Classroom Connection - March 10, 2009
Wake County Seniors Named National Merit Scholarship Finalists
Fifty-one of our high school seniors have been named National Merit Scholarship finalists. Of the 1.5 million entrants only 1,500 are chosen as finalists. The seniors from Wake County are:
Apex: Lewis McCalister, Michael Nokes and Nicholas Stidham.
Broughton: Tyler Confrey-Maloney, Jonathan Edwards, Jordan Jones, Zachry Martin and Matthew Wiesner.
Cary: Quinn Bajorek and Nicholas Allen.
East Wake: Thomas Batts.
Enloe: Laura Buff, Michael Chen, Hannah Darst, Lauren Dixon, Pradeep Gopinathan, Ellis Gyongyos, Ian Harward, Sarah Lineberry, Lilly Liu, Alexander Madsen, Rachel Mazzara, Emily Myers, Rachel Rowe, Alexandra Snedeker, Bao Tran-Phu, Alexey Vasilyev, Daniel Vitek, Anna Wormsbecher, and Diana Xie.
Fuquay-Varina: Taylor Allison.
Green Hope: Sean Bartell, Jennifer Fredette, Austin Gilmore, Brinda Monian, Gabriel Reynolds, Syed Saleh, Cheryl Schlitter, Andrew Wang.
Leesville: Cody Hitchcock.
Middle Creek: John Turner and Sarah Philips.
Panther Creek: Jimmy Longley, Brighid Milan, Courtney Musciano, J.T. Primm and Kyle Rogacki.
Sanderson: Margaret Pennisi and Dean Pixton.
Southeast Raleigh: Christopher Kao and Kyle Schwartz.
Carnage and Daniels Middle Compete in Science Olympiad
The Science Olympiad Teams from Carnage and Daniels Middle schools took first and third place, respectively, at the Regional Science Olympiad held at Garner High School.
Competing against 61 schools from six counties, Carnage and Daniels have qualified for the State Science Olympiad to be held April 24 and 25 at NC State University.
First place winners from Carnage were:
Frank Alcorn and Sam Conner – Amphibians and Reptiles
Will Mann and Venkatesa Muruganandam – Anatomy
Mary Lipetzky and Sumiyah Enayet- Food Science
Naomi Lahiri and Sumiyah Enayet – Fossils
Mary Lipetzsky, Samir Patel, Venkatesa Muruganandam and Logan Leppia – Pentathalon
Frank Alcorn and Evan Schaeffer – Wright Stuff
Stacy Hoblit and River Wu – Ecology
Stephen Tang and Mark Olorvida – Physical Science Lab
Alison Chang and Nafiah Enayet – Reach for the Stars
Will Gupton, Callie Stephenson, Chad Kirchmann and River Wu – Pentathalon
First place winners from Daniels were:
Abby Thurman and Harrison Lee – Disease Detectives
Andrew Hamrick and Alexander Nguyen – Crave the Wave
Middle School Sportsmanship Winners
The middle school sportsmanship winners have been announced with the completion of the winter sports season. These schools are voted on by their opponents for displaying good sportsmanship on and off the field, as well as fan behavior and the school staff cooperation to accommodate visiting teams.
In the Southern Division I: Apex Middle and Fuquay-Varina Middle.
In the Southern Division II: Davis Drive Middle and West Cary Middle.
In the Central Division: Martin Middle, Carnage Middle, and Carroll Middle.
In the Northern Division I: Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle, Wendell Middle and Heritage Middle.
And in the Northern Division II: Leesville Middle and West Millbrook Middle.
Middle Schools Compete in Battle of the Books
On Feb. 28, 23 Wake County middle schools competed in the Annual Battle of the Books Competition at Green Hope High School.
Davis Drive Middle took first place and West Cary Middle took second place in the competition. Davis Drive advances to the regional competition which will be held on April 2.
Davis Drive Battle of the Books is advised by Bridget Hayes and the students participating are: Madhu Vallamani, Caroline Reilly, Jessica Wan, Jared Tippens, Rushi Marthala, Ria Ray, Malvika Pillai, Anita Simha, Chelsey Lin, Jaya Patel, Hilary Sun and Christine Wei.
West Cary Battle of the Books is advised by Jan Garrett, Sheila Pattee and Rachel Cooper. The students that participated are: Aparna Arigala, Lindsey Carbonell, Aditi Chakravarty, Madison Hoke, Brenna Loendorf, Aishwarya Nag, Samantha Ongchuan, Vivek Pisharody, Julie Ren, Julia Shen, Fariha Syed, and Lisa Wong.
Board Names New Principals
The Board of Education named Elizabeth Battle principal at Daniels Middle School and Bob Umstead principal at Swift Creek Elementary.
Dr. Battle has served as assistant principal of Sanderson High since 2004. Prior to that, she was an assistant principal and career development coordinator at Southeast Raleigh High. She was a teacher at Wake Forest-Rolesville High. Umstead has served as assistant principal of Swift Creek Elementary since 2000. Prior to that, he was an assistant principal at Knightdale Elementary and a teacher at Poe Elementary. Umstead has been selected as a finalist for Assistant Principal of the Year repeatedly.
Enloe Students Qualify in Math Competition
Ten Enloe High students qualified to take the American Invitational Mathematics Examination on March 17 based on the results of their testing on the AMC 12 and AMC 10. The AMC 12 qualifiers are Daniel Vitek (school winner), Alex Vasilyev and Shreyas Tikare. The AMC 10 qualifiers are Nick Tobey (school winner with a PERFECT score), Michael Bai, Amitoj Singh, Claire Zeng, Jeremy He, Arjun Bhattacharya and Ivan Kuznetsov. The tests are 25 questions, 75-minute multiple choice examinations in secondary school mathematics containing problems which can be understood and solved with pre-calculus concepts. The AMC 12 is for students in grade 12 or lower and the AMC 10 is for grade 10 or lower.
All students who took the AMC 12 and achieved a score of 100 or more out of a possible 150 or were in the top five percent are invited to take the AIME. All students who took the AMC 10 and had a score of 120 or more out of a possible 150, or were in the top one percent also qualify for the AIME.
The date for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination is March 17. Students who take the AIME are seeking to qualify for the United States of America Mathematics Olympiad.
East Millbrook Students Attend STEM Conference
Seven East Millbrook Middle seventh-grade girls were selected to attend a conference, "Expanding Your Horizon," at NC State University on March 3, celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. The students are Sorena Dagar, Trinity Edelen, Felicia Field-Turner, Alexis Fox, Megan Frazier-George, Alexandria Gilmore and Sienna Grimes. The students attended workshops, lab experiments, a keynote lecture and took part in a panel discussion from accomplished women in these fields. The day is designed to encourage girls to major in and pursue careers these fields.
East Millbrook Holds International Festival Concert
East Millbrook Middle, an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme magnet school, welcomes you to attend its first ever International Festival Concert with performances by the Advanced Orchestra, Taiko Drum Ensemble, African Drum Ensemble, and Symphonic Band. Join them as the students answer the question, "How does music reflect culture?" through performance of music from various countries. The concert will take place on Friday, March 13 at 7pm in the brand new, state-of-the-art East Millbrook Auditorium located at 3801 Spring Forest Road in Raleigh. Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend.
Dillard Drive Teacher Elected NCAGT President
Dillard Drive Middle School Academically Gifted Resource Teacher Dr. Jim Brooks has been elected President of The North Carolina Association for the Gifted and Talented (NCAGT). His two-year term will begin this month. Dr. Brooks is currently serving his 8th term on NCAGT's Board of Directors as its teacher representative. He follows Dr. Laurene Madern, Senior Director in the WCPSS Growth Management Department, as president of the 1,000 member NCAGT, the largest and oldest advocacy group for gifted students in North Carolina. Dr. Brooks has indicated his agenda as NCAGT President will center on legislation at the state and national level, and on providing support and services for teachers and parents of gifted students.
Cary High Wins Fifth State Wrestling Title
Four-time defending champion Cary High made it five state team titles in a row in convincing fashion on Saturday night in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4-A wrestling tournament championships at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Cary, under veteran coach Jerry Winterton, placed four wrestlers in the championship matches and went on to record 126.5 points, ahead of Davie County in second place with 98.
All four Cary wrestlers in the finals earned state titles, including Ben Creed at 103 pounds, Gabe Brotzman at 152, Matthew Colvard at 160 and heavyweight Eloheim Palma. Palma, a senior and one of the top- ranked wrestlers in the nation, completed a perfect 62-0 season.
The Imps won the dual team championship earlier this month and have now captured six of the last seven NCHSAA tournament titles.
Chuck Davis Dancers Visit East Garner
Students and teachers are enjoying a visit from Chuck Davis and the African American Dance Ensemble at East Garner Middle. Visual Arts Teacher Janice Jarrett says her Advanced Visual and Performing Arts students are working with the professional dance company during its seven-day artist residency that will conclude with a grand finale performance of student and professional dancers. The performance will take place at 7 p.m. on March 10 at East Garner's Performing Arts Center. The performance is open to the public and free of charge.
In addition to the evening performance, East Garner's Advanced Fine Arts students will join the Chuck Davis and the African American Dance Ensemble in three performances for students on March 10.
Lufkin Middle Finds Creative Ways to Celebrate Black History Month
Lufkin Middle celebrated Black History Month in many and various ways. Some students researched notable figures online, summarized their contributions, and posted their findings on Blackboard discussion group for the class to read and post comments on. One class read the novel, “The Watsons go to Birmingham”, which takes place in 1963, at the height of the civil rights movement. Other students read Melba Pattillo Beal's memoir "Melba's Choice" about school integration in Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Some band classes began playing jazz music while other classes were introduced to the Blues. One team created a quilt of the people involved in the civil rights movement, made a mural depicting scenes from the civil rights movement, or a created an illustrated timeline of events that occurred during the civil rights movement after they studied the movement. One team acted out the play "Warriors Don't Cry" about the Little Rock Nine and the integration of Little Rock High School, following up with an illustration as a post-reading assignment. Classes studied Dr. Martin Luther King, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Charles Drew, Jesse Owens, Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Hattie McDaniels, Hank Aaron, Steven Slade, President Obama and Langston Hughes. They studied the prejudices during World War II and the Holocaust and compared those to current prejudices in school and society. One team saw the play "Heroes of the Underground Railroad," another saw "Freedom Train," and two more saw "Black Journey."
Leesville Road Middle Students Receive Thanks from USO Staff
On March 3, students in Mrs. Hedgepeth’s seventh-grade Language Arts students (Stingrays Team) received special thanks from the USO-RDU Center Staff and Volunteers for helping to deliver valentines to US troops. In the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, the students brought in valentines to share with the troops. On February 13, a basket containing over 500 valentines was delivered to the USO lounge at RDU airport, where a USO volunteer, heading overseas, scooped up a few handfuls to share with forces abroad.