Merry Christmas to All!

I would like to wish the students, faculty, staff, and community of Corsicana High School a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  I would also like to to say thank you to all of you for a great first half of the school year.  It is great to work in a school with great students and staff!

We have to keep the energy and excitement up as we move to the 2nd half of the school year.  We have to work harder, as well as play harder.  One thing I know for sure, being "ok" is not going to be good enough at Corsicana High School.  We have the challenge of being better, academically, athletically, musically, and with everything we do.  We are the Home of Champions and we will win championships!

Thank you for allowing me to serve as the principal of Corsicana High School.  CHS is an amazing community of learners and the best is yet to come!

Home of Champions!

Herbert

Can you find me? ("Emmanuel" Performed by the Antioch Baptist Church Choir)

Enough said!

Christmas is Coming!

This is the last week of school before we are out of school for two weeks for the Christmas Holidays.  It is my hope that all stakeholders of Corsicana High School have a great holiday with family and friends.  Please do not forget that we have an early release this Friday at 11:30 am.  Classes will be dismissed at 11:00 am and lunch will be from 11:00-11:30 am.  Lunch is optional.

"Silent Night" by the Temptations (One of my favorite Christmas songs)

Can you believe the Cowboys lost again?  It would be okay if they were losing from the get go, but to just keep throwing away games.  Please help!!! 

I asked a student recently if they knew the Corsicana High School fight song.  Her reply was "Yes, I do."  I then asked her to sing it.  She immediately began singing "All Hail Corsicana."  I told her that I was glad that she knew the school song.  I politely told her that there was a difference in the fight song and the school song.  I let her know that the fight song was the song the band plays when the football team runs out or scores a touchdown.  All CHS Tigers should know the fight song.  The lyrics are:

Fight, Fight, Fight, all you Tigers!

Keep your spirit strong.

Go, Go, Go, for a touchdown!

Le't keep rolling on.

Fight, Fight, Fight, all you Tigers!

Watch your colors shine.

T-I-G-E-R-S! Tigers Fight!
Music by Hub Hill; Lyrics by Chet Vaughn and Bud Wright; Written in 1947

I would like to give a shout out to the Turning Points program.  The admin, faculty, and staff do such a great job working with our students daily.  We have many students who are graduating who may not have had the opportunity to graduate without this great program.  Please watch the following video to hear form students and staff of this great program.  Turning Points Video

I would like all of the students who participated in the Hour of Code.  I really appreciate the teachers who facilitated the process.  The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer programming, designed to demystify code and show that anyone can learn programming.  Glad that we had many students write lots of lines of code. Please click the link to learn more about the Hour of Code. Hour of Code

Student writing code

HB5 Spotlight

--Health Science

Currently Health science students at CHS can earn their certified nurses aide certificate upon completion of the program.  This program will be expanded to offer pharmacy tech, and intravenous sterile products.  

A big shout out to the Corsicana High School competitive cheer squad.  They received 1st place High School Intermediate at the Spirit Celebration Christmas Classic in Garland.  Go Tigers!

CHS Competitive Cheer Squad

Another shout out goes to the band students who advanced to area in their band competition this weekend.  They are Ramiro Ortiz, Danny Phillips, and Joe Vasquez.  Ramiro and Natalie Herrin also made it to regionals in ensembles.  

Corsicana High School now has a jazz band!  They made their debut at the band Christmas concert and they were an instant hit.  I loved it!  The students sounded great.  It was awesome to see the audience grooving to their smooth soulful tunes.

The blood drive will be this week.  Please see Ms. Neptune, or a stuco officer for more details.  Students will will give blood Tuesday and Thursday of this week.  

Please do not forget about the CHS fall sports banquet.  It will begin at 6:00 in the CHS commons.  See you there! 

Please keep your CHS calendar handy.  You do not want to miss out on anything! CHS Campus Calendar

 CHS Theatre Students at Rotary

CHS Students of the Month-Kedrick Luscumb and Kayla Wilkie

Go Tigers!

Home of Champions! 

Am I Out of Touch?

Wow!  I didn't really expect that we would be home on Friday because of the weather.  It was sort of funny to me when I read the announcement over the loud speaker and I could hear the yells of excitement coming from the classrooms.  I guess some things never change.  Young people still love getting out for snow/ice days.  Of course I'm getting older now and would have rather been at school.

That leads me into something I have been thinking about over the past few months.  I never would have thought that I would lose touch with what our younger generation enjoy.  I always thought that as long as I talked to them I would surely understand.  Well, I was wrong!  The older I get I have found that I do not enjoy the music that they enjoy or many of the "pop culture" items that excites this generation.  I mostly listen to '90s Hip hop and R&B.  Frankly, it's just hard for me to get into some of the new music.  I have tried very hard to stay in touch with social media and messaging systems.  It evolves very quickly as well.  How many of you have ever heard of Snapchat?  It's huge with our students!  With that said, we all have to work hard to continue to have good relationships with our students to truly understand their likes and dislikes.  It is easy to say "I just don't get them", or we can try to understand why they like things, and embrace it because it is here to stay.  We all know when we understand them, our jobs as educators are that much easier.  I will continue to work hard to understand the things that they enjoy.  Just a few thoughts!

So Ohio State lost the big game! I didn't know they had so many haters! I guess life as we know it can continue, because there will be an SEC school in the big game.  Maybe I am not a fan of the SEC.  I will say that I hope Florida State crushes Auburn!

Academic Updates

STAAR re-testing will continue this week.  This week's schedule will be as follows:
Tuesday: Algebra
Wednesday: Biology

The SAT test has been rescheduled for Saturday, December 21, 2013.  Please govern yourselves accordingly.

Students, continue to keep track of your grades and your mastery of concepts in your classes.

We are working hard to get all of our courses lined up for our transition to the legislative changes that have come with HB5.  It will be pretty exciting to me when I see our students signing up for their respective endorsements.  Remember the endorsements that the students can choose from are:
*Business and Industry
*STEM
*Public Services
*Arts and Humanities
*Multidisciplinary Studies

There will be a mandatory meeting for all incoming freshman parents on Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at 1:15 pm or 6:00 pm.  We will discuss new graduation plans/endorsements for incoming freshman students.

Extracurricular Updates 

A big shout out to the state qualifying Corsicana FFA Radio Broadcasting team for being ranked in the top 20 out of over 675 Radio Broadcasting teams in the state of Texas.  This is a huge accomplishment and we are proud of them.  The members are Nathan Griffin, Caroline Means, and Leland Cook.  Go Tigers!

Tryouts for the Calico dance team have been rescheduled for this Tuesday.  Good luck to all the students trying out!

The fall sports banquet has been rescheduled for December 17th.

The band program will have their annual Christmas concert this Tuesday in the CHS Performing Arts Center beginning at 6:30 pm.

The choir program will have their annual Christmas concert Thursday in the CHS Performing Arts Center beginning at 7:00 pm.

There will be many other extracurricular activities taking place as well.  Please look on the campus calendar for all activities. CHS Campus Calendar

 Talent Show Tryouts 

Lounging at Soccer Tryouts 

Learning Together

Students be on the look out for a dynamic learning experience!  We all love social media, and other digital mediums! Let's learn together on how to create and sustain a positive, exciting, interesting, and responsible digital footprint!  This will be a free course for any student interested!  More details to come! Stay tuned!

Using Technology to Complete Assignments

Back At It!

It is my hope that everyone reading this had a great Thanksgiving break with family and friends!  I know I did!  If you follow me on twitter @ONeilCHSPrincip you would have seen some of the laughs that I had over the holidays.  I am always thankful that I get to spend time with my wonderful family back in my hometown of Hearne.  I even found time to give the bad knee a workout with some great dancing.  I love to dance!

Family Time

Who had the opportunity to check out the wild finish in the Iron Bowl (Alabama/Auburn)?  Wasn't that crazy?  It's just another reason why I love college football!  The talking has already begun about which team should play in the National Championship game.  First, we must finish the season before we speculate.  Second, I don't care what anyone says.  If you win out in one of the big conferences, you should go.  That's just my two cents!

One more thing-Who misses the UT/aTm Thanksgiving rivalry game?  Everyone should drop their egos and bring that game back.  We are all Texans!

We will hit the ground running first thing Monday morning with STAAR re-testing.  The schedule is as follows:
Monday-English I Writing
Tuesday-English I Reading
Wednesday-English II Writing
Thursday-English II Reading

Week 2:
Tuesday-Algebra
Wednesday-Biology

The students who will be re-testing have been notified and should report directly to their testing rooms.  Testing students will eat lunch in their testing rooms and must bring a lunch or opt for a sack lunch provided by the cafeteria.
We wish all of our students who are re-testing well!  Go Tigers!

Did you know that CHS offers internet courses and minimesters for free for advanced students?  Students who are in dual credit classes have the opportunity to take additional internet courses through Navarro College during each regular semester.  Any student who is in dual credit or AP courses may sign up for the minimester through Navarro College.  Please see Mrs. Franklin for more details.

Extracurricular Activities

Tryouts for the award winning Calico dance team will be this week.  I know many of our students will be working hard leading up to the big night this Friday.  Go Calicos!

Shout out to Sarah Dockery and Emily Stovall for participating in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Another shout out goes to Mrs. Tidwell, the Calico director, for helping choreograph the Mad Hatter scene in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  This is awesome!

 Emily Stovall, Amy Tidwell, Sarah Dockery

More Shots

Our girls basketball team will have a big game Monday night against University High School at Tiger Gymnasium.  Tiger Nation should be there early to support the Tigers!  Tip off for Freshman/JV is at 5:30 pm.

The girls and boys basketball teams at all levels will be in tournaments this week.  I am including links to the schedules right here:
Girls Basketball Schedule
Boys Basketball Schedule

State Bound! 

Shout out to the Corsicana FFA chapter for advancing to the State competition in Radio Broadcasting!  The team members are Leland Cook, Caroline Means, and Nathan Griffin.  Go FFA!

Mark your calendars!  The talent show is coming! Tryouts will begin this Monday and will conclude Tuesday.  Tryouts begin at 3:30 in the auditorium.  The actual talent show will be Thursday, December 19th at 7:00 pm.  Show your talent!

I will also include a link to the CHS calendar to this email.  It is updated daily so please check back often.
CHS Campus Calendar

Students continue to check on your progress in all of your classes.  The semester is coming to a close and it is important that you know where you are.  We all need to finish strong!

Go Tigers!

Home of Champions!