Accompanied by appreciative gasps and camera flashes, three student artists unveiled their masterpieces for induction into the Kateri Brow Memorial Student Art Collection at the Issaquah School Board meeting on June 14, 2107. Superintendent Ron Thiele congratulated Stephen Lee, Grace Shigeyam, and Sanya Kapoor during the meeting.
The Kateri Brow Memorial Art Collection began in 1998 as a tribute to former superintendent Kateri Brow, who championed school art programs during her tenure from 1986 to 1992. Private donors created a fund to allow the District to annually purchase pieces from students and professionally display them for the Issaquah community. Each school year, the Superintendent encourages educators throughout the District to submit their recommendations for the collection and also make selections from the annual PTSA Reflections Art Shows.
The new acquisitions are:
To view the Kateri D. Brow Memorial Student Art Collection, visit the Administration Building during business hours (7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays).
Congratulations to Skyline High School’s Gretel von Bargen on being selected as a recipient of the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship for the 2017-18 school year! The AEF Program provides a unique opportunity for accomplished K-12 educators in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to serve in the national education arena. Fellows spend eleven months working in Federal agencies or in the US Congressional offices, applying their extensive knowledge and classroom experiences to national education programs and/or education policy efforts.
Von Bargen, who has been a teacher at Skyline since 2002, says that there are many reasons she chose to apply for and pursue this Fellowship. Apart from hoping to be intellectually challenged by the experience, she looks forward to invigorating both her own professional practice and that of those around her, as well as overall wanting to make an impact by playing a part in the promotion of science as a way of knowing, thinking, and problem solving. Ultimately though, von Bargen is motivated by her students, siting her main incentive for applying as being able to positively impact student learning.
For the next year von Bargen will be working at the Department of Energy (DOE) aiding in a number of tasks. She will help run the National Science Bowl, which involves vetting questions, training team coaches, and overall facilitating the event. At the National Labs she will work with other educators and scientists to connect authentic scientific research to classroom students. Also, she will be working on her own professional development via a professional issue of concern. While she hasn’t finalized her focus yet von Bargen is hoping to bring awareness to the challenges presented by the teacher shortage, along with emphasizing the importance of STEM teachers in education.
At the end of the eleven month fellowship, AEF educators are prepared to return home, equipped with access to a national network of education leaders and programs, a better understanding for the challenges and possibilities in STEM education, and a renewed passion for teaching, ready to make signification contributions to their schools and school districts.
Current sponsoring agencies include: the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). For more information about the Albert Einstein Fellow Program, please see their website.
For more information about the National Science Bowl, please click here.
For more information on the National Labs, please click here.
More than 460 students from 158 public and private schools, heritage institutions, and home tutoring programs competed in the 2017 Washington State Chinese Language and Talent competition. Congratulations to the following Skyline High School students who took home honors.
This annual competition is co-organized by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and all the winning students receive OSPI certificates signed by Washington State Superintendent Chris Reykdal. Skyline Principal Donna Hood, State Senator Bob Hasegawa, OSPI World Languages Supervisor Angela Dávila joined more than 800 attendees celebrating students’ achievements at the award ceremony held on May 28 in Seattle. Skyline junior Daniel Qiang, on behalf of the winners, played his winning performance at the award ceremony.
For more information about the Washington State Chinese Language and Talent Competition, please visit their website at http://www.waace.org/2017-wa-chinese-competition.html
Photo from left to right: Kevin Zhu, Kevin Cai, Annie Tang, Jeremy Gunawan, Young-Young Ma and Ms. Cathie Jing (award presenter)