Chalk Talk, the Gazette’s school news page, has a new name: @SequimSchools (the school district’s user name on Twitter). The new name reflects the impact of technology on today’s classroom and the significant impact of social media on how we communicate. Each week, @SequimSchools will highlight some exciting accomplishments and events taking place in Sequim schools.
DISTRICT
There is no school Monday, Jan. 16, and the district office will be closed as well, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
For the most up-to-date information on school events, check out the district’s website at www.sequim.k12.wa.us, and click on the Calendar button.
Reminder: Two levy proposals are on the Feb. 14 special election ballot. Jan. 16 is the cut-off date to register to vote online. Feb. 6 is the cut-off date to register to vote in person. For more information about the levy proposals, call the district office at 582-3260.
TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT
The Transportation team is excited that its Adopt-A- Highway signs are now posted: one is on westbound U.S. Highway 101 at Dryke Road and the other is on eastbound Highway 101 at Fern Road. Bus driver Karen Dinius reports, “To date, our group has picked up 82 bags of garbage along this stretch of Highway 101!”
GREYWOLF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Carmen Merring’s fourth-grade classes donated 21 pajama sets to the Scholastic Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive. These will be paired with great books and sent out to children and adults in shelters and foster care in our area. Thanks to all who helped in this great community service!
Last fall, the Beta Nu Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International (a women educators’ professional and philanthropic organization) announced the opportunity for the Community Education Grant open to local nonprofit agencies for educational projects. Greywolf Elementary School staff members applied for four separate grants and all were approved and have been awarded to the school. They include grants for art lessons ($2,400), the drama club ($2,000), an after-school math program ($500) and support materials for reading instruction of the Common Core Language Arts program ($3,000).
For the second year in a row, Greywolf students in grades K-5 participated in the “Hour of Code” during the week of Dec. 5. The “Hour of Code” is a worldwide event that reaches tens of millions of students in over 180 countries. Students celebrate computer science and are inspired to learn more as they receive a basic to advanced computer coding introduction, a skill that is now being used in every industry on the planet. Greywolf students learned to create their own technology using the same skills at their level that professional computer programmers use.
This year, more than 163,000 schools participated in the event as students used computer programming choosing from over 200 tutorials to suit their personal levels. Young students at Greywolf who aren’t able to read yet are still able to code with tutorials that read the directions to the students. Lower elementary students program use “drag and drop blocks” with embedded codes that tells the program what to do. Older students are able to actually write the computer code themselves when they program.
Students can continue to code on their own by accessing code.org. Choose from activities that feature popular characters such as popping pigs with Angry Birds, sailing with Moana to find fish, planting crops and building houses using Minecraft, as well as ice skating with Anna and Elsa from “Frozen” to create shapes with different mathematical angles. Coding is for anyone, ages 4 to 104!
HELEN HALLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Thanks to para-educator Lili Ring for leading the Lymphoma Society’s School Youth Pennies for Patients campaign for the eighth year! The total amount raised this year was $1,895.40. Over the past eight years, our school has raised a grand total of $18,872.96! Congratulations to the top six collectors: Gail Kite’s fifth-grade class ($155.59), Renee Mullikin’s second-grade class ($142.31), Patrick Caron’s fourth-grade class ($120), Carolyn Luengen’s third-grade class ($114.58), Jesse Klinger’s fourth-grade class ($114.19) and Ann Riggs’ third-grade class ($111.85).
SEQUIM MIDDLE SCHOOL
The next generation of engineers are sitting in today’s classrooms. In an attempt to incorporate more engineering into our middle school science curriculum, students in Joe Landoni’s seventh-grade science classes competed in our annual Convection Engineering Challenge.
As a capstone activity to our study of storms, weather, atmosphere and convection, students built on what they had learned and put the force of warm, rising air to work. Teams employed the engineering design process to devise a fan blade assembly, attach it to a fishing swivel and line suspended above a hot plate set to 8, and capture the warm, rising air. Controlled variables for this competition included the fan blade material (orange card stock paper) and the height the blade sat above the surface of the hot plate (10 cm). Anticipation surged as groups made final adjustments. Each team was given two, one-minute trials with the total number of complete spins measured. The average of these two trials became their score.
When average rpm were totaled and all calculations completed, winners were announced. Topping the list was the team of Kathleen Snyder, Sydney Marchefka, Zoe Moore and Emma Wyant, with an average 78 rpm — more than one rotation per second!
Other teams meeting their engineering goal included the teams of Pryce Glasser, Eoin Hagan, Dee Dorrell and Jace Williams-Weekes (73.5 rpm), Hailey Nordlie, Zoe Bordwell, Angel Williams and Kyra Cartwright (57.5 rpm) and Lauren Sundin, Henry Hughes, Sydnee Price and Jack Van De Wege (50 rpm). Congratulations to Period 5 with the highest overall class average of 37.2 rpm. Winning teams in each class claimed a 100-milliliter cylinder of candy filled with Cinnamon Red Hots. Way to go, Next Generation Engineers!
SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL
Teacher Mark Knudson has exciting news from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s Career/Technology Education Department: Sequim High School is ranked first in Pass Rate on Microsoft Office Specialist Certifications. Here are the top 10 high schools overall for the 2016-2017 academic year as of Dec. 7:
Sequim Senior High 96.55%
Hazen Senior High School 95.52%
Lindbergh Senior High School 92.42%
Walla Walla High School 88.24%
Moses Lake High School 88.00%
Renton Senior High School 85.37%
Governor John Rogers High School 83.33%
Marysville Mountain View High School 74.29%
Tumwater High School 72.97%
Bothell High School 70.18%
Students who have received Microsoft Office Specialist Certification are Travis Baker, Murray Bingham, Nicholas Charters, Io Dressel, Michael Florence, Kjirstin Foresman, Samuel Frymyer, Karli Hampton, Caleb Hines, Hannah Hines, Carson Holt, Jordan Hurdlow, Joshua King, Corinne Klinger, Kianna Miller, Vita Olson, Emily Olson, Paula Orozco Encarnacion, Jesse Schleve, Silas Thomas, Mia Underwood, Miles Van Sant and Blake Wiker.
Fourth Friday Readings will feature two students, seniors Harley Davidson and Claire Nakagawara, at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27, at The Lodge.
Here is an original poem by Davidson:
“In Broad Daylight”
The sky is vast and white here.
There is no sun suspended midair, emanating its startling orange light from a singular point or rather
the daylight is so broad it encompasses the sky
top to bottom, left to right.
A sheet fresh out of the dryer has been draped over our section of this little globe, bringing warmth and respite from the night.
Yet I know not a thousand miles south from here, the sky is not a linen veil
instead it is a painting in motion —
billowing cotton candy clouds, pinks and oranges ripped from grapefruits
float westward on the breeze.
As beautiful as that might be, I think I prefer it here
where the clouds muffle the cries of morning, and dissipate them into pure atmosphere.
It’s a clean canvas, a fresh start.
There is something to be said for this town where the sky is vast and white.
Jan. 14 is the next senior graduation party planning meeting at 9 a.m. in the library. The senior graduation party is not an official school district event.
Mitzi Sanders, career specialist, would like to remind seniors that scholarship notebooks are due Jan. 17, no exceptions.
