Rapoport Academy Public School

Poetry Contest

Croft Art Gallery in Waco had a show in January, paired with a poetry contest.  Mrs. Keirsten Bumgardner, academic mentor at Paul Meyer High School, entered the contest and interpreted a piece entitled, “Time Machine” by Laura Walton.  Mrs. Bumgardner enjoys eating copious amounts of sweets, and working with the students at Meyer High. The poem is shown below.

Ekphrastic interpretation of Laura Walton piece

By: Keirsten Bumgardner

New

Jump in, hold on.

Pull, push, turn, twist, pummel, pound.

Open the door.

Look around

At the exquisite and sublime

New space and time.

Do not fear, I am here

To love you, and expose your heart to our new world.

Tantalizing sights and sounds

Refresh us, changing our perceptions.

Replenishing our joy,

Restoring our hope,

In humanity.

Martin Luther King, Dr. Day

To  celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2010, 90 volunteers from throughout the Waco community joined Rapoport Academy staff, students, and families for an afternoon dedicated to beautifying Quinn Campus. Thank you to all who supported this event!

Voice of Democracy

Sophomore, Lenore Wright, is pictured with VFW Post 2034 Commander Robert Carter as he presents her with a check for her winning entry in the VFW's annual Voice of Democracy essay competition.

"From the Top"

Meyer High School music students were priviledged to attend the "From the Top" concert at Jones Hall.

Time Warner Cable Night

On January 5^th Rapoport Academy celebrated Time Warner Cable Night to honor the company for their outstanding contributions to education. The Raven basketball teams played great games against Oglesby and everyone celebrated together as Time Warner Cable presented a generous check to Rapoport Athletics. Another very special event of the evening was the unveiling of the brand new “Home of the Ravens” banner! Thank you Time Warner Cable!

At half-time of the men’s basketball game, Stacy Schmitt, Vice President of Communications for Time Warner Cable, also presented several checks to the Robotics, Rocketry and International Clubs at Meyer High School. These generous checks were awarded to Rapoport as part of CAMM, Time Warner Cable’s new STEM initiative. Please see the home page of the Rapoport website to read more about this wonderful project.

Meeting the Govenor

Several of Rapoport Academy’s Meyer High Students were given a rare opportunity to meet Governor Rick Perry in December.  Governor Perry was at TSTC to announce the expansion of high-tech education programs throughout the state. Because R.A. is a STEM school and TSTC is a major ECHS collaborative partner of Rapoport, selected students were invited to attend the press conference. The students, Joshua Sigala, Marlena Douglas, Aaron Kenniger and Moriah Cooper, are pictured with the Governor after a conversation with him about their college expectations and career goals.

Snow Day

December snow at Meyer High School!

JV Basketball Team

We won!

One Book, One Waco

November 23, Rapoport Academy faculty members hosted several community leaders at a discussion of Sun, Stone and Shadows, the current One Book, One Waco selection. Honored guests were Alexis Weaver, Director of Community Affairs for the  Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce and manager of the One Book, One Waco program, Alex Schmidt, Vice Chair of One Book, One Waco,  Alice Rodriquez, Waco City Councilwoman and Jo Rodriquez, President of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.  Mrs. Rodriquez facilitated the discussion of “Chac-Mool” and other stories in the book.  Personal experiences, Hispanic traditions, and differing interpretations of specific passages were shared by all participants. Sun, Stone and Shadows was a great catalyst for increased cultural understanding and stimulating conversation!

Downtown Visioning Project

Staff from the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce and Rapoport Academy high school students brainstormed together to create proposal maps for the “Downtown Visioning Project.” The students broke into groups to explore possibilities and discuss important aspects of city planning and promotion. At the end of the discussion each group presented a map of downtown Waco with ideas of how downtown should be revitalized. From walking trails to high rises, students suggested where they should go and how to organize the area.

The students’ maps and ideas will be considered, as well as other suggestion maps from community members all over Waco, as the Chamber finalizes plans for the revitalization of downtown.

Building Bridges

Freshmen students in Mr. Sallee’s mathematics class had to construct a load-baring bridge using mathematical concepts and popsicle sticks. Once construction was complete the stability of each bridge was tested by seeing how many text books the bridge could support.

Hanging of the Article

We were privileged to have Jane Meyer and Carolyn Meyer hang an article, honoring their father and the namesake of Meyer High School, in the front office. Also present in the photos are junior, Edward Cammon and math teacher, Henry Veselka.

Meet the Ravens Night

The Waco community was invited to join Rapoport Academy for the 2nd Annual Meet the Ravens Night. Dinner was served and all fall athletic participants were recognized. Go Ravens!

Take a Vet to School Day

On November 4^th, the middle and high schools had the honor of hosting local Veterans for National Take a Vet to School Day. The day consisted of meals shared together, Question and Answer forums, one-on-one discussions and classroom lectures all conducted by the Veterans. Students and teachers listened eagerly as the Veterans shared the stories and wisdom that have resulted from their experience.

The Veterans that participated were:

*Gary Mittendorf, Captain, US Marine Corps (Ret)

*Bil Mahon, 1^st Sgt., US Cavalry (Ret)

*Robert Carter, SSG, US Army (Ret)

*Bill Weber, Brigadier General, US Army (Ret)

*Billy Elkins, SSG, US Army (Ret)

*Frank Curre (Pearl Harbor Survivor)

*Jay Fondren, SSG, US Army (Ret)

*Robin Weber, Lt. Colonel, US Army (Ret)

Greek Festival

The 2nd annual Rapoport Academy Greek Festival was the culminating activity for the freshmen literature unit on Mythology and the Odyssey in October. The freshmen dressed up as characters from the Odyssey, sold Cyclopes cupcakes and served complimentary authentic Greek food, including baklava, Greek olives, Greek salad, hummus and pita bread. The guitar class and the choir presented selections from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou, which parallels the characters and events in the Odyssey.

Cheerful Gardeners

The high school “Service Project” club is always on the lookout for volunteer opportunities.  They found one right on their own campus.  One of the flower gardens needed to be weeded, thinned and cleaned—so they jumped at the chance to cheerfully do some manual labor.  There were dirty hands, tired faces and great smiles as they brought the garden back to its original condition!

Eleven students from Rapoport Academy’s Meyer High School attended the Environmental Summit at Southwestern University in Georgetown on Oct. 24, 2009, accompanied by teachers Kylie Murry and Stephanie Schattschneider.

Attendees chose 1 of 4 seminars to attend:

“Ecological Research: the student perspective” (Southwestern students)

“The Human Impact on Nature” (Dr. Eric Loomis)

“Organic Gardening” (Natalie Vreeland, Community Garden Program Coordinator)

“The Story of Stuff: Consumption and the Environment” (Dr. Melissa Johnson).

Next, they selected a workshop from a wide variety of options:

Greening your campus*** Green politics***Group analysis***Starting a group***Messaging and framing***Event and campaign planning***Working with the media.

The workshops were led by Southwestern students from the Student Environmental Club. They divided into discussion groups with high school students from other area high schools to brainstorm and share ideas.

Overall, students had positive comments as they shared ideas for the campus.  Hopefully, several of them will “bear fruit”.

 

Several high school students met the goals of our A+ card fundraising efforts and earned a ride to a pizza party in a Hummer limousine.

 

Math students in Mr. Wade’s class were exploring different ways to understand complicated graphs—so they actually “became” the graph!

 

Berlin Wall

In Commemoration of the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Paul & Jane Meyer High School students have been talking about walls---not just the kind of walls that you can touch and feel, but also invisible walls that people build around themselves.  The students discovered that, like the Berlin Wall, those invisible walls separate and limit one’s ability to reach out to one another.  The students communicated their frustrations with the walls in their lives by writing in colors and freely using artistic expression on a “cardboard block” wall. They understood that this was a freedom that people living behind the Berlin Wall did not have.

Students also gained a deeper understanding of the Berlin Wall and its impact on the world---strengthened by the fact that we had an actual piece of the Berlin Wall displayed under the student’s “wall”.

This activity was paired  two special guest speakers who were in Germany as the wall went down. Mr. Schattschneider and Mr. Reekie presented their personal recollections and reflections to a packed room of attentive high school students. To end the session, Chris Rios, guitar instructor, and students played and sang “Winds of Change” by the Scorpions.

German language students put the final touches on the day by offering samples of German treats that students baked the day before.