An Amazing Month

What an amazing month we have had in our honors tenth grade English classes, as well as in our Public Speaking, Journalism 2, and Yearbook courses.  Here are just some of the highlights of this past month:

Dr. Kowal speaks with our Public Speaking class

​On February 1st, University of Michigan at Flint professor Dr. Chris Kowal came to speak with our Public Speaking students about the significance of nonverbal communication.  Dr. Kowal is an expert on how nonverbal communication, specifically micro-expressions, can influence the emotions of others.

Throughout his presentation, we learned about everything from how to give a proper handshake to the influence of eye contact.  It was a highly interactive and highly entertaining presentation!

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Reporters come to class

On February 7, our Journalism 2 class learned from MLive and Grand Rapids Press environmental reporter Garret Ellison.  He shared with us how he first got into journalism and about his internship and early experiences in the newsroom.  His great advice for aspiring journalists is to take whatever job is given you as it is an opportunity to learn more about the craft and connect with those in the business.  

Some of our students have taken this to heart and have applied for journalism internships in our area.  In fact, one of our Bulldog Beat editors-in-chief, senior Bryce Nummer, will join the Ionia Sentinel Standard staff this week!

And speaking of the Ionia Sentinel Standard, news desk director Darcy Meade joined us in class on February 10th to share her advise and learn more about our journalism program.  Darcy is no stranger to IHS.  We've had her in to share with our class in the past, and she has written many wonderful articles about our students. We love having her join our journalism courses.

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Bringing kindness to IHS

Students in the Unity & Resilience Club at IHS had a wonderfully busy month. The students organized a month full of events meant to promote kindness.  The month kicked off with painting the Kindness Wall, filled with inspirational quotes about kindness shared by our students and staff.

On Thursday, February 16th, the students organized an assembly for our sophomore class in order to hear from Ionia High alum Lt. Governor Brian Calley and former MSU basketball player, Anthony Ianni.  Both speakers shared an inspiration message of standing up to help out those most in need in our communities.   

Public Speaking students read to Rather students

Thursday, February 16th was also World Read Aloud Day. So Public Speaking students picked their favorite children's book and walked over to Rather elementary to read to the kindergarten and first grade classes. All students, elementary and high school students, had an amazing time.

And, a cool surprise happened as students read aloud.  Ms. Ward tweeted one of the authors who tweeted back, sharing her excitement that  even older students loved her book Wolfie.

Kicking off March Book Madness

During February, we collected over 150 book recommendations from our students and staff. Now, during the month of March, students and staff are invited to vote for their favorite books, helping us narrow down books to the elite eight, and then to the final four. Then, during the last week of March the showdown between the top two books begins. 

And the best part, students can win signed copies of books by voting! Each time that you participate in a daily vote, you are entered to win a signed copy of a book.  We have signed books from so many different authors to give away!  

Each day the challenge will go live at 7:30 am and close at 2:30 pm.  We'll email the winning voters each day at 2:30 and tweet out the daily winning book.

The books change each day. So follow along on social media using #IoniaReads or check out our display by room 204! 

And there's more...

We've used Twitter to connect with authors and the founder of StoryCorps this week, 10th grade students are working on amazing multi-genre literature projects.  There just isn't enough space to share all the awesome things that are happening in room 204 recently. 

If you want a closer peek into our classroom, be sure to follow us on Twitter at @wardsworldihs.  We'd love to hear from you1