(Highland Park Elementary event photos by Deanie Schwarz for WSB) Cinnamon, a six-week-old dairy calf from Monroe, was the surprise guest on Thursday as part of Harvest to Table education in Seattle Public Schools. Health Intervention Specialist Helen Walsh told WSB, “This month we are highlighting dairy and how important it is for our bodies. Next month, we will be doing potatoes, and who knows what we will be doing for that!” Also visiting along with Cinnamon, Kelsey Schubach, a Dairy Ambassador for the Dairy Farmers of Washington:
She talked to students about what cows eat and how they are milked, and widened some eyes by explaining that cows have four stomachs.
Last but not least – a student art display in The Junction:
Art from West Seattle Christian Preschool is now hanging at Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (WSB sponsor) in The Junction, where proprietor Lora noted that Hotwire’s newly repainted walls are an even-better backdrop for art. Hotwire is one of the stops on the monthly West Seattle Art Walk – next week’s edition is less than a week away, next Thursday night (February 10th), 6-9 pm.
Thanks to Luckie for sharing photos from aLafayette Elementary tradition – the first graders’ Lunar New Year parade. She reports, “Children from the other grades lined the halls to watch, cheer, and sound their noisemakers. Included in the parade was a dragon, musicians playing drums, and lots of rabbits, as the Year of the Rabbit has just begun. The first graders also enjoyed Chinese noodles, oranges, and sweets.”
(WSB photo from May 2010 West Seattle 5K)
One more sign of spring! The West Seattle High School PTSA has announced that online registration is open for this year’s West Seattle 5K – third year that runners of all ages will hit the road on Alki Avenue SW. This year’s date is Sunday, May 22nd. You can sign up, and find out more about the 5K, by going here. According to the WSHS January newsletter, this also will be an all-day “Seattle Summer Streets” event again, with Alki Avenue SW shut down to traffic for the afternoon after the race (we’re doublechecking this with SDOT).
8:37 PM NOTE: SDOT’s Rick Sheridan did confirm to WSB that this WILL be a Seattle Summer Streets today – so Alki Avenue SW will close to traffic for the whole day on May 22nd, continuing after the race is over, as it has previously.
Last night was the final scheduled home game of the season for Chief Sealth International High School‘s girls-varsity basketball team, so that meant special honors for the seniors on the team, which went on to defeat West Seattle High School, 65-50. Details and a video clip after the jump:Read More
Tonight (Thursday) at West Seattle’s historic Admiral Theater, you’ll get something extra if you’re going to the 6:40 pm showing of “Waiting for Superman” – a preview of the new documentary about Community for Youth, a mentoring organization that works at three Seattle Public Schools high schools, including Chief Sealth. Mentors and students will be there to talk about the program. You can find out more at communityforyouth.org.
West Seattle High School PTSA is sending reminders this afternoon that the second annual WSHS Spirit Dinner and Auction is just two weeks away – Thursday, Feb. 17, at The Hall at Fauntleroy, 5:30 pm. Tickets are $35 WSHS staff, $45 individual, $75 patron, $360 table of 8. You can buy tickets by e-mailing rjlee@seattleschools.org or calling 206-252-0476.
Two notes from Chief Sealth International High School this afternoon: First, the school’s new sign along SW Thistle is finally complete. Its illuminated top section was activated some weeks back, but the section beneath it didn’t get the school name back until today – Steve Wiseman of American Marketing is in our photo, helping finish the job.
Second story: You might remember the saga of student Molly Freed and teacher Noah Zeichner, traveling to Aspen for the Ideas Festival last year – the photo at right is from the WSB story about their trip. Molly was required to follow up by creating her own Ideas Festival at CSIHS – and now it’s set. Her teacher has sent word of the first annual World Water Week at Sealth, March 21-25, which they are organizing in collaboration with 50 other CSIHS students and teachers: “World Water Week will promote understanding of the relationship between members of our local community with water here and around the world, with the emphasis on improving that relationship through conservation and local action addressing equal access for all global citizens.” Here’s the official website. Five days of speakers and workshops for students, teachers, and community members are planned, including a big public event on the first day, with keynote speaker Robert Glennon, author of “Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It.” They’re also expecting participation from U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee and a blessing from the Duwamish Tribe. The week will culminate on Friday 3/25 with no regular classes – instead, students will participate in activities including a water-carrying walk; Zeichner explains, “We will be simulating what over a billion people do every day to gather fresh water for their families” – also tied to a monthlong fundraiser for Water 1st International.
Tonight, the West Seattle High School and Chief Sealth International High School girls’ varsity basketball teams face off. Last night (Tuesday), the boys played. A look ahead, as we interview the Sealth girls’ coach, plus a look back at last night’s boys’ games – after the jump:Read More
Denny International Middle School‘s motivational music video “Teach Me How to Study” has landed them on KING 5 Morning News the past two days – quick clip on Monday, then a live in-studio interview this morning with teacher Gary Lai and assistant principal Chanda Oatis. If you missed it while running around getting ready for your day, we’ve embedded the interview video above. When we first reported on the video last Friday night (adding comments from the filmmaker and Denny principal Jeff Clark to the story as the weekend progressed), it had a little over 1,000 views on YouTube; as of right now, it’s up to almost 8,000. What? You haven’t seen it yet?
(Watch for the cameo by the “Westwood Neighborhood Welcomes You” sign.)
(Photo tweeted by @hopeseattle showing part of what was donated)
“We didn’t realize it could be so fun helping others.” That’s what Mike Jensen quotes his daughters as saying after they spent Saturday volunteering during the Hope Lutheran School donation drive to fill a school bus for West Seattle Food Bank. (Mike tells the story, from volunteers’ perspective, here.) The unofficial tally as of tonight is 40 boxes full of food donated from morning till night on Saturday outside the Jefferson Square Safeway; the official weigh-in is scheduled for tomorrow, so we’ll know then how many pounds of food were donated. More pix are on the Hope Lutheran Facebook page. (Missed the food drive? You can donate to WS Food Bank any time – here’s how.)
MONDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Mike sends word that the final tally was more than a ton and a quarter – more than 2,500 pounds of donated food!
Changes for softball at West Seattle High School, with details from parent volunteer Denise Liftin:
With the departure of Coach Carrie Burr at the beginning of the school year to take on other opportunities as Athletic Director and Activities Coordinator at Ballard High School , WSHS Wildcats Fastpitch had to say goodbye to their very successful coaching staff (also including Chuck Albany, Gordon Hessel and Alicia Hill, who had assisted Coach Burr).
Although the former staff will be missed, the team is excited that stepping in to take over the Wildcat Fastpitch tradition are new Head Coach Jim Perkins and Assistant Coach Deavonnie Spadoni, both of whom were involved with John F. Kennedy High School Fastpitch (Deavonnie as a catcher and Jim as an Assistant Coach)
Photos, and some words from the new coach, as Denise’s report continues after the jump:Read More
ADDED SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Will Braden, who produced the video, answered our note asking for a little backstory:
The video was shot a couple weeks ago; it only took us one four-hour session and one follow up hour long session to get all the shots.
Gary Lai, who is a math and science teacher at Denny, wrote the lyrics. He and I went to high school together (at Garfield) and are old friends. I do videography and filmmaking, and he asked me to shoot it for him. We came up with a lot of the ideas and settings on the fly, just using whatever we could find. I’ve done some video stuff before as a favor, just to support Denny (and Gary) but this was definitely a more ambitious undertaking!
Gary has a real passion for teaching, and I know he relishes being the “cool” teacher, so I knew this was right up his alley.
We’re hoping to do more of these, since people seem to be responding positively to this one!
ADDED SUNDAY AFTERNOON: A comment from Denny principal Jeff Clark, among those featured in the video:
Thanks to the efforts of Denny staff and an outstanding volunteer, Will Braden, Denny International has our second motivational video filmed and posted online. The goal is to continue to connect our students to their studies and the plan of college graduation in ways that are relevant to them. I would like to thank Mr. Lai, Mr. Braden, Ms. Oatis, Ms. Whited, Mr. Kimball, all of our dancers and everyone else who helped – thank you!
12:11 PM UPDATE: The district just sent word they have to move the location of this meeting – it will be at Chief Sealth International High School instead.
In case you missed Tuesday night’s special safety presentation at Denny International Middle School, our video has the main event in its unedited entirety – 35 minutes on cybersafety, presented by a local expert: Stefanie Thomas from the Seattle Police Department, where she is a victim advocate with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Think you know everything about the online do’s, don’ts, and dangers? You might want to watch, just to be sure. (As noted here in our preview, the event was presented by the Denny PTSA.)
Westside School (WSB sponsor) is sharing news this afternoon about two teachers visiting from the Republic of Korea. This is the second year they’ve had a visit like this (first year at their new West Seattle campus in the former EC Hughes School). Westside’s announcement explains:
The teachers have been selected for their excellence in teaching and are currently working with the A.C.E. Language Institute at Seattle Pacific University. They are very interested in how Westside School uses strategies such as Project Based Learning, Investigations, and Integrated Lessons to teach the children. The Korean teachers will be observing all classes and they will have the opportunity to present lessons on Korean culture to the students.
“This is an exceptional opportunity for our community to learn about life in Korea as well as for our guests to experience the ‘Westside Way,’ remarked David Bergler, Westside School’s Director of Admission. He continued, “It is our hope that this experience will cultivate long-lasting cross cultural understanding and the building of a relationship between our school and those of our guests. We believe that through this experience our students will learn about another culture and spark interest in becoming globally-minded citizens and future world travelers.”
The teachers are halfway through a two-week visit.
“It’s time to get serious about your family’s personal safety.” So begins the Denny International Middle School PTSA‘s open invitation to a special event tomorrow (Tuesday) night, 6-7:30 pm at Denny, and they tell us that students are welcome as well as parents, from anywhere in our area, not just Denny families. The event promises “important safety tips to help keep you and your child safe both in the real world and the cyber-world,” with guests including the school-safety officer assigned to Denny. There’ll also be Giannoni’s Pizza on sale for $1/slice. Denny is at 8402 30th SW (map).
Arbor Heights Elementary third-grade teacher Mark Ahlness is not only an online pioneer – he continuously leads his young students out onto the technological cutting edge of exploration. Latest way that’s happening: The laptops the kids are holding in our top photo are XO’s, which Ahlness describes on his website as a “unique piece of hardware that kick-started the competitive innovations leading to the netbook, the Kindle, and yes, even the iPad.” You might remember hearing about them a few years back – the idea was, you buy two and donate one – here’s a promotional video that explained them:
As soon as Ahlness let the word out that he was interested in having his students work with them, that word got around in a way that now has 28 XO’s taking up residence in his room. As he writes online, the students weren’t short on technology, but this is a wholly different kind of technology, which has sparked them into more exploration, and collaboration, since the computers are networked.
He’s not stopping at one XO laptop per student – he’s hoping to get more donations, enough to create a lending library, among other goals (listed here).
(WSB photos by Ellen Cedergreen) South Seattle Community College‘s food and wine programs are famous in their own right – perhaps because they’re open to even international education, with guests like the team from Spain that came in on Thursday. Among the team that led cooking and wine classes and presentations almost all day was guest sommelier Jesús Sanguino Collado (above). The featured wines and foods were from the Castilla y León region of Spain. Click ahead to see what they tried, and how:Read More
There’s excitement under every footstep at the Community School of West Seattle. Sarah Airhart shares the photos and the news, along with words of thanks:
The Community of School of West Seattle wants to let everyone know that after a year of planning, auctioning, fundraising and grant writing and 3 weeks of being closed to remodel, our new Marmoleum floors and children’s bathrooms are finally IN.
They are so beautiful and we are so thankful to all our friends and families in and around the West Seattle community that made this happen. We raised $17,000 at our auction and were awarded a grant for $21,000 we worked hard and saved our pennies to make this happen. Any past alumni families (and anyone who just wants to come and look around) are invited to stop by to our Open House on January 22nd between 10 am and 2 pm – we can’t wait to show you what YOU helped make happen. It truly does take a village!
Story and photos by Ellen Cedergreen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
A big celebration at Roxhill Elementarytoday as it received a total of 4 grants, all from the Seattle Education Foundation, awarded in a dignitaries-laden ceremony that also marked grants for schools elsewhere in the district.
Roxhill teachers applied for and were selected for the grants after they submitted proposals to Seattle Education Foundation’s board. Up to $20,000 in grant money is distributed annually among Seattle Public Schools, whose superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson was among those at Roxhill this morning for the presentation.
Last year, Roxhill was given $1,000 (the foundation’s maximum allowance for a single grant) for audio library books and equipment. This year, they’ll get to expand the impact with grants going to fund a variety of areas including: physical education, kindergarten, and reading intervention.
Today’s ceremony at Roxhill happened during the morning assembly. Students carried out their regular assembly business items; student of the month awards, reminders to be persistent and responsible, school chant, and birthdays. But the end portion of the assembly brought a big surprise in the form of a really big check.
Students got to hear a short and humorous presentation by Roxhill alum and foundation board member, Jim Oftebro, who shared a story from his tenure as a PE teacher at Roxhill. Then Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, and School Board member Steve Sundquist helped present the check along with the general manager at SEF’s Foundation House, Farron Bernhardt. Bernhardt told WSB he’s gratified to see the whole process go full circle, all the way from Foundation House back to the schools. Roxhill students gave big cheers at the prospect of more field trips, PE, and art.
Read on for more about the specific grants, and the Seattle Education Foundation:Read More
We’re at UW’s Hec Ed Pavilion, where Chief Sealth International High School‘s boys-varsity basketball team just beat Bellevue High School, 60-58, as part of the two-day King Holiday Hoopfest. More to come!
3:03 PM UPDATE: Our first clip shows the team taking the floor in the big arena. WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand covered the game at Hec Ed, and reports:
Chief Sealth took advantage of Bellevue’s foul trouble late in the game to put up a 60-58 win at the 2011 King Holiday Hoopfest, at Hec Ed Pavilion on the UW campus. Both teams had foul trouble throughout the game, but Sealth’s rough patch came early. In the first quarter, Bellevue had 12 points, most from free throws. The Wolverines held onto a steady lead for most of three quarters due to Sealth leading the game in turnovers with 25. But late in the third quarter the Seahawks’ Pepe Hernandez and Keon Lewis worked to bring their team a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter. From there Bellevue’s foul problems kept them for regaining the lead.
After the game Coach Colin Slingby met the media along with Lewis and Hernandez:
Lewis and D’nique Harris-Welch were Sealth’s high scorers with 18 points each. Bellevue’s standout player was Nate Sikma, who had 27 points Nate is the son of former Sonic Jack Sikma. No break for Sealth – big game tomorrow night at home against Rainier Beach.
(April 2010 photo courtesy Denny IMS, from one of 4 marching-band performances in a single day)
Two announcements tonight from the music department at Denny International Middle School in West Seattle — first, an invitation to their next concert; second, a request for help with a chance to get to a big gig on the road:
The Denny International Middle School Music Department will be having their Winter Concert on Thursday, January 20th at 7:00 PM in the Chief Sealth International High School auditorium.
Please join us for a fabulous array of performances by the Jazz Band, Concert Bands (beginning, junior and senior), Orchestras (junior and senior), World Music Choir, and Steel Drum Ensemble. It is sure to be a night filled with delightful music created by many talented and enthusiastic students. We are very excited to be able to perform in the newly renovated Chief Sealth Auditorium — a big step up for these students from their previous performance venue.
The Denny Marching Band has been invited to give a performance down Main Street Disney which will be quite a thrill for them. If there are people out there able to help contribute to a scholarship fund, we would gladly accept donations to enable more students to take advantage of this special opportunity. Donations can be made to the Denny Music Department via department head Marcus Pimpleton. For additional information, please contact Marcus Pimpleton at mjpimpleton@seattleschools.org.
Second story: You might remember the saga of student Molly Freed and teacher Noah Zeichner, traveling to Aspen for the 
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