May 9, 2012 To acknowledge National Mental Health Awareness Week this week, the Byram Hills PTSA’s C.H.I.L.D. (Children Having Individual Learning Difficulties) committee turned its attention to anxiety, which is ranked among the top problems affecting today’s youth.
“Anxiety is the most common of mental health disorders and the most treatable,” said C.H.I.L.D. Vice President Randi Silverman.
As the mother of a child with anxiety issues, Mrs. Silverman was speaking from experience. “There’s no health without mental health,” she said. “One in five children suffers from some type of mental health issue; for one in 10 children, it interferes with their life.”
Speaking at a workshop addressing anxiety issues, Mrs. Silverman said it was time to start talking about mental health as if it were any other illness. “People are afraid to talk about it especially as it relates to kids, because there’s such a stigma. But there are so many of us,” she said to the audience of about 50 parents.
The evening’s guest speaker was Dr. Adam Weissman, Ph.D., director of Child, Family, and Adult Services of Westchester, who discussed anxiety and its related disorders in a talk entitled Confidence, Coping and Commitment, the Three Cs to Success.
A Harvard-trained clinical psychologist and cognitive behavior therapist, Dr. Weissman is an expert in the treatment of a wide range of youth anxiety problems, as well as depressive disorders, ADHD and disruptive behavior problems.
He talked about ways to build coping skills to help children overcome anxiety issues. “You have the ability to shape your child’s behavior more than you realize,” he said and cautioned parents not to exhibit anxiety issues of their own. “Anxious parents can lead to anxious kids,” he pointed out.
Nine National Merit Finalists for Byram Hills
Feb. 9, 2012 Nine Byram Hills High School seniors have been named National Merit Finalists in the 57th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The program honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. They are Robert Bayron, Danielle Dinstein, Samuel Freedman, Matthew Hadiono, Marlee Infante, Jonah Jeng, Aurora Xu, Sydney Zepf, and Noah Zucker.
The students have an opportunity to continue in the competition for National Merit scholarships that will be offered this spring.
About 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools entered the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.
To become a finalist, a semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
Three BHHS Students Chosen As Intel Semifinalists
Jan. 13, 2012 Of the 20 Byram Hills seniors who entered the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search in 2012, three have been chosen as semifinalists: Jesse Honig, Sammi Cannold, and Aurora Xu. Nationally, 300 semifinalists were selected out of 1839 entrants from 497 high schools in 44 states and the District of Columbia. Each semifinalist receives a $1000 award, as does Byram Hills High School. Forty finalists will be chosen from among the 300 semifinalists on January 25th, and each finalist will compete in Washington D.C. for $630,000 in awards.
Jesse Honig studied age-related decline in the brain's default-mode network, a key component in memory. He worked as a part of a Canadian research team with fMRI subject data on younger adults sent to him by his mentor, Dr. Cheryl Grady at the Rotman Research Institute at the University of Toronto. Jesse independently analyzed the data using partial least squares analysis. The results provide important baseline data for use in future studies on cognitive decline involving older adults.
Aurora Xu studied congenital cataracts, which cause approximately 15% of the blindness in children worldwide. Aurora worked to develop a new mathematical model for cataract surgery that takes into account the prenatal growth of the child’s eye in utero. Using this, the lens can be more accurately implanted for maximum vision correction as a child ages. She worked with Dr. Scott McClatchey at the Naval Medical Center San Diego.
Sammi Cannold created a cross-cultural comparative study of American and Finnish education in which students from both countries participated in a survey, answering questions about teaching techniques. She then flew to Finland to conduct interviews with students and administrators. She discovered that while students in both countries have similar views of teaching, American students focus more on ambition and creativity, while Finnish students desire socioeconomic equality and compatibility with their peers. She was advised by Dr. James Stigler of UCLA, who graduated from Byram Hills in 1972.
The twenty students participated in the Authentic Science Research Program, founded by Dr. Robert Pavlica, and some of them engaged in up to three years of intense independent college-level scientific research. They explored topics in the natural or social sciences and worked with a mentor at a university, medical center or research institute.
The senior entrants this year were: Jordan Bank, Robert Bayron, Alex Berkey, Sammi Cannold, Josh Chavkin, David Cohen, Carla Contillo, Mike Cziner, Eric Grossman, Matt Hadiono, Jesse Honig, Jonah Jeng, Ashley Kelly, Rebecca-Lily Michell, Brenden Moses, Naomi Pinkus, Kristi Reese, Ritesh Singh, Christianna Wymbs, and Aurora Xu.
In September, Byram Hills welcomed the largest incoming research class ever, with 49 sophomores among the current 93 students participating in the Byram Hills Authentic Science Research Program.
Byram Hills Debates
Jan. 9, 2012 "Does the cost of a college education outweigh the benefits?
"Is it morally permissible for victims to use deadly force as a deliberate response to repeated domestic violence?"
These are just two issues that Byram Hills High School's Debate Team will face this year says coach Dotti Dougherty. A college debater in Ohio prior to becoming a teacher, Dougherty was an English and History teacher for 30 years in the Mount Pleasant school district before coming to Byram Hills.
The Byram Hills Debate Team is about half the size of Mount Pleasant's, says Dougherty. Byram Hills is also on different circuit, with events hosted at colleges such as Princeton, Yale and Harvard.
The Byram Hills junior varsity and varsity teams meet twice a week from September to April. They are assigned topics and do in-depth research of relevant literature and articles. "They prepare for a weekend debate and at the same time work towards the next month's topic. They study a topic for a month by reading 15 to 20 articles, " says Dougherty. The preparation requires an understanding of the facts, an ability to debate, the attribution of references with specific statistics for each case. Dougherty finds Byram Hills students always ready to work. "We are recognized as a good debate team throughout the state. Even our novice teams are very competitive. During 75% of their practice time, they are led by the teams' captains."
The debaters must have an ability to offer evidence on both sides of an issue. The speed of the delivery of the assigned side of the topic can be more important than more philosophic presentations of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. A coin toss determines the affirmative or negative side of the more evidence-intensive Public Forum debates. The debaters present evidence and arguments to support or oppose a resolution with examples, explanations, and references in six to eight rounds. They also give rebuttals and have an opportunity to question their opponent and respond to his or her arguments.
A two-day Bobcat Classic Debate Tournament was hosted by Byram Hills on January 6 and 7, 2012. Although our students didn't compete in this event, they hosted 200 students from 19 other schools as part of a fundraiser. "It is an opportunity parents and the community to come together to support the team," says Coach Dougherty.
Parents and the more experienced varsity students are trained to be judges. Dougherty says, "They must have the ability to listen, to weigh opinions and efficiently ascertain which argument is most convincing. Students are ranked in a "Forensic League" as they earn points by competing, placing and judging."
Sarah Berger who graduated from Byram Hills in 2011, was a judge at this year's Bobcat Classic. "My experience on the high school debate team prepared me well for public speaking," she said, "and I easily transitioned to debate on the college level at Cornell University."
Cornell's debate team is well-established with over a 100 members, and is fully funded by Cornell, which allows for domestic and international competition. Berger and her debating partner won their first tournament debating British Parliamentary style. "To prepare for debating, I keep up with current events on a wide range of issues, since I never know what the debate topic will be," says Berger. "With only 10 minutes to prepare and consult, it helps that my partner is knowledgeable." But Berger is the more technically-trained team member because of her years on the Byram Hills Debate Team.
Education Pre-K to SAT
AllAboutArmonk.com talks with Educational Consultant Hilary Blum
October 17, 2011 Q: You have been tutoring for a long time. What do you like about it? HB: I love interacting with the kids. I like to get to know them and I want them to get to know me and be comfortable. I joke around with them and I make it fun. I work from an office in my house with a separate entrance. A lot of people ask if I will come to their house. I really can't. As a certified special ed teacher, I know that you need to change topics or teaching styles in the blink of an eye and if I'm at somebody else's house, I don't feel like I'm able to do my job as well. In my own office, I have all the resources on hand. Since I do research with students, I have a plethora of books at my fingertips. In addition, students tend to work better outside their home since there are fewer distractions.
Q: Tell us about yourself and your background. HB: I received a master's degree from Columbia Teachers College 23 years ago in special education with a certification from K through 12 and an undergraduate degree from Franklin & Marshall College. Then for two years I worked at the Stephen Gaynor School in Manhattan as a team-teacher in a Special Education self-contained classroom for 13 year olds. I loved it, but the commute became difficult and I decided to work closer to home.
While raising my family, I worked in Rippowam Cisqua School as a reading specialist. I have always had a tutoring practice, even in the city with my classroom students, specializing in reading and math, as I do now. I have worked at Byram Hills in the Special Education Department with kindergarten and third grade. I also have worked with handicapped children in the Scarsdale School District. I would love to go back to teaching full-time at some point.
Q: What is your favorite thing about working with kids? HB: My goal is to see students succeed. I work in math, English and study skills up to ninth grade and English in the High School. Additionally, I am trained to teach the reading and writing sections of the ACT, as well as the SAT.
Q: What is your strategy as a tutor? HB: I always meet the child before so we get to know one another. I ask them: What do you want to learn, what scares you, what do you not like doing, and what do you like doing? I tell them what we do in the room, I show them some books, the computer, I set them up with their own notebook.
I never give the answers, but I give a lot of hints. Students need to feel success in my office and then they have to take that and apply it to school, which is sometimes hard.
I have specific rules when you read a book. One of my strategies is to use sticky notes at the end of each chapter, and write two or three sentences on the chapter. This way when you get to the next chapter, you'll remember what happened in the chapter before and you won't have to go back to flip through the pages, and when you come to the end of the book you have a modified book report.
Q: What are some of the goals you have for your students? HB: I want them to feel successful. Every time they have a test, I touch base with them. They come to me at a certain level and they want to improve. There are always kids who are going to be better and there are always kids who you'll be better than. We live in a high-pressured community. But I tell my own kids, you are your own person and you will be fine. When I tell my students that, they get it and they listen because I'm not their parent. I have a lot of kids who I've taken from kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Q: How do you determine the success of students? HB: When they progress in the right direction in their attitude, their organizational skills and in the way they handle a test, the parents see it at home. It is great when a parent calls and says, "She got a 98 on her math test!". I know I'm doing the right thing if they are improving. If it is not working, I have to pick apart the pieces and try a new approach.
Q: You work on organizational skills right up front? HB: Kids come into my office with big notebooks and the first thing we do is organize. Throw away what we don't need, put things in a folder that you need for later, and you'll take that home. I mark up the folders so they are not so overwhelmed. I try to simplify their work load in order for them to grasp each concept.
Q: The relationship that you develop with your students, so that they can be relaxed as they learn, how do you get them to carry that into learning in the classroom? HB: I use various coaching tactics, depending on each student. My ultimate goal is to boost their confidence so they do not get nervous when tackling a new subject or concept.
I don't want to create a intimidating environment in my office because they have enough of that when they are in school. When a student has to write a paper, I encourage them to create an outline that I oversee. We discuss all aspects of the outline including details of their paper. Therefore, when he gets into the classroom, he can mimic what we accomplished during our session. My biggest thing is not to have a student give up, whether it is for an English paper or a math problem. A lot of time kids come to me and they'll be so nervous. I say I want you to put everything down, I want you to take ten deep breaths, or I want you to get up and run back and forth twice. Or we take them outside. With kindergarteners we go outside and do phonics playing basketball. It's fun. I try to be very creative. I make games for the younger kids, I can't do that with the older kids. But I do want them to feel comfortable. I encourage the students not to give up because they have the skills to succeed.
Q: This is a relationship where kids can spend the entire year with you. What is the role of the parents? HB: I correspond with the parents by email or phone. I explain exactly what we accomplished during our session and what skills need to be followed up on. I try to make the parents my partner. I often give them activities to follow-up on during the week.
Q: When a student first comes to you, what do you do to evaluate or determine how you can best serve that student? HB: My older students usually know what they need to work on. For instance, if they come in with a complex math problem and they are confused, I break down the problem into sections and make sure they can grasp each step. Similarly, if there is a grammar issue, such run on sentences, we go back into my bookstand reviewer five minutes to make sure they understand the concept. Once this is accomplished, this skill can be applied to a paper.
Q: Do you take the extra step and become familiar with the material? HB: I am very familiar with Byram Hills curriculum. I read every high school required reading novel. I have folders of notes on every high school book. In the beginning of the year when my students come in, I need to know the list of books that they are reading. If I don't have a book, I'll get it and read it and take notes. By not reading the book I would have no idea if they understood the story line, were telling the truth, plagiarizing, or all the above.
Often students have to write a paper on any topic. I explain that it is easy to write about what you know. Give me a list of five things that you love to do. Or tell me two stories that happened to you this summer. This way a student is familiar with the topic and has an easier time writing.
Kids email me at all hours. I always take their paper and correct their grammar to make corrections while tracking changes. I do that a lot with kids' college essays, or the Junior Author Paper. If there is a section of a paper that is not well organized, I'll say, "You need to read this out loud to me and tell me how it sounds." I don't want to say that it's not right; they need to hear it and believe in what they are writing.
Q: Do you find in your sessions, your students say, "My teacher said this…?" HB: If that comes I would change it and defer more to what the teacher is saying. Every teacher has a different method of teaching but in the end we all have the same goal of wanting the student to be successful. I will often introduce myself to a teacher and say I'm working with a particular student. I am not competing with teachers, my job is to work with them.
From the Classroom to the Boardroom By Alice Levine The Byram Hills Senior Internship Program begins early spring. Students get a taste of life in the real world. Click below to read about the program.
May 17, 2012 On April 30, 2012, the seniors of Byram Hills High School started their internship requirement. The internship program is designed to allow high school seniors to become acquainted with the work world, and‚ offers students the opportunity to apply their high school knowledge and skills to an independent career exploration in an area of personal interest. As part of the program, I interviewed Vanessa Ambroselli and Lisa Szczesniak, Byram Hills High School seniors, who are participants in the internship program.
Q. What is your internship? Vanessa Ambrosell: I am an intern for LV2BFIT, a fashion fitness boutique specializing in active wear and couture accessories.
VA. What do you hope to achieve from working at your internship site? I hope to gain knowledge and a background in this field that will help me with a career in the future.
VA. Are you interested in a possible career having to do with your internship? I am interested in exploring the avenue of retail and fitness as a career and I am happy to be given this opportunity to look into it.
VA. What do you like best about your internship? I enjoy the merchandising and buying inventory for the store because I am able to learn how the customers respond.
VA. Have you done anything during your internship that has surprised you? I had a pretty clear understanding and interpretation of what the internship would require prior to starting so I was not surprised by the work.
Q. What is your internship? Lisa Szczesniak: I am interning at H.C. Crittenden middle school teaching 7th grade math.
LS. What do you hope to achieve from working at your internship site? I hope to gain insight into the teaching process, and learning how to communicate with kids in a classroom environment.
LS. Are you interested in a possible career having to do with your internship? In the future I might want to be a teacher, I still have a lot to experience so I am not really positive on what I want to do yet.
LS. What do you like best about your internship? My favorite part about the internship is making connections with the students. I like to form a bond with the class, and even when they are out of the classroom setting I would want them to be comfortable enough with me to ask for help if they need it.
LS. Have you done anything during your internship that has surprised you? I was very surprised by how the students interacted with each other, and the teacher. I had to adapt to these situations, and I learned very quickly how to handle myself in the classroom setting.
Students Empowered To Take Action
March 25, 2012 The message for students at H.C. Crittenden Middle School this week was clear: One person can make a difference. And that person could be any one of the sixth graders who participated in the school's annual Power of One Day this week, designed to show how each individual can play a part in making change.
A keynote address from human rights activist Kerry Kennedy introduced the students to the concept of Fair Food, fair wages and farm workers' rights, and Marianne Staudt, daughter of event coordinator and Crittenden English Language Arts teacher Mary Staudt, helped out with a last-minute program change to talk about her experience as a volunteer at an AIDS orphanage in Namibia.
Sixth graders then went on take part in one of 19 workshops, each illustrating how they can participate in a cause and make a difference. Workshops ranged from learning about pediatric cancer fundraising organization Tay-bandz - started and run by kids - to sustainable farming and reducing human impact on the Earth.
Seventh grader Kayla Reiner co-hosted a workshop with sixth grade math teacher Robert Sendlenski entitled "Starting Your Own Nonprofit." Four years ago, Kayla and her sister Sara, a freshman at Byram Hills High School, started a nonprofit, Sayla Designs, that donates proceeds to charities that are meaningful to them: Kayla said that recent donations were sent to Fairy Dog Parents, which helps keeps pets in homes and out of shelters, and the adaptive ski program at Wyndham Mountain. Members of the Byram Hills High School club Stand Up! brainstormed with sixth graders about ways to become active global citizens.
Power of One Day was a community affair and included Town Councilman Michael Schiliro running a composting and recycling workshop and encouraging students to adopt green lifestyles. Even lunch period involved consciousness raising, with students running a variety of fund-raisers, many conceived and created that morning.
"The day gives students an opportunity to create positive change in their world," said Mrs. Staudt, who together with social studies teacher Sheila St. Onge, conceived Power of One Day six years ago. She said she has noticed that students take this message seriously. "I see a lot of volunteerism among our students," she said. "They tell me about the projects they get involved in."
The bake sale and bracelet sale, raised over $1100 towards the goal of drilling a well in a developing nation to provide clean water for a village! The lemonade stand raised $379 towards pediatric cancer research and the “Kiss a Pig” raised $120 to buy ani- mals through Heifer International to help fight hunger and poverty.
At the end of the day, students watched a play rehearsed during a workshop, celebrating the work of modern day human rights workers, and shared their own workshop experiences in an all-school assembly to learn of all the initiatives that had been inspired by the day's activities.
Rye Country Day School Physics Team Takes First at Competition Feb. 13, 2012 During the first weekend in February, the RCDS Physics team participated in the 2012 Invitational Young Physicists Tournament in Oakridge, Tennessee. The tournament consisted of a series of “physics fights,” in which each team presented detailed, theoretical and experimental solutions to three problems and also debated presenters from other teams on the same problems. Competing teams came from California, Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, and China. Rye Country Day ended the tournament in first place, defeating Woodberry Forest School of Virginia in the final. The RCDS team consisted of seniors Andrew Mollerus (Captain), Sarah Strong, Michael Thomas, Dan Alderson-Smith, Katherine Dean, and juniors Wenchen Huang and John Rigby.
Byram Hills Scientists Qualify for State Competition February 8, 2012
Byram Hills High School had a strong showing at the Westchester-Rockland Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) last weekend, with eight students in the medals and four qualifying for state competition.
Senior Aurora Xu won a first place spot in the medicine and health category for her presentation of her research on congenital cataracts, which cause approximately 15% of the blindness in children worldwide. Aurora worked to develop a new mathematical model for cataract surgery that takes into account the prenatal growth of the child’s eye in utero. Her research has already earned Aurora a semifinalist spot in the Intel Science Talent Search. She’ll be among the 30 students competing at the Upstate NY JSHS in Albany in March.
Also heading to states will be Matt Hadiono for his second place spot in biochemistry, David Cohen who snagged a second place in medicine, and Brenden Moses who placed second in physical science.
Other medalists from Byram Hills at the Westchester-Rockland competition were Jesse Honig (medicine and health), Ritesh Singh and Eric Grossman (biology), and Jordan Bank (behavior).
Sponsored by the University at Albany, the Academy of Applied Science and the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, the state level JSHS is one of the most prestigious forums for young scientists in the country.
Students representing high schools from Westchester County to Western New York State present the results of original scientific research before 500 fellow students, teachers, mentors and judges. Their work is the culmination of a three year Science Research in the High School program that unites students, teachers, and mentors in a dynamic exchange.
Of the hundreds of students who present their papers at three regional forums, only 30 are chosen statewide to present at the Upstate NY JSHS in Albany.
Over the past eight years, the Upstate New York JSHS has produced four first place and two second place winners at the national JSHS.
TRANSFERRING
By Ed Woodyard of College Advice
You are no longer the same person you were when you first applied to college the year before. You are indeed someone else, someone new and improved. The transfer process is almost more intriguing that the regular admissions process. It too requires understanding the demands of each college, but this time the balance of components is shifted, with different weight and consideration given to the same criteria. For example, the SAT scores which were so important the first time around, counting for as much as 40% of the total package, were now anywhere between 0 and 15%. Why the change? Because the college transcript takes on greater importance.
This special advertising feature is provided by the
participating advertiser and did not involve reporting of editing of
AllAboutArmonk.com.
