On behalf of the faculty and staff I would like to take a moment to wish you are your family a terrific Thanksgiving!  I often reflect on how thankful I am to work in a warm, supportive, and caring community like Mineola.  I am also reminded of the work that our student organizations continue to do to promote the district mission.  Our students, along with their advisers, have been busy this time of year helping those members of our community who need a little extra support during the holidays.  When we return, we have only 20 days of school until the Winter Holiday Recess.  December is a busy month here at the high school; accented by two winter evening concerts to celebrate the time of year.

During the school day, your children have been engaged in the rigors of high school course work and new and rigorous tasks that can be facilitated through the use of the technology that they have been afforded.  As Regents/Midterm week approaches, stay focused on the academic tasks at hand and make use of the Regents review classes (for those students repeating an exam in January). Our website (www.mineola.k12.ny.us) and Twitter account (@mineolahs) continue to keep you up to date with the latest news and “happenings” in and around the high school; including many of the exciting and new lessons, projects, and activities that your children are engaging in.  

Newsworthy:

• The Student Service Center (SSC) : November was a month when all  the programs of the SSC were in full swing. Nursing Home Visitors  Computeers completed their Fall service sessions while the Ronald McDonald Dinner Project  got off to a great start with 2 visits to prepare “Mineola Meatloaf” for families staying at Ronald McDonald  House. The Service Center is also a hub for learning as Peer Tutors meet during free periods and after school  each day. Members of the INN Youth Board helped pack  bags of food to help families with their Thanksgiving Dinners.  Our senior citizens enjoyed another wonderful Lunch Bunch in the “Mustang Atrium” as students shared not only lunch, but their knowledge of  iPads and how this technology has changed the delivery of curriculum at the high school. Carle Place and Mineola students who are members of our SPARC club assembled care packages for hospitalized veterans after hearing a very informative talk from Social Studies teacher Mr. Fretz. We are also very proud of Sofia Guirola, a junior who is the Mineola HS winner of the Prudential Spirit of Service Award.  We wish her luck as she continues on to the state level competition.

• The Student Organization (SO) - Student Organization had a busy month collecting non-perishable goods for the Thanksgiving Food Drive that supports Corpus Christi Parish Outreach food bank.  Thanks to the generous support of the faculty, staff and students, we were able to collect over 30 boxes of nonperishable goods to help families this Thanksgiving in our community.

• From November 28th - December 12th, the Key Club and National Honor Society will again team up to tackle the Holiday Drive.  This year, we hope to help 18 families in our district to have a much happier holiday season.  Over 15 Mineola high school teachers and staff members have volunteered to "Adopt a Family" or a single child, helping to grant some of their holiday wishes.  Any new toy or gift donations can be dropped off to the red and green bin in the main office.  We appreciate the overwhelming generosity we are so fortunate to receive each year.

• The Board of Education recognized the Top 10 at the November 10 meeting.  These top graduates have worked hard through their years of education to earn this prestigious distinction. Congratulations to: Valedictorian Sandra Pinto, Salutatorian Elizabeth Ryan, Zachary Sloan, Serena Berger, Erica Sze-Tu, Jillian Palma, Michelle Vande Stouwe, Gabriella Martinez, David Lee, and Reesa Rene.

• At the December 1 Board of Education Meeting, Anushka Patel, Ankita Patel, Jeremiah Florestal and Alvin Tsai will be recognized for their acknowledgement as “Young Scholars of Mathematics” from The Institute of Creative Problem Solving program at SUNY/College of Old Westbury.  Selection by the institute implies that a student is among the top 1/10 of one percent in math of all students on Long Island in his/her grade.  

• The Board at “We Care,” the charitable arm of the Nassau County Bar Association presented Ms. Burke a  plaque for her service, honoring the work of our Student Service Center and National Honor Society volunteers  who participate in the annual projects that serve to help underprivileged children.  Congratulations Ms. Burke!

• On Friday, November 18 Mr. Azzara and Dr. Romero took 20 of our students to the Annual Hispanic College Fair at Molloy College.  There, students met with college representatives from across the country to learn about opportunities in post secondary education.  They were also treated to a tour of the campus by one of the Molloy College Student Ambassadors.  

• At the November BOCES technology Directors meeting, Mr. Fretz, along with Dr. Nagler spoke about our Online AP Psychology and AP Art Programs.  The online environment is an increasingly more prevalent way to take courses at the college level and a unique opportunity offered to the students of Mineola High School.  

• It is time to purchase your 2017 Signet Yearbook. The cost of this year’s yearbook is $120 dollars plus tax. If you order your yearbook before Thanksgiving, your cost will be $100 plus tax.  If you order your yearbook after Thanksgiving but before December 31, 2016, your cost will be $110 plus tax.
  You can order your yearbooks at WWW.JOSTENSYEARBOOKS.COM In addition to purchasing your 2017 Signet Yearbook, you may also purchase a custom yearbook Ad for your child at www.jostens.com/yearbookads
  Full Page  $170.00 ½ Page  $95.00 ¼ Page  $70.00 1/8 page  $40.00

• Place your Yearbook Ad Order before January 31, 2017

• Please e-mail Mr. Block  rblock@mineola.k12.ny.us if you have any questions.

• The Sophomore Ring Sale continues online at the Jostens website.  

• The Question Mark, our school newspaper, is available on your child’s ipad in eBackpack as well as online on the high school webpage in the virtual backpack.  You can also follow the Question Mark on Twitter @QuestionMarkMHS

• Mustang Media is a new branch of the Question Mark and is a weekly video news broadcast that features Jennifer Berkowitz and Isabella Polanco.  The show features stories from around the school during the week as well as a “Question of the Week” feature.  All episodes are available on the MHS Questionmark Youtube Channel.

In the Classroom:

• In Exploring Computer Science (ECS), students just learned about AI (Artificial Intelligence). They related current events articles to classroom discussions to conclude our unit on Humans and Computers.  We  also just a  unit on problem solving. Students are using algorithms to solve community problems.  When we return from Thanksgiving break we will be starting programming using SCRATCH and KidOYO.

• Some of Technology 8 classes began using Adobe Illustrator. Students learned how to create brushes, work with the color and gradient panels, create vector art, and use pathfinder to ultimately create their own emojis and/or characters. Students applied their design to the Roland Vinyl Cutter/Plotter and watched their art become vinyl stickers and heat transferable t shirt designs. Other classes started learning Aspire, a CAD/CAM software that is used to create a wide variety of products including decorative signs and parts with a high level of accuracy and precision. These students learned tools that allow them to transform sketches, photos, drawing and digital artwork into detailed 3D models by creating  calculated toolpaths to efficiently cut these parts. They then transferred their digital files to the CNC Spindle Router, where they watched their wood designs take shape.
  Lots of excitement in Tech 8!  (see pictures below)

In Science Research - Michael Valente, Erin Talty, Erin Servinskas, Kayleigh DiPietrantonio are to be congratulated for all their hard work on the Regeneron STS application.  It is quite an accomplishment to complete this application process.  In addition, these students along with Elizabeth Ryan and Erica Sze-Tu just completed their applications for the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.  Congratulations to all on these accomplishments!

In Mrs. Zaffarese’s English class, Christina John read the novel Love, Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli and drew the creative painting to the left.  In the painting, Christina depicted how Stargirl felt during the beginning of the novel.  She felt grey and would cry at times because she was unhappy.  But, Stargirl always had bright eyes and she always saw the food in things and wanted to help people.  The two hands holding in the painting represent how Stargirl was brought back, through the new people in her town.  The blue (representing sadness and feeling out of place) contrast with the purple that represents the young, joyful, and cheery spirit of Dootsie.

In Ms. Maroney’s English classes, the 8th grade students are given CHOICE in their INDEPENDENT READING BOOKS for FREE READ FRIDAYS based on the same genre. Students are beyond enthused and excited for their book club groups!

In Mrs. Audiino’s English class, after we learn and practice a particular skill (writing structure, organization, making inferences, determining central idea, understanding writing strategies/literary devices, etc.), I have been giving my students (especially grade 8) a RECAP response for homework either on a weekly or biweekly basis. I think it is so important to hear all of their voices and watch them come out of their shells and slowly grow into more confident young adults. I also think it's important to have them make real-life connections to what we explore in class; therefore, I try to use RECAP on a personal level. This week, we reviewed several literary devices, one of which was symbolism. In class, we used our challenging literature (Poe) to explore and analyze major symbols throughout the text.

For homework, I gave the students the opportunity to reflect on symbolism and decide which object they would choose to represent themselves.  Several students are revealing their passion for drawing, dancing, writing, playing sports, and others are simply expressing how selfless and giving they are because of their parents/families, while others reflect on their ability to be kind and then get overwhelmed and cranky. My students chose an array of objects and their understanding of symbolism is growing! It truly amazed me and allowed me to see them on a different level moving forward. Recap Example: https://app.letsrecap.com/public/r/29873fc5e7fe33c92a891b88125d9547

Department Highlights:

• Guidance - Our On the Spot Admission Days are underway!  Mercy, St. John’s and Hofstra have all come to visit us this month.  All of our students that participated have been accepted and many have received scholarship money. When we return from Thanksgiving, NYIT, Molloy, Adelphi, LIU Post and Farmingdale will be here.  The counselors have been working hard at assisting our seniors with their college applications.  If you have any questions feel free to call the guidance office.   Our 8th grade counselor, Mr. Azzara has teamed up with the 8th grade teachers to work on monthly Character Education lessons.  The students will learn about growth mindset, study skills and test taking strategies, iPad organization, conflict resolution and how to reduce anxiety.  We are excited to work together as a team to provide the students with high quality support.

• Athletics - We celebrated some great success in the fall season with both the girls Volleyball team and Boys Soccer teams advancing deep into postseason play. The Boys and Girls Soccer teams both finished first in their respective conferences. We look forward to a winter season filled with exciting team and individual performances. We congratulate Victoria Ondris and Matteo Itri on being selected by our High School Physical Education Department as our PE Students of the Year. Tori and Matteo, along with their honored guests, will attend a special award ceremony in December where they will receive recognition from the New York State Association for Physical Education for their accomplishments.

• Fine & Performing Arts - Bravo to all of the students who were involved with last weekend’s production of “The Miracle Worker.”  The cast and crew brought this show to life in a truly professional-caliber performance.  Auditions and song-teach information for the spring musical “Suessical” are posted on the drama website: www.Mineoladrama.com.   On Sunday 12/11 MHS Treble Choir and A Cappella Singers team up with the Greater Nassau Chorus for a very special concert here in the MHS Auditorium; if you love choral music, this is the event for you!  Our music students are working very hard to put on the finishing touches to their concert material.Our traditional winter concerts  are 12/13 and 12/20.  Your children love to perform for an audience and are proud of the work they have accomplished, so we hope you can attend.  Volunteers needed!  Mineola High School will be hosting the Nassau County Division III All-County Music Festival.  600 Students will be here for three days in rehearsal from 4:00-8:00 so Music Parents will need help with food service.  Parents of Band/Orchestra and Chorus students are all encouraged to sign up to help!  Reach out to Mr. Owens (jowens@mineola.k12.ny.us or 516-237-2625) to help.

• Library Media Center - Our library has been filled with students of all grade levels utilizing the space for a multitude of reasons over the past two and a half months.  In addition to the library being a place to promote readership and literacy by providing texts students are curious about, scheduled classes can be seen clustering by computers, learning new research techniques and Digital Citizenship.###br@MrAppelbaumLMS
  
  

Upcoming Events:

11/29 - Marching Band Dinner 12/1 - Board of Education Meeting (7:00pm) 12/2 - Pep Rally 12/3 - SEPTA Holiday Party@Jackson Ave (10am) 12/6 - Booster Club Meeting (7:00pm) 12/9 - End of Q2 Interim Period

12/13 - Winter Concert I (All 8th Grade, Dynamics,9/10 Orchestra and Band, Big Band) 12/20 - Winter Concert II (All other groups) 12/22 - Board of Education Meeting (7:00pm) 12/24 - 1/2 - Holiday Recess (School is Closed)

On behalf of the faculty, staff, and administration I would like to once again wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate the call the main office at 237-2605.