Weekly Update 3/3
Dear NCHS Family,
Comments on report cards/progress reports:
Beginning with the 3rd quarter progress reports, comments will only be mandatory for those students with a current grade below 80. The comments that you will see will be specifically designed to help students and parents know where weaknesses may lie and/or how students may best be able to improve their performance. If you have any questions for a teacher, feel free to reach out to them directly.
Progress report comments will be available by 5p.m. on Monday, March 6.
Safe Driving:
NCHS PFA will be sponsoring the annual Safe Driving event from March 6th - March 10th. Please remember to demonstrate safe driving habits all the time, but especially during this period. The week events features the following:
- Morning announcements will include facts about teenage distracted driving accidents and ways to be a safer driver.
- On March 7th, students will experience the effects of a slow speed impact by riding a Seat Belt Convincer and watching a safety dummy in a Rollover Machine.
- 10th - 12th grade students will hear firsthand from Jacy Good and her husband, Steve Johnson, the story of the distracted driving accident that took her parents' lives on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life. Parents are welcome to attend.
- Distracted driving simulators have been generously provided by the Save A Life Tour and will be available to students throughout the week.
- On March 9th, SRO Geoff Lambert and the NCPD will set up a course in the parking lot to simulate driving under the influence. The students will be driving a golf cart, wearing impairment goggles.
- Wrecked cars will be on campus to remind everyone about the dangers of distracted driving.
- Computerized signage with Safe Driving messages will be placed around town.
- Students will sign a banner pledging to be a safe driver. They will receive a car magnet to remind everyone on the road to drive safely.
The Safe Driving Program would not be possible without the coordinated efforts of Geoff Lambert (NCHS Safety Resource Officer) and the NCPD, Kramer International, AC Autobody, NC Public Works, NC Youth and Family Services and the CT State Police.
Career Night:
A special thank you to the PFA for sponsoring Career Night. Career Night will take place Tuesday evening, March 14th at NCHS at 6:30pm. Please encourage your children to attend! We hold this NCHS-wide event every 2 years and close to 500 students attend each time! This is for students only, a chance to learn about a wide variety of careers. We will have approximately 70 professionals meeting with kids in classroom-style discussions explaining what they do, what they like about their jobs and how kids can prepare for careers post high school and college. We are hoping for another great turnout!
School Culture
A special thank you to the PFA for their continued generosity. We have new mats as you enter the building and new cafe style seating in the main lobby and the cafeteria for our students to enjoy. You can see the pictures below.
Tech Night:
New Canaan Public School’s 11th Annual Tech Night is once again bringing together students and technology! We invite all students to take part in this special event on Wednesday, April 5th from 6:30-8:00pm at New Canaan High School.
Tech Night is an opportunity for students from grades K-12 to demonstrate scientific investigations that they have created inside and outside of the classroom that show exceptional uses of technology with members of the New Canaan Community. For more information about tech night, click here.
Congratulations:
The NCHS community would like to recognize senior Graham Jameson on his recent achievements as part of the NCHS Alpine Ski Racing Team. Graham has earned a spot on Team Connecticut 2017 and will be representing NCHS and Connecticut at the Eastern High School Alpine Racing Championship at Attitash Mountain in New Hampshire next weekend. A recent article in the New Canaan Advertiser chronicled his accomplishments.
Congratulations Graham and Ski Fast!!
Congratulations Graham and Ski Fast!!
Best,
Bill Egan
Principal
Upcoming Events:
3/8 PFA General Meeting: Safe Driving with Jacy Good 9:00 a.m.
3/10 Through Our Eyes Art Show, Carriage Barn 5:00 pm
3/14 PFA Career Night 6:00 pm
Pictures From Around NCHS This Week:
Department Updates:
VPA News:
Tonight, March 3rd, members of the NCHS Concert Choir and Madrigal Ensemble are traveling to UConn to for a workshop, Q & A and rehearsal/performance with composer Eric Whitacre and the UConn Chamber Singers. The Concert Choir performed his piece, Sleep last year in their Spring concert, which is a widely beloved choral composition and the subject of Mr. Whitacre's first international "Virtual Choir" video on youTube. The students will be singing it under his direction tonight with hundreds of vocalists from the state of Connecticut. We are thrilled for this rare opportunity for our student musicians!
The Through Our Eyes V Art Exhibition, presented by the New Canaan Society for the Arts opens on Friday, March 10th with an Opening Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Betty Barker Gallery at the Carriage Barn Arts Center in Waveny Park. The Opening Reception is free and open to the public.
This will be the fifth year the Carriage Barn has hosted the New Canaan High School show celebrating the skills, creativity, and personal voice of our high school art students. It is an all media exhibition featuring art students enrolled in several introductory, intermediate and advanced art courses, including Photography, Advanced Digital Media, Studio Art, AP Studio Art, Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Jewelry and Filmmaking taught by the Visual Arts faculty Kimanne Core, Jeanne McDonagh and Jennifer Sinski. Featured in the exhibit will be the NCHS student winners of the National & Connecticut Scholastic Art Awards, Teen Visions Best in Show Awards from Sacred Heart University and winners of the Carriage Barn’s Annual Photo Competition. They are: Ellery Baran, Elizabeth Bochicchio, Camaren Dayton , Cameron Blair, Caroline Challe, Jack Dahill, Olivia Germann, Sophie Graham, Anne Greer, Timothy Hardy, Danielle Klapper, Anna Lysenko, Connor McDevitt, Ashlyn Pace, Samantha Pepe, and Gwenan Walker.
Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday, from 1 to 5 p.m. For more information, call 203-972-1895 or visit www.carriagebarn.org
Claire Batchelor
Catherine Doytcheva
Camaren Dayton, Gores Pavillion
Social Studies News:
US History classes are working this week on Great Depression Memes. Students are given a topic pertaining to the Great Depression, for example the numerous pieces of passed legislation, the role of the branches of government, significant events, effects on families, prominent figures. Each student has to create a meme and present it to the class as well as educate the class on their topic. All students are asked to connect their topic to one of the four essential questions of the unit as a part of their presentation. The students will be presenting their memes throughout the unit as we cover each section in the chapter of the textbook. At the end of the unit, students will write a reflection to answer one of the questions for the unit, drawing upon the topics presented in the meme presentations. Several sections of US History have also started working on the spring semester junior research papers with help from the librarians.
AP European History students have been debating the ideas of late nineteenth century intellectuals, such as Freud, Marx, and Nietsche. The topics include significant contributors from all disciplines, including art and science. They also have made connections to the implications of those contributions in current society and the controversies debated in contemporary society. For example, Impressionism was criticized during the late nineteenth century, and paved the way for modern art, which can also be admired and attacked, and women’s suffrage led to women being able to vote, and current debates surround workplace issues. Below are some photographs from the debates.
Although February has ended, our students study Black History throughout the year. AP United States History classes are tracing African American History, from 1607 Jamestown, the Stone Rebellion, Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, the Civil War and Reconstruction through the Civil rights struggle during the Progressive Era, the Great Depression and the 1960's to Black Lives Matter today. African American history is one of the Bedrock topics in AP U.S. History.
Students will soon begin the course selection process. For those in 11th and 12th grade, the Social Studies department offers a wide range of electives and Advanced Placement courses to consider, including one new offering, Cultural Anthropology. Our continuing offerings include courses in: Economics, Civics, European History, Psychology, and United States or Comparative Government. For the junior year core course, student have two options in addition to United States History: American Studies (with an honors option) and Advanced Placement United States History. If there are questions about any of these courses, students should talk through the options with their current Social Studies teacher.
Next fall junior and senior students will have the opportunity to enroll in a brand new elective, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. This elective will survey peoples and practices all over the world and across time. If you wish to discuss the particulars of the elective further, please reach out to Dr. Schwartz in the Social Studies office.
Science Department News:
The NCHS science department has been extremely busy since our last update. 8th grade planetarium shows have continued, our teachers have completed course recommendations for next year and are they are now getting ready to wrap up progress reports for the 3rd quarter.
In addition to all of this, our biology classes have been looking at all things genetics this week. Students started off the week creating DNA models to visualize the structure of DNA. The double helix structure, or twisting ladder shape of DNA was first identified by Watson and Crick in 1953.
As students’ understanding of DNA took shape they next focused on the process of transcription, in which a particular segment of DNA is copied into RNA. Students created paper models to visualize the role of three important molecules in the transcription process: mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA. Below the students are shown utilizing these molecules to transcribe a sequence of DNA The end product was a polypeptide which is the basis of a protein molecule.
School Counseling News:
COURSE SELECTION 2017
It is time to choose your courses for next year. Your teachers have made recommendations for core classes based on student performance so far this year. Now it is time to review the recommendations and select the courses you wish to take. Please submit initial schedule requests by March 8th. Counselors will meet with each student individually in March to answer questions and make changes/additions as needed.
For a tutorial of this process, click on the link below or go to the NCHS website:
