Curriculum
Shorewood High School offers a rigorous academic program that provides many diverse educational opportunities for our students. SHS is pleased to offer twelve advanced placement classes as part of our curriculum. The following provides an overview of our Academic Departments. For more detailed class descriptions, please refer to the SHS Curriculum Handbook.
ENGLISH
Shorewood High School’s English curriculum cultivates students’ appreciation for literature and enhances their ability to express ideas through varied forms of communication. Courses ask students to read actively, to contemplate and discuss complex ideas, and to write about these ideas. English department courses are designed to follow a progression through three strands: literature, composition, and communication. Our courses emphasize reading and writing as a process, engaging students in writing analytically as well as creatively, and because of this emphasis, our students leave high school better prepared for the types of literature and assignments they will encounter in college.
To graduate, all students must pass eight semesters of English: two semesters of English I, one semester of an elective literature course, one semester of an elective composition course, and one semester of an elective communication course. For the three remaining semesters, students may choose courses from any of these areas. The department strongly recommends that seniors enroll in one literature class and one composition class.
Mr. Eric Gietzen
Mrs. Renee Glembin
Mr. Michael Halloran
Mrs. Haley Kutz
Mrs. Sheila Mooney
Mrs. Christine Trainor
INTEGRATED WELLNESS
The Integrated Wellness Department at Shorewood High School offers a wide variety of health and physical education offerings. We utilize current technology in the areas of nutritional analysis, human performance, and personal health risk assessments. Polar Tri-Fit assessment tools, Polar Heart Rate Monitors, as well as a state-of-the-art Community Fitness Center located on campus provide unique opportunities for all Wellness Education students to experience. The Wellness Education Department requires one year during freshman year and one semester both the sophomore and junior years. Elective offerings include Women’s Health, Strength Training & Conditioning, Games, and Adventure Education.
Ms. Kathryn Aemmer
Mr. Sam Keller
Mr. Keith Roberts
MATHEMATICS
The SHS math program is a four-year curriculum that includes the traditional Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Precalculus sequence. Additionally, SHS offers AP Statistics and AP Calculus AB and BC as courses of study for students who complete the Algebra 1 - Precalculus sequence. However, AP Statistics can be taken concurrently with Precalculus. SHS places incoming freshmen into the level of math that best suits their ability and challenges them to reach their highest potential. This is based on the last course of study completed in 8th grade. All students are required to complete three years of mathematics in high school in order to graduate, regardless of initial placement, but four years are recommended for students planning to attend college. All math courses require the use of a graphing calculator, and instruction is based on the TI-84 model.
Mr. Brett Aiello
Mr. Steve Andris
Mr. Joe Oleniczak
Ms. Cheri Sullivan
Mr. Troy Thibedeau
PERFORMING ARTS
DRAMA
View the Shorewood Drama Department website (and order tickets for the latest production).
Students are involved in every aspect of theater at Shorewood, including construction, lighting, sound, costumes, and publicity. We produce four main stage shows each year, in October, December, February and May. This is supplemented with one student-directed and one classroom-directed black box production. Our students make a great time commitment and receive both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. We have a technical director, a costumer, a director, and an acting coach that meet with students one period a day and after school.
The Shorewood Drama Department has a long-standing history of excellence. We boast invitations to perform main stage shows at the International Thespian Conference in Muncie, Indiana and in Lincoln, Nebraska, as well as three performances as a part of the American High School Theater Festival at the Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland. We work as hard as we can and we become the best that we can be. Believing that all characters are equally important, we truly create an ensemble that performs to their highest ability. We truly do believe that the “whole is more important than the sum of its parts.”
Mr. Brad Brist
Mr. Adam Sheaffer
Mrs. Amanda Hull
MUSIC
The mission of the Shorewood School District Music Department is to provide all students with a comprehensive music education that will nurture a lifelong understanding and appreciation of music. Students will develop individual and group potential through a variety of quality performance opportunities and creative experiences.
Arts education, including music instruction, has always been a very important part of the Shorewood school experience. All students in Shorewood receive a sequential and comprehensive general music education and the opportunity to participate in band or orchestra in the elementary schools. At Shorewood Intermediate School students are given the opportunity to choose band, choir, or orchestra as part of their daily schedule. Finally, at Shorewood High School students may continue their participation in performance music by choosing from six curricular performance music ensembles and a variety of co-curricular performance music ensembles. Music students also have the opportunity to participate in various festivals, competitions, and tours organized by the music department. Through the combined efforts of the district music faculty and the support of school administrators, parents, and community members, participation in performance music provides students of all ages with a quality arts education experience.
Mr. Kyle Amati
Mr. Jason Clark
Ms. Karen Frink
SCIENCE
Science at Shorewood High School is hands-on and investigative. Our science curriculum provides for a rigorous immersion into science and exceeds the state standards. Students participate in numerous laboratory experiences to enhance their understanding of major science concepts and relate those concepts to the world around them. They come to understand that science is a process, appreciate the complexity of the natural world, and are able to make informed decisions on scientific issues. Through their experiences within the science curriculum, students are able to understand and demonstrate use of the scientific method, explain major ideas in science, become better problem solvers and critical thinkers, enhance their reasoning and laboratory skills, and successfully be able to interpret data.
Mrs. Kelsey Burke
Mrs. Gina Schindel
Mr. Kris King
Mr. Eric Mathews
Ms. Traci Murphy
SOCIAL STUDIES
The Shorewood High School social studies department offers a broad array of survey and specialized curriculum designed to enhance historical, governmental, philosophical, economic, social, cultural, and behavioral science literacy. Required curriculum combines with a diverse array of individualized/elective course selections to offer each a student a path to learning via his or her own interests.
Ms. Nicole Magin
Mr. Jesse Perez
Mr. Evan Schmidt
Mr. Brian Schulteis
SPECIAL EDUCATION
The Special Education Program serves students who have Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). The program provides specialized support and instruction for academic, social/emotional, and language needs. In addition, the program promotes self advocacy skills, study skills, critical and social thinking, learning strategies, and post-secondary transition planning.
Mr. Doug Bremer
Mr. Morad Natasha
Mrs. Kelly Griffin
Mr. Joe Wichgers
STUDENT SUPPORT
The Shorewood High School Student Support Department provides academic support for our students in a variety of curricular areas. Courses in math, literacy, English Language Learning (ELL), and online learning are offered to students to help support and enhance learning and credit acquisition. The Student Support Dept, consisting of teachers in these areas and school counselors, work together closely to support students, develop academic plans, and provide academic resources.
Ms. Tanisha Schowalter (school psychologist)
Mr. Steve Andris
Mr. Scott Brown (counselor)
Ms. Jennifer Hoffmann (counselor)
Ms. Amanda Krueger
Dr. Bohdan Nedilsky
Ms. Amalie Norris (counselor)
Ms. Kristin Johnson
VISUAL ARTS
The Shorewood High School Visual Arts Department believes that the quality of a student’s life is enriched by the development of skills and values learned in the creation of the Visual Arts. Study of the Visual Arts encourages students to function on multiple intellectual, analytical, thoughtful, and expressive levels, gaining more knowledge of the world around them. A familiarity with the arts is an integral and essential communicative skill that links the human experience. A comprehensive Visual Arts education engages the student in meaningful art criticism, aesthetics, history and production.
Students will learn the creative process, creating artwork in a variety of 2-D and 3-D media, gaining technical knowledge in the use of materials and tools of different art processes and learning that planning, creation, presentation, and reflection are crucial to generating the big ideas behind great artwork.
Ms. Amelia O'Brien
Ms. Jessica Mohagen
WORLD LANGUAGES
In the Shorewood School District, we believe that competence in more than one language is an essential part of communication and cultural understanding in today’s global society. Developing proficiency in other languages is an integral part of becoming a global citizen. Advanced language learning offers social, cultural, academic, and workplace benefits that will serve our students throughout their lives. Throughout our program, students will acquire proficiencies that promote cognitive, analytical, and communication skills that carry over into many other academic disciplines. Our language programs are designed to prepare students for successful completion of the Advanced Placement French and Spanish Language and Culture courses.
At Shorewood High School, languages are alive and experiential. Students have the opportunity to travel to Guatemala and France during their high school career. Spanish students engage in a service-learning project that allows them to work with children in an orphanage in Guatemala. Our French program hosts a student exchange with students in the south of France. Students from France spend two weeks in fall hosted by families and the school community in Shorewood, and in turn host Shorewood students in spring.
In addition, a small group of French students at Shorewood High School have been engaged in a service-learning project helping to support sustainable sanitation in Haiti.
Ms. Christine Jacquart
Ms. Susan Leslie
Mr. Jay Lowery
Ms. Lisa McFarland
Ms. Stefaney Maloney