HHS Highlights - February
1. Mr. Ambrose’s American Studies students evaluated the efforts of the counterculture as
well as Latinos, Women, and Native Americans in changing the cultural, political, and
societal structures of the United States in the late 1960s through the early 1970s.
2. Mr. Barbosa’s English class examined the music they listen to in order to find examples
of figurative language.
3. Ms. Biondi’s English I students continue to progress through To Kill a Mockingbird and
completed a gallery walk that consisted of student made questions/responses for a
specific section of the text.
4. Ms. Clark’s English III CP students presented their research paper topics to the whole
class - future college, major, and career. Students were required to present for ten
minutes and include the use of a visual aid, many of whom created a Google Slides
presentation. Classmates asked pertinent questions and were truly engaged throughout
their peers’ presentations.
5. Ms. Clifford’s Peer Leaders continue to work on their Photovoice project. Students have
been meeting during lunch to write the narratives that go along with the photos that were
chosen.
6. Mr. Crimmel’s Ecology Club completed its second round of trips to the third grade
classes. The focus this time was food chains and webs, and why recycling is so important
to maintaining healthy ecosystems.
7. The “Hidden in Plain Sight” presentation organized by the Hawthorne BOE, Police Dept.
and Municipal Alliance was eye opening and fascinating. The presenter went over ways
in which people can disguise and hide substances from authority figures in their life. Peer
Leaders were in attendance and they were amazed at some of the unfortunate innovations
people have made in the field of hiding substance abuse.
8. Ms. Di Geronimo’s Seniors and Teens Together program was hosted by the Digital Media
Club this month. Club members introduced their guests to the world of photo
manipulation. Applying their photoshop skills, students took pictures of the seniors and
showed how the photos can be colorized, duplicated, and even air brushed. Several
seniors brought old family pictures that the students enhanced with brighter colors and
sharper images. The digitalized photos were then sent to their guests via email, so they
can now share them electronically with their family and friends.
9. Oscars Week! Homerooms voted for “best” in 5 categories to compete for the Oscar
statue and “Best Homeroom” title. Red carpet event in the Media Studio!
10. Ms. Fusaro’s Italian Club students hosted our annual Carnevale celebration on Friday,
February 10th. There was a cannoli station, photo booth, waffle station, and lots of Italian
pastries and coffee. It was a great success.
11. Ms. Fusaro’s Italian 4H and AP students have begun preparing for Italian Language and
Culture Day at MSU on March 16th.
12. Senior Superstars was held on Friday, February 17th and was a huge success. Students
displayed an extremely high level of enthusiasm and sportsmanship the entire afternoon
- something the entire Physical Education staff was very proud of!
13. Ms. Hackett’s Performance I and II students are focusing on Reader’s Theater! Students
are performing published scripts at this point, but will move to the skill of script writing for
Reader’s Theater in the coming weeks.
14. Ms. Hawruk’s Legal Issues in the 21st Century students learned how to file small claims
complaints in New Jersey. Students were given a “real life” situation where they had to
represent themselves and file a lawsuit against their plumber, mechanic, neighbor,
etc. Students prepared the complaint online through the New Jersey Court system and
gathered evidence for trial.
15. Mr. Livingston’s Broadcasting Club began broadcasting the morning announcements on
twitter, vimeo, and the HHS webpage.
16. Mr. Livingston’s Broadcasting students worked on four episodes of Bears News.
17. Ms. Lyness’ Contemporary Issues in the 21st Century students are evaluating the issues
with Guantanamo Bay Detention Center and will be debating whether it should remain
opened or closed.
18. Ms. Martinez and Ms. Rivas hosted an informational and enrollment meeting for the
educational tour to Barcelona and Madrid in the spring of 2017. The meeting took place
on Wednesday, February 15th at 6:30 p.m.
19. Mr. McMann’s Calculus students have been working on using differentiation and related
rates to solve various real world problems, such as how quickly two cars are separating in
a high speed chase.
20. Ms. Murphy’s Biology students are learning about environmental topics such as Global
Warming, Over Harvesting, Monoculture and Pollution of Biogeochemical Cycles.
21. The Class of 2020 collected 15 team rosters for the Speedball Tournament on Friday,
March 24, 2017.
22. Ms. Phibbs’ Computational Thinking students have completed the first series of small
programming assignments learning graphics programming functions in JavaScript using
Khan Academy.
23. Ms. Pasquale’s Math Club submitted its yearly online challenge on February
25th. Students competed in a 14 hour online challenge.
24. Student Council Executive Board and Ms. Russo were very busy with Mr.
Hawthorne. Their t-shirt sale was a success, and so was the pre-sale tickets. Over 750
tickets were sold. March 4th was a fun night and continues to be a huge success. The
students also went to Roosevelt School and participated in their Read Across America
event. Our Student Council members read to various grade levels.
25. Ms. Tanis’ Algebra 1 students are working in collaborative groups to complete a chapter
project. For the project, students have to solve three systems, all of which have different
solutions. Students must use ALL three methods (graphing, substitution, elimination) to
solve each system. Work must be displayed in a poster. Groups are competing with one
another for the most creative poster. Teachers/students will vote and the winner will earn
a prize.
26. Ms. Tullo’s English I Honors students have explored foundational American poetry and
documents (i.e. “The New Colossus” and other works).
27. Mr. Ward’s AP World History are working to prepare for the AP Exam by investigation of
the early Modern Period. Student presentation projects have been completed.
28. Mr. Warner’s Sports Medicine students finished a unit on Taping and Wrapping. Students
learned how to tape and wrap various parts of the body for support; assessment was
taping a wrist or ankle and was graded by rubric. Sports Medicine has now transitioned
into a unit on Kinesiology and will spend the rest of the year focusing on individual body
parts.
29. Ms. Wentworth’s AP Chemistry students performed a lab where the concentration of acid
in common acids, such as apple juice, soda, and pineapple juice were found using titration
techniques.
30. Mr. Williams’ and the LMS 8th grade band planned a collaborative rehearsal that took
place the beginning of March. The objective of this rehearsal is to entice students to come
to Hawthorne High School, and to keep them in the band during the big transition to a new
school.
31. Mr. Wu’s Chemistry students grew actual silver crystals to take home as part of a lab. The
lab was used to show how we could make certain things, but cost would make doing
something like this on a large scale impractical.
32. Mr. Zaolino’s AP Biology students, as organized by Carol Denise for the Special Programs
Department, went to Liberty Science Center to view and interact with organ transplant
surgeon as a kidney transplant was being performed. Students were able to view the
surgery and ask questions of the surgeon as the surgery was taking place.
33. Ms. Zaransky’s Geometry students are completing a unit on trigonometry. Students are
learning about real world applications using angles of elevation and depression to solve
problems.