Weekly Update 10/21
Dear NCHS Family,
To cap off a memorable Spirit/Homecoming Week school faculty, students, and alumni gathered at the bonfire and the football game over the weekend to show their support and school pride. The students had an activity filled week ending with the Homecoming Dance where almost 400 students celebrated by dancing the night away.
Two programs were by sponsored by the PFA this week. Know your Resources had staff members share their expertise to make parents feel more at ease as their children transition to high school. Parenting Your New Legal Adult was held on Thursday. Parents found this informative and timely as their children are about to head off to college. As always, I would like to thank the PFA and our staff for putting on important and informative sessions for parents.
The Courant will deliver new editions of the printed paper to subscribers’ houses periodically, and if indicated, notify subscribers via email of new content on the Courant’s website. Fee for the subscription is $15 for the school year. Here is the link to the school cash system for the payment if you are interested: https://newcanaan.schoolcashonline.com/Fee/Details/273/8/False/True
I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend!
Pictures from around NCHS:
Upcoming Events:
10/27-29 NCHS Fall Play 7:00 pm -”Feathers in the Wind”
11/7 BOE meeting 7:00 pm Wagner Room
11/8 Election Day - No School - Professional Learning Day for teachers
Wishing you all the best,
Bill Egan
Department News:
VPA News:
The NCHS theatre season kicks off with the upperclassmen production of “Feathers in the Wind”, a whimsical play with music weaving together a collection of Jewish folk tales about the wise fools of Chelm into a single fable. As Rabbi Itzik searches the world for his scattered congregation, he recounts the rise and fall of his little village that proved time and again that “God loves the people of Chelm”. The book and lyrics are by David Rush and the music by Errol Pearlman. Performances will be held on Thursday, October 27, Friday, October 28, and Saturday, October 29 at 7:00pm. This production will provide onstage seating and tickets will be limited. Tickets may be purchased online at www.newcanaanhighschooltheatre.com.
English Department News: It was a fun and spirit-filled week in the English Department. (Pun, most definitely intended). In department news, the 9th grade team is busy preparing for their first reading benchmarks of the year. This week several teachers are attending the Dodge Poetry Festival, a symposium on using and instructing poetry in the classroom. A marquee event, the festival includes workshops with published poets, professional resources for teachers, and collaborations on the best practices of teaching and sharing poetry with high school and college students.
In classroom news, the American Studies class will be going on a “Walk with Thoreau” field trip. Students will go to Waveny Park for the morning, while reading and reflecting on Thoreau’s meditations on nature and life and connecting those meditations to the tumult of modern existence. In Mr. McAteer’s tenth grade class, students are focusing on collaboration by creating infographics on Lord of the Flies. Meanwhile, in his AP Lit. course, seniors are working on collaborative/interactive documents which analyze different aspects of Greek tragedy present in the novel Things Fall Apart. On a connected note, in Mr. Remley’s AP Lit course, students are writing literary analysis using the fundamentals of Tragedy from Aristotle’s Poetics to understand Oedipus and a companion text.
Math Department News: Students in M3 Introduction to Calculus have been applying their knowledge of trigonometric functions and transformations of graphs to writing equations which model real world behaviors such as the motion of a Ferris wheel, tidal patterns, and the motion of a pendulum to name a few. Students are experiencing great success using e-textbooks in AP Statistics and in Introduction to Calculus. BYOD is in full swing in these classes. Students in M4 Algebra 2 derived the quadratic formula in groups of two or three by completing the square.
Students in M2 PreCalc played a review game called Grudgeball to prepare for an upcoming test on Functions.
CTE Department News:
CTE:
Technology Education:
In Woodworking students are planning their c02 dragsters. Students just completed their technical drawings and are beginning the cutting and/or construction phase.
In Web Design students are developing their websites for the student course of studies.
In Game Design students are going over quality assurance- playing each other's game while the game makers analyze how the players play their game.
Intro to TV Broadcasting - After learning about basic camera movements and angles, students watched the first episode of ABC's hit show Lost, analyzing shots to see how the professionals do it. Now they're off shooting their own creative shots around school.
Advanced TV Broadcasting - Students have been busy covering a variety of events over the past few weeks - Friday's live announcements, the Pep Rally and the Homecoming game, with two more football games and the fall play all in the next week! Help support NCTV by purchasing a copy of the 2016 Graduation. Money raised helps feed students during events!
Journalism - Students have been busy creating the first issue of the Courant, which comes out today! Get each issue of the newspaper, and also help fund the journalism students, purchase a Courant subscription today!
Graphic Design & Multimedia - Students are busy carving pumpkins out of designs they created on the computer. After sketching an original design, students used the concept of positive and negative space to lay out their design on the computer.
In Mr. Zambarano’s Yearbook class students are working hard on spirit week layout as well as fall sports layouts. They have been busy interviewing students, faculty and coaches for stories in each section.
In Car Care class Mr. Zambarano has given lessons on suspension, lubrication and tires. This week students brought in their vehicles to apply the principles learned in class.
Family and Consumer Sciences:
Child Development students are presenting their teaching lessons on Fall, pumpkins, and autumn leaves. Preschoolers made a fall wreath of leaves, Fall friend buddies from leaves and pumpkins out of orange dyed macaroni wheels.
Baking & Pastry Art students continued learning about eggs as leaveners and made chocolate and lemon mousse and Chocolate pots de Creme to. E served in Rams Cafe this Friday.
The Food and Nutrition students made Pizza and Pretzels as they studied about the effect of yeast on baked products.
This week Ms. Zilly's Foods & Nutritions classes are finishing up the Yeast Bread Unit. They made some amazing cinnamon rolls... it took 3 class periods! To prepare for the Yeast Bread quiz, these students are taking part of an intense review game.
Library update:
Ms. Whiting and Ms. Luhtala are proud to announce the new library blog! Here is the link to their latest update.
