School News Roundup — Jan. 17

Arlington Tech Capstone Featured on WERA Program
On Tuesday, January 7, Paula Lazor highlighted the Arlington Tech Capstone experience on her WERA radio program: Education Innovations. From the WERA website, Education Innovations is “a show that explores hands-on, project-based learning and how it prepares students to succeed in college and careers.” Ms. Lazor interviewed two Arlington Tech students, Mac Allen & Phillip Wince, about their experiences with Project-Based Learning and Career & Technical education courses through Arlington Tech. The episode will be streamed this Saturday (1/11) as well as the following Saturday (1/18) from 2:30 – 3:00 pm on WERA 96.7 FM and is available @RadioArlington and streaming on the WERA website.

Jefferson Shows International-Mindedness at Saint Nicholas Day Concert 
The Jefferson World Language Department showcased their international-mindedness on December 20 when French classes performed their annual Saint Nicholas Day concert. The concert was orchestrated by French teacher Mme Susan Boyle.

ASFS YES Club Service Projects
The YES Club at ASFS participated in a series of service projects around the school in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at their latest meeting. Several of the specialists at ASFS welcomed the club into their classroom to assist with a variety of projects. In the art room, students helped get ready for the upcoming art show by making rolls of tape for the artwork. In the music room, students helped get ready for the 5th grade concert by moving chairs and folding programs. In the gym, students helped secure the ends of jump ropes with tape for future PE classes. Finally, in Investigation Station students unpacked deliveries of new robots and delivered them to classrooms. The teachers were very grateful for the help and the students enjoyed contributing their time to the school community!

Shriver Students Go Bowling
Last week, Shriver teacher Tomeka Jones and her students had the opportunity to go bowling at Bowl for America. There was so much in learning how to bowl. Students took advantage of the bumpers and and stands and after a few rounds the kids became competitive and wanted to do away with stand but kept the bumpers. They also enjoyed the arcades as well as the food. They look forward to visiting again to work on those bowling skills and just maybe form a bowling league.

Hamm Students Attend Alliance for Black Children Event
Dorothy Hamm participated in most recent meeting for the Alliance for Black Children at Gunston Middle School over the weekend. The Alliance for Black Children Meeting is a quarterly meeting for APS parents to discuss relevant topics concerning families, learn about resources and supports APS provides to bolster student success, receive pertinent information to make informed decisions that affect their children, and increase parent engagement in their child’s education to improve educational outcomes while reducing opportunity gaps.

Kenmore Celebrates Det. Jackie Pagan
This week, Kenmore and APS joined the Arlington County Police Department in celebrating the retirement of Detective Jackie Pagan following more than 29 years of dedicated service to the Arlington community. Earlier this week, Kenmore students surprised Det. Pagan with a flash mob. Check out the story that ABC7 featured.  

Marymount Men’s Basketball Visits Abingdon
On Jan. 10, the Marymount University Men’s Basketball team and coaches spent the morning at Abingdon Elementary School. For the last five years, PE Teacher Joe Reed coordinates this school visit. The players visit classrooms where they read to the students and talk about the importance of education and sports. The Abingdon students look forward to their visit every year. The students also love to ask the players questions and to see how tall they are!

Wakefield’s Youth Environmental Society
Ela Gokcigdem has founded Youth Environmental Society, a non-profit organization that provides high school students with an environmental literacy seal after the successful completion of their self-designed course (similar to the WISE exam for financial literacy). With the help of Natalia-Uro DeLeon and Ailis Brown, they have successfully sealed a partnership with EarthEcho International, an environmental nonprofit organization that has a global following. EarthEcho will provide them with course materials, potential funding opportunities and further connections. These students will also be able to use EarthEcho’s name as credibility and leverage when they are pitching to other organizations.

Long Branch Students Set Goals for the New Year
Long Branch students in the 4th and 5th grade are getting ready for a new decade!  Fifth graders sat down with their teacher and came up with goals for 2020.  Students had the chance to decide what they wanted “more” of and what they wanted “less” of.  Students wanted “more” friendships and kindness in 2020 and “less” bullying and name calling. Student in the 4th grade came up with their own creative designs and words that are going to represent their 2020.  Some included “LOVE”, “BELIEVE”, and “CHANGE”.  When asked about these words one student said, “I believe it is important to look into the new year with a fresh set of eyes.  Put the past behind you and focus on what you can change.”

Hamm’s First Visit to the Outdoor Lab
Dorothy Hamm Middle School visits Outdoor Lab for the fist time! Madison Azzara’s students, along with Robert Tuttle (7th grade counselor) visited Outdoor Lab this past week. The highlight of the trip for many was the “Yuk” station where students could observe a deceased squirrel as they learned about decomposition.

Brown Box now Serving Fleet
Students in the Program for Employment Preparedness (PEP) Brown Box lunch program were back serving many long-time customers at Fleet Elementary School last week. The Brown Box lunch program is an internship site for PEP where students prepare made-to-order sandwiches, wraps, and salads for staff on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Many staff at the new Fleet Elementary School were formerly customers at Patrick Henry Elementary School. Everyone was excited to have PEP students and staff back taking orders on campus this Tuesday. You can learn more about the Brown Box lunch program and PEP by visiting their page on the Career Center website.

Holiday Celebrations Around the World
Before Winter Break, Drew kindergarteners learned about a worldwide melting pot of cultural celebrations. Parents and a Drew PTA member shared stories about the dreidel game Jewish children play; the seven principles of Kwanzaa; the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Fitir that marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan; Las Posadas, a reenactment celebration of the Census pilgrimage to Bethlehem by Mary and Joseph; and the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Swanson Fairy Tale Mock Trials
From December 16-19, two 7th grade social studies classes participated in “Fairy Tale Mock Trials.”  This was a culminating project to end the Judicial Unit. Students acted as lawyers and witnesses gathering evidence to argue a civil or criminal case based on a fairy tale story. Students also acted as jury members for some of the trials. Students created costume and prop elements in class to make their trials creative and interesting for audience members.

Barrett Teachers Attend Training at New York’s Teacher’s College
Barrett teachers Zach Porter, Mary Kenny, Kiki Delli and Abby Crain from Barrett attended the “Using Toolkits to Provide Access for Students with IEPs” at the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project Institute at Columbia University. At this Institute, staff learned how to use different components of Reading and Writing workshop, as well as the ideas behind the Universal Design for Learning to effectively meet the needs of our students. Staff took classes on: Understanding Text Levels and Bands of Complexity How to Use Various Types of Read Alouds As Learning Scaffolds Understanding Special Education Law and IEP Goal Writing/Setting Using Shared Reading to Support Phonics, Vocabulary and Comprehension Adapting the Units of Study to Create Access for All Learners Opportunities to Practice Phonics and Word Study in Reading and Writing Workshop.

Everybody Wins Donates Books to Key
The Everybody Wins Power Lunch program at Key has received a very generous book donation from the BlackRock Corporation of Washington DC and a major delivery of books. BlackRock has contributed over 7,000 books to the entire Everybody Wins DC program which can be shared with our Power Lunch students so they can build their own personal libraries at home. Everybody Wins DC also hopes to distribute books to our after-school program and our Best Buddies Saturday Program as well! The books delivered over the holidays.

Jamestown Students Learn about Economics and Community Service
The third grade students at Jamestown learned first-hand about economics and community service in December. As a culminating project of their economics unit, students were given the task of earning money for charity by doing chores. They kept track of their efforts in a graph and earned up to $30. With this money, the students took a field trip with their class to Target where they purchased holiday gifts for children in Arlington County Foster Care while making economic choices and understanding opportunity costs. Students managed their own money and navigated making change as a connection to their math lessons. The ages of the recipients ranged from infants to teenagers. When they returned to school, the students wrapped the presents with help from their teachers and parent volunteers.  After the completion of the wrapping, Arlington Foster Care gave a presentation on the impact their efforts had on making the holidays brighter for others.

Campbell’s Community Book Club
Campbell Elementary School participated in a community-wide book club by reading Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar. The book club met every Tuesday morning for discussions starting in late October. They celebrated finishing the book with an evening event of dancing, creating unique hopscotch boards, and art projects all related to the book. Many students created something at home that is related to the book, which they brought to the event to share. Some of the student projects included cookbooks, dioramas of the main character’s bedroom, a plaster body cast modeled after the one the main character had to wear, and games inspired by the book, just to name a few. The author even flew in from Michigan to attend and to have a Q&A session that ended with the author teaching everyone how to Cha-Cha!  The author returned to Campbell the next morning for a special breakfast with a small group of students and a traditional author presentation.

Teen Voices on Vaping & Substance Abuse Gallery Walk
On Thu, Dec. 5, students in HPE 10 presented their final products around vaping and substance abuse. Using a gallery walk format, students shared their work with parents and informed them on how they can talk with students about these issues. Students delivered their information through podcasts, Jeopardy! style games, artwork and other modalities and parents had the opportunity to visit in depth with each table. Students from the Culinary Arts program were also on site selling delicious tacos, salads, and drinks out of their new food truck.