Congratulations Raiders!

Check out our basketball players at the state semi-finals at Bellevue Community College last night. Thanks also to our cheerleaders for their athleticism and support!

Our girls' basketball team had an unprecedented season of success. They played with heart, power, and guts. Way to go Raiders!

Physics is phun!!

This afternoon our Physics students tested bridges of their own design and construction for strength:








Do you see the bridge suspended between the two tables? Do you see the litres of water being poured into the bucket suspended from the bridge? What you don't see is the gallery full of Physics students watching in awe!

Spring Sports!

It was a beautiful day for turning out for spring sports yesterday, Monday, February 25th. Check out . . .



Tennis



Softball



Coach Comiskey . . .



Baseball



Track



and Soccer




Ultimate Frisbee is also up and running--I'll get a picture out soon!

Capping off the High School journey

• How do you keep High School Seniors engaged through the final days of their Senior year?
• How do you make sure that students truly demonstrate their learning and growth to an audience of concerned and caring community members?
• How do you ensure that students see how their High School learning connects to their future goals?

You make a Culminating Project part of their Senior experience!

Nathan Hale has had a Senior/Culminating Project requirement for many years, and only recently has it become a State graduation requirement.

What are the components of a Culminating Project?

1. A portfolio with three pieces of work that show the student's growth and understanding of the Five Habits of Mind (viewpoint, evidence, relevance, connection, supposition).
2. 20 documented hours of work on a learning project. These hours can count toward the student's service learning hours if the project has a service/community focus.
3. A proposal paper, project journal, and final presentation of the portfolio and project to a committee.

Our Seniors are doing some great projects! Here are some examples:

• Several students are tutoring for after-school programs at local elementary schools.
• One student is growing organic vegetables to donate to a local food bank.
• Several students are learning to knit, and are donating knitted items to local shelters and/or hospitals.
• Several students are running sports clinics for elementary students.
• Several students are volunteering at local animal shelters.
• One student is teaching Korean to a group of young students.
• One student is doing a job shadow/internship at Children's Hospital.
• One student is doing a job shadow with the Nathan Hale school nurse.
• One student is writing a piece of music for the Nathan Hale band to perform.

As you can see, there is a tremendous power in asking our Seniors to apply their learning and skills to projects in the school community and beyond.

Culminating Project journals and portfolios are due to mentorship teachers on April 11th. If you have any questions, please contact Marni Campbell at macampbell@seattleschools.org or Jonathan Shearer at jcshearer@seattleschools.org.

Culminating Project presentations will be on May 12th and 13th. We need community members to be on presentation panels. Please contact Marni Campbell or Jonathan Shearer if you are willing and able to be part of our community panels. Go Seniors!

Music is thriving at Nathan Hale

Check out our awesome jazz musicians performing this morning for visiting 8th graders:

They are traveling to Moscow, Idaho next week to participate in the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. Good luck to our talented musicians!

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We are also gearing up for another smashing musical production. This year's musical is Bat Boy! Stay tuned for more information.

Sublime and ridiculous

See above some cool self-portraits done by Nathan Hale students. (You can check them out in the lobby by the main school entrance).

And here, some sillier artistic creations made by our counseling and administrative teams for our potato bar table a the Bite of Hale.

This year's Bite of Hale was so fantastic, with abundant food, great music, community, and connections. Many, many thanks to the folks who organized and made this great event happen. More pictures are coming!

Flood Days Waived

Hello Nathan Hale,

This afternoon I was informed that OSPI has approved a waiver for the four days that school was closed due to flooding and subsequent clean-up, including the removal of walls, drying of interstitial spaces, replacement of floor tiles, replacement of cabinets, and many, many other mold abatement measures.

This means that we will not have to make up those four days at the end of the year.

I will be hosting a "Flood Academy" during Spring Break, so that students who would like to can come to school to work and get additional support.

Stay tuned for more Flood Academy details!

The Great Debaters!

Congratulations to Nathan Hale Debaters! Check out the results from the recent Debate competition at Garfield High School:


Isabel H. won the Original Oratory event
Kimberly R. placed 3rd in the Original Oratory event
Kimberly R. placed 2nd in the Extemporaneous Speaking event
Isabel H. placed 3rd and Anton L. placed 4th in the Extemporaneous Speaking event
Maareg M. placed 2nd in the Expository Speaking event
Maareg M. also placed 2nd in the Impromptu speaking event

Isabel H., Kimberly R., and Maareg M. are all going on to complete at the State level. Well done!

Thank you Mr. Hughes

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when the dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes

If music be the food of love, play on . . .

You simply must join us for Nathan Hale's production of Twelfth Night, opening this week on February 13th. What a perfect play for the week of Valentine's day--a comedic consideration of the nature of love, identity, loyalty, and gender.

In this scene, Viola, dressed as a man, engages in a dialogue/debate with Duke Orsino about the strength and intensity of male versus female love:

DUKE: And what's her history?
VIOLA: A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?

Twelfth Night Act 2, Scene 4

And PLEASE don't forget to join us for the BITE OF HALE, our most distinctive school-wide event, blending diversity, community, and great food. Join us Tuesday night, February 12th, at 6 pm!

What's so great about Rigor and Relevance?

Check out staff members, including the gracious and loquacious Tony R., talking to the community about our academic vision at Nathan Hale. (That's "Upper House Jeopardy" on the screen!)

Nathan Hale has a mission statement that says that "ALL students will become honorable, thinking, skillful citizens." Here's an excerpt from an e-mail I just received from a Metro bus driver, who routinely transports Nathan Hale students:

The students who ride both of these trips have proven to be exceptional bus riders. The numbers vary from day to day, as do the particular students who ride. Despite the early morning hour, your students are pleasant, courteous, and ride without any undue disturbances. In fact, contrary to the complaints of many of my coworkers, the Hale students who ride my bus have a fare compliance rate of roughly 99%. If anything, the young people who ride in for a late start are unusually patient in that the bus is always late for a 10:00 a.m. start due to the high amount of pedestrian traffic on the University campus where we commence that trip. They always say thank you for the ride.

Do you remember this?

This is 110th on the day of our December flood.

We now know that the flooding in the building was not caused by creek overrun, but rather by an overwhelmed drainage system in our central courtyard. As part of our building remodel, we will be enhancing our drainage system so that we never have another flood!

What else is coming with the remodel? A new library, more natural light throughout the building, a green roof, a natural air ventilation system, another forum space like the ones in the Performing Arts Center, beautified courtyards, specialized facilities for our radio station and art classrooms, new science labs, and much more.

Stay tuned for information about a community meeting hosted by the BEX (Building in Excellence) team on February 11th. You'll have the chance to ask questions and get information about our upcoming remodel process.

Also, Rigor and Relevance night is tomorrow, Wednesday, February 6th in the PAC. Although this is primarily an event for incoming 8th grade students, all are welcome to attend.

What happens on a late start and early release days?

Every Tuesday morning, Nathan Hale starts 90 minutes late, at 10 am.  These later start days are used for professional collaboration.  Here are some things you might see during this time:

• Inter-disciplinary teams, like 10th grade Integrated Studies, 11th grade American Studies, or 9th grade academy teams planning culminating projects like the mock trial or the Harlem Renaissance exhibition.

• Departments like the Math, Art, Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, Music, Special Education, or World Language meeting to look at student work, share common assessments, and look for trends in data.
  

How does this help your student?  By collaboratively planning units of study, sharing student work, and critically assessing and reflecting on our practice, we get better at creating personalized, rigorous learning.

This Wednesday, February 6th, there will be a district-wide two hour early release so that educators throughout Seattle Schools can do important professional development work.  That means that school will be out at 1 pm on Wednesday.

Congratulations to Nathan Hale students who performed at the Bellevue Community College Jazz Festival last week!

Reading, part two!

Our own Coach Hoover Hopkins, Division II Coach of the Year!

Our Horticulture students are wonderful readers~thanks Ms. Torvik!

Remember that Wednesday, February 6th, is an early release day. School will be done at 1 pm.

Wednesday night is our Rigor and Relevance night~see you there!

Finally, congratulations to our gymnasts for their 2nd place finish at Metro. We have 5 gymnasts going on to regionals--Lisa H. as an all-around, Kaeley S. on 2 events, Naivasha S. on 3 events, Tamra M. on floor, and Julia S. as an all round. Also congrats to our All Comers who also placed: Camille H. on vault and beam, Ella S. on floor and vault, Jade B. on vault, floor and 1st on beam, and Benji A., 2nd on vault.