Recognitions and Accomplishments of staff doing great things in the Beaverton School District

StaffDistrict Goal

(2010-2015):

All students will show continuous progress toward their personal learning goals, developed in collaboration with teachers and parents, and will be prepared for post-secondary education and career success.

WE want every student to graduate with many options and be prepared to:

THINK:Creatively & CriticallyKNOW:Master ContentACT:Self Direct & CollaborateGO:Navigate Locally & Globally.

April 2014

Springville teacher named Cosmos Science Teacher of the WeekBrian Torres, 7th and 8th grade science teacher at Springville K-8, was recently selected as the Cosmos Science Teacher of the Week.

Cosmos, a television program that explores the size and shape of the universe, is a production of Fox Broadcasting Company. The program gives a “shout-out” to a star science teacher each week, and the photo and name of the

teacher appear on the screen at the end of the show. Mr. Torres was featured on the March 30, 2014 production.

Mr. Torres was nominated by his students who wrote letters to Cosmos. Mr. Torres makes science interesting and authentic for students through the school’s expeditionary learning approach, which includes studying a topic deeply, hands-on learning including science labs, high quality products, collaborative activities, embedded technology, and plenty of non-fiction reading and writing. Congratulations, Mr. Torres!

Meadow Park 7th grader defends her spelling bee titleDivya Amirtharaj, a seventh grader at Meadow Park Middle School correctly spelled “armamentarium” to defend her title and win the tenth annual Portland Tribune/Comcast Regional Spelling Bee. Divya beat 50 other spellers in 16 rounds. Divya is only the fourth repeat winner in the Bee’s 10-year history.

Divya has won an all-expense-paid, one-week trip to Washington D.C., in May to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Congratulations, Divya and good luck in Washington, D.C.!

ISB student headed to Atlanta to compete for a Coca-Cola Scholarship Courtney Hauck, a senior at the International School of Beaverton (ISB), is among 150 students from across America to be named a Coca-Cola Scholar. Courtney traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to the Coca-Cola International Head-quarters on April 3-5, 2014 to accept her four-year college scholarship of $20,000.

In addition to the Coca-Cola Scholarship, Courtney is also the recipient of the Washington & Lee University Johnson Scholarship, a merit-based scholarship that will cover tuition, fees, room, board, books, and living expenses for four years, plus $7,000 in enrichment funds. Courtney is also a National Merit Scholar Finalist. Congratulations, Courtney.

Culinary genius in the making at Five Oaks MS

Raf Dongon, Special Education Teacher and Sharon Johnson, Instructional Assistant at Five Oaks Middle School, have incorporated the culinary arts into their program. Students enrolled in their Academic Learning Program (ALC) are able to explore, prepare, enjoy and share a variety of meals and treats.

While exploring multiple cultures, students are acquiring valuable life and social skills and applying academic knowledge to research and plan recipes, prepare shopping lists, measure, mix, sauté and bake their way into the

hearts of the staff at Five Oaks Middle School with whom they share their gourmet creations on a weekly basis. Main dishes prepared so far this year include Chicken Teriyaki Musubi, Mongolian Beef, various chicken dishes, homemade flour tortillas, twice-baked potatoes, chili and corn bread, quesadillas, burgers with sweet potato fries, soups (split pea and ham, sweet corn & chicken, spicy sausage & kale, tomato), garlic bread, and a range of Dals.

They have also mastered a variety of brunch and dessert items including: pancakes, chocolate chip cookies, fruit smoothies, chocolate milk shakes, multiple varieties of gourmet popcorn, blondies, brownies, apple pie cookies, muffins and various sweet breads.

The class funds their program by recycling cans and bottles. They are currently saving money to pursue food handler’s licensure for the students in the future.

Regional Oregon Battle of the Books teams headed to State CompetitionJacob Wismer’s Fearless Phoenix Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) team placed first in the grade 3-5 category at the Regional OBOB Competition last month and competed at the OBOB State Competition this month.

The Scholls Heights Epic Readers of Awesomeness placed second. A team from Beaverton High School placed first in the grade 9-12 category and competed at the State Competition as well.

BSD Student recognized at Cesar E. Chavez Leadership Conference

Jennifer “Jenny” Werekeitzen, a senior at Westview High School, was recognized as an Outstanding Student Leader at the 24th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Leadership Conference at Western Oregon University last month for her leadership and contribution to the community.

As part of the recognition, Jenny was awarded a $1,000 scholarship which she will use toward pursuing her goal of becoming a pediatrician. Jenny says her success is directly attributed to the mentoring and guidance of Ms. Ana Jimenez, a community liaison at Westview High School.

The Cesar E. Chavez Leadership Conference is the largest and oldest Latino(a) student leadership conference in the Pacific Northwest with the following mission: “To instill our Latino/a youth the value of education, which nurtures mind, body, and spirit in order to develop a social consciousness that empowers them as leaders for social justice and civic responsibility in the greater community.”

From left, Cecilia Boscole, Jenny Werekeitzen, Ana Jimenez and Ana Bermudez..

Last month, teachers from the Beaverton School District presented at the 2014 State English Language Learners Alliance Conference on strategies and practices to improve the achievement of English Language Learners (ELL). Their sessions were well attended and the responses from participants were positive.

The presentations included:• Standards-Based Learning System and the English Language

Learner: How to Support them in the Content and ELD Classroom - Guadalupe Contreras and Jennie Knapp

• Engaging English Language Learners as Writers - Sarah Dunkin and Kerrin Moeller• “I Can” Statements and Assessments for Oregon’s New ELP Standards - Sandy Boe, Robin Jarvis, and

Jake Schimke• Beaverton School District Monitoring Tool for Exited ELL, Migrant and Indian ED Students to Support

Academic Success - Guadalupe Contreras and Vince Ruggiano• Using Best Practices in Math to Support Academic Language Development and Conceptual Understanding

- Sandy Boe and Jamie Cooper

BSD teachers present at 2014 State English Language Learners Alliance Conference

The Stoller Middle School MathCounts team took top honors at the State MathCounts competition last month. The Meadow Park Middle School team placed second. Joshua He of Stoller Middle School and his coach Manny Norse and Stuti Garg from Meadow Park Middle School will travel to Florida in May to compete in the MathCounts National Competition.

The MathCounts Competition Program is a national middle school coaching and competitive mathematics program that promotes mathematics achievement through a series of fun and engaging “bee” style contests. The program exists in all 50 states plus U.S.

territories and the Department of Defense and State Department schools.

Stoller MS takes first place at State MathCounts competition, Meadow Park MS second

Meadow Park MS team (L to R): Stuti Garg, Aveek Ganguly, Jimm Liu, Eric Tong, Coach Mark McClure, Medha Prakash. Not pictured: Sargune Kalsi. Stoller MS team: Jerrick

Li, Justin Bao, Cedric Wong and Joshua He.

Sunset HS freshmen wins Teen Summer Reading Art Contest

Jacqueline Brown, a freshmen at Sunset High School won the Washington County Cooperative Library Services’ annual Teen Summer Reading Art Contest.

Jacqueline’s artwork features crackling lightning bursting from the pages of a book. Her piece fits with the library cooperative’s theme for the summer reading program: Spark a Reaction.

Jacqueline’s artwork will be featured on the cooperative library’s Teen Summer Reading publicity materials and she will receive a $150 gift card to Powell’s Books.

6th Grade Art at Mountain View MS

Sixth graders at Mountain View Middle School, using a guitar or other stringed instrument as the illustrated object, demonstrate how a color is shaded with black, and tinted with white. The objective was to create a black and white “grey scale” in paint, with the tints and shades of a color.

Learning Targets:Technical skill: create, presents and performs works of art.Creative process: applies ideas, tech-niques and problem solving to the creative process. Artistic voice: expresses ideas, moods and feelings through the arts.

Stoller MS Team Red places third at Oregon Science OlympiadCongratulations to the Stoller Middle School Red Team, who won third place and was awarded a trophy cup at the Oregon State Science Olympiad. Stoller Red won 10 medals, 6 golds and 4 silvers.

The Stoller Red team won gold medals in the following events: Disease Detectives (Benji Chiu and Jerrick Li), Dynamic Planet (Albert Chen and Kevin Shen), Experimental Design (Albert Chen, Andrew Jin, and Kevin Shen), Robo-Cross (Justin Bao and Bradley Wang), Shock Value (Justin Bao and Bradley Wang), and Wheeled Vehicles (Rahul Reddy and Robin Tan)

The team won silver medals in the following events: Anatomy (Benji Chiu and Joshua He), Boomilever (Justin Bao and Bradley Wang), Rotor Egg Drop (Prashanth Gopinatth and Advaith Nair), and Solar System (Grant Chen and Andrew Jin).

From left to right, front row: Kevin Jin, Albert Chen, Benji Chiu, Andrew Jin, Elaine Yang, Advaith Nair, Grant Chen, Rahul Reddy, and Stoller Principal Florence Richey. Back row: Kevin Shen, Joshua He, Bradley Wang, Justin Bao, Robin Tan, and Prashanth Gopinatth. Not pictured: Jerrick Li, Coaches Zhunquin Wang and Komo Chiu.

District awarded $78,000 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Practice GrantThe Beaverton School District was recently awarded a $78,000 grant to train District teachers in the use of culturally responsive pedagogy with the goal of increasing American Indian and Alaska Native student academic success and helping them to become college and career ready.

Grant funds will be used between now and the end of the 2014-2015 school year to compensate District teachers for extra work, such as attending workshops or conferences, as well as for developing curriculum materials to be shared across the District through TeacherSource.

BSD students fare well in the Scholastic Art & Writing CompetitionNineteen Beaverton School District students were awarded the highest honors in the national 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Competition.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have an impressive legacy dating back to 1923 and a noteworthy roster of past winners including Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Robert Redford and Joyce Carol Oates. The Awards are an important opportunity for students to be recognized for their creative talents. Teens in grades 7 through 12 can apply in 28 categories of art and writing for the chance to earn scholarships and have their works exhibited or published.

Submissions are juried by luminaries in the visual and literary arts, some of whom are past award recipients. Panelists look for works that best exemplify originality, technical skill and the emergence of a personal voice or vision.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have grown during the last 90 years to become the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the U.S., and the nation’s largest source of scholarships for creative young artists and writers.

Below are the Beaverton School District students honored in this years competition:

Aloha High School:Hannah Kaye - Silver Medal - Drawing - Hairball Brooke Kennedy - Gold Medal - Photography - Deserted

Arts & Communication Magnet Academy (ACMA):Sam Fagan - Silver Medal - Photography - ConstructionLily James - Silver Medal - Drawing - Frida Kahlo Distorted

Southridge High School:Claudia Andersen - Silver Medal - Painting - ConstantIsabelle Cho - Gold Medal - Drawing - BoundariesAdrienne Fernandez - Silver Medal - Photography - ConflictionColette Parry - Silver Medal - Poetry - Borders: The Milesian Dialogue, Analects, Ferry Road, Spars and MastKasryn Rosen - Silver Medal - Drawing - The Grip

Stoller Middle School:Christina Im - Gold Medal - Science Fiction/Fantasy - Service or Steel Christina Im - Silver Medal - Novel Writing - On The Midnight Streets

Sunset High School:Robert Erwin - Silver Medal - Sculpture - ChildhoodsModina Kdep - Silver Medal - Dramatic Script - Blood Gush Thrill Yulie Park - Silver Medal - Drawing - SatisfactionAlexis Rietze - Silver Medal - Digital Art - Lightning BugSamantha Skiens - Silver Medal - Digital Art - Peter PanLucy Stackhouse - Silver Medal - Digital Art - Splash

Westview High School:Brenda Farias - Silver Medal - Photography - Room Collage Dylan Mcgale - Silver Medal with Distinction - Art Portfolio - Try This OnAlisha Steigerwald - Silver Medal - Drawing - Born This Way

The Beaverton School District recognizes the diversity and worth of all individuals and groups. It is the policy of the Beaverton School District that there will be no discrimination or harassment of individuals or groups based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, marital status, age, veterans’ status, genetic information or disability in any educational programs, activities or employment.

Bradford Hill earns multiple awards

Bradford Hill, physics teacher at Southridge High School has been named the 2014 Paul Zitzewitz Excellence in Pre-College Physics Teaching Award winner. This award is in recognition of contributions to pre-college physics teaching, and the American Association of Physics Teachers’ highest honor. Awardees are chosen for their extraordinary accomplishments in communicating the excitement of physics to their students. Mr. Hill has been invited to give an address at the awards ceremony. It is an extra-special tribute because the event is being held at Mr. Hill’s alma mater.

Mr. Hill has also received a $7,000 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust of Vancouver, Washington to support the efforts of outstanding high school science teachers in the Pacific Northwest. He is one of only 12 recipients. This grant was supplemented by each high school that provided up to $2000 in matching funds to enable science teachers to strengthen laboratory instruction with a greater degree of student inquiry and hands-on science for their students. The award also includes funds to attend two national Partners in Science conferences where teachers share their implementation ideas with peers, and listen to and discuss current research being conducted across the country. Each awardee received a prior grant that supported them spending the past two summers conducting basic science research guided by scientist mentors at academic and research institutions in the Pacific Northwest.

Mr. Hill intends to use the funds he was awarded to purchase educational digital camera kits. His students will be building the digital cameras themselves. This hands-on experience will give students a much deeper understanding of the cameras mechanics, features and potential. The kits include seven lenses with a variety of functions, including three fish-eyes. Students will also learn about the camera’s software processing and encoding information. This is a unique, higher learning opportunity for Southridge High School students.

In 2013, Bradford Hill received the Outstanding Classroom Science Teacher Award from the Oregon Science Teachers Association. From 2003-2008, he was a Knowles Science Teaching Fellow, and from 2012-2014 he performed original research in the Physics Department of Portland State University on characterizing dark current in Charged-Coupled Devices, under a Partners in Science Grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.

Mr. Hill noted, regarding his selection for these awards, “ It is an incredible honor to receive this recognition and I believe it affirms the value I have gained from collaborating with so many great teachers to improve my teaching practice.” Congratulations, Bradford!