Local Teacher Receives Award from International Education Group
Mike Town, a teacher at Redmond High School (RHS), received an award from the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) for “Outstanding Service to Environmental Education by a K-12 Educator” at the NAAEE National Conference in Portland, Ore., on October 10. The award is given each year to an educator in grades K-12 who has made a significant contribution to helping students learn about the environment.
Town, who teaches AP Environmental Science, implements Environmental Education in his classroom and throughout the rest of RHS. A believer that awareness through education is the key to meeting the demands of the environment, in 2007, Town started his Cool Schools Challenges, in which students become the school’s energy auditors—a program that has been nationally recognized and replicated in many schools around the region. Because of overwhelming interest in Town’s class, Redmond High’s AP scores are well above the district and state level and his efforts have led to Redmond High’s reputation as the greenest school in the country and a leader in environmental education.
Juanita High School Participates In Landmark Statewide Teen Smoking-Cessation Trial
Study is the first of its kind to achieve significant increase in prolonged quit rates
With the help of students of the class of 2003 at Juanita High School, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has obtained landmark results from the Hutchinson Study of High School Smoking, the largest randomized trial of teen smoking cessation ever conducted. The study for the first time demonstrated that it is possible to:
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successfully recruit and retain a large number of adolescent smokers from the general population into a smoking intervention study, and
- significantly impact rates of six-month continuous quitting through personalized, proactive telephone counseling.
These findings, by Arthur V. Peterson Jr., Ph.D., Kathleen A. Kealey and colleagues in the Hutchinson Center’s Cancer Prevention Program, were reported in a pair of scientific articles in the Oct. 12 online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health, involved more than 2,000 teenage smokers from 50 high schools in Washington, including Juanita High School. Half of the schools were randomly assigned to the experimental intervention; teens in these schools were invited during their senior year to take part in confidential, personalized telephone counseling designed to help motivate them to quit. The remaining 25 schools served as control, or comparison, schools; teen smokers from these schools did not participate in the telephone intervention. Juanita High School was one of the 25 experimental schools. The study also included 745 nonsmokers to ensure that contacting students for participation in the trial would not reveal a participant’s smoking status.
Students in the class of 2003 — both nonsmokers and smokers, and with their parents’ permission — were invited to participate in the study. As juniors, they participated in an in-class baseline survey, and then were followed by mailed survey one year post-high-school graduation to learn about changes over time in their attitudes and practices with regard to smoking and nonsmoking.
Juanita High School Celebrates “Pink Day”
Friday, October 9 was “Pink Day” at Juanita High School in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Students gathered in the morning to have their photo taken. The school raised money for breast cancer research and education through selling pink t-shirts. The school’s normally red and blue Web site was colored pink for the day as well.
Calling all Veterans! Rosa Parks Elementary Hosts Veterans Luncheon
The sixth grade class of Rosa Parks Elementary cordially invites all veterans who have served their country, to their Veterans Luncheon! All family members are welcome and encouraged to attend as well. The event will include lunch, conversation and entertainment. They hope to honor and rightfully recognize all of the world’s heroes.
Rosa Parks Elementary Veterans Luncheon
Wednesday, November 10, 2009
11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Rosa Parks Elementary School
22845 NE Cedar Park Crescent, Redmond, WA 98053
Please RSVP by calling or emailing Mr. Brekke: phone: (425)836-6660, email: jbrekke@lwsd.org
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News from the Schools is compiled by the Lake Washington School District Communications Department. For more information or to submit your school's news, please e-mail Kathryn Reith or Shannon Parthemer.