Week 16 at Manor New Tech High School (MNTHS) was a festive week full of MNTHS traditions: the Adopt-a-Kid parties, the Staff/Student basketball game, the Alumni Assembly, and the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon, sponsored by the Parent Involvement Committee.
During this week, juniors and freshmen taking Physics completed their musical instruments for their waves and sound projects. Here is a sampling of their work. They designed string or percussion instruments that could play a scale. They used the wave equation to estimate the lengths required to produce specific notes.
Sophomores presented their genealogies and evolution board games in their Biology class. Some teams came up with some really creative games that addressed Mendel’s genetics, evidence for natural selection and monohybrid/dihybrid crosses.
Tuesday evening, the Robotics team (FRC 2789) held its last preparation meeting prior to FRC Kickoff early next year. We discussed the advantages of tank drive and went through calculations that illustrated the shapes of chassis and drive trains needed to overcome field obstacles. Some of our mentors have interpreted the FRC game hints to predict that this season’s game will involve heavy defense and a bumpy field. Students designed and got feedback on mechanisms for different types of actuators that may come up in this year’s game. The programming team (see bottom left and right) met and discussed some programming fundamentals and tricks. I was impressed by the size of the programming team. It’s the largest programming sub-team I’ve ever seen in our team’s history.
Throughout the week, Advisories prepared for their Adopt-a-Kid parties and for the coveted door decoration award. I adopted Mrs. Valderrama’s Advisory to help them with their Adopt-a-Kid party preparations. It was nice to donate to them all the decorations my graduated advisory from last year had accumulated over their four years of parties. The freshmen put those to good use. They even got into the spirit of the door competition and won an Honorable Mention prize for their Grinch that Stole My Door design. Many Advisories put in a lot of effort into their doors. We had a repeat champion for the First Place prize – the juniors really outdid themselves with their Gingerbread House door.
The party preparations really brought up the spirits and excitement of Valderrama’s advisory. They were great hosts to our kid. They really made an effort to make sure he felt comfortable and had a great time. They helped assemble his presents and helped him play with his toys. In addition, we got visits from two Santas and an elf.
Many alumni came by to visit this week because they were on winter break. Ahn and Malenie met with me and Mr. Villarreal and gave us advice on how to better prepare our students for college. They would like our school to offer more AP courses – especially in the sciences – because we’re a STEM Academy and would like our students to have more exposure to individual complicated lab work. They also shared what parts of our school helped prepare them for college. They appreciated that they learned how to start and manage study groups, how to manage their time, and how to develop and sustain a high level of work ethic. They both expressed interest in being the first alumni to join our Campus Advisory Committee.
Maya came to visit during the Staff Student basketball team. It was nice to hear that Ivaya power was still running strong and doing well in college. I taught her our new word of celebration, Cacao! so she could use it to celebrate her future moments of triumph.
Many more alumni came to visit to serve on panel for our Alumni Assembly. At this assembly, alumni discuss how they applied the skills they learned at Manor New Tech toward their college careers. While the sophomores, juniors and seniors met with the alumni for the panel discussion, admin met with the Freshman advisories to answer questions and to urge them to share ideas with MNTH staff that could help them improve their experiences at MNTH. Without their input, it’s hard for them to embrace the idea of “Our House” that is integral to our culture. We exposed the students to all the traditions and clubs at our school that were student ideas put into practice and told them it was OK and encouraged for them to share their ideas so they could start to place their stamp in a positive way on our campus.
During the Staff Student basketball team, we stacked our team with many alumni so that our team could stand a chance against the student team. We had an excellent referee. He actually called travels, fouls, and backcourt violations. He really kept the play from getting too rough. The students had the lead from the start of the game. At one point, the staff pulled within 10 points of the students and then the students held and opened up that lead. Yay students!
During half time of the basketball team, our roller derby team, the Lunatechs, ran several exhibition bouts as part of our half time entertainments. Our MC, Mr. Villarreal, explained the rules and mechanics of the games while the girls battled around the ring. Although it got inevitablly rough, no one was hurt! Our nurse was very concerned throughout the matches. It was nice to see how much she cared as she paced the sidelines.
After the game, the juniors led a farewell tribute for Ms. Hart. Ms. Hart retired after 8.5 years of great teaching in the Sciences at Manor New Tech. She has taught Chemistry, Biology, Anatomy & Physiology and Environmental Sciences. Her versatility in preps has given her the opportunity to teach several classes more than once during their four year science sequence. She is beloved by many teachers and students. She will be missed a lot at MNTHS!
The Parent Involvement Committee hosted a Staff Luncheon. 😃 Their food was really great as always. This luncheon is one of my favorite traditions. After the luncheon, most of the staff met up at Ms. Fain-Jackson’s house for a staff holiday party. We played a good game of White Elephant. Many teachers bought really cute gifts that anyone could appreciate. I won a miniature bag toss game for the office. Other notable gifts was a How to Speak Wookie book that went to Holly Fain-Jackson, a Donald Trump autobiography that went to Ms. Tilllson, and a nice set of knives that went to Ms. Castanon. There was dancing and singing and Holly’s famous buffalo chicken wing dip and freshly fried wings cooked by Mr. Adeboyejo. Good times!
