Fifth-graders at Deauville Gardens East Elementary School showed off their confident spirits when they presented their monthly character education assembly to their peers on April 28.
In a game show-style format, the fifth-grade students played the game “Show Your Confidence” in an effort to illustrate this month’s character education trait: confidence. While some students portrayed a game show host, others acted as contestants to answer questions about positive vs. negative thinking in everyday situations.
The students concluded the assembly by reminding their peers to show their confidence, and keep positive thoughts first to show that they believe in themselves.
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Confidence Shines in Character Education
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Love Notes for Mom
Kindergartners in Kirstin Cerrone’s class at Deauville Gardens West Elementary School are showing their mothers how much they love and appreciate them on their special holiday. The students crafted mod podge mason jars for their moms and filled them with love notes to be presented on Mother’s Day.
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Under the Magnifying Glass
Using their magnifying glasses, third-graders in Mary Prisco’s class at Deauville Gardens West Elementary School have been observing the lifecycle of butterflies. They are carefully watching as the caterpillars housed in jars in their classroom are transforming into painted lady butterflies. Students also made diagrams depicting their observations of the butterfly lifecycle.
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Track Stars Shine at Penn Relays
The Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School girls varsity track team, coached by Antoinette Spencer, competed in the 2017 Penn Relays from April 27-29. The 4x400 meter team – Halle Moore, Jasmine Jackson-Gomes, Akajia Atkins and Mikayla Angel – brought home the silver medal with a personal record of 4:08.77. The girls 4x100 meter team of Moore, Ajhani Carroll, Shanna Greer and Atkins placed fifth with 50.71 seconds, a personal best for the 2017 season.
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Second-Grader Share Stories for Mother’s Day
Second-grade students in Diana Daniels’ class at Susan E. Wiley Elementary School honored their mothers and special ladies in their life during a Mother’s Day Tea on May 11.
Invited guests shared the afternoon with the students in their classroom while listening to each student share a story about their special person. Mothers, grandparents, aunts and sisters gathered together for tea and cupcakes while spending some quality one-on-one time with their special second-grader.
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Students Honored for Cultural Work
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Long Island recently honored three students from Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School during its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration on May 4 at Suffolk County Community College in Selden.
Mikayla Angel, Rigaud Destime and Sophia Hall received proclamations from the JCRC-LI and elected officials from Suffolk County for their work in creating a more civil society.
Keynote speaker Hannah Robinson, a Holocaust survivor, explained how her family was destroyed by the actions of the Nazis and how neighbors and strangers helped her family survive before they were ultimately sent to Auschwitz. The students spoke with Robinson following her lecture.
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Hip Hop Club Creates Positive Culture
The Hip Hop Club at Walter G O’Connell Copiague High School, under the direction of Yvan Garcia, recently wrapped up its annual production. This year’s show – “Taking Back the Music” – was a student created work, centered on the themes of anti-bullying and cultural acceptance. In late April, the students performed two shows for the community and one private production for more than 400 middle school eighth-graders at Copiague Middle School as part of an orientation/character education initiative.
At the conclusion of the performance, the eighth-grade students asked questions of the Hip Hop Club and step team members about their involvement in the show as well as questions related to what it takes to be successful at the high school level.
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Making of a Musical Video
From the musical announcement to auditions, tryouts and opening day,
here’s an inside look into Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School
students making “The Little Mermaid."
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Scholastic Aptitude Test Information
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Great Neck Road Celebrates Mother’s Day (watch the video)
Kindergartners at Great Neck Road Elementary School recognized the special ladies in their lives with a Mother’s Day celebration on May 11. Handcrafted bags decorated with messages of love were filled with photo albums showcasing their first year in school. Paper bouquets of flowers and messages about their special person were presented to each of the attendees.
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Showing Off Shapes
First-graders in Katianne Howe’s class at Deauville Gardens West Elementary School learned about three-dimensional shapes and were tasked with creating their own 3-D models. Students used everyday objects found around their homes to create models using all the different shapes they learned.
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Copiague Track Event Honors Memory, Love of Sport
Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School hosted the seventh annual Urban & Walsh Memorial Invitational on May 15. Organized by Copiague track coaches George Schroeder and John Sack, the annual event is held to honor Christopher Urban and Brittney Walsh.
Hosting 28 teams from across Long Island, the invitational featured 18 events including girls and boys shot put, boys and girls disc, long jump, high jump, triple jump, pole vault, the 2,000/3,000 steeplechase, 100/110 high hurdles, high jump and more. In addition to the standard track and field events, fifth-graders from the four elementary schools – Deauville Gardens East, Deauville Gardens West, Great Neck Road and Susan E. Wiley – participated in a special boys and girls 4x100 relay.
For the Copiague boys, David Lawrence placed second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 0:11.74, took third place in the long jump with 21 feet, 7.5 inches and placed second in the triple jump with 43 feet, 2.5 feet. Antoine Moore Jr. placed second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 0:50.82. Jackson Bright, Aryes Garrett and Brenton Bennett took fifth, sixth and seventh place, respectively, in the high jump.
For the Copiague girls, Halle Moore took first place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 60.66, while Akajia Atkins placed third in the 100-meter dash with a time of 0:13.25. The girls 4x400 meter relay team placed second with a time of 4:36.29, and high jumper Lyndsey Wilson secured third place with a jump of 4 feet, 10 inches. Akajia Atkins placed first in the long jump with a 17 foot, 3-inch jump, and Kyria Moore took fifth in the shot put with a toss of 32 feet, 6.75 inches.
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New Assistant Principal Appointed
Jonathan Krawchuk has been named an assistant principal at Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School, effective July 1.
Krawchuk began his teaching career in the Copiague School District in 2009 as a living environment and special education teacher. This past school year, he served as the district’s B.A.S.E. adviser. From 2010-2014, he was the assistant varsity football coach at Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School.
Krawchuk earned his Bachelor of Science degree from St. Joseph’s College. He also received his master’s degree and educational leadership certification from Stony Brook University.
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Copiague Takes Top Honors at Covanta Contest
Ten students from the Copiague School District were recognized by the Town of Babylon for placing among the top students who entered the Babylon Covantage EcoTech Scholarship Contest during an awards presentation at Babylon Town Hall on May 6.
Under the advisement of High School Science Chairperson Renee Locker and Middle School Science Chairperson Dr. Daniel Leccese, students submitted an energy or environmental-based science project, through which they carried out an experiment and wrote a detailed scientific paper explaining their procedure and conclusion.
Brittany Faustin placed first among all entrants and earned a $1,000 scholarship for her project “The Effectiveness of the Antibacterial Activity Utilizing Silver Nanoparticles on the Growth of Aspergillus niger.” Other winners from Walter G O’Connell Copiague High School included: Brayan Pena and Osazuwa Eghafona, who received a $625 scholarship for their project “Doped Magnesium Aluminate as a Viable Basis for Production of Inorganic, Long Lasting, Non-Toxic, Pigments;” Sofie Wilson and Jade Dickenson, who won fourth place and a $250 scholarship for their project “A novel investigation surrounding Geukensia demissa as a probable control mechanism for the invasive species Phragmites australis;” Erhumwunse Eghafona received a $250 scholarship for his project “Falling Temperature on a Species of Tree;” and Claudia Motley took home a $125 scholarship for her study on “Cultural Orientation and its Effects on Secondary Education in Japanese and American Students.”
The three Copiague Middle School students each took home $125 scholarships for their projects. Dylan Bedell project was to show how drones can be used to monitor coastal erosion. He used his drone to fly over a shoreline of the Great South Bay and looked at evidence that showed decreasing levels of coast. Olivia Healy examined how different insulating materials help keeps a home warm in the winter. DaVeyah Williams studied nanosilver and how nanosilver affects pond life. Nanosilver is called colloidal silver and is found in many consumer products with the purpose of killing bacteria. Her project studied how greater amounts of nanosilver decreased the population of daphnia (microscopic pond organism).
Open to students in grades eighth to 12th throughout the Town of Babylon, the Covantage EcoTech Scholarship Contest awards scholarships annually to students who create the top-ranking science projects with eco-tech themes. Through this program, students are encouraged to explore concepts related to sustainability and environmental solutions.
“Covanta and Babylon have been exceptional in not only encouraging STEM among our students, but offering an incentive for pursuing science discovery and excellence. Even more noteworthy and distinctive by Covanta is the endorsement of environmental science as an area of focus,” said Ms. Locker.
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Notice of Board Meeting – June 5, 2017
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Furry Friend Visits First-Graders
Deauville Gardens East Elementary School had a special visit from a furry friend on May 15. Therapy dog Buffalo Bill Cody, and his trainer Bruce Kollmar, from the program Love on a Leash, spent the morning in Kevin Beach’s first-grade class. The students are learning all about what a therapy dog can do and took turns reading to him.
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Student-Researchers Shine at Science Symposium
Celebrating the notable accomplishments of the science students at Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School, the district held its third annual 2016-2017 science research symposium on May 18.
District administrators, board of education members, representatives from the Town of Babylon, members of the science department and invited guests gathered to recognize the hard work, determination and perseverance of the students currently enrolled in the independent science research program, the advanced science research program and the introduction to science research program.
“You have all worked a tremendous amount of hours with teachers who have fostered your love of science enough to do this work outside of the classroom,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kathleen Bannon. “Congratulations to all of the recognition you have brought to yourselves and your school for your dedication and perseverance.”
Seven Copiague science research students presented a brief overview of their projects, many of which have garnered numerous awards throughout the school year. Projects were on display for a poster presentation walk following the ceremony, giving attendees an opportunity to speak with the students firsthand about their research.
Each student in the program was presented a certificate by science chairperson Renee Locker in recognition of their accomplishments this school year.
The following students were presented with certificates: Jackson Bright, Tatiana Henry, James Holland, Kriyal Patel, Owen Rosenberg, Osazuwa Eghafona, Marianna Espinoza, Brittany Faustin, Jade Dickenson, Claudia Motley, Brayan Pena, Alexandra Saczawa, Joshua Taveras, Sofie Wilson, Shane Abney, Kiara Bennett, Baron Chen, Vincent Cipriani, Erhumwunse Eghafona, Daniel Galeas, Melanie Garcia, Nicole Hernandez, Gregory Jean-Baptiste, Elijah Johnson, Nolan Johnson, Jade Jones, Austin-Sing Loo, Sheza Mirza, Richelle Modestil, Marwin Pineda Lobo, Blanca Reyes, Jeniffer Romero, Josh Simon, Gianna Torres and Tamara Washington.
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Wedding Ceremony Celebrates the Unity of Q and U
It was a match meant to be for two letters that always seem to pair well together. The kindergarten students at Susan E. Wiley Elementary School celebrated the unity of the letters Q and U in a special wedding ceremony on May 18.
Since the beginning of the school year, the kindergartners have been learning the sounds that letters make together and that letters, such as Q and U, appear together in most words. Dressed in their best ensembles, the wedding guests wore Q and U hats and veils to the wedding.
The large Q and U cutout letters, held by two students, walked down the aisle as ceremonial wedding music played. “There will be quarrels but you have to stick together like quicksand to solve any quandaries,” the officiant told the couple before concluding the ceremony.
After the ceremony, the marriage celebration continued back in the classroom as guests enjoyed juice and wedding cake.
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National School Boards President Gets Inside Look at Copiague
National School Boards Association President Kevin Ciak, along with district administrators and Copiague School District Board of Education members, spent the afternoon of May 31 touring the many academic offerings of the Copiague School District.
Ciak, who was on Long Island for a speaking engagement at the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association’s annual dinner, connected with the Copiague School District through Copiague Board of Education President Brian Sales, who also serves as president of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association. “We are very proud of Copiague School District and the things we accomplish here and we are honored to be able to share that on a national level,” Sales said.
The tour of the district included classroom visits at an elementary school, middle school and high school. “From the minute I walked in, I felt very much at home in this district,” Ciak said. “I was very impressed with all of the 21st century learning going on in the classrooms. Students were fully emerged in learning and using high-level analysis.”
At the elementary level, the visit showed the district’s use of technology with its 1:1 computing class and students using the zSpace virtual reality, 3-D computers. Copiague Middle School students demonstrated their earth science and English language arts skills, while science research students at Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School presented some of their recent studies.“In the visit I conducted, I was able to see exactly what public education was built for: addressing the needs of all of its students,” Ciak said. “This district is building its student body up from when they enter kindergarten. That type of planning and culture starts from above with a Board of Education and administration that knows what their students need to be successful.”
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Chamber Choir Goes Gold
The Copiague Middle School chamber choir participated in the New York State School Music Association’s Music Festival on May 30 and received the highest possible rating of “Gold with Distinction.” A Gold rating is awarded to organizations that demonstrate an outstanding level of technical and artistic skill in tone, intonation, balance, technique, diction, accuracy/execution, interpretation, discipline and appropriate choice of music. A Gold with Distinction rating is awarded only to those choirs that achieve a standard of performance deemed exceptional in all of the three selections performed for the NYSSMA judges.
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