Fusfoo
March Newsletter
- from Whittney Smith
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- Mineola High School
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- 2397 views
Dear Families:
Welcome back after a week long winter break that began with spring-like temperatures. We are ready to get back to work and the school looks fantastic. This week is spirit week to be capped off with our Battle of the Classes on Thursday afternoon and school spirit day on Friday (see below for the week’s events). As a new addition to the week of activities, the classes will be decorating the hallways by theme on Wednesday afternoon. We look forward to seeing the Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity (the 4Cs of education) of our students outside of the classroom.
In our continued effort to educate the whole child, Detective Pam Stark recently presented to our entire school about the dangers of drug use ###/b
While only a year ago we were researching the principles of Design Thinking and the concepts of “Makerspaces” and “Fab Labs” as they related to the reconfiguration of the technology wing and library, today the spaces have been transformed. The “fab lab” space supports our technology program 8-12, outfitted with the latest, state-of-the-art equipment. We will be hosting an open house later in the spring for our community to see the incredible opportunities our students have.
Newsworthy:
The Student Service Center (SSC): The Student Service Center has been very busy this month. Peer Tutors and Middle School Skills Helpers continue to dedicate time to helping other Mineola students with their school work. Nursing Home Visitors and Computeers finished our Winter Session volunteering with senior citizens from our community. Computeers seems to be very popular these days. Our volunteers such good “teachers” that we are already getting requests to join the Spring Session. Thanks to Ms. Tracey Campbell and her orchestra, Lunch Bunch guests enjoyed a wonderful Valentine –themed concert after visiting with our students. During February, SPARC members traveled to New York City to volunteer as cooks and hosts at the University Soup Kitchen. The INN Youth Board members volunteered by sorting donations of winter clothes, as well as assembling “Shower Kits,” since The Mary Brennan INN is one of the few places a warm shower is available to its guests. Once again, “Mineola Meatloaf” and mashed potatoes were a highlight at our monthly visit to the Ronald McDonald House, where students toured the facility and prepared the evening meal for guests. Finally, a dedicated group of students gave up time during their vacation to help at the Nassau Bar Association’s annual Children’s Festival.
Student Organization (SO) has spent February preparing for Battle of the Classes. It will take place on March 2nd. Each grade will be competing in friendly activities, such as scooter races, balloon popping relay races and hall decorations, to raise money for their class fund and SO.
Spirit Week Activities | Team Colors |
Monday - Pajama Day Tuesday - Twin Day Wednesday - Dress like your hallway theme Thursday - Team Color Day ------------------------------>> Friday - Mineola Spirit Day. Wear your school colors! | 8th - Green Teachers - Gray 9th - Blue 10th - Red 11th - White 12th - Black |
On Super Bowl Sunday, MHS Key Club members assisted Mineola Kiwanis in serving community members a delicious Pancake Breakfast. Hundreds of happy customers enjoyed pancakes donated by iHop and sausages donated by Churrasqueira Bairrada. Over $2,000 was raised, which will be used in our own community. Also this month, Key Club had a Penny Wars class competition to raise money for Pennies for Patients (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). Each grade had their own bucket; coins counted as positive money and dollar bills counted as negative money. The class with the highest total will be announced later this week and will receive a "Thank You check" from our club to put towards their prom!
On Wednesday, March 8th, 2017, Mineola High School and Mineola Middle School will be hosting a combined Multi-Cultural Evening to celebrate the varied cultures within our community. The event will begin at 6:00pm in the high school cafeteria. We are planning to showcase various forms of entertainment from several cultures, in addition to dining on a diverse selection of food from many different countries. In the past, the evening has been a huge success in both schools, and we would like to invite you to join us, together, in continuing this very special tradition.
Event Schedule:
6:00 to 7:00 - Pot luck dinner served in the HS Cafeteria
7:00 to approximately 8:30 – Performances in the HS Auditorium
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is the country's longest running and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for talented high school students. This year, in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category, Catherine Winski received a Gold Key for her story "The Wayfarers."
The Art Supervisor’s Association 2017 Nassau All-County Art Exhibition will take place on Sunday, March 12 from 12:00pm-4:00pm at Farmingdale State College (Roosevelt Hall). Representing the high school are Hymn Yui, Rachel Leone, Nicole Pereira, Daniel Park, Marie Holowat, and Maimuna Islam. Congratulations to them and their teachers, Ms. Buongiovanni, and Ms. Loughlin.
Some of our Physical Education Leaders attended 14th Annual Student Athletes as School Leaders: Leadership on and off the Field Conference with Keynote speaker, Gian Paul Gonzalez, founder of Hope & Future, an organization dedicated to using athletics and physical fitness to share a message of hope and striving for excellence was on February 2nd. Peter Campanella, Nicole Chiu, Nicholas Dos Santos, James Graf, Emily O’Connell, and Julianne Wotruba attended the event with Mr. Joyce.
Andrew Ariza's 2nd place finish in the 55m hurdles was an impressive accomplishment and earned him All-County honors. Congratulations Andrew!Congratulations to Junior John McMahon being selected All-County from Conference A4. John Averaged 16 Points, 4 Rebounds, 2 Assists and 3 Steals a game this season.
Congratulations to Senior Tony Macchietto and 7th grader Phil Machietto for finishing 1st and 3rd in the Nassau County High School Individual Tournament at Garden city Bowl on Feb 11th. Due to this accomplishment they will both now represent Nassau County in the State Tournament to be held in Rochester, NY on March 4th-5th.
The Class of 2018 will be hosting Carnival Night for students in grades 1-5 on March 10th from 6-8pm in the HS gym. Registration is $10 in advance or $20 at the door. Activities will include face painting, arts & crafts, party games & contests! Contact Mary Owens (mowens@mineola.k12.ny.us) or Lisa Marino (lmarino@mineola.k12.ny.us) for more information on how to register. Any Juniors interested in helping to organize and facilitate the event should see Mrs. Owens or Dr. Marino to sign-up.
Many of our students, alumni and teachers have volunteered to perform in our pit orchestra under the direction of Mr. Ratner Ms. Campbell, Mrs. Ramsingh, Mrs. Frazer, Mr. Bennett and Mr. Dugal for our production of Seussical the Musical. The students are Elizabeth Ryan, Sam Kessler, Michael Valente, Alicia Healy, Michelle Vande Stouwe, Matthew Ramos, Michael Gay, Victoria Ondris, Kyle Kazimir, Christina Peitler, Aileen Miller, Philip Pereira and Daniel Reardon. Our alumni consists of ###b
. We are looking forward to performing for you on March 24th and 25th! The seniors are participating in a number of activities. They will be decorating the hallway and competing in Battle of the Classes. On March 22 they will be hosting Senior-to-Senior Day. They also have a bake sale March 6th.
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. Finally, the Question Mark has partnered with FusFoo, an educational and engaging space for content to be created, curated, shared and consumed. The editorial and video content created by our students is then becomes part of Fusfoo’s national high school network, where it can be viewed and shared by fellow schools and students across the country on their school's unique sites.
Latin Club members practicing after school for the TENTH ANNUAL ROMAN BOARD GAME TOURNAMENT. The tournament will take place in the Spring. Latin Club currently has 126 members.
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 Science Research: Three of our seniors, Liz Ryan, Erica Sze-Tu and Michael Valente presented their research at the Junior Science And Humanities Symposium on February 5th along with ~100 other invited students from Long Island and New York City. Their 12 minute presentations were followed by questions from the judges. It was a great experience and they did a fabulous job. On February 8th the science research students, Michelle Van de Stouwe, Elizabeth Ryan, Erica Sze-Tu, Kayleigh DiPietrantonio, Erin Servinskas, Michael Valente, Nicole Chiu, and Anmol Patel, presented their work at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair. Dr. Smith, Mr. Desire and Ms. Culella stopped by the competition before the judging started to lend support and encouragement. Elizabeth Ryan and Erica Sze-Tu have been invited back to present for the final round on March 23rd. In March we have three additional competitions, Medical Marvels, Molloy High School Science and Mathematics Fair, and Long Island Science and Engineering Fair JV. The research students are busy collecting, analyzing and interpreting their data in preparation of these competitions. Ms. Misciagno’s 8th grade and Ms. Hughes’s 9th grade research students are putting the final touches on their research projects for submission to the Ecybermission Competition.
The ###b
went on a field trip to the DNA learning center. 30 students completed two labs: Restriction fragment length analysis with gel electrophoresis and Bacterial transformation. These labs provided each student with hands on technology used in science and forensic research to investigate DNA and how to change DNA. Unknown samples were identified as well as creating bacteria with 2 new genes (antibiotic resistance and bioluminescence). A tour was also offered to students that brings them through the urine & blood analysis lab that serves local hospitals via robotic and professional researchers. Students in Ms. Lombardi’s College English classes are working on formal Lincoln Douglas debates. Professor Matt Lavery, from Adelphi University met with Ms. Lombardi to discuss the particulars of debate on the college level. Professor Lavery’s students are slated to help evaluate the formal debates and provide useful tips for students. Debates will be held the week of March 5th. Topics include: free college tuition; mandatory vaccines for children; gap year; limiting freedom of speech; taking In God We Trust off of US currency to name a few.
The Life Skills Class started their Challenger Basketball Season. Under the leadership of Marty Joyce and Hillary Hunter the students have been playing both home and away games against other schools. During the games we also sell various drinks and snacks to make money for our class. We have two more home games on Monday, March 13 and Wednesday, March 15. A good time is always had by players and fans!
Accounting students are now preparing Federal Income Tax Returns! If you need help preparing your tax return, bring your W-2 to Room 116 during period 6 and our Accounting students will be happy to assist you! ECS students are learning how to create web sites using HTML code. Shortly the ECS students will be creating digital portfolios using the OYO class platform!
When our Massapequa colleagues came to check out Mathspace and the whiteboard tables, Ms. Audiino learned, through my quick collaboration, about a new concept called BookSnaps. At first she was hesitant because she didn't know much about the world of Snapchat, but when she presented this assignment to her students they showed her how mixing "their world" into the classroom can be incredibly beneficial! She also did my research on Twitter (follow: @BookSnapsREAL) and found different ways BookSnaps can be created in ALL subject areas.
After reading Sojourner Truth's speech "Ain't I a Woman", the students created BookSnaps centered around the figurative language found in the speech. We put all of the finished BookSnaps on a padlet.In Ms. Maroney’s 8th grade English, students celebrated their cultural similarities and differences by "Speed Sharing" their countries flags and well crafted "Where I'm From Poems." Students were given 4 minutes per partner to "go on a speed share" before they moved on to the next. Each participant had the opportunity to honor their favorite pictures, memories, family origins, family tendencies, family traits, family experiences, religious symbols, and much more. Students were beyond enthused in this activity that they even took their discussions digitally onto Edmodo -- explaining and commenting back and forth on what they learned about each other (see pictures below).
Department Highlights:
The Guidance department is beginning to plan for next year’s schedule. Students will be meeting with their counselors during March & April to go through the options for their schedule for the 2017-2018 school year. We are also planning for our Annual Career Roundtable event for Juniors. The students will have an opportunity to meet with professionals from a variety of careers and learn more about their path and what they do. Last year we had over 60 community members, parents and alumni join us for the event. The counselors will also be visiting the sophomore classes to begin a career interest inventory. This will help students to determine which careers they may be successful based on their interests. We look forward to hosting the students and parents on March 30 for our Sophomore Parent night. We are also planning our spring College Road Trip to Manhattanville on April 5th. We will send out more information in March.
Fine & Performing Arts - Music: Congratulations to the Marching Band who just returned from their trip to Disney over the February break! Students had a great time and marched right down Main Street in Magic Kingdom. March starts off strong with our highly anticipated Choral Night. This event brings together singers in the High School, Middle School and Jackson Avenue, in our program titled “Portrait of America.” The evening will be marked by patriotic music, and a recognition of our nation’s veterans. All-State Auditions are coming up at the end of the month, and Regular NYSSMA is at the end of April. See your child’s music teacher for more info. ###b
Upcoming Events:
| 3/12 - Daylight Savings Time Begins 3/16 - Parent Teacher Conferences (7:00pm) 3/17 - Pep Rally 3/18 - All County Art Exhibit @ SUNY Farmingdale 3/22 - Senior to Senior Day 3/23 - BOE Meeting (7:00pm) 3/24 - Spring Musical (7:30pm) 3/25 - Spring Musical (2:00 & 7:30pm) 3/28 - MS Spring Sports Begin (8th grade) 3/30 - Sophomore Parent Night (7:00pm) 3/31 - Career Day (11th grade students) 3/31 - End of Marking Period 3 |