May Clocktower

NO. 4 MAY 2016 CLOCKTOWER May Edition ISSUE NO. 4 CAPSTONE UPDATE COT-9 SUSTAINABILITY DEERING HIGH ORIGINAL WHAT PROJECTS ARE FRESHMEN BUILD PRODUCTION 75 SENIORS DOING? SOLAR RECHARGING DEERING PRODUCES STATIONS FOR IPADS! THEATER WITH A MESSAGE. CLOCKTOWER During WINN, more than thirty students participated in a A partnership with the Telling Rube Goldberg Challenge. Students worked twice a week Room sparks young writers’ throughout the quarter to design simple machines with at confidence, so they too can least 6 energy transfers that would end with the ringing of a bell. For our culminating event, 5th graders from share their story! Longfellow visited the lab and served as judges as each team demonstrated their machine. !1 NO. 4 MAY 2016 CLOCKTOWER Dear Clocktower Reader, Every year the Deering faculty has the opportunity to vote to select the From Principal recipient of the Walter E. Russell award for excellence in teaching. This annual Waltz award was initiated by the University of Southern Maine to recognize a teacher who demonstrates a firm commitment to the profession, the ability to share a love for learning, an intimate involvement in the ongoing life and activities of Deering, and creative self-renewal to teaching. Mary Ann Brown was selected by her colleagues to receive the award for 2016, and I would like to share some of the comments made by her peers in support of her nomination. ‘Mary Ann has been a dedicated member of the faculty for 15 years. She is one of the first to arrive and frequently one of the last to leave the building. She is a conscientious teacher who works daily with students before school, sets high standards, and makes math engaging. She stepped up as advisor for Future Teachers in 2009 when a beloved colleague passed away, and even donated her stipend to his family. Mary Ann Brown is an all round asset to Deering High School: teacher, colleague, mentor, and friend’. Below is the speech Mary Ann gave at the recent National Honor Society induction ceremony: “I was very honored to have been nominated for the Walter E. Russell Award for excellence in teaching. Becoming a teacher is something I hoped to do from the tender age of five and from the age of twelve I knew that I wanted to be a mathematics teacher. Luckily, I had five younger siblings to practice on. It has been a very rewarding career to say the least. Being selected by my peers is an extremely meaningful and humbling experience for several reasons. My first is that I am a graduate of both Deering and the University of Southern Maine. Walter E. Russell was the second president of the USM and the performing arts building on the Gorham campus bears his name. My history with Deering extends beyond being a student and a teacher here as both of my children are also graduates of Deering. This affords me the distinct honor of knowing almost every person who has received this award before me. The first person named was Catherine Joyce in 1976 who happened to be my favorite English teacher whom I stayed in touch with for many years. She nurtured my love for reading and introduced me to the works of Jane Austen. We all should have a teacher like her and I know most of you are probably thinking back and thinking of that person you will always remember. I have the greatest respect for every teacher who has earned this great honor and privileged to work with many during my 15 years at Deering High School. Congratulations to all of you here tonight being inducted into the National Honor Society. You have worked hard to get here. I feel very blessed to know and to have had the privilege of teaching many of you. What you may not know is that I have also learned a lot from you. Some of you are graduating this year and entering a new chapter of your life. I wish you luck and to know the joy of being a life-long learner. Always remember to follow your dreams.” Respectfully, Ira !2 NO. 4 MAY 2016 CLOCKTOWER DEERING CAPSTONES This spring some 75 Deering seniors will end their high school careers by completing a Capstone project they have designed themselves. Instead of coming to Deering itself between May 23 and June 3, eligible seniors will be completing service projects, job shadows, investigations into topics they are passionate about, and learning outside of the regular classroom environment. This marks the third year that groups of Deering seniors have participated in the Capstone process, something the Portland school committee has mandated for the class of 2018. All seniors involved commit to spending at least the equivalent amount of classroom seat time working on their project, and to making a final presentation of their learning on Tuesday June 7, just two days before graduation. In previous years, seniors have been involved in service projects with with the Preble Street soup kitchen, Portland Trails, and Habitat for Humanity, among others. They have job shadowed with nutritionists at the University of New England, teachers at St Brigid’s School, local law firms, Channel 8, and Greg Tosi, Deering’s own athletic trainer. They have painted a mural on the wall of the cafeteria, built a dirt bike engine, monitored deer tracks and habitats, and directed a musical revue. This year’s crop of seniors are involved in similarly diverse and fascinating endeavors. Justin Cheng, whose long term goals involve electrical engineering, will be gaining hands-on experience by building a quadcopter drone under the mentorship of Mr. Jeff Borland. Halima Noor and Ahmed Ali are going to investigate Maine’s criminal justice system for juveniles, while five Khmer speakers (Janet Heng, Lili Kien, Amber Heak, Pisey Chhorn, and Anna Thach) will be working with Cambodian students at Hall Elementary School to guide them in their english language learning, a subject that’s close to their hearts. One project that caught my eye is being conducted by Mitchell York, Isaac Finberg, and Tommy Nguyen. The three of them want to explore Physics further than they have been able to do at school by building a working model of the Laser Interterometer Gravitional-Wave observatory, to investigate what gravitational waves are and how they work (see diagram below). They believe this will help to prepare them for the subjects they will be studying in college next year. Katy Cyr has also created another totally self- directed project that will develop her knowledge of potential medical careers, involving job shadows at Mercy Hospital and volunteer work at Partners for World Health. We wish all seniors involved a wonderful learning experience. ~Andrew Gordon !3 NO. 4 MAY 2016 CLOCKTOWER COT-9 UPDATE! The Deering Freshmen class has “taken action” on reducing Deering’s energy usage! After an inspirational kick-off event on March 23rd with environmental sustainability experts, the class was ready and energized to tackle the issue of Deering’s carbon footprint on both a personal and large scale level. Students engaged with representatives from EcoMaine, ReVision Energy, Maine Energy Marketers Alliance, Maine Clean Communities Coalition, the SOAP group, the Green Alliance,Net-zero homes, Portland Water District, Garbage to Garden, and the founding member of the youth activist organization, “First Here, Then Everywhere”. The panelists discussed their careers, the work of their businesses or group, their passion to conserve and protect the environment, and what students can do to help the environment. The following week the entire class traveled to Bowdoin College to tour and learn about the innovative steps to energy conservation and efficiency the college is taking to reach carbon neutrality by 2020. At each station, the students took pictures and asked questions of the Bowdoin Environmental Studies program student tour guides. Deering students learned about Bowdoin’s solar power usage, green roof design, co-generation heating as well as the geo-thermal heating, composting and recycling programs. Finally on April 6th, it was the students turn to “take action”, and they got busy on their first “Class of 2019 Build Day!” Every student was working on either building rooftop solar powered charging stations or portable Altoid tin iPad/cellphone chargers, designing and creating the covers for the portable chargers or creating an environmental banner with activist artists from the Beehive Design Collective. Using concepts from science, math, social studies and English, the students created political cartoons and wrote letters to the editor on the issues of environmental sustainability and global warming, designed and created three 100 watt solar panels which will be installed on the Deering High School’s roof and over sixty portable iPad chargers for classrooms. Soon all Deering students will be able to charge their phones and iPads using solar energy, thereby reducing Deering’s carbon footprint! !4 NO. 4 MAY 2016 CLOCKTOWER Three Deering sophomores, Fadumo Adan, Arlo Farr-Weinfeld, and MERRICONEAG POETRY Alexander Fitzgerald, are finalists in the ninth annual Merriconeag Poetry Festival! These students' poems were selected from student submissions from FESTIVAL FINALISTS! Cumberland, Sagadahoc, and Androscoggin counties. Only twenty total poems were chosen for the event. This year's judge is nationally-known poet Rachel Contreni-Flynn, who will announce the first, second, and third prize To the Dreaming Kid winners of the contest at the festival on Sunday, May 1st. By Arlo Farr-Weinfeld All three students expressed feelings of surprise about having their poems Halloween-themed shirts from Goodwill selected. "I feel lucky and also proud of kid you're a tiger creepin’ in the crabgrass myself," added Alex Fitzgerald, "I am out back really impressed and really proud that hair’s on fire you crawl through the three Deering students out of the cashmere jungle of your grandmother’s twenty were selected as finalists for the finest getup in her big old closet festival." Shana Genre, the students' Creative mismatched kid--you pick your outfits Writing teacher, welcomes this happy for yourself stand on tiptoes to reach news.

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