Congratulations to English Department Student of the Fourth Quarter

English Teacher Robyn Corelitz and Ever Perez ('19)

Congratulations to Freshman Ever Perez, who was awarded the English Department's Student of the Quarter Award for the Fourth Quarter.  His English teacher, Robyn Corelitz, introduced Ever to the students, parents, and staff members at the Student of the Quarter breakfast this morning.  She emphasized Ever's kindness, which rubs off on other students in class to create a positive classroom community, his interest in engaging in all discussions in way that helps ground an "effervescent class," and his ability to read and respond to literature in a humane way.  Congratulations to Ever: I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops in the next three years at Central!

English Teachers Wear Their Hearts on Their Sleeves... or on Their Tee Shirts!

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week.  To help celebrate, the school had a "Twins Day."  Instead of Twins, the English Department became an impressive litter of book-celebrators.  We believe that literature -- and literacy -- matter, and we're willing to billboard our message.

This was an impromptu snapshot taken two minutes before first period started.  There were another half dozen English teachers sporting book tees.

Five Central Students Win National Writing Award

What if a baseball team had so many stars on it that every single player on team was an All Star?   Something like this just happened for Hinsdale Central writers.  We are allowed to invite five students to compete in the national Achievement Award in Writing contest sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English.  Guess how many were top ranked? 

Congratulations to all five of our students, all juniors:
Laurette McNabb
Elizabeth Storr
Shahzar Risvi
Eric Chang
Selin Turkyilmaz

This is an outstanding achievement for each of these students and for the English Department.  I am so proud of all of the English teachers who work together to create an incredibly rich writing experience for students for all four years of English classes and especially of the five English teachers who mentored these five students during the writing process for this contest:  Michael Palmquist, Cherise Lopez, Hasham Bhatti, Gina Chandler, and Jared Friebel. 

Two Groups of English Teachers from Hinsdale Central Presenting at National NCTE Conference

I am always surprised at the creative, innovative things that teachers in the English Department are doing with students.  It's great to see that our teachers are taking their ideas to a national stage.  Two groups of English teachers have been selected to present at the National Conference of Teachers of English in Atlanta in November.

English teachers Michael Smith and Hasham Bhatti's presentation is entitled "Listen Up & Speak Out: Serial Injustice."  The presentation focuses on work they did with students that involved the NPR Podcast "Serial" and the topic of social justice.

English teacher Robyn Corelitz has teamed up with Downers Grove North teacher (and Department Chair) to speak about a cross-district collaborative online writing project they worked on together with their students.  The presentation is titled "CLEAR Learning: How 9th and 12th Grade Teachers Brought Their Students Together."

Robyn Corelitz

Hasham Bhatti and Michael Smith