Below is a photo slideshow of some of this week’s events.

The music will range from classics by Duke Ellington and Count Basie to modern compositions by UNT composers. The concert will also feature guest artists Stockton Helbing and Micah Bell. Mr. Helbing was formerly the drummer and musical director of the Maynard Ferguson Jazz Orchestra, and is currently the drummer for Doc Severinsen and his Orchestra. Micah Bell is a trumpeter and former member of the UNT One O’Clock Lab Band. The concert will be held in the CSHS Auditorium.

For more information about the Carroll Jazz program, please visit www.carrolljazz.org.

The Symphonic Band under the direction of Rebecca Bailey scored a Superior rating in concert performance and  an Excellent rating in Sightreading. The Symphonic Winds and Wind Ensemble, both under the direction of Ken Johnson, scored Superior ratings in Concert and Sightreading. The Wind Symphony under the direction of Jay Bach scored a Superior rating in both Concert and Sightreading. 

Based on combined performances notably, with the Wind Symphony achieving the Superior ratings in the Concert and Sightreading Contest and Dragon Marching Band receiving Superior ratings in UIL Region Marching competition in the fall, the Dragon Band was awarded the Sweepstakes Award for the 2012-2013 school year.

For more information about the Dragon Band, visit the band website or click here.

CHS Student Christie Ballew stands with her award winning piece

•  Christie Ballew- Stop motion animation titled “Snail Mail”
• Hannah Cory- Graphite drawing – “The Real Me”
• Abby Detrich- Stop motion animation titled “The Great Conquest”
• Gracie Lanham- Charcoal drawing – “Reflection”
• Nicole Smith- Mixed media – “Words Are Change”
• Hannah Springer- Digital photography – “A Look Into Paradise”
• Lauren Sullivan- Digital photography – “Strawberry Crush”
• Lauren Sullivan- Digital photography – “Expressions”

Ballew pictured with CHS Art Instructor Monica Lapierre-Hayslip (left)

Judges awarded every competing Carroll ISD art student a IV (Superior) rating. Freshman, Christie Ballew also received the only Gold Seal (highest honor) award for her submission. The Gold Seal award was one of only 150 pieces chosen from 25,000 high school pieces state wide. An art show comprised of the Gold Seal pieces will be touring around the state of Texas this summer.

All pieces will be on display at the District Art Show inside Southlake Town Hall during Art in the Square, April 26-28. The pieces will be set up in the basement, first and second floors.

For more information about the event visit www.taea.org.

TASC is the largest student council association in the world, and the ten projects recognized at its conference represented the projects with the greatest community impact that reached the largest number of people with the most significant results from across the State of Texas.

The effects of the project are evident just by walking down the hallways of Carroll High School. Rows and rows of books are lined up, stapled in the hallway, representing the enormous number of books the students have read. Over the course of the year, Carroll High School students have read over 3,000 books. One of the many reading activities the Student Council has lead was reading children’s books at the Goddard Preschool to draw kids into reading at an early age. The time spent reading has been shown to greatly increase vocabulary as well as writing skills which directly correlates to college entrance exam scores, such as the SAT and ACT. The primary goal of the project is to spark an interest in reading, so much that students will desire to read outside the confines of a classroom, which is something that has been declining over that past years. As a whole, Once Upon a Dragon… has completely changed the view on reading at Carroll High School.

“[Once Upon a Dragon...] has directly contributed to increased student reading on other works involved in the curriculum and is impacting our test scores as well,” said CHS teacher Shane Bybee.

While funding for student activities continues to be cut across the state, student council members with the volunteer assistance of their advisers raise the funds necessary to conduct projects and support their schools and communities.

“As student councils members across the state of Texas cross the stage to pick up their diplomas, more and more will be moving on to college and careers with a commitment to public service, civic participation, and the knowledge that they make a difference in their communities and their lives through service to others and participation in the democratic process,” said Terry Hamm, Director of Texas Association of Student Councils. “I am constantly amazed at the contributions made by high school student council members under the guidance of exceptional Student Council advisers.  Congratulations to these councils and their students for their dedication to service and commitment to improving their school, their communities, and their world. These students embody TASC’s dedication to student voice, student engagement, and student leadership.”

“I’m extremely proud of my students for putting their hearts into this project,” said Brandi Hunt, CHS Student Council advisor. “They worked hard on our reading initiative this year and I’m excited that they are being recognized for their dedication to the program.”

These young people develop proven skills in team building, problem solving, project planning, and decision making.  Through their co-curricular activities, student council members serve their communities while strengthening their academic and civic skills.

“This project was really eye-opening to me because for some reason, I just stopped reading after 7th grade. This definitely has brought me back to reading,” said Joshua Choe, Student Council officer at Carroll High School.

The 2012-13 CHS officers are Joshua Choe, Harris Jensen, Paige Johnson, Allie Miller, Audrey Ohlhaber, Chandler Smith, and Summer Terry.

Although STAAR is a standardized assessment, using mainly multiple-choice questions, Carroll teachers and students are approaching preparation through in-depth conversations and a review of all aspects of the curriculum. Students have spent time recently honing the knowledge/skills required in their grades as well as learning a few test-taking strategies that will be helpful throughout their school careers as they take future SAT, ACT, AP and other advanced assessments.

Preparation for the assessment typically takes place during the school day, but dedicated Carroll teachers and students often go above and beyond as well. Before and after school tutorials have been ongoing at all CISD campuses to help students ensure mastery of any weak skills in core subjects. Additionally, some students in the district’s middle and high school have devoted time on the weekend to preparation.

CISD students attend STAAR Camp in March

For example, on a Saturday in March, more than 110 Carroll High School students voluntarily filled the halls of the English department for STAAR Camp. CHS English Department Chair Karen Otto said the response from students was overwhelming.“We originally thought we would only have 25 to 50 students total,” Otto said.

Students participate in a Writing Gallery held at CHS

In addition to STAAR camp, The Freshman Expository Writing Gallery Walk took place during English class in the lecture hall at CHS.  All freshman ELA classes rotated through a series of writing stations that dealt with revising and editing, work with the rubric and scoring of sample essays, pre-writing strategies, thesis statement development, writing conclusions, and using transitions effectively.

CHS English teacher, Lindsey Jacobson, said, “As a teacher, you never really know what goes on in another teacher’s room, so to hear all of the students, even within the various course levels, using a common academic vocabulary is a testament that our students are well prepared.”

Students in other grades and subjects are participating in STAAR preparation as well. Fifth grade students at DIS and EIS will be participating in engaging review stations that include a hands-on component as well as paper/pencil mini-assessments based on their learning needs.  Teachers will use data collected during the school year to assign tasks to prepare students specifically in areas of need.  Additionally, throughout the school year, all core classes have used curriculum based assessments (CBAs) to identify objectives that students have not mastered.  Teachers use this data to help guide their instruction and determine key areas for review.   Based on this information, science and mathematics students at CHS are receiving online tutorials to meet their individual needs prior to the science and mathematics end-of-course (EOC) assessments in May.

Currently, the Texas legislature is debating the details of what role STAAR assessments will play in students’ graduation requirements, GPAs, and other high-stakes matters.  One thing in CISD is certain, regardless of the outcome of the debate in Austin, students have worked diligently this year in preparation for success.

For a complete, detailed list of the Carroll ISD’s Assessment Calendar, click here.

If your child is interested in participating in athletics, cheerleading or drill team next year, CISD requires that they have a current physical.  For it to be current for the next school year, the physical must be dated after May 1, 2013.  This service is provided for your convenience; however, you may obtain your physical from any Physician, a Physician Assistant licensed by a State Board of Physician Assistant Examiners, a Registered Nurse recognized as an Advanced Practice Nurse by the Board of Nurse Examiners, or a Doctor of Chiropractic. Examination forms signed by any other health care practitioner will not be accepted.  Please print the UIL Pre-Participation Physical Examination form and use this form when obtaining a physical for your child.

Tickets are being sold for specific 30 minute time frames.  All tickets will be purchased online through the CISD Athletics website.  Tickets will go on sale April 1, 2013 and cost $25.00.  There is an optional cardiac screening for an additional $20.00, which will need to be purchased at the same time.  If you choose to have the cardiac screening, please fill out the waiver form (2^nd pg.) and bring it with you to the physical.  There will not be refunds if you cannot make your appointment.

To find out how to purchase tickets and read more details click here.

TED is an internationally recognized speaking forum which anyone can present a talk on an interesting topic and is free to the public. This is the second annual TEDx event in Carroll ISD. The speakers will be selected from the student body at Carroll High or Carroll Senior High. Several keynote speakers will be drawn from the community who are recognized for their work in their respective fields. TEDx is also seeking local speakers for the event.

The strongest and most interesting speakers from 9-12 grade have been chosen to speak and the event is also seeking support of teachers, parents and other interested adults from around the community to come.

If interested, please contact Ashesh Trivedi at atrivedi77@gmail.com or Karen Otto at karen.otto@southlakecarroll.edu.

TED is a non-profit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.  At TEDx events, a screening of TEDTalks videos — or a combination of live presenters and TEDTalks videos — sparks deep conver-sation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.

The Jazz Ensemble competed as well. The Jazz Ensemble is a JV group but was invited by festival organizers to compete in the 4A Varsity category. Although they didn’t place in the top three during competition, Director David Lown said the students did an outstanding job versus some of the best 4A Varsity bands in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Click here to read more about the event. Students who participated in the TCU Jazz Festival are listed below followed by a video from the performance.

Jazz Orchestra

• Tanner Deters
• Tien Tran
• Colton Ginn
• Daniel Canterino
• Ryan Adler
• Jared Neeley
• Nick Booth
• Christopher Cunningham
• Cameron Brewer
• Adam Horne
• Reid Appleby
• Kelsey Bronson
• Chris Weisberg
• Ammar Ansari
• Ray Teer
• Kenny Martin
• Luke Miller
• Stephen Ma

Jazz Ensemble

• Brandon Vu
• Danny Onaca
• Daniel Tubbesing
• Allie Newman
• Adam Sasek
• Pearce Brown
• Nathan Fritz
• Andrew Jensen
• Mylon Johnson
• Colter Johnson
• Hunter Black
• Heiko Troetsch
• Ariel Szekely
• Ben Claffey
• Parker Smith
• Matt Feragne
• Ryan Fields

Dragon Jazz Orchestra @ TCU Jazz Fest 2013 from Carroll Dragon TV on Vimeo.

Crew and Varsity Mascot tryouts are scheduled for Friday, April 19.

Interested students need to pick up an Application Packet from Mrs. Lacava in room 409 or at the CSHS front office. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 12. 

Crew applicants must be Seniors for the 2013-2014 school year. Varsity Mascot ( Charlie) can be a freshman through a senior for the 2013-2014 school year.

Any questions please stop by room 409 and see Mrs. Lacava or e-mail her linda.lacava@southlakecarroll.edu