March 31 Weekly Update
Dear NCHS Family,
Counseling Services:
Our goal is always to make sure that students at New Canaan High School thrive in a safe and supportive environment. Our School Counseling staff are always available if students, staff or parents need support around any situation. Although we communicate that message to students regularly, we wanted to make sure that parents were aware of the services available.
SAT Day:
On Wednesday April 5th we will have a modified day so that our Juniors can take the Connecticut SAT. All Juniors will report to school at our normally scheduled time and take the SAT. Because of the SAT, our school day will be modified for all other students. Please note that if students in grades 9, 10, and 12 need to come to school early, they will have to remain in either the cafeteria or library. We will only have two periods and it will be a modified B day. Please see the schedule below. For more information about the Connecticut SAT, click here.
Wednesday, April 5th (Modified Day B)
Special Schedule for SAT
Period 5 12:24 – 1:12 PM
Period 6 1:19 – 2:05 PM
Technology Night:
Also on April 5th, the District will have our annual Tech Night. Technology Night will run from 6:30-8:00 pm at the high school. For more information about Technology Night, click here.
NC Color Run:
In honor of its 50th Anniversary, we have created a new fundraiser, the NC Color Run (which replaces the door-to-door campaign of years past). It’s a run/walk through Waveny, open to all ages and will be a blast. Please check out the NCSF website (nchs-sf.org) for more information. For this event, we would love to see every student participate and make a goal of at least $100 through their personal fundraising pages. I ask that you please encourage your kids to do their part - without them, we cannot reach our goal. This year, we hope to raise $100,000.
For more information on:
- Volunteering at NC Color Run, click here
I hope you and your family will join us on April 29th for this great event! Thank you in advance for your support of the NCHS Scholarship Foundation.
Junior Prom:
The Junior Prom is Friday, April 21!
Junior Prom tickets go on sale beginning next week during our lunch waves. Please make sure that you buy your tickets. We need to give an accurate count to the Italian Center, so please make sure to do so during your lunch next week.
Best,
Bill Egan
Principal
Upcoming Events:
4/3 Board of Ed meeting Wagner Room 7pm
4/4 Parent Networking Grade 10, Wagner Room 9:30 am
4/5 Tech Night 6:30 pm
4/7 End of third quarter
4/10 Spring Vacation, school resumes 4/17
Pictures From Around NCHS This Week:
Department Updates:
World Language:
Students of Mandarin at NCHS will be off to Chinatown today to learn more about Chinese culture and language. Our all-day trip will include a stop at the famous Mahayana Buddhist Temple where students will light incense candles and walk around this beautiful and historic temple. They will stop off for a late breakfast at the Great NY Noodle town which is a very popular destination for authentic Chinese cuisine among locals and tourists alike. We will proceed to the Chinese In America Museum where students will learn all about early Chinese immigration to this country and their past and present contributions to American society. Finally, we will stop off at Pearl River Mart for our final destination. Here we will visit the largest Chinese department store on the East Coast. This store sells more than 15,000 different Chinese products. Students will be able to practice their Mandarin here and during other parts of the tour.
Social Studies News:
Students have been working on several interesting projects during the past couple of weeks.
As part of a unit on 19th century nationalist movements, Ms. Browner's Global History II students designed concert-style T-shirts (logo on the front, tour dates on the back) representing either German or Italian unification.
Mrs. Arastu's Global History I students completed a unit on Abrahamic Traditions to form a basis of understanding of the Medieval world. They will be begin a unit on Medieval Silk Road Trade, and will end this unit by creating a resume, cover letter, and recommendation letter for a merchant on the Silk Road who is eager to break into a new market. Students will study market forces and the importance of political and social relationships in business. Students in Mrs. Arastu's Global History II classes are tracking the development of Germany after unification through WWI and the fall of the Weimar Republic. Students will study the artwork, political campaigns, and economic circumstances that shaped the Weimar Republic, and ultimately destroyed the fledgling democracy.
Students in all 5 AP U.S. Government and Politics classes are getting in the March Madness spirit with Supreme Court Bracketology. Students are given a list of 32 landmark Supreme Court Decisions and after reading up about each decision they have to seed the cases from #1-8 in four different regions, Constitutional Powers & Principles; Civil Rights & Privacy; Bill of Rights; and Political Process. They assign the seeds based on the historical importance of the case, the effect of the decision, how Americans view the case now, and the precedent the case established. After creating their match-ups, students make their picks and advance cases to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four, and eventually crown a National Champion. Students hand in their brackets and a defense paper on how they ranked the cases and why they advanced certain cases to the Final Four and their pick for most important case in SCOTUS history.
AP European History students worked in groups this week to depict the conditions of various European countries during the 1920s. They either drew or found political cartoons to analyze the issues. Then they created a program of reform for the country, as if they had the opportunity to “remake” history and potentially prevent World War II.
Science Department News:
It was a busy week for the NCHS Science Department as our 10th graders participated in the Science CAPT exam on Thursday, March 30th. This will be the last time that the CAPT test is administered and I think we can all say that it is nice to have it in the rearview mirror.
In addition to the testing, Astronomy teacher Tim Haag presented a planetarium show for some of the members of Staying Put in New Canaan. Mr. Haag highlighted some of the winter constellations that are still visible in the early evening as well as some of the spring and summer constellations that will be visible in the near future. In addition to this presentation, Mr. Haag was at Grace Farms on Wednesday night taking his planetarium show to the real world. Folks on hand were treated to a look at the International Space Station, Mercury, Venus and an incredible crescent moon.
Our Earth Science students were in an Astronomy mood as well as they wrapped up their Impact Craters Unit this week with an investigation focusing on the properties of meteorites and the resulting impacts. Students manipulated a variety of physical characteristics of model meteorites to determine the resulting changes to the diameter of an impact crater.
School Counseling News:
Counselors have completed their meetings with students about schedules for next year. The deadline for appealing for reconsideration of placement is this Saturday, April 1st. Following the April break, department chairs and teachers will begin to look at the appeals forms in concert with 3rd quarter grades and make final decisions about placement. Letters regarding placement will be sent home later in the spring.
Counselors have also begun their spring travel to colleges around the country, targeting schools where we hope to see increased admissions as well as seeking new gems to inform our students about. In turn, colleges are also on the road so look for representatives visiting NCHS in the next few weeks.
