Weekly Update 11/18

Dear NCHS Family,

Homework over Break

The staff met this week and decided to make some changes regarding homework over school breaks. There will not be any assignments due upon return from break (at least for two days) nor will there be any tests. The hope is that families get to spend more time together in meaningful ways and that students are not focused on their work during this important time.

There could still be some work in our college level courses depending on the pace and time of the year. Additionally there could be an opportunity where students are given study guides or other work that has been assigned over an extended time period and students might want to take advantage of the time to complete this work.

This respite does not preclude students from using the time to catch up or get ahead on some work. It is merely trying to put the focus on where it should be during a break, with family.

This change in procedure will begin with our December break.

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!

Don’t forget to buy your Turkey Bowl tickets!

Pictures from around NCHS:

Upcoming Events:

11/17 "Draw the Line" Art Show opening, NCHS lobby through January

11/23 Half day dismissal at 11:30 for Thanksgiving break

11/24, 25 No school, Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all the best,

Bill Egan

Department News:

VPA News:

The New Canaan High School Art Gallery Committee presents, "Draw the Line", a student exhibition of artwork responding to the art element of LINE. The show will be open to the public during school hours from November 17th - January 6th.

The Printmaking & Mixed Media class was visited by artist/printmaker, Cynthia MacCollum, who came in to share her portfolio of monotype printmaking created at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking and on her residency abroad in Greece this past summer. She shared her experience as an artist and study of the monotype and stenciling process. She also worked collaboratively with the students during a monotype printmaking workshop. Cynthia is a featured artist at the "Monothon" exhibition that is currently on display at the Carriage Barn Arts Center.

English Department News: The English department is happy to report that quarter 1 is in the books, and many junior teachers have begun their research projects.

Ms. Hernberg and the Model United Nations Club travelled this past weekend to Brown University's 20th Anniversary Conference. At this event, many students impressed their faculty advisors with the level of debate, knowledge, and skill they demonstrated. Several students took home awards for their outstanding performance.

The Journalism class took a field trip to NYC this Tuesday to visit the offices and studios of CBS’s 60 Minutes. Despite an absolute deluge that day, Mr. McAteer reports it was an amazing (if wet) experience, as students had an opportunity to meet with members of the 60 Minutes News Team.

In Ms. Fitzpatrick’s ninth grade class, students are beginning their literary analysis essays on To Kill a Mockingbird, while her 11th grade students are beginning to select topics for research.

Mr. Remley’s AP Lit class students wrote their own Canterbury Tales, modelings Chaucer’s satirization of medieval life and institutions. Students enjoyed a jaunt around campus, sharing their tales. The puns were fantastic!

Ms. Steidl’s Sophomore English read George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” as a primer to read Lord of the Flies, and students journeyed to the Co-lab and experimented with allegory in their own writing. Metaphorically, the kids really rolled with it.

Math Department News: M4 Precalculus classes created flowcharts (in groups of 3) to help solve application problems using vectors. The students shared their work to a Google Form that the class will use to solve vector problems going forward.

Below, M3 Algebra 1 students collected data on the correlation between height and shoe size, then estimated a line of best fit to make predictions.

Algebra 1 students had to create 3 word problems. Each word problem had to be able to be represented as either point-slope, slope-intercept or standard form. I added follow up questions using their word problems and they had to solve questions created by their peers.

Algebra 2 created math memes for common misconceptions. Below are some examples.

CTE Department News: In Woodworking, Mrs. O'Connor's classes have completed the C02 dragster activity. Student's have raced their vehicles, calculated the estimated miles per hour that it traveled and then critiqued both their class and the other classes projects on creativity and aesthetics. They are currently beginning the planning process for their next major project the "box" project.

Civil Engineering & Architecture students are working on their affordable house project. To start this project off they are researching different architects, and will then have the option to choose their architect or use both their architect and their partners' architect to create an original house design hand drawing using the principles and elements of design that the architects use.

Game Design and Web Design students are taking the digital world by storm! Several NCHS classes are being featured in new websites which will promote the courses to the student body and serve as a resource when students build their schedules. The students went through one round of User Experience (UX) feedback and design revision before meeting with a professional web designer. Mrs. O'Connor arranged for Nora Olsen from Stamford Games to meet with both the web and game design classes to provide the students insight into the creation and marketing of digital media. In Game Design the students are applying the design principles they learned when making their board games to the creation of video games. Mrs. O'Connor is collaborating with the library to set up a UX feedback station where members of the NCHS community can compete for daily prizes by beta-testing the students' video games and providing feedback on gameplay and aesthetics. The game designers will use this feedback to improve their games before submitting them as their final exams.

After voting on their favorite pie fillings, Ms. Zilly's Foods & Nutrition classes and Baking & Pastry Arts class have begun making classic apple pies. Each student is creating their own scrumptious pie from scratch. Watch out, the halls are going to smell amazing!!!

Mrs. Sapienza's Child Development classes taught preschool lessons on Thanksgiving and talked to the preschoolers about giving thanks and saying "please" and "thank you".

The Baking & Pastry Art class made fudgy pound cake and a chocolate fudge layered cake with French vanilla cream frosting as they learn more about the different mixing methods of cakes and frostings.