Ms. Gwen Oshita teaches Expository Writing to our juniors. Ms. Oshita’s students recently took the SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium), a standardized test similar to the HSA (Hawaii State Assessment). The SBAC is designed to accurately measure student progress toward college and career readiness. Currently, her students are on a unit called “OP-ED” or opinion editorial where they write letters to the editor about controversial topics that were discussed in class. The students are also currently going through the writing process. They are at the stage of mastering how to create outlines for their future writing assignments.
Psychology
In Psychology, Mr. Jerry Danao’s students, who are seniors, are currently learning about the psychological debate of nature versus nature. For this unit, students were assigned to write an argumentative paper to prove whether or not humans are a product of nature. The students were also assigned to do a project where they had to creatively express their stance, nature or nurture, in which they had a variety of options to do so in videos, PowerPoint presentations, poems, story books, and more. Mr. Danao’s class also recently completed a unit on associative learning where they learned classical and operant conditioning techniques. In a class activity, the students applied these techniques to real life situations. Mr. Danao invited AP Statistics students to come into his class to assist him in teaching the students on learning how to do measures of central tendency.
Cooperative Education: Health Services
Biology
Cooperative Education: Health Services is taught to seniors by Mrs. Alette Yoshii-Ho. Forty-three of her students are currently in the process of going to twelve different health care facilities including Maluhia Hospital, Furukawa Living Treasure Respite Center, Straub Clinic & Hospital, Aloha Medical Mission, Cachola Clinic, and doctor’s offices to do their work-study. During work-study, the students are expected to display professional behavior and apply the health skills they have learned in class such as taking vital signs, height and weight as well as follow instructions given to them by their work-study supervisor. In class, the students are working on establishing discussion groups on Google to discuss events currently happening in the world. They are also learning new medical terminology to prepare them for their future health careers.
A bio-bottle created by a group of students.
Ms. Lenore Kop teaches Biology to juniors. Her class is currently finishing up their unit on ecology where they learned how energy and chemicals travel through ecosystems and how populations change over time. In class, they completed virtual labs to see how populations grow extremely fast and observed snails and aquatic plants to learn how CO2 travels in an ecosystem. In another lab activity, they utilized the candy M&M’s to measure how energy decreases in the food chain. Students also built bio-bottles to create their own ecosystems that they have to observe for the next two weeks. Upon completing the unit on ecology, the students will be introduced to a unit in biochemistry where they will be doing labs that includes testing food for nutrients as well as a hands-on lab involving enzymes.
English II
Ms. Glenda Lau teaches English to our sophomores. They are using the Springboard textbook that includes units on culture. They recently completed a personal narrative about their own personal experiences. Prior to the personal narrative, students wrote a group synthesis paper, where they used the text to support their views on whether or not culture had an impact on how the world is perceived. Students also completed a cultural identity essay where the students reflected on their own cultural identity. Students are also expected to keep up with daily grammar lessons and journal writing. Posted on the classroom bulletin boards are their most recent artwork, a graphic panel on a personal experience.
Modern Hawaiian History/Participation in Democracy
Ms. Erin Kamikawa is the MHH/PID teacher to our juniors. Her class recently completed their unit on the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and learned about plantation life in Hawaii. Students were assigned to write an argumentative essay where they could pick their own topic relating to the overthrow or plantations. Currently, her students are learning about World War II and the internment of Japanese Americans. They looked at primary sources to prepare for another argumentative essay assigned to them with the topic asking whether or not the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was justified. Ms. Kamikawa is also in the process of creating a website that her students can use to interact.
Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA)
The ten Farrington Health Academy HOSA members who placed in their categories.
On February 10th and 11th, 2015, forty-nine students from Farrington High School’s Health Occupations Students of America Chapter participated in the 2015 CTSO (Career and Technical Student Organizations) held at the Hawaii Convention Center. Students competed in a variety of categories including Dental Spelling, Medical Terminology, Veterinary Science, Researched Persuasive Speaking, Job-seeking Skills, and more. Of the forty-nine students who competed, ten were recognized for placing within the top three. In Medical Spelling, Ma. Jhessica Bautista placed 1st and Ivy Vicencio placed 3rd; in Dental Terminology, Gian Lazo placed 1st; in Researched Persuasive Speaking, Britney Mina placed 3rd; in Veterinary Science, Noreen Antonio placed 3rd; in Prepared Speaking, Adriana Jones placed 2nd; in Job-seeking Skills, Minh Thu Nguyen placed 1st and Kelsi Baltazar placed 2nd; and in Epidemiology, Blaise-Farm Unutoa placed 1st. Thank you to Ms. Lin Hadama and Ms. Gwen Oshita, HOSA advisors, for chaperoning the students.