This Week In the Ann Arbor Public Schools

October 3, 2011

This Week’s Good News

  • Semifinalists named in the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program.
    Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 57th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $34 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
    The Ann Arbor Public School District has 63 National Merit Semifinalists for 2012.  Congratulations to all of our scholars!
    Community
    Murphy Austin, Julia DeVarti, Emma Hughes, Nikila Lakshmanan and Nick Sorscher.
    Huron
    Jing Chai, Amy Chang, Emily Chang, Oscar Chen, Charles Daniels, Nora Eder, Alexander Hassan, Kathleen Huntzicker, Lena Ji, Andrey Kuklev, Jinwoo Lee, Christine Mei, Ian Montgomery, Margot Pontius, Andrew Radant, Samantha Rahmani, Michael Shen, Andrew Toader, Stephen Toner, Jenny Wang, Jiaxin Wang, Yunhan Wei, Joshua Wu, Rujia Zha, Rita Zhao and Jonathan Zhou.
    Pioneer
    Rebecca Bilich, Sophie Buchmueller, Julie Chen, Tian Fan, Charles Geronimus, Daniel Huang, Skye Huerta, Anji Li, Jamie Lutz, Clara Nees, Thomas Orr, Konstantinos Papaefthymiou, Jackson Pilutti, Jean Rafaelian, Julia Rothchild, Caleb Stevens, Leon Sunstein, Aoxue Tan, Sherry Wan, Qiong Wu, and Kevin Zhang.
    Skyline
    Jonathan Ames, Grace Chen, Jungje Choi, Heather Jue-Wong, Jonathan Jue-Wong, Timothy Kenny, Frederick Kuo, Cameron Mclaughlin, Jordan Meiller, Shruthi Narayanan, and Emily Trudeau.

  • Semifinalists Named in the 2012 National Achievement® Scholarship Program
    More than 1,600 Black American high school seniors who have been designated Semifinalists in the 48th annual National Achievement Scholarship Program were announced by National Merit Scholarship Corporation (nmsc) officials. These scholastically talented young men and women now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for approximately 800 Achievement Scholarship® awards worth more than $2.4 million to be offered next spring. To be considered for a National Achievement Scholarship, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 80 percent of Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win an Achievement Scholarship award.
    The Ann Arbor Public School District has four students in the National Achievement Scholarship Program.
    Huron
    Kamaria Lee and Gabriel Stevenson
    Pioneer
    Ivy Gregory and Reina Larkin
    Skyline also had ten Commended students:
    Lior Apel-Kraut, Talia Dessel, Carl Kershaw, Elizabeth Mansfield, Priyanka Menon, Luke Paschal, Christopher Raveendra, Randa Sakallah, Hannah Steinberg and Kayla Steinberg.

  • Skyline High School has been selected as the winner of 2011 Gale/Library Media Connection TEAMS Award for the high school category. Its collaborative project was “Grassroots Google:  Integrating student portfolios, teacher common assessments and pacing guides via shared Google tools.” The project highlights how all students use their online portfolios, and how teachers use Google Tools to collaborate.
    As part of the winning prize, Gale will be providing Skyline with a check for $2,500 as well as $500 (U.S.) in Gale products. Library Media Connection and Linworth Publishing will also be providing Skyline with a one-year subscription to Library Media Connection magazine and the Educator's Professional Bookshelf.
    Skyline will be honored at the American Association of School Librarians conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The conference runs October 27-30, 2011.
    The winning "team" is Kristal Jaaskelainen (Lead Teacher for English Language Arts), Peter Pasque (Lead for Instructional Technology) and Dr, Sara Duvall (Lead for Media & Technology).

  • Logan teacher, Katy LaCroix!  Katy received one of the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) Teaching Tolerance Awards! Logan’s Equity Team will also be meeting with members from SPLC. Congratulations Katy for such a prestigious honor!

  • Janae Townsend, Reading Apprenticeship trainer from Slauson, was awarded a grant to attend and present at the 2011 PEG Summit in San Francisco to include airfare, hotel, and registration fees.  Ms. Townsend’s presentation will demonstrate how the Reading Apprenticeship model is all about instructional practices that address racial equity issues in the classroom and link her building’s RA implementation to a district CARE project.

  • Logan Teacher Ann Borders won the lottery for signing up for a payroll deduction to support the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation (AAPSEF).  Wendy Correll, Executive Director of the AAPSEF awarded Ann an iPad!  All AAPS staff participating in the payroll deduction program were automatically entered into the drawing.

  • It is time once again for us to ask for your help to support the United Way.  The materials and forms will be distributed to all employees within the next few days.  I hope you can all take a few minutes and make a donation, no matter how small, to help those in our community who are struggling.  A very good reason to give to your favorite cause through the United Way is that your charity will show a larger volume of donations which will help them become eligible for matching county, state and federal grants.  Thank you for whatever help you can provide.

Patricia P. Green, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Ann Arbor Public Schools