NOTAM 013111

31 January 2011

Principal’s Message

Happy New Year once again! February 3 marks the beginning of the lunar year and celebration of the Lunar New Year (2011 is the Year of the Rabbit.) In addition to celebrating with parades and parties, there are many traditions associated with the Lunar New Year, all with the intention of bringing good fortune in the months ahead. One tradition is “sweeping for success” which requires a vigorous cleaning of one’s house from top to bottom to expel the dust and disappointments of the past year and usher in a bright future.

Today is the start of second semester of the school year. You completed final exams and major projects last week. Whatever happened last semester is now behind you except for the learning you take forth into this new semester. As the Chinese advise, find some time to celebrate the goals you have accomplished, dust yourself off if you are disappointed in your progress, and know that your future can be as bright as you choose to make it. You refined your goals in Advisory last week—so now you it’s time to implement your plan. There’s no better time than now to ‘clean your own house’; particularly ridding yourself of any negative thinking that causes you to believe that you can’t achieve success. Persevering and using your talents to the fullest will lead to experiencing the good fortune you so deserve. Go for it!

Congratulations, Ms. Ciccone-Cook, who received word just last week that she has been selected through a competitive application process for admission to the Space Foundation’s Teacher Liaison program. As part of her application, Ms. Cook was required to submit a space-related assignment that her own students might undertake. It was convenient that her students were already researching, writing, and presenting a case for bringing a retired space shuttle to the Museum of Flight. In her role as Teacher Liaison, Ms. Cook will be an active link between the Space Foundation, the aerospace community, Aviation High School, and Highline Public Schools, and will join an elite group of educators from around the country who want to inspire the next generation of students to pursue and excel in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math. Ms. Cook and other teacher liaisons will be honored at the 27th National Space Symposium, the largest gathering of space professionals in the world, this April in Colorado Springs. For more information about the Space Foundation's Teacher Liaison or to learn more about with whom Ms. Cook will be mixing and mingling at the conference in April, visit the Foundation’s website at http://www.spacefoundation.org/education/educators/programs/teacher-liaison-officers.

Speaking of very important people: we will host some of our own on campus this week. The Aviation High School Board of Directors, chaired by Peter Anderson, will meet this Friday from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Some members of the board may arrive early or stay late to visit classrooms and network with you. We’ll also be inviting a few students to share their learning during the board meeting.

As always, I am honored to be your principal. My best to you for an ‘over the top’ week of learning! ~Reba


NOTE:

• Alaska Airlines regrets not being able to proceed with the delivery flight as originally planned on 21 January. We are still coordinating with Alaska and are hopeful that we can reschedule for some time this year. Stay tuned.
• Continue checking the AHS website or logging on to school computers to get updated information on events and meetings.
  

Quote of the Week:
“Always look on the bright side of life.” ~ Monty Python

NOTAM 012411

24 January 2011

Principal’s Message
We ended last week with The Grammy Awards, Aviation High School’s 7th Annual Talent Show, sponsored by Culture Club. It was a spectacular evening, with acts ranging from food catching to piano, guitar, drum, band, dance, and singing performances with a variety of interpretations. Congratulations to all of the performers. You were magnificent! I applaud your confidence as well as your talents! Special thanks to Culture Club Advisor Mrs. Wombold and Leadership Student Elizabeth Ong for their work to ensure a successful event; and a big round of applause for Miranda Sita and Jose Aguilar for serving as masters of ceremony and being just as entertaining as the many acts! Thanks, too, to judges Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Joshi, and Mr. Ward.

Last Friday also included another Mentor Breakfast & Networking Meeting, which was a perfect way to start College & Career Day. As I made my may from table to table in the gymnasium, it was both validating and heartwarming to hear conversations about college options, career pathways and the future of the work world, and to feel the camaraderie and mutual respect that has developed through this program. Our mentors are truly a vital part of our learning community as they constantly network on our behalf and share their own experiences. For example, it was Mr. Karl Rein-Weston who invited Dr. George Bibel, Professor at University of North Dakota and author of a new book titled Beyond the Black Box, to be our speaker last Friday. Our mentoring and internship programs have grown exponentially with the stellar leadership of Ms. Pappas and Ms. Burr. Thanks to their efforts, we now have more than 150 mentors! Internships are also being developed at a variety of aviation/aerospace-related sites. Our goal is that all AHS students will be connected with a mentor and experience an internship as part of your high school years. It’s all part of informing your thinking about college and career options in STEM-related fields. We’re on track!

While most of us were still sleeping Saturday morning, our Science Olympiad team traveled to Camas, Washington for an invitational event. A very long day on the road and competing in various events was worth the extraordinary effort, though, with strong performances by many of our students and great learning by all. Congratulations to all our Olympians and special thanks to Coaches Durrant, Dyer, and McComb.

First semester of the school year ends this Thursday, with no school scheduled for Friday. My best to you on exams and final projects!



NOTE:

• Eastside Carpool: Eastside AHS families are organizing after-school carpools for students living in Mercer Island, Issaquah, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Woodinville, and Bothell. If interested, please contact Therese Beale (therese.beale@gmail.com). Families whose students participate will be asked to drive one afternoon per week to pick up students at the end of the school day.
• Continue to check school calendar on our website and school’s desktops.

Quote of the Week:
“And the result of their (Skunkworks team) labor was a beauty of a plane, in both form and function. Not one SR-71 Blackbird was ever lost to enemy nor friendly fire. Every one of the thirty-two built performed admirably, helping America both in peering behind the Iron Curtain and into Soviet Russia, and later in their lives providing reconnaissance for attacks against Qadaffi’s Libyan army. And now, more than fifty years after her conception, the dark lady still holds the speed and altitude records for a manned, air-breathing aircraft. She represents the pinnacle design of the aircraft of the Cold War, and the full, wonderful result of what the drive of the ‘can-do-spirit’ can accomplish.”

~Morgen Sellier, concluding paragraph of Can-Do Spirit essay,
Aviation & the American Character class, 2010

Note: One of the 32 Blackbirds produced is on display in the Great Gallery at the Museum of Flight. It is magnificent!

NOTAM 011811

18 January 2011

Administrator’s Message

AHS staff and students joined people around the country yesterday to celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King remains an inspiration and model to us all: his vision of a society characterized by social justice; his unwavering commitment to that vision; his insistence on non-violent action to affect change; etc. Last week, we were treated to a guest speaker who emphasized some of these themes; thank you, Mr. McHenry, for sharing your stories and insights!

As we consider the lessons from Dr. King’s work and apply them to our lives today, they raise important questions for us, individually and collectively:

• What kind of society do we want to live in?
• How do our long-term goals get us closer to that place?
• How do our words and actions and thoughts TODAY move us closer to that vision?

Part of the answer from the school’s perspective can be found in our guiding principles:

• Personalization, connecting students to each other and adults in positive and meaningful ways
• Relevance, connecting the work we do in school to work outside of school and to the ‘real’ world
• High expectations, making the work appropriately challenging in service of preparing each of our students for college, career, and citizenship
• Collaboration, working together towards audacious goals and to realize astonishing gains
• Partnerships, creating and cultivating external relationships to connect our students and our work with the world beyond our walls and beyond our school day.
  
• With College & Career Day coming up on Friday and the 1st semester of the school year drawing to a close in only two weeks, I encourage you to spend some time reflecting on your guiding principles and what you can and will do to bring those principles to life, both in and out of school. What do you want to be known for?
  
  We are fortunate to have numerous models within our community. Among others, we have students who shared their appreciation for their connection to the community and the arts by participating in the PTSA-sponsored Reflections program. Several were recognized as finalists:
  · Visual Arts—Nina Dubinsky and Nicole Mays
  · Literature—Danica Balsiger & Nicole Mays
  They will be recognized on Monday January 24th at 7:00 p.m. at the PAC. We wish them the very best in State competition.
  
  With gratitude for your thoughtful engagement in our work and with each other, I remain appreciatively yours, ~SM

NOTE:

• Seniors, ACE club members, and others: This Friday’s delivery flight is temporarily on hold pending final certification from FAA. While the delay is slightly inconvenient for us, take comfort knowing that our partners take our safety and the safety of the flying public seriously
• We bid a fond farewell to Lenore Stark, our long-time and much-beloved office manager, as she heads to Spokane to be nearer to her family. In her place, we welcome Joel Carey who has stepped into role of Office Manager for the remainder of the year. Mr. Carey is familiar with the job; he was part of the AHS family during the 2005-06 school year. We are glad to have him back.
• If you are absent: Remember that state law requires both a phone call AND a written note to excuse any absence. Please follow-up last week’s absence due to weather or illness within 24 hours of return to school or the absence becomes unexcused until an administrator approves the late written note.
• Continue checking the AHS website or logging on to school computers to get updated information on events and meetings.Continue checking the AHS website or logging on to school computers to get updated information on events and meetings.

Quote of the Week:
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

NOTAM 01011

10 January 2011

Principal’s Message

The Seahawks wasn’t the only team that kicked off this past weekend. Our Skunkworks Robotics Team traveled to Auburn High School on Saturday where they joined other teams in the region to officially “kick off” the 2011 build season. They now have just six weeks to build their robot and enter it into competition. Go Skunks! And…our Science Olympians and Speech & Debaters gathered at school on Saturday to kick it, too, by engaging in study and practice for upcoming competitions. Go, mentathletes!

Hearty congratulations to Thomas DeSilva, Banks Hunter, Olivia Pham, Betsy Smith, and Jim Stone, each whom have been designated as a Commended Student in the National Merit Scholarship Program. All of these outstanding scholars took the 2009 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) and scored in the top 50,000 of over 1.5 million students who took the exam. Super congratulations to ColeSullivan, too, who also took the PSAT/NMSQT and scored in the top 3 percent of more than 160,000 Black Americans! This is an outstanding accomplishment for which these students, their parents and families, and our school can feel justifiably proud!

As part of the commended students’ congratulatory letter from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the author offered the following words of wisdom: “The degree of success you achieve in the future will depend upon you—your use of abilities and your perseverance toward the goals you set for yourself.” Sound familiar? I hope this is the message that is constantly reinforced throughout your years at AHS. It is certainly a fitting follow-up from my New Year’s message to you last week in which I encouraged you to refine your goals for college and career. I'm hoping that you did so last week or that you at least got started! If not…there’s this week!

Our extraordinary partner, Alaska Airlines, is again offering AHS seniors and ACE Club the opportunity to be part of a delivery flight on Friday, 21 January 2011. This will be the third time that AHS students have been given this amazing gift of joining the Alaska crew to pick up a brand new airplane, take a scenic tour over the Puget Sound region, and be treated like royalty by both Alaska Airlines and the Boeing Company. This is a very fun and informative learning experience for all who participate, and participation is dependent on your returning your permission form today or tomorrow at the very latest! Mrs. Hiranaka has the list and is checking it twice and thrice, so please help her job go smoothly by getting yours in ASAP!

Underclassmen: We will likely have room for up to 10 of you to participate in the delivery flight. If you have never flown on a commercial airliner, you get first consideration! You must indicate your interest TODAY, though, by signing up with Mrs. Hiranaka during lunch. We will then confer with your teachers to gain their endorsement of your participation and notify you before the end of the school day if we can include you in the trip.

Our third and final Information Program for 8th graders and families will be held this Thursday, January 13 from 5:45-8:30 p.m. Students: Please know how very much we appreciate your active involvement in these events; it is, however, mandatory that you be asked by the administration or a staff member in order to participate. We are liable for you if you are on campus, and we are committed to being accountable. Only those students who are on Mrs. Hiranaka’s list (which staff members have provided to her) will be given name badges as well as pizza. Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

Students, staff, parents/guardians, and community: Please mark your calendar for Friday, 11 March for our annual PTSA-sponsored Dan Hartley potato dinner & mini-auction, which will be held from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Machinist Hall in South Park. This fun event is a fundraiser for senior scholarships, but more importantly, it is a great family-style event with Irish music and dancing, a tasty potato dinner with all the toppings and gourmet desserts, and an award to a key community leader who has served as a wingman to AHS. You don’t want to miss it! I’ll look forward to seeing you there.

A reminder that next Monday is a non-school day in celebration of the amazing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today, we are holding a special assembly to honor his life work and contribution to humanity.

A final note: Snow is being forecast for late this week, so please remember to check the Puget Sound Educational Service District’s website (www.schoolreport.org) for possible school delays or closures.

My best to all for a productive week of learning! Honored to be your principal—Reba


Basic information about the Highline School District Levy:

• Highline voters should be receiving their ballots within the next week.
• This is an Educational Programs Renewal Levy, not a new tax. The renewal levy is how our local community funds Highline schools.
• The levy pays for basics such as teachers, textbooks, bus transportation and other essentials that are not fully funded by the State of Washington.
• The current levy expires in 2011.
• The levy makes up about one-quarter of the school district’s operating budget. About 80% of the levy pays for teachers and staff.
• Levy election is by mail only. Ballots must be postmarked no later than February 8th.

NOTE:
Continue checking the AHS website or logging on to school computers to get updated information on events and meetings.

Quote of the Week:
“I have a dream…” ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

NOTAM 010311

03 January 2011

Principal’s Message
Welcome back! Happy New Year! Carpe Annum!

I hope that your holiday break was relaxing and rejuvenating and that you are now ready to seize the New Year with passion and purpose. Whatever resolutions you may have made for 2011, may you achieve them!

I love this time of year as it signifies new beginnings and new opportunities to do good and make good within the universe. It’s a time to focus on what’s most important rather than urgent. So while I have contemplated my own goals and commitments for 2011, I’ve also thought a bit about yours.

When you accepted our invitation to be part of the AHS learning community, you signed a commitment form, which included an agreement to apply to at least two colleges/universities in your senior year. If you are a senior, I know that many of you have already applied and been accepted to your school of choice. If you are among this group of scholars, hearty congratulations! If you haven’t yet defined your plans and taken steps to pursue your education and career goals, there is no time like the present! And, yes…this means freshmen through seniors!

This week in Advisory, review and refine your goals for college and career. Be SMART as you develop and monitor your goals, i.e., make them Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Time-bound.

If you have not already done so:

• Define what you want to do when you enter the workforce. At this point in your life, it’s natural to have questions and very likely that your answer will change over time. Even if you don’t know yet, choose something AND write it down. Starting now will help you gain clarity later.
• List two or more colleges/institutions that you want to attend that offer majors that will help prepare you for your career.
• Research your college options: Do they offer what you want to study? What options will you have that will meet your academic and social needs? What most appeals to you? What concerns you? What are their admission requirements?
• Reflect on what you are doing now to prepare yourself for your top school of choice: Are your actions aligning with your goals? What can you do to enhance your high school resume? Who can help you? Is the résumé you are building well-rounded? While academic achievement is important, college admissions reps also want to know that you have performed community service, participated in extra-curricular activities, been part of a team, held a leadership position, worked part-time or interned, etc. Take stock of all of these aspects so that you can start to fill in the gaps while there is still adequate time.

Reviewing your goals is not a one-time activity. Rather, it is a process that needs to be in perpetual motion. Developing your plan as a freshman allows lots of opportunity to refine your goals and action steps as you gain clarity about what you want to do in life and where you want to go to gain the knowledge and skills that will ensure your future. Without a plan, it’s much too easy to get sidetracked and settle for less than you want and deserve. Put your plan in writing and monitor it along the way; you’ll find it much more useful that way! (And much less useful if you don’t.)

I encourage you not to worry about how you are going to finance your college education when you are first making your plan. Start with a clean slate. Dream big! Believe in all possibilities for your future. In my experience, when passion and preparation come together, the rest falls in place. Go for it! Develop your goals first. And, know that you have a super knowledgeable and helpful counselor and staff to help you! The sky is NOT the limit!

Congratulations to Scott Anderson for being selected as Puget Sound Skill’s Center Student of the Quarter! Scott attends PSCC for part of the school day where he is enrolled in the Autobody Technology program.

The Highline School District will be running a renewal levy in February, which provides significant support to operate our schools. Parents and families: Information is available on the Highline School District website at www.hsd401.org, and if you want additional information, please contact me.

It’s good to be back at school! My best to all for an audacious week of learning and renewed commitment! I am honored to be your principal. ~Reba


NOTE:
o Continue checking the AHS website or logging on to school computers to get updated information on events and meetings.

Quote of the Week:
“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”
~Martin Luther King Jr.