Tangipahoa Parish School System



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Click here to see 2007-08 Graduation Dates.


Click here for more information on the Tangipahoa Parish School System Job Fair on May 8, 2008.
14th Annual Goldring Summer Workshop on Teaching the Holocaust Date: July 16, 17, 18, 2008 (three-day workshop) Place: Tulane University Campus, New Orleans, LA Eligible Applicants: 6th-12th grade public and private school teachers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle. Limited openings, by application only. The workshop offers a $400 stipend and 17 Continuing Education Units. Teachers are responsible for their own room and board during the three day workshop. Application deadline is June 10, 2008. For application forms, email Plater Robinson at probins@tulane.edu or call (504) 247-1623. The Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University will conduct its 14th annual Goldring Summer Workshop on Teaching the Holocaust on July 16, 17, and 18, 2008. The workshop will be built around several presentations by local Holocaust survivors whose stories correspond with the themes and historical events under study. Participants will be provided with a comprehensive study guide containing reading material, handouts, historical documents, survivor testimony transcripts and presentation outlines. Teachers will also receive the Southern Institute’s new DVD series “Ten Stories of Holocaust Survivors in New Orleans.” The workshop is designed for 6th-12th grade teachers in history, literature, social studies, and language arts and will prepare them to teach the social and political history of the Holocaust and its moral and ethical lessons for children today. Topics include the events leading up to World War II and the Holocaust; the history of anti-Semitism in the centuries before Hitler; and Hitler’s early life before his rise to power. Other themes include: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; the destruction process (focusing on the development of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp); the actions of Britain and the United States regarding Jewish emigration before the war and Jewish rescue during the war; and the character of Righteous Gentiles (those who rescued Jewish people from the Nazis). The workshop emphasizes individual stories and analyzes case studies of survivors, rescuers, bystanders, and perpetrators. The workshop presenter is Plater Robinson, Education Director for the Southern Institute for Education and Research and is funded by the Goldring Family Foundation.
Maria Kinney's Loranger High School Physics students recently visited the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) education center in Livingston, Louisiana. Students studied light, waves, and wave interference. The students had several hands-on activities, created tetrahedrons from pipe cleaners, toured the facility and interacted with the 40+ LIGO Science Education Center exhibits.
TANGIPAHOA'S TOP CHEFS Hammond High School students Nicole Wagoner, Patrick Loyd, Ashley Geiser, and Jacob Carson display their first place trophy from the state Pro-Start culinary competition. By their win, the students, led by instructor Patti Johnson, have been invited to participate in the national Pro-Start competition in San Diego in April.
Loranger Elementary receives $2,000 Best Buy Teach Award Rebecca Johnson, a third grade teacher at Loranger Elementary, participated in the Best Buy Teach Awards Program that gives $3 million to schools nationwide for integrating interactive technology into the curricula. Mrs. Johnson applied for a Best Buy Teach Award by writing a detailed description of the creative ways she has found to engage her students by incorporating interactive technology within her third grade classroom. She has been given a $2,000 gift card from Best Buy and will visit the Covington, LA store to purchase new technology so her class can continue to learn through exciting and fun ways. Best Buy Teach Awards of $2,000 were given to 1,300 schools to sustain or enhance existing educational programs.
SUMMER INSTITUTE IN TEACHING WRITING The Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project (SLWP) is now accepting applications for its Invitational Summer Institute in Teaching Writing. The Institute meets at Southeastern from June 23-July 24, Monday-Thursday, 9:00-3:30, and is designed for teachers who use writing in their classrooms, are eager to share their knowledge, and wish to learn from other experienced classroom teachers. During the Institute, selected K-College teachers from across the curriculum will write, study the teaching of writing, reflect on their own teaching, and share their best teaching practices with each other. Participants also are given the opportunity to work on personal and professional writing and to develop workshops on teaching writing suitable for delivery as in-services to local schools. Participants become Summer Fellows at the university and receive a $200 stipend and materials as well six hours of graduate credit and free tuition. Applicants should submit the following: a resume; a brief description of a writing activity used in their classroom; a letter of nomination from a supervisor or from a member of SLWP; and a page containing name/address/phone/email/W# as well as school and grade level where the applicant currently teaches. Applications will be considered until the Institute is filled, and on-campus interviews will take place beginning in February. Applications can be emailed to <rlouth@selu.edu> or addressed to Dr. Richard Louth, SLU 10327, Hammond, LA 70402. The Southeastern Louisiana Writing Project is a cooperative effort of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and the College of Education and Human Development and an affiliate of the National Writing Project www.writingproject.org Questions can be answered by calling 985-549-2102 or 2100 or by emailing rlouth@selu.edu Further information is available on the SLWP web page http://www.selu.edu/acad_research/programs/slwp/
Morning announcements are made daily by students at Amite Elementary School. The school's mission statement is read, positive behaviors are defined and the lunch menu for the day is given. School wide events are announced and the "thought for the day" is read. The Pledge of Allegiance is recited and the children are then asked to observe a moment of silence. Pictured are students in Mrs. Susan Pray's third grade class.
Community leaders, school officials, and students recognized on campus for displaying "positive behavior" celebrate the construction and opening of a new playground at O.W. Dillon Elementary School in Kentwood. The $50,000 purchase represents a public-private partnership with the school system, the area Parent Teacher Association, and other donors. Ashley, a Kindergarten student at O.W. Dillon, takes a turn on the slide as students celebrate the official opening of their new playground area at the school. Ashley, who was recognized as one of the school's "positive behavior" winners for the week, attended a ribbon cutting Friday for the playground with school officials, community leaders, and Supt. Mark Kolwe and several Tangipahoa Parish School Board members.

Amite Kiwanis Club members came to Amite Elementary School this week to recognize students in grades 2 through 4 for Bringing Up their Grades. The children were recognized on stage as a grade level, then their names were called individually to receive their certificates. The boys and girls were also given stickers, candy, bumper stickers and ice cream coupons that were donated by Sonic in Amite. Pictured are: Members Linda Thomas, Kiwanis President - Ray Glasgow, Superintendent of Tangipahoa Parish Schools, Mark Kolwe, Lana Hutchinson, Scott Schilling, Bo Coxen, and AES principal, Kay Christmas. not pictured is member Kevin Lozier.

SLU Lab School Principal Fawn Ukpolo, Tangipahoa Parish School Superintendent Mark Kolwe, and 7th Ward Judge Grace Bennett Gasaway join Kindermelody instructor Reggie Sanders as he talks with students in Patti Gautreaux's Kindergarten class at SLU Lab School Monday. Sanders completed a fun-filled and informative unit with the children on rules.

Twenty members from Sumner High School's Future Business Leaders of America Club attended the FBLA District VI Conference held at Southeastern Louisiana University on Tuesday, February 12. Michelle Travis won the Business Math event. Ranking superior in the following events were Business Calculations, Jessica Pelous; Business Communications, Jasmine Smith; Ms. FBL, Jessica Pelous; and Parliamentary Procedure Team, William Brumfield, Candice Courtney, Michelle Travis, and Richard Strange. All of these students qualified for the State Leadership Conference to be held March 30-April 1 at the Holiday Inn Select in Baton Rouge. Ranking Excellent in the following events were Accounting I, Jake Latner; Accounting II, Juan Duran; Business Law, William Brumfield; Business Procedures, Juan Duran; Computer Problem Solving, Tenisha Taylor; Job Interview, Jasmine Smith; Technology Concepts, Jake Latner. Mrs. Karley R. Cooper, Advisor, would like to thank all the students and parents that attended the conference.
Cynthia Navarra, third grade teacher at Loranger Elementary School, received equipment from a Donors Choose grant worth $5,791. Her classroom now has 5 new computers, a 32-inch flat screen TV, and a digital camera.
The Ponchatoula Jr. High School Beta Club raised money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Our club raised a total of $5,215. This was the largest amount collected by a school in the entire state! In addition to collecting money, the Beta members "Walked for a Cure" around the school campus four times. The Beta Club Sponsors are Sandy Lipscomb, Rene' Meyers, and Chasity Taylor.
Rebecca Johnson, a third grade teacher at Loranger Elementary, and Christina Verbene, a teacher at Loranger High School, were honored as "Teachers of the Week" for the New Orleans Saints. They were given tickets and presented with an autographed football on the fifty yard line before the game.
Mrs. Cynthia Diebold's class at Martha Vinyard Elementary proudly display their Social Studies Art Logs. Their art logs will be used as an iLeap review of concepts covered throughout the year.
Teachers, Paraeducators, Administrators, and Disciplinarians from throughout the parish are being trained to use Handle with Care for prompt, skillful and appropriate intervention when physical restraint is necessary. Handle with Care is a state of the art crisis intervention and restraint training program that teaches verbal de-escalation and physical intervention. Each month, 24 individuals are trained in an intense two-day class by Ms. Debra Mohon, a certified HwC trainer.
Mrs. Jessica Stant and the FCCLA club at Ponchatoula High School recently took a field trip to the Cajun Cooking School in New Orleans at the River Walk over looking the Mississippi River. The students learned how to cook Shrimp Beignets, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo and Bread Pudding. The students also got to eat all of the food that they learned how to cook.
State Superintendent of Education has notified all schools of the Sex Offender website that is available for information. Click here to see memo from the Superintendent.
Click here to find specific information on upcoming local, state, and federally funded grant opportunities.
The Application for Teacher Tuition Assistance/Exemption and more info on deadlines, etc. can be found by clicking here. Reimbursement Process for Professional Development - forms and detailed information outlined for employees
Thinking Maps are being implemented in all schools in Tangipahoa Parish School System. Teachers are very excited about this strategy to improve teaching and learning. Click here for pictures and ideas for using Thinking Maps in the classroom.
School Supply Lists for Tangipahoa Parish Schools can be found here.	Teaching Certificates - TPSS Personnel Department has important information for teachers who need to upgrade or make changes to their teaching certificate. Go to it.	Cafeteria Menus
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 07, 2008.