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A Small Learning Community at Ballard High School, Seattle, WA
2008, Golden Apple Award to Megan Vogel
2006 John Foster, Save Our History Award
 
Ballard Science teacher honored with KCTS Golden Apple Award
   Megan Vogel has been selected as a recipient of a KCTS 9 Golden Apple Award. Since 1992, the Golden Apple Awards program has received nominations citing the achievements of more than 3,000 individuals and programs. This year, the Golden Apple Awards drew nominations from all corners of our state, telling stories of teachers, administrators, staff and innovative programs that are making a difference in our schools. Last spring one of Ms. Vogel’s students, Jasmin Kwan (who is now attending Cornish School of the Arts) nominated Ms. Vogel for this award.
   Learning should be fun, according to Megan Vogel. Science is very difficult to make fun, as there is so much new vocabulary and concepts that are introduced and need to be connected to other curriculum areas. When Ms. Vogel became a teacher, she vowed to “be the teacher that I never had”. Ms. Vogel has become that teacher and takes great pride in being able to motivate students to have an interest in science, even if they didn’t coming into the classroom.
   The most powerful thing that Ms. Vogel has developed while at Ballard High School is an international ecology class. The reason she started this is because travel is such a valuable way for students to learn, especially ecology and how natural systems work as well as human impact. In the past six years that Ms. Vogel has been teaching this course she has taken 82 students to Costa Rica and 13 to the Peruvian Amazon. Of those students 21 had special education services provided to them and 41 of them were of lower socioeconomic status. All of the students earn part or all of the money needed to participate and all returned as different people (according to their parents). These opportunities are life changing for students and they have all told Ms. Vogel afterwards how significant this experience has been for them during their high school career.
   Megan Vogel will be honored at the Golden Apple Award ceremony scheduled for January 16, 2009. During the ceremony a video featuring Ms. Vogel and her work will be presented. Congratulations Ms. Vogel on this prestigious sward and being part of the Ballard High School community.
Beaver Beat Nov / Dec 2008, Ballard High School PTSA Newsletter
 
From KCTS web site, Oct 2008:
The Golden Apple Awards:
Celebrating Excellence in Education

The Golden Apple Awards honors successful teaching models and programs among Washington state educators and the public at large. For the seventeenth year, the Golden Apple Awards will honor ten individuals and educational programs that represent the best in Washington state education. Recipients will be featured in a primetime special that will air on public television stations across the state and will receive a financial award.

Nominations for the 17th Annual Golden Apple Awards came to a close on April 30. This year, KCTS 9 received over 200 Golden Apple nominations from across the state – Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Mukilteo, Cle Elum and Olympia (to name a few).

Thank you to all who nominated a teacher, volunteer, administrator, staff, community organization or local business making a difference in our children’s lives.

Judging will take place over the summer months and an announcement will be made on October 1, 2008
2008 Golden Apple Award Winners

INDIVIDUALS

Megan Vogel, Science Department Chair
Ballard High School, Seattle School District 1
Ballard Maritime Academy

Bob Adamson, Principal
Terrace Heights Elementary,
East Valley School District (Yakima)

Dave Anderson, Principal
Mount Vernon High School,
Mount Vernon School District

Linda Evans, Teacher
Marcus Whitman Cowiche Elementary,
Highland School District

Marjorie Lamarre, Teacher
John Muir Elementary,
Seattle School District 1

Debbie Renner,
Educational Sign Language Interpreter
Evergreen High School,
Highline School District

Robert Yuong, Math Teacher
Henry Foss High,
Tacoma Public School District

PROGRAMS

Rainier Scholars, Seattle
Calvin Lyons, Executive Director

La Escuelita Bilingual School,
Seattle Carmen Sosa-Masso, Director and Founder

STANLEY O. MCNAUGHTON GOLDEN APPLE AWARD

Mike Town, Science Teacher
Green Schools/Cool Schools
Redmond High School

 
John Foster wins the Save Our History Award.
Documenting a Towns History. by Wayne D'Orio
(Article begins at the bottom of the first column.)
Ballard Maritime Academy students help preserve local maritime history By Julie Gangler









 
 
 
Ballard Maritime Academy students help preserve local maritime history
By Julie Gangler
10/03/2006

    Students at Ballard High School's Maritime Academy will record oral histories of Ballard's seafaring elders this fall, funded by a Save Our History grant from the History Channel recently awarded to the Nordic Heritage Museum. The $5,953 grant will fund the project, "Nordic Nets and Navigation: Ballard's Maritime History."
    The Nordic Heritage Museum partnered with the Ballard Maritime Academy to apply for the community preservation grant and to implement it. The grant funds an innovative, educational project designed to engage students in preserving local history and create a maritime "outreach trunk" for the museum to lend to schools and other interested organizations.
    "This collaborative project is the key to connecting the Nordic Heritage Museum's preservation mission with the youth of today," said Director Marianna Forsblad. "Students will learn -- and thereby come to appreciate -- Ballard's maritime history while researching, recording and showcasing it in an 'outreach trunk.' We see this grant as the beginning of a collaborative effort with high school students that will continue to expand."
    Director Forsblad sought the assistance of educator John Foster, who started the Ballard Maritime Academy at Ballard High School in the fall of 2000 with the support of the Youth Maritime Training Association. His input helped Alison Church and Charlotte Lehmann at the Nordic Heritage Museum write the successful grant proposal, one of only two of the History Channel's Save Our History grants awarded in Washington State this year. A total of 27 grants were given nationwide in 2006.
    "This history grant creates an extraordinary opportunity for junior-class students in the Ballard Maritime Academy to document Ballard's Scandinavian heritage," said John Foster. "They will spend the first semester learning how to research information, identify maritime interviewees, and videotape oral interviews with them. These 'voices' of Ballard's maritime heritage will then be incorporated into an interactive kiosk, telling their stories to visitors to the Nordic Heritage Museum.
    "During the second semester, Ballard Maritime Academy students will create the traveling 'outreach trunk' of seafaring objects and write guidelines for teachers on how to present its contents to their students."
    The Ballard Maritime Academy at Ballard High School is fairly unique. While there are marine science/vocational programs at other schools, Ballard's is the only one to offer a three-year academy format where the participating teens stay together through a series of core classes from their sophomore through senior year. They learn history, language arts and science -- all through a maritime perspective in a college-preparatory discipline.
    "The Ballard Maritime Academy is collaboration between Ballard High School, the Youth Maritime Training Association, local maritime industries and marine-related educational institutions," said Foster. "It is the only maritime program with an academy format and career focus that includes job-shadowing and paid internships."
    The program has a steering committee composed of the above groups plus the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Association (NOAA), Port of Seattle, University of Washington and involved parents. It has grown rapidly, attracting teens with a keen interest in the maritime industry. Edward Ehler, known as E.T., is now a senior in the program. He comes from a maritime family whose father's entire career has involved ships.
    "From day one, I've wanted a maritime career, and this program focuses everything I learn in that direction," he said. "I study marine biology to industrial marine applications -- and I'll be able to use it all in my future career."
    Alvin Garcia, also a senior in the program, likes the hands-on skills he's learning through the program as well, such as creating half-hull boat models.
    "A real plus is being able to job-shadow maritime professionals and work paid internships through the Ballard Maritime Academy program," said Alvin, who interned with NOAA's operation on Lake Union this past summer.
     Both E.T. and Alvin agree the program's frequent field trips are invaluable as introductions to the real maritime world. They've explored the engine room, bridge and operational facilities of Holland America Line's luxury cruise ship ms Zaandam. They've taken a day-trip to Trident Seafoods' fish-processing plant and a two-day, marine biology field trip aboard the ship Carlyn. They've even traveled to Washington, D.C. for National Maritime Day and met the NOAA admiral and Senator Patty Murray. E.T. also trained and sailed on the Zodiac during the 2005 Tall Ships Tacoma Festival.
    As a result of their experiences with the Ballard Maritime Academy at Ballard High School, E.T. and Alvin are both applying to the four-year California Maritime Academy in Vallejo, Calif. They are now dedicated to continuing their maritime education at the only West Coast facility offering a comprehensive program designed to launch them into the "big time of tugs and tankers."
    ©Journal Newspapers 2006
 

 
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