Weekly Update 2/2

Dear NCHS Family,

Grades are available for viewing. Once again, if you have any questions, please contact your teacher. The 2018-2019 Program of Studies is available for viewing here. As we get into course registration, it will be beneficial to review the Program of Studies.

This week the staff shared a new testing pilot. The idea behind the pilot is to reduce stress around testing. There are several goals of the pilot.

• Enhance communication between students and teachers 

• Create a system of self-advocacy that empowers students to be active participants in their daily lives 

• Decrease instances where students take 3 or more tests on the same day

• Maintain the same high academic standards while giving students some flexibility with exams

To find more about the program on our website, click here.


Wednesday in Connections, staff reviewed this video which explains the pilot and how they can advocate for themselves in the future.

Concert:

NCTV First Ever Teacher Broadcast:

Student and staff of the month will be up next week.  

Be well and stay healthy NCHS!

Bill Egan

Upcoming Events:

2/5 Board of Ed Meeting 7pm Wagner Room
2/6 NCHS Collaborative Concert: Band, Choir & Orchestra 7pm Auditorium
2.8 NCHS Counselors: Testing Plan for 10th Grade Parents, 8am Wagner Room

2/10 ACT - register at www.actstudent.org
2/16 Professional Learning, no school for students

2/19-23 February vacation

Pictures from around NCHS:

Department News:

Athletics:

Last night senior Sean Knight won the 55 meter hurdles at FCIAC track and field finals . Junior Jack Conley took second place in the Shot Put. The sprint medley relay, the Rams’ team of juniors Oliver Crookenden and Clark Grigsby, Knight, and senior Alex Urbahn took third place. Sophomore Naomi Cimino had the top showing for the New Canaan girls, as she took third place in the shot put. Senior Julia Ozimek placed fifth in the 1,000-meter run in 3:06.34, and was also part of two relay teams which scored points.The sprint medley relay team of Chloe McAuliffe, Katie Miller, Elizabeth St. George, and Julia Ozimek finished fifth in 4:29.50, and the 4×400 relay team of Nichole LaBadie, Miller, McAuliffe, and Ozimek also finished fifth in 4:25.46. Boys Team was 7th overall and the Girls Team finished 9th.

School Counseling:

Counselors are meeting with their junior families to begin to plan for the post high school transition. Letters were sent home with date and time of the meeting as well as needed forms to fill out. Please look at the instructions carefully and make every effort to be there. Most meetings take the full period and are based on student availability. Our schedules are very tight as we make room for each family and still find time to meet with all students on our case loads. If you need to reschedule your appointment, please understand that it may be late into March or early April before a new date can be found.

As mid-year grades become finalized, counselors are also meeting with students who may have struggled on mid-term exams or in first semester classes in order to develop strategies for better success in the 2nd semester.

And next week is National School Counselor Week. Be sure to thank your counselor for all that they do.

Social Studies:

Although "monopolistic competition" is not a term we usually hear, it does describe the structure of most businesses we interact with everyday. The Economics students were in the Makerspace creating hamburgers and developing a marketing plan to distinguish their creation.

Ms. Rothschild’s US History students recently took a field trip to the FDR Museum in Hyde Park, NY. Students were shown a film and then walked through the exhibit by a docent. Students were give an assignment which guided their viewing and were then asked to write reflective pieces, inclusive of evidence. The trip was timed to coincide with our coverage of World War II as part of a thematic unit, Why Does America Fight?

Also, several sections of US History had a visit from Mr. Kevin Brenner, a collector of museum quality military apparatus. He taught several classes about the D-Day invasion.


Math:

M3 Algebra 2 students discussed classroom problems involving exponential growth and compound interest compared to real-world saving and borrowing and the reasons for using such unrealistic interest rates for educational purposes.


Students in M4 Algebra 2 found images online of real world objects that they thought could be modeled with a sine curve. Then they used Geogebra to plot points along the object, fit the data points to a sine curve and graph it.

VPA:

On Sunday, January 28th, Sacred Heart University’s Department of Art & Design held their annual “Teen Vision” Awards Ceremony and Reception. Three of the ten NCHS students’ work won awards and gift certificates to Jerry’s Artarama. All students were awarded gift bags.

The students are: Michelle Mercede’s “Self-Portrait” (Best in Show), Ann Pakhayev’s “Multiverse” (First Place), Gwenan Walker’s “Under Lock and Key” (First Place), Reilly Krug’s “Skin and Bones”, Ava Nichols’ “Lady Bird”, Ashley Abate’s “Breakaway”, Megan Tappe’s “The Future is Female”, Emily Gelchie’s “Geared”, Cali Brannan’s “Walking Lions”, and Julia Weitz’s “Big Brother”.

       

 

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