Weekly Update 9/9
Dear NCHS Family,
New Canaan High School's annual Open House will be held on Thursday, September 15, 2016. Open House is co-sponsored by the school and the Parent Faculty Association (PFA). This evening provides an opportunity for you to become acquainted with the high school's Program of Study and to meet your child’s teachers. The evening's format does not allow for individual parent-teacher conferences, but such meetings may always be arranged at mutually convenient times in the future. Please click here to learn more about Open House.
This link contains a letter that was sent out today to all parents and students. We are looking forward to an exciting year of activities and wanted to share our expectations for fan behavior in the upcoming season.
Finally, a special remembrance to those killed on 9/11 2001. My cousin, Joseph Patrick Henry, was a fireman with Ladder #21 and was killed on 9/11. There are so many personal stories that so many of us can share, but I thought I would share a link to an article about Joey published two years ago. 9/11 has had a lasting effect on my family as I am sure that it has on many of yours. Additionally, I wanted to share a video that was created by our students years ago to honor Brad Fetchet and Jack Dempsey, former NCHS students.
Pictures from around NCHS:
Upcoming Events:
9/13 Guidance Senior Parent Coffee 8:00am (Wagner Room)
9/14 PFA General Membership Welcome Back Coffee (Wagner Room)
9/15 Open House 6:30 Freshman Orientation 7:15 Open House
9/16 New to New Canaan Student Lunch (College & Career Center) 11:00am
9/16 Dunning Field Dedication 7:00pm
Wishing you all the best,
Bill Egan
Department News:
English Department News: It’s been a busy week in the English department as students were back after two busy days of professional learning. The department spent the summer working on the reading benchmarks to better align with the format and content strands of the new SAT, and expanded the benchmarks to include a variety of reading passages (fiction, nonfiction, social sciences). The department also worked on the expansion of new courses in our catalogue, and also spent a day working on ways to use the new BYOD initiative to expand the instructional opportunities of our learners.
In classroom news, Evan Remley and Mike McAteer are continuing their use of a new instructional space that utilizes different “zones” for students to use based upon what their needs are and to leverage the power of the student’s devices.
AP Senior Literature students submitted their summer reading journals, and the staff was impressed by the range of titles students selected for the summer. Classic titles such as 1984 and Brave New World were mixed with new fiction such as All the Light We Cannot See.
Below is photo of Katie Phee’s ninth grade class busily constructing timelines on their devices.
Math Department News: Students in M2 Geometry are creating an on going glossary in a Google Doc. Students will not only give terms with definitions but will be asked to maintain a log including visuals and additional technology resources. Students in M3 Algebra II completed an informal discovery activity on desmos to relate transformations to the parent function of absolute value equations. Students in M2 Algebra I completed an independent station review on their devices of missed material from inventories including videos, practice problems and creating their own problems. Geometry Math Center performed kinesthetic learning for geometry vocabulary including words like planes, lines, points, colinear and coplanar in a three dimensional setting.
VPA News:
The walls of the NCHS art gallery are getting a facelift thanks to the help
of art gallery club members!!! Just in time for the summer show....
NCHS students are starting auditions for our Fall Play Feathers in the Wind and our fall Freshman/Sophomore musical The Wizard of Oz.
CTE Department News:
Family and Consumer Sciences:
WEEK 1 with Ms. Zilly in Baking and Foods
Before we enter the kitchens, students are learning about safety and sanitation. They have watched and learned from a "What NOT to do" video and researched common food-borne illnesses. The students worked in groups to present this information. Some groups even researched and discussed current food news about these illnesses.
Ms. Zilly spent a lot of time the 1st few days getting to know her students. The students taught her all about NCHS and even shared some local foodie hotspots. Using AnswerGarden, a new tech tool the students shared all the dishes they hope to learn how to make over semester 1.
Students in Foods and Nutrition, Baking & Pastry Arts, and Culinary Essentials are reviewing safety and sanitation practices to follow in the foods lab. The Foods and Nutrition students are also learning how the media influences food choices and are developing a “new” food product and creating a print ad and slogan using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs model to influence consumer choice. The Culinary Essentials students will be learning knife skills next week to prepare salsa for their parents on open house and the Baking & Pastry Art students will be making biscotti for their parents.
The Child Development classes are learning about characteristics and areas of development. Next week they will be using these basic concepts as they plan their themed teaching day in the preschool.
Students in The Individual and Family Development course are studying family systems and correlating these ideas to the characters they viewed in assigned movies over the summer. The students will be writing essays relating the different family systems to the families in the assigned movie.
Technology Education:
Woodworking: Students had a "hammering contest". Students had to hammer in common and finishing nails of varying sizes. When they completed they had to remove them. This introduced hammering techniques, safety techniques, different nail types and the plane of reference (wood characteristics).
Civil Engineering and Architecture: Students created vernacular designs of given locations. This required them to identify materials used and type of structures created. This was used to introduce What is Architecture/Civil Engineering (History of Architecture)
Library Media update:
Please see the following link for a detailed update on the many happenings at the Library Media Center!
