##VIDEO ID:PJRjxaqGdmw## ing hello everybody and welcome uh to West Windsor Plainsboro program of studies evening program and this is focused on upper classmen students that are currently in the high school my name is Lee Riley I'm one of the counselors at West Windsor Plainsboro High School North I'm pleased to be joined tonight uh by supervisors from the different content areas at the high school as well as counselor from both high schools will be monitoring uh Q&A in the chat H if we do not get to if you pose a question in the chat and we don't get to that uh this evening or if you have any questions this uh will be recorded uh so that you can you can watch it back or of course you can reach out to any of the supervisors on the call this evening um or counselors with specific questions about scheduling for next year um so I'm going to go through uh some general slides and then we'll get to uh particular content areas um just so that you're familiar uh with what we're going to be covering with the students um in the next few months tonight's program will include a review of graduation requirements um and the scheduling process and and timelines as well and of course Department highlights okay um graduation requirements we went over this a little bit uh if you have a student that's in uh currently in nth grade we always go over this uh when the students are coming into high school um but uh as as parents and Guardians you should be aware that there are certain district and state requirements that students have to fulfill uh as they go through uh their High School course selection counselors are entrusted with um oversight when it comes to keeping kids on track for graduation requirements um so this is not something that you need to worry about per se as counselors will be covering these requirements each year when we meet with uh students we do have a four-year requirement for English and language arts along with health and fizzed so that will be a part of student schedules um every year in high school uh we have a three-year math requirement uh a lot of kids do opt for a fourth year of math we have a three-year science require requirement and many students elect to take science all four years during High School uh same thing with our three years of social studies uh we have a specific world history requirement and then two years of American history and then we have a two-year World Language requirement and again with as with some of the other three-year requirements although we uh the district only requires two years of World Language a lot of our students choose to take a third and even a fourth year of World Language as they go through the high school um we also have different elective category requirements uh during the high school uh during the kids High School careers uh there's a Visual and Performing Arts requirement for one year a career in technical requirement for one year and then a halfe requirement for financial literacy there are multiple courses in each of those content areas that will that will satisfy those requirements and with the financial literacy and Career Technical requirement there are actually courses that will count account for either of those categories but not both so again school counselors uh will work with students to make sure that uh as they take their electives over their first several years of high school that they are uh meeting requirements in those particular areas the course selection process um R really runs during the months of uh February and March our semester ends a little bit later this year the second marking period doesn't close until February 3rd which is next Monday um so counselors will begin to to meet with students uh the following week once grades are posted for the first semester uh we will Begin by meeting with the rising seniors and then we will work our way um agewise uh down to the J Rising Juniors Rising sophomores um we will have uh uh I I think we have posted in this presentation in a later slide uh the actual the approximate breakdown of the wi Windows when we will be uh meeting with certain students but uh the capability in Genesis for you or for uh your sons and daughters uh to select uh courses for next year that um capability has been turned on or it will be turned on as of tomorrow morning so as of tomorrow morning in the portal uh students May begin to input their desired courses for next year um again counselors won't be meeting with students um for at the earliest a few weeks from now so it's not something that has to be done immediately um those course selections can always be updated and those will be finalized when counselors meet with uh the students during their individual scheduling sections sessions um important to know that uh after March 28th um we will turn off the feature to um add course requests in Genesis and at that point the initial selection process will be over as we work on building the master schedule and creating teacher assignments for the fall as in past years we will offer a uh small window in August between the 1st and six 15th for students to request changes to elective courses um or academic uh courses that they signed up for in the spring but these changes aren't necessarily guaranteed because uh the courses the sections have already been created um there could be situations where classes that students request are full at that point in time so we do ask students and parents to uh make sound initial choices uh during this initial scheduling window during February and March and then if there is a schedule change request in August we do our very best uh to honor that request before the um school year begins after the school year begins in September as we did this year um students in grades 10 through 12 for the most part will not be able to request course changes the one exception to that would be the integrated courses uh the multi-level courses which are generally on the ninth grade level option two uh this is something that you might be uh familiar with but we always uh we always find that there are a lot of questions surrounding outside coursework um that students might take uh during the summer or during the school year um there are a lot of misnomers that go along with the option to process probably the the biggest misnomer I can think of is that this is somehow will enhance a college application um or we'll we'll demonstrate um enhanced academic interests and and that's simply just not the case in our experience um what option two was designed for was for students to take a course for credit outside of the high school that they could not access in our high school so this might be a course in a Content area area that we do not offer in the West wior Plains BAU School District so a student might have an interest um in a certain area and they would like to take the summer or time outside of school to explore that what option two allows that student to do is to uh pre-apply for approval for a an outside course um and if that course is approved and the student passes that course with a certain grade uh we would then include that course on the students record for high school now it's really important to note that students can take outside cour work and they do not have to apply uh for option two credit for the high school they can simply um just take that course on their own and they can indicate that on college applications but in order for that course to appear on our transcript with credit they do have to go through the option two process um option two forms will be available within the next two weeks um that that option two window will close on April 1st and if students again put in requests supervisors and counselors uh will be evaluating those requests during that time period uh if students take option two for a course that we offer in District um they will need to pass our final exam um option two information and uh passing rates for our final exams all of that information is available uh on the district website so if you're considering that I would certainly ask uh your student to meet with their school counsel uh but also you can find a lot of valuable information regarding option two on the on the district website um just a little bit more information on option two um most of our students that want to do option two they take it over the summer and it's important to note that if you're taking a six or eight week accelerated course um it is almost impossible to replicate the content um that is covered over over a 48 40we course taught by our teachers um as Dr STC from our science department uh famously says option two is really the fast food of uh education here in wwp so we really want to have students experience courses that we offer um over the course of a year so that they can really synthesize that information and prepare themselves um for uh subsequent courses in that subject area um an option two course in in a in a offering that we already have in District is generally not a great idea um colleges and universities want to see commitment to the high school program well-rounded students um they're not expecting to the students to spend thousands of dollars to take outside course work um a lot of students don't have that type of access financially or in terms of time so for that reason uh option two courses are not an advantage in terms of college enrollment there are many many other meaningful engaging life-changing activities and experiences that students can take and should take advantage of over the summer um I also will say and I don't know if this slide is next in the presentation it is um that in order to address the interest that a lot of our students have in terms of continuing their learning over the summer over the past decade uh the district has um instituted several wonderful um enriching summer courses uh that have a lot of advantages over outside option to work um one of the advantages is uh these uh science electives math electives social studies elective beginning this year which you'll hear more about um in a few minutes and financial literacy these are taught by West Windsor Plainsboro teachers so these are these are the instructors that are from familiar with uh with our curriculum um and these are a a a wonderful experience we've gotten a lot of feedback from students over the past several years that have taken these courses and they genuinely have a great time um engaging in these disciplines and and learning for learning sake which is really what we want to see when it comes to a summer enrichment experience I will also note that these courses do PE appear on the West Windsor Plainsboro students transcript uh they are offered in multi-level uh honors and non-honors so if a student took a summer course um in District and they took that with an honors designation that would count toward their weighted GPA so for some students that's a nice perk it's a nice incentive um and and really uh again this is another reason why we are offering these we've uh understood the um the need from students in the community to have those options over the summer and this is a wonderful option that I think students can take advantage of if they are um really wanting to do something outside of school or to explore an area of Interest so again in a few moments the supervisors in these different areas will touch on offerings in those particular areas uh we're excited to add social studies um uh as a fourth content area this summer and those uh registration for those courses will open very soon you can see that uh early registration will open beginning next week for some of those courses all right um so for our next slide I would like to introduce a Dr Ashley Warren who is our world languages supervisor that wants to that asy is going to talk a little bit about uh dual enrollment which is another um offering that we have in District hi folks thanks so much for joining us yes it is my pleasure to share a little bit bit about dual enrollment so West wior Plains buo has partnered with the College of New Jersey TCNJ and middle sex College to offer a college credit for Approved High School courses so students enrolled in a wwp approved course can receive five high school credits while additionally receiving dual credit four college credits at the College of New Jersey or middle sex for each successfully completed course because of this partnership with wwp the colleges offer families a significantly reduced tuition rate for dual enrollment courses upon successful completion of an improved course the final grade will appear on the wwp transcript and the tcj or middle middlex transcript for program information please reach out to your school counselor information will also be shared with families via email um later this spring thank you I'll now introduce Miss Christen wolf our supervisor of mathematics Riley if we can turn to the next slide please I am excited uh to come here today to talk to you about the options for our mathematics program we have a robust set of offerings within our wwp school district and in a moment I'm going to show you another slide that will talk about all of those offerings in depth from a highlevel perspective effective it's important to note as stated before that the state of New Jersey does require 3 years worth of mathematics many if not most of our students do end up taking four years of high school mathematics the coursework is dependent on where you are starting your pathway within your mathematics journey and we'll talk about that in a minute the typical three courses that are taken first are our Algebra 1 Algebra 2 and geometry and then there are our additional options depending on your pathway that follow pre-calculus algebra and trigonometry statistics varying levels of that and calculus varying levels of that Mr Riley if you can turn to the next slide please the important part within the mathematics sequence is to really think about where you are currently at within your course pathway journey I think it is vitally important to note that we truly believe within the wwp school district that all students are capable of learning math at very high levels this just simply highlights that we're starting in different Pathways at different points in time so think about where you are or your child currently is in their course and then it will give you some options of what typical courses may be following that pathway for example if you look across the ninth grade year you will see that most of of our students are either in an algebra 1 an Algebra 2 or a geometry h& course and then if you look at the 10th grade row you will see the courses that follow subsequently from those the best place that you can do is consult the program of studies to understand exactly the intricacies of which course follows one another and it's vitally important for your student to talk with his or her mathematics teacher because those are the people that can help them the best in terms of thinking about the pathways I would like to point out and highlight that you'll notice on the pathway that we do have different levels of Statistics we have both our College Prep statistics as well as our AP Statistics and it is important to know that those are courses that are very rich and can be taken concurrently with other courses as well if you can go to the next slide Mr Riley as noted before we have some fabulous summer mathematics course offer Springs there are three different courses that are offered within the district introduction to data science introduction to discret math and then discrete mathematics part two you will note that they have different requirements depending on previous backgrounds most of them are open to a student who is entering High School discrete mathematics is for part two is something that builds on the introduction course and therefore requires introduction to discrete math these cour coures all run at the same time frame as the other wonderful summer courses that you'll hear both Dr St and Dr asini talk about and Dr Ray as well they run from July 7th through August 1st information is available right now at Community Education and you can read all of the various documents there that gives some frequently Asked information and some answers to your questions that you might have as noted before we highly recommend that students consider taking these courses because they should show a passion for the subject these three courses give students an option to show a true passion in mathematics and we have had great success Within These courses Mr Riley you can go ahead this final slide simply just shows the joy that really happens within the summer mathematics courses you can see that there are fun there are trips students are engaged and enjoying different activities together if you talk with any friends or other students who have taken these courses previously they will recommend them highly and I would highly encourage you to check them out this summer and now I would like to turn this over to my colleague Dr Russell Ray hi good evening everybody um I'm G to take a a second right here just to let everybody get out their phones and uh take a quick scan of the QR code in front of them um that's going to take you to a website that is going to give you an overview of all the classes that I cover in the 21st century career life um career life and careers um that'll give you um videos descriptions everything that you need to know about making choices about these uh you know the elective choices that the your students are going to be going through um we are I'm really excited about the course offerings that we have um between the engineering and the business programs and the computer science these are all with collaboration with colle Coles and universities including Stevens instit technology rooster polych um Rucker business school these are all in collaboration with them to make our curriculum and to drive students and and give them real authentic experiences um so we're going to start off with the next slide um notice the that QR code is still there and it's going to be there for the entire time I'm here um our business program um accounts for accounting uh marketing digital communication emerging financial markets um which is a newer class for us it's started two years ago and that goes into traditional Finance but then um adds on the concept of cryptocurrency and and how that affects um our world in terms of uh decentralized banking it's an exciting course um it's also an honors level course so students can opt in to take that in an honor level we have financial literacy which is a graduation requirement which is also fulfilled by emerging financial markets and then finally we have a senior internship and practicum experience where students take in their senior year they will take all their cour work in the morning and then in the afternoon we free up their schedule so they can go into job placements um that could be anywhere from learn go working uh at Princeton hospital and doing it to doing rounds with doctors we do uh drive through Drive withs um police officers medical so anything that your child is passionate about and want to experience in a first world first person experience it's a great experience for kids to have so um please talk to your counselors about the senior internship and Senior practicum that's only offered for seniors our computer science program is a four-year sequence we have introduction to computer programming um we have AP Computer Science a AP Computer Science principles and then as the fourth year course students can take Advanced topics in computer science and that is on the level of a seconde computer science course at a college level uh we also go into the engineering department the engineering department has again four courses principles of engineering design engineering graphic engineering and Robotics this was done with in collaboration with Carnegie melon University so you'll see a lot of uh very unique experience everything from 3D printing to laser cutting all sorts of fabrication methodology it's a tremendous Hands-On authentic experience next we have family consumer science where we have uh I don't need to read them off for you you can see them over here uh but a lot of it is about um interior design creativity cooking um but again if you look at the bottom too we have a child growth and development class which is quite unique where we actually bring in preschool age students so we have three and foury olds that we bring in where the high school students learn about child growth in the development stages and then they can actually Implement what they've learned with the children so it's a authentic experience of how to teach children and as they grow again that's also dual enrollment um and the final one is youth teach youth where students go um they take a learn about the Practical experience of teaching and then they have placements within wwp so they can they will actually go to classrooms and teach um they could be in the elementary schools and they can also go to middle schools and high school placements where they can teach other students um great if if you want to go into that into education as a career and finally we have a media media Department which includes broadcast writing uh Advanced broadcast writing which is again a continuation of broadcast writing and TV production where we um we actually have a radio station uh 107.9 FM we uh stream um also online and we just had a uh a conversation with wh y so we're actually going to be um collaborating with them and our whole uh broadcasting network is going to be updated within the next six months so again uh 107.9 FM and you can listen to uh our students uh on the radio and I'm not sure who's next um so we're gonna pass that along oh we're gonna pass on to Rich Dr richte uh with the science department thank you very much Dr Ray hello everyone it's great to be with you tonight to talk about a very exciting time of year and that's of course selection for your children uh working with the great Educators on this call we will partner with you and help you with the best we can to make sure that we chart a science course or chart a education course quite frankly that meets your child's needs and that's in line with their Vision which we are intending to cultivate science Learners who have the foundational knowledge to make ethical science scientifically literate decisions but also it's important that we capitalize on diversity that we emphasize authentic science engineering practices and leveraging them with the interdisciplinary nature of science and integrating scientific knowledge with 21st century skills but most importantly evolves to cultivate inclusive and diverse Community where all Learners are welcomed valued respected and celebrated okay consider this as you decide so we want to make sure first of all that you know when the students who are listening on this call tonight make absolutely certain you are pursuing your passion of what you want to study most consult with family especially your parents but also your friends your teachers your school counselors your administrators all of whom stand ready to support and talk with you about what you want to study most and how best we can prepare you for it and it's really a choice is about your life what you're passionate about and everyone benefits from your success and someone told me a long time ago that I need to make sure that I plot my own course and I interpreted that as this own who you are be your own son or you'll be left to live in the shadow of others so make sure you are in command and control of your own destiny but on of the people who helped you get to where you are okay science courses let's dive in this is a sample and for those of you who are on our call last year the incoming ninth grade uh this is a little bit of familiarity but for those who are new to the high school uh North and South experience a sample High School course sequences below we're typically in ninth grade uh all the students will take uh a level of biology in the multi-level setting and then typically in 10th Grade A level of chemistry or chemistry honors or in environmental science if they so choose 11th grade uh we offer all the choices that are there that you haven't already taken and these now will include a level of physics or physics honors uh genetics and then we have AP environmental science the physics of astronomy it's a fantastic course uh for those students who might not want to dive too deep into physics but deep enough from an astronomical point of view uh out in the universe and it's a great course uh taught by Mr Patterson and Mrs Osborne in our high schools and it's a really op it's a great opportunity to explore that area of Science and then 12th grade you have electives which are uniquely designed to make sure that what you want to study most is what you're focused on and it's not that we want to take every single science course we want to make sure that your students are choosing wisely the path that they want to study most based on perhaps a vision for themselves that's best talk through with you of course your parents your school counselors reach out to me of course talk with your teachers as to what course you want to choose most much of what's on this slide and the next couple of slides is found in our program of studies so please make sure you are Consulting that very carefully uh over the next couple of weeks as you begin to make decisions about what you want to do most I would tell you if you are planning if your child rather is planning on a stem career or a career in medicine preet pre uh premedical uh pre- Dental whatever uh it's really important that all the foundation sign Sciences biology chemistry and physics or experience at the appropriate level and then carefully choosing next slide please which electives you want to study most so Advanced topics in physics honors is our advanced placement physics equivalency course it's not an AP course in a traditional sense but it will as a result of that experience prepare your children for the AP Physics C exam and for those who are prospecting to be Engineers to be uh Architects you know to work in and complement their the engineering experience in Dr russer Ray's department or if they just are deeply in love with physics this is a great class it's a rigorous class it's a challenging class we en we encourage all students of every Walk of Life who are interested in science technology engineering arts and Mathematics uh and you are especially keen on physics to take this class AP environmental science is a great AP class for those students who not just want to learn about environmental science but perhaps have a passion for advocacy and for Lear learning about what causes uh these systems to work well and perhaps what happens when they're out of balance AP chemistries every is the class I recommend everyone to take if they are considering a career in medicine but please make sure you take that course before you take AP biology a good background in chemistry will help you be the best biologist you can be next slide please all right uh additional electives we have which have been redesigned to really provide an authentic even deeper authentic uh stem-based experience forensic science for example centers the entire class around a wonderfully well-designed problem-based learning experience this incorporates other disciplines there's mathematics physics biology uh and many other areas of science that people will explore uh while they take this course figuring out is this is might be something I want to consider we do offer it as uh an accepted graduate level class so for those students who looking for science credits forensic science is one you can consider uh as I mentioned before the physics of astronomy for those students who are interested in physics but might not want to dive too deeply in a traditional sense but want to look at it through the vision or the lens of astronomy that's a highly recommended class to experience we offer environmental science at the CP level genetics is a very strong stem-based class so if weren't about uh uh DNA you want to you know learn about sequencing of DNA and get a little more detailed into uh the science of of diseases and and genetic engineering and Prosthetics and Technology this is a great class and of course rounding off your career especially if you're considering any amount of uh or any desire to be in medicine is anatomy and physiology um as Dr R I'm sorry as Mr um Riley mentioned earlier we do have our summer programs and among the most I am proud of is the Marine Science class and if you look at these students here as Mrs wolf mentioned earlier in her classes they're happy they like this this is a great two and a half credit you know 5we course experience from 8:30 to 11:30 taught by our teachers so instead of taking an option two course come learn it with us in the summer okay it's really great opportunity to build relationships and to learn more about yourselves and what you might want to study most next slide please okay and take a look at the uh uh frequently as asked questions uh that's also on the uh District's website as well as the website for Community Education uh that's where you would register for the class it cost $500 per student for five we experience which is a really great buy it's it's a much better way uh to sharpen their scientific skills uh and to have some fun with their peers and a really great opportunity for them to learn about themselves so please give that your every consideration if you have any questions please reach out to me and now I'm going to hand this over to Dr Ashley Warren board language thank you thank you Dr Dr stack good evening everybody thanks so much for joining I'm pleased to share a little bit about the World Language department so our world language program has been recognized as a model program by the New Jersey Department of Education and we are very very very proud to offer a program starting in elementary school all the way through High School our world language program offers four language choices in both middle school and in high school and those language choices are French German Mandarin Chinese and Spanish we offer a sequential study of all four languages that can lead to advanced placement language and culture in Spanish we also offer an advanced placement Spanish Literature and culture every year I do I do smile and students reach out from French or German and say I would like to take the German literature course or the French literature course unfortunately the College Board does not offer those classes so we are only able to offer Spanish because that is what the College Board offers but we're very pleased to offer AP in all four languages and two AP courses in the Spanish program um as Mr Riley shared 10 credits of World Language are required for high school graduation but as he also mentioned most colleges look for three or four years of language study and I'll just go out on a limb and share that um languages is one of those things you can study in high school that you will never regret studying and being multilingual is a gift that carries you through your entire life so at no point will you say darn I can't believe I studied Spanish why did I do that I can't use it it's not true you'll use whatever language you study and so we encourage you to study as many years as possible though 10 credits or two years is the requirement I also just want to plug that um since 2020 over 500 Wester Plainsboro students have earned the prestigious seal of biliteracy which is awarded by the New Jersey Department of Education the seal appears on students transcripts and certifies that students have reached intermediate Proficiency in Reading Writing speaking and listening um we are really really proud of our students and we hope that your students continue to study World languages so that they might earn the Seal of biliteracy which is available for seniors um this will be available after the program and and as Miss wolf shared the best place to go to understand our offerings is the program of studies and the best person to talk to about understanding what class might be best for your child is your child's current World Language teacher they could absolutely help them understand the trajectory the courses that are open to them I'll give a quick overview from French there's essentially two Pathways if you took French in middle school and you started in French too at the high school you can go French two three three honors four four honors five or AP you can also begin French at any time in high school we have a French one class that runs every year the same for German you can continue German from middle school with our German 2 class and take that all the way through AP German um some years there is enough enrollment to begin a durman one class in high school though I should note that that is not always the case Chinese follows just like German in that if you studied Chinese in the middle school you can begin Chinese 2 in the high school and years where enrollment allows us to open a Chinese 1 Section we do though we have not been able to do that the past few years Spanish um students in our district can start Spanish in second grade if they've been with us since second grade so Spanish has the most offerings or the most pathway Pathways so just to give a quick highle overview you can start Spanish at any time during high school if you'd like we offer a Spanish one course every single year um if you take it for four years you can end in Spanish for honors which is an intermediate mid class and we're very proud that students make it there um as you see here we offer some electives or or more course offer ings for Spanish as I shared the College Board does offer two AP Spanish classes we're proud to offer both in wwp so you can see here that there are choices for students who start in Spanish 3 or three honors and they have some decisions to make about which path is right for them the best person to ask is their child's teacher is your child's teacher so they can understand what their goals are and which class might align with their goals and what they're eligible to take um we do have alternate Pathways in Spanish so that students can meet the 2-year 10 credit requirement one of the alternate Pathways is starting in Spanish too perhaps if you joined our district sometime in the middle of middle school or around 8th grade and you're you have some familiarity with Spanish but you're not quite ready for our Advanced Spanish 3 class Spanish 2 is a pathway and I always encourage families and just say you can start in Spanish 2 and make it to AP Spanish language so that is a viable pathway if that's something you're interested in we also offer courses um that you may be interested in consultation with your counselor or your child study team you might want to consider a class um entitled introduction to Spanish communication and culture which is a small portfolio based class for students who require additional support learning languages it's now my pleasure to turn it over to miss Emily K Kling my colleague who is the supervisor of the language arts department hi everyone thanks Dr Warren so uh good evening my name is Emily Kling and I'm the language arts supervisor for grades 6 to 12 and it's a pleasure to be here tonight to talk about wwp's language arts program so as you may know our high school language arts program is designed to guide students through an engaging and transformative journey of self-discovery critical thinking and Global awareness so that starts in nth grade where students Begin by exploring themes of self and identity as well as their relationship with the world around them through diverse texts and reflective discussions they grapple with the essential question who am I and how do I connect to the world so then in grade 10 that Focus shifts to American Literature and narratives about the American Experience so students examine what it means to be American and how our shared history shapes our Collective and individual identities in grade 11 our students transition to Global literature analyzing works that explore the United States role on the global stage and this year encourages critical thinking about how Nations and cultures intersect and influence one another and then in grade 12 this Capstone year centers on students using their voices to enact positive change so again through a rigorous exploration of text they ask how can I impact the world and contribute to its betterment so our curriculum is thematically based provid ing students with opportunities to engage with a variety of texts so including novels short stories poetry non-fiction articles films Etc these rich and varied units are designed to challenge students to ask big questions about themselves and the world uh equipping them with the skills to leave wwp ready to make a meaningful impact um and in thinking about the difference between honors and College Prep you know we see that our honors classes just go into more depth and complexity but still follow along with the same curriculum or similar curriculum we also offer advanced placement courses in literature and language uh these courses cater to students who are passionate about reading and writing and wish to refine their skills or to those seeking to improve in these areas and who are willing to make the uh commit to the time and effort required in addition to our core program our journalism program invites students to consider analyze and improve the world they see around them so whether it's their school their Community their country or the broader World beginning students explore topics such as News sports and arts uh as well as crafting personal opinion pieces on issues ranging from pop culture to climate change and then our intermediate and advanced students hone their reporting and writing skills while also producing a class web website and contributing to the school newspaper uh and so our student Le School newspaper at each uh High School publishes eight issues a year um and that editorial board is supported by the journalism club which is an Afterschool activity that Fosters collaboration and creativity so ultimately our program really encourages students to engage deeply with texts consider Big Ideas and develop their voices which prepares them not only for academic success but also to be thoughtful informed and impactful citizens of the world so if you have any questions about our language arts program you can feel free to drop a question in the chat Andor you can always reach out to me you can email me uh and I will get back to you as soon as possible so I'm going to pass this over to my colleague Dr Cindy aini who's now going to talk a little bit about our social studies program thank you thank you Miss Kling that was a great transition to social studies talking about active citizens in the world it's almost like we planned this I do want to take a minute before we get too deep into social studies to just address some of the questions that I saw in the chat about dual enrollment there were a number of questions about dual enrollment and so just to be clear if your child is in a dual enrollment class for this year you should have received an email from Kia Bergman on September 18th so if you're having trouble finding that or you're not sure reaching out to your child's counselor would be a good Next Step but definitely take a look out for that email because it has a a very large amount of information about the different options and the different courses and it was sent to All Families who have a child enrolled in a class that is eligible now as you're doing your planning if you're wondering what classes are eligible for next year it depends on which university you're looking at and A good rule of thumb is that all AP classes are eligible from at least one University TCNJ and some AP classes you'd have a choice between TC andj and middle sex so um all that information should be available and if you have questions again reaching out to a counselor is a good idea um there are a lot of specificities about whether dual enrollment would be um the best option for your child and which dual enrollment would be a good option so we're here to help you sort through all of that as far as social studies goes there um are a few requirements to keep in mind one year of world history which most students do in their nth grade year and two years of US history there are a number of options and one in particular is new this year so I want to take some time to talk through it typically our students take either American studies one or American studies one honors as a 10th grader and next year they'll have the option to meet that American studies requirement also through taking advanced placement African-American studies it is one of the few AP classes that is designed for our 10th grade students in their overall scope and sequence within the department we do have 10th graders some 10th graders taking it this year and they are finding success in the class it is a class that is heavy in primary sources and also designed for kids who have an interest in social justice it looks at a survey of United States history through the experience of black Americans so just thinking through whether that would be a course that your child would be interested in um having them talk with their world history teacher those are great steps to think about whether that's a good fit for your child advanced placement African-American studies can also be taken as an elective for 11th or 12th graders but I did want to make sure that everyone knew it could count for one of the two years of required American history then in students 11th or 12th grade year they typically take either American 2 College Prep American St 2 honors or it should say AP US History at the bottom I do apologize that that got cut off so those are that's an overview of the required social studies courses like I had said the typical pathway we do have a large elective program in social studies there are many social studies electives some of our most popular ones include AP Government either comparative government or US Government we have two AP government classes um many students also take AP Psychology or AP microeconomics which also meets the requirement for financial literacy so there are a number of courses that students can look at um in addition to the required three years of social studies I did want to take a moment to mention that um a common class for option two is American studies one and either American studies class is particularly problematic to take as an option two class so you have a that's between five and eight weeks and that course will cover the entirety of American studies our courses are 80 weeks to do the entirety of American studies so you're trying to cram in basically in 10% of the time or less um what we would do in our courses again because there are no courses that we found that do only as1 and then as2 so you take an as1 as2 combined class for 5 to eight weeks where each of those courses is 40 weeks in wwp so just be very careful about um those social stat classes that being said um there are many electives to take so we encourage you to take social studies preferably at wwp where your child will have our high quality curriculum and teachers all of our social St courses focus on the social St practices of reading and writing about sources historical thinking skills taking informed action so we really want kids to be able to analyze sources site evidence from reputable sources and use that to create an argument ideally to make the world a better place the last piece that I want to talk about is another exciting New Edition which is the Asian-American and Pacific Islander studies class that we're going to be offering this summer it is the first Humanity summer course in wwp and just like the other courses it is available through Community Education the registration will open in a few short days so please be ready it's available February 3rd and we hope that the four sections of this class that are available will sell out um the course runs like all of the summer courses from July 7th through August 1st for two and a half wwp credits the course will look at the topics that are suggested by the Asian-American research initiative which include identity immigration race and and really telling stories about asian-americans and Pacific Islanders through a lens of agency we want our students to be inspired about how they too can make a difference in US history just as many of their ancestors have so this would be in place of an option two course we have a number of partners that we're working with to make this course really Dynamic and interesting and I will just say from a parent perspective who shops for summer courses for my own children we want these courses to be engaging exciting we want kids to connect with each other and connect with our faculty and to get that for $500 for four weeks I spend a lot on summer summer opportunities and you know about $100 a week is an amazing deal especially when you look at the quality of Education that kids would be getting so thank you very much for listening to our social studies options I'm happy to answer more questions should they come up for you and now I will pass to um Carl Cooper for some information about our multilingual learning program thanks Cindy I appreciate it so our multilingual learning program are for students who are already fluent in one or more languages that's are not English but they're developing Proficiency in English the program is only uh held over at High School South um our students have a a number of of course options there are courses that we would uh call uh that would qualify for our English and our world language graduation requirements and so we have them labeled by proficiency level uh level uh ml1 courses are for students who are are uh learning some introductions they're learning some introduction vocabulary um and starting to speak in sentences level uh ml2 courses are for students that are speaking at the sentence level um beginning to connect sentences together uh ml3 and four are for students who are uh developing extended discourse they're uh being able to uh read and write uh speak in uh more sophisticated paragraphs um and the uh course that your child is currently in uh enrolled in suggest to us what the next level of the course uh they would go into um so those two courses ml one A and B or 2 A and B Etc uh they fulfill both the English graduation requirement and the World Language graduation requirement uh we also have other courses that will assist students so uh we have world history uh sections that are uh either explicitly for our our multilingual students that would need uh lots of support in it um we also have been doing some pushin experiences and that means that the uh the course in world history could be taught by one of our wonderful social studies teachers that Cindy just talked talked about and we would have a multilingual uh um learning teacher who would join that class every day and help to modify instruction modify uh resources we have a similar structure in our Science Program um in a science class we would have um uh classes that are explicitly designed for our students that are at the beginning levels of English language proficiency and that course is called science 1 ml um in our biology program many of your children are are enrolled in that uh that's an experience where students are uh with students that are taking the college prep or the the um the honors biology course but we also would have a multilingual learning uh teacher who would be in that class and help to um make modifications adaptations uh one of the things that is unfortunately not in this I thought I had to Pro uh had that appear here uh after world history um courses students can go into American studies one and American studies 2 courses and we do have proficiency based courses for that um they're generally taught by our social stes department but we uh have multilingual learning uh teachers who would also support those classes so I apologize for that not appearing here finally uh in Louis study hall and you may remember that every student in wwp high schools takes a study hall uh in lie of of a study hall call our multilingual learning students uh would uh have a chance to have a tutorial with an ml teacher um and that teacher would be uh there to work with a smaller group of students and provide support and uh make sure that they're they're um uh in a great place um I appreciate the uh time tonight if you have a question about what is the next appropriate Force to go to the best person to go to would be the multilingual uh learning teacher at High School South uh I'd like to turn it over to my colleague and very good friend uh Jeff centuro thank you uh thank you Mr Cooper good evening everyone my name is Jeff Santoro I'm the supervisor of fine and Performing Arts in the west wisor Plainsboro Regional School District and I'm going to give you an overview of our wonderful fine and Performing Arts programming uh we'll start with the music department um so this is all of the courses that are offered by the music department but if you look at the Le hand side of the screen uh those nine bullet points are grouped uh by Ensemble so we have our Band program our Orchestra program and our choir program at the high schools and there are three um levels of courses in each of those uh programs the first three that you see there the concert band string Ensemble and Corral those are our ninth grade ensembles all ninth graders are placed in those um regardless of background and experience and then our 10th through 12th graders are split between those second and third bullet points so the band kids get split between symphonic band and Wind Ensemble Orchestra kids get split between syon Symphony Orchestra and philarmonic Orchestra and our choir kids get split between concert choir and chamber choir um those last ensembles in each of those sets of three are honors by default and you have a option of taking the the middle bullet point classes there as either College Prep or honors depending on um the workload that your child wants to take on on the right hand side of the screen are courses that we offer for kids who want to be involved in the music program and really enjoy music but maybe have not found their home to be in our band Orchestra and choir program so the music technology program we have three levels of that at this point um the third level is honors uh and the this is a great class for kids who want to make music on computers want to learn about audio engineering and about DJing and how to live sound and things like that so it's a very Hands-On um more compositional and less performative uh way of making music and then we have our music theory classes level one and two that dive into how music is made how it's composed and things like that um so those are all the offerings in the music course we'll go to the next slide here and we have our art Department offerings again I've tried to group these um by type of visual art so if you look at Art Foundation drawing and painting one drawing and painting two these are courses that mostly focus on two-dimensional art creation Art Foundation covers everything so it does have some 3D within it but um drawing and painting one and two are exactly what they sound like they they are heavily focused on drawing and painting skills um for kids who want a little bit more of a hands-on experience we have our sculpture and Ceramics program levels one and two uh that is making art out of all sorts of different things and also there's a big emphasis on Clay um that we fire in our kils and and make beautiful pieces of artwork that the kids can take home we have a computer-based art program called computer Art and Design uh students use programs like Photoshop and illustrator to uh create art except in ex not on a canvas or not with Clay but on a computer um that's a very popular Class A lot of kids who are interested in art or artistic uh artistically minded but maybe don't like drawing and painting as much they find a home in computer Art and Design very often and then we have a very vibrant photography program at the high schools uh we have two levels of that and that's a really unique mix of digital photography which is obviously what we all do now nowadays when we take photos but we also still have um film photography and dark rooms in both high in both high schools um and that's a we do that on purpose because there's some foundational skills that you can really learn about um taking photographs that are artistically uh high level uh by learning how to develop them on film like photos used to be um and then lastly on the right hand side here we have two uh AP courses we have AP Studio Art so um a student who takes any of the courses on the left side of this slide can focus on that area um in AP Studio Art and submit a portfolio to the AP um for review and to get a grade on the AP exam and then we have an AP art history course which is a really nice combination of um you know learning about different artists and different time periods uh from a historical perspective moving on to the next slide um we have our dance Department this photo shows obviously kids dancing but it shows them in one of our uh pretty new uh state-of-the-art dance studios we have one at each high school they're only a few years old um exactly like you see in a professional dance studio it's a really nice facility uh we have three levels of dance courses that kids can take um world dance is our level one course and it is exactly as it sounds it is a survey of dance types from all around the world um it's heavily influenced by um you know the basics of dance and fundamentals but also the backgrounds and interests of the kids who take the course so I I mentioned that because I know we have a lot of kids who dance outside of school and all sorts of um types of dance studios um and this class is open to all of them and actually is made better by the diverse backgrounds of dance that kids bring to the program our second level course is called choreography and performance our third level course is called honors dance technology and um they they develop the same skills learned in world dance but also bring in other aspects to build on their skill set so the choreography and performance class is a little bit more heavily built on uh the kids coming up with their own dance moves and Performing them and then the third level class of dance technology really brings in the aspect of how do you um how do you record dance how do you show it how do you uh present it to an audience um and last but not least our theater arts department um our theater Department I should say on the next slide uh we have two levels of that uh Theater Arts one and two and um and level two can be taken as College Prep or honors and the these courses are really great places for kids who have really found a home in the theater so if your child um has been involved in either the middle or high school plays or musicals or does any kind of um theater work outside of the school uh this is a great class for them um it's a nice mix of kids and they do really great things so uh that's a quick overview of the finer performing arts program if anyone has any questions you can put them in the Q&A I'll be here uh to answer them for the rest of the time that we're on the zoom here but you can also reach out to me uh uh via email and I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has and with that I'm turning it over to somebody turn it over to me all right turning it over to me it's all yours Lee thanks Mr Santoro I again want to thank all of our supervisors this evening uh for talking a little bit about the offerings in grades 10 through 12 I also want to thank the counselors and the supervisors who were answering questions on the chat um this recording will be posted on the district website uh in the next day or so if you want to take a look or or take a look at any email addresses or contact information as I mentioned at the beginning of the program we're going to have uh scheduling doesn't start for another week and a half or so and it will go through the month of March so students have plenty of time to think about their options but we would encourage you to have a conversation uh uh with students to start planning for next year and to really help them think through um some of the wonderful offerings that we have in the district um if you didn't have a question that was answer this evening of course you can reach out um to a supervisor if it's a Content related question or if it's a general scheduling related question you can of course reach out uh to your child's school counselor so with that I would like to again thank everybody for uh thank you everybody for being on the call this evening and uh have a wonderful rest of your night