Notable facts and dates for Start of School, Fall 2008
Note: The Girls' Cross-Country team is looking for donated running shoes, in women's sizes 6 1/2, 7 and 9. Contact Coach Sophie Payson-Rand at paysos@portlandschools.org if you have any to donate.
Student Schedules were mailed on August 15
Student Report Cards may be picked up in Main Office, M-F, 8 am to 3 pm
See Athletic Teams' Preseason August schedules listed below
Freshman BBQ, Wednesday, September 3, 4 pm to 7 pm
First Student Day, September 4
Ninth graders will report to the gymnasium at 7:45 a.m.
Students in grades 10, 11and 12 will report to advisory block (homeroom) at 7:45 a.m.
Students who attend morning classes at PATHS are to report to the lower cafeteria at 7:45 a.m.
Classes at PATHS for Portland High students will start on September 4.
At 9:30 a.m., students in grades 10, 11 and 12 will be dismissed. Bus transportation will be available. Ninth graders will be dismissed at 1:55 p.m.
SAT Registration Deadline, September 9 (for Oct. 4 SAT given at PHS)
Open House, September 16, 6:30 am to 8 pm
Click here to see PHS 2007-2008 Course Catalog
PHSPC Compiling New Brochure of All PHS Clubs, Sports and Activities: We are collecting from faculty and staff a comprehensive listing of all co-curricular activities and clubs offered at PHS, which will be compiled shortly.
QUESTIONS OF THE MONTH (and what you can do about them):
I. Do you want to join the PHSPC mailing list? Do you have any suggestions, comments, additions for our organization and/or website? (Hit the "Contact Us" button up top, and give us your email address and feedback.)
II. WHAT IS PORTLAND HIGH DOING TO SAVE PAPER BY ENCOURAGING AND FACILITATING THE "ELECTRONIC" DELIVERY (BY EMAIL) OF SCHOOL-RELATED INFORMATION TO PARENTS -- AS OPPOSED TO WASTING PAPER?
Upcoming Events
Friday 8/29
Field Hockey practice Douglas 9am-10:45am
Football practice Fitzy 8am-11am
Football exhibition Kennebunk depart Expo 4:30
Girls Soccer practice Preble 8am-10am
Girls Soccer practice Fitzy 4:30pm-6:30pm
Boys Soccer practice Fitzy 11am 1:30pm
Cheering practice Payson 9:30am-12:00pm
Girls XC practice Fitzy 9:00am
Boys XC practice Fitzy 8:30am
Golf practice Riverside S 9:00am
Saturday 8/30
Girls Soccer Play Day Fitzy 8am-7pm
Football practice Quinn TBA
Boys Soccer practice Preble TBA
Sept. 3, noon: Math Team Meeting, Room 207
Sept. 9: Deadline for registering for Oct. 4 SAT
PHS PC Fund Raising -- Note Cards - $5.95 or $4.95
Folded Note Cards (packet of 8) - pictured left
PHSPC Fund Raising: Buy our Flat "PHS" Notecards (Pack of 8 @ $4.95), or Our Folded "PHS" Notecards (Pack of 8 @ $5.95 - pictured below), or Folded Cards (left.) Make checks payable to "PHS Parent Connections," or "PHSPC" and send checks to Alison Andreasen at 176 Deepwood Dr., Portland, Me 04103 . Send any questions to Alison at aandreas@maine.rr.com, or call her at 878 3940.
Flat Card (Packet of 8) - $4.95 - Below
PHS WELCOMES TWO FACULTY MEMBERS
Susannah Green - French
In her own words: I live in South Portland with my husband and two daughters, ages 2 and 5. I grew up in Maine and moved back to the Portland area after living in Colorado and California in the 1990s. I taught French at Lincoln Middle School for 9 years and took a sabbatical leave for the 2007-2008 school year. During the leave I worked with Multilingual and United Way on developing a class at Deering High called Interpreting as a Career, geared toward students who speak a language other than English at home and/or who have excelled in language study in school. This was a very rewarding project and the year has flown by.
I hold a B.A. degree from William Smith College and M.S. Ed. in literacy and ESL from USM. I studied in Paris during my junior year of college and would do it again in a heartbeat. In 2000 I went to Shinagawa, Japan, via Portland's great sister city exchange program, and taught English at a junior high school. More recently I've been taking classes for both professional development and personal enjoyment--I love being a student as well as being a teacher. This summer I've attended French language groups at the South Portland Library and at The Language Exchange in downtown Portland.
I'm looking forward to joining the staff at Portland High and am excited to be able to continue to share my love of French with older students. A sense of humor is de rigeur for myself as a French teacher and for my students, as is an open mind and a willingness to work hard.
Ileen DaPonte - Math
In her own words: Along with my husband David and daughter Emma, I have been enjoying
living in Portland for over ten years. I am originally from Massachusetts and before landing in Maine I lived in Long Island, Toronto, and Connecticut.
Although teaching high school was something I always dreamed about, I took a circuitous path to get here. I received a Chemical Engineering B.S. degree from Tufts, and then worked as an engineer for a major defense contractor. I then earned an M.B.A. from Adelphi University and became a marketing manager for a utility metering systems company. After my daughter was born I left the corporate world to be a stay-at-home mom. I began teaching math and business courses at Husson College and discovered I absolutely loved teaching. I came to realize what I had always suspected: the classroom is where I belong! From there I moved on to Cheverus High School where I taught math and science courses for four years.
My daughter is a PHS Sophomore; as a parent, I have been extremely impressed with the quality and diversity of education, and the dedication of her teachers. I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the staff and faculty of this amazing school and can’t wait to meet my students!
New York Students respond with classroom "clicker"
Audience-Response "Clicking" for LCD Screen-based quiz, see "Students Click and a Quiz Becomes a Game," NYT, 1/28/08
PHS News
PHS Award Winners Announced at May 17 Assembly:
Preti Award: Nathaniel Walden, Maria Anania
Portland Mentoring Alliance, Principal's Award: Bob Cerf, Darko Mitrovic, David Wilson, Nasir Hirad, Lisa Esposito, Stella Otim
Portland Mentoring Alliance, Unum Award: Aaron Kiander, Sameer Majeed
US Army Reserve, National Scholar/Athlete Award: Brian Watson
Fitzpatrick Award: Hannah Ciechomski
US Marine Corps Distinguished Musical Excellence Award: Hannah Ciechomski
US Marine Corps Distinguished Athete Award: Campbell Rico
US Marine Corps Distinguished Academic Excellence Award: Brittnay Ridge
Conn. College Book Award: Jules Szanton
Dartmouth Book Award: Brian Furey
Mt Holoyke Book Award: Rosa Romano
Unity College Book Award: Sidney Dritz
St.Josephs College Book Award: Trinh Nguyen
Smith Book Award: Margaret Swann
Yale Book Award: Leyna Gomez
Skidmore Book Award: Greer Chapman
St. Anselm's: Eoin McCarron
Williams Book Award: Joe Violette
Williams College Book Award II: Christina Moore
Wellesley College Book Award: Kristin O'Kelley
Brown University Book Award: Audrey Seitz
Harvard Book Award: Mark Kinner
Swarthmore Book Award: Zachary Scrutchfield
St. Michael's College Book Award: Elias Cough
USM Alumni Assoc. Book Award: Laura Cowie
Navy League Award: Michee Jean
Springfield College: Kirk Jurgelevich
Math Awrd: Kayla Artinyan
Robt. Rice Memorial Award: Matt Methot, Seth Crocker
Soc. Of Women Engineers: Yanfen Wu
Am. High School Math Exam: Nathanial Walden (12); Simon Thompson (10)
Iinternational Club Leadership: Ha Tran
Frances Lombard Award: Yasmin Mahamud
Lifelong Reader Awards: Heather Leadbetter; Joe Lewis, Abbie Martin
Yearbook Awards: Danielle Heatley, Alexandra Perdomo
Co-Op Award: Mathew Mulkern
Springer Watch Award: Bosco Oringa
Gerber Memorial Award: Dewayne Albertie
Sulllivan Award: Miranda Bartlett
Ralph Corey Award: Matthew Methot
Ed Bogdanovich Award: Matti Zagnon
Athletes of the Year: Anthony Passmore, Eliz. Mosely
Art Book Award: Jordan Anderson, Erica DeMichele, Jeremy Dyer, Jule Shavirov, Lydia Swann, Jaime Wing, Bao-Anh Bui, Sara Canno
Doris Damren Award: Liza Darvin
Latin Award: Patricia Stoddard
National Latin Exam Awards: See list
Medusa Mythology Exam: see list
French Award: Brianna DiDonato
Dorothy Healey Creative Writing Award: Isabella Talbot
National Spanish Exam Award: Rachel Regier, Chris Pike, Brian Furey, Eoin McCarron, Leyna Gomez, Aaron Peisner, Kristin Rogers
Spanish Award: Aaron Peisner
History Award: Aaron Peisner
American History Award: Anthony Toppi
Science Award: Nathaniel Walden
John Phillips Sousa Award: Grace Batsford
PHS AND TECH: Use and Availability of Computers
-- Awaiting Summer '08 update from PHS Administration
-- See excellent article summarizing technology use in schools - "Essay: At School, Technology Starts to Turn a Corner," NYT, Aug. 17, 2008
-- New PHS Website: The Parent Connections group has recruited Tad Macy, a PHS Parent, to head the effort to build an brand new PHS website. The latest word is that the new site may be up and going in November 2008. Many thanks to Tad for undertaking this.
Statewide AP Online Course Offerings -- Orientation Aug. 25 at UMO
Online AP courses are available to all Maine high school students in all academic areas. Please refer to the Maine Distance Learning Project, at : www.mainedistancelearningproject.org . There will be an August 25 orientation,10 am to 12 noon, at UMO's Wells Commons, for any students intending to take any such online AP course. Students can meet instructors and get course books at that session. Last year at the orientation they had 90% turnout kids came from Fort Kent to Wells.Contact Anne Perloff for further details, at anne.perloff@maine.edu, (207) 561-3584, for further detail.
Orientation is in two parts. The face-to-face session on Monday, August 25th will enable students to meet their teacher and other students so they can fully understand their responsibilities. Students will also learn how to use the tools of their online course. The remainder of the week will be done completely online. Students will become familiar with the online course tools and have the opportunity to experience some of the assignments and activities that they are likely to find in their classes. That way, when classes begin on September 2, they are completely prepared for online learning and only have to worry about the curriculum of the class.
PHS GOING GREEN
Save Paper: Are you getting all communications from PHS by electronic means, rather than paper stuffed (or lost) in a backpack?
Note the new PHS interior entrance "Padula Doors." The Environmental Club had identified as one of its' priorities the installation of new interior doors, to create a buffering "foyer" of the front stair area, for energy/heat conservation purposes. Through the generous gift of Retired USM Professor/Environmental Activist Fred Padula, those doors (at an approximate cost of $22,000) were installed and ready for use this past winter.
PHS Windows are Drafty and Do Not Fit: Almost every window is too small for its' opening. There is a huge need to "fill the cracks", to save energy. Please notify us if you are interested in this pressing issue, and stay tuned for more.
-- See excellent article on use of "heat pumps" to save energy, "With Energy in Focus, Heat Pumps Win Fans," NYT, Aug. 13, 2008; see also, "Challenging A College to ReDesign A Building," NYT, Aug.17, 2008.
-- See article on trend toward "bringing back" trolley systems in cities around the country, "Downtowns Across U.S. See Streetcars in their Future," NYT, Aug. 14, 2008
-- See "Green With Envy", Boston Globe, Aug. 8, 2008, summarizing the eco-friendly and cutting-edge legislation passed in California
-- "Clicking at Last on 'Don't Print'", NYT, April 6, 2008 - summary of efforts to save paper, recycle and conserve in the business community.
INTERESTING STUFF
-- See excellent summary article on the huge range of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) websites available on Youtube, "Tiny Talents," NYT, Aug. 15, 2008
-- What forgotten factor distinguishes PHS from almost every other high school in the state?: A lack of surrounding open space. Athletic teams trot all over town to practice outdoors. Should be exploring access to open space created amidst the ongoing Bayside re-development?
--- View a video of (short) speech on the role of high school sports, by Univ. of Minnesota Head Hockey Coach - see below.