GHS Spotlight

Congratulations to the 57 GHS students who were inducted into the National Honor Society (NHS) in the evening on April 16! National Honor Society empowers and equips students with the knowledge and skills to be transformative leaders in their school, community and beyond.

CONGRATULATIONS to GHS Theatre's Production of ADDAMS FAMILY for 22 Jerry Award nominations including Outstanding MUSICAL. Winners will be announced in May and the Jerry Awards are June 8 at the Overture Center in Madison. Combined with GHS Theatre's production of SIX, GHS was nominated for 40 Jerry Awards including both shows for Outstanding Musical!! The complete list of Addams Family Musical nominations is shared here: https://tinyurl.com/4rvexw2k.

Right before Spring break, 16 GHS students traveled to Madison for the two-day Wisconsin High School Model UN Conference at UW-Madison. Students represented France, India and Malaysia on a variety of different simulated committees, including the Security Council, General Assembly, Human Rights Council and International Court of Justice. Leading up to the conference, students researched a variety of topics, including private military contractors, global supply chains, utilization of outer space, and nuclear energy. Students wrote position papers laying out their country's views and then debated and collaborated with others at the conference to pass resolutions that address these real-world issues. Greendale students performed well and awards were won for preparation and representation of their country's positions. Great work, GHS MUN!

Seven GHS Educators Rising students traveled to UW-Stevens Point for the Educators Rising State Conference. Three students competed at the State Level: one student in Creative Lecture TED Talk, and two students wrote and illustrated a Children’s Book. Students heard from the 2024 Teacher of the Year as the keynote speaker, and attended breakout sessions throughout the day.

Greendale High School hosted a fun “dinner-and-a-show” evening for 200 community senior citizens on Thursday, March 13. For one price, attendees got a tasty dinner served by a crew of hard-working student and adult volunteers, and a ticket to attend a special showing of the GHS Spring Musical "The Addams Family”. There were many happy faces seen at the dinner and the show!

Sometimes when the students have been working especially hard, GHS staff uses a FLEX period to simply offer some fun activities. A late winter Friday was one of those days. Some examples: English teacher Alli Brimmer offered Diamond Painting. The photo here shows a few students holding up their creations. Science teacher Jesi Holschbach offered a championship series of the card game Spoons. Choir director Mike Jones turned the choir room into a fun dance studio where students got a workout in while dancing along to their favorite "Just Dance" videos.

Greendale High School sent 11 DECA (business) students to the State Competitions in Lake Geneva. A great job was done by all. Congrats to all who competed, especially the five students who qualified for the DECA National/International competition in Orlando, Florida, in late April. Go Panthers!

First Robotics Club members from GHS traveled to the FIRST State Advocacy Conference in Madison to lobby for Robotic and STEM-related opportunities for Wisconsin’s students. The team met with Senator Van Wanggaard and Representative Bob Donovan, talking with them about FIRST, and contributing more funding to K1-12 FLL, FTC, and FRC teams in Wisconsin.

A group of math- and business-minded GHS students visited the Northwestern Mutual Actuary Science Seminar in February, taking the time to represent their school and to pursue a career pathway interest. The students learned about education, internships, a day in the life of an actuary, the actuary exams, and the actuarial career path. They finished the day with a Q&A from two top executives from NWM and Milliman.

About 50 of our Greendale High School students in the Biomedical Sciences pathway joined other consortium schools over at Greenfield High School for a Healthcare Career Expo. It was a great opportunity for our Panthers to talk to industry professionals and get more insight into careers in the Healthcare industry and possible plans for post-graduation.

Greendale High School held its first Battle of the Books Finale January 31. Three student teams and two staff teams, of two to four people each, read as many books as they could from the official list of 20 titles and came together in the library to show what they knew. Our winning team was unfortunately missing a member due to illness, making their victory all the more impressive. Team "We Have No Clue"  will represent GHS in the state battle in February.

As the new semester begins, GHS Culinary Students completed their first culinary challenge: plate presentation! Students were tasked with plating a Twinkie dessert only using Twinkies, fresh strawberries and blueberries, desserts sauces, cocoa powder and powdered sugar.  The results were well done -- and delicious. More images are on this slideshow. Check it out.

Our Panthers took to the water at the annual Physics Cardboard Boat Regatta in January. Students in physics class proved their understanding of fluid mechanics and showed off their engineering capabilities in this yearly event. Each team created their sailing vessel using only cardboard and packing tape. Take a peek at these scenes from their voyages!

For over 30 years, the Art of Writing conference has offered a unique experience to young authors and artists. A group from Greendale High School went to the Milwaukee Art Museum in December for a day filled with inspiring artworks, brainstorming with other students and teachers from across the state of Wisconsin and engaging with the creative process. Students will have the option to submit finished works for digital publication in January. #LearnGrowEngageGreendale #CultivatingExcellence

Ms. Hulett's Honors Geometry class hosted a review/practice during FLEX in December and there were so many interested students that she had to book the library for 46! This is a good example of a teacher’s smart use of FLEX time and the students lining up for the opportunity to reinforce their learning. #LearnGrowEngageGreendale #CultivatingExcellence

GHS Econ students learned about real-world scenarios for financing their future through a Reality Day experience provided by Educators Credit Union. At Reality Day, students select a career, and then are assigned an income, marital status, family status, and more, as they navigate their personal budget during this simulation. Students use an app provided by Educators to keep track of their spending.

Educators Credit Union partners with schools to host this event so students can learn the importance of managing their money in a safe environment. Many thanks to all of the volunteers who generously gave their time and energy to make our event a success for students.

The Greendale High School Concert Chorale participated in the Lakeside Choral Festival at Carthage College. After working with a professor on campus, they performed in a concert with the other high school choirs present.

2023 GHS graduate Sophia Thiel came to talk to the Pioneer Outlook class about the Missouri Journalism program at the University of Missouri. As a Journalism Ambassador, she gave a presentation in which she gave an in-depth look into the "Missouri Method" which gives journalism students real-life experiences working in newsrooms and advertising agencies. She shared with students some of the unique experiences she has had at school, with the highlight being that one of the stories that she filmed, wrote and produced appeared on the local newscast. After the presentation she answered questions about the Journalism school at Missouri as well as general questions about what life is like in college.

Students in Mrs. Derrick's 5th hour Algebra class at GHS completed puzzles to practice creating scatterplots and linear regression equations in late November. Students worked with partners to complete the puzzles in 15-second increments and recorded the number of pieces completed. Students were then able to create a scatterplot of their data. This allowed students to then answer questions about real-world data. It was a fun activity with a lot of competition!

Thirty GHS students attended the Carthage College Model UN conference on Friday, November 1. Students represented several countries including Russia, Dominican Republic and Côte d’Ivoire in the general assembly, security council and human rights council. Students worked with 21 other schools to debate, discuss and resolve a variety of global issues including access to drinking water, child soldiers and the war in Ukraine. Great work, Panthers!

Each week, GHS Careers teacher Kelly Korek brings in a career connection from our local community. In late October, Dr. Kathy Passinault from the Greendale Village Vet visited her classroom. Dr. Passinault shared stories about some of her wildest patients and visited with some really amazing visual aids, including samples of ticks and fleas, tons of x-rays (where the class played "guess what this dog accidentally ate"), and an actual dog heart that was infected with heartworms!