Orlando Science High School
Issue 38
Weekly Newsletter: June 01, 2020
A message from Dr. Akin
Principal's Corner
Dear Orca Families and Students,
Thank you for your support of Orlando Science Middle/High School!
I hope everyone had another great week as we entered the first week of summer break.
Teacher of the Month: Orcas, please join me to congratulate Mr. Akyalcin for being Teacher of the month in May. Mr. Akyalcin works really hard and goes above and beyond for his students. Thank you, Mr. Akyalcin for being a role model in our school and we appreciate your dedication to our students each day.
2020 Stellar Scholars: This year, we would like to introduce a new recognition program for our special group of graduating seniors. We call them “Stellar Scholars”. This recognition is for the students who have been accepted to one or more of the Nation’s Top 20 colleges and universities as ranked by the U.S. News and World Report or received an appointment to one of our Nation’s military service academies. Our 2020 Stellar Scholar Event recognition will be broadcasted on Friday, June 12th at 6:00 p.m. at www.orlandoscience.org/stellarscholars
Course Selection: If you have not selected your 2020-21 school year course preferences yet, you may still do so by Monday, June 15th from the link below.
We have shared many accomplishments this year! I am proud of the work effort put forth by our students, faculty, and families towards making Orlando Science Middle/High School the best it can be. I wish you all have a safe and wonderful summer. Have a great long weekend!
Please take time and review this year’s final weekly newsletter with additional reminders and important notes. I wish every Orca stay healthy and connected. Have a great summer!
It's great to be proud Orca!
Respectfully,
Abdulaziz Yalcin, M.Ed
Principal
Orlando Science Schools-Middle/High
Follow OSS Middle High on Social Media
PARENT SURVEY – Fall Expectations – 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR
Dear OSS Families,
A survey is now available for you to provide your input regarding expectations for the start of the 2020-2021 school year. The Orlando Science Schools System is working hard to prepare for many eventualities in the coming weeks and understand that no plan will be complete without the invaluable input of our families.
Please click on the link below to provide your feedback. The survey will remain open until Friday, June 5th.
4th Quarter report cards now available on oss connect
We hope you and your families are well and safe as the 2019-2020 school year comes to an end. Due to the current distance learning environment, we will not be printing paper copies of Quarter 4 Report Cards. Instead, they are available through your child's OSS Connect account. To access your child’s Q4 Report Card, follow the steps below. Thank you to you and your students for your hard work and commitment during distance learning. We hope you all have a safe and relaxing summer.
Steps to access your child's Progress Report:
Step 1: Log in to your CHILD'S account at https://ossconnect.orlandoscience.org/
Step 2: In the middle of the dashboard, you will see a series of links. Select the third one from the left that reads “Report Cards” (see photo below).
Step 3: You will see a PDF file under Progress Reports. Click on the link to download (see photo below).
Step 4: A download for viewing should appear at the bottom of the browser.
OSS Middle High is a National School of Character
Character.org has announced that Orlando Science Schools Middle High has been named a 2020 National School of Character!
National certification is the highest level of distinction bestowed by Character.org. Schools receiving this designation have demonstrated excellence in establishing a school culture that exemplifies and brings to life The 11 Principles Framework for Schools: A Guide to Cultivating a Culture of Character.
Thank you to all the students, parents, guardians, teachers, administrators, and staff for working together to make OSS a National School of Character.
Senior Video
Congratulations Class of 2020!
graduation ceremony 2020 update
Dear Class of 2020,
After receiving feedback from seniors, parents, and staff, I would like to provide you with details as to how we plan on celebrating the Class of 2020. There is no doubt that the Class of 2020 is resilient, as demonstrated by their great character during these unprecedented times, and we want to ensure they are properly recognized for their graduation.
If public health restrictions allow, we plan to hold our In-person Class of 2020 Graduation Ceremony on the Technology Campus soccer field on Saturday, July 25th at 8:20 p.m. If it rains on the evening of July 25th, the graduation ceremony would occur the following morning on July 26th, at 8:20 a.m. The ceremony will follow the CDC Guidelines and implement the social distancing rule. In the case of not being able to hold an In-person Graduation Ceremony due to the worsened conditions, we will hold a virtual graduation ceremony. In addition to this summer graduation plan, we are also adding two special recognitions to further honor and recognize our great Seniors!
First, we are very excited to announce that we are holding a Senior Send-off Drive-Thru on Saturday, May 30th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Seniors, and their parents, may line up in their vehicles on N. Texas Avenue, entering from Colonial Drive. The drive-thru will begin at 10:00 a.m.
Second, we are planning to honor our seniors by creating Class of 2020 Celebration Webpage. Students will be able to submit their pictures, or a short video message to their fellow classmates. Additionally, we will include valedictorian and salutatorian speeches, remarks from the teachers and administration, and videos provided by the school and Class of 2020.
More information about these events will be provided in the next week to seniors and their families.
We are very proud of the amazing Class of 2020 for completing the outstanding accomplishment of 2,331 days in the 13 years of their K-12 educational journey. Each one of the Seniors has worked so hard to reach this milestone and we are incredibly proud of all they achieved.
Go Orcas, Strive for Excellence!
Abdulaziz Yalcin, M. Ed.
Principal
Orlando Science Schools-Middle/High
OSS’s Clockwork Mania wins Chairman’s Award!
With a season cut short due to COVID-19, FIRST decided to celebrate the dedication of teams by presenting some of the awards usually given during competitions at a special virtual award ceremony on May 2nd, 2020. This was done via student essay submissions from teams describing their work this season and in past years. Orlando Science Schools’ FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team 4013 Clockwork Mania was awarded the Chairman’s Award at the Memphis Regional. This is the highest award a team can earn at this level of competition.
The Chairman’s Award honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST. It was created to keep the central focus of FRC on the ultimate goal of transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encouraging more of today’s youth to become scientists, engineers, and technologists. The FIRST Robotics Competition is considered the premier high school robotics competition in the world.
Congratulations to the team members: Avari, David, Alex, Geoffrey, Isaiah, Gael, Yuvika, Reuben, Elijah, Abdul and Caleb. Thank You to our mentors and parents, couldn’t do it without you!
OSS Robotics 2020-2021 information
9th-12th grade summer reading 2020
Dear High School Students,
We’re excited to share our Summer Reading list for the 2020-2021 school year. We continue to make adjustments to the program to give you the best possible experience while also upholding the desire to turn you into life-long readers. We know that people who read are more successful in all spheres of life, and we want to give you the best opportunity to be successful both here at OSS and beyond. Attached below you’ll find the summer reading lists. Please note that you do not need to purchase copies of these books and the only summertime requirement is that all books are read prior to the first day of school. All additional work will be assigned after school has begun.
A note on the books assigned for Summer Reading: We know that there may be some difficult ideas in the books we’ve assigned. We know that there are events and language that you may question, albeit very minimal. We want you to know that we don’t assign these texts lightly or without the knowledge that it is our job and our privilege to prepare you for what is ahead, both in your education and in your future. We have carefully selected each text you will encounter based on age-appropriateness, complexity, thematic content, and an awareness of what we know colleges and employers will expect you’ve been exposed to. More than that, however, we also believe in the power of literature to encompass the human experience in a way that not only enlightens us but that connects us to the great, wide world around us. We believe that literature faces the human experience without flinching and that some of that experience is difficult. That being said, we don’t intend to let you float through these texts without guidance and help, and we know that you will have the opportunity to emerge on the other side with deeper insight, more compassion, a better understanding of yourselves and the world around you.
We want to share with you an excerpt from a letter to the editor written by author Pat Conroy in 2007:
The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave anything out. I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language. Because of them I rode with Don Quixote and danced with Anna Karenina at a ball in St. Petersburg and lassoed a steer in Lonesome Dove and had nightmares about slavery in Beloved and walked the streets of Dublin in Ulysses and made up a hundred stories in The Arabian Nights and saw my mother killed by a baseball in A Prayer for Owen Meany. I've been in ten thousand cities and have introduced myself to a hundred thousand strangers in my exuberant reading career, all because I listened to my fabulous English teachers and soaked up every single thing those magnificent men and women had to give. I cherish and praise them and thank them for finding me when I was a boy and presenting me with the precious gift of the English language.
We hope that, at the end of your time at OSS, all of you will leave with a deep love of the English language and for the stories that connect us. We hope that you are more compassionate, thoughtful, and intelligent people. We hope that you will develop wisdom and the ability to look beyond the surface of a thing to see its deeper truths, whether that “thing” is a book, a political situation, or another person. We hope that you are wise and just and true in your dealings with the world, and we know that great literature can help you to become all of those things. Happy reading!
~OSHS English Language Arts Department
9th-11th grade students: make your 2020-2021 Course Requests here
2020-21 School Year Course Selection Form
9th-12th graders: It is time to request your 2020-2021 school year courses. Please take the time to carefully select possible courses in the order of your preference. Please see the link below and let us know if you have any questions. The due date is Monday, June 15th.
Orange county public school Covid-19 updates
A message from Ms. Perez
Hello Friends! Welcome back to the final Counseling Corner of the 2019-2020 year and the final week of Mental Health Awareness Month! Because we are launching into summer right now (and our summer may not look too much different than our last nine weeks), I wanted to bring you some brilliant, interesting and mental health related books for your Summer Reading List! These titles are all YA Fiction either centered on Mental Health issues or that include some plot lines/characters with mental health challenges. Each book may lead to some interesting discussions, so open yourself to the experience of learning from people just like you.
Here we go!
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert – This book includes a main character who is falling for the same person her sibling is in love with, a character struggling with bipolar disorder, and very honest representations of what it’s like to have a family member struggle with something you may not fully understand.
This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales – This book speaks particularly to a lot of awesome coping skills, friendship, finding your voice and identity, and the power music can have to bring people together.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – This book is also a movie, so for those of you who don’t particularly like to read, this one is your pick! However, it’s also a really quick read so if there’s any book to get you into reading, this may also be the one. I will say, this is a book I re-read every few years, so it’s definitely a favorite of mine. This book follows a student, still grieving his best friend and favorite aunt, entering freshman year and saying anything more may just spoil the plot for you, so I will end my recommendation here.
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson – This book is a mystery based and true-crime-ish themed novel and it’s set at a famous private school. It has a lot going on throughout but includes a main character who takes medication to help with their anxiety and gives a very real depiction of what managing anxiety is like while also showing how you can live a very full (and interesting) life and manage mental health at the same time!
Four Weeks, Five People by Jennifer Yu – This book takes place at a therapy camp and follows five teens struggling with their recovery. The mental illnesses discussed in this book include obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, narcissistic personality disorder, and more but takes a very real approach to depicting these challenges. What I mean by this is that the author does a great job of showing how people are more than the mental illness they struggle with; it does not define you but it is a part of your story.
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman – This book tells the story of a boy who is heading for the deepest place on Earth and navigating high school terrain at the same time! This novel shares a very realistic depiction of schizophrenia and captures the many different perspectives that can happen all in one brain. It’s a deep novel and may be hard to get into at first because of the way it straddles the two perspectives but also a super great read for any fan of Neal Shusterman.
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia – This is the story of a girl who is shy and doesn’t really speak much in real life, but online she is a famous author of a popular webcomic, and no one knows her real identity. This novel dives into her world as she finds that life in person can be just as amazing and full as the life we try to create for ourselves online.
Please enjoy these excellent recommendations and as always, I’m here if you need me
All the best,
Ms. Perez
Ms. Perez' Quote of the Week
Orange County Library digital material access
virtual community service opportunities
Dear students and parents,
It has been difficult times for everyone due to Covid-19. Our school will continue in distance learning through the rest of the school year and we will make every effort to ensure our students are on track academically. If you are seeking to earn your community service hours during this time, there are some virtual options available. Here is the list of service ideas that can be performed digitally at non-contact environment while you are at home:
- Tutor students who need help with academic work.
- Make cloth masks and donate them to hospitals, neighbors or community members.
- Contact and help your elementary teacher to read a story to the students.
- Write letters or create art for residents of a local senior center that are not currently allowed guests.
https://www.pointsoflight.org/virtual-volunteering-opportunities/
Steps:
1. Community Service Plan (attached below)
- Community Service Plan should be completed prior to beginning community service hours.
- Develop a written community service plan which address a social problem or concern and how your service will address the community’s needs.
- E-mail your written community service plan to your college counselor for the approval.
- E-mail your written community service plan to your college counselor for the approval.
2. Community Service Hour Log (attached below)
- After approval, start completing your community service hours.
- Log the completed hours into the sheet provided until you are finished.
3. Submission
- Required documents to be submitted upon completion of community service hours.
- Full completed community service form with signatures.
- Completed community service log with signatures.
- A typed, one-page essay describing the following: How your services were beneficial for the community and How you have experienced personal growth as a result of completing community service.
Please contact Mr.I or Ms. Bolat if you need further information or any questions or concerns.
College and Career Courses now in Microsoft Teams
Starting Monday, April 6th, College and Counseling Department will be accessible to students in each grade level via Microsoft Teams to continue providing services remotely. Mr. I and Mrs. Bolat are accessible to both students and parents in the designated times. Please check your emails and Microsoft Teams with the new updates.
Mr. I and Mrs. Bolat
Easy Ways to give back to OSHS
The BOX TOPS Program is easier than ever to use!
BoxTops has a NEW way for schools to earn money from your purchases! See the details below. Thank you for your support of OSS!
OSS is an Amazon Smile School
This is an easy way to help raise money for Orlando Science Schools. Use the link below when shopping from Amazon. AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Orlando Science Schools via Discovery Education Services, Inc. whenever you shop on AmazonSmile.
Office Depot & Office Max
Office Depot provides the school with 5% back in credits for FREE supplies when you make a purchase of qualifying school supplies. Simply provide the school ID at checkout.
OSES School Code: 70228302
OSS School Code: 70218341
2019-2020 Report Card Dates
Orlando Science High School Campus
Email: info@orlandoscience.org
Website: http://orlandoscience.org/highschool/
Location: 2600 Technology Drive, Orlando, FL, USA
Phone: (407)299-6595
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orlandoscience/
Twitter: @OrlandoSciMH