Hello AP/IB Boosters!

Contents

• AP/IB Student Group
• Everett Schools Foundation
• UW World Languages Day for High School Students (Time to register)
• World History Connected
• Interlake HS International Baccalaureate Information Night, January 4^th 2005
• National Portfolio Day, January 9^th 2005
• Intel International Science & Engineering Fair
• Bellevue HS, Evergreen HS and Skyline HS Football
• Gender Gap Growing on College Campuses
• U.S. Students Lagging in Math Skills
• 235 Washington teachers achieve National Board Certification
• ‘A Nation Deceived’ Report Argues Gifted Children Often Kept Behind
• UW Transition School and Early Entrance Program
• University Book Store, Now Open in Mill Creek
• The Season of Giving and Remembering

 

AP/IB Student Group

The AP/IB Boosters club, the parent group advocating Advanced Placement classes in Jackson, has created a new student chapter. This new group, guided by Todd Aagard (President of AP/IB Boosters), is seeking to acquire funds for much-needed equipment for the AP Physics class. The group is made up of both those in Mr. Sidenquist’s AP Physics class as well as others interested in helping the program. Eventually, the group plans on giving presentations to major local industries such as Boeing, Fluke, etc. in hopes of receiving grants for the physics equipment. Mr. Sidenquist is very proud of the work that this group is doing and thinks it is great that the students are taking a direct involvement to better their learning experience. The group plans on giving their first presentation to the JHS PTSA sometime in January.

Submitted by the Founding Student Members of the Student Division of AP/IB Boosters.

 

UW World Languages Day for High School Students (Time to register)

The University of Washington World Languages Day for high school students is one of the best academic events for students in our community.

For this school year, it takes place on Friday, March 4th 2005.

This event is limited to the first 1200 high school students throughout Washington who register. Registration is now open.

http://www.outreach.washington.edu/k12/wld/default.asp

It will fill up quickly.

At the daylong event last year, some of the many sessions offered included the following:

• Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew: The Writing System
• Hispanic Dance
• Culture and Languages of India
• Russian Superstitions
• I Must Be in Poland Since Strangers Are Kissing My Hand
• Sound of the Trade Winds: Caribbean Folk Music
• Italian Mini Lesson
• Swahili Language Lesson
• Turkey, Turkmenistan, Iran – A View of Three Different Islamic Countries
• What You Didn't Know About Kung Fu
• Indonesian: Language of the Land of Seventeen Thousand Islands
• Meet the International Business Students
• Cultural Competence: You need it to survive in the real world

Everett School District high school students interested in business (all business is international) as well as World Language students should consider attending. Learning about people from other countries (starting with language) should be part of every student’s education.

 

World History Connected

An interesting web site on World History. WHC is free worldwide. It is published by the University of Illinois Press, and its institutional home is Washington State University.

The latest edition is on the history of Africa.

http://worldhistoryconnected.press.uiuc.edu/#

 

Interlake HS International Baccalaureate Information Night, January 4^th 2005

Tuesday, January 4^th, 2005, 5:30 PM

While the Everett School District is improving at a fast clip, it unfortunately does not offer the IB program. For families who want this option, at this time, your students must transfer to another school district. Practically every large school district in the Greater Seattle Area has one of its high schools designated as the IB school. In the Bellevue School District, that school is Interlake HS. Students anywhere in the Bellevue School District can choose the IB program at Interlake. Interlake also has room for inter-district transfers. They welcome students with open arms. If you have a chance to attend the Interlake HS IB Info Night, please let us know what you think of it. Last year they had a panel with a former Interlake HS student who is now at UW, a former student now at Yale, a UW admissions officer, a Yale admissions officer and other education professionals.

http://www.bsd405.org/ihs/web/index.html

 

National Portfolio Day, January 9^th 2005

"National Portfolio Days help further the artistic development of young artists by bringing together experienced college representatives to review work and offer critique. National Portfolio Days are about the exchange of information: about your work, yourself, your college plans, your concerns. They are not an examination or a competition."

Sunday, January 9^th, 2005

Cornish College of the Arts

1000 Lenora Street Seattle WA 98121 1.800.726.ARTS

http://www.cornish.edu/

National Portfolio Day Association

http://www.npda.org/

 

Intel International Science & Engineering Fair

"The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF)—the world's largest pre-college science competition—provides an opportunity for the best young scientists from around the globe to share ideas, showcase cutting-edge science projects, and compete for over $3 million in awards and scholarships."

http://www.sciserv.org/isef/

The affiliated Washington State fairs.

http://www.sciserv.org/isef/aff_fairs/fairlist/washingt.asp

 

Bellevue HS, Evergreen HS and Skyline HS Football

Bellevue HS recently won the 2004 Washington State 3A football championship. Bellevue HS offers about 20 AP courses to its 1300 students. Evergreen HS and Skyline HS played each other for the 2004 Washington State 4A football championship. Evergreen HS also offers about 20 AP courses. Skyline HS is one of the 12 International Baccalaureate Program schools in Washington.

Apparently brains and braun are not mutually exclusive.

Bellevue HS, http://www.bsd405.org/bhs/

Evergreen HS, http://www.evg.egreen.wednet.edu/

Skyline HS, http://www.shs.issaquah.wednet.edu/

 

Gender Gap Growing on College Campuses

Excerpt from the December 1^st 2004 Seattle Times

"Today, many colleges, particularly selective residential schools, face a dilemma unthinkable a generation ago. To place well in influential college rankings, those schools must enroll as many top high-school students as they can — and most of those students are female."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2002105282_college01.html

 

U.S. Students Lagging in Math Skills

Excerpt from the December 7^th 2004 Seattle Times

"Fifteen-year-olds in the United States don't have the math skills to match up to peers in many other industrialized nations, test scores released yesterday show."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2002111218_math07.html

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)

http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/index.asp

We are encouraged with the fact that the Everett School District is now offering AP Calculus and AP Statistics. These high level courses will bring the entire district math program up a notch by offering a challenging goal to students and by preparing students for these courses with Pre-AP courses. AP teachers usually teach AP courses and regular courses. Students in their regular courses benefit from being taught by highly qualified teachers who usually introduce high level AP concepts in all of their classes.

 

235 Washington teachers achieve National Board Certification

http://www.k12.wa.us/Communications/pressreleases2004/NBPTS2004.aspx

OSPI excerpt below reprinted with permission.

"Teachers are seeking this prestigious validation of their knowledge and skills in greater numbers, and Washington is leading the nation in supporting and retaining teachers throughout the rigorous process. Even with the ninth highest candidate volume in the country, Washington boasts the highest retention rate of any state in the nation. There were 472 candidates in the Class of 2004 who completed all of the requirements, including the creation of a portfolio of work documenting their success in the classroom and on-line testing."

Encouraging and assisting teachers to obtain the National Board Certification is #3 on our 12-step improvement list.

http://www.apibboosters.org/GoalsAndObjectives.html

In Washington, teachers who obtain the National Board Certification are rewarded with a $3,500 bonus for each of the 10 years following achieving the certification.

 

‘A Nation Deceived’ Report Argues Gifted Children Often Kept Behind

"When a high-school student graduates with the reading skills of a sixth-grader, it is called a failure of the education system.

But what do you call it when a sixth-grader who is able to read at the level of a high-school graduate is forced to languish in a class that doesn't challenge her to her fullest academic potential?

Experts in the field of gifted education call it a travesty, and several experts from across the country have contributed their insights and research to a new national report being released today (September 2004) that calls on K-12 educators to be more proactive, and less reactive, in identifying and assisting academically precocious students."

http://www.uiowa.edu/~ournews/2004/september/092004acceleration.html

http://www.nationdeceived.org/

http://www.nationdeceived.org/download.html

 

UW Transition School and Early Entrance Program

Sometimes the best option for some students is to skip high school as suggested in the article above. The University of Washington has programs for young scholars who are ready for a more intellectually stimulating faster paced learning environment. The following web page has information on the UW programs. It also has links to video clips that describe each.

http://depts.washington.edu/cscy/

mms://media.depts.washington.edu/cscy/trans.wmv

mms://media.depts.washington.edu/cscy/academy.wmv

 

University Book Store, Now Open in Mill Creek

Finally, a quality bookstore has arrived in Mill Creek.

http://www.bookstore.washington.edu/

Great gifts for students of any age.

 

The Season of Giving and Remembering

An excerpt from a DOD web site:

"Thousands of Americans are asking what they can do to show their support for service members, especially those serving overseas in this time of war.

Listed here are Web sites for several organizations that are sponsoring programs for members of the armed forces overseas. While it would be inappropriate for the Defense Department to endorse any specifically, service members do value and appreciate this support."

http://www.defendamerica.mil/support_troops.html

http://www.firstgov.gov/Topics/Usgresponse/Help.shtml

The AP/IB Boosters have a college focus. Every year, a few Everett School District high school graduates join the armed services. Many of the organizations listed on the links above assist military families with college expenses as well as other types of financial support. Some philanthropic choices for you to consider.