Ocean City High School Principal s Report June, 2013 CONGRATULATIONS! Congratulations to the 319 members of the Class of 2013! Graduation was held on the football field under cloudy skies. Graduation speakers were Nathan Roberts Salutatorian, and David Gilhooley Valedictorian. Jason Shirk was named Exchange Club Youth of Year. Jason had already been honored as the April Exchange Club Youth of the Month. Jason was selected for this honor because of his participation in many school and volunteer organizations. CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AND VISITORS On June 7th, Carolyn Haas and Gail Thompson (representatives from Ocean City Home Bank) spoke to Miss Norton s Financial Literacy classes. Their presentation covered various Financial Services, Financial Responsibilities as well as What Is Identity Theft?/Ways To Protect Yourself From Identity Theft. On Thursday 5/9, Mr. Ritti s Probability and Statistic classes travelled south on the boardwalk to Congo Falls miniature golf course. It was one of the first sunny and hot days this spring. Each team of 3 was assigned 2 holes to photograph and detail all obstacles using measurement techniques without tape measures. Earlier in the week, students practiced these measuring techniques in class. Once complete, the classes played 36 holes of golf on Solomon s mine. The students found one-variable statistics for each hole based on all the compiled scores on their specific hole, using graphing calculators or Excel formulas. The students produced a laminated booklet diagramming each hole and rating the holes based upon the statistics gathered that day for the Solomon s Mine course. Each specific golf hole has its own page with pictorial, written, and numerical details. The numerical data was compiled into box and whisker plots which students used to determine the ranking of the
holes by difficulty. Once complete, we presented Congo Falls executives, Mark Benevento, John Ward, and Rich Hollander our results outside of the High School while the local papers documented the event. The book will be located at their front booth. If you re there this summer, check it out!! Congratulations to the ASL Performers of OCHS on a fabulous show this month! Students presented their best performance yet to an audience of approximately 150 Deaf and hearing people, about half of what we usually bring in but admirable considering our recent bad luck with weather and cancellations. One Deaf couple came out on Friday night to see the show, saw that it was cancelled and came back on Tuesday anyway! Most Deaf audience members have been to every one of the past 6 shows, never missing one! We raised over $1,500.00 which will be distributed between the 4 senior scholarship winners, Nicole Garrett, Elyse Huber, Austin Satinsky and Angel Severino all of whom are pursuing degrees in ASL Interpreting or Deaf Education next year! Each received a coveted name sign which can only be given by a member of the Deaf Community and signifies acceptance into Deaf Culture. Carrie Pogue,
president of Deaf women United of NJ and 2nd generation Deaf presented students with their name signs. We will also be able to sponsor one Deaf Haitian child for one year of schooling at the Institut Montfort in Port Au Prince, Haiti. This year students also presented ASL Poetry, not an easy task in a second language. The Deaf audience members told me they were truly impressed by the poems and thought hearing people would not really be able to create quality, creative poetry in ASL. This was something they had only seen done at the Deaf liberal arts college in Washington D.C., Gallaudet University, as a way to challenge the Deaf college students. The fact that first and second year ASL students were able to do this and do it well truly surprised them I think the sign they used was SHOCKED. Mrs. Anderson states, I could not have been prouder as I watched our ASL students shine on stage. What a joy to work with such an incredible group of people. A few brave ASL-ers even chatted with the Deaf after the show, using their conversational skills outside of our safe classroom and they all held their own! CLUB ACTIVITIES French and Spanish Club Car Wash
Strings perform in lobby during community lunch!
This year the National Honor Society members have participated in countless events, including Back to School Night, Hero Walk, Hope Music Festival, Makin Strides Breast Cancer Walk, MLK Clean-Up, Anti-Bullying Campaign, OC Half Marathon, MS Bike Tour, Veteran Tribute Dinner, Challenger Sports and many more. Our members have completed over 1,800 service hours together, pushing much further than the requirement. The students showed a true commitment to helping out our community. We also awarded our 6 officers with scholarships totaling $1750. Senior Awards and Scholarship Night The Senior awards program and Senior Scholarship nights were held on May 31 st and June 3 rd. The seniors receiving awards and their parents were invited to these special events. The Senior Awards program was held in the auditorium the morning of May 31 st. Awards totaling over $20,025 were given to students for club participation and academic achievement. Senior Scholarship Night was held the evening of June 3 rd. Over $364,695 was given in awards and scholarship money to students. Representatives from community organizations were on hand to present the award to the student. Pictures were taken of each award presented and sent to the representatives..