Continuing an annual patriotic tradition for Veterans Day, teacher Tammy Cotrone and her kindergarten class at May Moore created a special tribute to local veterans and delivered it to them at Town Hall. Students’ military family photos are also displayed outside their classroom.

“I come from a strong military family, so this holiday is close to my heart,” Cotrone said. “The veterans look forward to my visit each year, and the children learn what a veteran is and how to honor and thank them for their sacrifice.”
 
 

Students in Laura Oddo and Vanessa Pizzo’s class at JQA recently had some creative fun by using shaving cream to write out words. Separated into four teams, the students learned about CVC words – consonant, vowel, consonant – and each team was given different words to spell out using their fingers.

“These hands on activities are incredibly memorable for our diverse group of learners,” Pizzo said. “There was a lot of laughter and chatter as the students spelled out their words on the shaving cream boards.”

“It’s important that our students have fun while learning,” Oddo said.

The high school’s girls cross-country team won its first Babylon Bowl since 2006 on Senior Day. The Falcons took down powerhouse West Babylon by a slim margin and are now currently ranked 24th in New York State, their highest ranking ever.

Deer Park was led by Gianna Marquez, who finished third with a personal best 19:07 on the 5K course. Natalia Lee bested her previous time with19:47, finishing fifth overall. The scoring was rounded out by Kylie Kuhn at 20:23, Arianna Araujo at 20:47 and Robert Frost Middle School eighth grader Kaliyah Hull at 20:47.5. For Senior Day, the team said goodbye to Araujo and captain Amanda Poggioli.  

More than 300 freshmen recently participated in the high school’s annual Career Day event, designed to introduce them to possible jobs and set them on a career path.

“The idea is that perhaps if a student saw an accountant whose career the student found interesting, then perhaps that student would take elective courses throughout high school in that area such as our accounting class, investments class and personal finance class,” said business department teacher Jill Perry-Eising, who coordinates the event. “Hopefully by the time that student was a senior, they would know what they want to major in since they’ve been on a career path throughout high school.”

The morning began with a keynote presentation by a panel of speakers, including five executives from Broadridge Financial Solutions in Deer Park – Vice Presidents Christine Allers and Stacy DeNoyior, Quality Assurance Director Michelle Minelli, project manager Christine Dougherty and business analyst Holly Eringis – and Richard Loeb, an apprenticeship administrator from Local One Elevator Constructors Union. The panel presented a job interview workshop and called up several student volunteers from the audience to participate in a mock interview.  Using wifi access, the entire freshman class signed into the Mentimeter website, answering poll questions about the interview process and which volunteer candidate they would hire. As the audience voted, their responses were shown in real time on the screen on the stage.

“I was told by many that because the presentation was so interactive, this was our best keynote yet,” Perry-Eising said. “The students loved being able to participate via their phones and have their responses broadcasted in real time.”

The freshmen then rotated through mini career presentations by 55 volunteer guests, with each student meeting approximately 10 different professionals including lawyers, financial and banking experts, marketing experts, police officers, firefighters, physician’s assistants, physical therapists, nurses, dental hygienists, deejays, geologists, forensic scientists, psychologists and speech pathologists.

Career Day came to a close with a presentation by Jay Murphy, the district’s new administrator for instructional technology, regarding the effects that social media can have on someone’s employment.

Students, teachers, administrators and Board of Education trustees joined in on the costumed fun at the JFK Halloween parade on Oct. 31.