Mrs. Dunning and Mrs. Fuga’s 7th grade science and social studies classes are learning about biomes in a new way this year. Graduate students from Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center are working with Mrs. Dunning and Mrs. Fuga and their students to develop an immersive virtual reality experience for students to learn about deciduous forests...

Cornell 3rd Grade Teacher, Mrs. Casey Thomas, was just selected as the Steelers Leader in the Classroom! Congratulations Mrs. Thomas!!!

Mr. Leo Grandovic of Northwest Savings Bank recently presented Jacob Owen, Noah Litzinger, James Dolan, Jasmine Fadel, Cassidy Schroder, Sydney Grannis, Brittany Postma with certificates of achievement. Each of the students achieved 100% on the Ever Fi Financial Literacy Program.

Congratulations to Mrs. Katie O’Neil’s 5th grade class for their completion of Code.org Course 3. Volunteers from the FedEx IT department led by Mr. Jeffery McBain in collaboration with Mrs. Kristen Bardelli instructed students weekly in computer science lessons. Pictured above is Alex Wohlgemuth receiving his certificate of completion.

Austin Winchell was recognized at the May School Board Meeting for all his hard work and accomplishments as a swimmer. Austin qualified for the MAC and WPIAL championship meets in all four years of his high school career. He placed in the top 8 at the MAC and WPIAL meets. Austin currently holds Cornell records for the 500 freestyle and 100 backstroke. Congratulations and good luck Austin!

Congratulations to the Cornell Key Club and their sponsor, Ms. Miriam Klein, for raising over $1,000 for the March of Dimes. The students raised the funds through their annual Penny Wars Competition.

Congratulations to high school teachers Mrs. Amy Palo, Mr. Andrew Erwin, and Mr. Kevin Quigley who recently finished the Smithsonian Learning Lab training. The Smithsonian Learning Lab was created to “inspire the discovery and creative use of its rich digital materials – more than a million images, recordings, and texts.” Through their training, the teachers engaged with educators from the Smithsonian Institute, Heinz History Center, and from around the region. When asked about the training, Mrs. Palo said, “I am excited about the new sorting tools they added and their potential for higher order learning.” Last school year, Mrs. M. Fuga completed the training.

Gigi's Cupcakes recently paid a visit to Cornell Elementary to deliver cupcakes decorated as apples to Mrs. Jackie DelGreco. Mrs. Delgreco was nominated by several of her Kindergarten parents for FAVORITE TEACHER as part of a Teacher Appreciation week contest. Cornell will celebrate all of our teachers the week of May 8-12. Don't forget to thank a teacher!

Cornell 3rd grade recently welcomed ‘Judy Moody’ author Megan McDonald into their classrooms. Ms. McDonald spoke for about an hour with students at Cornell and students from around the country and Canada via videoconference. An estimated 42,000 students watched live. Mrs. Schweers, Mrs. Freiss, and Mrs. Thomas and their classes had a lot of fun and asked great questions. After the discussion, Ms. McDonald signed a book for each 3rd grader. Click on the title (above) to see the videoconference.