Bellingham School District honors

Written by Kira Cox | The Bellingham Herald | May 27, 2010

The following honors were recently announced by the Bellingham School District

• Birchwood Elementary School recently received a $5,000 Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant. The money will be used to buy materials for a greenhouse, an outdoor covered area, an irrigation system, work tables, cold frames, a worm bin system, a three-part compost system, tools and wheelbarrows. Labor for the project is being donated by volunteers.

• Sehome High Spanish Teacher Janae Hodge and Fairhaven Middle School Principal Deirdre O’Neill recently received creative innovation certificates from the Washington Association for Language Teaching for their instructional workshops with World Language teachers in the northwest. The award is given to people who come up with creative ways to teach second language converstion, culture and multi-cultural awareness, and help develop reading and writing skills.

• Bellingham High School art teacher Paul Berg, who is retiring at the end of the school year, recently received the Washington Art Education Association Tribute Award, the highest honor available from the group.

• Bellingham High math teacher Paul Clement was recently one of 50 educators nationwide chosen as a 2010-11 Siemens STEM Fellow. Clement will be spending a week at the Seimens STEM Institute in Washington, D.C. for professional development in science, technology, engineering and math.

• Two graduating seniors – Bellingham High’s Selina Doran and Sehome High’s Michelle Lam – recently won the Gates Millennium Scholar Award. The scholarship covers tuition at any public or private school in the U.S.  and will cover up to 10 years of education, over any estimated family contributions or grants. Doran will attend Westmont College in California and Lam will attend Parsons The New School for Design in New York City.
• Sehome High Spanish teacher Katie Gómez was recently named the Washignton Association Language Teaching Teacher of the Year. 
  

• Sehome High Spanish students recently participated in the 2010 National Spanish Examinations and earned 7 gold medals, 8 silver medals,15 bronze medals and 34 honorable mentions in levels 1 through 4. Student ranks are listed below.

Gold medal participants — Level 4: Louise Highleyman, Molly LeCompte, Evan Madill and William Giller; Level 3: Caitlin Delahunt, Matt Sloane and Evan Johnson.
Silver medal participants — Level 4: Owen Chambers; Level 3: Taylor Brown, Forrest Laine and Teresa Rose Osborne; Level 2: Ian Earle, Katelin Taylor and Charles Linneman; Level 1: Meika Barclay.
Bronze medal participants — Level 4: Ryan Newell; Level 3: Katie Johnson, Bjorn Thorpe and Sheldon Dudas; Level 2: Tiffany Chou, Katherine Hannah, Miranda Hewlett, Liam Horner, Lauren Pittis and Elisabeth Larson; Level 1:  Heron Paulson-Quick, Morgan Kavanaugh, Elsa Balton, Meerim Ruslanova and Darya Yesipova.
Honorable mentions —  Level 4: Glen Marquardt and Brailey Murray-Kraft;  Level 3: Kevin Karcher, William Topp, Anthony Mallory, Isaac Poulson, Katherine Davis, Matthew Goebel, Alex Knops, Geordie Marriner, Payton Weidenbacher and Brian Willson; Level 2: Cheyenne Bell, Amelia Black, Emma Crabo, Amy Han, Lauren Higman, Maya Hunger, Michael Mallory, Katherine Mullen, Erik Poulin, Jaden Duffy and Janice Liang;  Level 1: Daniel Karcher, Raeanne Hemmen, Sophia Carbone, Hanna Tarleton, Andrea Roy, Bohdan Vorozhtsov, Amelia Bryan, Russel Goebel, Johann Lahud-Zahner, Natalie Anderson and Kristin Chalmers.

• Sehome High senior Matt Junttila recently won first plance in the Knowdown at the Washington State Mathematics Council Competition.
  

• Fairhaven Middle School teacher Stephanie Strow is a candidate for the National Middle School Association Board of Directors. She is a candidate to be a teacher trustee to represent the North and West regions. As a member of the board, Strow would help develop policies, procedures and regulations, monitor the association’s finances, programs and overall performance, and help the executive director.