Ready, Set, Study

By ELISABETH HULETTE Staff Writer

Light streamed through high hallway windows in the new science wing at Arundel High School on Thursday morning. Computers, lab tables and long shelves of chemicals and equipment waited for students who teachers hope will be inspired by the bright new classrooms to take extra science classes this year.

“I like science already, and now this will make me want to be a scientist,” Arundel junior Daiseea Dowding, 16, said, looking up into the new wing.

When county students go back to school this week, they’ll encounter not only new facilities like the wing at Arundel, but also new programs, events and classes.

Between last year and this summer, county educators have drummed up ideas and infused schools with things they hope will lead to higher achievement for students – and better schools for the county.

Arundel High School’s science labs, for example, were long overdue for renovations: Earth science teacher Elizabeth Williams even had to drag buckets of water to her classes’ experiments last year because her classroom was so ill-equipped.

But no more. The new science rooms – there are 12 – have SMART boards, document cameras and wide lab tables. Digital probe software will allow students to input data directly from their experiments into computers, instead of calculating with pencil and paper.

“It takes a lot of the drudgery out of it,” said Brian Nelson, a special education teacher working with Arundel’s biology team.

Much of that new technology also can be found at the new Nantucket Elementary School in Crofton, which is opening this fall. Teachers there will use microphones hooked up to classroom sound systems, document cameras and SMART boards, which work like giant, interactive computer screens. Diana Strohecker, Nantucket’s principal, is a technology advocate – at her last school, Millersville Elementary, she and the teachers raised money to buy an interactive board for every classroom.

Nantucket will have about 650 students, mostly from Four Seasons and Crofton elementary schools. But some private and even home school students are transferring in, lured by the glittering new building, the gym’s rock-climbing wall, the starfish mascot and especially the technology.

“The technology they have here is mind-blowing,” said parent John Spencer, who will have two children attending Nantucket this fall. “And they have bathrooms in every classroom – imagine that.”

Health and fitness

Students who buy lunch in their school cafeteria will get a free sample of watermelon Sept. 4 – the first day of a new nutrition program called Tasting of the Rainbow.

About 27,000 public school students buy lunch each day, and with the new program they’ll all try a new fruit or vegetable on the first Thursday of each month, starting with apples in October, sweet potato fries in November and grape tomatoes in December.

Fresh fruits and vegetables also will be offered at odd times during the day at Annapolis High School and the Ferndale Early Education Center through a state grant, said Jodi Risse, supervisor of food services. And students won’t find fried chips in their cafeterias this year – only baked chips and pretzels.

High school students can burn off calories playing on the new artificial turf fields built over the summer at Annapolis, Arundel and North County high schools. They also can enroll in a new Walking Wellness course offered by the athletic department.

The roughly 1,000 students who signed up for the class will walk mostly around their campuses, said Skip Lee, physical education coordinator for county schools. Using pedometers, they’ll take the same number of steps needed to trek between Southern and North County high schools and will learn to see walking as a way to stay fit, he said.

“Students will learn physical activity does not have to involve a ball,” Mr. Lee said.

Programs

Meade High School will roll out its new Homeland Security Signature program tomorrow morning, the first in a long line of specialized programs that eventually will appear in all county middle and high schools. Bates Middle School is next; it’ll phase in its performing and visual arts magnet program this year by infusing the arts into most classes.

Some schools are expanding their use of the popular Advancement Via Individual Determination program, which boosts students in the “academic middle” by teaching them study skills. Seventeen elementary schools in the county offer AVID in fifth grade, and next year about half of those will expand it to fourth grade, said Carol Ann McCurdy, coordinator of academic support for county schools.

The Middle Years Programme, the middle school version of the prestigious high school International Baccalaureate Programme, also will expand this year so all sixth-grade students in Annapolis Middle, MacArthur Middle and Old Mill Middle North are enrolled.

Middle Years “awakens in kids a real interest in learning” by infusing global and interdisciplinary perspectives into classes, said Mary Austin, IB coordinator for county schools. All students in the program will take a foreign language, she said.

And more county public schools will require students to wear uniforms than ever before – 18 this year as Maryland City and Germantown elementary schools and Annapolis Middle School join in. The uniforms typically include khaki pants and polo shirts in school colors.

Private schools

Two new artificial turf fields will greet students at the Severn School this year, as will the new Severn Learning Resource Center, where they can get extra tutoring, said communications director Kristyn Kuhn. Some will write their own independent study course this year through the new Severn Fellows program.

The Indian Creek School will celebrate its 35th anniversary this year with a whole school homecoming celebration, said Elaine Mattingly, principal of the Upper School. Called Creekfest, the homecoming will begin Oct. 24 and will feature field hockey and soccer games and a homecoming dance; the schools will welcome back its first graduating class.

St. Anne’s School of Annapolis will enroll about 24 two-year- olds in its new Annapolis Twos program, said communications director Effie Cottman Dawson. The school also will launch Enrich Annapolis, an expanded version of its 40 after-school programs and clubs including fencing, chess, piano and a drum circle. All of Enrich Annapolis is open to the public.

“We’re hoping it’s a way for our kids to meet people in the community and for the community to get to know us a little better,” Ms. Dawson said.

Classes, courses

Queen Anne’s County schools are making a push this year to teach students financial literacy by expanding a one-semester elective course that was offered last year.

“Especially 11th- and 12th-grade students need that,” said instructional supervisor Roy Skiles. “We know when they go to college they get bombarded with easy credit.”

Anne Arundel schools also will offer a financial literacy course this year, as well as new classes in forensic science, preparation for the ACT exam and student leadership, said Lynn Whittington, head of the curriculum department.

The system also is expanding its Chinese language program to Meade Middle and Old Mill Middle North. Last year, Chinese was offered at Severna Park, MacArthur, Corkran and Annapolis middle schools, and eventually, school leaders hope it will be offered through 12th grade.

People, elections

Local school boards will make an appearance on the ballot this November.

Queen Anne’s will have its first school board election; until this year, the five members were appointed by the governor. The new elected board members will take office the first Monday in December.

Anne Arundel voters will cast a retention vote on the two board members appointed by Gov. Martin O’Malley this spring: Tricia Johnson of Davidsonville, who is starting her second five-year- term, and Teresa Milio Birge of Odenton, who was appointed for her first.

The vote gives the public its first chance to accept or decline the governor’s decisions. It also caps the first year the new School Board Nominating Commission was responsible for forwarding names of candidates to the governor. If either board member is rejected by voters, the governor will have to appoint someone else.

Anne Arundel also has a new SMOB (Student Member of the Board) this year: Chesapeake High School senior Collin Wojciechowski, who was elected by students on a platform of changing the middle school schedule, improving school safety and reinstating field trips that were nixed in last year’s budget cuts.

“It’s the beginning of the year; it’s hard to foresee what’s going to happen,” he said. “But I’m excited for this year to start.” {Corrections:} {Status:}

NEW PLACES, PEOPLE, COURSES AND TECHNOLOGY AWAIT STUDENTS THIS WEEK

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