January 2004 News Archive
Friday, January 30, 2004
Goleta Valley Junior High Students Excel in WordMasters
Each year, more than 240,000 students compete in the WordMasters Challenge, a national language arts competition for students in grades 3-8. The WordMasters Challenge is made up of three separate meets held at intervals during the school year. Two teams from Goleta Valley Junior High School placed in the very difficult Gold Division of the December 2003 competition. They were among 165 school teams in competition at that level.
The school’s seventh-grader team placed fourth in the nation. Three of the team members – Joseph Dyer, Stuart Sherwin, and Ellie Stalie – were among the 41 seventh-graders in the Gold Division who earned perfect scores. Other members of the seventh-grade team were: Evan Bell, Esme Broyles-Gonzalez, Christopher Moure, Ana Nelson, Suri Sherman, Katie De Heras, Jacob Kovacs-Goodman, Matthew Parker, Alex Pearson, and Hillary Voigt. Their advisors were teachers Carol Soltysik and Deb Bower.
Goleta Valley’s eighth-grader team placed eighth in the nation. Five of those students – Anthony DeMaria, Trevor Kosmo, Leah Savage, Blake Wang, and Wei Wu – were among 161 eighth-graders in the Gold Division who earned perfect scores. Other team members were Dante Dorantes, Sahar El Abaddi, Patrick Fay, Zachary McFarland, Rachael McPhail, J.R. Riggs, Chelsea Vaughan, and Sarah Webb. Their advisors were teachers Carol Soltysik and Kelly Troyna.
The WordMasters Challenge is an exercise in critical thinking. Participants rely on their vocabulary knowledge and their analogy-solving abilities. One example of an eighth-grade-level question would require the student to complete the following analogy: "physical : environment :: social : [fill in the answer from one of the five words listed below]." The correct response needed to complete the analogy would be one of the following: timbre / milieu / hauteur / portent / surfeit. [The correct answer is "milieu."]
Goleta Valley Junior High School is located at 6100 Stow Canyon Road, Goleta, CA 93117. The principal is Paul Turnbull.
Author/Painter Barnaby Conrad to Meet with Santa Barbara High School Students
At the library’s monthly "Author Talk at Lunch," noted author/painter Barnaby Conrad will meet with Santa Barbara High School students on Tuesday, January 27, 2004, from 12:05 to 12:45 p.m. He will talk to students about his 33rd book, Last Boat to Cadiz. The book is a thriller fictionalizing his own experiences as a vice-consul in Seville, Malaga and Barcelona, Spain, at the end of World War II.
Fittingly, Mr. Conrad’s visit will take place in the library’s mural room. About five years ago, Earthling Bookstore owners Terry and Penny Davies generously donated the mural, painted by Mr. Conrad, to the school’s library. A very dramatic and engaging work of art, the mural contains images of some 37 literary notables.
Santa Barbara High School is located at 700 East Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara, CA.
Channel 18 Airing of January 20, 2004 and February 3, 2004 Board Meetings on Single Plans for Student Achievement
Channel 18 will be airing the special board meetings about Single Plans for Student Achievement as follows:
- January 20, 2004 meeting (regarding the Santa Barbara Elementary School District) will be aired on Saturday, January 24, 2004, 10:00 p.m.
- February 3, 2004 meeting (regarding the Santa Barbara High School District) will be aired on Monday, February 9, 2004, 11:00 p.m.
Monroe Students Honor Dr. King’s Memory by Participating in the Kindness and Justice Challenge
Monroe Elementary School students are once again honoring the memory of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by taking part in the fifth annual Kindness and Justice Challenge. They have participated in the challenge since its inception. This national event, endorsed by Martin Luther King III, son of Dr. King, challenges students to improve the world around them by standing up for what is right and demonstrating acts of kindness, honesty, respect, and moral courage (see the Kindness and Justice Challenge Pledge, below).
The Kindness and Justice Challenge Pledge
In order to improve the world around me in both large and small ways, I pledge to:
- Act with caring kindness
- Act fairly
- Act respectfully
- Act honestly
- Act non-violently
- Act responsibly
- Demonstrate moral courage
- Serve my community, my friends, my family and my school
- Celebrate the benefits of a kind and just world
From January 12 through 23, 2004, both students and teachers will watch for acts of kindness and justice and acknowledge the people responsible with "gold slips." A final tally of these special acts will be presented at an 8:30 a.m. assembly on the main playground on Monday, January 26, 2004.
While the challenge period takes places during a fixed period, students are encouraged to act on the ideals to which Martin Luther King Jr. devoted his life. To quote Martin Luther King III, "If students can commit to one day of kindness and justice, then they can commit to a week, a week becomes a year, (and) a year a life time."
Parents at Monroe are encouraged to make the challenge a family affair by talking with their children about kindness and justice and the values that are important to the family.
Monroe Elementary School is located at 431 Flora Vista Drive, Santa Barbara, CA. Phone: 966-7023. The principal is Brent Millhollen.
Donated Nebulizers Aid Asthmatic Students
In honor of Respiratory Care Week (October 26 through November 1), medical air compressors (i.e., nebulizers) were recently donated to approximately 20 local schools by the Respiratory Care Departments from Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital. A nebulizer, or mist machine, is sometimes used to treat small children or adults who have severe asthma episodes. Each nebulizer is valued at $180.
Nebulizers automatically send doses of medication into the mouth. The units are used to aid children with asthma. Having nebulizers at school enables parents to leave their own machines at home and have one available at school for breathing treatments.
Santa Barbara Educators’ Roundtable Provides Students with Local Educational Opportunities
Tonight, the Santa Barbara School Districts Board of Education will recognize the Santa Barbara Educators’ Roundtable. Lori Krubsack, education specialist with the Santa Barbara Zoo, will represent the Roundtable. The Roundtable, established four years ago, is comprised of representatives of local cultural institutions and programs that provide children and parents with the opportunity to visit local museums, parks, historical societies, scientific institutions, and gardens at no charge. The value of each passport is over $100.
The Roundtable promotes its goals in two ways: (1) production of a monthly Plugged In For Kids page in the Santa Barbara News-Press and (2) an access system whereby children and their parents gain free admission to identified venues by using their Passport to Santa Barbara. In addition to free admission for a child and their parent, once the passport holder has visited six venues, he or she earns a free t-shirt.
"The Passport to Santa Barbara program provides a wonderful opportunity for children in grades K-8 to access the rich cultural opportunities in our community," stated Dr. Brian Sarvis, assistant superintendent of elementary education/research and technology. He continued, "For many of our children and their families, these are first-time experiences."
Funding from this program comes from the Williams-Corbett Foundation and Susan Bauer. The Educators’ Roundtable includes: Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, Channel Islands National Park, Community Environmental Council, Ganna Walska Lotusland, Goleta Valley Historical Society, Karpeles Manuscript Library, Los Padres National Forest, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara Carriage and Western Art Museum, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara Historical Society, Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, Santa Barbara Mission Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens, South Coast Railroad Museum, and the University Art Museum at UCSB.
Five Local Students Have the Write Stuff
Five local students have been identified as winners of the 2003 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Achievement Awards in Writing: Santa Barbara High School’s Eric Bank and Taylor Ross and Dos Pueblos High School’s Jessica Friedland, Stephanie Lam, and Jared Warner. NCTE established this annual competition for high school juniors 46 years ago as a way to encourage and recognize high school student writers. The competition is open to students in public and private schools.
To be eligible for the 2003 competition, students had to be nominated – and submit their entry in accordance with NCTE rules – during their junior year (school year 2002-2003). In fact, more than 2,400 juniors from 50 states, the District of Columbia, American schools abroad, Canada, and the Virgin Islands were nominated for the 2003 Achievement Awards in Writing. Ultimately, 585 winners were selected (53 of those winners are from California).
Schools are allowed to have one nominee per 500 students (based on the school’s enrollment for grades 10, 11, and 12). Nominees are selected by their school’s English department, not chosen by an individual teacher. According to Dos Pueblos High School English teacher Charles Clouse, students submit two examples of their writing; one example of their work* is prepared and polished, usually from a previous class assignment, and the second written under time constraint in response to an NCTE topic/prompt. (*Students are permitted to submit their best work, which could be a collection of poems, short stories, editorials, or academic essays.) Each piece is read and evaluated by two judges, one high school and one college English teacher. A third judge reviews differences between evaluations to help produce the final list of students.
Winners receive a certificate, national recognition, and the right to include this academic accomplishment on their college applications. The winners’ names are published in a NCTE directory, recommending that they be considered for college scholarships in 2004.