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Astronaut Wendy Lawrence visited Issaquah Middle School in September to speak to students during the “Exploring Space, Inspiring Planetary Stewardship” Planetary Congress in Seattle in September.
Romanian Cosmonaut Dorin Prunariu also visited south-end schools in the District.
Several middle- and high-school teachers in late June took a hands-on, multi-day GLAD training workshop. Their elementary colleagues have similar training sessions scheduled throughout the summer, and other teachers are taking advantage of professional development opportunities such as ITP (Issaquah Technology Project), an intense “camp-like” experience in which groups learn how to use technology as a powerful teaching tool.
Resource Conservation Manager John Macartney, a.k.a. Captain Trash, gives District custodians a lesson about where each type of garbage waste should be collected—food waste or recycling—during a special “no waste lunch” event this summer.
Custodians have been helping schools reduce the amount of garbage they produce, resulting in significant savings. For example, the average monthly garbage bill at Liberty High has gone from $1,212 last year to $660 this year.
On June 25, the District bought paintings for its permanent Kateri Brow Art Collection from Cascade Ridge Elementary student Annette Guo; Maywood Middle School Students Brian Linnenkamp, Janzen Murch, and Meg Partridge; and recent Skyline High graduate Natasha McIrvin. The Kateri Brow collection is on display at the Administration Building.
Issaquah Middle School teachers on the Killer Bees team–Becky Havekost, Patti Banashak, and Gayle Boyd–represented the District in the Issaquah Rotary’s annual community spelling bee fund-raiser in April. They competed mightily through six official rounds and a tie breaker to capture second place. The judges had to use the “Secret Envelope of Obscure, Non-Studied Words” to end the stand off.
A team of Issaquah High School students–Trevor Morrison, James Henderson, Jessica Jacobson, and Kelly Graham–also com-BEE-ted mightily!
Third-graders at Cougar Ridge participate in Survival Swimming at the Julius Boehm Pool six Fridays in May and June to promote aquatic experience that is enjoyable while teaching children how to prevent water emergencies. The lessons are life-jacket safety, beach safety, ice safety and cold water emergencies, reach and throw—don’t go, survival swimming, self rescue, and boating safety.
Students at Clark found a creative use for non-functioning computer parts: Art!
Volunteers of Issaquah Changing Education (VOICE) received this year’s Community Leadership Award from the Washington Association of School Administrators on May 16. VOICE transforms at-risk students’ lives by pairing them with a community mentor for at least an hour each week for academic and social help. The students benefit greatly from the caring, consistent, positive relationship with an adult. The pairs are carefully matched based on strengths and interests, and—while VOICE mentors are initially only required to commit to a year—many stay on for another and another, moving with their students from elementary to middle school and beyond. In 2004, VOICE began at one elementary and one middle school with 26 students involved. Today, VOICE supports 127 students at 13 schools, and the program keeps expanding. Best of all, it’s easy to become a VOICE mentor!
Liberty High School’s NJROTC (Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps) Dual Exhibition drill team–made up of students Andreau Wigle and Willie Kuntz–placed 12th overall and second in the NJROTC category at the National High School Drill Team Championships in May in Daytona Beach, Florida. NJROTC leaders report that this is the first time that a Navy team from the Pacific Northwest has competed at this level! Liberty NJROTC members are already planning their return trip and victory!
Liberty Student Kelsey Canaga (pictured with her art) won second place in her age category and Skyline student Stephanie Drazic won third place in her age category in Washington’s Federal Junior Duck Stamp art contest—a program that uses art to teach the importance of conserving wetlands.
As part of their lessons about the environment and preservation, fourth- and fifth-grade students in the Science Technology program at Clark Elementary hosted an eco-friendly car wash on Saturday, March 15, at Front Street Market in downtown Issaquah.
Students used environmentally friendly soap and cleansing products and offered preservation tips to customers. They washed more than 70 cars and raised about $1,200 in donations that will help the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery build a wetland.
Math Curriculum Specialist Leslie Nielsen holds a special workshop for VOICE mentors to provide pointers and tips about how to best help students with math lessons. VOICE (Volunteers of Issaquah Changing Education) mentors are paired one-on-one with students in need of extra academic and social support; the pairs meet weekly for at least one school year.
More than 200 people played basketball, volleyball, hula hoop, and badminton and experimented with heart monitors and pedometers at Cougar Ridge Elementary’s first-ever Dad and Me open gym the night of January 8. The event helped kids and dads have fun together while learning how much fun exercise and gettin’ movin’ can be, according to PE teacher Lisa Patton.
An all-star panel of judges—including an author and Fulbright Scholar, the Issaquah City Attorney, and the Issaquah Council President—determined which Issaquah High debaters in Amy McGinnis’ advanced English class made the best argument over the question: Who was the real author of the literary works attributed to William Shakespeare? The provincial man from Stratford-upon-Avon? Royalty? Or someone else entirely, such as Francis Bacon?
Skyline special needs students raised more than $270 for the District's Nurses Assistance Fund by wrapping presents at the Issaquah Fred Meyer store during the holiday season. Fred Meyer contributed another $100.
School nurses access the Fund throughout the school year to help students in emergency or hardship situations—paying for services and items like eye examinations and new glasses, medication, warm coats, and utility bills—eliminating obstacles so students can succeed in school.
Students in Clark Elementary’s science-tech classroom kicked off the Ready, Set, Goals program by participating in a conference with Seattle Seahawk cornerback Kelly Jennings. This literacy program enhances class curriculum by boosting reading comprehension, writing, and goal-setting skills.
Each month, a Seahawks player or a Sea Gal writes a story about a goal they had, the challenges they faced, and the steps they took to attain their goal. Students follow the example by writing their own story about a personal goal. The theme of Mr. Jennings’ goal was budgeting money wisely. Students had the opportunity to listen to him speak, ask questions, reflect on their own goals—and get autographs!
Wrap yourself in math! Teacher leaders recently created a Geometry Strand Trace Quilt to illustrate how students learn—what Geometry concepts at what depth and when—from kindergarten through fifth grade using the new Everyday Math curriculum. The quilt recently went on display in the boardroom in the Administration Building.
Children in need across the world can soon expect a shoebox full of goodwill and hope, thanks to students in Mark Cote’s math classes at Beaver Lake Middle School.
For the past five years, Mr. Cote has challenged his students to participate in Operation Christmas Child by packing a care package filled with toys, school supplies, hygiene products, and other essentials for children in developing nations. And that’s not all: Students learn geometry by wrapping and decorating the box using shapes like hexagons and equilateral triangles; students also calculate the surface area and volume of the box using different units of measurement. Up to 70 percent of Cote’s students have participated in the voluntary humanitarian project from year to year.
The Navy Northwest Band performances at Challenger Elementary School’s Veterans Day Assembly.
Picture by Ruth Steck
Endeavour Elementary Principal Jodi Bongard and office staff truly brought to life the tale of Jodi-locks—er, Goldilocks—and the Three Bears for students on Halloween.
Clark Elementary teacher Liza Rickey and two of her students spoke at the Issaquah Schools Foundation (ISF) annual luncheon in October about how microscopes provided through an ISF grant have revolutionized science lessons.
Picture by Krista Mui
Bob, a great horned owl, recently visited fourth graders in Sydney Herzberg’s classroom at Sunset Elementary. His handler from the Woodland Park Zoo’s raptor education program shared all kinds of facts about his unique anatomy and skills. For instance, his ears are at different levels beside his face so he is not only able to identify which side a sound is coming from but also from what depth.
Bob’s visit was the culmination of many owl-themed lessons, including reading owl-centered fiction and nonfiction, writing five-paragraph essays about specific owl species, studying local forests, investigating owl pellets, creating owl PowerPoint presentations, singing owl chants, and making owl art.
That’s an owl-fully lot of these magnificent birds!
The Beaver Lake Middle School Bulldogs got a little Spartan during a “tailgate” barbecue celebration to build community spirit before the homecoming football game at their high school, Skyline. About six hundred people came to eat—hamburgers, garden burgers, chicken burgers, chips, and ice cream—and play games and dance under the DJ’s guidance.
All that pre-game fanfare did the trick: Skyline won!
Get your motor running!
Tiger Mountain Community High School recently held its first annual hot rod show, and classic car collectors turned out to show off their vehicles and offer advice to students—from what it takes to complete a meticulous project (such as a car restoration) to how to obtain proper insurance to what it means to set and achieve goals in life.
The stars of the day included an antique Rolls Royce, Chevy Impala, Thunderbird, and even a tricked-out VW Beetle.
“Did you survive?” was the question of the day as Newcastle Elementary fourth graders learned about gravity and air properties by each dropping an egg three stories to pavement below. If the student had designed a successful package—from bubble wrap, hollowed-out bread, balloons, or anything else they could think of—the egg “survived.” If not, well, things got a little stickier!
Pictures by Robin Ryan and Sara Niegowski
Endeavour “super sleuths” in Lorre Mark’s MERLIN classroom started the year off with a carefully orchestrated mystery: Who was responsible for leaving behind the remains of a camp fire near their school? While digging up some answers, they ended up finding more than they first bargained for—clues like feathers, seashells, and fossils in each layer of dirt that revealed the history the surrounding area. When the investigation was over, the students had solid theories about what happened on that piece of land thousands and even millions of years ago.
Board member Connie Fletcher testifies at the state Legislature’s joint task force on basic education finance in Olympia on September 10.
The task force was created to ensure that school funding formulas "keep pace with evolving educational practices and increasing state and federal requirements so that all schools have the resources they need to help give all students the opportunity to be fully prepared to compete in a global economy."