Editor's Note: This article was written and submitted by representatives of the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District.
Mepham High School recently announced the school’s winners for the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest.
Tenth grader Alyssa Rabinowitz won first Place,12th grader Dakota Balunis won second place and 11th grader Eric Seltzer won third place for the school competition.
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The competition, presented in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, is part of a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition.
Throughout November, more than 600 students from Mepham High School participated in the Poetry Out Loud competition in their English classes. Poetry Out Loud Lead Teacher Nicole Maresca, and English Chairperson Marie Netto organized Mepham’s participation in this national competition.
On Dec. 18, 2012, nearly 120 students filled the choral roomto hear the 22 classroom winners recite their poems in the school wide ELITE event.
Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high schools across the country. Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure. Beginning at the classroom level, winners advance to a school-wide competition, then to a regional competition, and ultimately, to the National Finals in Washington, DC. More than 400,000 students across the country are expected to take part in Poetry Out Loud this year.
At Mepham High School, students recited works they selected from an anthology of nearly 600 classic and contemporary poems. Judges evaluated student performances on criteria including articulation, evidence of understanding, level of difficulty and accuracy. All three school finalists will advance to the regional contest at Nassau Community College on Feb. 25.
Winners of the regional contest will represent their high school at the New York State competition. Each champion at the state level will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC to compete for the national championship on April 28-30.
The schools of the state champions will receive $500 for the purchase of poetry books.
Mepham High School is looking for another state champion following the success of Steven Tsai, who represented Mepham and New York State at the national finals in April 2011. To learn more about the New York State Poetry Out Loud contest, contact Ellen Rubin atauthors@nyla.org or visit www.poetryoutloud.org.
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Mepham Congratulates Poetry Winners
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Pat Boyle Egland May 20, 2013 at 04:06 pm
The NBUFSD BOE has not mentioned cutting bussing in over a year, it is not a part of the 2013-2014…Read More budget.
The pensions and benefits are not regulated by the BOE it is a state mandate.
Greg Bashaw May 20, 2013 at 12:50 am
Well for starters, why not give candidates 401K's and only pay a proportion of their benefits...Hire…Read More teachers and adm that actually live in our district...... Has anybody proposed dismantling the high school district......From the way I understand they have tried unsuccessfully to combine, well then how about saving moneu and splitting up the 3 high schools...This was we wont need 2 administrations...... I will try and I will think out of the box!
Dan DeLilla May 18, 2013 at 10:40 pm
So Lu Scala never had any children so it might be safe to say you have never been to a PTA meeting…Read More or a School Board meeting or a budget presentation so then you would have no idea how the money is spent good or bad. I'm sorry that your neighbors make more than you but like anything else you get what you pay for there are educational requirements for teaching and administration jobs, I'm sure you would be happy if all the school personnel could be replaced by minimum wage earners or better yet we could close all the schools after all you have been out of school for 40 years so you don't need them anymore, but thats not how it works. Why is always the uninformed that speak loudest and longest?
Lu Scala May 17, 2013 at 08:49 am
I never had any kids.. and am the last kid who went to to the Bellmore Merrick school system.....its…Read More been almost 40 years since I was a Mempham grad..and it is very disharting to hear that my many many high tax dollars..are not enought for these kids I have been sororting all these years!!! Who is getting all the money??? Its all bull.. aI live inbetween teachers.. how is it they can afford high end cars, housekeepers, landscapers, ect??????... the money is being spent in the WRONG WAYS TO THE TEACHERS, AND MOST OF ALL THE ADMISTRATION, THE SCHOOL BOARD ECT... I AM CALLING FOR A MASSIVE AUDIT AND GET0 per year.. they afe not worth any more then that.. THE MONEY BACK FROM ANYONE WHO WAS PAID MORE THEN $75,00....
patti May 16, 2013 at 08:28 pm
A bit of a surprise considering kids come home with a supply list a mile long (and average $40-$75).