This Week in the Ann Arbor Public Schools
November 12, 2012This Week’s Good News!
• Slauson students went to the polls on Monday, Nov 5th to vote in the Slauson Mock Election, following a of month of political activities organized by the Slauson Political Action Club. The Slauson PAC consisted of 45 students divided into three committees that met after school starting at the beginning of the school year.
The Election Committee was responsible for setting up voter registration, getting out the vote, polling, organizing and moderating the debates, setting up the electoral college and running the actual election. In addition, a video crew taped major events and will be creating a documentary DVD of the Mock Election.
The Democratic and Republican party groups were responsible for running campaigns for the Presidential Candidates including posters, radio announcements (PA), video advertisements, campaigning at lunch and preparing for both political rallies and debates.
Four students represented the presidential candidates, 8th graders Kaycee Siebler and Riley Van Alsburg portrayed Barack Obama and Joseph Biden while Max Housner portrayed Mitt Romney and Ryan Sauer was Paul Ryan. Each was responsible for learning the political positions and personal characteristics of their candidate and organizing their campaigns. In the final week, each party held three lunch time rallies, with cheering supporters and stump speeches by the candidates. The highlight of the campaigns was a school-hall debate in the student packed auditorium. These included moderated issue questions and position answers from each candidate and questions to the candidates from the students in the audience.
Election day saw a 97% student voter turn out as students registered their choices for U.S. President and Vice President, the United States Senate seat from Michigan, the City of Ann Arbor Mayoral race, the State Supreme Court (a Slauson parent was a candidate!) and the District Library proposal.
Social studies classes were assigned to represent states and their electoral college votes according to the percentage of students in the class who registered to vote.
Early classes represented the East Coast States, middle of the day classes represented the Mid Western states and late classes represented the West Coast. Projections and results were announced throughout the day.
Congratulations to candidates, the Slauson Political Action Committee and the entire Slauson student body for their enthusiastic participation in the democratic process.
• Four of the Homebuilding students and para educator, Joel Davenport, met with local radio personality Lucy Ann Lance on 1290 AM at 8:30 a.m. Friday, November 9. Lucy has a segment of her show called "Around the House" on which she has spoken about the AAPS Homebuilding Program with its advisory board president, Jack Campbell, and the publicist for the Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Ann Arbor (BRAG), Pete Nowakowski. Lucy Ann is an advocate for education and particularly technical education, especially students exploring non-traditional career paths.
The students interviewed are all seniors: Amy Liu and Grant Stadelman from Huron High; Tyler Waldrop from Pioneer High and Jonas Gearhart-Hall from Community High.
On the building site, the students are really focused and working hard. They are seven days ahead of the record pace for getting the house enclosed and the roof on. They hope to be setting the roof truss by mid-week next week. John Birko is the lead teacher in the Homebuilding Program.
• The Pattengill community, under the leadership of Principal Che Carter, supported an effort to find a breast cancer cure by raising $200 on Pink Day on Monday, October 29. Ayanna Bell, Stephanie Gause, Alec Vorhoff and Huslen Walker, fifth-graders in Ms. Hubbard’s and Mrs. Embry’s class, spearheaded the Fundraiser. They sold handmade and handcrafted pink ribbon symbols, pink bracelets, pink bookmarks and pink lizard lanyards during lunch recess for all grades. Also, students and staff wore pink in honor and memory of breast cancer patients and survivors. All funds collected were donated to the Barbara Karmanos Breast Cancer Institute.
• The University of Michigan’s K-grams program brought 60 third grade students from Dicken Elementary and Dixon Educational Learning Academy in Detroit to U-M’s campus for K-day on Friday, 11/9. K-Day is designed to allow students to experience a day as a Wolverine. Volunteers help inspire the students to aspire to higher education by being a role model and tour guide. The Big Ten Network sponsored the activity, which included science demonstrations, an art museum tour, a variety show, field day activities on the Diag, lunch and a visit to a dormitory. K-gram workers also collected donated school supplies on the Diag to give to schools.
• The Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation awarded its Great Ideas grants on November 2. The grant name, teacher, and amount, by school:
Abbot
Abbot Kindergarteners Make Their Own Sauerkraut, Emily Warner, $435.00
Allen
Super Summer Success, Carol Clyde, $990.24
Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad, Ryan Bruder, $500.00
Bryant
Handwriting Without Tears for Kindergarteners, Angela Klein, $828.85
Construction Toys for Kindergarteners, Angela Klein, $903.48
Handwriting Without Tears for First Graders, Ashley Garvin, $890.50
Carpenter
Classroom Nooks, Bethany Tabaka, $972.18
Teaching Garden, Meredith Giltner, $819.86
Dicken
Kindergarten Lending Library, Celia Gargaro, $1,000.00
Lakewood
Non-fiction Read Along Comprehension Building, Jessica Cooper, $809.93
Mitchell
Mitchell Media Center Rebuild, Kevin Karr, $500.00
Mitchell Media Center Spanish Books, Kevin Karr, $500.00
Pattengill
Classroom Nooks, Dawn Blair, $972.18
Forsythe
Bringing the Periodic Table to Life, Amie Snapke, $239.90
7th Grade to the Arab American Museum, Semra Koknar, $1,000.00
Scarlett
Scarlett Spiffy Musicians, Deborah Katz, $500.00
Tappan
Tappan’s Dream Performance, Frederick Smith, $1,000.00
Community
Economics Through Play, Chloe Root, $378.00
Huron
Red Cross Certification for CPR and First Aid, Lynn Boland, $500.00
Huron High School Science Extravaganza, Jennifer Wilkening, $1,000.00
Pioneer
Red Cross Certification for CPR and First Aid, Cathy Malette, $500.00
Skyline
Team Teaching From Around the World, Catrina Vaughn, $439.00
• This past summer David Leach was contacted by "Teach and Travel' magazine asking him to contribute an article about taking students on international trips. It was exciting for David to be published nationally and placing a national spotlight on the Ann Arbor Public Schools Music Department and Pioneer High School. Congratulations to David and a big thank you for sharing the excellence of the AAPS Music Department on a national level. The direct link to David's article is.....
http://www.
• Congratulations to Logan teachers Ann Marie Borders, Samantha Sandoe, Kristi Krile, JoWanda Gore and Christina West who were selected to participate in an upcoming “Handwriting Without Tears Golden Opportunity!”
This will be a tremendous experience for the Logan team to learn more about Handwriting Without Tears and how it benefits them, their colleagues, and the students that they serve. In addition to this training, they will each receive a set of K – 5th grade materials which they can share with their colleagues. The total value of this “Golden” opportunity with training and materials is $305 per teacher!
• Mr. Edward Broom, Assistant Principal at Scarlett was awarded the Washtenaw Area Council for Children (WACC) 2012 Safe Kids Award on October 19th for his coordinated efforts in working with the WACC in taking a stand against bullying and cyber-bullying at Scarlett.
• Ann Arbor Public Schools and Ann Arbor Academy are co-sponsoring the Ann Arbor area's only college fair specifically for students with learning disabilities. The third annual Life After High School College Fair will be on Thursday, November 15, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. in the media center at Huron High School. Representatives will be on hand (arena style) from over thirty colleges and college programs designed to help students who learn differently or have specific needs to achieve their college and post high school goals.
Students with learning disabilities can succeed in college and reach their goals, but a specialized support system is often the key. Deciding which college is best for the student is the first step to achieving his/her goals, and this college fair provides a unique opportunity to access some of the best programs in the area and from around the country.
The fair is free and open to the public county wide+. Huron High School is located at 2727 Fuller Road, Ann Arbor, at the corner of Huron Parkway and Fuller. For more information, contact John Boshoven, College Counselor at Community High School, at boshoven@aaps.k12.mi.us.