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PREPARING STUDENTS FOR LIFE
Front row, from left: Robert Bone, FBI acting special agent in charge, Steve Burrill, teacher, Lyhnsay Yang, Oak View Middle School, Grace Amell, Oak View Middle School, Madison Gruhn, Jackson Middle School, Gabe Adams, Northdale Middle School, Josh Determan, Roosevelt Middle School, Derek Kohen, Roosevelt Middle School and Bill Harvey, treasurer, Anoka-Hennepin School Board. Back row, from left, Cory McIntyre, executive director of student services / supervisor for middle schools, Gary Lundeen, Oak View Middle School principal, Greg Blodgett, Roosevelt Middle School principal, Jeff Leach, Northdale Middle School principal, Marci Anderson, vice-chair, Anoka-Hennepin School Board, Tom Hagerty, Jackson Middle School principal.
District eighth graders win FBI cyber safety award
A group of eighth-grade students from four Anoka-Hennepin middle schools recently won an FBI a ward for their performance on a program that tests cyber safety.
The students, who go to Jackson, Northdale, Oak View, and Roosevelt middle schools, as well as their computer explorations teacher, Steve Burrill, were recognized during the district’ s March 26 School Board meeting by acting special agent Robert Boone, who is in charge of the FBI’ s Minneapolis division.
“ These are the things that the FBI really does enjoy to do— giving these( awards) out to exceptional groups of students,” Bone told the School Board.
According to Bone, the FBI Safe Online Surf ing, or FBI-SOS program was developed in 2012 by the FBI in conjunction with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and takes the form of inter- ac tive games students participate in, and a test at the end.
“ The idea was to teach children how to be more responsible and good digital citizens in the cyber world, as well as to ensure that they understand the online dangers that face them,” Bone said.
Burrill used the program to teach his 267 eighthgrade students at the four middle schools about cyber safety, and in doing so, they competed against 96,000 students from 1,642 schools across the country.
“ I think that most of the time when society looks at internet safety and the responsibility piece, young adults and teens get a bad rap due to inappropriate usage with their phones, tablets, and computers,” Burrill said.“ This means a lot to the students to get recognized and earn the award. It ' s real nice for them to be able to get recognition for being knowledgeable and responsible with this topic.”
How it worked, Burrill said, is that he registered all of his classes at the four schools, and then the kids participated in various grade-appropriate games and activities. After completion of all the activities, students then took the test, and Anoka-Hennepin’ s middle schoolers had the highest composite score( 93 percent) nationally for the month of December, 2017, winning the national award.
“ I realize I ' m the one who registered them and presented them the lesson, however this is all about the students from the four middle schools,” Burrill said.“ At the end of the day, they ' re the ones who put in the effort and work.”
Since the pro gram be gan in 2012, there have been more than 2 mil lion students who have participated, Bone said. ■
U. S. Sen. Tina Smith visits Anoka-Hennepin’ s Secondary Technical Education Program( STEP)
A number of students at Anoka- Hennepin’ s Secondary Technical Education Program( STEP) recently had a chance to chat with a United States senator.
U. S. Sen. Tina Smith( D-Minn.) visited the district’ s STEP program March 27, where she took a brief tour of the school located on the campus of Anoka Technical College( ATC), chatted with some of STEP’ s manufacturing and welding students, and then held a panel discussion with leaders from the Anoka-Hennepin School District and its STEP program, as well as leaders from Anoka Technical College, and a number of county and local business partners.
“ The work that( STEP and ATC are) doing here, I think, is a national model,” Smith said.“ I want to take what they’ re doing and bring it back with me to Washington, D. C., so I can help make sure the federal government is a good partner.”
STEP bills itself as a high school in a college setting where students in grades 11 and 12 can explore hands-on technical and manufacturing careers while earning both high school and college credit. It’ s located on the ATC campus, and shares facilities, equipment, and supplies with the college.
During the tour, Smith met with a number of students who talked about their education at STEP. One was Anoka High School senior and full-time STEP student Julia Hoeke. The two chatted about her interest in welding and the opportunity she’ s had to pursue it while at STEP.
“ I love it,” she said about the district’ s STEP program.“ It’ s nice to be with different people and to have the college experience while in high school.”
Smith also spent time talking to Emmanuel Raymundo-Deleon, a second-year welder who created a violin that he will be submitting to the Skills USA Championships for a possible award, STEP senior Dylan Bratsch about his time at the school, and engineering and manufacturing teacher Mike Hilber about his classes.
U. S. Sen. Tina Smith poses with STEP welding students during visit to the school March 27.
According to Jes Lipa, director of the district’ s STEP program, the school has 700-800 students each trimester, who come from all five of Anoka-Hennepin’ s five traditional high schools( Andover, Anoka, Blaine, Champlin Park, and Coon Rapids). Most are part-time students, which means they take core classes at their regular high school, and then come to STEP at some point during the day for technical and manufacturing studies.
In addition to meeting students and seeing firsthand what they’ re doing while at STEP and at ATC, Smith was interested in learning about barriers in place that keep students from pursuing career and technical education offerings, or from going after highskilled and high-paying jobs in manufacturing and other technical careers.
Answers from members of the panel discussion included increasing federal
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