This Week In the Ann Arbor Public Schools

October 25, 2010

This Week’s Good News!

  • 826michigan, a local nonprofit that focuses on writing and literacy, has chosen the Roberto Clemente Center as its major project for this year. A book of students' fictional accounts of the Civil War will be developed this year and published in the spring
  • Scarlett Middle School wind and percussion students participated in the Scarlett Bands Clinic Day on Friday, October 8. Students each attended a 2 hour instrument clinic focused specifically on their instrument led by guest musicians from Eastern Michigan University, University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor community. Scarlett musicians learned techniques for improving their tone and strategies for practicing technical passages in their music. Clinic Day was funded through a grant from the E Daniel Long Fund for Excellence in Music Education. The Scarlett Bands hope to make Clinic Day an annual event and are looking for donors to support future Clinic Days.
  • On October 7, students from Abbot Elementary joined with others from across the U.S. to participate in “Read for the Record,” an attempt to set the record for the largest shared reading experience in one day.  Students in Ms. Annette Stojcevich’s fourth grade class read “The Snowy Day” by Ezra Jack Keats and then drew a picture describing the words in the book.  Last year over 2 million students participated in the event which is sponsored by JumpStart, a literacy advocacy group that promotes reading to young people.
  • The Community High family received the following thank you, “Natural Area Preservation would just like to extend a warm thank-you to the entirety of Community High School staff, students, and parents who made the October 6th workday a HUGE success! For those of you interested, your one-day of service allowed NAP to gain 980 hours of community service for the environment!! Amazing, right? We made significant impacts throughout the Ann Arbor local parks by removing invasive shrubs & weeds, in addition to wood chipping trails to make them more suitable for bikers, hikers, and nature lovers alike.
    We also would like to share with you this post-workday article published on AAPSnews online highlighting this unique event. The article gives more information on the student’s perspective of the workday and is a great read for all of CHS.
    If you want to see some photos from the city-wide workday(s) please “Like us” on Facebook & check out our newest photo album dedicated to just the Community High workday!  Once again, we can’t thank you all enough for your hard work. We look forward to partnering again in the spring to continue the fight against Garlic Mustard!!”
  • Sole Transit, a group of five Ann Arbor musicians from Community High School earned top honors at the Neutral Zone’s Battle of the Bands and won a recording contract with the youth-run Orpheum Recording Studio.  Members of the group are:  seniors Leif Gearhart-Hall and Kyle Morrison, junior Jordan Siden and sophomores Erez Levin and Dan Sagher.
  • Forsythe English/Language Arts teacher and Curriculum Leader Jennifer Walsh, has been appointed to the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award committee given out by the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents with the National Council of Teachers of English (ALAN). The appointment is for two years.
  • On Monday, October 11, Mitchell School hosted special visitors from New Zealand.  Professor Deborah Fraser of the University of Waikato and primary teacher, Whakarongo Tauranga observed Mitchell teachers in the area of arts integration.  These visitors shared their own experiences with groups of Mitchell teachers during a book study group on the teaching of ELL students, and a luncheon at the school, sponsored by the UM.  A collaborative effort between UMS and the UM School of Education, these visitors also presented a workshop for teachers entitled Mantle of Experts at the WISD, sharing this unique model for integrating the arts.  The Mitchell Staff thanks Cathy Reischl for arranging for this special visit to happen at Mitchell!
  • Pioneer social studies teacher and U.S. Department of Education Fellow, Tracey Van Dusen had her blog posted on the front page of the ed.gov website about the day she spent in Columbus.  Of course she bragged about Ann Arbor everywhere she went!  Click to read, "Columbus, Creativity, and Cunningham: A teacher's impressions from a day in the life of an ED official."

Robert Allen
Interim Superintendent