reading is coordinated into unique activities such as SSR and “Fill Death Valley with Books.”

 Every day, students read in a program called SSR (Silent Sustained Reading), where they can read a book they enjoy for twenty minutes.  Also, every year, students can participate in “Fill Death Valley with Books”, a yearly event where kids can log the number of pages they read for a chance to go to an end-of-the-year pizza/movie party; and if a student is a top reader, they receive a Barnes and Noble gift card.  Sophomore Emily Shepherd, who placed second in last year’s competition, said that “it’s fun and it’s great for people to get something else out of reading besides great stories.” 

 So, literacy is guaranteed to be used in every high school student’s day.  And some students, like Shepherd, are content with this.  “Honestly, some things in books help me in my English homework; they give me an idea of what people like to read.  Also, literacy helps me apply things in the real world.”

-Liz Shepherd
TVHS Class of 2014