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Celebrating EBHS - 2009-2010

 
Celebrating EBHS will highlight the monthly accomplishments of students and teachers throughout the year. Check back on a regular basis to read about all the great things that are happening at the high school.
 

During the week of January 25-29, 2010, members of Student Senate baked goods to be sent to those East Bridgewater residents serving overseas in the military. Special thanks to senior Gianna Luchetti who organized the event and volunteers for the town “Support Your Troops” committee.

 

The Student Senate organized a drive in an effort to aid the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. During the week of February 1-5, 2010, the members of Student Senate are accepting donations at all lunches. On February 5, students, faculty and staff are asked to wear red in support of the Haitian community. All donations will be sent to the American Red Cross.

 

On Saturday, January 23rd, two of our EBHS students, Robert White (senior) and Elizabeth Lach (sophomore) were selected by audition to participate in the 2010 All State Music Festival. This is an honor that EBHS has not had since 2006 and we are extremely proud of Robert and Elizabeth for all of the hard work that went into preparing for this audition. 

 

This festival will be held from March 18th – 20th at the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center in Boston. As part of the festival, students stay overnight in the Renaissance Hotel. Because this is an overnight festival, both parents will be staying in hotels with rooms near their son and daughter and are acting as overnight chaperones along with the festival committee. The festival has the phone numbers and hotel confirmation numbers of these two parents. 

 

The festival will culminate with a concert at Symphony Hall in Boston. Students will be transported by coach bus to the concert location from the hotel. 
 
Ms. Hulke’s A.P. Language class studied a unit on boxing. Boxing is an extreme athletic undertaking; such extremity has made the sport an exceptional subject of study. The subject of boxing has been embraced by many writers, sometimes to commend its benefits, sometimes to point out its brutal consequences, and sometimes to simply tell its stories. Students read various types of texts focused on boxing and discussed questions about the sport. Is it brutal and violent? Or is it athletic and strategic? The culminating activity for the unit was called “The Heavyweight Debate.” Ms. Hulke’s classroom was transformed into a boxing ring, complete with two judges who scored each round of debates. Students debated the question of whether or not boxing was “the sweet science,” as its fans passionately celebrate, or a brutal, barbaric undertaking, which its detractors relentlessly vilify. Students split into two teams, “The Sweet Scientists” and “The Barbaric Boxers.” Each team chose twelve students to go head to head with one another in the ring. At the ring of a bell, students had two minutes to argue their side and debate with one another. In order to earn points, students needed to support their arguments by citing examples from the articles they had read throughout the unit. The students all did an excellent job arguing for each side. The “Heavyweight Debate” champion was Kevin Lydon, who “knocked out” Hannah Emery in the final round to bring home a win for “The Sweet Scientists.” Overall, the debate was a huge success!
 

East Bridgewater High School has won the 2008-2009 Globe All Scholastic Award for Division IV. East Bridgewater finished with a 146-74-15 record and a winning percentage of 65.32 which includes all varsity girls and boys sports. East Bridgewater finished almost two percentage points higher than Weston High School to earn the top spot in their division. East Bridgewater previously finished second in 2007-2008 school year. This has appeared in the Globe and they will be here shortly to present us with a trophy. This is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our coaches and students and truly is a great honor!

 
As part of the move to the new two-year United States History program, the piloting and purchase of the new American Vision text book by Glencoe has allowed the department to offer students options that were not available with previously used texts. Ms. Le Moine and Mr. Eaton are particularly excited about the web-links provided by the text which allow expanded and more in-depth study of a wide range of both general and specific topics. They are in the beginning stage of producing a web-quest lesson that will be applied to both in-class lessons and out-of-class assignments. These tools will better allow the department to provide a 21st century education.
 
 

STEM or Science Technology Engineering and Math, has become a huge focus in Massachusetts and in the national educational community. In November of 2009, Mr. Silva attended the Department of Education’s STEM conference in western Mass. In simple terms, STEM is a movement to teach more hands-on science and technology in the classroom.  All of the teachers in the EBHS Science Department have begun to bring some of this technology in to the classroom through the use of web-based learning with the COWS (Computers on Wheels) and the Smart Boards. In addition, we have begun to use computer probes in the college prep and honors physics classes for data collection. We are going to build on this in the future by continuing to add additional courses and modifying instruction in current courses to keep up with the ever-changing advances in STEM Education.

 

Two dozen or more classes visited the library for our fifth Readapalooza on December 17 and 18. To prepare for each of these reading festivals, we borrow nearly 400 recent titles popular with teens, including multiple copies of certain titles so friends can read the same books and talk about them. Using our SAILS member benefits in this way lets us supplement our collection and offer our students many more in-demand books to choose from than we could otherwise. Readapalooza gives our students an opportunity to browse and enjoy student-driven conversation about books and reading—all in a festive, social setting with snacks and music. Several teachers offer extra-credit incentives for reading a book and then reviewing it for the class. This time around students checked out 288 books—about five percent more than last December’s event.

 
On December 22, we had over 30 college visitors from the class of 2009 come to visit with the current students on our annual “Welcome Back from College Day.” The college students visited with a number of classes in which teachers requested a visitor, and all reported it to be a worthwhile event. This year, the teachers were invited to participate more fully by joining in with a new component, the “Ask Me About My College Day” part, in which we invited staff to wear their college gear and encourage students to ask about where they went, what they studied, and how they made the decision. It was a huge success, and we will continue to offer this opportunity.
 
On December 9, 2009, the French II classes, under the direction of Madame Gillespie, hosted the Spanish III/IV classes for a traditional holiday celebration. The French classes prepared “crêpes” as well as led the other students in traditional French carols or “carillons.” Students also prepared questions for a “Jeopardy” style activity relating to the geography, history and customs of the French speaking world. After the festivities, each Spanish student was presented a handmade “sabot” or shoe filled with candy. In France, children place their shoes, rather than stockings, next to the fireplace.
 
The Theatre Arts class presented "15 Ways to Screw Up Your College Interview" on Thursday, January 14, during the last block of the day. The play is about two college recruiters at a prestigious university who need to fill one last spot to keep their jobs. The resulting interviews consist of fifteen eccentric, dimwitted and slightly insane high school seniors who are eager to fill that final spot.
 
Elective classes will continue to be an integral part of the curriculum at EBHS. In his Principles of Technology course, Mr. Stevens had the 2nd annual toothpick bridge competition. Students were supplied with simple round toothpicks and white glue and given the task of building a bridge that will span a distance of about 18 centimeters. This year’s winning bridge held over 125 pounds and did not break! The test device, which is not very high tech, a 5-gallon bucket and steel weights, broke before the bridge. Mr. Stevens plans to build upon this lesson by having students scale up their bridge designs to larger balsa wood models.
 
Freshmen and their mentors had the opportunity to meet and chat at the Freshman/Mentor breakfast held on Friday, November 13th. The mentors met with Mrs. Evans prior to the breakfast, in order to discuss the first meeting with freshmen and plan for this second meeting.

 

The College Essay Project was completed as students met with admissions counselors from Salve Regina University, the University of MA Boston, and the MA College of Liberal Arts. Students participated in workshops and received their essays back with recommendations and suggestions for revisions. The admissions counselors agreed to meet with any student that wanted to meet to go over the essays. The Standard English 12 class met with the director of admissions at ITT; she worked with them on their essays, gave pointers for how to improve the essays, and conducted a workshop on interviewing.
 
November is National Career Development month, and many of the guidance and student support events and lessons were focused on continuing to work with students on exploring careers and developing their four-year career plans.
 
The health classes will be working with Lt. Keith McCartney of the EB fire department to get certified in CPR.
 
In Journalism, Mr. Savage’s students are way ahead of previous years’ accomplishments. The students completed issue number four this week. This year’s issues included a special Halloween edition. The focus so far this year has been on providing numerous print copies for the students. Mr. Chilcot’s graphics class has been instrumental in the increased production of the print paper. Additionally, the variety of articles is greatly improved. While continuing the pace of the print output during the second term, the students will also produce more online work, especially blogs.
Student Senate held the 15th annual “Welcome Freshmen” dinner on September 17, 2009. Approximately 95 students from the Class of 2013 enjoyed pizza, salad, and ice cream sundaes. Members of the student senate then presented an overview of each club or organization available at the high school. Freshmen who attended received a coupon for a reduced price ticket for the Homecoming dance as well as a chance to win Viking apparel and a season athletic pass.

 

Student Senate of East Bridgewater High School will be holding its annual Bloodmobile for the school and the community on Thursday, December 3, 2009 from 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. Any member of the community who would like to participate may contact advisor Barbara Gillespie at 1-508-378-5834. During this holiday season, give the gift of life, give blood!

 

On Thursday, October 15, 2009, the French II classes of Madame Gillespie conducted a “scavenger hunt” around the school. This was a culminating activity to a lesson on prepositions of location. The students worked in groups of three or four and looked for a colored French pencil according to a set of directions given to them in French. The first group back won fabulous prizes.

 

On October 16, 2009, twenty-one student writers from East Bridgewater High School participated in this year’s Student Day at The Massachusetts Poetry Festival held at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. The students attended workshops in the morning led by local and nationally known poets. In the afternoon, the students gathered for a reading of student poetry. Senior Alyssa Penardi represented East Bridgewater High with her poem The Fighter Pilot. The Massachusetts Poetry Festival 2009 was a four-day celebration of the poets, poetry, and literary heritage. The state-wide event included readings by renowned and emerging poets, teacher workshops, performance poetry, films & music, programs for children and young writers, literary heritage tours, a small press fair, poetry in the streets, and much more.

 

Mr. Chilcot and Mr. Harper are currently talking with members of the science department about the opportunity of working collaboratively to apply for a Toyota Tapestry Grant. Grants of $10,000 are being awarded to teachers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields (STEM).
 
We provided mentor training to the 50 upperclassmen student leaders who volunteered to take part in our freshman orientation. On September 1st, we held the Freshmen Orientation, where they were welcomed by Mr Vieira, the department chairs, and the school counselors. AT that point, the mentors met with the freshmen to whom they had been assigned, talked with them about the school, academic programs and co-curricular activities available, and then gave narrated tours of the school.  The mentors learned leadership skills and strategies for helping the freshmen transition to the high school.  The freshmen benefited from making a connection with an upper classman who will be their mentor and help them throughout the year. Feedback from the mentors, freshmen, parents and department chairs was very positive, and the school counselors look forward to the next event in which we will bring the mentors and freshmen together for a check in.

 The Guidance Department met with all senior students in their English classes to provide the Senior College and Career Orientation Lesson.  The lesson covered all aspects of the college admissions and application process, the College Essay Project, information on financial aid and the Common Application, as well as a review of the Naviance program.  We are once again providing the seniors an opportunity to receive help on their college essays by partnering with a number of college admissions counselors who will be meeting with the students in late October and early November.

 We visited the GMMS to meet with the grade eight students and present an introduction to the high school. The guidance department, Mr. Vieira, and a group of EBHS junior and senior students presented a “game show” for the eighth graders, in which the high school students served as the contestants and Mr. Vieira was the host.  The game show was the vehicle for sharing important information about the programs at the high school; the questions were built around facts about the high school.  At the conclusion of the game show, Mrs. Evans commented briefly to summarize what was introduced in the presentation, and the high school students talked about their experiences at the high school, and then there was a question and answer period, followed by a drawing in which ten students were the lucky winners of an article of EBHS clothing donated by the various clubs and sports teams. Plans are underway for a follow-up grade eight open house at the high school in November.

 On October 14th, the PSAT was administered during the school day to students in the junior and sophomore classes.  This was a change from the past practice of offering the exam on the Saturday date.  Our goal was to encourage more participation from EB students in this important college planning step.  By removing obstacles such as schedule conflicts and transportation concerns that have been problematic with the weekend administration, we were able to increase the numbers from 30% to 58% of EBHS juniors taking the exam.

Congratulations: To Jamil Siddiqui who is the recipient of a MathMovesU Math Hero Award. Jamil was nominated by a student last year and received this award earlier this month. In addition to the award, the school received a check for $2500 to be used for innovative and creative ideas to enhance the math program. This is yet another example of people recognizing the great work we do.