"Find Your Voice"
December 6, 2019
Welcome back to High School Highlights; a weekly wrap-up of events, designed especially for high school parents and students at Summit Academy, to help keep you in the know. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! As we head toward Christmas Break, check out the Upcoming Events for important reminders.
Upcoming Events:

  • 12/09:Sr. CAPS Mtg./ Pizza Party 3:15-6:00 at Summit
  • 12/11: Mitten Tree Service Project ends
  • 12/13: Delivery of Items to St. Vincent de Paul's after school
  • 12/16: Drama Club Rehearsal 1:00
  • 12/17: Drama Club Rehearsal 1:00
  • 12/18: Holiday Program 1:00 (High School attends)
  • 12/19: Holiday Program 1:00
  • 12/20:PJ day in the High School and Holiday $5 gift exchange (see more info below); Noon dismissal
Special Thanks to our Anthem friends
The Senior class has been busy collecting and sorting plastic caps this Fall for their Caps for Benches Senior Project. Once they have met their final weight in caps, it costs $250 for the caps to be recycled into a beautiful bench for our campus. Last week, a group from Anthem surprised their co-worker and parent sponsor of this project, Ms. Melody Parks, by gifting us with a check for $250 to cover this cost for the students. We are so grateful for this donation. Thank you Anthem!
The Eyes Have It!
Biology students took their skills to the lab this week and dissected cow eyeballs. Each student was responsible for using a scalpel to carefully separate the two halves of the eye at the midline. They were then able to identify and/or remove the 10 basic structures of the eye. Pictured in Caleb's dissecting tray (close-up above left) are the lens, retina, iris, pupil, cornea, sclera, optic nerve cord and tapetum. In the lower left photo, Hayden got quite a surprise when the aqueous humour came squirting out of his specimen during dissection. Good thing he had his goggles on! And bottom right, Ashley and four of the other students took the lenses from their cow eyeballs home in sterile bags to keep. The lens of a cow eye looks like a clear marble and if you hold it in front of a newspaper it will magnify the letters. Very cool!
Teacher Updates
Mrs. Beach
  • General Information:
  1. December 20: It has become a tradition in the high school that on the last day before our Holiday Break, we have a Pajama Day and do a $5 gift exchange for anyone who wants to participate. Gifts should be wrapped and appropriate for either gender. Please bring them to Mrs. Beach's room on the morning of 12/20. Participation is optional, but you have to bring a gift to get a gift. Thank you!

  • Math: Great job on division of fractions quiz! Back into Simple Solutions next week, with emphasis on word problems.
  • Literacy: We are working on understanding, writing about and discussing a variety of current events. Vocab Unit 5 starts Tues.
  • Biology: Cow Eyeball Lab Report due Monday - print out in class. Biology books needed in class all week!
Ms. Finn
  • Math: Students are working hard on word problems, while some students are working on beginning algebra skills, other students are working on ratios and proportions. We will be taking the STAR test again on Wednesday of next week.
  • Literacy: Students have written their own chapter of "A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World" from the perspective of another character and have been working on a writers workshop and peer editing.
  • QUEST: Students are looking again at decision making skills. Repeated practice makes for better skills!
  • Earth Science: Students are learning about the different types of volcanoes and landforms.
  • Forensic Science: The test over DNA and RNA transcription and translation will be on Tuesday!
Mr. Harris
  • Career Ed & School to Work
  • Congratulations to all of the seniors who finish their first internship block on Friday. The second block of internships will resume in late January 2020 and take them almost into graduation in mid April. The reports have been very encouraging from the employers. Path Forward will be here next Thursday for their last class of 2019 and return in the first week of January.
Ms. Miller
  • Spanish : We are reviewing Unidad 1: Leccion 1, and will have a test towards the end of next week. We continue to focus on the verb tener, telling time, and regular AR verb conjugation.
  • World Civ : We have started our unit on Ancient China. We will continue next week and prepare for a test before the holidays.
  • Practical Living: As we near the holidays, we will focus on manners, socially appropriate interactions, and giving and receiving gifts. In addition we will finish collecting and counting the donations for the Mitten Tree project.
As always, please let us know if there is anything we can do for you!

Your High School Team ~
Susan Beach [ contact ]
Keeley Finn [ contact ]
Jenny Miller [ contact ]
Ben Harris [ contact ]