This Week
In the Ann Arbor Public Schools
December 15, 2008
To: The Staff of the Ann Arbor Public Schools
From: Todd Roberts, Superintendent
This Week’s Good News
- Last week I included the names of the 2008 National Merit Finalists and scholarship winners. This week, I am including the names of the 2009 National Merit Semi-Finalists. There are 3 from Community, 30 from Huron and 18 from Pioneer. These students are eligible to continue the application process and have a chance to become scholarship winners. The 2009 National Merit Semi-Finalists are:
Community: Paul Princen, Mollie Ruth and Katherine Thomas;
Huron: Ashley Buxton, Ken Chen, Emily Chiao, Alan Duanmu, Anglea Feak, Leah Gillett, Mykolas Grabauskas, Charles Hack, Saul Hankin, Emily Hsiao, Siddhani Jagadish, Guangye Ji, Jacob Kim, Henry Kuang, Seth Levine, Jeffrey Li, Jenny Li, Yi Li, Sarah Litow, Christopher Liu, William Liu, Charles Lu, Chethan Reddy, Michael Song, Thomas Thompson, Matthew Vander Roest, Patrick Walsh, Leeda Wang, Nicholas Wang and Xiaoran Zhang;
Pioneer: Ignatius Chen, Katherine Fang, Lauren Franzbiau, Apama Ghosh, Johana Godfrey, William Jackson, Gaurav Kulkarni, Sang Min Lee, Sand-Yoon Moon, Sameera Nadimpalli, William Penner-Hahn, Kyle Saunders, Joshua Stein, Nicholas Thomas, Anne Warren, Dana Wilson, Joon Sung Yoo and Jessica Zhang. - US News and World Report, in conjunction with School Evaluation Services, analyze academic and enrollment data from advanced placement and accelerated offerings in over 21,000 high schools. The top schools are placed into “gold, silver, bonze, or honorable mention” categories. Huron and Pioneer achieved the “Silver” ranking and Community received a “Bronze” ranking.
- Stone High School has been accepted to participate in the MI-Champions program presented by the Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning. Over 200 schools from across the state applied for this program. This program will provide the staff at Stone with professional development and a technology coach focusing on the instructional usage and values of technology in the classroom. The Stone community is looking forward to the opportunities that the MI-Champions program provides.
- Thurston's fifth grade Shining Star, Natsume Ono, from Michael Johnson’s class, and Emma Anderson from Pete Krebsbach's third grade class performed in the Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker. They each did a phenomenal job and all at Thurston are extremely proud of them.
- Another Thurston performer was Clayton Farmer, who is in Jessica Anderson's third grade class. He was in The Boychoir of Ann Arbor presents, "A Boychoir Christmas.”
- Skyline High School Theatre student, Betsy Mansfield, has been chosen as the Girl Scout's Heart of Michigan Council's "media scout" for the year. Ms. Mansfield was interviewed on WWJ News Radio promoting the upcoming Girl Scout Cookie Sale campaign. In addition, she was interviewed on December 15th, at 6:15 AM on WDIV-TV, local morning news program, by anchors Guy Gordon and Rhonda Walker.
- Skyline High School Theatre students participated in the International Thespian Society's community service project titled "Trick or Trick so Kids Can Eat" food drive. The Skyline High School Theatre students collected a total of 491 pounds of food and an additional $70 in donations for the Food Gathers food bag.
- The Carpenter Elementary School Chorus sang two songs, “Somos El Barco” and ”Teach Me Well,” at the 12th Annual Sacred Song Concert held at Genesis. The goal of the concert was to raise $500.00 for Carpenter students to go on music field trips to University Musical Society concerts and for funds to help support Arbor Hospice and the VA Palliative Care Program. Under the direction of Laura Machida the following students sang from their hearts and souls and brought tears of joy and pride to the audience: Tiasia Burroughs, Emily Lintott, Vinay Mathew, Luke Baker, Francesca Medora, Christopher Swisher, Dyami Bomia, Evan Reyna, Jada Weatherspoon, Deja Bell, Breanna Blunt, Marcella Casarella, Sonya Vogel, Asia Parsons, Duy Nguyen, Roniece Gray and Cecelia Lloyd.
- Anton Ferguson, Carpenter 5th grader, began a toothbrush drive to deliver toothbrushes, toothpaste, and floss to Food Gatherers in order to help those who cannot afford proper dental care. He became inspired after having a cavity filled and created a letter to deliver to friends and neighbors. Anton's original goal was to obtain 110 toothbrushes, but his idea was so well received that he raised the goal to 1,110 items. He is already halfway there!
- The Bach School Service Squad organized a UNICEF drive this year. Bach students learned about the critical services that UNICEF provides for clean water, immunizations, medical care, educational materials, mosquito netting for malaria prevention, and so much more, for people at risk. Every classroom participated in the Trick-or-Treat-for-UNICEF effort, and donated $1506.72! We are very proud of the participation of the students for this very important charity!
- Environmental Education is extremely important to the Bach School community. They believe that students need to understand their impact on the world around them, and the power they have to make good choices to preserve and protect the planet. With this as a priority, Bach School has adopted many practices, such a paper, plastic, and glass recycling, planting trees and composting, which have earned it the designation from the State of Michigan as a “Michigan Green School.” To further promote environmental awareness, both on a local level and global level, Robin Frisch-Gleason and Tina Ezekiel have recently written and received a $2,000 grant from the Michigan Association of Environmental Professionals. This grant is going to be used for the following:
- Teach students about their choices in food – and how these choices impact the environment. Eating LOCALLY grown foods greatly reduces the “carbon footprint” because we are not burning fuel to transport food long distances to get it into grocery stores!
- Set up composting bins for food waste generated at school. Composting helps to minimize the amount of waste generated, and the nutrients in the leftover food can enrich the soil. The compost will be used on our butterfly garden.
- Creating a bird habitat with appropriate trees, shrubs, bird feeders (that students will be making out of recycled plastic bottles), and a solar-powered water heater so that birds have liquid water all winter long on the Bach School premises.
- Giving students an opportunity to grow seedlings at school in the early spring that they can then transplant to their gardens at home, thereby “planting the seeds” for future gardeners.
- Developing an Earth Stewardship Correspondence Program between students at Bach and students in New Zealand, to share information and concerns about environmental issues in the students’ respective hemispheres.
- Continuing involvement with the Antarctic Geologic Drilling Program in Antarctica. This will help students understand climate change studies and enable students to participate in authentic science research with real scientists.
- Purchase of new library books to help students understand their impact on the natural environment, and to help inspire them to want to preserve and protect it.
- Huron students in Diane Stocker-Bendersky’s Web Design club were featured in a story in the Ann Arbor News on Tuesday, Dec 10, 2008, for their design of a fitness club’s website. The students meet after school every other Wednesday and this project is a good link to the business community. This is the link to the website they created: http://www.bodydriverbyfitnesssuccess.com/.
- Five members of the Clague Middle School Orchestras were selected by audition to participate in the Michigan All- State Middle School Honors Orchestra. Deen Adzemovic, Hiroaki Adachi, Valerie Peng, Arata Kaku and Gary Huang will join students from around the state chosen to perform at the Michigan Music Conference in January in Grand Rapids. Congratulations to these students for this honor and outstanding accomplishment!
- AAPS Educational Foundation Board Member, Liz Hinman, has secured a $5,000 contribution from the Monroe Street Journal – a weekly newspaper from the U/M Ross School of Business - designated for math and science grants to middle school teachers.
- The 2009 United States World Junior Team was announced on December 3. Of the 22 men on the team, 12 are former students from Pioneer and Huron.
Pioneer - Ian Cole, Cade Fairchild, Jimmy Hayes, Mike Hoeffel, Danny Kristo, Jimmy O'Brien, Jordan Schroeder, James van Reimsdyk; Huron: Matt Rust, Teddy Ruth, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Colin Wilson.
Todd Roberts, Ed.D.
Superintendent