october 2013 District News Review EAST aurora union free school district Homecoming 2013 Members of the 2013 Homecoming Court gathered for a photograph at the end of the Pep Rally. Court members elected by their classes included freshmen Angela Nolan and Xander Covert, sophomores Eliza Linn and Jack McClaren, juniors Cassi Zimmerman and Jack Zagrobelny, and seniors Allie Philips, Kevin Tierney, Claire Legget and Andrew Strazzella. Seniors Emma Bateman and Rob Black were elected Queen and King for the weekend’s festivities, which also included Friday’s Parade and football game, and the Saturday dance. Photo/Marty Wangelin (slideshow at www.eastaurorawschools.org/HighSchool) News in EAHS arts and literature On October 16, the Aurora Film Academy hosted an actor and the producer from the Lancaster Opera House’s production, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Actor Sean Farrell (above) and director Leigha Eichhorn explained to the students how a show goes from script to stage, how cast members are chosen, and how rehearsals are coordinated. Mr. Farrell and Ms. Eichhorn also met with the students after they at- tended the performance at the theater. This field trip was funded by East Aurora’s PTO. Photo/T. Kegler In another event, five EAHS students were selected by English teachers Christine Burke and Alka Moudgil to attend a special session at Kleinhans with Richard Blanco (right), featured author at the Just Buffalo Literary Series. Our students joined with oth- er area students from Park School, City Honors, and St. Joseph’s to meet with Blanco prior to the main event. Students attending included Max Kilijan- ski, Ethan McAtee, Arjuna Velayudam, Aubrey McLaughlin, and Chris Stoll. Richard Blanco wrote a poem for Barack Obama’s second inauguration. ~ Christine G. Burke; Photo/A. Moudgil
Transcript
october 2013 District News Review
EAST aurora union free school district
Homecoming 2013
Members of the 2013 Homecoming Court gathered for a photograph at the end of the Pep Rally. Court members elected by their classes included freshmen Angela Nolan and Xander Covert, sophomores Eliza Linn and Jack McClaren, juniors Cassi Zimmerman and Jack Zagrobelny, and seniors Allie Philips, Kevin Tierney, Claire Legget and Andrew Strazzella. Seniors Emma Bateman and Rob Black were elected Queen and King for the weekend’s festivities, which also included Friday’s Parade and football game, and the Saturday dance. Photo/Marty Wangelin (slideshow at www.eastaurorawschools.org/HighSchool)
News in EAHS arts and literatureOn October 16, the Aurora Film Academy hosted an actor and the producer from the Lancaster Opera House’s production, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Actor Sean Farrell (above) and director Leigha Eichhorn explained to the students how a show goes from script to stage, how cast members are chosen, and how rehearsals are coordinated. Mr. Farrell and Ms. Eichhorn also met with the students after they at-tended the performance at the theater. This fi eld trip was funded by East Aurora’s PTO. Photo/T. Kegler In another event, fi ve EAHS students were selected by English teachers Christine Burke and Alka Moudgil to attend a special session at Kleinhans with Richard Blanco (right), featured author at the Just Buffalo Literary Series. Our students joined with oth-
er area students from Park School, City Honors, and St. Joseph’s to meet with Blanco prior to the main event. Students attending included Max Kilijan-ski, Ethan McAtee, Arjuna Velayudam, Aubrey McLaughlin, and Chris Stoll. Richard Blanco wrote a poem for Barack Obama’s second inauguration. ~ Christine G. Burke; Photo/A. Moudgil
Mrs. Schutrum’s EAHS Adventure Club enjoyed an October trip to Letchworth Park with activities that included hiking, canoeing, swim-ming, a zip line, rope course and archery.
Congratulations to our All-State musicians!
Congratulations to the East Aurora students selected for the NYS School Music Association’s Senior and Junior High Area All State Music Festival, to be held at SUNY Fredonia at the end of November. These students were selected as a result of their excellent solo scores at a NYSSMA festival last spring, and will be representing East Aurora along with the best high school musicians from several counties. Special congratulations to senior musicians Garrett Folger and Myra En-gle for being selected into NYSSMA Area All State Ensembles. Myra was selected to participate in the Symphonic Band, and Garrett was selected
for Jazz Ensemble. Both of these are prestigious ensembles, as they were selected from the best musicians across New York State. Myra and Garrett will represent EAHS in Rochester, NY from December 5-8, with a concert performance at the Eastman Concert Hall.
Senior High All State (grades 10-12): John Hasselback III, grade 12, trumpet - jazz ensembleWren Andrews - grade 9 - violinGarrett Folger, grade 12 - trumpet - full orchestraMarielle Burt, grade 10 - soprano mixed chorusChristina Gemerek, grade 12 - alto - women’s chorusMyra Engle, grade 12 - clarinet - full orchestraJanna Smith, grade 11 - cello - string orchestra
Junior High All State (grades 7-9): Christopher Fuller - grade 7 - celloBea Hoffman - grade 7 - violinVirginia Teeft - grade 8 - alto
Congratulations also to the Music Department faculty for bringing these mu-sicians to levels of excellence!
Ms. Haight captured this shot of a full rainbow on the High School fi elds in early October.
Grant news ~ Math Spirit Days
On October 23, EAHS senior Sara Bermingham went Bald for
Bucks, shaving her head before the start of the Senior Night
Field Hockey game at the High School. The gesture was in hon-
or of her ten-year-old cousin, who has battled leukemia for seven
years. Sara raised over $6000, including a coin drive donation of
$500 from the Mr. Kot’s Middle School DECA chapter.
Sara said her reason for doing this is simple: so people like her
cousin can have hope for a promising future. Mrs. Potter also
joined Sara by shaving her head and supporting Bald for Bucks.
Photo/Marty Wangelin
Parkdale Elementary School celebrated Math Spirit Days from October 22-24 with a week planned by Miss Jennifer Kibler, second grade teacher and K-4 Math Coordinator (above). The special week was a culminating activity for a Learning and Leadership grant from the National Education Associa-tion. Throughout the week, K-4 classes visited hands-on math labs with ac-tivities that included math balances, logic puzzles, computation challenges, measurement problems, team games, skills games, and geometry explo-rations. Miss Kibler set up the math labs resources brought back from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference in Denver, Colorado. A number of the other resources and activities set up in the labs have been acquired through grants from our PTO, our local Teacher Center, the East Aurora Education Foundation, and the National MAC Grant Pro-gram. Many thanks go out to these generous organizations for providing tremendous support for teaching and learning in our classrooms each and every day. In the K-1 Math Lab, kindergartners worked with 10 frames, measured clay towers, worked with math balance and logic puzzles, built with 3-D shapes, and explored geometry with patterns, blocks and mirrors. Grades 2-4 played partner games with challenging numbers, solved addition and multiplication problems with the math balances, worked with
logic puzzles, measured animals, tried electronic math triangles, explored geometry, solved problems, and increased their speed with math facts on the interactive math mats. Special events included REAM Day on October 22, with math problem contests involving the number 500. Over 600 students entered the contest, and fi ve winners were randomly selected to receive a REAM of paper. Students were also invited to enter a Math Poster Contest, illustrating any fact involving a number. 206 students submitted Marvelous Math Posters, all displayed in the 1st fl oor commons.
A sample of poster facts:Mikey Boner: The Great Wall of China is more than 5,500 miles long.Keira Vanderbeck : A person has 5 fi ngers on their left hand and 5 fi ngers on their right hand. 5+5=10Spencer Armbrust: The longest river in Asia is the Yangtze in China, and it is 3,964 miles long.Ellee Wilson: The largest litter of bunnies ever reported consisted of 24 kits.Aubrey Hansen: Turtles can swim up to 20 miles per hour.
The fi nale to Math Spirit Week was a Number Day on October 24. All of the teachers, staff, and students at Parkdale dressed in clothing that displayed numbers. The Parkdale School hallways and classrooms were fi lled with numbers and Math Spirit, and the students are looking forward to Math
The Western New York College Consortium was held in the EAHS library on September 25, with representatives from 18 local col-leges available to talk to students planning for college. Photo/K. Werdein
On Sunday, October 20, Mr. Davis’ Middle School Marching Band marched in the annual West Seneca Halloween Parade. “Despite wind and cold rain, we turned out the largest band we’ve had since we went to Disney World in 2010,” said Mr. Davis. “They looked great and sounded great.” Photo/E. LaRouech
Thanks to high school students at the Ormsby Center, East Au-rora Middle School has a new sign marking the main entrance on N.Grove Street.
Several anti-bullying initiatives took place in the district in October, including a poster board in Middle School, above, where students signed their names to a pledge to not be a bully, or let themselves be bullied. Other schools observed Unity Day on October 9, wear-ing orange to join a national movement against bullying.
“Orange You Glad you have Parkdale Pride?” Mrs. Cichocki’s students wore orange and ate oranges to underline the anti-bully-ing message behind Unity Day. Photo/L. Cichocki
The East Aurora Middle School Explorers Club toured the Millard Fillmore House on October 17. Mrs. Nye, who gave the tour, led club members through the living room, kitchen, bedrooms, play-room, Victorian library and carriage barn of the house. She shared information and interesting facts about the young adult life of Millard Fillmore and his wife Abigail when they resided in East Aurora from 1826 until 1830. The Explorers Club is open to any fi fth and sixth grade student looking to explore new and interesting things. Club co-advisors are Mrs. Bilson and Mrs. Krull. Photo/A. Bilson
Mrs. Bilson also coordinates the Middle School Arts & Crafts Club with Miss Cavanaugh, and their club members recently decorated pumpkins and made edible ghosts for Halloween.Photo/A. Bilson
National Honor Society Spring 2013 inductees included
(left to right, front row) Sarah Ehrenberg, Stephanie Vail,
Grant Haffenden, Brandon Hudson, Jonathan McClure,
Sean Kishel, Keifer Tehan and Bryce Potter.
Missing from the photograph are Alana Danieu, Marta
McLaughlin and Rebekah Zee. Photo/M. Wangelin
The Roycroft Chapter of the National Honor So-ciety held its Fall Induction Ceremony on Octo-ber 30 at EAHS. Following opening remarks by advisor Mrs. MaryBeth Richey, chapter president Karleigh Volk introduced the Candle Ceremony segment: • Scholarship – Zachary Felder• Service – Carlin Sullivan• Leadership – Sydney Malcolm• Character – Lillian Naughton
Fall 2013 inductees include (left to right) Cameron Radziwon, Erica Kreutzer, Leah Middagh, Alexan-dra Fontanese, and Carl Davidson. Photo/M. Wangelin
Several members of the East Aurora Faculty Association walked in the Making Strides for Breast Cancer Event on October 19 in Niagara Square in Buffalo. The eight-member team raised over $1300.00.
Superintendent Brian Russ congratulated custodian Michael Schillace on his retirement on October 22.
Parkdale Elementary School teachers and staff joined in the Hal-loween fun by dressing in costumes to promote literacy and math. Some of the costumes included dominoes, seasons, “Smart Cook-ies,” as well as characters from the Pinkalicious book series and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Photo/M. Nagle-Ahern
Mr. Padmanabha’s Middle School Earth Science students applied their skills to create a topographic map of local landscapes in Oc-
Ms. Meharian’s fi fth and sixth graders enjoyed fl ag football intramu-
rals this fall. Photo/L. Meharian
tober. This unique exer-cise provided students the opportunity to plan and execute fi eld work, collect and share data, enhance their understanding of topographic maps, and produce a map that shows geographic features on the Middle School campus.Photos/A. Padmanabha
November event for the public:
This is a publica on of the Offi ce of Community Rela ons; contact kward@eastauroraschools.
5`& 7 Defensive Driving – Point/Insurance Reduction course at EAHS; www.eastauroraschools.org/adulteducation or
call 687-2311 to register.
6 Board of Education meeting, 7:00 PM in the MS Library
7 The East Aurora Educational Foundation will celebrate its 25th anniversary on November 7 with the pre-
sentation of the “James Ford Commitment to Education Award” to EAHS principal Dr. James Hoagland,
Jr. at a reception at the Main House at Knox Farm, 437 Buffalo Road from 6 - 8 PM. Tickets required;
contact mbakowski@eastauroraschools.
Cheese Tasting and Evaluation class at Middle School; www.eastauroraschools.org/adulteducation or
call 687-2311 to register.
12 Kiids’ Dance and Play begins at Parkdale: www.eastauroraschools.org/adulteducation or call 687-2311
to register.
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Briefly...
The EAMS Students Against Destructive Decisions, (SADD) club sponsored Red Ribbon Week at the end of October, with several events and activities:Wednesday, October 23 - Wear Red to Take a Stand Against Drugs. Thursday, October 24 - Recognize a Role Model Day - Stu-dents awarded red ribbons to an adult who encourages him/her to be drug-free.Monday, October 28 - Red Ribbons were distributed during lunch and students were invited to sign a pledge board outside the Main Offi ce.Tuesday, October 29 - Team Up Against Drugs Day - Students and staff wore a favorite sports team jersey to represent a “Team Approach” to reducing drug use. Wednesday, October 30 - Students submitted Drug Free
Themes and photos to either of the SADD advisors. Thursday, October 31 - Halloween - Drugs are Scary Day! Students were encouraged to wear their Red Ribbons on their costumes.
Activities were coordinated by SADD advisors Leslie Jones and Amie Marklinger.
Middle School staff members collected $325.00 for the Wounded Warrier Project with their Friday Dress-Down jar. The November collection will help to sponsor City Mission’s Thanksgiving Day din-ners.
Mr. Serwicki’s Latin Club collected just under 100 items for local animal shelter, Buffalo Paws and Claws, in an October drive, with Mrs. Krull’s and Mrs. Barron’s homerooms collecting the most items.
