Awards and Recognition 2007

LYNN - Classical High School Foreign Language Department Head Sean Elbousty has been recognized as an emerging leader by the Phi Delta Kappa Emerging Leader Program for his dedication to service, research and education.

PDK is a global association of education professionals and the Emerging Leader Program recognizes 24 of the top educators worldwide under the age of 40 from a stack of hundreds of applicants, based on outstanding professional accomplishments.

Elbousty was notified of the award Monday and will be honored at the 2009 PDK summit in Indianapolis later this year.

During his career, Elbousty has taught French, Arabic, Italian, German, Finnish and English at schools and universities both in his native Morocco and the United States.

He is also the president and founder of Education is a Treasure, a non-profit charity that aims to improve the educational experiences of underprivileged children in rural Morocco.

While the award is not necessarily because of his foreign language work at Classical, Elbousty says he wants people to see the honor as an award for the school, where he is hoping to expand the foreign language program.

"This is a really prestigious award and honor for our school," he said. "I want this to be a Lynn Classical High School honor, not just an honor for myself."

Along with his work with his own charitable organization, Elbousty is a member of several professional organizations, including PDK International, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the American Educational Research Association.

Earlier this year, he was one of a select group of educators to win a research and study grant from the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C. and the International Cultural Services.

Elbousty says that while he is the foreign language head at Classical, his goal is to get all of the students in Lynn started on the right track with learning another language. Much of his work comes in the elementary and middle schools, along with Classical.

"Success comes through with hard work," he said. "Generally, students enter a foreign language class with the mindset that they won't do well and we have to combat that."

As a result of the award, Elbousty will be featured in the National Chronicle of Higher Education and National Public Radio.

Lynn Classical's Zuruf Bashur represented Lynn Classical well on 12/08/08 at the Lynn Lions Club Speech Competition . His speech was on the effect modern media has on our lives, and it won the top prize. Zuruf became a semi-finalist after a winning speech on 11/17/08 at the Lynnfield Community Church. It's been a long, but successful road for Zuruf from his native Sudan. Minh Le had also participated in the Preliminaries and received a Honorable Mention.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Trinity College senior captain and quarterback Eric McGrath, a Lynn Classical graduate, was selected as the 2008 Boston Globe Gold Helmet Player of the Year for NCAA Divisions II and III. He will be honored by the New England Football Writers Association at its annual banquet on Thursday, Dec. 11, at 6 p.m. at Casa Di Fior in Wilmington.

McGrath is the first Bantam football player to be so honored since former NFL quarterback Joe Shield in 1984. The Bantams, coached by 2008 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Coach of the Year Jeff Devanney (3rd season), posted an 8-0 record this fall and have gone undefeated in four of the last six seasons, compiling a 44-4 record during that span.

Trinity, which finished ranked No. 1 in New England and is ranked No. 7 in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC)/Lambert Meadowlands Poll, and No. 23 in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division III National Poll, completed the 11th perfect season in school history with a 38-14 win over Wesleyan on Nov. 8.

McGrath has earned numerous postseason honors this fall, including All-NESCAC First Team, All-New England Division II/III, and NESCAC Offensive Player of the Year; several postseason accolades and awards have yet to be announced. He started all eight games for the Bantams and completed 163 passes (tying a Trinity record) in 282 attempts (57.8 percent) for 2,206 yards (new Trinity and NESCAC record) and 16 touchdowns with 11 interceptions.

McGrath finished second in the NESCAC with a 134.43 efficiency rating and third in the league with 2,128 yards in total offense. He added one rushing touchdown and one receiving touchdown.

McGrath earned NESCAC Player of the Week honors in each of his three seasons as Trinity's starting quarterback, including this fall for his heroic effort in a 28-27 overtime win against Tufts. In that game, McGrath set new Trinity records for completions, passing yards, and total offense. He completed 34 of 57 passes for 470 yards and four touchdowns. He threw touchdown passes of 57 yards, two yards, nine yards, and six yards, including one that forced overtime with 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter and one that gave the Bantams the win in overtime. McGrath also set a new Trinity record this fall with 470 passing yards in a comeback win at Hamilton. He holds the Bantam record for longest pass with a 99-yard touchdown toss in 2007.

McGrath is also a pitcher on Trinity's NCAA Division III National Champion baseball team. He is majoring in economics at Trinity and is the son of Sharon and Pat McGrath.

Three Lady Rams in College Softball Lynn Journal

Three members of the 2008 Lynn Classical Softball Team will be playing Division 2 college softball.
Class of 2008 graduates Sam Barker (Florida Southern), Afton Dean (Merrimack) and Amanda Stevens (Southern New Hampshire) will be carrying the banner of coach Chris Warren’s Lady Rams’ program on to the college softball diamond in the coming season.
Classical won the Northeastern Conference championship in 2008.

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LYNN - Lynn Classical English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher Hanna Blucek was realistic when she began organizing a new summer school program for immigrant students during this past school year.

After all, she was asking teenagers to arrive at the Classical Academy on North Common Street at 8 a.m., four days a week in July for a program that is not worth any credit toward a diploma.

Blucek expected six students at best to sign up, but was shocked to see that 15 of her ESL students volunteered to take the 90-minute class and work on improving their English before the start of the fall semester.

Funded with a Hardscrabble education grant, the ESL summer class is designed to help immigrants who take ESL classes polish their skills and gain confidence with the language before they return to school.

With the backing of department head Julie Cushing and Freshman Academy Principal Judith Taylor, Blucek penned the grant proposal last year. Along with the 15 students in her classroom, fellow ESL teacher Melissa Winchell teaches students off-site and seven additional students are studying at the New American Center at a reading group.

Foreign students are expected to learn English and are held to the same standards on the MCAS test as Americans, but budget cuts have reduced staff in the ESL department and teachers like Blucek have difficulty keeping up with each student's unique individual need.

With this summer course, Blucek and fellow ESL teacher Jamie Jamieson are able to take the time to help students individually and make sure that everyone is at or near the same level come September.

"The value here is that come September I am going to have 15 kids in class that have that basic understanding," Blucek said. "I just can't leave the class for an hour a day to help with the A's and B's. There was a time when we would have reading specialists that would do that, but the funding just isn't there, especially with 120 layoffs this year. ESL was saved, but nothing was added."

Many foreign students, especially those who speak Arabic, have a difficult time understanding English because the characters are different and many languages are read in the opposite direction.

Blucek said that she has a few students who are fluent in speaking and understanding English, but are essentially illiterate when it comes to reading and writing because they simply do not understand how the language works.

The summer program is not organized like a typical ESL class, rather students explore the language in many unique ways, one of which is through song.

Each day Blucek and Jamieson lead the students in renditions of English songs such as John Lennon's "Imagine" or the Reggae classic "Beautiful Girls."

Along with loosening up the classroom and building friendships, singing helps the students understand the meaning and pronunciation of English words and allows them to feel more comfortable with the language.

"The benefit of the singing is that in their first language music represents hope, love, fun and staying safe. English to them represents things like school and studying," said Jamieson, who routinely uses singing in her ESL classroom. "Now with the songs English is the language of 'No One' and 'Imagine' and they are learning the grammar."

Blucek is hoping to meet with the School Committee this fall to have the program accredited, and is hoping that more parents will become involved, something that is a struggle when dealing with immigrant families.

"This is exciting from a teacher's standpoint, but it is for parents too," she said. "The problem is that most don't know about it yet. My hope is that the family sees (the fliers and workbooks the students take home) so that maybe the little brother sits down with his sister and tries to learn some of these words."