11/4 Weekly Update
Dear NCHS Family,
Students Honored at NCHS National Merit Honor Ceremony
Twenty New Canaan High School students were honored at the NCHS National Merit Honor Ceremony on November 2 that included National Merit Commended Scholars and National Merit Semi-finalists. All the recognized students scored in the top 3 percent of the nation on the PSAT, (the top 50,000 of the 1.5 million test takers). The students were given a certificate and a NCHS pin during a ceremony to commemorate the honor.
Photo top row left to right: Bhaskar Abhiraman, Michael St. George, Tyler Hill, Will Sturcke, Hugo Potter, Jack Rechtermann, Jackson Butler, Jake Grigsby, John Norton, Quinn Curren, Ethan Lindberg, Faustino Cortina.
Photo bottom row left to right: Jason Campe, Dana Lurie, Shea Delehaunty, Camaren Dayton, Lauren Carlson, Maddie Smith, Emma Dahill, Rajon Mitchell.
Veterans Day
On Friday, November 11, we have arranged for Veterans to come to NCHS during each period to visit with every United States History, American Studies and AP US History class at the high school. In groups of one or two classes throughout the day, students will have a chance to talk with Veterans who have served over the past sixty years. Topics and conversations will vary widely from the decision to serve to comparing experiences in branches and conflicts, from how combat operations are planned, implemented and evaluated to changing public attitudes toward conflicts and the military. Our other History classes will have the opportunity to view previous interview footage produced by students in TV Broadcasting that is headed to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
Special Award
It is my pleasure to announce that the Connecticut Technology & Engineering Education Association (CTEEA) has selected Jim Zambarano as the 2016 CTEEA/ITEEA Teacher of Excellence. Jim will be recognized for his achievements and presented with an award at the CTEEA Annual Conference on November 8th at Portland Middle School and will also be recognized at the ITEEA Annual Conference this March in Dallas, Texas where he will represent Connecticut as their award winner. Congratulations, Mr. Zambarano!
Emotional Intelligence Speaker
Nationally Acclaimed Speaker, Marc Brackett, Ph.D., will be coming to New Canaan to speak to parents on Tuesday, November 29, 7:00-8:30 pm in the New Canaan High School Auditorium. For more information click here.
I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend!
Pictures from around NCHS:
Upcoming Events:
11/7 BOE Meeting 7:00 pm Wagner Room
11/8 No school, Professional Learning Day for teachers
11/9 PFA General Meeting 9:30am Wagner Room
11/11 & 12 The Wizard of Oz, 7:00pm Friday, 2:00 & 7:00 Saturday NCHS Auditorium
Wishing you all the best,
Bill Egan
Department News:
VPA News:
The season continues with the underclassmen musical production of “The Wizard of Oz”. This classic tale in which a Kansas farm girl travels over the rainbow to the magical land of OZ and teams up with a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodsman and a Cowardly Lion to find the mighty Wizard of Oz who can send her home. Along the way, they must avoid the clutches of the Wicked Witch of the West. Dorothy learns just how magical friendships can be and how wonderful it can feel to go home again. Performances will be held on Friday, November 11 @ 7:00pm and Saturday, November 12 @ 2:00pm & 7:00pm. All performances will be held in the New Canaan High School Auditorium and tickets are $15 and $18 and may be purchased online at www.newcanaanhighschooltheatre.com
English Department News:
The quarter is quickly drawing to a close, and around the English department students are working on their writing and adding final touches to drafts before submitting. In the Writing Center, many seniors have continued to drop in to receive help on their college essays and supplements. Many deadlines are fast approaching.
In classroom news, several senior electives have had some interesting learning experiences. In Ms. Steidl’s Lit and Film sections, students are studying the details of suspense created in Hitchcock films and creating suspense narratives. In Ms. Weeks Lit and Film course, students got to experience the “Camera Obscura” effect. As explained by Ms. Weeks, light bends, which results in the inversion of images. She uses this principle to turn her classroom into a performance of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Observe:
As people, cars, and others drive by the window the silhouettes on the far wall are inverted. Hence, in Plato’s understanding, and the application of film studies, the distortion of reality can become reality. Pretty cool stuff. 
Speaking of cool stuff, the American Studies presented their Thoreau children’s books, an assignment where students take a core message from Thoreau’s writing and adapt it for a children’s book using figurative language and illustrations. Students presented and read their books to the class: Thoreaully enjoyable!
World Languages
Le Cinéma Français à New Canaan High School
Les Béliers (The Rams), the NCHS French Club, kicked off the month of November with its first official event, a "soirée ciné." 26 students met in the Wagner Room and watched, Un Monstre à Paris, a 2011 animated film from France. Club advisor Dr. Foster said he was happy about two things: "First, club leaders Claudia Guerrero and Kiara Roeder-Yika did all the organizing for the evening; all I had to do was push PLAY. Second, the students all stayed from start to finish of French-language that was also sub-titled in French, so it was a bit of a challenge--especially for the eight freshmen who came. The fact that one third of the audience was made up of beginning French students really speaks to some dedication on their part."
Les Béliers will be organizing one film night every month. Stayed tuned to see what their next feature will be. Future films will be "French Food and Film" evenings.
Math Department News:
Students in M3 Precalculus classes used string, paper plates, etc to discover the concept of a radian and create a unit circle. M2 Algebra 1 classes put together puzzle pieces that matched equivalent graphs, standard forms, slope-intercept form, and point-slope form of the same line. The NCHS Math Team just had their second match at Wilton High School. The team currently ranks 10th out of 25 schools in the Fairfield County Math League.
CTE Department News:
Family and Consumer Sciences Preschool students went Trick or Treating with their high school buddies throughout the high school this week.
The Culinary students are busy preparing menus for the student run restaurant, Rams Cafe. The restaurant opened October 21 and prepared a Mexican menu of chicken fajitas. This week the restaurant is serving comfort food including chicken pulled sandwiches with a homemade barbecue sauce.
Baking & Pastry Art students prepare the desserts for the restaurant. This week they are making Coconut Angel Food Cake. The Food and Nutrition students made some yummy Cinnamon Rolls.
The Cooking for a Cause Club made Pumpkin "Witch" Muffins which were delivered to Inspirica, a homeless shelter.
This week in Ms. Zilly's Foods and Nutrition class the students researched, shared and compared recipes corresponding to the food group which they are lacking in. They also started whipping up fun delicious vegetable recipes; Wednesday was hummus!
Ms. Zilly's Baking class has been making frosting, frosting and more frosting. They all came up with creative, individual cake designs and are now executing them beautifully. Check out more of their amazing work on Instagram @nchsdelish
CEA Students just completed creating roof style modeling and started working on Concrete Pad Estimation and Shed Cost Estimation: Students created a shed in Revit (CAD program) and now they are figuring out the cost of all the supplies and materials.
Woodworking Students are finishing up the construction of their CO2 Dragsters. They are calculating the speed, testing its weight, wheel alignment, and wheel spin. Racing begins Friday.
Web Design students are beginning to learn Adobe Fireworks this week. They are continuing to code their sites, and they just finished working in lab B sharing their sites and getting constructive feedback
Game Design students just finished presenting their physical games. Students were grouped into 4 and created 4 board games. We are now analyzing video games to get them prepared for the development of their own video games.
Advanced TV Broadcasting - Today's live broadcast featured the NCHS Mock Election results and the debut of NCTV's newest sports anchor, junior Shafer Jones (watch here). If you haven't already, please support NCTV by purchasing a copy of the 2016 Graduation. Money raised helps feed students during events and purchase equipment.
Intro to TV Broadcasting - Students just finished the Counting project where they shot numbers out of order, then edited them together the correct way. Students added their own touch by shooting each number in a creative way.
Graphic Design & Multimedia - Students finished carving their pumpkins just in time for Halloween. After sketching designs by hand, they used the concept of positive and negative space to create it on the computer. Finally, students got messy, using their design as a template to carve their pumpkin.
Journalism - With the first issue of the Courant out, students are now busy working on stories for the November issue. To get each issue of the student newspaper delivered to your home, and to help fund the journalism program, purchase a Courant subscription today!
Library update:
Ms. Whiting and Ms. Luhtala are proud to announce the new library blog! Here is the link to their latest update.
