May 15, 2015

Career Pathways and the Road to Success

In order to better prepare students for their post-secondary lives, Township High School District 211 and William Fremd High School are organizing and aligning our course offerings into Career Pathways connected to 16 career clusters. The career clusters include:

• Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
• Architecture and Construction
• Health Science
• Hospitality and Tourism
• Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
• Manufacturing
• Education and Training
• Human Services
• Government and Public Administration
• Information Technology
• Transportation, Distribution and Logistics
• Arts, Audio Visual Technology and Communication
• Business Management and Communication
• Finance
• Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security
• Marketing

The Career Pathways are designed to help your student make educated decisions about the kinds of courses he/she will take. For any given cluster, we will list the related sequence of courses that Fremd offers. In theory, the Career Pathways will guide students to take a variety of courses in their field of interest, including capstone experiences that will help them finish high school with college credits in their pocket.

Highlights and Successes

• Congratulations to the 2 student winners for the NCTE Achievement Awards in Writing: Sydney Hill and Julia Cai.  For perspective, a total of 650 juniors were nominated by their schools to participate in the 2015 program with 141 students chosen as outstanding writers.  This contest is the highest writing honor a high school student may receive through NCTE.
• Congratulations to Coach Chris Grattoni and the Fremd High School Math Team for earning twelfth place at the ICTM State Competition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Saturday, May 2nd. The Freshman Algebra I Team (Kevin Chen, Rose Dinh, Kashif Javid, Edward Li, Adith Palla, and Elizabeth Perez) earned tenth place. Edward Li earned first place for his individual score on the Freshman Algebra I Contest. The Freshman-Sophomore Relay Team (Rose Dinh, Lewis Oh, Claire Bowman, and Akash Mukherjee) earned tenth place. The Junior-Senior Relay Team (Mark Guo, Daniel Tokarz, Roshan Rajan, and Jun Tomita) earned eighth place. The Junior-Senior Eight Person Team (Julia Cai, Mark Guo, Angie Peng, Ann Rajan, Varshini Ramanathan, Jeemin Sim, Jun Tomita, and Jennie Yang) earned tenth place. The Precalculus Team (Nathan Cornwell, Soumyaa Mazumder, Roshan Rajan, Jeemin Sim, Jun Tomita, and Jennie Yang) earned tenth place.
• Congratulations to Coach Tim Hamman and the Boys Gymnastics Team on being MSL Conference Champions and MSL West Division Champions.  Award winners include:  Cole Patton: Conference Floor Exercise Champion; Eric Barnd: 2nd Place All-Around, 3rd  place Pommel Horse, 3rd Place Horizontal Bar; Ryan Roth: 3rd Place Floor Exercise.
• Congratulations Coach Tim Hamman and the Boys Gymnastics Team on taking 2nd place at the  IHSA Sectional Meet and qualifying for the State Meet.  Individual medalists include:  Cole Patton: IHSA Sectional Vault Champion, 2nd Place Floor Exercise; State Qualifier: Floor Ex. &  Vault; Eric Barnd: 3rd Place All-Around, 3rd Place High Bar,  State Qualifier: All-Around, Pommel Horse, Vault, High Bar; Ryan Roth: 3rd Place Floor Exercise, State Qualifier: Floor Exercise, Vault; Daniel Classon: State Qualifier: Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings; Sam Yim: State Qualifier: Still Rings; Nick Oyasu: State Qualifier: Pommel Horse; Chase Jauch: State Qualifier: Pommel Horse.
• Congratulations to Coach Matt Duncan and the Boys Tennis Team on taking  2nd Place at the Crystal Lake Central Tennis Tournament.
• Congratulations to Steve Elza and auto students junior Curtis Robinson and senior Samuel Robar on winning the State Championship in the Ford/AAA Autoskills competition.
• Congratulations to Coach Bob Hanson and  the Girls Badminton Team on being the  Sectional Champs for the 14th  year in a row.  Sindhuja Battula was the singles champ and Stephani  Mbi and Suzi Choi doubles sectional champion.  State qualifiers include Sunny Shah, Alice Zhang, Suzi Choi, Stephanie Mbi, and Sindhuja Battula.
• Congratulations to sophomore Soon Myung Hwang on receiving the President’s Volunteer Service Award.  The President’s Volunteer Service Award is a national award created from the White House and presented at the Business Professionals of America (BPA) Nationals.
• Congratulations to the following Viking Pride winners:  Emma Aftelak, Shannon Byerly, John Carver, Martin Chlopecki, James Donovan, Mark Kating, Trenton Marean, Alex Nicholas, Cameron Pope, Naqiya Rangwala, Rebekah Seidman, Hannah Tokarczyk, Manthra Venkatakrishnan, Ally Aichinger, Scott Allen, Courtney Baker, Anya Bhagwakar, Michael Buabeng, Nick Clark, Jiamin Huang, Lisa Kim, Kayla Lattas, Liyu Liu, Sofia Palumbo, Anne-Charlotte Ritouret, Ryan Stapleton, Isaiah Turner, Nicole Warnstedt, and Alyssa Worthem.

Upcoming Home Activities and Varsity Events

May 14-16	Spring Musical - 7:00 p.m. Auditorium
May 15	Girls Badminton IHSA State @ EIU Boys Tennis MSL Conference - 3:30 p.m. Girls Track & Field IHSA Sectionals - FHS, 4:30 p.m. Girls Softball @ CHS - 4:30 p.m. Boys Baseball vs. Prospect - 4:30 p.m. Boys Track & Field MSL Conference @ Prospect, 4:45 p.m. Boys Gymnastics IHSA State @ Hinsdale Central- 5:00 p.m. Girls Water Polo IHSA Sectional @ SHS - 5:45 p.m. Girls Soccer @ New Trier - 7:00 p.m. Boys Water Polo IHSA Sectionals @ SHS - 7:00 p.m.
May 16	Prom Ticket Sales - 8:00 a.m.- 11:00 a.m. Cafeteria Boys Tennis MSL Conference - 8:00 a.m. Boys Volleyball vs. Viking Invite - 9:00 a.m. Boys Baseball @ Mundelein - 10:00 a.m. Girls Water Polo IHSA Sectionals @ SHS- 11:00 a.m. Boys Gymnastics IHSA State @ Hinsdale Central - 12:00 p.m. Boys Water Polo IHSA Sectionals @ SHS - 12:30 p.m. Girls Badminton IHSA State @ EIU
May 18	Girls Softball vs. PHS - 4:45 p.m. Boys Baseball @ Wheeling - 5:00 p.m.
May 19	Band Concert - Auditorium, 5:30 p.m. Senior Band Recognition - 7:00 p.m. Boys Volleyball MSL Conference - 6:00 p.m. Girls Soccer IHSA Regionals @ FHS - 7:00 p.m.
May 20	Boys Baseball MSL Crossover - 4:30 p.m. Girls Softball vs. MSL Conference - 5:00 p.m. Boys Volleyball MSL Championship - 7:00 p.m.
May 21	Orchestra Concert - Auditorium, 7:00 p.m. Yearbook Distribution - Cafeteria 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Boys Track & Field IHSA Sectionals @ PHS - 4:30 p.m. Boys Baseball @ Glenbrook North - 4:30 p.m. Girls Softball MSL Conference - 5:00 p.m. Girls Track & Field IHSA State @ EIU Girls Water Polo IHSA State @ Stevenson Boys Water Polo IHSA State @ Stevenson

For a more complete list, please visit our Athletics Page.

Ask the Principal

Are you curious about something at Fremd but have never asked? Email me at ktenopir@d211.org. If your question is pertinent to a wider audience, I will include it in the next blog post.

May 1, 2015

Our Hedgehog Concept--A Message for Parents of Seniors

In Good to Great, author Jim Collins tells the story of an extremely successful cross country team that wants to do one thing better than any other team--their “hedgehog concept”--and that is to finish strong. Finish every workout, every repetition, strong. Finish every race strong. And finish the season strong.

As we approach the end of the school year, it is my hope that our students adopt this hedgehog concept. I want them to finish the year strong. Finish their high school career strong. Academically. Athletically. Socially. And, ahem, behaviorally.

One of my recent blog posts already emphasized the need for buckling down academically for the rest of the semester. If your student is in a sport/activity, the coach/sponsor is likely providing the motivation for finishing strong.

That leaves finishing strong socially and behaviorally.

There are many fun senior events to close out the year. For a complete list, check here.

In order to ensure that these memories are positive and without incident, please talk to your student about making good choices. The threat of losing privileges to attend any of the year-end events (senior brunch, senior picnic, prom, graduation) should outweigh the perceived benefit created through bad choices. As your student closes out his/her high school career, have them ask themselves, “Is what I’m about to do worth the risk of possibly telling my prom date that I can’t go to prom?” Or worse yet, “Is what I’m about to do worth the risk of possibly telling Grandma that she won’t get to watch me walk across the stage?”

Those thoughts alone should encourage anyone to finish the year strong. To finish their high school career strong.

Highlights and Successes

• Congratulations to Grant Dawson and the following journalism students who placed in the top six  at the IHSA Sectional Journalism Tournament:   
• Jack Albrecht – 2nd in Advertising, 4th in Editorial Cartooning and State Qualifier
• Emma Davies – 1st in Broadcast News and State Qualifier
• Eric Wong – 4th in Copy Editing
• Jenna Chin – 1st in Editorial Writing and State Qualifier
• Katherine Benson – 6th in Feature Photography
• Adam Bieda – 4th in Headline Writing, 3rd in News Design
• Emma Gattuso – 1st in Info Graphics and State Qualifier
• Michael Wu – 1st in Review Writing and State Qualifier
• Matt Nicholson – 3rd in Sports Writing and State Qualifier
• Ariana Marean – 3rd in Yearbook Caption Writing and State Qualifier
• Grace Liu – 1st in Yearbook Copy Writing and State Qualifier
• Yazmin Rustomji – 4th in Yearbook Layout Double-Page Spread
• Grace Liu and Yazmin Rustomji – 6th in Yearbook Theme Development
• Congratulations to Coach Tim Hamman and the Boys Gymnastics Team on placing 1st at the Hawk Invite.  Award winners include:  Eric Barnd: 2nd Place All-Around;  2nd Place High Bar, 2nd Place Vault; Cole Patton: 1st Place Floor Exercise, 1st Place Vault; and Ryan Roth: 1st Place Parallel Bars.
• Congratulations to Orchestra students Krystian and Karisa Chiu who will be featured on the radio show “Introductions” WFMT /98.7 (classical music radio) this Saturday May 2nd at 11:00 am.  Krystian (cello) and Karisa (violin) perform in the Atara String Quartet, which is made up of four high school students and has been recognized for numerous classical music honors and awards.  They recently were awarded the Gold medal at the St. Paul String Quartet National Competition in Minnesota. Introductions features the Chicago-area’s talented pre-college classical musicians every week.  Soloists and small ensembles perform live in WFMT’s Levin Performance Studio for the broadcast.  For more info please visit:  http://blogs.wfmt.com/introductions/?p=1911
• Congratulations to this weeks Viking Pride Winners: Elaine Beaulieu, Nina Bell, Cierra Curney, Isaac Fralish, kellie Halloran, Matthew Hansen, Gina Heinsohn, Kailey Henson, Thomas Keane, Nick Mayer, Emily McCaffrey, Sonya patel, Isabella Rosman, Ryan Roth, Robert Schroeder, Alyssa Scornavacco, Maggie Sieh, and Lauren Tapia.

Upcoming Home Activities and Varsity Events

May 1	Boys Tennis vs. Tom Pitchford Invite @ Hersey - 3:00 p.m. Badminton vs. MSL Conference @ Elk Grove - 4:30 p.m. Girls Softball vs. Glenbrook N. - 4:45 p.m. Boys Baseball vs. Elk Grove - 4:45 p.m. Girls Soccer @ Naperville N. - 5:00 p.m. Boys Gymnastics vs. MSL Conference @ Prospect - 6:00 p.m.
May 2	Boys Tennis @ Hersey - 8:00 a.m. Girls/Boys Track @ PHS Relays - 8:30 a.m. Boys Tennis @ Crystal Lake S.- 8:30 a.m. Girls Badminton vs. MSL Conference @ Elk Grove - 9:00 a.m. Boys Baseball @ Warren - 10:00 a.m. Girls LaCrosse @ Glenbrook N. - 11:00 a.m. Girls Soccer @ Naperville N. - 11:00 a.m. Boys LaCrosse vs. Glenbard W. - 12:00 p.m.
May 4	Boys Baseball vs. Barrington - 4:30 p.m. Girls Softball @ Buffalo Grove - 4:45 p.m. Boys Volleyball @ Stevenson - 6:00 p.m. Girls vs. MSL Crossover - 5:30 p.m. @ PHS Boys vs. MSL Crossover - 4:30 p.m.
May 5	Boys Tennis @ CHS - 4:30 p.m. Girls LaCrosse vs. St. Viator - 7:00 p.m.
May 6	Boys Baseball @ Barrington - 4:30 p.m. Girls Softball vs. Prospect - 4:45 p.m. Boys Volleyball vs. PHS - 6:00 p.m. Girls Soccer @ CHS -  6:30 p.m.
May 7	Girls Badminton vs. IHSA Sectionals @ FHS - 4:30 p.m. Boys Tennis vs. PHS - 4:45 p.m. Boys LaCrosse vs. St. Charles E. - 7:00 p.m.

For a more complete list, please visit our Athletics Page.

Staff Spotlight

Name: Colleen Alles

Position: Science Department Chair

Years at Fremd: 1

Life Before Fremd: I spent 10 years teaching Biology and Earth Science at Naperville North High School.  While there I coached girls basketball, was the head key club sponsor, and a PRIDE mentor.

Hobbies/Interests: I love spending time with my family and doing what my son calls “science esperients”

Insider Tip for Parents:

Talk to your kids.  In the ever increasing world of technology we too often rely on a quick text or email to communicate.  Sit down and have face to face conversations with your kids each day.

Ask the Principal

Are you curious about something at Fremd but have never asked? Email me at ktenopir@d211.org. If your question is pertinent to a wider audience, I will include it in the next blog post.