Perspectives June 2011

Greetings HS East Community, Another great year at High School East has come to an end! There are numerous achievements to report as you will see in this issue. Students have excelled in all areas including academics, the arts and athletics. These successes are a direct result of our professional learning community’s (K-12) efforts to educate our children. As the school year rapidly approaches an end, I can fondly say that it has been a pleasure. Seniors: you are a special group. I truly enjoyed working with you for the past four years. There is no doubt in my mind that you all are ready to take on the

world! Good luck to the Class of 2011 and I wish everyone a safe and happy summer! Remember: Respect, Responsibility and Excellence! Sincerely, Dr. J. A. Woodberry Principal, HS East

A Special Message from Dr. Woodberry

HALF HOLLOW

HILLS

HIGH SCHOOL EAST

PRINCIPAL’S

NEWSLETTER

June 20, 2011 Volume 1I , Issue IV

Perspectives

The Insider’s View

• A Scholarly Summer

(page 2)

• An Artistic Revolution

(page 5)

• Adventures in History

(page 7)

Inside this issue:

Page 4 Online Student Gov-

ernment Elections

Page 6 AP Art students and

The Memory Project

Page 7 DECA at Nationals

Pages 8 County Champions

Teachers in the department of World Lan-guages encourage their students to extend their foreign language skills beyond the classroom. Italian teacher Rebecca Rosenberg entered stu-dents in Hofstra University’s Italian Poetry Con-test with stellar results. A number of students received Honorable mention at levels one, two and three. Debora Fiore placed third at level five and Peter Scelfo won First Place. Director of World Languages Francesco Fratto stated, “This is Rebecca’s first year and she didn’t miss a beat! She inspired her students to do great things!” In addition, Ms. Rosenberg’s student Alexa Spiegel placed fourth in the National Ital-

ian Exam. Spanish teacher Allison Ferrandez had four Gold Winners in the Na-tional Spanish Exam: Helen Liu, Alyson Givre, Ryan Cruse and Lawrence Wolf-Sonkin. Spanish teacher Lisa Blitzer boasts of her Spanish 3H win-ners in the National Spanish Exam (featured in the photo). Amanda Zigomalas earned the Silver Award, and Jon Kim, Alex Frieder and Noah Sosnick earned the Bronze. Honor-able Mentions are Sojin Chon, Caila

Cohen, Gina Dolisi, Dimitri Patronis and Haru-

moto Takahira. There were numerous winners on the Na-tional French Exam in both Sophie Sirulnick and Maria Alfano’s classes. The top winners include: Kevin Bennett and Shreyas Havaldar for first place, and third place winner Karishma

Sabhnani. The National Exams recognize the achievement in the study of the language and prepare stu-dents for the rigors of AP exams. Congratula-

tions to all!

Students Excel in World Languages

Page 2 Perspectives

Students Shine In and Beyond the Halls of Hills East

A Scholarly Summer Sophomore Zakiya Williams Wells has been awarded a full schol-arship to the 2011 Telluride Associa-tion Sophomore Seminar at Indiana University, “Blackness, Media, and Self-Concept.” This six-week-long educational program is centered around a college-level seminar for gifted and highly motivated high school

sophomores. Zakiya is truly a shining star here at East. She excels in a challenging aca-demic program and is involved in community service activities in and out of school. It is no wonder Zakiya was successful in the highly selective admission process for TASS. Teach-ers and guidance counselors first nominate promising students for can-didacy to TASS. After completing a rigorous five-essay application and

submitting an academic recommenda-tion and transcript, TASS finalists are selected from the already competitive group of applicants. Each candidate receives a personal interview by an associate or member of the Telluride Association board, after which a cen-tral committee selects the scholarship recipients. TASS Scholars enjoy free tuition, room and board, and books at

the seminar. The Telluride Association, an inde-pendent not-for-profit educational organization, works with university faculty members to create courses designed to inspire young people to pursue their interests in the histories and cultural experiences of people of African descent and other topics that

address diversity in society. Zakiya is excited to be part of this international group of 36 young schol-

ars and is hoping to hone her public speaking and writing skills in order to prepare for the challenges of college. We are very proud of Zakiya here at East and look forward to hearing all about her experience when she re-

turns in the fall.

Silver Award On Thursday, June 2, 2011, sopho-more Rekha Korlipara received the Girls Scout Silver Award, the highest recognition that a Cadette Girl Scout can achieve. The award symbolizes

Rekha’s accomplishments in scouting and community activities as she be-comes her best self and builds the world around her. Rekha’s project, “Chemistry for Kids” was a key factor in qualifying for the award. She de-signed and taught chemistry experi-

ments with fifth grade students. Rekha is also a remarkable student here at HS East, exhibiting respect, responsibility and excellence in all she does. She is involved in numerous extra-curricular activities and is even enrolled in an additional class for Latin after school hours. She earned the Gold Certificate with Ribbon, the highest honor on the National Latin Exam. Rekha keeps a busy schedule here at East. She will be President of the Spanish Club in the new year and Co-President for the Society of Indian-

American Students. While Rekha is still exploring the

many possibilities for her future, one area of interest for her is science re-search with an emphasis on cancer research. She certainly is a young woman with many talents, keen intel-ligence and unrelenting motivation. Rekha is featured left displaying her original photography and below with

her Scout Leader Janette Lohan. We congratulate Rekha on her award and look forward to her con-

tinued accomplishments.

Volume 1I , Issue IV Page 3

Yearly “Going Green” Initiative Receives Award

Ms Hirschmann’s Students Win Town of Huntington Environmental Award.

On June 6, 2011 Ms. Hirschmann’s HS East students were recognized by the Beautification Council of the

Town of Huntington for their “going green” initiative. They received the first Town of Huntington HS Environ-mental and Conservation Award, for their continuing ef-

forts to rehabilitate brook trout on Long Island. Did you know that there were once scores of Long Is-land streams full of brook trout? Today there are only a handful of streams with Brook Trout remaining. Students in Ms. Hirschmann’s Marine Science classes and Animal Friends Club have successfully rehabilitated the Beaver Brook in Mill Neck by stocking it with baby trout raised in her classroom. The trout embryos arrive annually from

Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery in late Autumn. Students care for the growing baby fish in a 55 gal-lon aquarium that is chilled to 52 de-grees and equipped with a UV bacteria filter. They adjust chemicals, clean fil-ters, and monitor metabolic wastes such as ammonia, nitrates, nitrites and pH. By springtime the babies had grown to 3 inches long and it was time to launch them. Ms. Hirschmann, Ali

Nemeth, Dominique Tinsley, Marina Aknouk, Kelseylee Franciosa, and Gerard Jewels released an impressive 83 baby brook trout (a new record!), into the beautiful Shu

Swamp Nature Preserve in Mill Neck for the fifth season. Congratulations HSE Marine Science and AFA students

on your important contribution to our L.I. environment! —Article contributed by Susan Hirschmann

Sam changing water

Packing trout for transfer

Kelsey and Rachel testing water

Marina, Ali and Dominique at Beaver

Brook

Page 4 Perspectives

21st Century Elections The student government election process was completely online for the first time this year. During their So-cial Studies classes, students viewed the candidates’ speeches on the Me-dia Gallery of the HS East website, and then voted using an online pro-gram called Edu-ballot. Since each student has a secure log-on pass-word, he or she was able to cast only one vote. This enabled students who were absent to also vote online. The process was fast and simple, with election results available immediately

following the closing of the polls. Newly elected Student Government Chairperson Joshua Shinbrot, a big fan of Edu-ballot has this to say: “Edu-ballot gives Student Government the

ability to conduct elections and tabulate results faster than ever before while pre-serving the students' anonym-ity, which is a huge conven-ience. However, Edu-ballot is much more than an online voting system. Edu-ballot al-lows Student Government officers like myself to survey students and faculty and ana-lyze the data we receive quickly and easily. For exam-ple, earlier in the year when Jacob Henner and I first began examining the prospect of installing WiFi throughout Hills East, we were very interested to see how the faculty felt about WiFi. By using Edu-ballot, we were able to survey over 100 faculty members and categorize the informa-tion quickly and efficiently, not to

mention finding overwhelming sup-port for WiFi. To me, the ability to survey the members of the Hills East family so quickly and easily means I can take student advocacy to a whole new level by giving students an un-precedented active voice in their Stu-

dent Government and our school.”

21st Century Learning

Fabulas Fantásticas

Ms. Restrepo’s ninth grade Spanish 2H class visited Laurel Park Elemen-tary School in Brentwood and col-laborated with Mr. Iglesia’s and Mrs. Sebelen’s fourth and fifth grade bilin-gual classes. With the help of the Bilingual Coordinator Priscilla Zarate, they were able to arrange for the

class to read, in Spanish, fables they had written to Spanish speaking stu-dents. The students then discussed the components of a fable and inter-

preted the moral of the stories. The collaborative activity was a great success with both groups bene-fiting from this lesson. HS East stu-dents were able to use Spanish be-

yond the classroom and the bilingual students were excited to see our stu-dents’ efforts to speak their language and learn about their culture. Fabulas Fantásticas Story Reading motivated our language learners and has opened the door for future collaborative ac-

tivities with Hispanic communities.

Page 5 Volume 1I , Issue IV

21st Century Learning

An Artistic Revolution in Social Studies and Science

Mrs. Toneatti’s 9th grade Social Studies class and Mrs. Uttendorfer’s Advanced Placement Art History students joined forces fifth period to create a collaborative art project based on the Scientific Revolution. Both classes recently studied the period, which began in Europe at the end of the Renaissance and con-

tinued through the Enlightenment.

The goal was to create a collabora-tive relief collage, using printed text and imagery, to highlight a scientist that impacted the revolution and the way we understand science today. Scientists included Copernicus, Newton and Galileo, among others. Leonardo da Vinci won the class’s Scientist Olympiad challenge and was voted the scientist that im-pacted our world, as we know it today, the most. His Renaissance Man ideologies inspired students and his talents as a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathe-matician, engineer, inventor, anato-mist, geologist, cartographer, bota-

nist and writer fascinated them. This collaborative project is a great

way to provide interdisciplinary les-sons to students while having fun exploring art. Both classes contin-ued on to the school’s planetarium to explore the scientific connection to the unit: “Galileo’s Moon: Art,

History & Science.” On June 8, the class visited the planetarium where Mr. Affatigato led a discussion on the significance of Renaissance artists in Italy and how they affected Galileo’s way of

observing. When Gali-leo used his telescope to look at the moon, he, unlike his English con-temporaries not familiar with new artistic studies on perspective occur-ring in Italy, was able to grasp at once that it had mountains. Through the influence of these art-ists, Galileo became skilled at interpreting light, shadow and 3D

perspective, hence his proclamation,

"The Moon is like the Earth!" Art History students have a solid understanding of the Renaissance

and how perspective impacted art, and this lesson bridged art and sci-ence in a unique way. Following the introductory lesson in the plane-tarium, Art History students part-nered with the Astronomy Club to observe the moon with telescopes outdoors. On June 9, students, along with Mr. Affatigato and Mrs. Uttendorfer, ventured out to the school field and observed the eve-ning sky. Students created a series of sketches based on careful obser-vation of the moon, just like Galileo

did. — Article and photos contributed by

Allyson Uttendorfer

Page 6 Perspectives

Art as a Gift to the World

Courtyard Dedication

HS East Architecture students are committed to providing community service and this Spring their project idea was born out of a friendship they will always treasure. Matthew Scarpati, a HS East graduate whose life was tragically cut short by a drunk motorcyclist while riding his bike in the bike lane along the Wan-tagh Parkway, was the inspiration. As Architecture Club President Meghan McCune stated to the club members, “Matt was part of Ms. Meads archi-tecture family.” She, along with members Bryan Wexler, Jagger Steck

and Nick Fondacaro really took the project to heart to commemorate their friend.

Along with club ad-visor Ms. Marianne Mead, the group col-laborated to create a design that would represent Matt and his connection to ar-chitecture. On May 21, 2011, the Archi-tecture Club spon-sored the Matthew Scarpati Bench Cere-mony and the dedica-

tion of their courtyard to his mem-ory. Please see the Media Gallery

for more photos from this event.

Humanitarian Artists

The Memory Project is a nation-wide initiative in which art students create portraits for children and teens around the world who have been orphaned, neglected, or disad-vantaged. Given that kids in such situations usually have few personal keepsakes, the purpose of the por-

traits is to p r o v i d e them with a s p e c i a l memory of their youth and to help honor their self identity. The project also allows art students to practice

kindness, empathy, and service to

others. Ms. Kim Norris’ AP Art students eagerly joined this effort and their portraits shipped out this week. They had received photos of fifteen

youth in Rwanda and worked tire-lessly over the weeks following their AP exam to create the por-traits. The youth in Rwanda who will receive these works of art will value them tre-mendously. In-deed, Ms. Norris’ students have provided them

with personal gifts to last a lifetime. Once the children in Rwanda re-ceive their portraits, Executive Di-rector of the Memory Project Ben Schumaker will provide photos showing the portraits in the hands of the kids. In these photos and more on the Media Gallery of the HS East website, Art students proudly display

their completed works. — Thank you to Ben Schumaker for his

Contribution to this article

Page 7 Volume 1I , Issue IV

Accomplishments and Adventures

Adventures in History Ms. Silberman’s Honors Global History students scoured the Metropolitan Museum of Art this May as they embarked on a scavenger hunt through time. As a review and preparation for the Global History Re-gents Exam, students were given task sheets to com-plete as they tracked down the work of art or artifact in the museum. To provide some direction, Ms. Sil-berman limited the hunt to five collections within the museum. Three groups of students set out in differ-

ent directions never crossing paths. For each collection, students had to select three pieces of art

and analyze them for their connections to the time and place they represent. They evaluated what spe-cific details in the painting conveyed the economics, politics, religion, intellectual evolution and/or social

structure of the historical context. Ms. Silberman engages students with many interdisci-plinary projects, incorporating astronomy, math, and literature as well as art. This field trip was such a suc-cess, Ms. Silberman is already planning to enrich this

project for next year’s sophomores.

DECA Team Receives Worldwide Recognition The DECA team had an exciting and successful trip to the DECA ICDC International Competition in Or-lando, Florida this year. Aneesh Shah (featured right with advisor Mr. Cappiello) received a medal for fin-ishing “Top 10 in the World” for Marketing Manage-ment Promotions Role Play. Over 250 students from around the world competed in each category. The rest of the team also did a great job and deserve acco-lades of praise: Senior Karishma Sabhnani, senior Al-exa Goetz, junior Schuyler Berland and sophomore Ted Goshman. Congratulations to all our future mar-

keting experts!

High School East 50 Vanderbilt Parkway Dix Hills, NY 11746

Produced by: Darlene Lilla

Assistant Principal Phone: 631-592-3128

Fax: 631-592-3121 E-mail:

[email protected]

HALF HOLLOW HILLS

HIGH SCHOOL EAST

PRINCIPAL’S

NEWSLETTER

High School East

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Spring Sports Wrap Up

It has been another successful Spring Sports season for Hills East with both team and individual athlete accomplishments. Girls Badminton and Boys Tennis bat-tled for and won Suffolk County Champi-onships. Girls Track ended a strong sea-son at the State Qualifier Meet. The 4x400 with Nicole Jablon, Tivoni Taylor, Tiffany Perrier and Morgan Donovan placed 6th in the county, and within one week, broke the school’s record of 4:09.86 three times. Boys Track also had a strong season with outstanding individual honors. Sophomore Calvin Manchenko came in fifth place in the Men’s Pentathlon earning him the honor of number one sophomore in the U.S. Greg Perrier won the 800 meter run at the State Qualifier Meet making him the number one 800 runner in Suffolk County and breaking

a school record that was over 30 years old. Girls Lacrosse enjoyed a stellar season with a first time ever home playoff game. They were also ranked 29th in the nation in the Powerade Fab 50 ESPN Rise Girls Lacrosse Rankings. In addition, Coach Lori Horbach was named Coach of the Year by the Suffolk County Coaches Association for Girls Lacrosse. Finally, Scholar Athlete recognition was awarded to several winter sports teams: Boys Swimming and Diving, Girls Fencing, Boys Fencing, Girls Indoor Track, Boys Indoor Track and Girls Basket-

ball. Congratulations to all our athletes and coaches for their hard work and dedica-tion! Enjoy these and more photos on the

Media Gallery.