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 North Hills Christian School Announces Plans to Introduce Tablet PC's for High School Students in 2010
North Hills Christian School Head of School, Matt Mitchell, announced that a new one-to-one student tablet PC program will be added to enhance learning in the school's high school next school year. The announcement was made at the school's annual State of the School meeting.
Shirley Luckadoo, curriculum coordinator for NHCS, gave a presentation on the use of tablet PC's in the classroom. Luckadoo recently attended a technology conference held at Cincinnati Country Day School (CCDS), an internationally renowned co-educational college preparatory day school that is known for providing an excellent technology enhanced education. The school holds three tablet PC conferences per year where they equip educators with tools and ideas needed to make education more challenging and engaging using technology. NHCS high school teachers will be learning from the best in the world as they attend the workshop in February and April.
"Equipping students with this cutting edge technology will transform the way that we teach and how our high school students learn," noted Mitchell. "The integration of tablets will provide for increased student engagement, as well as increased effectiveness and efficiency in instruction. North Hills is also committed to preparing students who have the technology skills needed to compete in a global workforce," he said.
Though the tablets we will purchase will have a keyboard much like a laptop, students are not restricted to a mouse and keyboard. They have the freedom to write directly on the tablet and to take notes with digital color ink. The computer will accurately recognize even the messiest handwriting, and convert it to text. Additional capabilities of the tablets include digital photography, videography, voice recordings, as well as more traditional PC functions, such as the ability to import web pages, pictures, and other files. Students can also highlight and take notes directly on these documents and on teachers' notes and handouts. The tablet provides the tools needed to go paperless. Eventually, student textbooks and notebooks can be replaced by this single device!
In the next month, giant steps forward will be taken in the implementation of the school's technology plans as teachers visit CCDS, as projectors are installed in all of the middle / high school classrooms, and as teachers receive their tablet PC's. Within the next sixty days, our middle and high school students will begin benefitting from the tablet PC / projector combination, which is more powerful than a SMARTBOARD.
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Enrollment Increases Likely to Continue for 2010-2011
By the end of January each year, the number of applicants (returning and new) typically stands around 220 students. At the end of January this year, potential enrollment for next year already stands at 275 students. February through July are our most active months for new family enrollments, so we expect the double digit enrollment growth of the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years to carry forward into next year, as well.
"We're excited about our school's recent growth because of what enrollment growth can provide for the children we serve," said Head of School Matt Mitchell. "North Hills is known for its warm, close-knit family environment; we never want to lose that. However, enrollment growth can provide additional critical mass that will be needed to enhance the school's fine arts, athletic, and academic programs," he said.
Next year's freshman class is also the largest in at least a decade. Twenty-seven of the thirty-one current eighth grade students have submitted their re-enrollment applications.
The school's administration plans to control next year's growth. While North Hills typically turns away a number of applicants each year, it is likely that additional applicants will be wait listed or denied admission for 2010. Families are encouraged to apply early.
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North Hills Christian School Names Associate Head of School for 2010
Beginning this fall, Mrs. Leslie Pullen, North Hills Christian School's middle and high school science teacher, will assume a new position as associate head of school. This move creates a new position that will be focused upon continuous improvement of the school's academic program.
Pullen has
taught middle and high school science at NHCS for seventeen years. In addition, she has served as lead teacher
for the middle and high school and as assistant athletic director and athletic
director for NHCS.
"Mrs. Pullen
is a seasoned educator who is respected by parents, students, and her
colleagues," Mitchell said. "She will primarily
be charged with the task of leading the academic program at NHCS, providing
additional support and mentoring for teachers, as well as input that will help
form and guide the school's curriculum and instruction," he added.
Pullen
has a Master of Education Degree in educational instruction from the University of North Carolina
at Greensboro
and a B. S. in Biology. This summer, she will complete her credentials for administrative certification. She is also a lab instructor in anatomy and physiology at Rowan Cabarrus Community College. |
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NHCS Celebrates Homecoming
North Hills Christian School recently celebrated homecoming with the Student Council choosing a "Winter Wonderland" theme for this year's homecoming court.
This year's court included Dana Salmon and Nathan Wyatt with the freshman class, McKamie Harrison and Cameron Beck with the sophomore class, and Laura Butner and Trent Gobble with the junior class.
Students selected Patrick Michael as this year's homecoming king, and Catherine Ardoin is homecoming queen.
In addition to the presentation of the homecoming court, the week's festivities culminated with basketball.
The NHCS girls' varsity team defeated Mid-Carolina International 57-23, and varsity boys challenged the North Hills alumni and faculty and won 49-29. | |
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North Hills Got Talent
The talent show and dinner was a HUGE success, as the senior class raised approximately $750 to go towards their senior trip. Many, many thanks to Mr. Bevis (our fearless cook and emcee), Christopher Pullen, Josh Plummer (our sound guy), as well as the Link, Cody, Foster, Bush, and Michael families. We greatly appreciate and love you all!
Fondly,
The Senior Class |
No Mediocrity Accepted
A Message from our Head of School, Mr. Mitchell
Within the last twelve months, more than four hundred Christian Schools in our nation have closed. Their closure profoundly saddens me, but do you know what troubles me more? My personal struggle with a sense that they needed to do so.
In an effort to educate young people "Christianly," many well- intentioned and God-fearing people across the globe start Christian schools. However, too often, they financially manage these schools poorly, underfund them, overextend them, and hire unqualified faculty to run them. I believe this hurts the very heart of our God; there is nothing pleasing to Him about mediocrity.
If we are to fulfill Christ's calling for Christian schooling, we must pursue excellence in all things. We must hire the most highly qualified staff, pursue the highest accreditation standards, develop excellent curriculum, and sustain an overall excellent, continually improving program. When the name of Christ is attached to a school, those who lead it must settle for no less than being a beacon of excellence to other educators--both Christian and non-Christian alike. Does this mean that a Christian School can and must be perfect? Of course not. Does it mean that it must not stop trying? Absolutely.
I look forward to the day when North Hills Christian School will be a resource, model, and light for other Christian schooling ministries. In fact, I'm beginning to taste it. We should become a resource for other schools not because we want to be superior, but because we can and should be an institution that equips other ministries for kingdom work.
North Hills has a tremendously qualified and strong faculty, competent leadership throughout, and excellent curriculum. Even a quick perusal of this newsletter is telling: we are on the verge of some tremendous breakthroughs. Great things are happening.
As we continue to press forward with the vision the Lord has given us for NHCS, I want to call our community to a few things. First, I call you to settle for no less than the best. We must have a mutual commitment to see NHCS become a school that fully achieves its mission to "equip hearts and minds of students to impact the world for Christ." That means that we must not only provide a biblically centered approach, but that we must also provide a first class education. North Hills Christian School has a great program, but it can always be better.
Second, I call you to get involved. The best schools in the world are communities where the various stakeholders come together and work to create a phenomenal educational community. Many hands make for light work!
Third, I call you to an opportunity to give to the Lord's work. Excellent schools are bathed in prayer and surrounded by a community of believers, but they are fueled by money. God does not suspend the laws of economics for Christian Schools. If we are to move NHCS forward, we need to fully fund the school's programs.
Finally and most importantly, I call you to prayer. Where God is at work, Satan attacks. He does not like what the Lord is doing in our midst, and he would desire nothing more than to see it come to a screeching stop. Pray for His hand of protection on North Hills Christian School, its teachers, its students, and their families.
It has been a blessing to serve the NHCS community over the last seven years, and I look forward to working together, shoulder to shoulder, to continue the Lord's work in our increasingly excellent Christian School ministry.
--Matt Mitchell, M.Ed., NHCS Head of School
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