Monday, January 24, 2011

Principal Newsletter -- January 24, 2011

PTC Events!!!!

At the outset of this school year, the PTC board and I talked about wanting to make this a special year in terms of gathering students and families together as often as possible to hear from dynamic speakers, experts, and just to have a great time. I must admit, what the PTC has managed to arrange has even exceeded my expectations. In particular, Diane MacDonald and Meghan Pence have really made this series of events come to life!

The school is focused primarily on two areas this year -- improving writing instruction and building school culture. In the spirit of maximizing our efforts, each of the events falls under these two categories.

  • Today, as I write, author Mark Pomeroy is in the building, working intensively with 5th and 6th grade student writers.
  • Angela Allen will be working with 7th and 8th graders on developing compelling characters.
  • Yesterday, with the support of the PTC and some inspiration (and no small amount of hard work) from Ron and Lynn Penner-Ash and Diane MacDonald, we enjoyed a wonderfully fun -- and competitive -- ping pong tourney. Results here, by the way!
  • Last week we had a great turnout to hear from Howard Hiton on boys' advocacy issues.
  • Thursday February 24th, Diane Gans will be in the commons at 7:00 speaking about "Empowering Middle School Girls to Develop Healthy Relationships."
  • And, of course, Hit Explosion is just around the corner, on 2/26. Buy your tickets now!

From Nick Hershman, regarding the upcoming Mathcounts competition:

Hi All,

I wanted to let you know that Mathcounts has just announced the date for its Portland Regional Contest. The contest will be held on Saturday, February 19th, 2011 from 9am to 1:30pm (probably more like 2:30pm). The contest will be held at the Mentor Graphics Corporation in Wilsonville, here's the address.
8005 SW Boeckman; Wilsonville, OR, 97070

If your student would like to compete we will have 10 spots. Any student in the 6th through 8th grade may participate. And I will hold tryouts this week during each of my classes. For most classes this will be on Wednesday/Thursday. Students not in class with me can arrange the contest during an elective period. The top four students will compete as our school team, and six runners up will be registered as individuals in the contest.

Mathcounts is always a fun day filled with bright students, math, and pizza!

Let me know if you have any questions,

Nick


Events this week include 4th grade game day, hoops games, and a first grade field trip.

Congratulations to Geography Bee and Ping Pong Winners!

Sunday saw an incredible turnout for the inaugural Ping Pong Tournament, the brainchild of Ron Penner-Ash. The tournament included over 120 players!

Ping-Pong Results

K-2
1st – Grant North
2nd – Venous Sanaee

3-5
1st – Sidharth Daga
2nd – Brian Lafranchi
3rd – Justin North

6-8
1st – PJ Hummelt
2nd – Mitch Teed
3rd – Haig Douzdjian

9-12
1st – Abdul Alhamidi
2nd – Ben Huthchings
3rd – Sevan Douzdjian

Women
1st - Jodi Fechner
2nd – Claudia Taylor
3rd – Laura Ford

Men
1st – Art North
2nd – Brian Johnson
3rd – Graeme Parkin

Geography Bee Results:

Our winner this year is Cole Burchiel. Our second place finisher was Justin North.
Congratulations to Cole, Justin and our other geography bee finalists:

Emma Komers
Sam Handley
Ianna Lull
Lily Scanlan
Torrin Kelly
Kevin Macdonald
Jake Myers
Derek Song