El Diablo 2011 "Non Stop" published

The beautiful new El Diablo yearbook was distributed today during school. English classrooms were filled with students transfixed by their books. The Doings published a really nice article by Chuck Fieldman (and several pictures) about this year's distribution. Here’s the online article:

http://hinsdale.suntimes.com/5454609-417/yearbooks-are-out-at-hinsdale-central.html

Congratulations to the entire yearbook staff, and to Alexandra Lanphier and Audrey Jeannin, Editors in Chief, Colleen Moran, Manager of Creative Design, Elisabeth Schnell, Writing Manager, Codi Steinborn and Erik Jaworski, Photography Managers, Madeline Beja, Copy Editor, John Menza, Business Manager. Congratulations also to faculty advisors, and English Department members, Erin Timmons and Kate Saunders.

Student of the Quarter Award Winner: Simon Landfors

Congratulations Simon Landfors, pictured on the right, for being selected as the Student of the Quarter for the English Department. English teacher Susan Sangwa, second from the right, praised Simon for his resilience in the face of challenge and told the story of Simon's growth in class into an outspoken leader in the classroom. Simon's mom is on the left. (Photo by Sigita Mitchell)

Solstice 2011

I got a peek of the brand new, and gorgeous Solstice, Hinsdale Central's Art and Literary Magazine. Congratulations to all the students whose work was published: Saba Imran, Pauline Donaldson, Malik Jones, Amanda Werley, Casey O'Day, Thomas Tung, Kelly Adams, COCO Wang

Charlotte Kanzler, Literary Editor

Casey May, Kat Herron, Ian Bames, Kris Dale, Design Editor

Matiss Dale, Enrique Lopez-Yanez Saenz, Stuart Morrris, Colleen Ahern, Maggie Morrone, Geogia Qiao, Monica Sharma, Andrea Cladek, Gouri Dharmavaram, Sarah Vesely

And congratulations to the fine work done by English teacher Jim DiDimenico and Art teacher Pat Potakar.

Junior Wins National Essay Contest

Junior Harrison Bolling has just learned that he won the 2011 Young Native Writers Essay Contest. He was one of only five national winners who will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to visit the National Museum of the American Indian, and other prominent sites. Harrison responded to the prompt: "Describe a crucial issue confronting your tribal community today. Explain how you hope to help your tribal community respond to this challenge and improve its future." For the contest Harrison adapted an essay he wrote for his AP Language and Composition course taught by English Teacher Jared Friebel.

The Best Non-Fiction Writing: Hinsdale Central 2011

I just learned that the selection committee for The Best Non-Fiction Writing: Hinsdale Central 2011 has finished the very difficult job of selecting the very best non-fiction writing from the 165+ submissions they received. Teachers on the selection committee commented to me that they were very impressed with the improved quality of the entries, which made their job even harder this year. Senior Peter Bernardi is currently working on the design and layout of the manuscript. The book comes out in early fall. Each selected student will receive a complimentary book. Additionally, we send books to the HC library and local public libraries. Congratulations to all of the following students!

Freshmen

Paxton Gammie, “Imposter in Pink”

Alex Otto, “The Box”

Suhana Thakrar, “Taking Flight”

Caitlin Wong, “The Misery Melody”,

Luke Zhan, “A Not-So-Happy Meal”

Sophomores

Sagar Dommaraju, “Sickness”

Emma Harrison, “Nana’s Pringles”

Charlotte Kanzler, “Rosary”

Caroline Morant, “Finding Balance in Black and White”

Juwairyah Syed, “The Threads of Allah”

Juniors

Ryan Callen, “The Other N-Word”

Meredith Christian, “Purple Is Everywhere”

Andrea Cladek, “Different Strokes”

Laurel Johnson, “A Fight Worth Having”

Stephanie Lenchard-Warren, “Eyes Against a Black Canvas”

Ted Owens, “Who’s Your Daddy?”

Michelle Scarpino, “The Caffeine Addict”

Melissa Trofa, “All Tests and No Play Makes Johnny a Dull Boy”

Alexis Williams, “39 Reasons”

Steven Yeh, “Dear Japanese Soldier”

Seniors

Jennifer Bush, “The Unconscious Darkness”

Marianne Hardek, “Listen to the Voice”

Shirley Yarin, “Overcoming Your Destined Labyrinth”

These represent the winning essays. The book also contains the best essay from each of the seniors in the Honors Seminar in Writing.

18 Students Win "Best of Illinois" Writing Award

Earlier this week I learned that a whopping 18 (!) students won the Illinois of Teachers of English "Best of Illinois" awards for their writing. Not that I want to brag about our students too much, but this was the most of any high school in Illinois. All nine first place winners will have their essays published in the fall issue of the Illinois English Bulletin.

Senior winners:

Danielle Labotka "Dancers Don't Cry"

Claire Dunderman "Clause and Effect"

Jack Henry Kelly "The Boy Who Cried Dirt"

Mackenzie King "Adopting an Identity"

Jennifer Oetter "Untitled"

Julia Quintero "Dear Dragonfly, Love Meggers"

Grace Walsh "A Chance Conversation"

Junior winners:

Madeline Beja "Generation to Degeneration"

Laurel Johnson "A Fight Worth Having"

Jeffrey Yang "Quit"

Elizabeth Ann Shaw "Learning How to Talk"

Mahum Mirza "Facebook"

Riley O'Donnell "The Crash"

Claire Walker "First Fig, First Friend"

Divya Kirti "Don't Freak Out"

Audrey Glaser "Canta y une tu voz"

Meredith Christian "Purple is Everywhere"

Gemma Groch "The Evolution of My Father"

Congratulations to all of you!

"Best Student Nonfiction" book receives 175 entries

In our second year of publishing our "Best of Student Writing," we received a very large number (175) of entries. Last year we had about fifty fewer. Today one of my students who submitted an essay said, "The amazing thing is that I've never thought of myself as a writer before. I'm more math and science. But I've really come to think of myself as a writer, too. My parents are going to be so mad." At this point, I told this student about my current nonfiction writer, Atul Gawande, a renowned surgeon... and author of bestselling books. In his book Better (which I highly recommend), Gawande says that one of the things he learned while writing the book is that the best practitioners of every particular field that he studied (obstetricians in India, CF specialists in Minnesota, hospital administrators in Detroit, emergency room docs in Iraq, etc.) shared on trait: they wrote about their fields as a way to think through their own projects and to communicate their findings with others.