Veterans Day Ceremony a HUGE Success!

On this special day, I wanted to take a moment to recognize the tremendous job Brian Howe and his students did in putting on the 5th annual Veterans Day Ceremony. This years ceremony was the biggest yet, with 47 local veterans and 600 plus students in attendance. I would also like to extend a special thank you to LHS teacher and Veteran Derek Rupp for his inspirational speech about the experience of serving our country. Many of the veterans expressed their gratitude to the students and shared with the staff how impressed they were by the students of LHS. One veteran in particular shared the following:

"You know, I didn't have a very good opinion of the youth of America. After today, I was wrong. There is hope."

Thank you Brian Howe, Derek Rupp, local Veterans and LHS students for a wonderful ceremony!

So Much in One Week

I apologize for the lack of blogging this week but it has been very busy. Tuesday was Professional Development. I want to tell you that your faculty takes this PD very seriously spending the morning working with their Milford High School Cohort and the afternoon discussing what it means to create quality instruction and to be a quality instructor.

Thursday was the Veteran's Ceremony which was moving and impressive at the same time. Seeing all these veterans from as far back as World War II and hearing from our own teacher, Derek Rupp, brought tears to they eyes of many. A special thanks goes out to Social Studies teacher Brian Howe who has been putting together this ceremony for several years.

Also on Thursday, over 70 students and staff left for the Walled Lake Nature Center to take part in our annual Communication Camp. I will write more about this later but suffice to say that as I write this at 12:30 am every participant is truly amazing and already thinking of how to make Lakeland an even more inclusive place.

It was a great weekend to be a Lakeland Eagle!

Scott Rolando here for the Celebrate Good Times Blog!

This past weekend was a great weekend to be a Lakeland Eagle! With so many groups, sports, and other clubs that we offer at Lakeland, this past weekend really showed off the talent we have in many different areas here at Lakeland.

It all started Friday night when our Eagles took on the Mavericks of Milford in the MHSAA District Final for Girls Volleyball. Our Eagles came out with a hard fought 3 game win to defeat the Mavs and to win the District Title! All of the girls played hard and defeating Milford to win the title was a great feeling all around. Our fans were awesome and I know that the team enjoyed winning the title on our home floor. Moving into Saturday, our Lakeland Marching Band, getting to LHS at 4am, competed at 8:15am in the Michigan Competing Band Association Flight I State Finals. First out of the gate can be very hard in any event but our Eagles rose to the challenge and claimed 8th place out of 12 bands in their flight. Later in the day, in Brooklyn MI our Lakeland Boys Cross Country team and our lone female runner Senior Morgan Bridgewater, took to the course at Michigan International Speedway in the MHSAA Cross Country State Finals. With over 230 runners in the field Lakeland Senior Garret Zuk finished in 1ST PLACE to win the MHSAA Individual State Championship! Lakeland runner Scott Neff also finished in the top 30 earning him All State Honors. Senior Morgan Bridgewater finished 26th out of 238 female runners to also claim All State honors!

So as you can see we have a lot to be proud of here at Lakeland, even more so this week. GO EAGLES!

Get Involved!

Through out the school year, Lakeland High School offers students a wide variety of actvities. Our hope is that all students participate in a co-curricular activity. It is no secret that students who are actively involved in co-curricular activities become attached to school and value their experiences. It is also a proven fact that academic achievement increases when students are involved in co-curricular activities. With these things in mind, I want to remind everyone that the Winter Sports Season is right around the corner. All of our Winter Sports are currently holding informational meetings and planning the beginning of their respective seasons. If your student is interested in participating in a sport now is the time! Please have the student contact the athletic office to find out the latest information on the upcoming sport's season! And if sports are not for your student, please encourage them to look for other opportunitites to become involved in a club or student activity. Remember... students that are involved are more connected to the school and ultimately experience greater academic success.

Helping the Huron Valley High School Community

The Leadership Management Team of Huron Valley consists of all administrative members of the district. Each year the LMT group raises money to give a $1000 scholarship to each of the three high schools. This is a great opportunity for our students to be able to assist their college education. Please read the following and consider helping out on this project thus enabling us to help students:

I would like to tell you about an exciting event planned to raise money for the Leadership Team Scholarship that will not cost you any money, only a little time. The LaFontaine Automotive Group has partnered with HVS to offer "Ride and Drive" to raise money for the LMT Scholarship. They will donate $20 for each person who test drives one of their cars (Buick, Cadillac, GM or Nissan) on Saturday, November 19th from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM at Milford High School. Pre-registration is highly recommended but not required. Each person who does pre register is entered in a drawing for 4 Red Wing tickets with parking. We hope that you will sign up and encourage others to participate.

To register, please go to http://hvs.familydealvideo.com to sign up for this opportunity.

On behalf of the Lakeland High School students and the Leadership Management Team I thank you for helping out to help raise the funds for these scholarships.

New, Good Teacher

Did you actually know how great the teachers at Lakeland truly are? I am fortunate enough to be able to visit classrooms and watch our teachers in action. Today, I went into Mr. Bachelor's biology class and could not have been happier. Mr. Bachelor came to Lakeland from Milford High School and based on my interactions with him and watching him in the classroom today we are very fortunate to have him on our staff. He led his students into the world of Mitosis in ways in which showed respect of their learning. Mr Bachelor is just one of the many assets we have at Lakeland and please continue reading the blog as I continue to highlight other incredible faculty at Lakeland.

Bullying and Harassment and our Caring Community

In a Caring Community such as Lakeland High School, it is important that all stakeholders have a clear understanding and buy in to the expectations that are set within the school. One set expectation is not bullying and harassing. Based on media push, we have done a good job of educating our students about this topic. Last year our counselors began a character education program in the 10th grade about why bulling and harassing is not appropriate at all but especially in the school setting. In the next few weeks, counselors will begin to work with this years 10th graders on the same topic. Please have conversations with your students about this topic and how seemingly innocent comments, social media posts or texts can become hurtful if people hear about what has been said. We live in a society where drama run rampant. There are few secrets in the hallways of a high school and students can get hurt even when that is not the intention. It is important that all students feel safe and confident when coming into our school.

A caring community is one where all people: teachers, students and parents give information to our students to take care of all the people in their community even if they are not in our circle of friends.