Recognitions and Accomplishments of staff doing great things in the Beaverton School District

StaffDistrict Goal:

WE Empower all students to achieve post-high school

success.

January 2016

Community generosity at Beaverton High School

Beaverton High School Principal, Anne Erwin, has developed community partnerships with a number of faith partners in the community. She and counselor, Bonnie Heaton, meet with representatives from a number of churches one time per month to discuss the school’s needs and how their congregations can help support their students and families.

During December, Bethel Congregational Church of Christ donated enough food for 20 homeless students to have something to eat during the two-week winter break when they wouldn’t have access to their usual free breakfasts and lunches at school.

This donation resulted in a delegation from Bethel arriving at Beaverton High School on Dec. 14, 2015 loaded with 100 bags of groceries! A number of BHS staff, including the counseling department, secretaries, custodians, teachers, and students unloaded the donations and created a system to keep the food for each student separated for them to pick up.

Thank you to Bethel Congregational Church of Christ for supporting some of our most vulnerable students and families. Through strong community partnerships, the Beaverton community is a better place.

Conestoga MS community supports fire victimsConestoga Middle School students, staff, parents and community members rallied together in December to support the family of three classmates who lost their home to a fire.

In one day, supporters donated clothing, household items, furniture and more than $7,000 in cash to help the family rebuild.

Representative Margaret Doherty sent a note of thanks to the Conestoga community saying “You changed a tragedy into a learning experience for everyone. Please thank all for their tremendous outpouring of help.”

Collaborate

Embrace Equity

Expect Excellence

Innovate

Students at Highland Park Middle School took a virtual reality trip to explore the Great Barrier Reef, courtesy of the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program. The program allows teachers to use virtual reality to bring their lessons to life.

Google Expeditions teams visit selected schools around the world, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, Singapore and Denmark. Each team brings a complete Expeditions kit with everything teachers need to take their students on journeys anywhere. The team shows teachers how Expeditions works and help set it up before each class.

Expeditions is a virtual reality platform built for the classroom. Google works with teachers and content partners from around the world to create more than 100 engaging journeys - making it easy to immerse students in entirely new experiences. Students will experience: The Great Barrier Reef, Borneo Animal Adaptations, National Parks, Ocean Adventures, Seven Wonders of the World.

Students at Aloha-Huber Park K-8, Fir Grove, Vose, Scholls Heights elementary schools and Cedar Park, Conestoga, and Whitford middle schools also participated in the Google Expeditions Program.

Google Expeditions take students around the world

The focus of this year’s International School of Beaverton’s (ISB) Season of Caring was hunger, with individual, local, and global activities. Students were encouraged to take the SNAP Challenge, creating a food budget based on the $120.70 per month a family of four receives from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (about $4 a day). In their December 8, 2015 advisory classes students discussed their experiences of either eating for one week based on SNAP benefits, or “shopping” and planning for a week of meals.

A non-perishable food drive that provided holiday food baskets through the Sunshine Division was held from December 7 through Dec. 18, 2015. Collection bins were located in the main hallway for students and staff to donate. Most needed items included: cereal, pasta, canned meals (soups, chili, stew) canned or dry beans, rice and canned fruit. Organizers estimate that a total of 3,500 cans of food were collected.

Students also supported the global hunger-relief charity, The Hunger Project, by donating $638.88.

ISB Season of Caring supports local and global hunger

In 2013, parent volunteer, Pattie Coleman reached out to Jesuit High School to request assistance with Project BACK (Backpack Assistance and Care of our Kids), a holiday food box program for Raleigh Park Elementary students and families in need of support during the Winter break.

Jesuit High School has a Winter Food Box Project coordinated by Bob Keerins that is known to be amazing. When asked, Bob’s response was “how many,” and today Jesuit delivers more

than 30 holiday food boxes with a can-do attitude. This year, in addition to the more than 30 food boxes, the generous Jesuit community went above and beyond and provided 32 new bikes and helmets for the Raleigh Park Elementary School Project BACK families.

Thank you, Bob and Jesuit High School, for your caring generosity in supporting Raleigh Park Elementary School!

Jesuit High School supports Raleigh Park ES

William Walker ES receives grant from James Patterson and Scholastic Reading Club for their libraryWilliam Walker Elementary School received a $5,000 grant from best selling author James Patterson to support its school library. In addition, Scholastic Reading Club will match each dollar of Patterson’s donation with “bonus points” that teachers can use to acquire books and other materials for their classrooms. William Walker was selected from 27,924 applications.

The $5,000 will be used to update the school’s library collection. “We are so excited to update our library collection, specifically our out-of-date non-fiction books. We will also increase copies of books in high demand. We will work with Emily Carlson, our TOSA (Teacher on Special Assignment), as well as elicit title suggestions from our students,” says principal Joann Hulquist.

As a part of an ongoing effort to keep books and reading a number one priority in the United States, bestselling author James Patterson, together with Scholastic Reading Club made a commitment to help save school libraries nationwide. This year, Patterson personally donated $1.75 million to school libraries nationwide, with grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 allocated to each of the 467 selected schools.

HS2 to participate in PBS NewsHour, National Science Foundation STEM projectHealth & Science School will participate in the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs.

To better understand the field of youth science journalism and digital media, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded the expansion of the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs (SRL) into a model that builds STEM communication skills and trains teens to produce video reports on important STEM issues from a youth perspective. The video stories will be published on the PBS NewsHour’s website and transformed into educational resources for PBS LearningMedia. The program offers schools and young people the opportunity to have their stories air on the NewsHour broadcast, seen by over a million people each night.

Health and Science School will have access to a journalism and digital media literacy curriculum augmented with a STEM literacy focus, a mentor from a local PBS affiliate, access to a STEM practitioner in a field related to their story, professional development for educators and support from the PBS NewsHour team. New Knowledge Organization Ltd. (NewKnowledge) will lead an evaluation of the STEM SRL program.

Sunset High School received a $325,642 Career Technical Education (CTE) Revitalization Grant to support the addition of a new Engineering Pathway.

Technology teachers, Jason Galbraith and Catherine Geer spearheaded the grant proposal and worked with industry partners, Tosoh Quartz, Sunset Manufacturing, Inc., Vernier Software and Technology, Intel Corporation, Daimler Trucks North America LLC, Portland Community College, and Nike to make the pathway a reality.

The school will begin work immediately on this exciting new opportunity. Adding to their current CTE Career Pathways in Business and Marketing and Computer Science, the new Engineering Pathway will expose and prepare students for the varied fields within engineering which are some of the fastest growing, highest paid, and most in demand jobs in our economy. Colleges and industry alike are starving for more engineering students. Be it high school to industry or high school to college, the Engineering Pathway will equip students to be successful in this high demand field.

Historically, Sunset students from under performing demographics have had a 20% higher graduation rate when taking at least one course in technology. The Engineering Pathway will significantly expand those offerings and move the school further toward their goal of a 90% graduation for ALL students.

Congratulations, Sunset High School on your new Engineering Pathway!

Sunset HS to offer new Engineering Pathway

Vose Elementary School received a $20,000 Verizon Innovative Learning Grant that will be used to integrate science and engineering into the classroom.

The grant was written by Computer Support Technician (CST) Joann Vazquez, Technology Instructional Assistant (IA) Mandy Wood and Assistant Principal Melissa Holz. It is an extensive three-phase exploration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) using the developmentally engaging engineering activities for young learners through robotics and engineering. The three-year phases ares:

• Year #1 Spring 2016: Students will work with Lego WeDO robotic kits during technology time.• Year #2 2016-2017: All students in grades 1-5 will continue the progression of Lego Robotics in the

technology lab. Students will be introduced to STEM project-based inquiry. Students in grades 3-5 will use Little Bit’s electronic circuitry kits to build student inventions.

• Year #3 2017-2018: Activities from year one and two will continue. With the new curiosity, and acquired STEM skills, grade five students will have the opportunity to see and create in 3-Dprinter 3-d design using the computer lab with SketchUp software. 5th graders will also complete STEM integrated science fair projects.

The Verizon Foundation is focused on improving student engagement and achievement in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and the use of technology–when paired with professional development for teachers–as a powerful way to accelerate learning.

Congratulations, Vose!

Vose ES receives $20,000 Verizon Innovative Learning Grant

The Beaverton School District recognizes the diversity and worth of all individuals and groups. It is the policy of the Beaverton School District that there will be no discrimination or harassment of individuals or groups based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, marital status, age, veterans’ status, genetic information or disability in any educational programs, activities or employment.

Conestoga Middle School and Beaverton High School are the recipients of the Daimler Education in Motion Grants.

Conestoga Middle School received $1,200 for their two FIRST Lego League teams. This is the first year that Conestoga has had a Lego Robotics team in more than ten years. Both teams, The Flaming Golden Puffy Owls and Exploding Gummy Bears, participated in a regional tournament. The Golden Puffy Owls earned The Rising Star Award, which is given to a team comprised of young and/or rookie team members who the judges notice and expect great things from in the future.

Beaverton High School received $18,100 for their FIRST Robotics Team, $5,000 of which will be used for the entry fee into the competition. This is the first year that the Beaverton High School team will compete.

“We’re thrilled and grateful that Daimler Trucks North America chose to support the BHS “Beavertronics” robotics team in such a generous way. Their support enables us not only to get a great start on our rookie FIRST Robotics FRC season, but also to establish a team that has a greater sustainability. Our team members are thrilled to be able to attend competition this year and can’t wait to get started on building our inaugural competition robot,” says Heather Meiring, Physics teacher at Beaverton High School.

For the third consecutive year, Daimler Trucks North America is donating money to schools in Oregon and Southwest Washington to promote education in science, math, engineering, and technology (STEM) through the Daimler Education in Motion campaign. This year, funds will help schools either to start a new FIRST team or to help existing teams accomplish more to learn how science and engineering can be used to solve problems.

Congratulations, Conestoga Middle School and Beaverton High School!

Conestoga MS and Beaverton HS receive robotics grant

The Flaming Golden Puffy Owls comprised of students from Conestoga MS and Nancy Ryles ES.

The Exploding Gummy Bears comprised of students from Conestoga MS and Errol Hassell ES.

The Beaverton HS Beavertronics.