Green Lane Gazette
October 2022
Important Dates in October
- 10/6 - Homecoming Dance - 7:00-9:00 (Doors open at 6:30)
- 10/7 - Homecoming Football Game - Kickoff at 7:00 PM
- 10/10 - 1st Marking Period Progress Reports Posted
- 10/12 - PSAT Day (Information shared soon)
- 10/19 - No School For Students
- 10/20 - Senior Group Photo
- 10/21 - Life Skills Dance
- 10/25 - Underclass photo makeups
- 10/26 - 12:05 Dismissal for students
National Honors Society News
Students who are current NHS members are welcome to apply for the NHS Scholarship. The deadline is November 30, 2022. Applicants will be notified in March, 2023. The top 25 scholarship finalists receive an all expense paid trip to Washington, DC for Trailblazing Leadership Week in April. Click here for complete details and to apply: https://www.nhs.us/students/the-nhs-scholarship/
Information for Juniors and Seniors looking to join our chapter of NHS is now posted in the Truman TigerStrong Hub on Canvas. Applications are due by 10/22/22.
Attendance Reminders
All attendance notes, trip approval requests, and other inquiries should be emailed to hst.attendance@bristoltwpsd.org or call 267-599-2109 to speak with our attendance clerk.
The Guidance Department has had a busy start to the school year, as we have helped 310 new students get schedules, get connected, and get learning! We also worked with the current student body to make schedule corrections and honor requests for changes. Ms. Bodnar worked to finalize the Dual Enrollment rosters, as we have 118 students taking BCCC courses here at Truman and 12 students taking BCCC courses at Bucks.
Among all of those meetings, we have been working with Administration to solidify the details of the Act 158 Alternative Pathways to Graduation, updating Naviance to reflect the current student body, facilitating visits from college admissions representatives and military recruiters, and organizing future field trips to Bucks. We are making preparations for the PSAT in October, completing our Senior Conferences, and helping students register for the SAT and complete college applications.
- Mrs. Cundari’s Computer Integrated Manufacturing class is working on the design, build and programming of their test beds.
- While the IED classes were designing Fling machines for statistical analysis.
- Our Robotics, and Women in Engineering Clubs were featured at this year’s Freshmen Orientation.
- Mr. Di Liegro’s STEM Class have been busy hammering away, making their Block Calendars and sports cars.
- Mr. D’s Engineering Design and Development teams are designing different forms of Time keeping machines.
- Mr. Gushue’s Computer Science Principles class is learning to create images with the programming language Python.
As the new school year is underway, all students should have taken the first Exact Path Reading Diagnostic, which provides valuable and individualized data on the skill levels for each student. This is especially helpful for 9th and 10th grade students, as they prepare for the task of taking the State’s Keystone Reading Exam. Students will be able to work on their individualized “path,” further developing their skills sets, while also developing a growth mindset through discussion and the help of their teachers. Mrs. Ursino’s English 11 classes have been working on the early American writers from the Puritan time period. They have also been acquiring new literary and vocabulary terms which they are practicing on whiteboard tables for fluency and context. Mrs. Ursino’s Mystery Literature class has been reading and solving various mysteries. After completing several learning style self-inventories, a goal vision board, and a highly specific SMART goal statement, Mr. Gravuer’s 10th grade English honors students are beginning to analyze the use of chronology in plot development, while simultaneously reading and writing about the essential life skill of time management. Mr. Gravuer’s AP Language and Composition classes have already begun to delve into the book Thank You for Arguing while studying the foundational concepts of Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle that are found in every rhetorical situation. Mrs. Lieberman's 10th grade English classes have been studying characterization in connection with Walter Dean Myers's Fallen Angels. Then we practiced a Keystone style prompt by writing a letter from the novel's dynamic protagonist to his absent brother in order to illustrate an understanding of character motivation. Students in Mr. A. Kotofsky’s ninth grade English classes are amping up their writing through Actively Learn and shooting for advanced scores. Mr. Mallon's Introduction to Film Study class learned about the earliest movie camera innovations and watched what is generally considered the first movie ever made: The Great Train Robbery (1903).
Driver Education .08 or .10 students have been learning about the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. We have discussed implied consent and why it matters when it comes to suspected DUIs. Students got to put this information into use when they were able to put on Fatal Vision goggles and attempt a field sobriety test in class. Students will begin to work on driving under the influence advocacy campaigns.
Physical Education The weather is changing, but that isn’t keeping students from enjoying participating in Physical Education classes outside! Students have been enjoying volleyball on the turf, as well as football, frisbee, and soccer. Some students prefer to walk for fitness!
Health and Wellness Students are finishing up the introduction to the health and wellness unit. They will begin to work through the Mental Health unit.
Mrs. Raczynski’s Algebra 1A classes are pictured working together to complete a “digital escape room.” This is just one of the many activities Mrs. Raczynski utilizes on a regular basis to keep students engaged in their learning. As she says, it’s “hands on, minds on.” In her Algebra 1A classes, her students spend the year piecing together an Interactive Notebook. Though on the surface it resembles a standard notebook, the Interactive Notebook is filled with content that makes the math more accessible and meaningful to the individual student. Content for the notebook, be it graphical representations of concepts or fill-in-the-blank guided outlines, is culled from a variety of sources and then glued into place. The goal is for students to leave the class in June with a tangible artifact that they can revisit in future math classes when needed. This year, Mrs. Raczynski was awarded a grant by the BTSD Foundation for Educational Excellence that paid for the purchase of all student notebooks.
Mrs. Raczynski was an inaugural member of the Truman delegation to the Franklin Institute Master Educator class, and she also completed the Virtual Online Teaching Certificate Program (VOLT) through the University of Pennsylvania. She has since employed a variety of techniques and methods learned there, including the “flipped classroom” model of instruction. Used regularly in her Geometry classes, Mrs. Raczynski provides most of the traditional guided “instruction” through pre-recorded lessons that students can access outside of the classroom. This allows her students more time for hands-on learning during regular class periods.
Anatomy: Students are doing a unit on biochemistry. They completed a dissection of a Dill Pickle to summarize a discussion of body orientation and planes of dissection. They will be moving on to the integumentary system next.
Biology: Students have been working on basic biological principles, such as characteristics of life, biological organization, and prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. They completed a characteristics of life lab activity and created lab safety posters. They also learned how to use microscopes and completed a cheek cell activity and a cell organelles analogy project. Students also learned how to create a science notebook to organize their materials.
Chemistry: Students have been working on a science practices unit. They have completed four different lab activities: a density lab, a sand and salt separation activity, the percentage of water in popcorn and moles of water in a hydrate experiment.
Environmental Science: Students went outside to analyze trees. They conducted a Tree identification exercise using dichotomous keys, they then analyzed their data to try to determine population size using the sample-plot method.
Forensics: Students began an introductory unit on forensics to develop an understanding into the history of forensic science through research. They have begun to identify patterns of evidence and analyze fingerprints. They also began to discuss flaws in Eyewitness Testimony.
Mr. Kotofsky's students learned about the evolution of pop culture technology. They passed around old school cell phones, pagers, rotary phones, Sony Walkmans, and Mr. K's folded love notes from 8th grade (1985).
Ms. Egan's AP Government investigated the four current threats to democracy. After research, mind maps, and collaboration 1/2 the class said democracy will fail the other 1/2 said it will stabilize.
Ms. Wright, Ms. Dick, and Mrs. Welsh created a Shark Tank experience for their Western Civilization classes. Students researched a Renaissance "product" and prepared a presentation to pitch to a panel of patrons.
Ms. Wright helped partner students from Civics and Government classes and Key Club with the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan voter advocacy group, to organize and run a voter registration drive. This effort capped off a citizenship unit in which students learned about their rights and responsibilities as citizens, including the importance of voting.
Hola, Ciao, and Hello! Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year. It was a pleasure to meet some of you at back to school night. Please do not hesitate to contact any of us if you have questions or concerns at any point between now and the end of the school year.
Classroom Corner:
Upper level Italian, Spanish, and ELL classes have been revisiting topics from last year as a jumping off point. The beginner levels will be introduced to vocabulary and more! Our entire staff looks forward to building communities in our classrooms full of learning and fun for all students.
Teacher Spotlight - Señorita Maria Broggi (new to Truman)
Srta. Broggi has a BA in Spanish and Secondary Education from Temple University. She has prior experience teaching in urban and suburban charter and public schools. She believes in a student centered classroom and focuses on the importance of culture and communication. She loved traveling to Puerto Rico. She is a polyglot who enjoys cooking and music.
Fun Fact:
Italy's flag is green, white and red and represents hope, faith and charity. Green is hope, white denotes faith and red is the color of charity. Inspired by the French flag, it's often called Il Tricolore.
Truman Contact Information
267-599-2210
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Twitter: @TrumanTigerBTSD