Message from House Principal - Mr. Peter Parisi

We all live in a time when instant gratification is the rule. Cell phones and computers allow us to talk, shop, and argue at will. Video games, cable, and digital television allow us to channel surf until we eventually find a television show or an athletic contest that holds our interests. We are all affected by this culture of instant gratification, to one degree or another. It is important to note however that learning is not always instant. While, at times, we do get that challenging social studies concept or solve a math problem instantly more often than not gaining understanding takes time and energy. Helping our students to understand this is fundamental to their long-term success. We need to reassure them that if they are encountering difficulty in a particular class, that by remaining in the class, working with the teacher, and seeking extra help they will eventually meet with success. “Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.” Make THIS school year your personal best school year!

Pink Out Day

Students wearing pink during 3rd annual Pink Out Day on October 23rd to raise awareness and money for breast cancer.

STUDENTS OF THE MONTH

September:
9th Caden Sidoti, Joseph Zielinski
10th Kendra Greene, Zach Schaffer
11th Gabrielle Barnardo, Joseph Moore
12th Julian Delgado, Shana Joseph

October:
9th Adam Lovett, Tyeise Williams
10th Yazmine Berroa, Spencer Turner
11th Kumar Araujo, Mandakinie Jaggarsal
12th Kervin Alcindor, Christina Villanova

Kumar Araujo & Mandakinie Jaggarsal

GE House THEMES of the Month

GE House decided to work toward a new climate/culture within GE House by adopting a theme of the month. All content area classes and some elective classes are offering simple lessons to students each month focusing on the theme of the month. The themes of the month for this school year are as follows:

• September: Respect


• October: Organization


• November: Community


• December: Perseverance


• January: Leadership


• February: Integrity


• March: Responsibility


• April: Creativity


• May: Discipline


• June: Reflection
  
  

She has been selected as 1 of only 9 students from across New York State who is participating in a year long training to become a State Officer in the 2010-2011 school year for Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA).
Johanna began her series of training days by attending the Summer Leadership Conference at SUNY Oneonta in Oneonta, New York from July 27th through July 30th and a Fall Leadership Conference in Owego, New York from November 6th through November 8th. Johanna participated in activities to develop leadership skills as well as other interpersonal skills as she interacted with other officers in training during the Conference. At the Fall Leadership Conference Johanna presented a speech on leadership and learned that she would be serving as Historian for New York State FCCLA.
FCCLA has more than 220,000 members and nearly 7,000 chapters from 50 state associations and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The organization has involved more than ten million youth since 1945.FCCLA is the only Career and Technical Student Organization with the family as its central focus. Participation in national programs and chapter activities helps members become strong leaders in their families, careers, and communities.

Congratulations

Congratulations to the Schenectady High School's Johanna Stone, GE House, and Meranda Bell, Fine Arts, who represented both our school and New York State at the National FCCLA Conference in Nashville, Tennessee from July 12 to July 16, 2009.
Johanna and Meranda participated in the Applied Technology category with a project entitled, "Child Development- Documenting Guided Participation." They created a portfolio and poster boards displaying their project.

GE student Junior Joseph Comer-Leva

Joseph Comer-Leva is a star student athlete who runs for the SHS Men’s Cross-Country team. Comer-Leva is a hard worker, a great helper, and an academic scholar who goes out of his way everyday to make his fellow students lives meaningful. Comer-Leva pushes himself and his teammates to run and succeed on the Cross-Country team making him a model student athlete.

GE Students visit college

Team 11 and 12 visited SUNY Cobleskill on October 7 and took 43 GE students for a campus tour, admissions’ presentation, and lunch.College Information Night was October 28th. GE Students listened to Mrs. Sarah Curcio, Mr. Scott Trottier, Ms. Melissa Coon from HVCC, and Mr. Kevin Manning from St. Rose speak about what juniors and seniors should do to prepare for college. Parents asked questions about applications, financial aid, scholarships and how to choose a school. Door prizes were awarded, and light refreshments were served.

The Counselor’s Corner

Guidance Office- (518) 370-8200

From left to right: Mrs. Curcio- Mrs. Curcio is in her 5th year as a School Counselor. She is the counselor for the GE students whose last name begins with the letters A-L. Her email address is curcios@schenectady.k12.ny.us
Mr. Trottier- Mr. Trottier is in his 4th year as a School Counselor. He is the counselor for GE students whose last name begins with the letters M-Z. His email address is trottiers@schenectady.k12.ny.us
Ms. Houghton- Ms. Houghton (maiden name is Crandall) is in her 3rd year as a School Counselor. She is assigned students from all four houses. Her email is houghtonc@schenectady.k12.ny.us

What do Guidance Counselors do? 1) Advise you regarding your selection of classes 2) Help you to get involved in after school clubs and activities 3) Help you with college/career planning 4) Help you to solve problems you may be experiencing 5) Help you to make positive choices 6) Many other things -All you have to do is ask and we will try to help you.

Events: Financial Aid Night will be held on January 5th at 7pm in the high school library.

Attention Seniors
-College BOUND SENIORS: need to be aware of college application deadlines- Guidance recommends having applications done by December 1st when possible, “The Guidelines” scholarship binder is available for you to look at in the Guidance Office, BEFORE you can fill out your Financial Aid Application (FAFSA), you will need to get a Federal Student Aid PIN for you and your parents by going to this website www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp, and the FAFSA can be filled in starting January 1st (Get your PIN # first).

Things to Consider
-Students should be thinking about what courses they would like to take next year. Guidance Counselors will be meeting with students in January for scheduling. Course guides are available in the Guidance Office or on the Schenectady City School District website
-If you are taking a Regents exam in January, be sure to attend any review sessions that are offered. Also, you can study and take practice Regents on http://www.regentsprep.org/.

Reading

Mrs. Sorensen, a GE Reading Teacher, has students participating in judging the nominations for the Charlotte Book Award for 2010. The students are Cortney Phillips and Isabella Bosco (shown to the left). Ms. Liz Yanoff, Assistant Professor at St. Rose, is a judge who donated 100 hardcover 2009 nominations to GE House over the summer.
The students are part of the judging panel giving their input to Ms. Yanoff. The titles of the nominations for the Young Adult award are Trouble, The Hunger Games, In Search of Mockingbird, Schooled, Skin Deep, Dear Jo, Beauty Shop for Rent, Chains, Independence Hall, and Kimchi & Calmari.

GE Scholar Hour

GE Scholar Hour is looking for students who need extra help in core subject areas, students who are willing to act as tutors to help their peers, and students who are looking to have fun!!! You will be working with highly qualified teachers to aid you in your studies. Your teachers may even give you extra credit for coming!!! Report to AB17 after school Tuesday through Thursday each week for this program.

Back To School Night 2009

AP government students register parents and students to vote. Students Zach Thurman and Miriya Rittner along with Ms. Grover and Mr. Ognibene man a voter registration table on Back to School Night 2009. It is the 4th consecutive year AP students have volunteered for voter registration. The activity has registered over 300 new voters over the last several years.

Mr. Parisi speaks to students at GE Freshmen Orientation Day

Mr. Parisi welcomed Freshman to SHS prior to the start of classes.

Pat Riley

SHS Female athletes dine with Mr. Pat Riley.

Nature’s Classroom Club (NCC)

This autumn Nature’s Classroom Club members have a number of projects in progress in preparation for big changes this coming spring around our high school. As soon as the contractors working on the new science addition give the “all clear,” we will return to work planting perennials along the walkway of the faculty entrance.

As weather allows we are also working on Phase I of improving the Flag Pole entrance. We will enhance the soil so that we can plant a perennial garden in the spring. Our third project for this year is to work with Mrs. Sorenson to improve the Zen Garden court yard in the GE wing.

Looking to the future- Nature’s Classroom Club is working to establish a Kindergarten to 12th grade garden project with Central Park and Mrs. Foote’s Family and Consumer Science classes. We hope to break ground on fruit and vegetable gardens in the spring.

Did you know? If you would like to join us, please check out the blackboard in the Greenhouse window for our next meeting date and time. New members are welcome!

AFJROTC

In August, six Cadets attended staff training in Binghamton, New York. The cadets set up an agenda, opportunities for curriculum in action trips, and established unit goals for the year. Cadets started their day with physical fitness, participated in training throughout the morning, swam and played basketball in the late afternoon at the Binghamton Tennis Center, and participated in a bonfire the last night. This was the first staff training for the unit outside of school, and the experience was fantastic.
We had 16 cadets volunteer to help out with the Grout Cross Country Run and 18 more for Hispanic Heritage night. The corps had a Color Guard for all 5 Class AA football games along with the November 7th Class B football game that was hosted by SHS. The Corps decorated and put on the Haunted House- setting up a maze and taking children through it. The evening was very eventful. The cadets made the night a success. At this point in the year, the corps have contributed 255 service hours to the school/community.
Recently, on November 10th, 18 cadets spent the morning with the Air National Guard for the “Serve the Troops” Breakfast in Scotia for Veterans Day. The breakfast was provided by the Glen Sanders Mansion and served by dignitaries. They also had the opportunity to go through a C-130 aircraft and be briefed on its flight operations.

GE Peer Mediators Program is off to a running start!

There has been tremendous interest from new students looking to join. There were 17 returning student mediators from last year and 36 new students for a total of 53 Peer Mediators! 24 of these students are from the GE House!

There were 2 all day trainings on October 6th and October 8th in which the student mediators were taught about conflict, trust/confidentiality, problem solving, and the principles of mediation. Although most of the training day was set as lecture, there were times for role playing and games. After the training, all student Mediators received a certificate.

Peer Mediation has accomplished over 56 mediations to date. Most of them have reached an acceptable agreement between the disputants.

Peer Mediation has also had several successful bake sales. Pep rally sales were a bit short because the items that were supposed to be sold had been on a FedEx tractor trailer that over turned on the NYS Thruway the Wednesday before the Pep rally– so we never received them. But in spite of that, the student mediators stepped up and baked more items to be sold at the Pep Rally.

On September 24th, the Center for Community Justice held their annual breakfast meeting. Several Peer Mediators attended this Breakfast as well as GE House Principal, Mr. Parisi. At this Breakfast meeting, a 2009 SHS GE graduate, Le’Asia Thomas, was recognized by the agency and received a $250.00 scholarship to apply to a college of her choice.

As of November 13, 2009, our beloved advisor, Mrs. Mary McGovern, will be leaving SHS and the Center for Community Justice for another job. Mrs. McGovern says she has “LOVED working for the school district and the Center for Community Justice but mostly with and for the kids. They are the greatest!!!” The Center for Community Justice is currently interviewing applicants for the Peer Mediation Coordinator position and hopes to have that person in place before Mrs. McGovern’s departing date or shortly thereafter.

Point Break

GE 9th graders have been participating in a nationwide anti-bullying program...

The anti-bullying training took place on Ontario Avenue, in Schenectady. It is called Point Break because it is hopefully an experience that the students will use to propel them in life. There are many fun elements to the day but as it progresses, things get serious and kids are able to share their feelings in a supportive environment.

Hispanic Night at SHS

On October 22nd, SHS students enjoyed performances from the SHS Drumming Ensemble, Spanish Club Salsa Dancers, SHS Latin Jazz Band, Tony Garcia and Tony Garcia, Jr., and Miguel Garcia. The evening ended with a delicious array of Hispanic entrees for dinner.

SHS Student Ambassador’s Club

Once again our SHS Student Ambassador’s Club members got off to a running start as the new school year began. Prior to the beginning of the school year, SHS Student Ambassador’s assisted with the Freshman Orientation/Parent Bar-B-Que- both SHS Freshman Transition Days, and Back to School Night. For each of these events, our members were available to assist new students, parents and visitors in finding their way around the building. In addition this year we have had a number requests from elementary school PTO’s for assistance at events, which has been a fun experience for us.

We would like to thank First New York Federal Credit Union for their generous sponsorship this year of our traditional bright red golf shirts emblazoned in red white & blue with “Student Ambassador,” the Schenectady City School District logo on the back, and the First New York Logo on the front. Having these shirts certainly makes it easy for anyone to identify our members at various functions.

Thank you First New York!!