Alumni Open House

New Year’s Eve

Open House

At the Debelak’s home,

18106 Clifton Rd, Lakewood

Alumni and their families are invited

From 6:30 – 9:30 pm

Take a short survey

Dear Birchwood Alum,
As you probably know, this year is Birchwood School's 25th Anniversary. We'd like to get some feedback from you about what events would pique your interest and what you might like to help plan. Please fill out the survey <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=VlrYL_2bN5UttmiuL2QmFoEg_3d_3d> by Sept 28. Please feel free to email if you have any questions.
Thank you, Birchwood Alumni Association

Call for Student Winners' Literary Contribution: Birchwood 25th Anniversary Book Committee

Dear Birchwood students, alumni, and parents,

The old adage “time flies” stares us starkly in the face when we consider that it has been twenty-five years since Birchwood first opened its doors. As is expected, many changes have occurred. We have moved to a more spacious facility, expanded to eight classrooms, and grown from a staff of three to fourteen. Whether our student body is twenty—as in that first year—or one hundred and twenty, what has not changed is the caliber of education we have striven to offer all our students. In conjunction with the school’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebration, we are compiling a book of student winners of writing competitions. This book will stand as a tribute to the effectiveness of the school’s mission as borne out by our students’ achievements in the area of composition.

Remember Cricket stories, Scholastic Writing Award entries, Stone Soup poems, along with submissions to Writing!, FPS scenario writing, Power of the Pen, Letters About Literature, NCTE, OCTELA, LAW Day, and/or Pasta Tales? The list goes on, but if you have a winning entry (or entries) or anything published while you were at Birchwood, we would like to consider including your work(s) in an anthology. This is a long overdue project that would be a true celebration of academic excellence.

For many, this request might involve extensive digging into old files half buried in the back of your closets. For others, parents may be the keepers who have vouchsafed these relics from the past. We hope you will take the time to locate these treasures for us. We will include as many pieces as space permits.

When you send a copy of your writing to us, please include as much information as you can remember: (Hazard a guess by using a question mark if unsure)

Contest Name

Contest topic

Award/Placement/Level of Competition

Title of Piece

School year/Date/Grade when piece was written

Teacher involved

Please also return the attached Permission to Publish form (or retrieve it from www.birchwoodschool.com/alumni with login info: alumni,1984). If you are currently under eighteen years of age, also include a parent signature. You may email the attachment with the document to lctzeng @ aol . com or mail hard copies to Birchwood School, 4370 W. 140 St., Cleveland, OH 44135. Faxing is another option: (216) 251-2787. If you have any comments, questions, or quibbles, feel free to email or call me at (440) 725-9481.

Teachers always ask for the impossible, but that’s because we have always believed you can do miracles. Thank you so very much for your help.

Always operating on a deadline,

Lorraine Tzeng

For the Birchwood Anniversary Book Committee

Birchwood School Publication Release

4370 W. 140 St.

Cleveland, OH 44135

Phone: (216) 251-2321

Fax: (216) 251-2787

I hereby grant Birchwood School (BW) permission to reproduce and distribute any whole or part of my work for educational or promotional purposes and allow BW to sell such excerpts without any further permission or any financial obligation.

This is a nonexclusive license. Author(s) retain all rights to their own work, including the right to publish or submit to others for publication.

Print name of student

Signature of student

Parent Signature (Required if student is less than 18 years of age)

25th Annversary

The 25th Anniversary of Birchwood School is approaching, a committee has been meeting and plans are shaping up. All are welcome to join the planning to add ideas or lend a hand. For example:

1. See how you can help out with phone calls or envelope stuffing.

2. Take part on a subcommittee for the Gala.

3. Alums can join the alumni sub-committee as they plan for a field day or a get-together. You are not too young! Representatives from various years could help with contacting people.

The next meeting is this Tuesday, August 12 at 7:00 in the Birchwood Administration Building

4370 W. 140th St.

Birchwood featured on WKYC News

Our Future Problem Solving Teams was featured on Channel 3 news. Last week channel 3 filmed our students working on their problem packet and after the international competition, They interviewed Mrs. D for the story.

In case you were not able to see it, here is the link to the Channel 3 piece on Birchwood's Future Problem Solving teams. Also announced were the wonderful accomplishments of taking first place in the state and third place internationally:
http://www.wkyc.com/video/default.aspx?maven_playerId=immersiveplayer&maven_referralPlaylistId=search&maven_referralObject=760036538.

Note: You may need to install the latest Adobe Flash Player download and/or refresh the page. It takes some time to load.

Thank you.

More Awards!

Jacques D’s poem was chosen as the 8^th grade “Poetree Contest” winner. His poem appears on the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste website. The following students were chosen as finalists (top ten): Hajira A, Kavya R, Nate C, Katelyn V, Alexander I, Sanjana R, Hannah Y, Susmita R, Sarah D, Jacob D, Oliver D, and Jacob B.

Katelyn V was chosen as a winner in the 2007-2008 Cleveland Orchestra Visual Arts Contest. She was awarded four Blossom Festival Tickets and her picture will be on display at Severance Hall.

Math Awards

Awards in Mathematics

Math Olympiads: Math Olympiads is a yearlong series of five contests that provides students training in creative problem solving skills in mathematics. Created in 1977 by Dr. George Lenchner, an internationally known math educator, the Math Olympiads went public in 1979. Last year 150,000 students from 5,000 teams worldwide participated in this competition. All 50 states and 25 other countries were represented.

Both the Junior Team and Senior Team from Birchwood School earnest the distinction of “Highest Team Award”, which was awarded to the top 10% of all teams.

The Junior Team consisted of:

Jocelyn L, Grant F, Nathan C, Shawki A, Munim, Trevor L, Dhweeja D, Deepak K, Clare P, Zaeem M, Hannah Y, Sanjana R, Evan F, and Christine B.

The Senior Team consisted of:

George B, Anirudh D, Shulamite C, Jacques D, Sahar A, Stuart F, Isaac Y, Jacob B, Jacob D, and Chris H.

Individual Awards:

Gold Award (top 2% of all participants): Middle school - George B, Shulamite C, Anirudh D, Isaac Y. Elementary school – Tevor L, Nathan C, Shawki A, Grant F, Jocelyn L, Dhweeja D, and Munim.

Silver Award (top 10% of all participants): Middle school – Jacques D, Stuart F, Jacob D, Sahar A, Jacob B. Elementary school – Evan F, Christine B, Sanjana R, Hannah Y, Zaeem M, Clare P, Deepak K, Hassan S, Kavya R, Naomi W, Susmita R, Hajira A, Nathan W, Alexander I, Marla B.

Continental Mathematics League: This is a yearlong series of five contests designed for grades 2-8 that teach students how to apply basic math skills to complex logic and reasoning problems.

Grade level achievements:

Eighth grade: 1^st place in Midwest region (four states)

1^st place in Ohio

Seventh grade: 3^rd place in Midwest region

2^nd place in Ohio

Sixth grade: 2^nd place in region

1^st place in Ohio

Fifth grade: 4^th place in Ohio

Fourth grade: 2^nd place in region

1^st place in Ohio

Individual achievements:

National leaders: Perfect scores for the year

George B

Anirudh D

Dhweeja D

Naomi W

Regional leaders: 29/30 correct for the year

Jacob B

Isaac Y

MathCounts: Math Counts is a national math enrichment, coaching & competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement in every U.S. state & territory. Schools select students to compete individually or as part of a team in one of the more than 500 written & oral competitions held nationwide. Top students advance to the state, & ultimately, national level

Team: George B, Shulamite C, Anirudh D, Jacques D

Individuals: Nathan C, Munim, Isaac Y, Jacob B

Chapter competition:

Team: Third Place

Individual: George B, third place

Anirudh D, first place

Nathan C, eighth place

State competition:

Team: Thirty fourth place

Individual: George B, 5th place

Anirudh D, 24^{th st} place

American Mathematics Competition 8: The AMC 8 is a 25 question, 40 minute multiple choice examinations in junior high school (middle school) mathematics designed to promote the development and enhancement of problem solving skills. Many problems are designed to challenge students and to offer problem solving experiences beyond those provided in most junior high school mathematics classes.

School Team – U.S. School Honor Roll – top 1% of all schools

Individual: U.S. Distinguished Honor Roll – top 1% of all students

George B Anirudh D

First place in Ohio : George B

Special Awards from the Mathematical Association of America:

George B and Anirudh D earned special distinction for their math scores on the AMC 10 and AMC 12 math contests (both contests are for high school students). These scores qualified these two young men to take the prestigious American Invitational Mathematics Examination give to only the top high school math students in the country.

St. Edward’s High School Math Contest: This is a mathematics problem solving competition for middle school teams and individuals.

Team competition:

Seventh grade team - Second place

Eighth grade team - Second place

Individual competition:

Seventh grade: Deepak K – Third place

Eighth grade: Anirudh D – Second place