Category Archives: Schools Scene

Find out what’s going on in the RFH Regional High School and Rumson and Fair Haven school districts.

News, Schools Scene

Focus: RFH Football Champs’ Game

It didn’t take long for news to travel when the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) Football Team won its fourth consecutive state championship on Saturday.

Sirens were blaring and shout-outs on social media ran rampant as the Bulldogs scored the major win and wound their way home to firetruck escorts in a mini parade of fanfare down River Road.

The Bulldogs beat South Plainfield in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III championship game at Rutgers University with a score of 27 to 22.

RFH alumnus were there and grabbing a glimpse in photos of some of the game’s milestone moments. Take a look …

— Photos/Cole Van Develde

 

Schools Scene

Haitian Artist Tebo Comes to RFH

He radiates positive energy and endless creativity, and his biggest dream is to help young people with talent realize their own potential. His name is David Thebaud, or Tebo, as he is known in his native Haiti. He arrived at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) on Nov. 14th to meet, once again, with some of his biggest supporters.

Continue reading Haitian Artist Tebo Comes to RFH →

Arts & Entertainment, Schools Scene

Spotlight: RFH Student Artwork

There’s a new arts-inspired initiative at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) that is casting a bright spotlight on students’ artwork.

The RFH National Art Honor Society (NAHS) and the RFH Multiple Disabilities (MD) Program have teamed up to provide artisan frames for the display of creations by RFH students. Featured will be paintings and photography by NAHS and MD students. The collection will be rotated regularly and be featured prominently throughout the school building on an ongoing basis.

Photographs of works by RFH art students at all levels will also be enlarged and placed above the student locker areas.

“This project has brought warmth and enhanced the school climate,” said Special Services teacher Jennifer Dellett. “Our goal is to have all three floors at RFH filled with stimulating artwork by the end of the school year.”

The purchase of 40 frames was made possible by a grant from the RFH Education Foundation. The grant request was written and submitted by Dellett and Art teacher Kristen Lanfrank.

For those who would like a closer view of the artwork, an event dubbed Community Art Opening is planned for the spring of 2017.

As part of the event, students involved in the program will provide community members with a tour of RFH and a discussion of all the art and images on display.

— Edited press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH)

Schools Scene

RFH’s Relationship with its Sister School in Spain

Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) Spanish students have a sister … school.

The sister is Isabel de Castilla Public High School in Avila, Spain.

Students in several RFH Spanish classes have begun fostering friendships with the students in Spain through Edmodo, an online educational and social network.

In February of 2017, 17 students and two teacher chaperones will travel from Isabel de Castilla Public High School to visit RFH. Spending the week in homestays, the group will attend classes at RFH as well as participate in special events.

The events include: attending the World Language Department’s Languapalooza talent show; sharing a meal prepared by the RFH Cooking Club; and joining the Spanish National Honor Society for a welcome fiesta.

The trip is designed to provide cultural insight into life as a teenager in Rumson and Fair Haven. The group from Spain will travel to New York City and Philadelphia as well.

A reciprocal journey for RFH students is planned for the 2017-18 school year. RFH students and teacher chaperones will stay with local families and attend classes at Isabel de Castilla in Avila, a small medieval walled city about an hour west of Madrid.

“We are really looking forward to having firsthand insight into the practices, products, and perspectives of the Spanish youth and their culture,” said RFH Spanish teacher Christina Gauss. “We hope to collaborate with the Spanish students throughout the school year.”

As part of their classwork, students in the RFH Advanced Placement Spanish Language and Culture course recently created and sent videos to students at Isabel de Castilla. The videos showcase life at RFH and in the surrounding communities.

In addition, the RFH students developed an online survey to gather information on how social media platforms are used to promote social movements. The online survey has been sent to the students in Spain as well as students and community members in the RFH community. The RFH students plan to compare and contrast the results from RFH and Avila, Spain.

The student groups from RFH and Spain have also begun an ongoing conversation on the A Day in the Life topic. Students in Gauss’ Spanish 4 Honors class created an electronic visual collage that best describes their personalities and lifestyles, and they have shared these collages with the students in Spain. Students in Daniella Goodarz’s and Seth Herman’s Spanish III Honors classes will soon begin interacting with the students from Avila using Edmodo as well.

“This is an excellent opportunity for our students to forge a meaningful and authentic cultural and linguistic exchange,” said Herman, supervisor of World Language at RFH.

The sister school relationship became official this past July when Gauss met with Aida Marquez, English teacher and Bilingual Program Director at Isabel de Castilla, to finalize the details.

The meeting occurred after Gauss had traveled to Spain for a week-long professional development course at the University of Alcala’s Summer Spanish Language and Culture Institute for U.S. Teachers of Spanish.

During the course, 85 teachers from all regions of the U.S. compared and contrasted their educational systems, shared best practices for second language acquisition, explored ideas to increase student engagement, and collaborated on projects to promote students’ global competence skills.

— Edited press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School

Schools Scene

RFH: A Visit From a Sister School in China

Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) recently hosted visitors from its sister school in China.

The group of 14 students, parents, and chaperones from the Hangzhou Entel Foreign Language School (HEFLS, or Entel) in Hangzhou, China visited on Oct. 7. RFH and Entel had entered into a partnership with the goal of building a bridge between language programs at the two schools.

The visitors from Entel enjoyed a week-long tour of various high schools and universities in the United States, making stops in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia before arriving at RFH.

There they attended an information session with members of the RFH administration before taking a tour of the school and participating in a few athletic activities. Members of the Entel group then shadowed RFH students as they attended either an English or History class.

Next up was a visit to Rebecca Wang-McKenna’s Chinese class, where the visitors participated in cultural activities in both Chinese and English.

The visit culminated in a luncheon for the guests attended by RFH Chinese Teachers Rebecca Wang-McKenna and Matt Yang, several RFH students, and several members of the RFH administration.

Previously, RFH students and chaperones had visited Entel for two weeks on two separate occasions in April of 2013 and November of 2015.

RFH and Entel are now exploring the possibility of an exchange program, or a shadowing program in which three to five Entel students will attend classes with RFH students throughout the school day.

— Edited press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School