More than 350 Sterling Middle School honors students received special recognition last Wednesday, in the form of a personal letter of congratulations from Sterling District Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio and a coupon for a free chicken sandwich from an area restaurant. The letters, delivered to Sterling Middle School included a special coupon good for one free sandwich at an area restaurant. The free gift was made possible by the Chick-Fil-A at Sugarland Crossing, located in the Sugarland Crossing Shopping Center at 46920 Community Plaza in Sterling.
The Ladies Board of Loudoun Hospital Center is offering more than $35,000 in nursing scholarships this year. The scholarship program is funded by the Lights of Love remembrance project and a line item in the Ladies Board budget. Scholarships are awarded to nursing students who live or work in Loudoun County. Selection is based on academic performance, financial need and acceptance into an accredited nursing school. Past winners must re-apply to be considered again this year. Applications are available at the Hospital Gift Shop, the Twice is Nice thrift shop and online at LadiesBoard.org. The deadline is April 7. Awards will be announced in May.
The following students enrolled in the College of Science at Virginia Tech were named to the dean's list for the fall 2003 semester: Crysta Highfield of Aldie, Michael Tomaselli of Aldie, Jessica Tipton of Bluemont, Daniel Morgret of Dulles, Ana Alves of Hamilton, John Conner of Hamilton, Jennifer Sottosanti of Hamilton, Ryen Staley of Hamilton, Virginia Syptak of Lansdowne, Nathan Jones of Lovettsville, Brian Markley of Lovettsville, Matthew Noerpel of Lovettsville, Eric Ward of Lovettsville, Paul Blalock of Lovettsville, Jacqueline Falkenstein of Middleburg, Raynor Guzy of Middleburg, Jasmit Brar of Potomac Falls, Elizabeth Ceglowski of Potomac Falls, Johanna Gusman of Potomac Falls, William Mook of Potomac Falls, Mitra Mortazavi of Potomac Falls, Jacob Richkus of Potomac Falls, Victoria Wilson of Potomac Falls, Xiaoyi Zhong of Potomac Falls, Joshua Burruss of Purcellville, Ashley Cooper of Purcellville, Robert Dowling of Purcellville, Francie Keenan of Purcellville, Kristin Kole of Purcellville, Lucas McWilliams of Purcellville, Karl Muecke of Purcellville, Lindsay Potts of Purcellville, Christa Schulenburg of Purcellville, Valerie Wiker of Purcellville, Sarah Whitmore of Purcellville, Tovah Hoffman of Round Hill, and Christine Ripley of Round Hill, Diana Arbona of South Riding, Deanna Askin of South Riding, Carl Meier of South Riding, Mallory Mika of South Riding, Sagar Momin of South Riding, Patrick Cotter of Waterford, Adam Larsen of Waterford, and Kurt Tucker of Waterford.
The following students from Ashburn enrolled in the College of Science at Virginia Tech were named to the dean's list for the fall 2003 semester: Raheel Aidrus, Andrew Archut, Michael Avery, Alicia Baranowski, Baback Bazri, Cassandra Coffman, Alexandra Cordero, Corrie Davidson, Gabriel Deukmaji, Jerita Dubash, Christopher Edens, Philip Gallo, Vanessa Gentzen, Gregory Hess, Paul Larkins, Sarah Larkins, Lauren Matz, Andrew McAdams, Michelle Meyer, Samantha Meyer, Christopher Morales, Spurgeon Norman, Jennifer Pracht, David Rariden, John Sinclair, Nida Sohail, Christina Tait, Eric Thiel, Sean Thomas, Michael Wolfner, Laurel Ellis, Kristin Lamir, Christina Vu, and Ryan Wrenn.
The following students from Leesburg enrolled in the College of Science at Virginia Tech were named to the dean's list for the fall 2003 semester: Michael Balch, Jacquelyn Berard, Jennifer Boastfield, Stacey Donley, Justin Gawrilow, Bryan Hartsook, Alec Hutchinson, Katherine Irons, Heather Kmak, Caitlin MacCarthy, Casey MacQueen, Matthew Peterson, Jennifer Prall, Jesse Robeson, Katherine Staubs, Jessie Storey, Emily Torres, Kimberly Dix, Sean Hommel, Vineet Lall, Mensur Medic, Steven Nelson, Danica Riesberg, Kristin Van Dusseldorp, Emily Wheeler, and Meghann Wing.
The following students from Sterling enrolled in the College of Science at Virginia Tech were named to the dean's list for the fall 2003 semester: Kayla Adkins, Erin Anderson, Bilal, Aziz, Jennifer Balla, Robert Bernhards, Kiernan Calef, Christopher Case, Michael Diaz, Lambrini Drosos, Elizabeth Entsminger, Joanna Fox, Joseph Grefenstette, Reuben Griffing, Jenney Hammett, Laura Hendrick, David Hogarty, Allison Jarnagin, Jules Kroehl, Janice Liddy, John Linn, William Lovely, Heather Maiuri, Lauren Manns, Joseph Mikhail, Carin Miller, Alexandra Moses, Michael Mulloy, Brian Munse, Amanda Myers, Sang Park, Sarah Phillips, Jason Pilchuk, Justin Reeves, Morgan Rezac, Alexei Riabtsev, Marc Saint Raymond, Zachary Snee, Thu Soe, Stefanie Soltoff, Starla Stiles, Jennifer Stroup, Judith Toepfer, Kenneth Tricarico, Shane Tucker, Autumn Wacker, William Walbert, Aaron Wallo, Christina Ward, and Erica Wible.
The following students achieved Level Three in the accelerated reading program: Katherine Armstrong, Shreyas Garg, Colvin Miklovic, Taniya Flowers, Morgan Rinehart, Ivette Headley, Kiersten Lynner, Pranav Marathe, Lisa Lee, Woo-ju Kim, Abhur Mathur, Brianna Taylor, Manel Zitoun, Zachary Reid, Stephanie Dotterer, Jessica Eversmeyer, Joellen Mauch, Lindsey Green. Lara Armstrong achieved Level Four in the accelerated reading program.
Montessori Children's House of Loudoun is hosting an open house on Sunday, Feb. 8 from 1-3 p.m. 880 W. Church Road, Sterling. For more information, call 703-421-1112 between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Winnie-the-Pooh Preschool will host an open house for the 2004-05 school year on Feb. 5 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Mount Hope Baptist Church in Ashburn. Winnie-the-Pooh is a nondenominational cooperative preschool that offers morning and afternoon classes for 3-to-5 year-olds. Refreshments will be served and teachers will be on hand to answer questions at the Open House. Winnie-the-Pooh is owned and operated by the parents.
During a Sportsmanship Week for the Dulles District Jan. 5-10, Alex Leap, a sportsmanship council member led a recognition ceremony that recognized 20 students and nine athletic team captains as outstanding examples of sportsmanship for the winter sports season. Park View is the only Loudoun County school that has won the State Sportsmanship Award seven times.
The sportmanship winners are: Ryan Beringer, Dylan Cashman, Brittany Davenport, Gina DeGaetano, Josh Damico, Louis Gaskins, David Geiger, Stephen Harrison, Gina Mason, Alyson Poplawski, Kiera Poplawski, Laura Rattana, Hannah Rollins, Chantel Stanley, Greg Stuart, Karla Treminio, John Valcour, Alex Vanagel. Winners/captains: Boy's basketball- Jacob Faulkner, Alex Ondrejik; Girl's basketball- Jennifer Eppard, Becky Pullen; Cheerleading- Amanda Bornarth, Carol Olson; Swimming- Brittany Davenport, Kevin Tyler; Wrestling- Daniel Bernier.
After Patricia McGinly left Little River Elementary to become the principal of the Belmont Station Elementary, the assistant principal of Little River, Kristen Fields-Reedy, replaced her. She became the school's new principal on Jan. 21.
Fields-Reedy, who's originally from Tennessee has a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a master's degree in supervision and administration. She has earlier worked at Mount Vernon Elementary in Alexandria and in Frederick, Md., where she moved into administration.
On Jan. 8 and 13, Nathan Leslie, a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, taught poetry classes to fourth- and fifth-graders at Hillsboro Elementary. A grant from the This Education Foundation paid for the classes. Leslie said that it was refreshing teaching the elementary students because they are more excited than the college students. "Their hands are popping up and they are jumping out of their seats to greet the subject, whereas, the college students are too cool for that — it's hard to get them engaged or activated," Leslie said. The highlight of the class was to get the students to create their own poetry.
This past fall, FUTURA (Forming Understanding to Use in a Research Atmosphere) teachers traveled to Amman, Jordan, to present one-week workshops to the private American Community School. The teachers who went on this trip were Edie Foster of Sanders Corner Elementary, Chris Zierk of Eagle Ridge Middle School, Brenda Bengtson of Blue Ridge Middle School and Dr. Carol Talbot of River Bend Middle. In September Zierk and Foster were asked to present seminars on differentiation, which teaches how to reach anyone in the classroom no matter what level of ability or readiness they are on.
In November Bengtson presented a comprehensive school improvement model that is designed to increase student performance and teacher satisfaction. This system gives students the opportunity to apply real-world situations to what they are learning until it becomes a part of their long-term memory. Teachers were shown how to impart knowledge in the absence of threat and nurture reflective thinking.
Talbot showed through Power Point how to make lessons cohesive with a theme-based background.
The Reading Textbook Adoption Committee has reviewed five elementary reading series that are being considered for state adoption and has recommended the work of two publishers, Harcourt and Houghton Mifflin. The recommended works have been delivered to each elementary school for parental, teacher and public review. They are also on display at the School Administrative Offices at 102 North Street NW, Leesburg. School faculties and parents will be asked to make a recommendation for one publisher by Feb. 6. A steering committee will review the forms from the 41 schools on Feb. 10. On Feb. 24, representatives from the two publishing companies will make a presentation to the Reading Textbook Adoption Committee and hold a public information session from 6:30-8 p.m. in the Reading Recovery Room at 102 North Street NW. The committee will then make a final recommendation to the School Board for which textbooks should be adopted.