This Week In the Ann Arbor Public Schools

May 3, 2010

This Week’s Good News!

May 2 – 8, 2010, is Teacher Appreciation Week. Please join me in recognizing and thanking our teachers and teacher assistants for the great job they do on behalf of our students, day-in and day-out, all year long.
Last week I reported that six students from Huron received perfect scores of 36 on the ACT. I found out about two more which makes a total of eight students from Huron with a perfect score. There were 638 perfect ACT scores this year and Huron has 8. There were 1.5 million high school students that took the test. The eight students from Huron are: Barron Pelham, Joshua Cheng, Hwang Heemyung, Jong Hwan Koo, JooYoung Moon, Sussy Pan, Philip Tsao and Derek Wu.
Eight Huron students were recently selected to have their short stories and essays published in a nationally distributed book: The students all wrote stories and essays about their experiences in education for Quinn Strassel’s Short Readings class. Out of the 90+ students who wrote similar stories for Huron’s locally published book (Talking Back, Giving Thanks, and Why It Never Pays to Drink the Haterade), these 8 were selected to be published in a nationally distributed book simply called Talking Back, which will feature stories and essays from students around the country. The book will be published by The New Press and released in June.
This all happened thanks to the generous support of 826 Michigan, a writing program that has been conducting a residency with the Short Readings classes this year, sending in several volunteers every Wednesday afternoon to help the students. The 826 volunteers helped connect the class to this project and Mr. Strassel is thrilled to have been associated with them.
The students are: Travis Adkins, Amyiah Alexander, Jasmine Franco, Saif Ghanem, Ryan Hotchkiss, Michael Liu, Chyanne McKinney-Thomas and Maria Roldan.
The French National Exam was given in March and we have received the results for some of our students. This is a timed achievement exam given yearly throughout the U.S, which tests students’ listening, reading and writing skills in the French language.
The following Pioneer students scored in the top 10% in the nation. Ellen Karpiuk is the Pioneer French teacher.
Level 2: Gabrielle Zachs, Ruby Emberling, Pascale Grenier, Emily Liu, Rolika Dalela, Emma Kern, Allison Brooks-Conrad, Sahar Kareem, Mitchell Salke, Caleb Stevens, Iris Chen, May Skelton, Sam Blackburn, Katie Leite, Abbey Maxbauer, Tina Yu and Jaz Ine Cooper.
Level 3: Tian Xu (Jack) Fan, Amelia Diehl, Claudia Lahr, Amanda Said, Cédric Gbah and Amanda Murau.
Level 4: Rachel Bielajew, Daniel Rothchild, Julia Chen and Cydney Warburton.
Level 5: Sophie Buchmueller, Sara Selman, Amelia Brinkerhoff, Andrea Herrero and Laura Adams.
Skyline French students are listed below with their Michigan Chapter Rank/National Chapter Rank. Skyline French teachers are Dulce Kappler and Andrea Clyne.
Level 1A: Rachael Kerr, 6/9, Angela Bishel, 7/10, Jonathan Jue-Wong, 7/10, Tegwyn John, 8/11, Brandi Clair, 10/13, Audrey Schaefer, 10/13, and Sherry Zhao, 10/13.
Level 1B: Daniel Skib, 3/6, Brittany Roulo, 7/10, and Edith Zhang, 7/10.
Level 2A: India Tucker, 5/10, Sagar Anupindi, 8/13, and Mingquan Ma, 9/14.
Level 3A: “Sarah” Wang, 9/13, and Deike Voss, 10/14.
Level 3C: Fajr Najib, 6/9 and Isabelle Romero, 6/9.
Scarlett 8th grade French students and their Michigan Chapter Rank/National Chapter Rank are listed below. Leslie Landrum is their teacher.
Level 01A: Arina Kartasheva, 3/9, Jessica Johnson, 4/10, Ilyes Benhamida, 7/13, Madison Dutton, 7/13, Katheryne Johnston, 9/15, Edgar Garcia, 9/15, and Sarah Torrella, 9/15.
Last Friday, April 30th Logan Elementary held hosted their annual First Grade bake sale. A Logan Leopard tradition, fourteen years and counting; this year the students raised $455.00! To earn Michigan Green School points towards Emerald certification, the school 'adopted' an Amur Leopard. All proceeds will go to the World Wildlife Fund. Friday was a day of "Leopards helping Leopards!"
On Friday, April 30th, the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association awarded Community High’s “The Communicator” a Gold Award for the print and online paper. Individual students received a total of 39 state awards. Onsite Contest Winners: News Story: Katie O’Brien First Place; Acer Xu Honorable Mention; Editorial: Oriol Burgos-Tsoffar and Mira Fishman First Place; Feature: Kyle Aaronson Second Place; and Cathlin Sullivan Honorable Mention. State Competition Winners: News Story: Jake Cinti Third Place. News Analysis: Melanie Langa & Sarah Kerson First Place. Editorial: Staff First Place and Staff Honorable Mention. By-line Opinion Article: Anne Wyszewianski & Austin Hughes First Place and Julia Mogerman Second Place. Review: Jordan Siden First Place and Griffin Johnson Third Place. In-Depth Feature: Julia Kortberg & Alyson Halpert First Place. Human Interest Feature: Julia Kortberg Honorable Mention. Personality Profile: Austin Hughes & Savannah Dix First Place and Blythe Moreland Honorable Mention. Diversity Coverage: Anne Wyszewianski First Place and Anne Wyszewianski Second Place. Environmental Coverage: Savannah Dix, Clare Lauer & Julia Kortberg First Place. Alternative Story Form: Will Mitchell & Kayla Stoler Honorable Mention. Sports Column: Spencer MacDonald First Place. Sports Feature Story: Mira Fishman & Anika Steppe First Place. New/Feature Photograph: Tanner Depriest Third Place. Illustration: Kayla Stoler First Place and Kayla Stoler Honorable Mention. Information Graphic: Kayla Stoler First Place and Chris Cain Third Place. Front Page/Newsmagazine Style: Kayla Stoler First Place and Shoshana Schultz-Purves Second Place. Story Package: Austin Hughes, Anne Wyszewianski & Lydia Austin First Place and Anne Wyszewianski Second Place. Editorial-Opinion Page/Spread: Mira Fishman First Place. Feature Page/Spread: Kayla Stoler First Place and Julia Mogerman Second Place. Sports Page/Spread: Kyle Aaronson & Spencer MacDonald Second Place. New Page/Spread: Clare Lauer & Julia Kortberg First Place and Griffin Johnson, Austin Hughes, Katie O’Brien Third Place. Entertainment Page/Spread: Kayla Stoler First Place.
Clague would like to congratulate the following students for their outstanding performance in the Social Studies Olympiad: Gwen McKee, Honorable Mention Ribbon, Intermediate, Digital Photography; Katie Grosh, Gold Medal, Intermediate, Take A Stand Essay; Claire Fishman, Gold Medal, Intermediate, Photojournalism; and Claire Fishman, Gold Medal, Intermediate, Current Events Map.
Congratulations to the Community High School Jazz 2009 Combo "Advanced One" for winning the "Outstanding Performing Group" award in the DownBeat Magazine's international, 33rd Annual Student Music Awards competition. Members of the quartet were Ella Campbell (Alto Sax), Charlie Hack (Bass), Jack O'Connell (Guitar), Jordan Otto (Drums), and directed by Jack Wagner. This competition, which accepts applicants from all corners of the globe, is arguably the biggest competition in the world for high school jazz combos. DownBeat Magazine continues to be the jazz industry's largest and most significant publication in circulation. The panel of judges, comprised of the magazine's editors, educators, and professional jazz musicians, adjudicated CDs sent in from 2009. The results are listed in the upcoming June 2010 edition of DownBeat Magazine.
The Jon Beshay Sextet from Michigan State University won in the undergraduate division. This group had three Ann Arbor alumni -- Mr. Beshay (Tenor Sax) and Rob Bickley (Bass), both Pioneer High music grads, and Jordan Otto, the Community High alum from "Advanced One." Mr. Otto recorded his high school entry at the end of his senior year, and then recorded with MSU in the Fall of '09 as a freshman. Mr. Beshay was also a private jazz saxophone student of Mr. Wagner's as an upperclassman in high school.
Congratulations to the six Huron High School Jazz Band members who were given "Honorable Mention" for their performance at the State Jazz Festival on April 14, 2010. They are: Callie Svaan - alto saxophone, Pelham Barron - trumpet, Adam Clover - trombone, Jakob Hildebrandt - trombone, Ben Gugino - drums, and Schuyler Bryant - drums.
On Thursday April 22, 2010 the Skyline Full Orchestra traveled to Dexter High School to participate in MSBOA State Orchestra Festival. The orchestra performed Sinfonia No. 8 by Mendelssohn, Berceuse and Finale by Stravinsky, and Bacchanale by Saint-Saens. We performed for 3 concert judges before going into the sight-reading room. In the sight reading room we had 7 minutes to study two new pieces of music before performing them for a judge. The students performed very well and received great feedback from the judge. MSBOA gives a rating based on your concert performance and your sight-reading performance ranging from a division I (highest) to a division V (lowest). I am proud to report that the full orchestra receive a division II rating at MSBOA State Orchestra Festival.
Save the Earth Fun at Pattengill.
Mrs. Beech & Mrs. D’Addona’s 3rd grade classes participated in two mornings of crafting with re-useable items. First they looked in craft books from the public library for fun crafts that they could build with things that were easy to find. After collecting and cleaning tin cans and bottles they started crafting. Mr. Rob Beech assisted the children who were sawing wooden yardsticks into short pieces and then gluing them onto a tin can to make a neat pencil holder. Mrs. Beech worked with other students to sew beanbags from fabric quilting scraps, and then they cut a milk jug to make a scoop to play beanbag catch. A third group of students were learning about decoupage on glass jars using old magazine pictures. Each student also made a pinecone bird feeder kit to work on at home.
They had the most fun with the large food cans from the school cafeteria. Poke two holes in the can, and string a rope through and you have made a tin can stilt. We’ve made 24 pair of stilts so far, and we have 24 more pair of stilts to make. That’s a lot of cans, but it creates a lot of fun when you try to walk on the stilts.
Asa W. said it best, “We are repurposing these cans.” Eric X reminded us that recycling is good, but it still uses energy to make a new can from an old can, so re-using is better. These projects are a great way to bring the phrase, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” to life for the students.
Back in the fall, Ann Arbor Open students created sandwiches as an exercise in consensus decision making and group process. They were excited when a chef from Zingerman's agreed to come in and talk about what goes into designing and naming a new sandwich because it made it all much more serious business. Zingerman's also offered to review the finished recipes and choose one to include on their menu as "Sandwich of the Month." It took some time because they needed to bring all the students' recipes to a committee to narrow them down, and then they made the top four for a taste test and announced that the winning sandwich would be featured in May.
So here it is May, and the sandwich is available to anyone for the whole month. The sign is prominently displayed above the pop machine, so if you want to give it a try, be sure to ask for it. The title remains the same one chosen by the kids: The Ol' Bap, which is an acronym of the first letters of the team members' names: Olof Carlson (8th), Lynus Zullo (7th), Brianna Vago (8th), Alexis Freeman (7th) and Pierce O'Donnell (8th). Bon appetit, congratulations to all the sandwich designers, and thanks to Zingerman's for making this class activity so much more fun!
40 people from Community High's Personal Conditioning, Health and Weight Training classes participated in the Burns Park 5k and 10k runs this past weekend. Many thanks to the Burns Park PTSO and to Dean Jen Hein for supporting the students' efforts!
Skyline Science Curriculum Lead Teacher Kathe Blue Hetter was one of the speakers at the Michigan Green Chemistry Education Meeting at Grand Valley State representing the Green Chemistry program at Skyline. It was a wonderful opportunity to network with others around the state and to share what is being taught in Ann Arbor Public Schools.

Todd Roberts, Ed.D.
Superintendent