TEAM WHS

2017-2018: Episode 23

Welcome back to the blog and thank you for continuing to check in. Well, it’s about that time of year now when we gear up for near nightly events while juggling AP exams, Math and Science MCAS (May and June), our 1st NEASC collaborative team visit and more! Please see this link for a timeline of all major senior events. The events started with Mr. WHS, but this Wednesday night we begin to kick into gear with our Senior family presentation where we cover all of the expectations and timelines leading up to graduation.

We ran our first successful whole school ALiCE drill last week at WHS. Thank you again to our community for supporting our efforts in helping our students stay safe here and beyond our walls. Please know that it was a full community effort (see attached picture) with support from the WPD, WFD and our district Incident Management Team (IMT)

WHS staff member and WHS alum Kristen Woollam (wearing red) was a leader in this process and we commend her efforts. Sgt. Perenick oversaw the entire drill and was the point person for all of the community groups that were involved. Thank you Mrs. Woollam and

W.I.N. Block Pilot Student Survey: 84% of staff who responded to a staff survey said YES to bringing W.I.N. Block back for next year. We currently have a student survey out to grades 9-11. Please remind your student(s) that if they have not responded to the survey yet (245 responses currently @ 88% yes) that they should check their school email and respond to the survey. We will close this survey out at the end of the week and share the information with staff, students and families. See Link: W.I.N. Block Student Survey

WHS Botball: Congratulations to the WHS Botball team and Mr. Kacamburas for their dominating win this weekend at UMASS Lowell! See team picture below.

Italian Students Win! Congratulations to Jack Degnan, Giacomo Cantoni, David Williams and Georgia Hoffman! Their fantastic “short movie” (in Italian) won first prize in the 2017 Italian Heritage Contest! This year there were more than 200 submissions. See pictures below.

JSA: Our Junior Statesmen of America (JSA) had a successful weekend in Stamford Connecticut at Spring State. 11 WHS Students participated in debates and civic discussions with over 300 students from New England and New York. Heemakshi Deka won a best Best Speaker Award. Thank you Mrs. Troiano for chaperoning. Team picture below.

WHS’ JSA Team

Winchester Got Lunch: On behalf of all kids in our community, Winchester Got Lunch is collecting Canned Tuna the entire month of May at Winchester High School! StarKist, Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea, Tuna in a can, one- maybe three? Whatever you can donate, bring it in to School, the WGL Kids will think you’re super cool! THANK YOU!!!

Upcoming Calendar Items:

5/2: Senior Parent Night @ 7 in the WHS Aud

5/3: Spring Chorus Concert @ 7 in the WHS Aud

5/4: Jazzfest @ 7 in the WHS Aud

5/5: SAT’s

5/7: Beginning AP Exams

WHS Sports Schedule:  WHS Athletics Calendar
Thank you for checking in. Enjoy each day this week!

Dennis Mahoney

TEAM WHS

2017-2018: Episode 22

Hello! And welcome back to the WHS blog! Everyone is looking forward to the upcoming April vacation. We hope that our students take the time to unwind, decompress, get outside and have some fun.

ALiCE Drill + Video Update: The following letter, with slides and video, has gone out to all WHS students and families ALiCE Student and Family Letter

Massachusetts State History Day Competition at Winchester High School: This past Saturday, over 300 middle and high school students competed in the 2018 Massachusetts State History Day competition at Winchester High School.   Student projects in exhibit, historical paper, website, performance and documentary categories were all based on this year’s theme “Conflict and Compromise in History”.  WHS students Beaujena Stoyanchev (Individual Website), Grace McCafferty (Individual Performance), Shreya Nair (Individual Documentary), Christopher Parsons (Individual Documentary) and Robert Sucholeiki and William Niu (Group Website) competed in this year’s event.  Grace McCafferty won an Honorable Mention award and Robert Sucholeiki and William Niu won 1^st place in their category.  As a result of Robert and William’s win, they have advanced to be a part of the Massachusetts contingent at the National History Day competition in June in College Park, Maryland.  Congratulations to all of the students who competed this Saturday, as well as all of the WHS students who took part in the project this year.  Thank you, as well, to Ms. Donahue, Mr. Lee and Dr. Spencer for guiding their students through the process.

La giornata dell’italiano 2018 images:

WHS wins 1st place at today’s Giornata dell”italiano (Italian Day) at Northeastern University! Ms. Mathews’ class performed an original skit based on Dante’s Inferno. Mrs. Ferretto’s class did one based on Purgatorio + Mrs. Tirone class did one on Paradiso. Complimenti! Bravo!

Our WHS Building Project: A brief retrospective. SMMA has put out a recent press piece that reviews the history of the WHS building project. It is a pretty nice little piece:  The NEW WHS: A Final Look

Winchester Got Lunch and WHS Gives Back: WGL and WHSGB are teaming up this month and doing a food drive for canned ravioli / /spaghettios  throughout the month of April. WGL provides lunches each week to over 60 families within our community during the summer. Please bring your donations to the box in front of the main office.

If you know a WHS student who wants to get involved, and is interested in volunteering on Monday mornings during the summer please contact Mrs. Beauchesne at kbeauchesne@winchesterps.org. It is an easy and quick way to get community service hours and give back to your community.

Financial Literacy Fair Review: The Social Studies department at Winchester High School held a Financial Literacy Fair on Wednesday April 4 in the gym.  The entire junior class attended. Students got to learn about real life skills, such as interviewing for a job, buying a new car, or deciding whether to save or spend their extra income, in preparation for the world beyond college graduation.  Students had to make a series of choices and activities concerning work, housing, transportation, financial basics, and discretionary spending, and had to have a positive balance at the end of the simulation. Many parents volunteered, as did the members of the staff of Winchester Savings Bank.  Overall, the Fair was a success!

During the Fair, WHS held the finals of its inaugural Entrepreneurship Challenge.  The winner was Freshman Dhwani Sreenivas for her project Hydrevo, a bio-degradable plastic-like material that can be used for six-pack rings.  Congratulations to Dhwani!

Thank you for reading and enjoy vacation!

Dennis Mahoney

 

TEAM WHS

2017-2018: Episode 21

Welcome to April! Quarter 3 ends this week and we have two weeks to go until a much needed vacation. We are rounding the corner into that home stretch now with our seniors who have about 30 days left at good old WHS.

Our ELA MCAS are out of the way for the year and our two large group spaces (LG’s) were a real added value to the testing. Our Math MCAS will be coming in May for sophomores. Please know that we have been been mandated by the state to have 25% of students in the sophomore class to take the online version of the MCAS. The 25% is randomly selected by DESE. The good news is that this sophomore class has taken the online MCAS before and this mandate is really only a new experience for WHS and not the students. We will be sending out more information regarding this testing initiative soon.

ALiCE: Our student created ALiCE safety training video is almost complete. We will share this video out to all students and families before the end of this week. We do plan on running a drill sometime during the week before April vacation. We will continue to make information available as we have it.

S.I.L.S.: A BIG Congratulations to Anna Flaherty and Garen Meguerditchian for being the 2017-2018 winners of the Middlesex League’s S.I.L.S. Award. S.I.L.S. stands for service, integrity, leadership and spirit. Each school is allowed to have faculty members award two winners each year and this year’s winners are very deserving! Personally, I have very much enjoyed working with Anna and Garen as leaders at WHS. Their handwork, positive and selfless attitudes are remarkable and a great example for all.

Garen and Anna

*NEW* W.I.N. Block Gaming Offering: Next week we will be implementing a new weekly offering for students who enjoy games and puzzles. We will be organizing a room for chess, mahjong, board games, puzzles, games like Magic the Gathering and more. Students are welcome to bring their own games and donations to the room are welcome. This is not an electronic game area. If you would like to donate games or puzzles please feel free to bring them to the main office. This room will be staffed by volunteer PFA members. The location is TBD.

Bio-Tech Field Trip Review: Dr. Mozell had her Bio-Tech students visit e-Genesis last week. e-Genesis is a small biotech firm in Cambridge. The purpose of the trip was for the students to experience a real world day in a biotech company and to talk to scientists and others about their career paths. The real fun of the trip was the opportunity to “play” with all of the cool equipment used in the lab.  Please see the group picture below. Actions shots in the lab were unfortunately not allowed.

Massachusetts Water Resources Authority: Congratulations, Elina Chen is the 1st Place Winner in the MWRA’s Annual Poster Contest. Elina and Mrs. Chakladar have been invited to an awards ceremony to be held at Deer Island on the morning of May 25th, 2018.  Please see Elina’s art work below!

Upcoming Calendar Items:

4/4: Spring Band and Strings Gr. 3-12 Concert: 6:30 @ WHS Aud

4/4: Desert Dog Fundraiser: Library Media Center

Thank you for reading and have a great week!

Dennis Mahoney