This Week In the Ann Arbor Public Schools

January 30, 2012

  • I am pleased to announce the return of the AAPS News!  As you will recall from last year, AAPS News is our electronic “news magazine” and covered in-depth stories about our schools as well as featured articles about issues that affect the District.  AAPS News provides you with all you need to know about what is happening in the Ann Arbor Public Schools.  We have made some changes including:
    -A redesigned website, found at news.a2schools.org
    -Social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook
    -A page with information about the upcoming Tech Bond
    We are also pleased to announce a giveaway: The first 100 people to "like" us on Facebook and to follow us on Twitter will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card to Nicola's Books! The winner will be announced next week.
    Read more about the new site and be sure to check in for daily updates!
  • A team of 18 sixth graders from Forsythe finished second in Michigan out of eight teams in the Knowledge Master Open competition held on Jan. 25, 2012.  The KMO is a national knowledge contest that tests the ability of teams to answer questions in all subject areas quickly and accurately.  You can learn more about the KMO at <greatauk.com>.  The team scored 685 out a perfect 1000 points, well above the state average of 620.  Kinawa Middle School in Okemos was first in Michigan, with 793 points and were also fourth in the nation.  On the national level, Forsythe placed 57th out of 227 teams.  First place in the U.S. went to Mt. Nittany Middle School, State College, PA, with 811 points.  Coach Dan Ezekiel said this was a good first competition, and the team should be able to do even better next time.
    The Forsythe KMO Club is a middle school club that meets every Tuesday after school and is open to all Forsythe students in all grades.  The team is coached by Dan Ezekiel and Mike Shaw.  They would like to thank team parent, Marni Arnett, as well as Mrs. Desai, for helping on the morning of competition.  Mr. Ezekiel's student teacher, Bill Massey, also helped out.  Their next competition is in March, for 6th graders only, and there will be a contest in April open to all grades.
    The members of the Forsythe team:  Oscar Anderson, David Arnett, Akhil Arora, Chandra Desai, AJ Eisman, Bruno Herbst, James Johal-Smith, Liam Keating, Jane Keeling, Daniel Khain, Aurora Mussey, Arnav Nadgir, Katy Pasquariello, Nathan Pawittranon, Praveen Samy, Jack Suber, Jordan Tirico, and Julia Walker.
  • Haisley Elementary School held it's second annual, Heritage Festival on Thursday, January 26, where families, staff and community members provided music, crafts, food and stories from over fifteen different countries for all to enjoy.  Harumi Omitsu played the Japanese Harp and Diana Liado performed with her String Cheese Irish string band.  It was a fantastic event coordinated by P.E. Teacher Kristin Stoops, Third Grade Teacher Ellen McGee and numerous staff and parent volunteers!
  • Skyline’s Forensics Team scored well in its first tournament of the season.  There were 12 students in 7 entries, and their results are:
    -Jessica Parent took 3rd in DI Open
    -Ilana Rashes (double-entered with Multiple, which she directs) took 3rd in Prose
    -Abby Mrachko and Malaika Worsham took 3rd in Duo Improv
    -Abby also took third in Storytelling (double-entered)
    -Nivetha Samy took 3rd with an Oratory she was still writing that morning about 5:00 AM
    -Priya Menon took 1st in her new event of Broadcast (1st in state of Michigan in Extemp last year)
    Skyline's "Piece of My Heart Multiple," with Angie Goulet, Willa Johnson,     Ilana Rashes, Britt Roulo, and Kate Topham, took 1st place, while every judge in the tournament was saying they thought it was astonishing and sure to win all season. The students reduced one judge to tears, in fact, which they all figured was about the highest compliment available.  The team finished in 3rd place overall in Sweepstakes.  Their next big tournament is this coming Saturday in Anchor Bay.
  • Huron High School Band students traveled to Livonia Franklin High School on January 14th to participate in the District 12 SOLO & ENSEMBLE Festival.  Huron received 72 first division and 16 second division ratings in SOLO performance, as well as 30 first division and 6 second division ratings in ENSEMBLE performance. This is a state qualifying event.  Students prepared a solo and/or ensemble and performed it for a state certified adjudicator.
    Huron High School Band students receiving a "I" (Excellent) rating for their performance of a SOLO were: Brandon Cutler, Michael Barton, Emily Chang, Domenic DiGiovine, Tiffany Chang, Hanel Baveja, Tess Chamberlain, Ashton Strother, Anna DiGiovanni, Abby George, Orion Sang, Christine Mei, William Chen, Eugene Zen, Genevieve Sponseller, Ethan Chupp, Ann Chen, Rachel Hai, Will Brenner, Mikhail Kotval, Yearahm Ahn, Atulya Shetty, Young Lee, Hannah McCabe, Zibo Zou, Lorna Barron, Jordan Steiff, Nick Richardson, Isabelle Salley, Simran Baxendale, Allen Chang, Kieran Williams, Jiaao Hou, Emma Kellenberg-Callewaert, Paulina Tsao, Emily Ji, Amanda Blackson, Laura Kanji, Brandt Hofman, Bum Namkoong, Hokyun Kim, Michael Shen, Julie Dejnozka, Mark Boyer, Michael Dekker, Yeon-Woo Chung, Hannah Gadway, Yonatan Hodish, Ian Blaauw, Renee Zhao, Jungwoo Chang, Hyewon Kim, Patrick Jalilevand, Hannah Sung, John McCall, Adam Miller, Sylvia Lee, Gerard Graham, Seth Stancroff, Sooyeon Lee, Jeffrey Zhang, Steven Zou, Noah Stoll, Jenny Wang, Sarah Yoon, Justin Tang, Kevin Yang, Eric Armbruster, Christy Choi, Ryan Powell, Deniz Karabakal and Isaac Balinski.
    Huron High School Band students receiving a "II" (Good) rating for their performance of a SOLO were:  Emma Mees, Steven Schulte, Nora Eder, Do Hyun Kim, Shalini Lakshmanan, Ben Gur-Arie, Justin Poliner, Michael Shen, Nicole Joslin, Richard Wan, Kate Zheng, Emily Ferry, Sumeyye Korkaya, Jinhee Kwak, Nir Glazer, Shane Ham and Andidiong Archibong.
    Huron High School Band students receiving a "I" (Excellent) rating for their performance of an ENSEMBLE were:  Ben Brenner, Julie Dejnozka, Caleb Hires, Emily Ferry, Isabelle Salley, Kieran Williams, Andrew Radant, Mark Boyer, Brandon Cutler, Pat Gilchrist, Bobby Knutilla, Sam Mladin, Nora Eder, Charlie Nicoli, Johnathan Williams, Jacob Higle-Ralbovski, Kaitlin Kim, Shalini Lakshmanan, Mariam Souweidane, Atulya Shetty, Michael Barton, Seth Stancroff, Anna DiGiovanni, Emily Chang, Abby George, Andrew Toader, Zibo Zou, Emma Kellenberg-Callewaert, Ryan Silvester, Ashton Strother, Ryan Powell, Yeon-Woo Chung, Michael Shen, Oscar Chen, Jinwoo Lee, Hao Tang, Sam Mladin, Patty Glover, Paulina Tsao, Grace Ganzel, Ethan Chupp, Domenic DiGiovine, Jordan Steiff, Isaac Balinski, Lorna Barron, David Vallem, Deniz Karabakal, Adam Miller, Jennifer Jeon, Jessica Gibson, Emily Ji, Jiaao Hou, Richard Wan, Kevin Yang, Zibo Zou, Linda Liu, Madeline Chu, Miheer Sapre, Daniel Lee, Julie Dejnozka, Chelsea Young, Renee Zhao, Orion Sang, John Brinley, Patrick Wan, Brandt Hofman, Nicole Joslin, Sunyoung Shin, Amanda Blackson, Jordan Draper, Sooyeon Lee, Emily Ji, Ann Chen, William Chen, Isaac James, Lisa Ruan, Kirin Saint and Do Hyun Kim.
    Huron High School Band students receiving a "II" (Good) rating for their performance of an ENSEMBLE were:  Young Lee, John Nicoli, Craig Campbell, Darius Rostami, Kirin Saint, Robert Petersen, Sean Hwang, Hannah Sung, Sarah Yoon, Ji Ran Li, Yonatan Hodish, Erica Hotchkiss and Hao Tang.
  • Duo-Gard Industries Inc. has announced the first installation of its new Butterfly model bike shelter at Pioneer High School. The bike shelter was selected by the school’s class of 2010 as its parting gift.
    Senior class officers accepted ideas for the traditional gift and settled on a bike shelter, according to Ms. Lorin Cartwright, Pioneer’s assistant principal and athletic director. “The class wanted a product made in Michigan and realized a bike shelter would promote exercise and make the biking alternative more attractive,” she said. “They wanted an ultra-modern design and selected the Butterfly model.”
    Because the shelter’s cost exceeded the student committee’s funds, Duo-Gard subsidized the majority of the purchase, including installation. “We saw an opportunity to encourage the students’ eco-sensitive attitude,” said Michael Arvidson, Duo-Gard’s executive vice president. “Bicycling is rapidly gaining momentum at the many schools and universities we work with.”
    The Butterfly model is from Duo-Gard’s line of architecturally designed bike shelters. The contemporary structure features glazed roof “wings” pitched up at 17 degrees. Adding custom touches to complement the school’s colors, Duo-Gard filmed the roof panels of ¼” acrylic in purple. Steel framing in metallic silver-white features integrated bike racks also fabricated by Duo-Gard.
    This 9’ x 16’ shelter will accommodate 10 bikes. So far, said Cartwright, it hasn’t been filled. “It’s a new concept, and we’ll be promoting it at our annual Ride Your Bike to School Day this Spring,” she said. “We’re very appreciative of Duo-Gard’s contribution. The students feel as though they were rewarded in their attempt to make a difference for the school.”
    For more information, visit www.duo-gard.com.
  • Several Ann Arbor teachers presented at the Michigan Music Conference – Kim Coulson-Mobley (Allen), Rosalie Koenig (Mitchell), Laura Machida (Carpenter), Cynthia Page-Bogen (Burns Park), Kristi Bishop (Bach) and Robin Bailey attended the Michigan Music Conference in Grand Rapids.  They presented our elementary Humanities program and the various ways each of these teachers are utilizing music instruction to make connections with Social Studies and Science at the various grade levels.  The presentation was well attended and well received.  Several attendees requested our curriculum which is still under development.  These five teachers developed a Power Point with audio samples, pre test and post test evidence of student growth/learning as well as beautiful visual samples of students performing. Included also was an audio of Kathy Morhous (Principal of Burns Park at the time) talking about her observation of the incredible depth of learning that took place during this Humanities program last year.
    Yael Rothfeld, Thurston music teacher and Joey Parins, Clemente music teacher also presented other sessions. Yael presented on tonal skill development and rhythm skill development through singing, moving, chanting, listening, and playing instruments, and Joey presented in collaboration with Scott Edgar, UM on Social/Emotional Learning and its place in the music class.
    All of these teachers represented out district wonderfully and should be applauded for their professionalism in shining a spotlight on our district at large as well as the excellent music instruction and cross curricular work happening district wide.
  • I had the pleasure of attending the Winter Sing at the Preschool and Family Center last week.  It was a packed event as parents came to watch their little ones perform a wide variety of songs that also had them using great motor coordination.  It was a lovely program.
  • The Huron Music Department and Huron Players present Sweeney Todd, February 9-12 in Meyers Auditorium.  Presale tickets can be obtained by going to showtix4u.com.  Type in Sweeney Todd at the top of the first page, and it will take you to the page where you can purchase tickets.  You may also buy tickets at the door.  Sweeney Todd, a 1979 Broadway musical theater hit won eight Tony Awards including Best Musical.  Angela Lansbury was featured in the original cast.  Come see our own Huron High School singers, actors and orchestra engage you with this emotional story of 19th century London.  Don't miss it!

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