Weekly Update 11/3
Dear NCHS Family,
Dr. Robert Brooks:
Last night I had the honor of attending Dr. Robert Brooks presentation on Raising Resilient Children. Dr. Brooks outlined specific strategies that parents and other adults can use to nurture responsibility, hope, kindness and resilience in children and adolescents. He shared personal stories and was very relatable. For more information about Dr. Brooks, click here.
Students of the Month:
Please join me in congratulating our November Students of the Month:
Grade 9
Teddy DeClue
Isabella Fernandez
Grade 10
Olivia Caron
Natalie Lopez
Grade 11
Alexandra De Ghengi
Christian Sibbett
Grade 12
Kyle McDonald
Emma Smith
Staff:
Please join me in congratulating our Staff Members of the Month:
- Jessica Cullen (English)
- Scott Cranston (VPA)
- Bill Doyle (Math)
- Reka Cebulski (Science)
- Olivia Patrizzi (Social Studies)
- Paul Reid (Science)
You can read more about the Student and Faculty of the Month programs in Mr. Gusitsch’s blog this week, here.
National Merit Program:
On Tuesday, October 31, I had the honor of attending our National Merit Reception. Over 1.6 million students take the PSAT and only 50,000 qualify for the National Merit Scholarship Program. New Canaan High School is fortunate to have 15 such students. We had 13 Commended Students in the 2016 National Merit Program and even 2 students who were able to achieve the status of Semifinalist.
National Merit Commended: 34,000 of 50,000 names National Merit Commended
Alexandra Allen
Aneya Ansh
Grace Brady
William Crane-Morris
Eliza Farley
William Gervase
Samuel Havard
Max Koshchinitzke
Nicholas LaMorte
Katherine Mettler
Eva Pace
Emma St. Raymond
Alexander Zarikos
Aneya Ansh
Grace Brady
William Crane-Morris
Eliza Farley
William Gervase
Samuel Havard
Max Koshchinitzke
Nicholas LaMorte
Katherine Mettler
Eva Pace
Emma St. Raymond
Alexander Zarikos
Semi -finalists: 16,000 highest performers of all test takers out of the 50,000 highest scorers
Caroline Callahan
Leigh Charlton
Leigh Charlton
One Second Everyday:(Most recent first)
Be well and stay healthy NCHS!
Bill Egan
Upcoming Events:
11/4 SAT
11/6 BOE meeting Wagner Room 7 pm
11/8 PFA General Meeting Wagner Room 9:30 am
11/9 PFA 11th Gr. Networking Meeting Wagner Room 9:30 am
Pictures from around NCHS:
Department News:
VPA:
Band
Members of the NCHS Band attended a concert performed by the US Coast Guard Band at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT on Wednesday. The members enjoyed hearing top professional players perform music that was based on folk songs in music that they will perform in their upcoming December concert. The day was a great success of inspiration for the students and to watch the artists make the music that they have been practicing and learning about for the last six weeks.
Congratulations! Anna Thérèse is a Grand Prix Winner in the Concert Festival international Competition for her piano performance of Liszt's Un Sospiro Etude No. 3 in D flat major and will perform at Carnegie Hall on Sunday Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Theater:
The NCHS Theater performance season continues with the underclassmen production of “Bye Bye Birdie”. This musical is based on the book by Michael Stewart, with lyrics by Lee Adams and music by Charles Strouse. When the draft selects teen heartthrob and rock star Conrad Birdie, his fans are devastated, but none more than struggling songwriter Albert Peterson whose song Birdie was just about to record. Please join us for uplifting performances held on November 17 @ 7pm, November 18 @ 2pm & 7pm. All performances will be held at the New Canaan High School Auditorium. Tickets are $15 and $18 and may be purchased online at www.newcanaanhighschooltheatre.com.
Left-Right: Cast Members of Bye Bye Birdie at the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce halloween parade…. Mallory Bennhoff, Ben Dooley, Alessio Pantaleo, Devin Findlay
School Counseling:
Counselors met with freshmen in the health classes to look at their learning styles. They reflected on how they learn best and how to perhaps change how they study to improve their test taking strategies. Many people have been asking about how to request accommodations for the SAT/ACT. This document is now on the school counseling website:
A Parent and Student Guide for Requesting Standardized Test Accommodations
Applying for ACT Accommodations www.actstudent.org
●Parent/Student registers for the test date online. If Special Testing is requested (see below), Parent/Student will consult the NCHS Special Testing Calendar (see below) before registering.
●Parent/Student checks the box requesting accommodations when registering. Upon completion of your registration, you'll receive an email with instructions on how to work with NCHS to submit a request for accommodations. Forward this email to the SSD coordinator Susan Carroll (susan.carroll@ncps-k12.org along with a completed Consent to Release Information to ACT (PDF) form. This email initiates the process.
●Parent/Student should also drop off the signed Consent to Release Information to ACT form (available online) to the College and Career Center.
●Once registered, ACT will notify the NCHS SSD Coordinator that the student’s request for accommodations must be completed. This is in addition to the forwarded email from the student confirming registration.
●School Psychologist will complete the Request for ACT- Approved Accommodations with supporting documentation
● ACT will inform the NCHS SSD Coordinator as to the result of the request and the SSD coordinator will then notify the student via email.
● Parent/Student should follow up with the SSD coordinator that the request for accommodations has been received within 10 days of registering for ACT. Parent/Student should contact ACT directly with any questions at (319) 337-1332.
●Parent/Student signs Consent Form for Accommodations Request, which can be obtained from the student’s School counselor or the College and Career Center
● The Consent Form for Accommodations Request should be returned to the College and Career Center
●School Psychologist will submit the request and supporting documentation to College Board
●College Board will inform the student as to the result of the request via mail or email and assign the student an SSD number which will be used when registering for the SAT.
● Parent/Student register for SAT test dates on collegeboard.org . If Special Testing is requested, Parent/Student will consult the NCHS Special Testing Calendar (see below) before registering.
●Parent/Student should contact College Board directly with any questions at (212) 713-8333
Please note that accommodation requests can take 6 to 8 weeks for ACT and College Board to process and decisions are solely made by these companies. The College and Career Center is closed and staffing is limited during the summer. Please plan accordingly. Testing date availability may be limited for special accommodation requests due to volume.
2017-2018 Special Testing Dates Available at NCHS:
November 4 SAT
April 14 ACT
June 2 SAT
April 14 ACT
June 2 SAT
*Special testing may be necessary for the following accommodations: The use of a computer, breaks as needed, 100% extra time, reader or scribe, assistive technology, etc.. These accommodations may not be available on National Testing dates (Saturday) and therefore may require students to be tested during the school day (s), after the Saturday date. Special Testing dates are only available for the test dates listed above.
Math:
Students in Mrs. Marhefki's M2 PreCalculus classes investigated how many radians it took to travel around an entire circle with pipe cleaners. Some students remembered doing similar activities in Algebra 2 the year before and others benefited from revisiting activity again.
Social Studies:
For this coming Veterans Day, we are excited once again to conduct interviews for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. This year, we have students interviewing Marine Colonel Nicholas J. Sheppard who served in WWII, Korea and through most of the Cold War, and Army Captain John Engel who served in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm and through much of the 1990’s. The interviews are being produced and recorded with the close cooperation of Mr. Staffaroni, several US History students and the TV Broadcasting program. The event will take place on Friday, November 10 during periods 3 and 4 in the Wagner Room.
Ms. Browner's Global History II students take on the role of King Charles I in a computer simulation and try to avert the English Civil War... and being beheaded!
AP World History II class celebrating the quincentenary of the posting of the 95 Theses by Martin Luther.
Officer Jeff Deek (Saxe SRO) and Sgt. Joseph Farenga (head of youth services) came and spoke to the American Law class at the end of their unit on Right to Privacy, Search and Seizure, and the Exclusionary Rule. The class had a chance to engage the officers in a discussion of how the exclusionary rule works in various scenarios, showing what they have learned in class. We are thankful for the officers time and hope to see them again when we are in our criminal procedure unit.
For the third year in a row Mr. Webb has been invited to present his documentary Boats Against The Current to Professor Maureen Corrigan’s American Literature class at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Professor Corrigans latest book is So We Read On, the latest book as to The Great Gatsby. Book critic for NPR’s “Fresh Air” and member of the Pulitzer Prize Committee as well as a regular reviewer for The Washington Post she says “I like them to see the film because 1) it's good! 2) and its’ fascinating and 3) it beautifully reinforces the message that there's still a treasure trove of background and readings to discover about The Great Gatsby”. His findings have now become part of the curriculum of the English Department at Georgetown University. The documentary will be released on PBS in 2018 as well as his book Boats Against The Current: The Honeymoon summer of Scott and Zelda.
Recently, we were fortunate to have United States and World History teacher Ms. Rothschild attend an Academy for Teachers master class at Columbia University on teaching with the words of Lincoln. An article detailing the program and accompanied by the picture below appeared last week in the Wall Street Journal.
CTE:
Journalism - The first issue of the Courant came out this week so make sure you pick one up! Students are now in the process of critiquing the issue and writing self-reflections on what they learned. Next week, a new cycle begins with story proposals. You can always read the latest news on the Courant's website at nchscourant.com.
Advanced TV Broadcasting - NCTV just aired their weekly live show, The Morning Announcements, which can be seen here. Last week, students covered the Pep Rally and also broadcast the Homecoming Game live.
Advanced TV Broadcasting - NCTV just aired their weekly live show, The Morning Announcements, which can be seen here. Last week, students covered the Pep Rally and also broadcast the Homecoming Game live.
Intro to TV Broadcasting - Students recently recorded different types of shots and are now editing them in Final Cut Pro. They're also learning some of the more advanced features of the program by adding a variety visual effects and titles to each clip.
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Library:
