Congrats to Eddy Koh and Mrs. Ramsey!

Alpharetta High School Senior Eddy Koh and AP Calculus teacher Brendan Ramsey are honored by Dr. Kersey and the Alpharetta Rotary Club as the student and teacher of the quarter for their service and commitment to excellence!

Big wins for Alpharetta speech team!

The Alpharetta Speech Team had successful wins last weekend at the Milton Classic Speech and Debate Tournament.  Our team won four more bids to the state championship, bringing our total now to thirty.  Emma Svitil and Emily Hanmer picked up bid in Poetry & Prose, as did Karthik Ramaswami and Irene Velez in Dramatic Interpretation.  Our team also won all three of the interpretation events with Cal Swanson and Justin Gaither winners of Duo Interpretation, as well as, winners Kelly Lumpkin in Dramatic Interpretation and Deja Holmes in Dramatic Interpretation.  Maya Nnaeto placed third in Impromptu Speaking.  In Humorous Interpretation, Conner Kocks was third, Christina Nguyen, 4th, and Coyvan Greer, 5th.  In duo interpretation, Nalah Hill and Milx Barbosa 
placed 3rd with Christina Nguyen and Suma Yellamraju, 4th, and Sarah Curtis and Alex Atchison, 5th.

Guest musicians from our community came to visit in Orchestra

FBLA first place winners

On Tuesday the 20^th, AHS hosted the FBLA Region 9 Leadership Conference. Alpharetta once 
again won the sweepstakes trophy for the school with the most competition wins. The students  with 1st place finishes were: 
Banking & Financial Solutions- Ben Dugger 
Business Financial Plan- Ben Dugger, Nishant Reddy & Srikar Thammishetti 
Computer Applications- Nikhil Sethi 
Desktop Publishing- Alison Mahoney & Wendy Zheng
Digital Video Production- Matthew Goodman, Alex Luegers & Gavin Ng 
Global Business- Apurva Gundaria, Jong Rak Koh & Nikhil Sethi
Marketing- Kristin Graves, Mariana Matias & Muscan Raghuwanshi 
Network Design- Kevin Goff, Christian Guerrero & Jack Rager 
Public Service Announcement- Srikar Komanduri, Devon Merlette & Dennis Podvitz 
Securities & Investments- Varun Tangirala 
Sports & Entertainment Management- Willie Chang, Shadman Ibnamasud & Rajiv Reddy 
Business Ethics- Alex Chen, Rohan Kansara & Torus Lu 
Business Presentation- Dhakshi Balakumar & Gloria Chan 
Emerging Business Issues- Brian Hu & Vaibhav Kumar 
Job Interview- Julie Nygaard 
Public Speaking II- Kindle Anderson
Sales Presentation- Arman Qureshi 
Future Business Leader- Apurva Gundaria
Congratulations to all of the FBLA competitors!!

Ms. Harris class participates in Test Kitchen

Alpharetta High School was selected as one of only 12 schools in Georgia to participate in a new program sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture.  Angie Yarbrough, our school cafeteria manager is given a new recipe each month to test on students. Students fill out a survey and their feedback is sent to the USDA for review in order to make decisions for use of these recipes in our Georgia schools.  Ms. Harris’ class provided very positive feedback and honest suggestions as well.   All USDA recipes have fruits and/or vegetables as new nutrition guidelines for students provide more fresh fruits and vegetables on school menus.  This year more students are eating fruits and vegetables than ever before when they purchase a school breakfast or lunch.

"I responded to Angie’s request in the beginning of the school year when we were in our Experimental Design unit. When we returned to the classroom I asked the students what factors they could apply to Experimental Design (control, independent and dependent variables). This served as a good 'mini review' of this unit since we covered it so long ago." - Ms. Kaylyn Harris

Aditya Sood has advanced as a Semifinalist in the Coca-Cola Scholars Program!

Dr. Avossa connects with AHS faculty

On January 8th Dr. Avossa came to meet with AHS faculty in the auditorium.  Mr. Hatcher was the lucky winner of a new iPad!

AHS student Benjamin Bearup featured on foxnews.com

Benjamin Bearup, 10th grade, was recently nominated for the Prudential Spirit of Community Award.  He also writes for a national magazine called Airways magazine. Over Christmas break he was flown by Airtran to Milwaukee to cover their final flight into Atlanta.  His article was picked up by Fox News. Here is the link to the story Onboard the last AirTrain flights. 

Building Community Teacher Workday

STAR Student and STAR Teacher Nomination

Alan Hesu  and Mr. Smilley

Some of our students from orchestra & band are performing at Governor's Mansion this morning

Mr. Wright's class presents their projects in the media center

On Friday 12/12/14, my 9^th grade on-level and team-taught students presented a sales pitch to sell an invention that they created; they created ethos, pathos, and logos print ads as well as a digital commercial. My 9^th grade T.A.G classes pitched their passion/genius hour projects by creating poster boards and being a part of conference.

Ms. Feehan's class poses in the media center for a class picture

Staff participated in the annual school-wide Tacky Sweater Day

Professional Development with Thomas Van Soelen

Staff celebrates the season with a holiday party

Mrs. Jolle takes a new approach in teaching the AP World History DBQ essay

In my World History classes we have been practicing writing Document-based essays (DBQ's) so, for a different approach I have given them a few days in the Media Center to research, in books, the Maya, Inca and Aztec civilizations. They have some guiding questions about government, architecture, religion etc. about each civilization. Following the research they will have a class period to organize their information into comparative graph organizers (scaffolding) in preparation for an essay prompt this week asking them to compare two of the civilizations and support their thesis with evidence from their notes. There is a specific rubric that we have been using to grade the essays with points for a three-prong thesis, addressing the question, and use of documents/evidence.  Students are struggling somewhat since they are not as familiar with researching in books as much as being able to "Google" answers.

Caught an impromptu concert

Trevor Chun, Bagas Widianto, and Richard Pei

Alpha Speech Team has success at Fayette County High School Speech and Debate competition over Thanksgiving break

Members of the Alpha Speech Team are truly thankful for their success at The Fayette County High School Speech and Debate competition over Thanksgiving break.  Winners include Justin Gaither & Cal Swanson in Duo Interpretation, Conner Kocks in Humorous interpretation, Tate Rehklau in Prose and Poetry, Kelly Lumpkin in Original Oratory and Aakash Malhotra in Impromptu Speaking.  Our team added eight more state bids, bringing our current total to 26!  Those additional bids to the state championship include Nalah Hill, Logan Mahan, Kasey Essein, and Arteen Ashfar in Dramatic Interpretation, and the teams of Milx Barbosa & Nalah Hill, Charles Boykin & Michael Masi, and Caleb Graham and Logan Mahan in Duo Interpretation.

AHS Student Maria Hagen is awarded Venturing Silver Award

Maria Hagen was recently awarded the Venturing Silver Award which is the equivalent to the Eagle Scout Award.