Christiana Agriculture Teacher is
2009-2010 Teacher of the Year

Andrew Beadenkopf, an agriculture teacher at Christiana High School, has been chosen as the Christina School District’s 2009-2010 Teacher of the Year.  Congratulations to Andrew for his outstanding work on behalf of students, and his dedication to the field of education.  Teachers of the Year are chosen in the spring for each school building, and the District Teacher of the Year is chosen from those nominees.  Andrew will now be in the running for State Teacher of the Year, which will be selected this fall.

Several schools in the Christina School District are involved in the Healthy Food for Healthy Kids, Inc. initiative begun last year in the District by Healthy Food for Healthy Kids founder and director, Dr. Thianda Manzara.  In this unique program, students plant school gardens and harvest and eat the produce they grow. Gardens have been planted for the second year at Marshall and Keene Elementary Schools, and were initiated for the first time this year at Stubbs and Brader Elementary Schools.

Marshall’s project includes the help of many in the community.  The Marshall garden, which consists of eight 4’ x 8’ raised beds, was funded by a Lowe’s Toolbox for Education Grant and built with the help of Healthy Food for Healthy Kids, Inc., in cooperation with the District’s Child Nutrition Services department and  Marshall staff, families, and students. Lessons are tied into the science curricula and allow all grade levels to take a part in the growing process. Students prepared the soil and planted spinach, lettuce, arugula, turnip and radish seeds in April. Funding for future maintenance needs of the garden was received from the Produce Marketing Association. Recently, Marshall students and staff harvested their produce, and had such success that they were able to donate vegetables to the Food Bank of Delaware and to several other schools in the District. The students received the following letter from the manager at the Kirk Middle School cafeteria:

Dear Marshall Children and Staff:

The children and staff at Kirk Middle School, Sterck School for the Deaf, Jennie Smith Elementary, Delaware Autism Program (DAP) and Parkway Academy would like to say "Thank You " for sharing the most delicious and beautiful greens that you grew. The cafeteria workers at Kirk used the vegetables to make chef salads for all of the above schools. In addition to that, we all served it as our tossed salad, which was on yesterday’s menu. We applaud each of you for the excellent job you achieved with your garden. Your veggies rule the Food Pyramid.

With many thanks,

Miss Diane, Kirk Cafeteria Manager

Stubbs, Marshall, and Brader Elementary Schools are also sharing a part of their upcoming harvest with the Food Bank of Delaware through the “Plant a Row for the Hungry” campaign. This community outreach program encourages everyone in the community to plant an extra row of vegetables, herbs or flowers as a contribution to those in need.

The mission of Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids is to inspire and motivate youth to develop lifelong wholesome eating habits by helping them experience the joy of growing, cooking, and enjoying garden-fresh produce. The school gardens are part of the CNS Education Cultivation project, which is one of the initiatives of the CSD Wellness Policy.

Click here to learn more about the Christina School District's Wellness Policy.   

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The Christiana High School Boys Track Team are the winners of the 2009 State Championship.  The team was the subject of a recent Community News article entitled Christiana boys prove they are champs indoors and out.  Click here to view the complete article from communitypub.com.

Anayely Elizondo Wins GHS Wellness Center "Design a Hoodie" Contest Thanks to a mini-grant by the American Lung Association, the Glasgow High School Wellness Center held a school-wide "design your own hoodie" contest.  The popular contest received over 60 submissions with Anayely Elizondo selected as the winning artist.

If you were looking for the students and staff of Wilson Elementary School on May 5, you wouldn’t find them at school. As an end-of-the-year celebration of the school’s Positive Behavior Support (PBS) program, Wilson went “on the road,” taking the entire school on a field trip. The day was remembered in pictures taken with a digital camera by teacher Laura Donahue through the Best Buy Teacher Awards. The grant was given to the art program, but the whole school has benefitted from the equipment they received.

The Downes Elementary School Band performed for students and staff on May 20th, under the directorship of Mr. Brian Williams.  The band consists of fifth grade students who met once a week during the school year.  The Downes community thanks Mr. Williams for working his magic with the band this year.

Elbert-Palmer Elementary School 4th graders, Jada Opher, Tiasia Taylor, Kenya Gaines, Markeith Tann, Rashad Woodland, and Anthony Cooper celebrated Delaware’s Week of the Animals with several activities.  The students organized a school wide collection of blankets and towels that were donated to the SPCA.  The fourth graders decorated the school with posters encouraging students to be kind to animals, and read stories to Elbert-Palmer Kindergarteners about animals and pet care. In addition, Annie Lomax and Belle, from Paws for People, visited classrooms discussing the importance of respect, responsibility, and caring for the animals in our world.

Marshall Elementary School’s assistant principal, Eric Mathis, has offered to take a pie in the face from the top reader from each grade participating in the Accelerated Reader program.  The competition has become heated as Dr. Mathis visited classes and encouraged students to give it their best shot!  The school wide assembly for this event will take place on May 29, and students will have the chance to see just what some educators are prepared to do to motivate them to read!

A Spring Concert that included students from Wilson, Brookside, Gallaher, Maclary, and Downes was held at Downes Elementary School on May 18th.  The show began with students from Downes singing several songs, and playing the steel drums and recorders.  In addition, students who play strings and are students of Ms. Meshejian from Maclary, Gallaher, Wilson, and Downes performed several songs ranging from Hot Cross Buns to Ode to Joy.  Also, Mr. Williams led his instrumental ensemble with students from Jones, Wilson, Maclary, and Downes that ended the show with a march, several children's rhyming songs, and a portion of the 1812 Overture.  Congratulations to all of the students and their parents for supporting the arts in the schools and the teachers for making it happen.
 

Brader Elementary School sent three teams to the Meaningful Economics Competition on May 12th and 13th.  The teams studied economic terms and principles during Enrichment classes for several weeks before the competition.  The teams also sacrificed recess, at times, to put in some extra prep time for the contest.  The teams enjoyed the fruits of their labor by doing very well at the competition.  The third grade team:  Ama Amposonah, Tolu Banjo, Brennan Gallamoza and Oluwaseyi Osinubi, won first place in testing and fourth place in production.  The fourth grade team:  Walid Bourjal, Noah Donten, Phillip Penn and Anna Wu won first place in testing and first place in production.  The fifth grade team:  Emily Aldridge, Ayana Brown, Andrew Davis and Kerry Petrick worked very hard at the competition and found the competition at their grade level to be very challenging.  We are proud of all Brader students who competed for their hard work and participation.

On May 16, English Language Learner (ELL) students at Newark High School performed six hours of community service at Fort Delaware.  Newark High School requires sixty hours of community service as a graduation requirement for the class of 2010 and beyond.  The list of students in the program who participated in this event include Majo, Brenda, Jessica, Maria, Kevin, Eduardo, Digeo, Rafael, Alan, Jonathan, Gabino, Brayan, Liliana, Michael, and Kiara under the tutelage of Mrs. Vivian Morales, a fluent speaker in both English as well as Spanish.  At Fort Delaware, the students were fascinated by the reenactments of soldiers fighting in “war.”  After watching their performances, the students then head to the “prisons” where they received their community service hours in cleaning them out, as well as organizing goods.  Not only did they receive community service hours, but they also had exercises in practicing their English skills, by following directions.  After the experience, the students were overjoyed by their participation, feeling they benefited greatly from the experience.  They have already begun to plan with Ms. Morales another time when they can return to Fort Delaware and give back to the community once more.

Congratulations to the Junior Achievement banking team of Chantisse Teel, Shamara Brummell, and ShayQuana Abrams.  Their bank, called Trust Bank, is one of the top 10 high school banking teams, out of 50, in North America.  They are going to New York City on June 28th to participate in the 2009 JA Banks in Action North American Competition virtualelimination rounds, sponsored by the Citi Foundation.

These students are in Mr. Ed Smith’s Business Finance class at Glasgow High School.  They had competed online over a two-week period to see how effectively they can manage their bank. By taking on the role of banking business leaders, they made corporate decisions to steer their bank to success.

Another milestone was accomplished; this is Mr. Smith’s third time in a row having a student team reaching the JA Banks in Action North American Championship.  In the first year, his student team at Newark High School won the championship.

“The JA Banks in Action Program is educational and rewarding experience for the students,” says Mr. Smith.  “During the school year, my students learn how to effectively manage a bank by making corporate decisions related to deposit and loan rates, credit card rates, marketing, and how to gaining market share.”

You can follow their journey this summer by going to Mr. Smith’s web site and register at the JA Banks in Action NewsFlash link.  You will receive either an email or text message update on the Glasgow Team’s progress towards bank supremacy.  The web site is located at http://www.teacherweb.com/DE/glasgowhighschool/edsmith

A huge AVID “thank-you” to all the teachers and staff who helped make this year’s AVID Awards and 5th Year Celebration of AVID such a success.  Almost 200 parents, students and friends attended, including 22 former AVID students.  It was great seeing these students’ familiar faces and listening to their high school experiences.  Most memorable were the speeches by Michael and Steve Maden, now Cadet Chief Petty Officers at Delaware Military Academy.  The evening included family, career and college project displays, which received many positive comments. We extend a special thanks to the following teachers who manned the kitchen; preparing, serving and cleaning-up.  You want this group to cater any event!--Ms. Anderson, Mr. Dzielak, Ms. Hansen, Ms. Scott, and Ms. Sylvah.  Thanks also to Ms. Sosa, Ms. Morris, and Ms. Rhudd for their technology expertise in creating the flyers and awards.  From: The AVID Team teachers and AVID Site Team at Kirk.