Lunch with an... engineering entrepreneur

On Thursday, January 10, 2013, Hersh Tapadia, a serial start-up entrepreneur working out of First Flight Venture Center and helping to launch CertiRx, spoke with Research Triangle High School students about his unique career trajectory.

Hersh is a graduate of Duke University. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University and an MS in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University. His interests include hardware design, power, wireless communications, medical devices, and business development.

Hersh is a young energetic passionate inventor of technology solutions and keen to share his experiences at RTHS's Lunch with a... series!

Lunch with a ... Plague Scientist!

On December 6th, 2012, UNC School of Medicine research scientist Rodrigo Gonzalez spoke to Research Triangle High School students about his research into the bubonic plague. He shared some real inside scoops on plague with a description of Yersinia pestis and the biology of plague, epidemiology, life cycle, disease progression, and plague research - from archeology to public health. A graduate of Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, who did his post-baccalaureate work at the National Institutes of Health, Rodrigo is an engaging and fascinating speaker for RTHS's Lunch with a Scientist series!

The Thing with Learning

How do we talk about education? What words can we use to name when a child learns? ‘Education is what happens between a Teacher and a Student’, a wise retired principal once said to me. Our principal, formerly a national award-winning science teacher, likes to tell us that no one knows how children really learn. And yet, I must talk about our school all the time. Local company leaders, interested in supporting educational success, or helping those most in need, or engendering the best in STEM education. Colleagues in other disciplines, of medicine, higher education, non-profit management. “How’s it going?” they all ask. “It is just block and tackle, day by day,"  I answer. They think I am describing problems, problem children.

I am not. I am describing how education happens. But what is that ‘thing’ that happens? What are teachers doing, students doing, together?  We lack a vocabulary to describe what this thing is. We borrow words from the world of business – “project-based learning." Or the stolen 1990’s wordage of “Need To Knows” and “Knows."  The too-broad verbs of our own pasts  - of ‘study and review.'  The words of math – ‘inflection point,' the ‘accelerating curve.' Or of sports – ‘block and tackle.'

We need our own vocabulary to describe – and to talk about – what happens inside a school when teachers are teaching and students are learning. We need a word for ‘started the year doing no work at a 40% and just kept plugging away so she now has a solid C in Biology." How about a word for ‘goes in for help with her favorite math teacher but won’t listen to anyone else’? Or “he and his dad spent an hour and a half at my husband’s office last night, viewing the Flipped videos and scribbling problems on the whiteboard’?

Perhaps we could steal from the vocabulary of mitosis, of cell division. Prophase is when the cell prepares for division. Some students surely are ‘coiling up their chromatins,' getting ready for the hard work of learning.  Metaphase is when centrosomes start pulling towards the two ends of the cell, bringing longitudinal tension from those two ends. Is this what we see when the children pitch a fit, dig in, say ‘this is too hard’? Are they feeling that tension of being pulled apart, between their childhoods of easy learning to the adult world of college preparation? Trying to stretch this metaphor to its end, I find the final stage of cell division, Anaphase, is too lengthy and complex. There is always more happening, the cleaning and mopping up, the next phase beginning anew. 

And although that fits in a way, this is not a linear process we want to describe. It is a series of events, a scatterplot of different moments, the easy, the hard, the brilliant, the infantile, over and over again, every day, every minute of that day. It is indeed ‘just block and tackle.'  But not by us.  By the students, the children. We watch, we feed, we nudge, we present and share. But they are the ones who must coil up, pull towards the opposite ends, endure and take advantage of the longitudinal tension.

And so, we lack the words to describe this work. Perhaps it is as in the ancient Jewish faith, where there are a hundred synonyms for the word God, but no actual saying the name ‘God’. Or perhaps it is as in the words of poetry, not ‘the things with feathers,' but the thing with calluses, with heart, with giggling, with aversion, with questions.  All I know is that our children are doing this thing, the thing with learning.

RTHS Awarded Department of Education Grant

The U.S. Department of Education announced that Research Triangle High School was awarded a $522,000 grant to use over the next three years to directly fund for planning, program design and implementation.  We are honored to be one of eighteen new charter schools to receive the grant.  In the official Department of Education announcement, RTHS is listed as Contemporary Science Center, the founding non-profit organization.

We are also honored to be featured in a Herald-Sun article by Wes Platt that details how ecstatic we are to have received the grant:

Durham charter high school lands $522k federal grant

It just got a little easier for Research Triangle High School, Durham’s first charter high school, to build on what started this fall.

The federal Department of Education has announced that RTHS was one of 20 schools across the nation and one of only two in North Carolina to receive a grant to support planning and development.

Over the next three years, RTHS is expected to receive $522,000. The other Carolina school tapped for a grant was Triad Math and Science Academy in Greensboro.

“Everyone’s kind of ecstatic,” said Pam Blizzard, director of external engagement for RTHS. “It’s funding faculty salaries, our digital media program, (information technology) costs. It will let us keep building the school as a vehicle for outreach around the state. It’s really great.”

The grants, totaling about $4 million for this year, are intended to fund charter developers for planning, program design and startup of new charter schools, as well as sharing best practices and disseminating information about charter schools.

“High-quality charter schools across the country are making amazing differences in our children’s lives,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a prepared statement. “These grantees serve a range of students, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and prepare them for college and careers.”

RTHS, a public charter school, is answerable to the state Department of Public Instruction and receives some state tax dollars, but not as much as traditional public schools. Charter schools receive no state money for capital outlay, for example, unlike traditional public schools.

Blizzard credited Amanda Marvelle, biology teacher and director of digital media for the school, for taking off the month of May to hunker down and focus on the grant application. Sandy Collins, parent of RTHS student Hailey Collins, stepped in for that month to help cover Marvelle’s administrative duties.

“We spent some time planning the grant, but then she just hid and cranked out a 50-page grant application,” Blizzard said. “I wasn’t sure we’d get it, because it’s such a competitive program. We feel really honored to be recognized.” By Wes Platt  wplatt@heraldsun.com; 919-419-6684

Read more: The Herald-Sun - Durham charter high school lands 522k federal grant 

Pieces and Bits: High School

The RTHS Raptor Repertory presents its inaugural show--

Pieces and Bits: High School

Join us for RTHS's first fall show, a musical revue about popularity, grades, and the rest of teenage life.  PIECES AND BITS: HIGH SCHOOL includes scenes from Class Action by Brad Slaight and music from Wicked, High School Musical, 13, and The Fantasticks, as well as Carly Rae Jepson and Justin Bieber.  Come support your fellow Raptors with a night of great performances!

SHOWTIMES
Thursday, October 25 7:30 PM
Friday, October 26 7:30 PM

TICKETS
RTHS students - Free
Children under 12 - Free
Others - $5
Tickets available at the door

Raptor Sports Report

Our cross country team took part in its biggest meet yet when it ran in the Great American Cross Country Festival on September 29, 2012 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. Out of 20 teams in the independent school race, the boys' team finished 10th, with two runners finishing in the top 25 out of 150 competitors in the field.  Madison Daniel and Michal Swepson finished 9th and 24th respectively. The team will compete in the final meet of its successful inaugural season on Thursday, October 11 at Durham Academy.

RAWR!

Lunch with a Scientist

Friday, October 12th, 2012, students had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Ward Peterson, formerly of Inspire Pharmaceuticals, who shared a brief history of his work in drug development for the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis. He talked about his educational background and his current fun job flying to Vienna, Washington D.C. and London consulting for drug companies. The students were very engaged.

We will continue to bring in a wide variety of community members to talk to students during lunch. Be on the lookout for the next topic.  

Meet our faculty - Ms. Marianela Miller, Spanish

We are excited to share with you a little bit about our newest faculty member, Ms. Marianela Miller.

My name is Marianela Miller, but my friends call me Mari. I was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I came to the United States when I was 17 years old. I graduated from George Washington High School, in Manhattan, New York. I got my B.A. in Spanish Literature from Hunter College, and my Master's in Education and Spanish Literature from Lehman College. I also have forty-five post-graduate credits in education from various colleges and universities of New York.

I've been teaching Spanish and ESL (English as a Second Language) since 1992. It's my passion. I love teaching, and I love young people. The years I have worked as a teacher have given me the opportunity to work with diverse populations from various ethnic, economic and social backgrounds. As a teacher, I have always been dedicated, with the desire to instill in my students the passion to be lifelong learners.

I am very excited to be part of the Research Triangle High School community. Moreover, I am eager to learn more about the flipped teaching program and how I can contribute to the school's overall success. I also feel privileged to be working with Mr. Grunden and his staff. I love his vision for the school and his dedication. I sincerely hope that this new school year will be a success for our students and us as educators.

Meet our faculty - Mrs. Mamie Hall, Social Studies

We are excited to share with you a little bit about our newest faculty member, Mrs. Mamie Hall.

Mamie Hall earned a B.A. in English Literature with minors in History and Secondary Education from The College of William and Mary in Virginia. Most recently, Mrs.Hall taught middle school in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School system for the past seven years. She is excited about working with RTHS students and helping them make a smooth transition into high school. Mrs. Hall is a National Board Certified teacher who has served as department chair, a mentor for beginning teachers, and a supervisor for pre-service teachers. She is passionate about not only providing the best possible education for her students, but also encouraging the next generation of  teachers. Mrs. Hall has been know to read multiple books at a time and has a particular affinity for historical fiction and biography. 

Meet our faculty - Mr. Ian Finley, English and Drama

We are excited to share with you a little bit about our newest faculty member, Mr. Ian Finley.

Ian Finley holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU (where he earned the Harry Kondoleon Award for Playwriting, 2002) and a BFA in acting from the University of Utah.  He has served as Director of Education for Burning Coal Theatre Company for eight years, where he expanded the program to bring hands-on experience with Shakespeare, playwriting and dramatic arts to thousands of students each year.

Mr. Finley is also an accomplished playwright, and currently serves as the 2012 Piedmont Laureate in the field of Playwriting and Screenwriting.  He is the author of several plays including Jude the Obscure - Parts 1 & 2, 1960, Green Square, Suspense, Giblet and the critically acclaimed Our Histories series of plays for Burning Coal Theatre Company.  His writing for digital media includes the award-winning Babel, Kaged and Klockwerk: The Shadow in the Cathedral. 

Mr. Finley has taught for fourteen years for the University of Utah's Youtheatre, Young Playwrights Inc. in New York, Southern Methodist University, and Burning Coal Theatre Company.  He is excited to begin teaching drama and English. 

Meet our faculty - Mrs. Tammy Darden, Exceptional Children

We are excited to share with you a little about our newest faculty member, Ms. Tammy Darden.

Mrs. Darden is joining Research Triangle High School from Wake County Public Schools, where she was the Special Service Teacher Assistant for five years. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Special Education from East Carolina University with a dual licensure in Special Education and Reading for grades K-12.  Mrs. Darden is licensed to teach general curriculum special education, in-class resource, cross-categorical resource and reading intervention, and she has an extensive background in all inclusive programs serving students in Pre-K through 12th grade.

Through her educational studies, she has become proficient in writing and implementing student's individual education plans, six-step lesson plans centered on student assessments, and designing classroom management plans.

She is very excited to be joining the team at RTHS this fall.

Meet our faculty - Ms. Valerie Cosimano, Math

We are excited to share with you a little about our newest faculty member, Ms. Valerie Cosimano.

Valerie Cosimano is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where she received a B.S. in mathematics. Due to the lack of an education school at the university, she worked through the rigorous mathematics curriculum that was expected of all math majors.  In addition, she also had the benefit of taking classes at Saint Mary's College to obtain certification in teaching mathematics.  Prior to switching to the mathematics program, Ms. Cosimano was a biochemistry major, which gave her an extensive science background.  
Ms. Cosimano is certified to teach mathematics in grades 6-12 in North Carolina.  She has had experience teaching all levels of mathematics (Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II/Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, and AP Calculus AB) and has worked with students in grades 6-12, including two years of full-time and one year of part-time teaching experience. She has worked at the Hunting Learning Center doing SAT prep, New York Regent's Exam prep, and subject tutoring.

Currently, Ms. Cosimano is completing her master's project on state testing.  She will complete her master's degree in mathematics education from Buffalo State College by the end of the summer of 2012. 

Meet our staff - Mrs. Mila Presutti, Office Manager

We are excited to share with you a little bit about our newest staff member, Ms. Mila Presutti.

Mila Presutti was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  She holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, and a BS in Business Administration from North Carolina Wesleyan College, (Rocky Mount, NC - RTP campus).  

She is trilingual, being fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, and English.  Prior to joining the RTHS staff, she worked as an Enrollment Specialist at the Center for International Enrollment (CIE) for Wake County Public School System (WCPSS).  Mrs. Presutti actively participated in the creation of the WCPSS's Center for International Enrollment from its inception. As part of WCPSS Central Office's administrative personnel, she supported schools, teachers, students, and the community.  Previously, Mrs. Presutti was a teacher at Fred Olds Elementary School, where she taught English as a Second Language (ESL) and Spanish.  She started her career in education as an ESL teacher assistant when her daughter first started school at Wiley International Magnet School.  Mrs. Presutti is a professional with a strong multicultural background, an expert in effective school administrative support, and a professional with a passion for education. 

Meet our staff - Ms. Nicole Wilson, Accountant

We are excited to share with you a little bit about our newest staff member, Ms. Nicole Wilson.

Nicole Wilson earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting, and a Master of Business Administrations summa cum laude from Campbell University.

Ms. Wilson is originally from Clinton, NC where she managed her family's business.  Ms. Wilson is excited to be moving to the Triangle area to serve as the finance officer at RTHS.

Mr. Grunden receives the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching

On June 11th, 2012, President Obama named 97 math and science teachers as recipients of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. We are excited to announce that our very own Mr. Grunden was one of these 97 teachers.  He will receive his award in Washington, D.C. later this month from the president himself. 

Check out the official news release here.