WES students design window display

Congratulations to Westmere Elementary art teacher Mary K. Weeks and fifth graders who designed a window at the Little Bookhouse in Stuyvesant Plaza. This is part of the City of Albany’s Winter Festival, a family event held Saturday, December 29 from 11:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. in downtown Albany in various locations. The work began in September as the student’s imagination, creativity and excitement led to the development of a wide (and wildly colorful) variety of 3-D snowman characters. The students also had the thrill of using acrylic paints and canvas to create snowmen portraits. In the tradition of the project, many recycled materials were used reflecting Westmere’s commitment to global awareness and renewal of the planet. This is the third year that Westmere has developed an art installation for the Little Bookhouse window.

Suburban Council Fall Season Sportsmanship Awards

Wayne Bertrand, Athletic Director and Supervisor of Health and Physical Education, has announced that the following teams have been recognized as overall winners for the 2007-08 Fall Suburban Council Sportsmanship Award:

• Boy’s Cross-Country 1st Place Coach Bob Oates
• Girl’s Cross Country 1st Place Coach Dave Kosier
• Field Hockey 2nd Place Coach Kelly Vrooman
• Girl’s Swimming 3rd Place Coach Brenna Autrey
• Boy’s Soccer 4th Place Coach Mike Kinnally

The Guilderland Athletic Program was once again named the overall winner for the Fall 2007 school year. Guilderland has been awarded the league honor for the last five years. Wayne writes, “We are certainly very proud of that accomplishment and hope to make it six years running. We are off to a good start!” The top three finishers for this season:

• Guilderland – 16 points
• Shaker – 13.5 points
• Mohonasen – 12 points

This award is voted on by players, coaches and parents from other schools in the Suburban Council. This indicates that our coaches are instilling high standards, sportsmanship and the core values of our program in our athletes. Congratulations to our athletes and coaches!

Guilderland Staff Win Mini-Grants

Congratulations to Guilderland staff who have won Capital Region BOCES mini-grants for innovative curriculum projects involving information fluency: At Westmere Elementary, Micki Nevett, library media specialist, and Robert Whiteman, enrichment teacher, received $953 for materials to assist 4th grade students in their ongoing study of the Hudson River. Their intended outcome is to complete a living museum providing a walkable tour of the Hudson River, from New York City to the Adirondack Mountains.

At Altamont Elementary, Michelle Rispole, language arts coordinator, and Lisa Lehman, library media specialist, will also receive $953 for their project on a primary book study with great lessons. They will develop mini lessons for primary teachers, incorporating information fluency, and purchase books and storage units.

Guilderland was the only district to receive 2 mini-grant awards this year. In total, 10 grants were awarded out of 23 applicants. Congratulations to these creative staff members!

Guilderland students to participate in NYS Honors Band

Lori Hershenhart, district music supervisor has announced that three Guilderland students have been selected to participate in the New York State Honor Bands in March 2008. Each year from hundreds of applications, Honor Band members are chosen based upon they NYSSMA score from the previous spring. Each ensemble rehearses and performs during the NYS Band Directors annual Symposium held at the Syracuse Convention Center.

Performing with the Middle School Honor Band will be Amanda Dame, grade 8, who will be playing under the direction of Patrick Burns, an Associate Professor of Music at Montclair State University. Samantha Crouse, grade 10, will be playing flute in the High School Band under the direction of Dr. Russell Mikkelson, director of bands at Ohio State University. Representing Guilderland in the Jazz Band will be Steve Travers, grade 12, playing under the direction of renowned alto sax player and composer, Jim Snidero.

Selection to these prestigious ensembles demonstrates exceptional musicianship and is an outstanding accomplishment. Congratulations to these fine young players, and their teachers, Mrs. Jenn Austin, Mrs. Kathleen Ehlinger and Mr. Lee Russo.

Pine Bush Social Worker Publishes Books

Congratulations to Pine Bush social worker Catherine Ricchetti who has published two books about her work with Miss Siggy, the therapy dog. The titles are Dogs In School: Creating a Dog Program for Your School and Miss Siggy Speaks: Letters From Children.

FMS Enrichment News

Enrichment teacher, Deb Escobar has announced that the FMS Future City runoff on December 15th went very well. All six teams completed the process and learned a great deal about engineering and teamwork. The first place went to Brien Miceli, grade 7, Kathryn Liotta, grade 7, and Hannah Liu, grade 7; second place went to Mary Powathil, grade 7, Laura Tang, grade 7, and Haewan Hwang, grade 7. Congratulations to these students. If you would like to learn more about their projects, and other students involved there is an article posted on the Guilderland Schools website. The regional competition will be held on January 19th.

The Geography Bee also went well on December 14, with 22 students competing. Bram Peterson, grade 8, is our school champion and will take a qualifying written test to vie for a spot in the State Competition. Matt Gu, grade 6, was our second place winner, rounded out by the rest of the top 10 finalists:

• Luxi Peng, grade 6
• Sai Naidu, grade 7
• Dan Rogers, grade 8
• Ishan Mehra, grade 8
• Xingyu Wei, grade 8
• Greg Tabak, grade 8
• Mike Dvorscak, grade 8
• Nigel Simmons, grade 8

Congratulations to all of these students!

FMS Teacher Published in Journal

Congratulations to FMS language arts teacher, Brandy Marshall, who has had two articles published. The 2007 Utah English Journal published “Caveat Emptor: A Genre Study of Infomercials” and “Good Night Sweet Princess” was published in Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine (Summer, 2007).

Math Counts Results

Deb Escobar, enrichment teacher and Caley Vangelis, math teacher have been coaching students for the Math Counts competition they held recently. The following students will be the school team that will represent Guilderland at the Regional Contest in February:

• Sharon Lin Grade 8
• Chen Gong Grade 8
• Xingyu Wei Grade 8
• Greg Tabak Grade 8

The alternate team of four will also participate in the Regional contest:

• Ye Jin Oh Grade 7
• Sam Hydery Grade 8
• Asif Mehdi Grade 8
• Matt Seita Grade 8

Best wishes to these students and the coaches.

Tri-M Music Honor Society News

The Guilderland High School Music Department is proud to announce the induction of 25 new members into the Tri-M Music Honor Society. Tri-M is the international music honor society for middle and high school students. It is designed to recognize students for their academic and musical achievements, reward them for their accomplishments and service activities, and to inspire other students to excel at music and leadership. Through more than 4,500 chartered chapters, Tri-M has helped thousands of young people provide years of service through music in schools throughout the world.

The induction ceremony will take place on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. in the Choral Room (513) at Farnsworth Middle School. In this event, the inductees will be performing in small ensembles prior to the ceremony. The honored speaker for the evening is retired Music Supervisor, Sam Ferrucci who will be receiving the Tri-M honorary lifetime membership. Light refreshments will be served following the event.

We congratulate the new members as they join the existing members in providing exemplary musicianship, leadership, and service to the Guilderland community.

Tri-M Members
Elizabeth Barber
Karl Barber
Brooke Bondi
Yifan Chen
Molly Clancy
Jeff Geisendorfer
KT Haas
Meredith Hall
Emily Kidd
Moriah Knight
Kevin Lovely
Katie Matthews
Scott Miller
Annie Rodwell- Lawton
Kevin Root
Jenny Rosen
Joonyoung Song
Becky Stumpf
Lauren Stumpf
Emily Stumpf
Scott Suriano
Stephen Travers
Matt Williamson

2008-2009 New Tri-M Members
Alex Boccio
Katie Boyagion
Erin Dewey
Russell Diedrich
Mike Dorato
Keenan Foulke
David Frey
Kevin Ghizzoni
Paul Jones
Josiah Koehn
David Luidens
Alex Metzger
Zagreb Mukerjee
Hillari Patschureck
Lauren Peters
Jordan Randall
Ariella Segal
Wangzhong Sheng
Jeremy Simon
Hyeon Soh
Nicholas Tariello
Sean Teeter
Hannah Wagner
Yipu Wang
Bingling Zhang