P a w - s i t i v e l y C o n n e c t e dAmeri-can Literature Honors is working on The Crucible...
Transcript of P a w - s i t i v e l y C o n n e c t e dAmeri-can Literature Honors is working on The Crucible...
P a w - s i t i v e l y C o n n e c t e d
G r e a t P a t h A c a d e m y a t M C C
students that school is a safe place and someone will always support you. The culminating event was a student-run, whole-school assembly on October 3rd, in which the students shared out their ex-periences and stories, then broke out into their Advisory groups in order to turnkey the activities that they completed during training to their clas-ses.
The “From Bystanders to Allies” and "Names Can Real-ly Hurt Us" programs are two pieces to the overarching fo-cus on a positive school cli-mate that is taking place at Great Path Academy. As a Positive Behavior Interven-tions and Supports (PBIS) school, Great Path Academy has made great strides in mak-ing it “cool” to do the right thing in the past three years.
‘This is powerful stuff.”- Ja-vante D. stated, as she under-went the training. Many other students agreed and appreciat-ed the positive message that the program sends.
Partnering with the Anti-Defamation League, Great Path Academy students and staff begin the school year with participation in trainings for "Names Can Really Hurt Us" in order to continue to support the growth of a posi-tive school culture. As the Anti-Defamation League web-site states, “It is a call to ac-tion for everyone. Together our goal is to inform students, families, educators and the public on what can be done about bullying and cyberbully-ing.” The Great Path Acade-my Allies are a group of 18 students, grades 10-12, who underwent a vigorous ac-ceptance process in order to become an Ally. Once inter-views were completed in the spring of last year and six hours of training were com-pleted, Great Path Academy students received their Ally blazers in a Blazer Ceremony which honored their choice to always stand up for the target of any negative behavior.
This September, during two afternoon three-hour long
trainings entitled "Names Can Really Hurt Us", 18 Great Path Academy Allies, 27 addi-tional student volunteers (including freshmen) and 32 staff members participated in activities, which included de-signing their own "Ally", nam-ing them and giving them words to use when facing
challenges. Stories were shared of experiences, both negative and positive and the group bonded with the unify-ing goal to send the message to all Great Path Academy
Gr ea t Pa th Academy S tuden t s Move
f rom “Bys tande rs t o A l l i es”
Akeel Benjamin, a senior at Great
Path Academy, was selected by the
ADL to participate as a panel re-
spondent for the “Youth, Civics and
Positive School Climate Summit”.
This event took place at the State
Capitol and was held by the Commis-
sion on Children in partnership with
the Born This Way Foundation, the
Yale Center for Emotional Intelli-
gence, the Neag School of Education
at the University of Connecticut, the
Connecticut Department of Educa-
tion and the CT Regional Office of
the ADL.
As stated in the event’s press release,
“it was a morning-long summit on
youth leadership and social and emo-
below of Akeel with Lady Gaga’s
mother).
The focus of the event was told
through the perspective and the
voices of youth and their own experi-
ences of what they have done or what
they hope that the adults do in order
to create a safe emotional learning
environment for all students. Akeel
felt the strength in this attention
to students, “it was not just
youth listening, but giving in-
sight. The whole event was
youth-led and that was really
cool.” Many experts weighed in
on the effect of the educational
landscape within this context.
Dr. Brackett, the Director of the
Yale Center for Emotional
Intelligence, stated, “Schools are
built around too many rules and
not enough feelings.”
tional intelligence and supports. This
is an outgrowth of bullying-
prevention work done by the Com-
mission on Children and its partners.
Youth from across Connecticut, along
with superintendents, principals,
teachers, parents and academic ex-
perts attended
this event.
Closing remarks
were delivered by
Cynthia Ger-
manotta, who co
-founded the
Born This Way
Foundation in
2011 with her
daughter, Lady
Gaga” (photo
GPA S t ude n t Pa r t i c i pa te s i n “ You t h , C iv i c s
a nd Pos i t i ve S choo l C l i ma t e Summi t” Sp e c i a l p o i n t s o f
i n t e r e s t :
GPA’s “A Second Cup of Coffee” for
parents to gather and discuss our
school community is here! The
2nd meeting is on October 28th,
from 3-4 pm.
Transportation Inquiries can be made
to (860) 524-4077.
Our website is “under construction”,
as MCC transfers to a new
program. We will keep you
updated with School Messenger
until the switch is completed!
Staff used their half professional
development day to plan cross
content area lessons and units.
I n s i d e th i s i s su e :
Unified Arts News 2
English/ Social Studies
News
2
GPA’s Student Council 2
Science News 3
Math News/ Students
of the Month
3
2014 Greater Hartford
Torch of Liberty Award
Reception
4
Octobe r 2014
Vo lume , I s s ue
GPA Students and staff attending after school
sessions of trainings from the Anti-Defamation
League in the GPA Community Commons.
Eng l i sh / Soc ia l S tud ies News
ing the Ebola crisis and other world
events. Students have been making
connections to their current events
and the impact they have on their own
lives. In U.S. History this month we
will be focusing on our nations shift
from a regional power to world power.
We will begin with the concept of
Imperialism, as seen through the
Spanish-American War. The students
will be creating magazines that illus-
trate both the causes and effects of the
War. We will end the Unit by investi-
gating the United States involvement
in World War I.
English Language Arts is in full swing
as October arrives. English I is work-
ing on societal norms and traditions in
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson.
English II Honors is working on
character analysis and biblical allusions
in Lord of the Flies. English II Col-
lege Prep is working on impact of
point of view and character motivation
in Elie Wiesel's memoir Night. Ameri-
can Literature Honors is working on
The Crucible while American Lit
College Prep just finished an essay and
preparing to read Huck Finn. College
writing is continuing to discuss and
read One Hundred Years of Solitude.
In Civics, we are wrapping up our first
unit "Why Government" by applying
our studies of the purposes of govern-
ment to the ongoing crisis in Syr-
ia. Students will also connect related
events to the unit, namely President
Obama's recent address to the United
Nations.
In Mr. Buder’s classes, we are finish-
ing up our unit on "Ancient Religions
in a Modern World" and we will be
going into early exploration of the
world. Students have been completing
their current events projects and shar-
ing them. Students have been discuss-
GPA’s 2014 - 15 S tuden t Counc i l Can Really Hurt Us” program
(see above for details) with a
dress down day, date and
details to be announced.
Students will be dressing in
orange to support anti-
bullying efforts. Kaitlyn and
Treonna spoke of their meet-
ings and how the student
council discussed making this
year as fun as possible, with
school activities that involve
all grade levels more commu-
nity-centered events.
Congratulations to the mem-
bers of our student council!
Student Council Elections
were just held recently and
the members, voted on by the
school community are:
Arroyo, Destiny , Asante,
Gifty, Avila, Karen, Clarke,
Talia, Danvers, Javante, Diaz,
Tatiana, Dukes, Tamia, Faith,
Jayleah, Filigrana, Kaitlyn,
Hamilton, Ricky, Hawley,
Treonna, McCalop, Azaria,
Medina, Rufino, Pardo, Ade-
lina,, Richardson, Forest,
Rivera, Mikaela, Rivera,
Tiana, Warburton, Natalia,
Whitford, Mattea.
The 2014-15 GPA Student
Council is currently planning
out their calendar for the
school year. The first event
they plan will be a day to
Honor the powerful “Names
P a w - s i t i v e l y C o n n e c t e d P a g e 2
GPA has two international trips in the works for our eligible
world travelers already! This year, they are heading to
Costa Rica and next year, the Science department is heading
up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit the
Galapagos Islands for Spring
2016.
Destiny A., Ricky H., and John K. work
collaboratively to solve a Spanish para-
graph jumble in Ms. Ruoff’s class.
Students making guacamole in Span-
ish Culture Club.
Uni f i ed A r t s News
Music:
Check out the new music depart-
ment website!
www.GreatPathMusic.com
Culinary:
Students have been learning about
safe food handling and proper
hygiene and steps you should fol-
low while being in the kitchen.
They will be moving into Nutrition
unit shortly
Personal Finance:
The students have been learning
about steps and ways they could
start budgeting and what they
should do in the budgeting process.
They are now discussing loans and
the pros and cons of it.
Gym:
We will be saying goodbye to stu-
dent teacher Dennis Machado on
11/17. Immediately following on
11/20 we will be welcoming a new
student teacher Alex Clark who is
studying at CCSU.
Spanish:
Students have just finished creating
a personal ad in SP II to describe
their likes, dislikes, personality and
physical appearance and that of
their ideal love interest. Spanish I
students have learned how to greet
and introduce themselves to each
other. Also students articulated
telling time and the date. Students
will be creating a children's short
story using chapter "para enipezar"
Tech:
I am currently creating an Android
App for GPA
Media Tech classes in groups are
creating 2-30 second commercials
on products
Intro to computer classes are set to
begin their power point projects on
national and world issues.
Art:
Art I students have been learning
about still-lifes and oil pas-
tels. They will be making masks for
the Thomas Hooker Parade on
October 18th. Ceramics students
are working on glazing their pro-
jects and are also Constructing
bowls for the "Empty Bowls"
Charity Event.
From the GPA Guidance
Counselors: College Visits
are happening! Stay in-
formed and a good place to
start your college search is
using Supermatch at http://
www.collegeconfidential.co
m/college_search/, or you
can google Supermatch.
This will match you to a list
of colleges that will be a
good fit for the student!
Empty bowls at MCC is October 25th,
from 11– 3 pm. GPA students are making
and contributing bowls to the charity
event, which raises money for Foodshare.
S tuden t s o f the Mon th – Sep tembe r
S c i ence News
Ma th News
P a g e 3 V o l u m e , I s s u e
Students in Chemistry class brewing up
experiments.
Mr. Jacobson, the Assis-
tant Principal, serves up
some lunch.
Coming soon (next month): Staff Mem-
ber of the Month! We will use this space
to not only highlight the students who
represent Great Path Academy, but also
the staff that students and staff vote on
that are recognized through our
“Staff Gotcha Paws”, an extension of
the Student gotcha paw system for
our staff members- students, parents
and fellow staff members can fill out
the staff gotcha
paws and submit
them– they are
available in the
GPA main office.
We would like to honor and
recognize the following stu-
dents for their positive con-
tributions of Respect, Re-
sponsibility and
Safety to the GPA
community. Con-
gratulations
to: Angela Zor-
rilla - 12th, Mat-
thew Smith - 12th,
Jasmine Cruz - 11th, Marcel
Mitchell - 11th, Jadea Harris
- 10th, Keenan Gadson -
10th, Jacinda Pinnock - 9th
and Timothy Powers - 9th
(photos below and to the
right) Wear your “On a
Great
Path”
shirts with
pride!
characteristics that can be used to
describe and classify any curve.
In Ms. Kondratuk’s Statistics
class, we are currently analyzing
data and how to represent it
correctly with histograms, dot
plots, frequency tables, stem
plots and box and whisker plots.
In Algebra II, we will begin to
explore inverse functions and
explore functions using technolo-
gy.
Mr. Hoffman's Algebra classes
have recently finished up their
units on patterns and are moving
into the dreaded world of Alge-
braic Equations. However, with
Mr. Hoffman as their guide, these
students will make it through the
dark forest of letters and num-
bers unscathed and stronger than
ever before! In College Prep
math we have been focusing on
financial math, by teaching kids
how to calculate different pay
rates, employee benefits, and
loans. These college prep stu-
dents will also be prepared for
life!
In Geometry, students have been
studying transformations on a
plane and how artists and archi-
tects use these transformations to
create more aesthetically pleasing
works using both rotational and
reflective symmetries. In Pre-
calculus, students have been
learning the "driver's license"
breeding pairs. We will be moving into
a unit that looks at the structure and
function of DNA, RNA, and proteins
and how their interdependence con-
nects to phenotypes.
Physical Science: Students are currently
working to understand the Periodic
Table of Elements and the information
that it can provide them. They are
creating their own versions of the table
and using the information to create
models of atoms for the first 18 ele-
ments. Soon we will be shifting to
study the properties of the elements
and how those relate to information
given by their placement in the Periodic
Table.
Anatomy & Physiology: We are cur-
rently learning the proper use of our
microscopes in preparation for our
studies of cells and tissues. The stu-
dents will begin investigating the struc-
tures of the body systems and how they
function upon completion of our pre-
sent work with the microscope.
Chemistry: We are learning about
matter and its different types. We
learned that matter can be classified
into substances and mixtures. In class,
we are investigating methods to sepa-
rate ingredients of different types of
mixtures based on their physical prop-
erties. We have applied the techniques
of filtration, evaporation and chroma-
tography to separate homogeneous and
heterogeneous mixtures.
We are looking forward to celebrate
National Chemistry Week by incorpo-
rating different activities during the
week of October 18th through the
25th.
Biology: Students have just completed
their first unit on sustainability which
sets the stage for the remainder of our
topics throughout this course. Next we
will be learning about sustainability
issues surrounding how to feed the
quickly growing global population, but
we will do so through the lens of genet-
ics. Specifically, students will learn
about basic monohybrid and dihybird
crosses seen in Mendelian genetics and
they will apply their knowledge to
looking at genetically modified foods.
Students will debate the usefulness,
health risks, and trade-offs associated
with GMO's and GMO labeling.
Genetics: Students are wrapping up
their first unit which reviewed Mendeli-
an genetics, went deeper into non-
Mendelian traits, and showed them how
to relate probability and calculations
using fractions to predictions about
Ms. Canty, GPA’s social worker, is
participating in a research study
called STARS (School-based
Treatment of Anxiety Research
Study). The study target group is
students who have excessive anxiety,
worry and/ or shyness. If eligible,
your child will receive one of two
types of talk therapy from Ms. Canty.
Your child will meet with her for 12
weeks during the school day. After
treatment, you and your child will
meet with the UConn group for 2
more times to see if your child’s
anxiety has improved. There is no
medication involved in this study. All
evaluations and treatment are
provided at no cost to families.
Families may earn up to $120 in gift
cards for participating in the study.
Contact Dr. Jeffrey Pella at (860)
523-6476 or [email protected].
GPA S tuden t s A t t end ADL’s 2014 Gr ea te r
Har t fo rd To r ch o f L ibe r t y Award Recep t ion
out, the person who was handing out
the awards discussed their achieve-
ments and what they did in order to
achieve their goals. Words in the
speeches resonated with the students
watching. “I don’t want to be toler-
ated, I want to be celebrated, but I
will accept being understood,” Cato
T. Laurencin stated in his speech, as
he accepted the Torch of Liberty.
This experience was a “life-changing
experience which raised our aware-
ness, “ Jadea H., a GPA student from
Hartford. Rufino agreed, “It was a
great experience to have, all of the
important people that we met. We
met the CEO of Cigna, a representa-
tive from UConn…they were talking
to us- they said they were honored to
meet us!”
Ten Great Path Academy students
and two staff members attended the
Connecticut Regional Office of the
Anti-Defamation League’s 2014
Greater Hartford Torch of Liberty
Award Reception on October 7th,
2014. The Great Path Academy
students were invited in order to
assist with the ushering of guests and
attendees, as a result of Great Path
Academy’s partnership with the Anti-
Defamation League. The event
honored Cato T. Laurencin, M.D.,
Ph. D., C.E.O. of the Connecticut
Institute for Clinical and Translation-
al Science at UConn and Max Javit,
the ADL National Commissioner.
Max Javit, one of the honorees, came
to Great Path Academy to witness
the "Names Can Really Hurt Us"
assembly in action in the school
community. Upon experiencing the
Great Path Academy school-wide
assembly, he was proud of the pro-
gram implementation. “Out of all
the programs that I’ve been to, Great
Path Academy demonstrated the
program the best.”
The students in the beginning, took
turns greeting people, then became
official guests, mingling, networking,
and spreading the word on the GPA
Ally program and the "Names Can
Really Hurt Us" assembly and how it
has positively affected the Great Path
Academy school community.
“I teared up during one speech,”
Rufino M., a GPA student from
Farmington, recalled. There were
stories of discrimination, prejudice,
violence and hate shared by the
speakers. The awards were handed
60 Bidwell Street
Manchester, CT
06040
Phone: (860) 512-3700
Fax: (860) 512-3701
Email: [email protected]
R e s p e c t ,
R e s p o n s i b i l i t y a n d S a f e t y
A Middle College High School
The guidelines put together collaboratively by
the group for the trainings and assembly.
“R.O.P.E.S.” , with words to guide the experi-
ence starting with each letter.
We’re on the web!
Www.greatpathacademy.org
Thank you to the following donors to the PBIS Gotcha Cart:
Walmart Manchester location, Dunkin Donuts Newington Corporate Office for 100 hot or cold drink vouchers, Mrs.
Kliman, Mrs. Vousden, Mrs. P.-D., Mr. Buder. We appreciate the support for helping to recognize GPA Student Cougars
for being Responsible, Respectful and Safe!
If interested, donations can be made to Ms. Canty– please email [email protected] or call (860) 512-3723.
G R E A T P A T H A C A D E M Y
A T M C C
Photo collage
from the ADL
training sessions after school
in the GPA Community
Commons.
Great Path Academy @ MCC does not discriminate on
the basis of race, color, religious greed, age, gender,
gender identity or expression, national origin, marital
status, ancestry, present or past history of mental
disorder, learning disability or physical disability,
political belief, veteran status, or sexual orienta-
tion. The following individual has been designated to
handle inquires regarding non-discrimination policies:
Susan Canty, Title IX Coordina-
tor,[email protected].