EGHS is Proud to Announce Two 2014 Presidential Scholar Semifinalists

East Greenwich High School Announces 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholars’ Semifinalists

On behalf of East Greenwich High School, Principal Michael Podraza has announced that

two of our graduating seniors were named as semifinalists and will advance to the final round of the 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholars competition.  Heather Shen and Michelle Xiong were among 565 students to receive this distinction from over 4000 candidates.  They were chosen on the basis of superior achievements, leadership qualities, personal character and involvement in community and school activities.

Final selection of the Scholars will be made by the Commission on Presidential Scholars, a group of eminent citizens appointed by the President, and will be announced in May.  Scholars will be invited to Washington, D.C. in June to receive the U.S. Presidential Scholars medallion at a recognition ceremony.  Semifinalists were chosen by a panel of distinguished educators after a review of students’ essays, self-assessments, descriptions of activities, school recommendations and school transcripts.

The East Greenwich High School community congratulates Heather and Michelle on this outstanding achievement.  We wish them both great success in all their future endeavors.

For general information on the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, please contact:

http://www.ed.gov/psp

Don't believe the hype...even on the day before vacation we are teaching and learning

"We don't do anything on the day before vacation" is a phrase heard by some parents and guardians, invoked by students who want to start a scheduled vacation a day early.  In case you were tempted to believe the hype, thinking that teaching and learning was taking a day off at East Greenwich High School, below are just a few of the activities, assessments, discussions, essential questions, and other instructional methods that students were privy to on the day before vacation.

My best wishes to all members of the EGHS community for a fun and safe April vacation, you deserve it! 

• All of my classes took tests/quizzes before vacation.  In AP I gave out the test prep book.
• Mass communications class had an extended discussion about news bias as they reflected on the documentary Outfoxed. Many students provided their personal insights about how they themselves never realized just how much they were manipulated by certain media exploitations. We settled on the essential question "where does one go to get pure, objective news?" and settled on the fact that this may be unattainable in our current society. Thus, it is up to the consumer to be discerning and questioning viewers. 
• Freshmen classes had a discussion of the movie "On Golden Pond" and provided insight into the deep, valuable benefits of the older generations learning from the young and the young learning from the  older generations. We closely examined why the frustrations of generations generally occur and the ways one might ease those frustrations (through introspection and the need for outside inspiration)
• honors physics A- began lab to measure the speed of sound
• honors physics B- finished speed of sound lab and then finished taking notes on ch 12 (sound)
• Geometry - took the quarter 3 test.
• Q3 cumulative exam in all classes
• Hands on lab activity and application of content discussed all week! Students seemed to really enjoy the lab and the opportunity to ask questions in an informal setting.
• All of my classes were finishing/working projects that were due today. Any students who had finished early were required to work on an independent piece and those were due today as well. 
• The students in the Life Skills program organized all the school's Lost & Found articles.  They washed, dried and folded the laundry from the Ceramics classroom.  The students copied, collated, stapled and delivered copies to several teachers.  All the pencils that will be used by the guidance department for testing were sharpened, counted and bagged by the students.  Besides all this, the students worked on their math, reading and writing skills and participated in "Snack Shack" with their OT.  Quite a busy and full day!
• All of my classes took their 3rd quarter exams today
• Directed learning at a Speech given by Elie Wiesel.
• Four scenes from Merchant of Venice discussed.
• Completed Act IV in Henry V with class.
• Three classes handed in Final Drafts of Research Paper .
• Deconstructing Swift's ""A Modest Proposal"" -- studying his use of ad hominem attacks and irony to bolster the satire. 
• Working in small groups to tackle confusing poetic devices...arguing over the differences between metonymy and synecdoche and why a poet would bother with either in the first place. 
• Algebra 2 - Quarter 3 Common Test
• Advanced Precalculus - Strategies for Verifying Trigonometric Identities
• Freshman classes: Took a test and wrote and essay about Chapters 20 and 21 (Slavery and Division of the Union) 
• Junior Classes: Wrote a Document Based Question  essay about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This was a common core assessment
• Today all of my classes had a quiz about a particular grammar point.  After that we chatted in Spanish about their vacation plans.  The conversation was all in Spanish and very productive!
• French V unit test on Cyrano de Bergerac
• French I instruction and practice on questioning/answering techniques in pairs and whole class
• French IV discussion of 3 scenes of a Moliere play and introduction to oral proficiency testing
• French III.  Team work to summarize,present and paraphrase a section of Notre Dame de Paris
• In chemistry, we discussed the results of the data collected in yesterday's Electrolytes lab. The students completed a graphic organizer characterizing different types of solutions  then shared out with the class. Finally they learned how to analyze a Solubility curve. 
• Senior Project
• finish tests, quizzes that are outstanding before vacation
• DBQ's…common tasks
• UNIT projects: Regionalization, Satire 
• Q3 unit math tests
• Algebra II classes completed the quarter 3 common test today.
• Test on the food chapters of the Spanish 1 curriculum, quiz on the preterite of the verb ir, quiz on the present perfect, cultural activities in which students made their own "ojos de dios" crafts
• Worked on the Second Suite in F Major by Gustav Holst, transcribed Radioactive by Imagine Dragons and arranged it for String Orchestra, small group work composing 8 measure original folk songs.
• Art Studio 2: class critique of current projects
• Art Studio 1: students worked on finishing their surrealist paintings
• Foundations of Art: students began final drafts of their still-life drawings
• AP & Portfolio Art: discussed future plans and art careers, began brainstorming for next projects, visiting artist shared graphic design logo work
• Students completed a collaborative in class essay using Google docs.  The essay was an analytical thematic analysis on the novel Moby Dick.
• Students previewed vocabulary such as cerebellum, frontal lobe, & cortex to read, and apply reading strategies, to a book about the curious case of Phineas Gage, the man with the hole in his head. 
• Rock Identification Lab Practical (lab quiz), physical science
• "Freshmen English - read and acted out the final scene in Romeo and Juliet, then compared the original text with clips from the 1968 Zeffirelli film interpretation and the 1997 Luhrmann film interpretation.
• Origins of Fantasy - met in small groups to discuss the Lord of the Rings trilogy; also read a scholarly article and its analysis of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as an example of 'dark fantasy' - watched a clip from Buffy and discussed metaphors, symbolism, themes, etc."
• Talked about, read primary sources about, and tasted food, all in the target language. All prepared and executed by students, for students.
• Formative assessment on intercepts and integration, discussion of past quizzes, small group discussion regarding a higher-order question about slopes.  Some new material also presented.
• poetry salon--students chose, present, and discuss poems
• review unit terms
• introduce new concept
• 9 and 11 PE :  a seeded singles badminton tournament. Each period ended with a  class champion.
• quarter 3 common assessments
• "Books to Films students engaged in a literary round table discussion and used binary opposition analysis to interpret a short story's theme.
• Freshmen used associative substitution to learn Shakespearean vocabulary.
• Speech students delivered presentations and critiqued each other's projection, rate, and elaboration strategies."
• "AP Chemistry:  Test about Redox Reactions and Electrochemistry. Planned vacation study groups.
• Honors Chemistry:  Group problem solving - Hess's Law of Heat Summation.  
• Chemistry CCP:  Test about Solutions 
• Grade 10 health learned how to use an AED today...
• Grade 12 health got into a great discussion on abuse of over-the-counter drugs.
• "Students in the language lab listening to authentic audio clips comparing working schedules in the US and Spanish speaking countries such as Spain and Argentina. We also discussed immigrants working in those countries which opened students' eyes to immigration in other countries. People move from one country to another all the time, searching for a better life or escaping repression or war.
• Students carried out self assessments on their interpersonal communication skills using the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. Students had to prove to each other and to their teacher by performing small tasks to show their level of proficiency. The classroom was very noisy with a lot of Spanish language! 
• Students read an authentic article from on online periodical about the horrible fires in Chile and then offered suggestions for stemming these fires given their knowledge from other classes: clearing brush, fighting fire with fire, educating children, etc."
• quiz about demonstrative adjectives, new vocabulary (small groups and whole class), short Paris video with views of the city, questions relating to the video.

(This post is also cross-posted eghsprincipalri.blogspot.com)

EGHS Junior Receives RI Treasurer's "Young Leader" Award

Junior Matt Wegrzyn was the East Greenwich recipient of the Rhode Island Treasurer Gina Raimondo’s Young Leader Award. Matt was one of only of forty-one Rhode Island students presented with this award Wednesday evening. 

Matt was nominated by Rhode Island Teacher of the Year, Mrs. Patricia Page.

Details of the award can be found here.

Congratulations go out to both Matt and his family.  Well done Sir.

EGHS Students Protect Plovers With Virtual Fence

Love receiving emails like this-

Thanks to your students, our Piping plovers on Napatree are protected by virtual fencing.  On April 9th, this very hard working group lugged heavy poles, spools of rope and signs 1.5 miles to the western end of this barrier beach which is the preferred nesting area of this endangered species.
Your students were professional, good natured and a HUGE help!!

Your should be so proud of all of them.

Thank you!

Janice Sassi                                               Ryan Kleinert
Watch Hill Conservancy                           United States Fish & Wildlife Service
Napatree Point Conservation Area            Field Biologist
Manager                                                    Piping Plover Coordinator

3rd Place for Science Olympiad Team

From Mr. Lenox:
The EGHS Science Olympiad Team brought home 3rd Place at the State competition this weekend, hosted by Rhode Island College. 
EG won 2 first, 2 second, and 3 third-place finishes in individual categories. 
The team members are Tom Basso, Jane Chung, Romina Garakani, Angela He, Zach Johnson, Wei Li, Chris Luo, Ali Marcus, Thedita Pedersen, Heather Shen, Julian Wu, MingYi Wu, Michelle Xiong, Katherine Yan, and Jesse Zhan; and alternates Ryan Marshall, Sean McKenzie, Cathy Wu, and Zane Yu. 

Congratulations also go to the Cole Middle School team who earned second place in the Junior Division in their first-ever competition. 

Great job Avengers & Lancers!

EGHS Student Wins Silver Medal in National Competition

Congratulations to EGHS Junior Kathy Luo, whose personal essay “Why There’s a Seven-Year-Old Recorder Case In My Room” won a Silver Medal in the National 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.  

Kathy’s work earned national recognition and she has been identified by Scholastic panels of creative professionals as among the most talented young artists and writers in the nation. This year, almost 255,000 works of art and writing were submitted. Only the top 1% were recognized at the national level. These students have been invited to attend a national ceremony at Carnegie Hall on Friday, June 6. The National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall will also be webcast live at 6pm, ET. For more information, visit www.artandwriting.org.

Spring Guidance Update

EGHS School Counseling Office Spring Update 2014 

Seniors: 

If you hear from your colleges, make sure you pop into guidance and let Mrs. Mong know of the outcome so she can update our data book.

Scholarship opportunities are posted every couple of weeks on the list serve and on the guidance bulletin board.   Make sure you follow all of the required details when applying for a scholarship.   Failure to do so will take you out of the running in many cases.

CCRI applications are free if done online.  You can do them in the guidance office but you will need your social security number in order to complete the application.  If you need help make an appointment with your counselor to get started.

The CCRI representative will be here this Wednesday during Advisory.  Sign up in the guidance office if you would like to meet with the representative.

Senioritis is spreading!  Don’t catch this harmful virus!  Stay on top of your academic obligations and keep your eye on the prize of graduation!

Juniors:

Junior meetings are winding down in the guidance office.  Some of you know just where you want to go to college and what you want to do after high school and some of you are literally, “all over the map”!  Either way, no need to panic just yet.   Check your red folder for a listing of websites to help you zoom in on ideas for career choices, colleges and majors.   If you have no idea where to start on the college search visit some of the many colleges we have within a two-hour radius to experience various sized campuses including urban, rural and suburban.  Taking a tour will help you start to formalize what you may want or may not want on a campus or as part of campus life.   If you have a better idea of what you are looking for after visiting, come back and talk to your counselor to formalize a list of colleges that might be similar to what you saw.   Remember, it is about what is a good fit for you and that is something that cannot be determined a lot of times until you step onto a campus.  Before that, it is about honing down lists that meet your criteria and match your qualifications.  We are here to help!  Also, always check the data book for how our past students have fared when applying to a specific college.

SAT Deadline registration is May 9th for the upcoming June 7th SATs which are given at EGHS.

Stay strong academically as the final grades for this school year will be included in your GPA that will be used for college applications!

UPCOMING NEWS FOR ALL

• APRIL 8th is the end of third quarter! 

• Scheduling for next year is in progress.  Several parents have asked about the Waiver Process.  The details of that are located on the waiver form and in the Program of Studies.  Waiver forms will be available after the spring break. 

• MAY will be a busy testing month with AP Exams the first two weeks, Science NECAPs for juniors on May 6,7 and 8 and an end of year PARCC Field Test for a small group of freshmen and sophomores.  Details have been and will be posted for each of these as time gets closer. 

• MAY 7th during Advisory we are planning on a career forum that will consist of four panels of outside professionals representing the top choices of career clusters chosen by the student body in a recent survey.  Thanks to several parent volunteers that helped the guidance office gather and compile this survey information during two consecutive advisory periods.   More to follow on this exciting event. 

• Job Hunting?  Periodically people will give the guidance office postings for local jobs.  Check with Mrs. McCowan for any current job listings.

Be sure to stop by and see us, we are here to help.

EGHS School Counseling Office

Wednesday 4/2/2014 is World Autism Awareness Day

April is "Autism Awareness Month" and Wednesday 4/2/2014 is "World Autism Awareness Day". Members of the East Greenwich High School community are asked to wear blue on Wednesday in support of this worthy cause.

Please consider clicking the links above to learn more.